Jonathan R. Lack’s Top 10 Films Of 2013

This is the Top 10 list I have been waiting my entire critical career to write. I have been reviewing movies since 2004, and compiling Top 10 lists since 2006, and while the latter task has become increasingly stressful with each passing year – maybe because I see a greater number of movies each year, and maybe because the industry has been on a general upward trend in recent times – I have never had the pleasure or challenge of compiling such a dense collection of cinematic brilliance for my year-end countdown. It is always tough at first, whittling the list of contenders down to the actual ten titles, but if I am being honest, I also find that most Top 10 lists I make are made up of a few films I might call legitimate masterworks, a bunch of great movies I love intensely, and, at the bottom, a sentimental pick or two that most clearly reflects my own obsessions and interests. And that’s perfectly fine, because a Top 10 list constructed like that still represents a whole lot of very meaningful cinema.

Jonathan R. Lack

Published: Dec 20, 2013 11:28 am

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[h2]2. Gravity[/h2]

GRAVITY

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Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity hit me about as hard as any film ever has, for although this is one of the great technical achievements in cinematic history, Cuarón’s aesthetic accomplishments are employed to realize and empower a fundamentally simple – and extraordinarily profound – message about the significance of life in an existence where we are so utterly dwarfed by the scale of the cosmos. Sandra Bullock gives the performance of a lifetime as a first-time astronaut faced with the severest of physical and existential crisis, and for all the perfectly paced and flawlessly realized intensity she undergoes, it really is the emotional and thematic depth of her story that wound up breaking me by the end. It is rare to encounter a film that so beautifully encapsulates and reflects one’s own personal beliefs on life, or to feel such a strong personal connection with such a major commercial hit, but in its profound and innovative cinematic power, Gravity is both an extraordinary and ubiquitous masterpiece.

Gravity is now playing in theatres nationwide. Read my full review of the film here.

And the best film of 2013 is…

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Author

Jonathan R. Lack

With ten years of experience writing about movies and television, including an ongoing weekly column in The Denver Post's YourHub section, Jonathan R. Lack is a passionate voice in the field of film criticism. Writing is his favorite hobby, closely followed by watching movies and TV (which makes this his ideal gig), and is working on his first film-focused book.