9.

12 Years a Slave
Francois Duhamel / Fox Searchlight
Southern whites of the pre-Civil War plantation aristocracy
believed themselves Gods chosen, and their slaves inhuman. As
shown in this searing film document an anti-Gone With the
Wind the masters were the madmen, inferior but in charge.
!he first two feature films of Anglo-African director Steve
"c#ueen, whose first two features, $unger and Shame, proved
him a picture poet of physical degradation. $ere, wor%ing from
&ohn 'idleys script based on the ()*+ memoir of Solomon
,orthup, a free blac% ,ew -or%er abducted into servitude,
"c#ueen immerses viewers in the magnolia-scented hell to
which ,orthup .Chiwetel /0iofor1 was e2iled. -ou will recoil at
every punishment, feel each slur, with an immediacy that ma%es
the long-ago, 3peculiar institution4 of slavery sting li%e a
whiplash. !o this hot content, "c#ueen applies cool imagery. !he
movie has the eerie impact of a museum e2hibit5 it is a diorama of
atrocity, populated by varying forms of monstrosity ."ichael
6assbender and 7enedict Cumberbatch as the main slave-owners1
and benevolence .7rad 8itt as a Canadian abolitionist1, and
humani9ed by the smoldering restraint of /0iofors performance.
8. The Act of Killing
Drafthouse Films
:n (;<*, the thug Anwar Congo was hired by the :ndonesian
government to stamp out the threat of Communism5 he and his
fellow gangsters formed paramilitary s=uads that tortured and
%illed thousands of innocents. ,early a half-century later, Anwar
and many of his colleagues are still around, still protected by the
politicians in charge, and ready to reenact their atrocities. &oshua
>ppenheimers ama9ing documentary gives that opportunity to
men who grew up idoli9ing 7rando and 8acino and are pleased to
star in their own crude biopics. !o more closely resemble his
young self, Anwar dyes his hair and gets new teeth. $e rehearses
garroting a man with a wire, to the laughter and applause of the
women watching. "a%ing the movies, which vault from film noir
to bi9arre musical, eventually gets under Anwars s%in and into
his dreams5 the pearly %iller is finally afflicted with nightmares.
6or any viewer, the effect is no less haunting.
7. Frozen
Disney
8rincess /lsa has powers of sorcery beyond her control? she can
and does cast a nuclear winter on her northern %ingdom. $er
sister Anna is the normal one, falling in love at the first sight of
any eligible male, yet bound to confront her sister and save their
realm. !he first animated feature in the Walt @isney studios
glorious history to offer two princess heroines, 6ro9en transforms
$ans Christian Andersens 3!he Snow #ueen4 into a fable of
modern, timeless sisterhood. 6or this full-musical enchantment,
Writer &ennifer Aee and co-director Chris 7uc% tapped some of
the 7roadway musicals brightest lights composers 'obert
Aope9 and Bristen Anderson-Aope9 and actor-singers :dina
"en9el ./lsa1, Bristen 7ell .Anna1 and &onathan Groff .as the
gruff mountain man Bristoff1 and poured all comic inspiration
into the snowman character >laf .voiced with irrepressible
enthusi-woo9y-asm by !he 7oo% of "ormons &osh Gad1. $is
show-stopping set piece 3:n Summer4 provides the finest two
minutes of cinema youll seer this year.
6. Furious 6
Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures
8lanes, trains and automobiles collide spectacularly in the fourth
6ast C 6urious movie to be directed by &ustin Ain and written by
Chris "organ. :n a reunion of Din @iesel, the late 8aul Wal%er,
their gang and girlfriends and @/A agent @wayne &ohnson,
6urious < vrooms from !enerife to "oscow to Aondon, with
astounding stunts in each location, and hitches a ride on a
military cargo plane for the final brawl. Where 6ast 6ive heralded
the ,ew $ollywoods e2altation of sensational action over subtle
character, Furious 6 revs everything up, purifies and improves it
to a level even cooler and more aerodynamically delirious than its
predecessor, if such a thing is even mathematically possible. !his
adrenaline-sto%ing series is addictive, for its chases, crashes,
crushes and for its poetic limning of the closest camaraderie
many men can ever %now? with their cars. >wning one, some
auto-holic says, is li%e a marriage. 3-eah,4 another guy replies,
3but when you brea% up they dont ta%e half your shit.4
5. The Grandmaster
The Weinstein Company
'unning at E hours and (F minutes in its world premiere at the
7erlin 6ilm 6estival, Wong Baw-wais dreamy biopic of martial
arts master :p "an was cut by EE minutes one-fifth of its
running time by G.S. distributor !he Weinstein Company.
