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]3. Inside Llewyn Davis[/h2]

Inside Llewyn Davis

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Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis is at once both a painfully honest portrait of what it feels like to be artistically spent, and a beautiful artistic masterwork impossibly rich with greatness. The story of a frustrated folk singer in what may be the last week of his struggling career, the film is absurdly packed with cinematic riches, from Oscar Isaac’s astoundingly nuanced, lived-in work in the title role, to the transfixing evocation of the music and culture of the early 1960’s New York folk-scene, to the top-notch supporting cast and brilliantly immersive cinematography. And in true Coen Brothers fashion, it is also one of the funniest films of the year.

Yet beneath all this lies an even deeper, more impactful level of greatness, for as a study of how a person may be forced into artistic exhaustion, to reach a point where one wonders if one has anything more to give or knows even how or why to give it, Inside Llewyn Davis is as unflinchingly honest and emotionally genuine as any film I’ve seen all year, and stands as one of 2013’s foremost cinematic pleasures.

Inside Llewyn Davis is now playing in limited release. Read my full review of the film here and check out our video interview with the cast below.

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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.