The Best Films of 2013, According to Critics: #30-#1

                                                                                                             
In case you missed, here's Part 1 of the list from yesterday, which revealed films #80-#31 as well as the explanation for how our rankings were established. Now, without further ado, here are the top thirty films most mentioned (and adored) by film critics in the year 2013:

30. AT BERKELEY (dir: Frederick Wiseman)
45 points
Much like in some of his other more recent films, Frederick Wiseman takes his time to explore a specific world, which in this case is the University of California at Berkeley campus. Over the course of the movie, Wiseman shows various aspects of the school, from the social life to the work committed by its administrative office.

29. THE WIND RISES (dir: Hayao Miyazaki)
47 points
The final film in the long, fifty year career of beloved Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises takes a look into the life of World War II designer of planes for the Japanese army.

28. THE SPECTACULAR NOW (dir: James Ponsoldt)
64.5 points
A tale of a high school relationship between the hard-drinking, unambitious Sutter (Miles Teller) and the nice and helpful Aimee (The Descendant's Shailene Woodley).

27. ENOUGH SAID (dir: Nicole Holofcener)
69.5 points
In what will most be remembered by people as one of the final film roles of the great James Gandolfini (who tragically passed away from a heart attack at age 51), Enough Said finds a masseuse, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who gets into a relationship with Gandolfini's character and decides to keep it secret from one of her newfound friends (Catherine Keener), his ex-wife.

26. THE WORLD'S END (dir: Edgar Wright)
75 points
Edgar Wright teams up again with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in this comedy about five friends who attempt to complete a barcrawl at their hometown, which is now being controlled by aliens. The film marks the official end to the loosely-connected "Cornetto" trilogy, shared alongside Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. 

24(tie). MUD (dir: Jeff Nichols)
77.5 points
2013 has been a great year for Matthew McConaughey, with starring roles in three different films ranked in this year's top twenty-five. This first one, from the director of Take Shelter, features McConaughey as a fugitive from the law hiding in a small island in the Mississippi River, while receiving regular help from two Arkansas teenagers (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland). Reese Witherspoon and Michael Shannon also star in this film.

24(tie). A TOUCH OF SIN (dir: Zhangke Jia)
77.5 points
Set in contemporary China, the movie tells four different stories, each only tangentially related and containing random acts of violence. With just short of 80 points, A Touch of Sin is the highest-rated Asian-produced film on the list.

23. COMPUTER CHESS (dir: Andrew Bujalski)
81 points
Set in the 1980's, a few years before the rise of the Internet, and shot almost entirely on outdated black-and-white video cameras, Computer Chess takes its viewers inside a weekend-long chess tournament between computers and their software programmers.

22. LEVIATHAN (dir: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel)
82.5 points
One of the year's most experimental films, documentary or otherwise, Leviathan shows the daily life of commercial fisherman as they set out to fish in the North Atlantic. The film is notable for its lack of narration and talking heads, as well as it's many interesting choices of positioning for its waterproof cameras.

21. SPRING BREAKERS (dir: Harmony Korine)
85.5 points
A quad of young actresses (lead by Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens) star as a group of young women who travel to Florida for spring breaker and end-up working bank robberies under the direction of local rapper Alien (James Franco). In 2013, there were very few films as polarizing as Spring Breakers, with very little middle ground. Those who loved it, however, really loved it (as you can see by its placement on the countdown).

20. DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (dir: Jean-Marc Vallee)
89.5 points
Released in the U.S. seven months after Mud, Matthew McConaughey returned to the big screen again in a performance that earned him even more acclaim (and awards). This time, he stars in the telling of the real-life story of Ron Woodroof, a homophobic Texan who is diagnosed with AIDS and ends up creating a system for other local AIDS patients (alongside a duo played by Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto) to receive alternative treatment medication from foreign countries.

19. THE GREAT BEAUTY (dir: Paolo Sorrentino)
103.5 points
Toni Servillo stars as Jep Gambardella, a famous author still mooching off the success of his most famous work nearly forty years later, who has grown tired of his living as a Roman socialite and decides to spend a night walking around town. This Italian film has since been compared to several works of other notable Italian directors, including Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. 

