More Movies Like This, Please: 2013 List
I started something in 2012. Whenever I saw a new movie I liked, I would jump onto Twitter, identify the movie, then simply tweet this: “More movies like this, please.”
Then I thought, Why don’t I do an annual More Movies Like This, Please list? I did my inaugural list last year here.
What do I mean by “more movies like this, please”? Not big popcorn flicks. Hey, I love huge spectacle movies as much as the next guy, but we know Hollywood is going to make them, studios don’t need encouragement to produce prequels, sequels, remakes, tentpoles, and so forth.
Rather I’m talking about movies Hollywood seems to have a hard time committing to nowadays for a variety of reasons, most of them related to economics and conventional wisdom about what supposedly will work / won’t work.
Here are some of elements I’m looking for in my More Movies Like This, Please list:
* More adult dramas.
* More mid-budget movies [$25–50M], smaller stories that need larger budgets to be told well.
* More original movies [based on an original screenplay].
* More movies targeting people who love movies and appreciate the history of movies.
* More movies that represent the vision of one writer / writer-director or team of writers / writer-directors.
* More movies that explore interesting, unique and unusual subcultures.
* More movies that take risks.
* More movies that approach narrative in different ways.
* More cinematic movies.
* More quirky, whimsical, oddball movies reflecting a distinctive take on the world.
* More movies where the focus is on characters, not special effects.
* More movies that make me think.
* More movies that have no reason to exist other than the fact they have a great story to tell.
So here is my 2013 More Movies Like This, Please list:
12 Years a Slave
All Is Lost
American Hustle
Before Midnight
Breakfast With Curtis
Captain Phillips
Cold Comes the Night
Computer Chess
Dallas Buyers Club
Don Jon
Drinking Buddies
Enough Said
Frozen
Fruitvale Station
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Mud
Now You See Me
Pacific Rim
Prisoners
Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
Short Term 12
The Conjuring
The Heat
The Place Beyond the Pines
The Spectacular Now
The Way Way Back
The Wolf of Wall Street
This is the End
Upstream Color
I’m sure I missed some, but these are the titles that surfaced in my thoughts today.
All in all, a really good year for some quality films. Following up on 2012, which was superlative in that regard, this is a good sign for movie fans. Let’s hope 2014 continues this positive trend.
Congratulations and thanks all the filmmakers involved in making original movies and to the money people behind them taking the risk to finance those productions.
How about you? What is your “More Movies Like This, Please” list for 2013? Or just your favorite films of the year. Hope to see your thoughts in comments.
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