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The Movie Year in Review A special publication of thewrap.com | DECEMBER 2013 SPONSORED BY THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY 2013THE BEST & WORST OF A BOLD, » WEIRD, SEXY, CRAZY YEAR Contents Year in Review // December 2013 It Was the Best of Times… he past 12 months have been a great year for the movies, and we at TheWrap know how that feels—it’s been a pretty good year for us, too. We launched a revamped website in September, increased our staff so much we outgrew offices that seemed spacious only a year ago, GETTY IMAGES broke our own records for traffic month after month and ended Tthe year in December with an all-time high of more than 6 million WHAT’S INSIDE unique visitors. But the point of this special issue isn’t to brag about ourselves. 4 // ALONSO DURALDE’S PRIME SELECTION (Well, we do a little of that—see page 12.) Instead, we’re In a year of big cinema, a little indie topped the list here to take a quick look back at the year in movies. Because let’s face it, it’s worth remembering a year 6 // BIG & BOLD, OR WEAK & WUSSY? whose films ranged from Gravity to Frances Ha. Rating the most notable movie-business moves A year that included love stories as astonishing as Blue Is the Warmest Color and Her, with their 10 // THOSE MAGIC MOMENTS girl meets girl and boy-meets-operating-system Remembering the onscreen highlights of 2013 romances. A year that brought the return of Bruce Dern, Robert Redford and Jared Leto and the arrival of Chiwetel 12 // OUR GREATEST HITS Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o and Oscar Isaac. A year that gave us TheWrap rounds up our best movie stories from a Alexander Payne, Paul Greengrass and the Coen brothers at the top landmark year of their game. A year that documented the black experience with films as rich and varied as 12 Years a Slave, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, 14 // THEY CAST WHO? Fruitvale Station and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Jeff Sneider looks at great casting decisions—and not- Naturally, some things went wrong this year, so no look at the so-great ones, too year in movies would be complete without a nod to some bad moves and baffling decisions. But really, there’s more celebration than 15 // BARRY MEYER SAYS GOODBYE admonishment in these pages, because 2013 deserves it. An era comes to an end as a legendary exec retires Our thanks to the Weinstein Co. for supporting this special issue, and thank you for coming along throughout this great year. We’ll see 16 // IT’S JAMES FRANCO’S WORLD you in 2014 with more issues of OscarWrap and EmmyWrap, and of Here’s how the inexhaustible multi-hyphenate spent his course with our daily coverage at TheWrap.com. time during 2013 Sharon Waxman, Editor-in-Chief December 2013 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, SALES Sharon Waxman Caren Gibbens CHECK OUT THEWRAP.COM ONLINE EDITOR DIRECTOR OF SALES For more of our award-winning coverage of movies, television, Steve Pond Nicole Winters media and all other facets of the entertainment industry, visit us at TheWrap.com. CREATIVE DIRECTOR For advertising inquiries, contact [email protected] Vincent Rios or call (424) 248-0662 2 / THEWRAP.COM // DECEMBER 2013 Critic’s Choice ❹ Upstream Color One of the most The Great Beauties dazzling cinematic high-wire acts of 2013, Upstream Color often feels like the With a year as strong as 2013, a film equivalent of looking at a Seurat painting—lots of narrative blobs come Top 10 is only the beginning flying at you, and you have to patiently process them all until, at the end, a BY ALONSO DURALDE picture emerges. It’s a dazzling feat by Shane Carruth, who co-starred, co- edited, wrote, directed, scored and even ow great a year was 2013 for movies? So great that a Top 10 list can distributed the film. barely cover it, so I’ll start with 15 runners-up. In alphabetical order: 12 Years a Slave, C.O.G., Frozen, Gravity, Her, In the House, Inside ❸ The Great Beauty Comparisons to Llewyn Davis, Kill Your Darlings, Nebraska, Neighboring Sounds, Prince Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Roma may H Avalanche, Something in the Air, The Spectacular Now, The Wind Rises be inevitable, but Paolo Sorrentino’s and The World’s End. celebration of decadent ennui among the glory and the excess of the Eternal City is a dizzying delight that reminds us of ❿ A Touch of Sin Zhangke Jia’s Richard Linklater and performers the power of pure, indulgent, unfettered blistering look at modern China Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, the cinema. takes four seemingly random acts of lovers from Before Sunrise and violence and ties them to the nation’s Before Sunset continue to grow ❷ American Hustle