18. FRUITVALE STATION (dir: Ryan Coogler)
114 points
Winner of both the Grandy Jury Prize and the Audience Award at February's Sundance Film Festival, the film recounts the last full day in the life of Oscar Grant III, who was fatally shot by Bay Area police on New Year's Day 2009. Fruitvale Station marked the debut feature for director Ryan Coogler and helped gain even greater notoriety to its star, Michael B. Jordan.

17. BLUE JASMINE (dir: Woody Allen)
144.5 points
The latest from the prolific director Woody Allen, about a New York socialite named Jasmine who tries to rebuild back her life in San Francisco after her husband was arrested for operating a Ponzi scheme. The film features Cate Blanchett's award-winning performance as Jasmine, and also features a cast which includes Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Louis C.K., Bobby Canavale, and Andrew Dice Clay.

16. SHORT TERM 12 (dir: Destin Cretton)
154 points
Brie Larson plays Grace, a supervising staff member in a foster care facility for at-risk teenagers. The film was based on a short film, also created by its director, Destin Cretton, who based the story off of his own experiences as a worker for a short-term home.

15. ALL IS LOST (dir: J.C. Chandor)
172 points
Taking place almost entirely in the Indian Ocean, All is Lost stars Robert Redford in an almost dialogue-less performance as a man who struggles to keep his boat afloat after it collides with a shipping container that rips its hull open. This film is director's J.C. Chandor's first film after the release of 2011's Margin Call. 

14. UPSTREAM COLOR (dir: Shane Carruth)
184 points
Nine years after the mindfuck that was 2004's Primer, Shane Carruth debuted this low-budgeted follow-up of a man and woman connected through similar cases of theft and mind manipulation. 

13. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (dir: Paul Greengrass)
184.5 points
Based off the true story of the 2009 takeover of the Maersk Alabama by Somalian pirates, this latest from Paul Greengrass features Tom Hanks' portrayal of the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, and a breakout role from the man who played the lead Somalian Adbuwali Muse, Barkhad Abdi. 

12. STORIES WE TELL (dir: Sarah Polley)
190.5 points
In this documentary aimed at exploring the difference between memory and reality, Canadian director Sarah Polley attempts to learn more about her upbringing and of the revelation that she was born out of an extramarital affair, with interviews from several members of her friends and family and through recreations shot out of a Super 8 camera.

11. FRANCES HA (dir: Noah Baumbach)
193 points
Frances Halladay (Greta Gerwig) is a dancer in her late twenties struggling to make end's meet. She's also struggling to find an apartment in New York City to stay after her friend, Sophie, decides to move in with her boyfriend, and struggling with setting a firm plan for the future. She is also the subject of this latest from The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach, the highest rated film on the list that failed to cross the 200 point barrier.

10. NEBRASKA (dir: Alexander Payne)
216 points
After taking detours to California (Sideways)and Hawaii (The Descendants)in his previous two movies, director Alexander Payne returns to his home state with a movie about a Billings, Montana man (Bruce Dern) and his son (Will Forte) that travel to Lincoln to claim a million dollar prize that the man believes he has won. Along the way, they stop at the man's hometown of Hawthorne and reunite with old family members and friends. 

9. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (dir: Abdellatif Kechiche)
235.5 points
A coming-of-age tale that also serves as a lesbian love story, based on the 2010 graphic novel of the same name. Since winning the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival (an honor which also features a rare sharing by the film's two main stars, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux), Blue is the Warmest Color has received as much praise for its storytelling as it has received controversy for its graphic sex scenes and director Abdellatif Kechiche's reportedly limit-pushing treatment of its main actresses on set. It is the highest rated European film on this year's list.

8. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (dir: Martin Scorsese)
243.5 points
Another movie which has sparked controversy since its release, The Wolf of Wall Street (the longest film in Martin Scorsese's career) stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a Wall Street stockbroker who engaged in several illegal activities during his time as leader of his company, Stratton Oakmont, in the late '80s and '90s. Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, and Kyle Chandler also star, with Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter as its script writer.

