My Favorite TV: 2013-2014

Here are my votes for the best television of the last year  (shows eligible only if vast majority of season takes place between July 2013 and June 2014):

* denotes winner

BEST DRAMA SERIES:
BREAKING BAD
GAME OF THRONES
*HANNIBAL
THE NEWSROOM
TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST COMEDY SERIES:
@MIDNIGHT
COMMUNITY
GIRLS
*LOUIE
REVIEW

BEST DRAMA EPISODE:
*Ozymandias, BREAKING BAD
Mizumono, HANNIBAL
Waterloo, MAD MEN
Who Goes There, TRUE DETECTIVE
The Secret Fate of All Life, TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST COMEDY EPISODE:
Elevator: Part 4, LOUIE
*Pamela: Part 3, LOUIE
Geothermal Escapism, COMMUNITY
Mouth Cancer Gig, MARON
Meeseeks and Destroy, RICK AND MORTY

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA:
Bryan Cranston, BREAKING BAD
Hugh Dancy, HANNIBAL
Mads Mikkelsen, HANNIBAL
*Matthew McConaughey, TRUE DETECTIVE
Woody Harrelson, TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Anna Gunn, BREAKING BAD
Diane Kruger, THE BRIDGE
*Allison Tolman, FARGO
Elizabeth Moss, MAD MEN
Emily Mortimer, THE NEWSROOM

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Andy Samberg, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Scott Aukerman, COMEDY BANG! BANG!
Louis CK, LOUIE
*Andy Daly, REVIEW
Thomas Middleditch, SILICON VALLEY

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
Alison Brie, COMMUNITY
Lena Dunham, GIRLS
Jessica St. Clair, PLAYING HOUSE
*Lennon Parham, PLAYING HOUSE
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, VEEP

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Aaron Paul, BREAKING BAD
*Dean Norris, BREAKING BAD
Peter Dinklage, GAME OF THRONES
Rory McCann, GAME OF THRONES
Laurence Fishburne, HANNIBAL

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
*Betsy Brandt, BREAKING BAD
Gwendoline Christie, GAME OF THRONES
Maisie Williams, GAME OF THRONES
Christina Hendricks, MAD MEN
Michelle Monaghan, TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY
Andre Braugher, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Adam Driver, GIRLS
Keegan-Michael Key, PLAYING HOUSE
*TJ Miller, SILICON VALLEY
Timothy C. Simons, VEEP

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY
*Chelsea Peretti, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Stephanie Beatriz, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Nina Conti, FAMILY TREE
Zosia Mamet, GIRLS
Anna Chlumsky, VEEP

BEST GUEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Michael Bowen, BREAKING BAD
Robert Forster, BREAKING BAD
Ciaran Hinds, GAME OF THRONES
*Pedro Pascal, GAME OF THRONES
Hamish Linklater, THE NEWSROOM

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Diana Rigg, GAME OF THRONES
Gillian Anderson, HANNIBAL
Alicia Witt, JUSTIFIED
*Jane Fonda, THE NEWSROOM
Marcia Gay Harden, THE NEWSROOM

BEST GUEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Paul F. Tompkins, COMEDY BANG! BANG!
Jonathan Banks, COMMUNITY
Andrew Rannells, GIRLS
*Charles Grodin, LOUIE
Christopher Evan Welch, SILICON VALLEY

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
June Squibb, GIRLS
*Ellen Burstyn, LOUIE
Eszter Balint, LOUIE

Pamela Adlon, LOUIE
Ursula Parker, LOUIE

Nominations (Wins):

9 (3) BREAKING BAD
9 (4) LOUIE
8 (1) GAME OF THRONES
6 GIRLS
6 (1) HANNIBAL
6 (1) TRUE DETECTIVE
5 (1) THE NEWSROOM
4 (1) BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
4 COMMUNITY
3 MAD MEN
3 (1) PLAYING HOUSE
3 (1) SILICON VALLEY
3 VEEP
2 COMEDY BANG! BANG!
2 (1) REVIEW
1 @MIDNIGHT
1 THE BRIDGE
1 FAMILY TREE
1 (1) FARGO
1 JUSTIFIED
1 MARON
1 RICK AND MORTY

It took watching 23 Bond films twice to realize that I kinda like Bond...