!hats a crime a%in to cutting random holes in a 7osch or
7reughel painting5 but whats left is choice. !he $ong Bong
director ma%es superb movies .Chungking Express, In the Mood
for Love, 20461 that ignore narrative drive for tales of romance
and regret in a rapturous visual style of slo-mo imagery and ha9y
closeups of wistful stars. !ony Aeung Chiu-wai, who loo%s li%e a
more beautiful >bama, plays :p "an as a poet of gestural
precision, in combat scenes choreographed by the great -uen Wo-
ping .The Matrix, i!! "i!!1. Aeungs partner in reverie is a female
doctor, daughter and martial artist played by Hhang Hiyi
.Crou#hing Tiger$ %idden &ragon15 she e2udes a goddesss
solemn grandeur and is given a divas final aria a fittingly
elegiac clima2 for a world-class filmma%er whos always in the
mood for lost love.
4. her
Warner Bros.
:n a future Aos Angeles so near-Gtopian that no scene ta%es place
in a car, !heodore !wombly .&oa=uin 8hoeni21 has a 0ob
composing love letters for other people. 8rofligately romantic,
bruised by the failure of his marriage to Catherine .'ooney
"ara1, he has enough sentiment left over to fall truly, madly,
deeply in love with a computer operating system who calls herself
Samantha .Scarlett &ohansson1. !heir virtual affair might be the
springboard to satire, but writer-director Spi%e &on9e instead
creates a splendid anachronism? a modern rom-com that is laugh-
and-cry and warm all over, totally sweet and utterly serious. >r, if
you will, utterly Siri. 8hoeni2 corrals the dulcet melancholy of a
man whose emotional pain finds refuge in Samanthas embrace,
in a love that, to mis=uote 8hillip B. @ic%, is 3more human than
human.4 8hoeni2 and &on9e show what its li%e when a mourning
heart comes alive because he, !heodore, loves $er. And :,
'ichard, loved her.
3. American Hustle
Francois Duhamel / Annapurna Productions / Columbia Pictures
$istory remade as spar%ling farce? the 67:s late-IFs Abscam
investigation of political corruption, which led to the conviction of
a G.S. Senator and seven Congressmen, becomes this headlong
tale of romance and rec%lessness. :n director @avid >. 'ussells
third consecutive movie about mismatched couples and their
cra9y families, after The Fighter and 'i!ver Linings (!a)*ook, A
,ew -or% con artist .Christian 7ale1 0uggles a mouthy wife
.&ennifer Aawrence1 and a cunning girl friend .Amy Adams1 while
reluctantly cooperating with the sting supervised by a federal
agent .7radley Cooper1 of a ,ew &ersey mayor .&eremy
'enner1. 3Some of this actually happened,4 reads the movies
opening te2t5 but 'ussell and cowriter /ric Warren Singer arent
going for verisimilitude. !his portrait of the IFs revels in the
decades gaudiness its disco dancing and casino dreams, its
ugly coiffures and facial hair and in the eternal abrasion of se2y
women and covetous men. !he five stars form a fabulous
ensemble cast, in the years most %nowing e2plosion of flat-out
fun.
2. The Great Beaut ! "a grande
#ellezza
Gianni Fiorito / Janus Films
3Whats the matter with nostalgiaJ4 as%s an aging poet in this
masterpiece of divine decadence. 3:ts the only thing left for those
of us who have no faith in the future.4 Writer-director 8aolo
Sorrentino, whose I! &ivo blended political bio-pic and >vidian
satire, views modern 'ome in all its e2cess through the 0aded eyes
of 3the %ing of the socialites,4 0ournalist &ep Gambardella .I!
&ivos !oni Servillo1 and, further bac%, more than a half-
century, to the /ternal City as seen by 6ederico 6ellini in La
&o!#e +ita. !his profligately cinematic achievement shows an
affection for nearly all of its outsi9e characters, and a melancholy
that the flaming creatures of &eps ac=uaintance will soon burn
out. Giving even the cynics a faith in the vibrancy of movies, The
Great "eaut) is the years grandest, most e2hilarating film that
ta%es place on /arth.
1. Gravit
Warner Bros.
When ,ASA travellers Sandra 7ulloc% and George Clooney get
lost in space, all awe brea%s loose. Aosing contact with "ission
Control, as well as access to their o2ygen supply, they are alone
together, with time and options running out. An epic of desperate
peril and profound wonder, Alfonso CuarKns thrilling +-@ drama
is a testament to human grit and groundbrea%ing technical
ingenuity. :t deserves to be seen once for the wow factor and a
second time to try to figure out how CuarKn and his digital
savants managed to ma%e the impossible seem so cinematically
plausible. ,o one had dared even to imagine this stuff li%e the
astounding (+-minute ta%e that opens the movie yet here it all
is, vividly and sumptuously reali9ed. :n depicting the fearful,
beautiful reality of the space world above our
world, Gravit) reveals the glory of cinemas future5 it thrills on so
many levels. And because CuarKn is a movie visionary of the
highest order, you truly cant beat the view.