7. THE ACT OF KILLING (dir: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous co-director)
259.5 points
The highest rated documentary on the list, this film re-enacts the murdering of thousands of Indonesians in the 1960s through Northern Sumatran death squads, through the help and influence of actual members from those death squads. 

6. AMERICAN HUSTLE (dir: David O. Russell)
328.5 points
Less than a year removed from the release of 2012's Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell  released yet another film that appealed to the hearts and  minds of critics with American Hustle. Starring a cast that includes Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jeremy Renner, the film is about a couple of 1970's con artists who help an FBI agent catch a bunch of corrupt East Coast politicians in the act. The film is loosely inspired by the FBI's ABSCAM operation that occurred during the same period.

5. BEFORE MIDNIGHT (dir: Richard Linklater)
339.5 points
It can be very hard to make a movie that's considered great, like 1995's Before Sunrise. It can be even harder to make a sequel to that film nine years later that is also considered great, like 2004's Before Sunset. Yet it's probably even harder than that to make a third film continuing the story of those first two films and continue to earn a great amount of praise from critics. Yet that is exactly what Richard Linklater was able to do with Before Midnight, the third installment of the Before series. Once again starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (who also contributed to the screenplay), the film tells the latest events in the life of couple Celine and Jesse, this time living together in Greece after starting a family. If Linklater decides to continue the story even further with another Before movie, it's safe to say that there will be some high expectations set upon it.

4. HER (dir: Spike Jonze)
512.5 points
Joaquin Phoenix stars as Theodore Twombly, a man living in Los Angeles in a not-too-distant future, who after divorcing from his ex-wife (Rooney Mara), falls in love with a highly-advanced operating system with the ability of both intuition and evolution named Sam, played by Scarlett Johansson in her third (and most praised) performance out of the films on this list. Amy Adams is also in this film, which combined with the release of American Hustle almost simultaneously alongside Her, made it a December to remember for her.

3. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (dir: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
553 points
With this new film, the Coen brothers explore the 1960s folk music scene through the perspective of Llewyn Davis, who without not spoiling too much doesn't have things going well for him. Oscar Isaac plays the titular New Yorker in a cast which also features John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Adam Driver, Garrett Hedlund, and an against-type Carey Mulligan. 

2. GRAVITY (dir: Alfonso Cuaron)
641 points
It's not very often that you see a film as beloved by critics as Gravity receive the same amount of adoration by the general movie-viewing public, but with a $650 million box office gross to go along with its 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and its 96 Metacritic score, that is exactly what happened this past fall with this latest film from 2006's Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron. In it, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as two American astronauts who must find a way to get back to Earth after their space station is destroyed by high-speed debris. The film has often been credited with beautiful imagery, courtesy of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, as well as with great personal touches from Cuaron, including the famous 18-minute tracking shot of the debris attack in the beginning. Time will tell how Gravity is embraced by future audiences (who will most likely not watch it in theaters), but for a large portion of those who did have a chance to see it on the big screen, Gravity delivered.

1. 12 YEARS A SLAVE (dir: Steve McQueen)
712.5 points
A film that was ranked #1 on the very first list I counted, and never seemed to let go of the spot. 12 Years a Slave, which has been repeatedly called the most honest and brutal portrayal of slavery in the United States on the silver screen, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, a free man who was captured and taken to the Antebellum South where he served as a slave to various owners for the aforementioned twelve years. This film not only appeared in more top-ten lists than any other film released in 2013, it also narrowly beat Gravity for the most #1 rankings. Expect to see the adoration for this film continue all the way to the late winter, where it will probably be heavily rewarded by the Academy during the Oscar telecast.


Coming up Thursday: The Outliers-a list of all the films which received at least one top 10 appearance, yet did not receive enough points to make the top 85. I will also reveal the list of each critic whose list I counted for this project. Happy New Year!

The Best Films of 2013, According to Critics: #85-#31

                                                                                                                         The Past

"2013 was a great year for movies."