A couple years ago I decided to fill a cinematic void and watch all of the Bond movies in chronological order.  I came away from that experience largely thinking of the series as pretty bad with some real highlights mixed in, mostly in the Connery/Craig eras.  After buying the blu-ray set for cheap last year, it sat on my shelf for a while as I didn't have much desire to dig into such a big collection again, but the new podcast "James Bonding" reinvigorated my interest (Matt Mira of Nerdist and Matt Gourley of Superego both discovered each other's love of all things Bond, and decided to start a podcast talking about each entry).  I think "James Bonding"'s decision to alternate between chronological and reverse-chronological order (Dr. No, Skyfall, From Russia With Love, Quantum of Solace, and so on...) helped me get into the mind of the series by alternatively examining its roots with how far (and sometimes how not far at all) the series has come.

As you'll notice below, I gave about as many bad ratings as good ones, but I was, for the most part, able to enjoy elements of all the movies.  And even though I finished by going through all the Roger Moore movies which left a bad taste in my mouth, I enjoyed the other Bonds significantly more, to the point where I'm sure I will revisit movies from every other Bond at some point in the future, not just Daniel Craig.

Here's a list of my overall rankings of the Bond films, along with a favorite highlight from each one:

1. CASINO ROYALE: A
Favorite Moment: B&W opening

2. SKYFALL: A-
Favorite Moment: Silva single-take first scene

3. THUNDERBALL: A-
Favorite Moment: Jet pack!!!

4. QUANTUM OF SOLACE: B+
Favorite Moment: Ending in Russia

5. DR. NO: B
Favorite Moment: "The name is Bond....James Bond" becomes instant legend.

6. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE: B
Favorite Moment: "We have all the time in the world."

7. LICENCE TO KILL: B
Favorite Moment: The cold open.  Based on The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan was also a fan.

8. GOLDFINGER: B-
Favorite Moment: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

9. TOMORROW NEVER DIES: B-
Favorite Moment: Dr. Kaufman

10. GOLDENEYE: B-
Favorite Moment: 007/006 team up

11. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN: B-
Favorite Moment: The ridiculous Nick Nack fight scene at the end of the movie.

12. OCTOPUSSY: B-
Favorite Moment: Bond commands a tiger to sit.....and it does.

13. A VIEW TO A KILL: C
Favorite Moment: Christopher Walken as a Nazi experiment gone wrong

14. MOONRAKER: C
Favorite Moment: "You missed, Mr. Bond." "Did I?"

15. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: C-
Favorite Moment: Red kills "Bond"

16. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: D+
Favorite Moment: "Japanese" Bond is good for a laugh.

17. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME: D+
Favorite Moment: Bond kills Stromberg

18. DIE ANOTHER DAY: D
Favorite Moment: Bond's North Korean capture (a surprising moment of realism before two hours of nonsense).

19. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: D
Favorite Moment: "Well, you get your clothes on, and I'll buy you an ice cream."

20. LIVE AND LET DIE: D-
Favorite Moment: "Whose funeral is it?"  "Yours"

21. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS: D-
Favorite Moment: John Rhys-Davies classes up the joint

22. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH: F
Favorite Moment: The return of Valentin.

23. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: F
Favorite Moment: Honestly, nothing, this movie is terrible.

Top 10 Movies of 2013

This year has been a bit of a slog to get through at times, and I was worried that this list would be pretty underwhelming to put together, but luckily over the past few months, I've seen enough movies that at least a decent amount finally started to stand out, enough to make this top ten and a decent list of honorable mentions.

I saw 142 movies that were released in 2013, if you're curious the list of all of them is located here: http://www.imdb.com/list/HZoBdROJHkA/

And without further ado, my top ten list of 2013:

1. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

Joel and Ethan Coen, my favorite living filmmakers, have done it again.  What at first might seem like strange subject material, the early 1960's New York folk music scene before Bob Dylan showed up, serves as a perfect metaphor for the artistic process, and what happens when, no matter how hard you try and how much talent you have, you just can't find your audience.  Oscar Isaac, who made a strong impression in limited screen time a few years ago in DRIVE, plants his flag firmly here, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of him in the years to come.  It's no secret to my friends that I'm 100% behind the recent re-emergence of folk music in the mainstream (hell, the lead singer of my favorite band, Scott Avett, auditioned for the role of Llewyn Davis), but you don't need to be in order to enjoy the music in the film or the film itself.

