2013 Media Diet

2013 Media Diet

Only full movie viewings are included.

*Repeat viewings

Bold: TV shows and miniseries/season

Underlined: Novels

1. Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)

2. Dodesk’ka-den/Clickety-clack (Kurosawa, 1970)

3. Lat sau san taam/Hard Boiled (Woo, 1992)

4. The Ambassador (Brügger, 2011)

5. Apollo 13 (Howard, 1995)

6. VHS (Bruckner, 2012)

7. La Commune, Paris 1871 (Watkins, 2000)

*8. Clue (Lynn, 1985)

9. Equilibrium (Wimmer, 2002)

10. Iron Sky (Vuorensola, 2012)

11. Sleepless in Seattle (Ephron, 1993)

*12. Torn Curtain (Hitchcock, 1966)

*13. It (Wallace, 1990)

*14. Children of Men (Cuarón, 2006)

            Life of Pi (Martel, 2001)

15. How to Survive a Plague (France, 2012)

*16. Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993)

17. The Last Starfighter (Castle, 1984)

*18. Dredd (Travis, 2012)

19. The Insider (Mann, 1999)

Dekalog/The Decalogues (Kieslowski, 1988)

20. De rouille et d'os/Rust and Bone (Audiard, 2012)

21. War Game (Watkins, 1965)

22. Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (Shapiro, 2012)

23. Amour/Love (Haneke, 2012)

24. Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012)

25. Haiyang tiantang/Ocean Heaven (Xiao Lu Xue, 2010)

26. Queen of Versailles (Greenfield, 2012)

27. The Invisible War (Kirby, 2012)

28. Erin Brokovich (Soderbergh, 2000)

*29. Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)

30. Bödeln och skökan/Milddle Ages Now: The Headsman and the Harlot (Gunnlaugsson, 1986)

31. Compliance (Zobel, 2012)

*32. Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom/Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring (Ki-duk Kim, 2003)

33. The Adjustment Bureau (Nolfi, 2011)

34. Dia-bosatsu tôge/The Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)

35. Like Crazy (Doremus, 2011)

36. Le Havre (Kaurismäki, 2011)

37. My Dinner with Andre (Malle, 1981)

*38. Bin-jip/3-Iron (Ki-duk Kim, 2004)

39. Silver Linings Playbook (Russell, 2012)

40. The Twelve Chairs (Brooks, 1970)

41. 5 Broken Cameras (Burnat, 2011)

42. Dazed and Confused (Linklater, 1993)

43. U-571 (Mostow, 2000)

44. Life of Pi (Lee, 2012)

45. Jerry Maguire (Crowe, 1996)

46. The Yes Men (Ollman, 2003)

*47. The Master (Anderson, 2012)

48. My Cousin Vinny (Lynn, 1992)

49. Swimming with Sharks (Huang, 1994)

50. Grosse Point Blank (Armitage, 1997)

51. A Place at the Table (Jacobson, 2012)

*52. Mystery Team (Eckman, 2009)

53. Holy Motors (Carax, 2012)

*54. Army of Darkness (Raimi, 1992)

55. Ministry of Fear (Lang, 1944)

56. Cosmopolis (Cronenberg, 2012)

57. I’m Not Scared (Salvatores, 2003)

58. Stoker (Chan wook-Park, 2013)

59. No (Larrain, 2012)

60. 7  cajas/ 7 Boxes (Maneglia, 2012)

61. Blancanieves (Berger, 2012)

62. Berberian Sound Studio (Strickland, 2012)

63. Le tableau/ The Painting (Languionie, 2011)

64. Dans la maison/In the House (Ozon, 2012)

65. La Pirogue (Touré, 2012)

66. Flimmer/Flicker (Eklund, 2012)

67. Kapringen/A Hijacking (Lindholm, 2012)

68. Vous n’avez encore rien vu/You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (Resnais, 2012)

*69. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Leone, 1966)

70. Kon-Tiki (Sandberg, 2012)

71. The Place Beyond the Pines (Cianfrance, 2012)

72. Trance (Boyle, 2013)

73. Catalyst (Arpke, 2013)

74. Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013)