It's a sentence that I'm sure you've seen several times in the past month or so if you've read any of the many print and online articles reflecting on the past year in the cinema. And, indeed, 2013 was a great year for movies. Whether it was blockbusters like Gravity and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, uproarious comedies like the summer's two apocalyptic-themed films This is the End and The World's End, documentaries like The Act of Killing and Stories We Tell, charming indies like Frances Ha, or compelling dramas ranging from Captain Phillips to 12 Years a Slave, the year was chock-full of interesting choices for both cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike. But among the hundreds of films released to the public this past year, which of them were the best?

Since early December, hundreds of film critics worldwide have decided to answer that question, usually by cutting down the list of all of the new releases they watched since New Year's Day into a short list of films that they truly felt were the best-of-the-best. Often times, these short-lists involved ranking their picks for the best-of-the-best, with an eventual #1 pick revealed. Here at TMAM, I have read well over a hundred of these lists, and have decided to compile them all into one aggregated list of the seventy-five which were the most acclaimed. But before I begin, though, a few bullet points about the logistics of the list and the tidbits that I found particularly notable:

• The way this aggregated list was created was through a points system, in which each movie was given a certain amount of points after appearing on a critic's Best-of list. For the vast majority of the lists (about 98%), a movie was only awarded points if they appeared in the top ten of the writer(s). There were certain exceptions, usually whenever a Best-of list was unranked and featured more than ten films, or if a Best-Of list had a stated number-one movie and an honorable mentions list that was slightly larger than nine movies. These exceptions were:

  -Carrie Rickey (of CarrieRickey.com), who wrote an unranked Best-of list featuring 14 films.

  -Manohla Dargis (of The New York Times), who wrote an unranked Best-of list featuring 16 films.

  -David Denby (of The New Yorker), who listed American Hustle as #1 and 13 runner-ups.

• The most common method points were awarded involved giving each film on a top ten list between 1 and 10 points, with 10 points awarded to the film placed at #1, 9 points awarded to the film placed at #2, 8 points awarded to the film placed at #3, and so on and so forth, all the way down to just 1 point awarded to the film placed at #10. For the critics counted who decided not to rank their top-ten lists, each film was given 5.5 points (since 10+9+8+...+1=55 and 55/10=5.5).
• Out of all the lists counted, only five did not have points for films listed in these two ways mentioned previously. They are:

  -Carrie Rickey (of CarrieRickey.com), whose 14 films mentioned were awarded 4 points each.

  -Kenneth Turan (of Los Angeles Times), whose #1 choice was awarded 10 points, while the other unranked top-ten films were awarded 5 points.

  -Manohla Dargis (of The New York Times), whose 16 films mentioned were awarded 3.5 points each.

  -David Denby (of The New Yorker), whose #1 film was awarded 7 points, while the other unranked thirteen films listed were awarded 3.5 points.

  -Joe Morgenstern (of WSJ), whose #1 choice was awarded 10 points, while his #2 was awarded 9 points and the other unranked top-ten films were awarded 5 points.

• Overall, a total of 146 lists were selected for this article, and I will link to you each of those lists later on this week in the Best Films of 2013 Outliers article. Much of these lists made up of critics and writers who either live in the United States or work for an American publication/website. That said, I did include some international voices as well, from countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and even France.
• Because the amount of lists were many, it meant that films of various kinds were selected. In the end, my unofficial count of films that were mentioned in the best-of lists at least once is currently at 196, with films of every kind, from your indy darlings like Upstream Color and All is Lost, to summer flare like The Internship. Yes, you read that last part right. Even films that were consider by most film watchers to be mediocre if not terrible (like Despicable Me 2 and the aforementioned 'Internship') got some love at some point. Furthermore, there were also films that got listed despite not playing in an American theater whatsoever (such as Behind the Candelabra, which aired on HBO Memorial Day weekend), while others, like 2012 films Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty, got included by international press due their delayed release dates in their country. And yet, at no point in any of these lists have I seen Man of Steel mentioned so far (although that might change later on). Considering how polarizing the film was, you'd figure there would be some people who would include it, and yet it didn't. I just found that part interesting.

