Matt Donato’s Top 10 Films Of 2013

I know I’m typically the “horror guy” here at We Got This Covered (“Why can’t you watch nice things!” is typically a comment heard numerous times while visiting the parentals), but believe it or not, on top of the 90 horror films I was able to catch this year, I do watch what more conservative movie fans would call “real cinema.” I’m not a horror only guy, trust me, I’m a cinephile through and through – but horror just happens to be the most fun genre to write about in my eyes.

You’re not here for horror, though. While I’m currently compiling my Best Of/Worst of lists for the horror genre as we speak (which will be posted in the coming two weeks!), I’m here today to discuss my personal Top 10 list of movies that don’t involve killer dolls, bloodthirsty creatures, spooky ghosts – but certainly a monster or two. This year was a phenomenal year for film, filled with truly poetic storytellers crafting some of their best work to date, new talents shining through as the future filmmakers of their generation, and moving moments of utter whimsy that remind this critic why writing about movies has to be the best job in the history of professional, well, anything.

Fellow site critic Jonathan R. Lack already gave you his take on the best 2013 had to offer, and I’m glad to see we don’t overlap that much so you can get the most recommendations out of us WGTC writers as possible. Opinions are opinions, which is a simple statement that makes film criticism so unique and rewarding. No matter how you view a film, how you soak it up and let it percolate, someone else is going to have a completely different experience, and from that you can discover new depths to a film. I don’t believe there’s really one way a film can be received, and we rely on the masses to uncover every little stone a director might toss out for us. Film criticism is supposed to spark debate and conversation – not hate and stubborn dismissal. Share, learn, discover – that’s what film criticism is all about! Well, that, and telling you what sucks and doesn’t.

With that said, I present you The Top 10 Films of 2013 – as seen by me of course. These are the films that stuck with me long after watching, making it just as easy to create this list from memory than it was to write all my numerical ratings down and order them accordingly. You may agree (probably not), you may disagree (it’s the Internet, c’mon), but for my money, these ten films deserve your undivided Theatrical/RedBox/VOD/Netflix attention right this very second. If you’d like a little warm up, I talked through picks 20-11 over with my good friend Dennis Holden on his podcast, which you can only find there, but if you’d just like to jump in with my Top 10, by all means, the water is fine. To the list!