75. From Up on Poppy Hill (Miyazaki, 2011)

76. The Last Broadcast (Avalos, 1998)

77. Omega Cop (Kyriazi, 1990)

78. This Must Be the Place (Sorrentino, 2011)

79. Mud (Nichols, 2012)

80. Pina (Wenders, 2011)

*81. Oldboy (Chan-wook Park, 2003)

82. The Kings of Summer (Vogt-Roberts, 2013)

83. Sign Painters (Levine, 2013)

84. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Chbosky, 2012)

85. Hurlyburly (Drazan, 1998)

86. Happy-Go-Lucky (Leigh, 2008)

87. These Wilder Years (Rowland, 1956)

88. Brighton Rock (Boulting, 1947)

89. Night and the City (Dassin, 1950)

90. Babes in Toyland (Meins, 1934)

91. Hail the Conquering Hero (Sturges, 1944)

92. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Herman, 2008)

93. At Any Price (Bahrani, 2012)

            Farscape: Season 3 (O’Bannon, 2001)

94. This is the End (Goldberg, 2013)

95. Red Skies Over Montana (Newman, 1952)

96. To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch, 1942)

97. Xtro (Davenport, 1983)

            House of Leaves (Danielewski, 2000)

98. The Details (Aaron Estes, 2011)

99. The Illusionist (Burger, 2006)

100. Night of the Comet (Eberhardt, 1984)

101. Jack and the Beanstalk (Yarbrough, 1952)

102. World War Z (Forster, 2013)

103. Good Morning, Vietnam (Levinson, 1987)

*104. Troll 2 (Fragasso, 1990)

105. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Lourié, 1953)

106. Sound of My Voice (Batmanglij, 2011)

*107. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Chan-wook Park, 2002)

            John Dies At the End (Wong, 2007)

108. Down Terrace (Wheatley, 2009)

109. Side Effects (Soderbergh, 2013)

110. Stripes (Reitman, 1981)

111. Cloud Atlas (Tykwer, 2012)

112. Miami Connection (Woo-sang Park 1987)

113. John Dies at the End (Coscarelli, 2012)

114. [REC] 3: Genesis (Plaza, 2012)

*115. The Great Escape (Sturges, 1963)

116. Much Ado About Nothing (Whedon, 2012)

117. Henry Poole is Here (Pellington, 2008)

118. The Goonies (Donner, 1985)

119. Black Dynamite (Sanders, 2009)

120. Kuroi Kawa/Black River (Kobayashi, 1957)

121. Foreign Correspondent (Hitchcock, 1940)

122. The Hills Have Eyes (Craven, 1977)

123. Despicable Me 2 (Coffin, 2013)

124. Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013)

125. Oblivion (Kosinski, 2013)

126. Cockneys vs. Zombies (Hoene, 2012)

127. Everything Is Terrible! The Movie (2009)

128. Without Warning (Iscove, 1994)

129. Los amantes pasajeros/I’m So Excited! (Almodóvar, 2013)

            Time’s Arrow (Amis, 1991)

130. Fruitvale Station (Coogler, 2013)

131. The Attack (Doueiri, 2012)

132. Warm Bodies (Levine, 2013)

133. In Old Chicago (King, 1937)

134. Friendly Persuasion (Wyler, 1956)

135. We’re the Millers (Thurber, 2013)

136. Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013)

137. A Field in England (Wheatley, 2013)

138. The War Room (Hegedus, 1993)

139. Weird Science (Hughes, 1985)

140. Alien Trespass (Goodwin, 2009)

141. Written on the Wind (Sirk, 1956)

142. White Material (Denis, 2009)

143. You’re Next (Wingard, 2011)

144. The World’s End (Wright, 2013)

145. Bernie (Linklater, 2011)

146. The ABCs of Death (Andrews, 2012)

147. Undefeated (Lindsay, 2011)

148. Doomsday Book (Pil-Sung Yim, 2012)

149. En kongelig affære/A Royal Affair (Arcel, 2012)

150. Black Snake Moan (Brewer, 2006)

151. The Spectacular Now (Ponsoldt, 2013)

152. Lore (Shortland, 2012)

153. Down by Law (Jarmusch, 1986)

154. Computer Chess (Bujalski, 2013)

155. Monsters University (Scanlon, 2013)

*156. Meet the Feebles (Jackson, 1989)

