First off welcome to the Penguin Awards. This is Rookerville’s attempt to wrap up the year. The one guarantee about awards shows and end of the year lists is that, inevitably, no one can ever agree on them. Rather than attempting to assign a numerical rank to something so subjective in nature, our approach to quantifying what took place during the previous calendar year is more broad – our own preferences in each individual category, with no definitive #1. The subjects of our end of the year series are those that we are passionate about, but ultimately, the person who truly decides the “best of” 2013 is you, the reader. After all, perception is everything. Welcome to the 2013 Penguin Awards, our tribute to the things that grabbed our attention over the last twelve months.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Pat Wong)
I have no hesitation in my pick. It is the only movie I watched more than once in the movie theaters this year. I watched it three times in IMAX at the best theater in New York City, AMC Lincoln Square 13 at the Lincoln Center. The third time was as good as the first time. The only other two movies I watched in the movie theaters three times are The Dark Knight Rises and Kill Bill Vol. 2. I loved the first Hunger Games movie then read all three books after I saw it. Despite my high expectations for Catching Fire, it significantly exceeded my expectations. It has a great cast headlined by Jennifer Lawrence. She does not play Katniss Everdeen. She is Katniss Everdeen. I cannot think of another actress that could give a better performance as the heroine. Of course, the movie has great source material as “Catching Fire” is generally considered the best book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games Trilogy. As Katniss’s symbol as the Mockingjay fuels a revolution in Panem, President Snow needs to contain and kill her reputation in order to destroy the hope she represents. Eventually, he devises a plan to reap Tributes from the existing pool of victors for the 75th Hunger Games which puts Katniss back into the arena. The scheme is brilliant. In order to win, Katniss will need to betray allies and kill other Victors who are beloved by the nation. The movie is great in portraying Katniss’s post traumatic stress disorder after the first Hunger Games, love triangle with Gail and Peeta, fear for the safety of her loved ones, reluctance to embrace her role as the Mockingjay, and the burden of the responsibility in the backdrop of revolution. As she enters the arena, she struggles with figuring out which victors she can trust in a game that only has one survivor and victor. She tries to sort it all out in the arena with advice from her mentor, Haymitch, to “Remember who the real enemy is”. The movie also introduces a couple fan favorites from the books. Sam Claflin and Jena Malone are excellent in their roles as Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason. The film is exhilarating and captivating from the first moment to the last moment. There are not enough superlatives I can give to the movie.
“Let it fly, Miss Everdeen. Let… It… Fly” – President Snow
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ted McLoof)
I saw Before Midnight in June, just before my 30th birthday, and from the opening sequence—Ethan Hawke dropping his son off at the airport, before we know anything about the nine years between Sunset and Midnight—it had a lock on my number one spot. Maybe it had something to do with the timing; I was getting older, and the film is a sophisticated and gentle take on the process of losing your youth, losing your enthusiasm, deciding the difference between holding on to your ideals and stubbornly refusing to change. It really is terrific—I hope Richard Linklater keeps on making them every nine years for forever—so I don’t mean to disparage it by knocking it from the top spot. But those Coen brothers, I mean, damn.
Inside Llewyn Davis is so completely wonderful that it’s difficult to decide where to start. It looks great, of course. The Coens are physically incapable of making an ugly film, their aesthetic sense so precise and meticulous yet always in service of the story. The performances are top notch: Oscar Isaac establishes himself as a star, Carrie Mulligan does very much with very little, Justin Timberlake helps to steal the movie with “Hey Mr. Kennedy.” Which brings me to the music. T-Bone Burnett should just be the go-to guy for faux-musicians in films, what with the gorgeous music here and “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart four years back.
But really what clinches the whole thing for me is its sheer balls. The Coens are consistently taken to task for being cold, favoring style over substance at their worst. And they’re getting that heat this time around, too, though God knows why. This is a poignant, human look at a life, flaws and all. Llewyn has a bit of a reverse Salieri complex, because rather than being good enough to recognize genius though not a genius himself, Llewyn is great at recognizing shit when he hears it and is cursed with having to watch the people around him not recognize it as well. And the Coens pull no punches; Llewyn is not a nice person, consistently pisses off his friends, burns bridges, steals cats. But he’s sincere, always, and maybe that’s why his friends forgive him—for a few hours, at least, until he offends them again. It’s certainly what made me love him, and the film as well. Great job, boys.
12 Years a Slave (Russ Stevens)
Sometimes the best film isn’t necessarily the most enjoyable. If this category was most enjoyable, the winner for me would probably be Nebraska, or Inside Llewyn Davis, but it’s not. It’s best. Best to me means the film that stands above all others. 12 Years a Slave is hardly enjoyable, but it’s a masterpiece. It’s the most unflinchingly raw portrayal of slavery ever. Beyond that, the actors, specifically Chiewitel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender, act circles around anyone from any other films this year. It’s not often that the most important film of the year, is the best, but this year that is the case. It’s the most harrowing story, with the best acting/cast, best cinematography, and best direction. The only area it did not completely blow me away was in the score, but otherwise, this is a masterpiece. In a sea of YA/comic-book films and films, this is something for the adults