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The Top 10 Films Of 2013 So Far

By and large, 2013 has been a middling year for cinema. The first four months of the year offered exceptionally little in the way of truly interesting or compelling commercially-released content, instead delivering a long string of uninspired, unengaging material that, while rarely awful, only occasionally piqued my interest. I found myself skipping a lot more films than I normally would, in part because I was busy working on other projects, and in part because what Hollywood had to offer seemed almost aggressively dull.

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[h2]8. Much Ado About Nothing[/h2]

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 Much-Ado-About-Nothing

Joss Whedon’s homemade Shakespeare adaptation is more or less exactly what I had expected since the project was first announced: Beautifully acted, insightfully staged, enormously funny, and, at times, relentlessly casual, as if one were attending an intimate Shakespeare reading at Joss’s house. That lack of revelation may serve as a disappointment to some fans, but I am perfectly content to take the film for the small but immensely satisfying treat it is. Much Ado About Nothing is easily my favorite Shakespeare play, and even if he is working with a budget smaller than that allotted to craft services on any given day of The Avengers shoot, it is a joy to see Whedon’s sharp, distinctive take on the material, one that builds steadily to a surprisingly weighty emotional climax.

Much of the credit must go to the ensemble, of course, particular Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof as the iconic Beatrice and Benedict, who immediately enter the pantheon with two of the all-time great cinematic Shakespeare portrayals. Their chemistry is practically magical, a sentiment that can be extended to the film as a whole. This is intimate, small-scale Shakespeare to be sure, but for a low-budget production made almost entirely out of passion and creative energy, it evokes every side of this great text in clever and insightful fashion, bringing both the humor and pathos out to degrees that may take audiences aback.

Read my full review here.

Much Ado About Nothing is now playing in limited theatrical release.

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