157. Headshot (Ratanaruang, 2011)

158. The Butler (Daniels, 2013)

159. Searching for Sugar Man (Bendjelloul, 2012)

*160. Black Sunday (Bava, 1960)

161. Rebelle/Warwitch (Nguyen, 2012)

162. Blue Jasmine (Allen, 2013)

163. Dom s bashenskoy/The House with the Turret (Neymann, 2012)

            Blood Meridian (McCarthy, 1985)

164. Dupa dealuri/Beyond the Hills (Mungiu, 2012)

*165. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

166. Ludwig II (Noelle, 2012)

*167. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)

168. When the King Tilts (Britton, 2014)

169. Sightseers (Wheatley, 2012)

170. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (Lowery, 2013)

171. Escape from Tomorrow (Moore, 2013)

172. Five Came Back (Farrow, 1939)

*173. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (Blackburn, 1973)

174. Red (Schwentke, 2010)

175. Dead of Night (Cavalcanti, 1945)

176. Back from Eternity (Farrow, 1956)

177. Jagten/The Hunt (Vinterberg, 2012)

*178. Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960)

179. Pieta (Ki-duk Kim, 2012)

180. Gravity (Cuarón, 2013)

181. Carrie (De Palma, 1976)

*182. Pontypool (McDonald, 2008)

183. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Nixey, 2010)

184. Devil (Dowdle, 2010)

185. Girls Gone Dead (Hoffman Jr., 2012)

186. His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)

187. Rush (Howard, 2013)

188. The Rocket (Mordaunt, 2013)

*189. Black Christmas (Clark, 1974)

190. Dressed to Kill (De Palma, 1980)

191. American Scream (Stephenson, 2012)

192. V/H/S/2 (Barrett, 2013)

*193. Profondo Rosso/Deep Red (Argento, 1975)

*194. House by the Cemetery (Fulci, 1981)

*195. Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968)

196. Hellraiser 5: Inferno (Derrickson, 2000)

*197. Christine (Carpenter, 1983)

198. Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker (Bota, 2002)

*199. Hocus Pocus (Ortega, 1993)

*200. Best Worst Movie (Stephenson, 2009)

201. Lady in the Lake (Montgomery, 1947)

202. Samâ uôzu/Summer Wars (Hosoda, 2009)

203. Mermaids (Benjamin, 1990)

204. Hellraiser 7: Deader (Bota, 2005)

205. Hellraiser 8: Hellworld (Bota, 2005)

206. Hellraiser 9: Revelations (Garcia, 2011)

*207. The Counterfeit Traitor (Seaton, 1962)

208. Force of Evil (Polonsky, 1948)

209. 12 Years A Slave (McQueen, 2013)

210. Everything Is Illuminated (Shreiber, 2005)

211. Wrong (Dupieux, 2012)

212. The Day He Arrives (Sang-soo Hong, 2011)

213. Only God Forgives (Refn, 2013)

214. Das letzte Schweigen/The Silence (Odar, 2010)

215. Twixt (Coppola, 2011)

216. Antiviral (Cronenberg, 2012)

217. Tokyo Drifter (Suzuki, 1966)

218. Nebraska (Payne, 2013)

*219. Fail-Safe (Lumet, 1964)

220. Bi-mong/Dream (Kim Ki-duk, 2008)

221. Scrooge (Edwards, 1935)

222. O Soma o Redor/Neighboring Sounds (Filho, 2012)

223. The Central Park Five (Burns, 2012)

224. Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013)

225. Robot and Frank (Schreier, 2012)

226. Don’t Stop Believing (Diaz, 2012)

227. The Scapegoat (Sturridge, 2012)

228. Simon Killer (Campos, 2012)

229. Out of the Furnace (Cooper, 2013)

230. All is Lost (Chandor, 2013)

231. La vie d’Adèle/ Blue is the Warmest Color (Kechiche, 2013)

232. The Heat (Feig, 2013)

233. Master of the World (Witney, 1961)

234. Into the White (Næss, 2012)

235. Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013)

Seven Favorites (in alphabetical order):

1. A Hijacking (Lindholm, 2012) 

This realistic portrayal observes the gritty details of fear and survival rarely explored in a hostage situation. Captors, hostages, negotiators, families, and corporate heads all confront the smallest of decisions with irreversible consequences.

