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.

Jonathan R. Lack

Published: Jul 10, 2013 09:02 am

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[h2]7. Monsters University[/h2]

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I had almost given up hope we would see another truly great Pixar film any time in the near future, after Cars 2 and Brave disappointed me so completely, and I certainly did not expect Monsters University – a prequel absolutely no one asked for or needed – to be the company’s big creative comeback. Yet against all odds, Monsters University works, and it works very, very well. On all levels, as a family-friendly college comedy, a prequel, and a supplement to the original feature, Monsters University is an extremely solid creative success, a minor-key work for Pixar on the whole, yet one that absolutely lives up to the artistic precedent the company has set.

The film simply feels like a Pixar movie, top to bottom, and after two consecutive left-turns into lazy, generic studio animation territory, it is an extreme pleasure to watch a new Pixar movie with a real voice. Even during those stretches when the film is a bit too mired in convention, Monsters University boasts terrific characters, gorgeous and clever visuals, truly intelligent and surprising humor, and a wildly poignant emotional undercurrent – climaxing in one of the single greatest scenes Pixar has ever delivered – all of which serves to distinguish the film as a cut above the rest, exactly like a Pixar film should.

Read my full review here.

Monsters University is now playing in theatres everywhere.

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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.