Now, let's get right down to the good stuff. Here is the list of the seventy-five most frequently mentioned (and praised) movies by film critics in the year 2013, starting from numbers 85 through 36:

 

82(tie). ROOM 237 (dir: Rodney Ascher)

13 points
A tale about obsession, Room 237 follows along with some of the most far-out theories and interpretations regarding Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

82(tie). THE HUNT (dir: Thomas Vintenburg)

13 points
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (who also starred this year in the NBC series Hannibal) plays a former school teacher who must overcome false-accusations of sexually assaulting a young girl. 

82(tie). DRUG WAR (dir: Johnnie To)

13 points
After Chinese meth producer Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) is arrested, he must turn into an informant and help out authorities bring down a powerful cartel that he's working for.

82(tie). DJANGO UNCHAINED (dir: Quentin Tarantino)
13 points
One of two American films on the list that technically were released during the year 2012, Tarantino's latest featuring Jamie Foxx and his slave character, Django, teaming up with Dr. King Schultz (Christolph Waltz, in a performance that earned him his second Oscar) to bounty hunt and to help Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) escape from the plantation of the menacing Monsieur Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). 

81. HANNAH ARENDT (dir: Margarethe von Trotta)

13.5 points
The biographical telling about the life of the famous philosopher and New Yorker contributor during the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann, as told by von Trotta and portrayed by Barbara Sukowa.

79(tie). PARADISE: FAITH (dir: Ulrich Seidl)

14 points
In the second installment of Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy, a woman in her fifties named Anna Maria (Maria Hofstätter) decides to serve as a missionary nurse during the course of a single summer.

79(tie). FAUST (dir: Aleksandr Sokurov) 

14 points
The latest cinematic interpretation of the famous Faustian legend, directed by Russian Ark's Alexandr Sokurov and starring Johannes Zeiler as the titular Faust. 

78. TRANCE (dir: Danny Boyle)

15 points
The Academy Award winning writer and director is back, this time with a drama about a fine art auctioneer (James McAvoy) who loses his memory and must remember where he hid a famous Goya painting worth millions of dollars that he helped steal.

75(tie). VIOLA (dir: Matias Pineiro) 
16 points
A story about a group of actresses performing in a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" who get into some romantic entanglements of their own.

75(tie). STRANGER BY THE LAKE (dir: Alain Guiraudie)

16 points
Although it doesn't get officially released in the United States until late January, this movie about a gay love story (which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival) has won over numerous critics that have had the chance to see it. Expect it to probably re-appear in various "Best of 2014" lists this time next year. 

75(tie). THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (dir: Ralph Fiennes)

16 points
Ralph Fiennes stars and directs this tale about the relationship between Charles Dickens and his secret lover until his death, played by Felicity Jones.

73(tie). BLACKFISH (dir: Gabriela Cowperthwaite)
A story about Tilikum, a killer whale who has infamously killed three human beings in the past, as well as a documentary against the captivity of these sea animals for human entertainment.

73(tie). AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (dir: David Lowery)
16 points
Influenced by the works of such New Hollywood filmmakers as the man behind this year's #55 film, Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints focuses on the lives of three characters living in a small town in 1970's West Texas: outlaw Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck), his wife Ruth (Rooney Mara), and sheriff Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster).

72. THE UNSPEAKABLE ACT (dir: Dan Sallitt)

17.5 points
The first film on this countdown with strongly-implied incestuous elements (spoiler alert!), it stars Tallie Medel as Jackie, a 17 year old who feels that there is no problem that she has a deep sexual attraction to her brother, Matthew. 

70(tie). ZERO DARK THIRTY (dir: Kathryn Bigelow)
18 points
Another 2012 film that received mentions in Best-of lists due to the late release date (it did not receive a wide release until early January), this terrific movie detailing the hunt for Osama bin Laden was met since it's first screening with both praise and controversy. 

70(tie). LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER (dir: Lee Daniels)

18 points
A story spanning from a cotton plantation in 1920's Georgia all the way to the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, Lee Daniels' The Butler (not to be confused with the 1916 short comedy film The Butler, as Warner Bros. repeatedly wants you to remember) details the life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitacker), who served as the butler for eight different United States presidents.