2. Berberian Sound Studio (Strickland, 2012) 

More an experience than a movie, this work needs only three locations to descend into psychological purgatory. An experimentation of audio, visual, and storytelling dissonance, even momentary shots challenge the audience’s perception of reality and film-viewing conventions.

3. Everything Is Illuminated (Shreiber, 2005)

I would never have expected Liev Schreiber’s one and only directing gig to deliver such a fluid combination of whimsical cross-continent adventure and wartime atrocity. Shot with an artist’s vision, the light-hearted humor is just as strong as the film’s haunting poignancy.

4. Love (Haneke, 2012)

A slow progression toward every human’s inevitability, this effective tale ventures through family, fate, dreams, and heartfelt memories to establish an emotional foundation for a gut-wrenching finale. 

5. The Silence (Odar, 2010)

Visually and emotionally hypnotic from the opening shot to the last lines of dialogue, this story of guilt and justice uses unconventional imagery and editing to transport you into the troubled lives on both sides of a devastating crime.

6. Simon Killer (Campos, 2012)

Stark and simple, with appropriately claustrophobic cinematography and performances unafraid to rush headfirst into chaos. This is a tuneful, entrancing journey of one distorted conscience crashing into oblivion.

7. White Material (Denis, 2009)

A combination of politics, ancestry, racial divide, brutal warfare, and magic, the disorienting perspective conveys an infinite landscape violated by the clash of cultures and lifestyles. 

Seven Least Favorites (in alphabetical order):

 

1. Girls Gone Dead (Hoffman Jr., 2012)

Absorbing all the uninspired clichés of a slasher flick and the quality of an under-budget production, even its handful of cameos could not jumpstart this film’s pulse.

2. Hellraiser 5: Inferno (Derrickson, 2000)/Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker (Bota, 2002)

Tying for a spot on this list, both films share the same incomprehensible storyline, blatant disregard for the Hellraiser mythos, cardboard characters, and overall apathetic production. Though different directors, both simply stuck their movie on the assembly line and made sure the all the parts were disproportionately out of place.

 

3. Jack and the Beanstalk (Yarbrough, 1952)

Abbott and Costello rolled out many flops in their careers, but few are presented like a kindergarten stage play where every word is lifeless and the troupe of dancers are so deathly out-of-sync that they resemble rioting drunkards.

 

4. The Kings of Summer (Vogt-Roberts, 2013)

One of many well-received Sundance films that disappointed me, this feels like a schoolboy’s weekend production with his friends. Length seems to be eagerly bloated with outlandish characters, irrelevant improve, and random teenager angst.

 

 

5. Miami Connection (Woo-sang Park 1987)

Now a cult classic B-movie experience thanks to the Alamo Drafthouse, the acrobatic musicians, gangs, and ninja violence are just as absurd as the dramatic dialogue, all concluding with one of the most hilarious closing texts in modern cinema.

 

6. Omega Cop (Kyriazi, 1990)

Here is another post-apocalyptic, gang-ridden world with secondhand production quality and enough slow motion action sequences to extend a short laugh into a feature-length regret.

 

7. Warm Bodies (Levine, 2013)

When “Romeo and Juliet” meets a PG-13 zombie apocalypse, the resulting lovechild is a predictable checklist of obstacles and a staggering amount of convenient loopholes, all in a movie shedding any depth to end as quickly as possible.

Of Noteworthy mention:

I chose 2013 to be the year I spent stuck out in a body of water. Five movies I watched about being stranded at sea:

1. A Hijacking (Lindholm, 2012)

2. All is Lost (Chandor, 2013)

3. Kon-Tiki (Sandberg, 2012)

4. La Pirogue (Touré, 2012)

5. Life of Pi (Lee, 2012)

Stats:

Movies: 235

Books: 5

TV Shows/season: 2

Most viewed directors:

            Kim Ki-duk: 4

            Ben Wheatley: 3
            Rick Bota: 3

If anyone can find a typo/misspelling, let me know and you’ll get credit.