2. BEFORE MIDNIGHT

This series of films will almost certainly go down in film history as one of the greatest romances ever put to celluloid, and I can only hope that every 9 years we're treated to another glimpse in at the lives of Jesse and Celine to see what they've been up to in the meantime.  BEFORE MIDNIGHT keeps the series intact, this time focusing on the stresses that marriage, children, and careers can put on a relationship, and while the first two films for the most part maintain a romantic, almost fairy-tale-like point of view, MIDNIGHT isn't afraid to show the uglier moments either.




3. HER

Spike Jonze made an early career out of adapting the screenplays of the brilliant screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, but we are clearly better off that he decided to strike out on his own.  HER is an expertly crafted film, and Jonze makes the believable creation of a plausible near future in which the events of this film can take place look easy.  The balance of beautiful imagery, a funny yet poignant script, and stellar performances makes HER one of my favorite movies of the year.  Scarlett Johansson is a revelation here, showing just what is possible in a voice-only performance, but the real kudos belong to Joaquin Phoenix, who sells this world and Theodore Twombly so well that we completely forget that he is the only man in the room for a good portion of the film's running time.  The level of difficulty on his performance couldn't be higher, and Phoenix pulls it off, making it look effortless.

4. PRISONERS

Few films can so expertly balance harrowing family drama with Hitchcockian thriller the way that PRISONERS does.  This film is most certainly not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach it, what you'll get is an almost Shakespearean morality play combined with a riveting twisty-turny police procedural, shouldered by two near-career-best performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.  Denis Villeneuve was smart to bring Roger Deakins aboard as director of photography (as would anyone making any movie), and the film finds a certain level of beauty in its cloudy, rain-drenched darkness.  The final cut to black will drive you crazy with its brilliant ambiguity.



5. AMERICAN HUSTLE

After THE FIGHTER and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK which created interesting characters but had little regard for the greater thematic (and moral) implications of its characters' actions, it's refreshing to see David O. Russell balance those interesting characters with a story that better serves them.  AMERICAN HUSTLE may bear a few resemblances to con movies you've seen before, but it's clear pretty early on that this is more a movie about relationships, whether it's romantic or just friendship.  You may forget to look for deeper meaning while watching though, because the script, sold perfectly by the biggest and certainly most famous cast of the year, is so damn funny.  Louis CK's ice fishing story is not just a great structural story device, it's also the funniest thing I saw in a movie this year.


6. OUT OF THE FURNACE

I seem to find myself in the minority on this movie.  While I won't disagree that OUT OF THE FURNACE treads similar narrative territory to any number of revenge thrillers made in the past, for me it is more about how the story is told than the exact beat-for-beat narrative.  In most films like this, the inciting incident would happen about 15 minutes in, and violent revenge would play out in the subsequent 105 minutes, but by taking the time to let us get to know these characters before some sort of manufactured plot can kick in (including a length prison detour that, if not accounting for theme/character development, could've been cut altogether, much to the detriment of the finished film), Scott Cooper elevates this standard crime drama to one of the best films of the year.


7. SHORT TERM 12

Brie Larson heads one of the best casts of the year in this drama about young social workers and the children they look after.  The brilliance of the film is its ability to walk a fine line between compelling drama and issue film.  SHORT TERM 12 succeeds and not being too preachy, but at the same time you'd have to have a hard heart not to walk away feeling something for the kids who are put through this every day.






8. DRINKING BUDDIES

2013 was the year of my introduction to Joe Swanberg.  DRINKING BUDDIES (as well as another film, ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY, which barely missed my honorable mentions list) is a slight but satisfying tale of two friends who might want to be something more if not for their current spouses.  By letting the film play out in a highly improvisational style, we get a film that sidesteps the traditional landmines of a film like this (guy gets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl back, etc.) and instead plays out in a way that much more closely resembles real life.  Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde have made a name for themselves so far in more traditional/populist TV (The New Girl and House, M.D.), but Swanberg pulls out their best, and Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick do an excellent job as well.