68(tie). DON JON (dir: Joseph Gordon Levitt)
19 points
In what is also his debut feature as director, the actor plays Jon Martello, a porn enthusiast trying to make his relationship with old-fashioned girlfriend Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) work. 

68(tie). SOMETHING IN THE AIR (dir: Olivier Assayas)

19 points
Clement Metayer stars in this movie about a young artist's life during the days of the French student movement in the late '60s and early '70s. This film appeared on only two top-ten lists, but in each of those lists it was placed as #1 and #2, hence it's placing in the rankings.

66(tie). THE BLING RING (dir: Sophia Coppola)

19.5 points
Motivated by their obsession with celebrity culture and fame, a group of teenagers (including a girl played by Emma Watson) decide to break into the houses of various Hollywood celebrities and steal their stuff. 

66(tie). BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (dir: Steven Soderbergh)

19.5 points
What is supposed to be the final film directed by Steven Soderbergh (he is still set to direct every episode of the upcoming Cinemax mini-series The Knick), Behind the Candelabra is about famed musician Liberace (Michael Douglas, in a role that has earned him a ton of awards in the past few months, with several more to come) and his secret affair with lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon). The film was never able to find a distributor nationally, so it premiered on HBO instead, which is why you don't see it appear on even more lists. Otherwise, you can probably assume that it would've been placed much higher. 

65. WHAT MAISIE KNEW (dir: Scott McGehee, David Siegel)

20 points
Featuring a cast that includes Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan, and Alexander Skarsgard, What Maisie Knew details the life of a young girl named Maisie and her family as her parents go through a bitter divorce and custody battle. 

64. YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET (dir: Alain Resnais)

20.5 points
Over eighty years of age, and director Alain Resnais is still going strong, this time with a film about a dead French playwright who comes back to life in order to talk to actors who have performed his play "Eurydice."

62(tie). NO (dir: Pablo Larrain)

21.5 points
Based on true events, No recalls the year in Chilean history in which dictator Augusto Pinochet asked the country's citizens to vote "yes" or "no" on whether his reign should extend for eight more years, and the advertising campaign led by a man named Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal) to bring victory to the "no" side.

62(tie). CAESAR MUST DIE (dir: Paolo Taviani, Vitorrio Taviani)

21.5 points
Winner of the prestigious Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival, this documentary by the two Tavianis shows inmates at a high-security prison in Rome as they prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." This movie beat out Viola by five points, so is it safe to say that a behind-the-scenes look into the production of 'Caesar' is more interesting in general than looks into the production of "Twelfth Night"?

59(tie). OUT OF THE FURNACE (dir: Scott Cooper)

22 points
Directors of such films as Crazy Heart and Get Low, Scott Cooper tells this story about a man named Russell (Christian Bale) who searches for his Iraqi-veteran brother (Casey Affleck) after he disappears.

59(tie). LONE SURVIVOR (dir: Peter Berg)

22 points
The director of Collateral and Friday Night Lights tells the real-life story of the failed 2005 NAVY Seals mission "Operation Red Wings," through the help of the only soldier who returned alive that day.

59(tie). LET THE FIRE BURN (dir: Jason Osder)

22 points
On May 13,1985, Philadelphia police authorities ordered the dropping of military-grade explosives onto the headquarters of radical urban group MOVE. The order resulted in several people dead and hundreds losing their homes as the fire from the blast spread past the headquarters. In this documentary, Jason Osder details the events of that day, through the help of archival news footage and interviews from those who were there.

58. IN A WORLD... (dir: Lake Bell)

22.5 points
The debut feature from actress Lake Bell (who also wrote the screenplay), a comedy about a woman who is trying to fill her father's footsteps and make it in the movie trailer voice-over business. 

55(tie). TO THE WONDER (dir: Terrence Malick)

23 points

Nearly two years after releasing the Palme d'Or winning The Tree of Life (the shortest wait between any of his films), Terrence Malick returned to the big screen with another story full of beautiful images and heavy narration, this time about an Oklahoman (played by Ben Affleck) who returns home from a trip to Paris after starting a relationship with a French woman (played by Olga Kurylenko).

