Every year the Alamo Drafthouse team including staff from the programming offices of every location, Drafthouse Films, Mondo, Badass Digest, Fantastic Fest and more vote on our favorite ten films of the year. We've compiled all of those lists and ranked them according to staff vote, and these are the official top ten titles of 2013, selected by the Alamo Drafthouse family.
10. Frances Ha
Perhaps being inspired to take a European vacation on credit cards was not the right message to get out of Francis Ha but it was hard not to walk away from the film more than a little in love with Greta Gerwig downward spiral and all. Gerwig imbues the film with a life and energy that makes it impossible not to develop a crush on the movie. Francis Ha is a great many things funny, beautifully shot, poignant (at least to this perpetually broke would-be artist) but at the center of every facet of the film is the wonderful performance from Gerwig. (Robert Saucedo, Programming Director, Alamo Drafthouse Houston)
9. Before Midnight
Beautiful, engaging, with thoughtful dialogue and chemistry. (Britt Hayes, Contributor, Badass Digest)
8. Pain and Gain
A flurry of violence and spectacle peppered with enough satire to make you give Michael Bay a second thought. Pain and Gain scoops you up and busts your guts before it body slams your face with pure fun. Also The Rock delivers a career defining performance as a coked out Jesus freak. Take a muscled-up coke head on a date for this one. (Greg MacLennan, Film Programmer/Lead Video Editor, Alamo Drafthouse)
7. 12 Years A Slave
Ive heard some people claiming that Steve McQueen doesnt go far enough in 12 Years A Slave and I simply dont know what the fuck theyre talking about. If he went any further he would have turned this story into a grotesquerie; if he threw any more pain and horror at the screen he would dilute the impact of the pain and horror already there. And theres a lot of pain and horror; 12 Years A Slave is sometimes a grueling experience, a movie where the psychological toll of keeping humans as slaves is as pronounced as the physical toll. McQueen is showing us how the institution of slavery was destroying everyone involved, even the slave owners. It presents slavery as a cancer that eats away at the basic humanity of all, filling the spaces within them with tumors of evil. Its powerful, made all the more powerful by the harrowing performance of Chiwetel Ejiofor as the ultimate Wrong Man. Is 12 Years A Slave more mainstream than McQueens Hunger? Yes, but thats not a sin - a movie like this should be watched by people, not left on lists of movies they should eventually see. (Devin Faraci, Editor-in-Chief, Badass Digest)
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coen Brothers' latest is funny, strange, darkly beautiful and very, very sad. It's a film about the nature of grief and how isolating it can be, but it also reminds us of the ways that art and music can help us transcend that isolation, if only for a few fleeting moments. A lot of noise has been made that Oscar Isaac's Llewyn an asshole through and through, no doubt isn't a particularly sympathetic character, but I've felt more sympathy for him and his impenetrable solitude than just about any other character this year. (Meredith Borders, Managing Editor, Badass Digest)
5. The Act of Killing
When I say this movie is good, I mean it in every sense: the film is compelling as entertainment but its also profound in what it exposes about humanity, and the way it explores how we tell stories and use them as fire walls against the harsh truths about ourselves. You almost cant believe what youre watching in this film - men who engaged in genocidal war crimes in Indonesia fifty years ago voluntarily re-enact them for movie cameras, playing out mass slaughter and rape and admitting their complicity in atrocities. Its mind-boggling, and it offers an insight into how these things happen; after the Holocaust we all promised never again, but its happened again and again, and The Act of Killing tries to shed some light on how thats possible. Its a crazy movie, one that will thoroughly rewire you for weeks to come. (Devin Faraci)
4. Her
Spike Jones can break your heart and put it back together again like a master craftsman. Scarlett Johansson was everything by creating something out of nothing. (Keith Garcia, Creative Manager, Alamo Drafthouse Littleton)
3. Spring Breakers
The movie left folks feeling dirty thanks largely in part to the gun-sucking, the manic-panic ski masks/bikinis and generally everything about James Franco. I loved it and I should note that I'm not one of those Harmony Korine types by nature. I'm the type of guy that gets a big kick out of the idea of Disney-loving teenagers (and maybe even their parents) going to see this movie thinking it's something that it is very much not. This uncomfortable-to-the-point-of-hilarious movie was totally my favorite thing I saw in 2013. Word on the street is that the sequel will be 48fps and in IMAX. Spring Break FOREVER! (John Gross, Director of Brand Promotions, Alamo Drafthouse)
2. Gravity
Its Momentum: The Movie! Physics was made terrifying and fascinatingly (mostly) real in Gravity. (Ryan Fons, Fons PR)
1. Wolf of Wall Street
Yes, Wolf of Wall Street is divisive, but instead of made up of those who liked and those who didnt like, WOWSs audience is made up of those liked, those who didnt like, and those who are afraid of the mirror and want to stick their heads in the sand and probably continue to buy penis enlargement pills and diet pills that allow you to lose weight without diet and exercise. (James Shapiro, Chief Operating Officer, Drafthouse Films)
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Every year the Alamo Drafthouse team including staff from the programming offices of every location, Drafthouse Films, Mondo, Badass Digest, Fantastic Fest and more vote on our favorite ten films of the year. We've compiled all of those lists and ranked them according to staff vote, and these are the official top ten titles of 2013, selected by the Alamo Drafthouse family.