9. 12 YEARS A SLAVE

Steve McQueen brings his art house sensibilities to this Hollywood issue film to satisfying results.  Most of McQueen's success is due to his spot-on casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup.  Ejiofor effortlessly exudes the intelligence and compassion that the role demands, allowing the viewer to be satisfied with this portrait of one man's struggles rather than a blanket statement about slavery itself.  The excellent script by Mequon-native John Ridley aims to not only highlight Northrup, but also to show his captors as slaves of a different sort to time and circumstance.




10. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

Paul Greengrass has made a career out of successfully balancing political themes with engaging action/drama, and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS may be his most successful film to date on those terms.  Greengrass finds some incredible non-actors (most notably Barkhad Abdi, the most unlikely of Oscar candidates this year) to provide real humanity to the piracy problem off the African coast, but the real star of the show is (no big surprise) Tom Hanks, who gives what may be the best performance of his career, and this is truly saying something.  Phillips is certainly a capable captain and a true hero, but Hanks still manages to find the underlying humanity in the character, most especially in a final scene that is too amazing to even attempt to describe here.

Favorite Movies of 2013 - Honorable Mentions

2013 Awards

My nominees (and *winners) for end of year awards are right here:

BEST DIRECTOR:
*Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
Spike Jonze, HER
Richard Linklater, BEFORE MIDNIGHT
David O. Russell, AMERICAN HUSTLE
Denis Villeneuve, PRISONERS

BEST ACTRESS:
Julie Delpy as Celine Wallace, BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Adele Exarchopoulis as Adele, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
Scarlett Johansson as Samantha, HER
*Brie Larson as Grace, SHORT TERM 12
Olivia Wilde as Kate, DRINKING BUDDIES

BEST ACTOR:
Christian Bale as Russell Baze, OUT OF THE FURNACE
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup, 12 YEARS A SLAVE
*Tom Hanks as Captain Richard Phillips, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly, HER

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Kaitlyn Dever as Jayden, SHORT TERM 12
Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn Rosenfeld, AMERICAN HUSTLE
Zoe Saldana as Lena Taylor, OUT OF THE FURNACE
*Lea Seydoux as Emma, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
Kristin Scott Thomas as Crystal, ONLY GOD FORGIVES

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
*Casey Affleck as Rodney Baze Jr., OUT OF THE FURNACE
Bradley Cooper as Richie DiMaso, AMERICAN HUSTLE
Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki, PRISONERS
Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito, AMERICAN HUSTLE
Keith Stanfield as Marcus, SHORT TERM 12

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Eric Singer and David O. Russell, AMERICAN HUSTLE
Spike Jonze, HER
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
Brad Ingelsby and Scott Cooper, OUT OF THE FURNACE
*Aaron Guzikowski, PRISONERS

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
John Ridley, 12 YEARS A SLAVE
*Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy, BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Abdellatif Kechiche & Ghalia Lacroix, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
Billy Ray, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope, PHILOMENA

BEST DOCUMENTARY:
56 UP
THE ACT OF KILLING
THE ARMSTRONG LIE
A BAND CALLED DEATH
THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER ROLLED
THE INSTITUTE
LEVIATHAN
ROOM 237
STORIES WE TELL
*WE STEAL SECRETS

BEST MUSIC:
12 YEARS A SLAVE
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN
HER
*INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
ONLY GOD FORGIVES

BEST SOUND:
ALL IS LOST
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
*GRAVITY
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

BEST MAKEUP:
12 YEARS A SLAVE
AMERICAN HUSTLE
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
*THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
RUSH

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
*GRAVITY
HER
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
UPSTREAM COLOR

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
ALL IS LOST
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
*HER
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
OUT OF THE FURNACE

BEST EDITING:
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
HER
PRISONERS
*UPSTREAM COLOR

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
HER
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
OUT OF THE FURNACE
*PRISONERS
UPSTREAM COLOR

BEST OLDER MOVIES SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2013:
7 UP SERIES
*BADLANDS
COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE
DJANGO
HAPPINESS
HEAVEN'S GATE
LET THERE BE LIGHT
THE LONG GOODBYE
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
OVERNIGHT