55(tie). NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (dir: Kleber Mendonca Filho)

23 points
A story about the lives of several individuals living in a single Brazilian apartment complex, as well as its nearby security guards. 

55(tie). IRON MAN 3 (dir: Shane Black)

23 points
Re-uniting Robert Downey Jr. and his Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang director Shane Black, this movie continues the story of the charismatic Tony Stark following the events in last year's The Avenger, this time as he battles Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. Barring a $300 million uptick in revenue from this list's #32 film in the next couple of days, this third installment in Marvel's Iron Man trilogy will probably finish 2013 as the year's highest grossing film, which I am willing to bet that the movie's producers care about much more than their positioning in this ranking.

52(tie). WADJDA (dir: Haifaa Al-Mansour)

24 points
The titular Wadjda (played by Waad Mohammed) really wants to buy a green bicycle she likes, so she sets out raising the funds by enrolling in a Koran recitation competition. Wadjda also earns the special distinction of being the first movie ever to be filmed entirely in the country of Saudi Arabia. 

52(tie). STOKER (dir: Chan-wook Park)

24 points
This is the famous Korean director's first American-made film, about a high schooler (Mia Wasikowska) who has her uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) move-in with her and her mother (Nicole Kidman).

52(tie). BASTARDS (dir: Claire Denis)

24 points
A modern film noir as only the French director of Beau Travail could tell it.

49(tie). UNDER THE SKIN (dir: Jonathan Glazer)

25 points
Scarlett Johansson (making her second appearance on the list) stars as Laura, an alien hitchhiker that goes on a journey throughout Scotland, in what is director Jonathan Glazer's third feature.

49(tie). THE WAY WAY BACK (dir: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash)

25 points
Two years after co-winning the Academy Award for screenwriting The Descendants, the duo of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash direct (and co-star) in this coming-of-age comedy about a teenage boy's (Liam James) summer in the beachhouse of his mother's boyfriend (Steve Carell), and his job working in a nearby waterpark with co-workers that includes a character played by Sam Rockwell. 

49(tie). LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (dir: Abbas Kiarostami)

25 points
A Tokyo student who serves as a call-girl named Akiko (Rin Takanashi) develops a paternal relationship with an elderly academic scholar (Tadashi Okuno). The first marks the first Japanese feature for the acclaimed Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, and his first film since Certified Copy (which appeared in its fair share of critics top-ten lists a mere two years ago).

47(tie). THIS IS THE END (dir: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen)

26 points
It's the end-of-the-world, and a group of celebrities that includes Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride must find a way to survive it. The film marks the directorial debut for both Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who are also longtime writing partners.

47(tie). PAIN & GAIN (dir: Michael Bay)

26 points
It's not very often that you see Michael Bay appear this high in a year-end Best-Of films list, butt that's just the case here as thia films earned enough points to just barely place into this year's Top 50. For Bay, this movie, about a trio of bodybuilders (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie) who get involved in extortion rings and money laundering schemes, was his first non-Transformers film in nearly ten years, and probably his best reviewed film since The Rock.

45(tie). THE GRANDMASTER (dir: Wong Kar Wai)

26.5 points
The great Chinese filmmaker brings his talents to this biopic, detailing the life of the famed kung fu master, Ip Man, a man who has instructed proteges that have included Bruce Lee.

45(tie). 20 FEET FROM STARDOM (dir: Morgan Neville)

26.5 points
The life of a back-up singer can often be full of heartbreak, missed opportunities, and potential chances at stardom that never fully materialized. Morgan Neville decided to tell their story, with interviews and insights from such people (mostly women) as Darlene Love and Merry Clayton.

44. FROZEN (dir: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee)

29 points
In a film which could very-well help Disney Animations Studios win its first Best Animated Feature Oscar in three months, Kristen Bell voices Anna, a girl who teams up with a mountain man (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer and a snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad) to find her supernatural sister, Elsa (Idina Menzel), in order to stop her kingdom's eternal winter.

