Month: December 2013
My 13 Favorite Films of 2013
I’ve already made two lists this year (one with superlatives and one with three films I never need to see again), but I made another one because masochism is the new black.
Here are my 13 Favorite Films from 2013:
3 Films from 2013 I’m Glad I Saw but Never Need to See Again at VeryAware.com
As the end of the year ambushed me, I was worried I would not have enough films to compile a best of list. I saw a bunch of films from 2013 this year, more than I normally do, but not enough of them made a list I felt totally comfortable with. There were, however, a number of films that, while they were by no means my favorite films, were ones I was glad I saw. And ones that I never really wanted to see again. These were films that warranted being seen this year, ones that contributed to the discourse on film, sometimes they pushed the boundaries of filmmaking. And if I didn’t see them, I would feel left out of the conversation, kind of like standing by the water cooler while my friends talk about sports I don’t watch. Luckily, I did see these films, and I did get to participate in some illuminating conversations them. But I don’t think I’ll be sitting down to watch these again anytime soon.
Kyle’s Superlative Year in Film: 2013 Edition at The Moviola
I realized it was almost the end of the year about a week and a half ago. And I began to panic. Little beads of sweat began to form on my forehead as I looked at the list of films I still had to watch. My original plan was to cram as many as I could before making my year end list. But, after some advice from a Twitter friend, I decided, “Eh, I’ve more than made my quota, I can take it easy and watch what I want to watch now.” By quota, I mean by my Masochist Quota. Because I feel like I’m always playing catch up with every other cinephile out there, I feel the incredibly masochistic need to watch at least 365 films a year. And watching that many (usually more) drains a person. (I’ve hit 516 films so far, not including rewatches.) I don’t have my license, so I don’t see that many 2013 films. I mostly see rep and archival stuff via Netflix, my library, etc. But this year, I did see a bit more. While I believe I have enough to make a reasonable top ten list, I decided to do something else. Silly superlatives! It’s more fun, a little more unorthodox, and does not require sleepless nights and valium pills to get me through eighteen other films I still had to watch.
Read on at The Moviola for my List of Film Superlatives for 2013!
Apples to Apples: C.O.G.
Whether or not I was always such an acerbic, sardonic little twerp is up to my friends to determine, but I know that I discovered the work of David Sedaris the year before I entered high school. It was kind of timely, in a way, as it would certainly inform my worldview during high school. iTunes was having an audiobook sale and his collection of essays Me Talk Pretty One Day caught my eye, so I bought it and never looked back. For a while, I wrote my own essays, shamelessly aping his style of humor, but like many imitators of Sedaris, they usually lacked the grasp on humanity he inexplicably had. Some call it smarm, but I think it’s merely fascinating introspection. I think it would be slightly disingenuous to call Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s adaptation of Sedaris’s short story C.O.G. (collected in Naked) “hackneyed”, but, as I mentioned before, the critical thing it lacks is that humanity.
Follow Forever: The Master List
I really hate doing Follow Fridays on Twitter. Not because I hate people, by any means (that’s a different issue altogether), but because I always feel like I leave someone out or something and then I feel bad. There are so many awesome people on Twitter whom I admire and respect. Also, it’s a freaking chore to do every week. So, instead, I have compiled a list of people I shall, as the post suggests, Follow vForever. You people have taught me so much about film, writing, and also life. About halfway through, I got really lazy, because the list got very long and I am, at heart, a lazy bum. Anyways, have a very Happy New Year. I shall be updating this list every so often and linking to it and such.
I Like Things That Look Like Mistakes 