Snappy, smart (and much of the world’s) bleak deeper, more interesting and more and sexy, David O. Russell’s deliriously economic landscape. It’s no wonder cantankerous as their on-screen bonkers portrayal of the late 1970s this powerful movie has been relationship evolves. Abscam entrapment scandal allows him banned in its home country. to elicit extraordinary performances from » Star and co- ❻ Short Term 12 One of 2013’s his ensemble and to bounce any number writer Greta ❾ Concussion The directorial best-kept secrets was this powerful of genres—from con-game switcheroo to Gerwig lights debut from writer-director Stacie sleeper, starring Brie Larson in a finely-etched character study—against up the year’s Passon joins classics like Belle du career-redefining performance as a each other brilliantly. best movie. Jour and Jeanne Dielman in its woman tending both to a ward full evisceration of the discontents of a of troubled children and to her own suburban housewife while giving damaged past. Equally hilarious this classic tale several 21st century and traumatic, this honest and twists, only one of which is the fact unpredictable indie presented the that our heroine (portrayed with lives of kids in foster care without indelible gusto by Robin Weigert) is condescension or mawkish pity. a lesbian married to another woman. ❺ All Is Lost Gravity deserves ❽ Enough Said Writer-director praise for its envelope-pushing Nicole Holofcener has made just technical achievements, but this five films in 17 years, but there’s not movie tells a similar one-stranded- PINE DISTRICT, LLC a dud in the bunch. Part farce and person story with even greater part comedy of errors, this sweet depth and human power. Robert ❶ Frances Ha This low-budget charmer and smart romance allowed Julia Redford gives perhaps the finest co-written by leading lady Greta Gerwig Louis-Dreyfus and the late James performance of his career as a and director Noah Baumbach celebrates Gandolfini to generate real sparks man stranded alone at sea, trying the moment when youthful folly no and show their range outside of their desperately to survive. Writer- longer fits while reminding us that iconic small-screen presences. director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) adulthood doesn’t have to represent the eschews dialogue almost entirely, death of dreams. Subtle and sweet, this ❼ Before Midnight “Never let telling his story instead with the unassuming little black-and-white movie an actor near a pencil,” said some elements, and with Redford’s face never makes a false step. In a year of studio head of yore. But in this third and resilient physicality. grand, sweeping cinematic achievement, collaboration between director it tiptoed its way to the top of my list. w 4 / THEWRAP.COM // DECEMBER 2013 “ IDRIS ELBA’S TOWERING PERFORMANCE LENDS ‘MANDELA’ A SHAKESPEAREAN BREADTH. His Mandela is an intensely emotional man whose body quakes in moments of sorrow and whose face is stricken with a bone-deep anguish.” Stephen Holden, “ IDRIS ELBA IS MAGNIFICENT.” “ IDRIS ELBA GIVES AN ASTOUNDING PERFORMANCE.” Peter Travers, ® GOLDEN GLOBE® AWARD NOMINATIONS BEST ACTOR (DRAMA) - IDRIS ELBA BEST ORIGINAL SONG BEST ORIGINAL SCORE LYRICS BY BONO “ORDINARY LOVE” MUSIC BY U2 & BRIAN BURTON ALEX HEFFES For some intense sequences of violence and disturbing images, sexual content and brief strong language ATTEND A SCREENING GO TO TWCGUILDS.COM OR M.TWCGUILDS.COM Artwork ©2013 The Weinstein Company Big Moves Hollywood’s Boldest and Wussiest Moves of 2013 Fortune favors the bold, the old saying goes, and a handful of Hollywood chieftains and stars took those words to heart in 2013. So we can’t help but raise a virtual glass to some of the boldest moves in Hollywood—and because we wouldn’t know what hot is unless we felt cold, we had to point out the wussiest, too. WUSSY: Universal closes Focus agency takes guts. Most mid-sized Features agencies are struggling to keep up Focus Features remains with the likes of CAA and WME, operational in name only. Universal and this wily sexagenarian still merged it with FilmDistrict and decided to start from scratch and placed FilmDistrict executives focus on the old-fashioned craft in charge, deciding there was no of representing talent. Berg was profitable strategy for the beloved plotting Resolution while still at specialty division. (Several other the agency he used to run, ICM studios have shuttered their “indie” Partners, so he got shown the door. divisions, which is even worse.) The gall. —LS Focus may still make movies like Dallas Buyers Club, but it will mostly WUSSY: Sony makes nice with be releasing sequels to Insidious and Dan Loeb Olympus Has Fallen. Talk about Sony may have rejected activist » He was in, then he was out— sullying a brand.