43. RUSH (dir: Ron Howard)
29.5 points
The self-proclaimed "first great movie of the fall" back when it was heavily promoted, Rush stars Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl as James Hunt and Niki Lauda, two Formula 1 driver who had a competitive rivalry during the 1970s.

42. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (dir: Joss Whedon)

30 points
Shot over the course of twelve days and entirely in director Joss Whedon's home in Santa Monica, California, this modern re-telling of the Shakespeare comedy features a cast of people that Whedonites are long familiar with, including Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, and Fran Kranz.

41. BEYOND THE HILLS (dir: Cristian Mungiu)
30.5 points
The Romanian director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days returns with yet another tale of a female friendship, this time involving two girls who grew up together in an orphanage. 

40. NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET (dir: Raoul Ruiz)

31.5 points
Based on the short stories of writer Hernan del Solar, this Chilean film stars Sergio Hernandez as a man named Don Celso, whose past experiences (both real and imaginative) play out during its running time.According to our points system, this film is the most-acclaimed South American film of the year.

39. POST TENEBRAS LUX (dir: Carlos Reygadas)

34 points
This Mexican film tells the story of an upper-class, urban family that decides to move to the countryside, resulting in various problems and crises, with Reygadas bringing to it astonishing photography and a time narrative that can best be described as fluid.

38. AFTER TILLER (dir: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson)

36 points
Another documentary on the main list, this time one which details the lives of the four doctors in the United States who still openly perform late-term abortions, even following the 2009 murder of Kansas abortion clinic physician, George Tiller, whom the film is named after.

37. SAVING MR. BANKS (dir: John Lee Hancock)

37.5 points
A look into the longtime developmental process of the 1964 classic Mary Poppins, from Walt Disney's lengthy pursuit to get permission from author P.L. Travers to adapt it into a movie, to the many hours of argument regarding how the movie was to actually be made. Tom Hanks get the chance to play the iconic Disney, while Emma Thomson tackles the role of Travers.

36. MUSEUM HOURS (dir: Jem Cohen)

38.5 points
When Johann, a guard at Vienna's Kunshistorisches Art Museum, and Anne, a foreigner visiting the city, both meet each other at the museum, they develop a friendship that is explored throughout the course of the film.

35. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (dir: Francis Lawrence)

39 points
In what some have suggested to be one of the best film sequels in years, and a film which improved on the original, the second installment of the trilogy adapted from the novels of Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), this time after she and Josh Hutcherson's Peeta Mellark return back home following the events of the first film.

34. PRISONERS (dir: Denis Villeneuve)
39.5 points
Hugh Jackman stars as a father in search of his six year-old daughter after she and her friend go missing. The movie also features Jake Gyllenhaal as the main detective in the daughter's missing persons case, Viola Davis as the movie of the missing friend, and Paul Dano as one of the main suspects in the case.

33. PHILOMENA (dir: Stephen Frears)

40 points
Steve Coogan (who was also a co-writer for this movie) and Judi Dench star in this story about a reporter who helps an elderly Irish-Catholic woman find her child conceived out of wedlock that she gave away for adoption to the United States. The film was directed by Stephen Frears, best known for 2006's The Queen.

31(tie). THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (dir: Derek Cianfrance)

44 points

Cianfrance's first film since 2010's Blue Valentine about a motorcycle stunt driver who goes into robbing banks to provide money for his girlfriend and newborn son, with Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, and Eva Mendes leading the cast.

31(tie). THE PAST (dir: Asghar Farhadi)

44 points
How does one follow-up a movie as beloved and as praised as 2011's A Separation? For Asghar Farhadi, it is with this story about an Iranian (Ali Mosaffa) who returns to France after four years to finalize his divorce with soon-to-be ex-wife (Berenice Bejo), now in a relationship with another man.The film, along with The Place Beyond the Pines, placed just one point shy of cracking the top thirty, although a number 31 spot in a year with hundreds of movies released isn't really something to mope about.  

Coming up Tuesday: we ring in the new year with part 2, which will reveal the top 30 of this soon-to-be old year, including the top movie most adored by critics in 2013.