2013 Film: #1

There was a crowded field this year, and a fantastic year for movies.

Before I get to my #1 of the year, first here is my list of movies I really wanted to see but didn't get to:

Lee Daniels' The Butler
Blackfish
Only God Forgives
The Act of Killing
Mandela:Long Walk to Freedom
Salinger
Mud
Ender's Game
Out of the Furnace
In a World...
Inside Llewyn Davis
Saving Mr. Banks
Blue is the Warmest Color
Pacific Rim
The World's End
47 Ronin
Short Term 12
Bad Grandpa
Leviathan
Upstream Color
The Great Beauty
Museum Hours

Here is a recap of all the movies I saw this year, worst to first:

Identity Thief
A.C.O.D.
The New Public
The Big Wedding
The Heat
The Internship
Admission
What Maisie Knew
The Bling Ring
We're the Millers
Runner Runner
The to-do List
Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Best Man Holiday
Star Trek Into Darkness
Much Ado About Nothing
Anchorman 2
Drinking Buddies
Elysium
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
Despicable Me 2
The Spectacular Now
The Great Gatsby 
This is the End
American Hustle
Rush
20 Feet From Stardom
Blue Jasmine
Enough Said
Frances Ha
Nebraska
The Way Way Back
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Stories We Tell
Don Jon
42
Philomena
About Time
The Place Beyond the Pines
Before Midnight
All is Lost
Gravity
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers' Club
Fruitvale Station
Prisoners
Wolf of Wall Street
12 Years a Slave

And my #1 movie of 2013:

#1 her

In the not too distant future...

(insert high-waisted pants joke here)

In the not too distant future, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is reeling from a recent break from his wife. He pours his lovesick emoting into personalized e-cards at the company he works for. Then, at the end of every work day, he goes home to his high-rise apartment, plays video games and eats takeout. Occasionally, he kicks it with his upstairs neighbors Amy (Amy Adams) and Charles (Matt Letscher), who are trying to get him back in the game. But Theodore's not really interested in any of that (unless you count dirty phone calls gone horribly and hilariously awry).

One day, he sees an ad for a new Operating System that is "geared to fit your every need". Without anything to lose, he buys it and finds his whole life changing as he falls deeply in love with his OS, named Samantha and voiced with a shocking amount of range by ScarJo. There are lots of subtle tricks and shots that writer/director Spike Jonze employs throughout to take Theodore deeper down the rabbit hole. It's shot beautifully, often from high in the heavens.

Is her a social commentary on America's attachment to their devices, our delving into less actual communication with the advent of self-serve grocery store kiosks and the like, our getting set up with our future partners by computer algorithms? Of course it is. But it doesn't really feel that way. It feels like an oddball love story, and Joaquin Phoenix (also in my #1 of last year, The Master) sells what's considered crazy in society as what could eventually be the new normal. And damn, I really don't know what that says about us.

That'll do it for this year! What an awesome year for movies!

Til next time, amigos-

Mulhern.