Aira's Movie Diary of 2013: a Cinematic Journey
Movies I watched for the first time in 2013 (with my somewhat-serious notes)
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- DirectorBen AffleckStarsBen AffleckBryan CranstonJohn GoodmanActing under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
► JANUARY - DirectorAlexander PayneStarsGeorge ClooneyShailene WoodleyAmara MillerA land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsPaul NewmanJoanne WoodwardAnthony FranciosaAccused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
- DirectorRichard CurtisStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanBill NighyNick FrostA band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves.
- DirectorMartin McDonaghStarsColin FarrellWoody HarrelsonSam RockwellA struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.
- DirectorAnn HuiStarsAndy LauDeannie IpHailu QinAfter suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.
- DirectorTom TykwerLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsTom HanksHalle BerryHugh GrantAn exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
- DirectorPaul WeitzStarsPaul DanoRobert De NiroJulianne MooreWorking in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.
- DirectorJamie BradshawAleksandr DuleraynStarsEd StoppardLeelee SobieskiJeffrey TamborIn future Moscow, where corporate brands have created a disillusioned population, one man's effort to unlock the truth behind the conspiracy will lead to an epic battle with hidden forces that control the world.The storyline must certainly have been amazing, it starts from the conjecture that it’s all Lenin’s fault, because Lenin was the one who invented marketing. The results are that all brands together form a new kind of totalitarianism that govern our whole life. One man, kissed by fate – or better, literally thunderstruck by fate, because as a child he was struck by a lightning – finds out how marketing can change the world and how his extraordinary marketing talent only brings misery to other people. After a long exile as far as he can’t find any advertise, the woman he loves bring him back to an unrecognizable Moscow, a branded new world governed by fast foods, where fat is cool and to consume is the only way to happiness. But as I said, he’s special: a voice he hears in a dream describes the ritual that will make him pure, after that he become able to see frightening creatures trying to drag people to shops and fast foods. He understands that his talent may be useful to fight against these forces.
That’s the plot, a little bit too fanciful but since it’s a sci-fi, a dystopia, the bare story was still interesting and the project promising. Maybe when it comes the time to talk about marketing I’m rather biased, I remember when I had to study it I was disgusted by guerilla marketing and all those theories of manipulating people feelings to make them buy. Anyway, I was very intrigued by this movie but the good plot they had become a quite mediocre film in the hands and the eyes of the directors, with some unnecessary exaggerations, nauseating creatures biting each other to death, and an annoying voice-over telling the story like it was a kind of fable. A half-wasted chance. - DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJamie FoxxChristoph WaltzLeonardo DiCaprioWith the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsCharlton HestonOrson WellesJanet LeighA stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
► FEBRUARY - DirectorRoger MichellStarsBill MurrayLaura LinneyOlivia WilliamsThe story of the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret "Daisy" Suckley, centered around the weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen of the United Kingdom visited upstate New York.
- DirectorMatt PiedmontStarsWill FerrellGael García BernalDiego LunaScheming to save their father's ranch, the Alvarez brothers find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsRobert PattinsonJuliette BinocheSarah GadonRiding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.
- DirectorShona AuerbachStarsEmily MortimerJack McElhoneGerard ButlerAfter having responded to her son's numerous letters in the guise of his father, a woman hires a stranger to pose as his dad when meeting him.
► MARCH - DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsMuhammet UzunerYilmaz ErdoganTaner BirselA group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.
- DirectorAnnalisa PirasStarsBill EmmottBenedict CumberbatchGiuliano AmatoRenowned British journalist examines Italy's moral, political and economic crisis, looking for clues to its possible salvation--and that of the West as a whole.
- DirectorDonatas UlvydasStarsMantas JankaviciusAgnia DitkovskyteTatyana LyutaevaA romance blooms between a noblewoman and a common man amid a peasant revolt against the brutal Russian army
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsWinona RyderCatherine O'HaraMartin ShortWhen a boy's beloved dog passes away suddenly, he attempts to bring the animal back to life through a powerful science experiment.
- DirectorRuben FleischerStarsSean PennRyan GoslingEmma StoneIt's 1949 Los Angeles, the city is run by gangsters and a malicious mobster, Mickey Cohen. Determined to end the corruption, John O'Mara assembles a team of cops, ready to take down the ruthless leader and restore peace to the city.
- DirectorPeter HedgesStarsJennifer GarnerJoel EdgertonCJ AdamsA childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.
- DirectorJamie BlanksStarsJim CaviezelClaudia KarvanStarA vacationing couple in the wilderness learns what happens when they disrespect nature.
- DirectorRichard EyreStarsLiam NeesonAntonio BanderasLaura LinneyThe story of a husband who suspects his wife of adultery, and sets out to track down the other man in her life.
- DirectorAriel VromenStarsMarisa TomeiHannah MarksGuy CamilleriDanika's fears for her children are manifested in premonitions of death and disaster.
- DirectorRoger YoungStarsBilly ZaneCristiana CapotondiFilippo NigroBilly Zane stars as Barabbas--the man whose life was spared because of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Based on the Nobel Prize in Literature winning novel by Par Lagerkvist, Barabbas is a story rooted in the Bible which will come to life on REELZ as a four-hour miniseries and tells the ultimate story of redemption. Barabbas was shot on location in Tunisia and is directed by Emmy Award winner Roger Young.
► APRIL