The 20 best films I saw in 2013: Contemporary English-language

Looking back, I realize that a watched a lot of very good films this year - most at home, on dvd or streaming - and I also realize that it's hard to judge among films of different types, all of which I've enjoyed. So I'll present my list(s) of the 20 best films I saw in 2013 into groups, starting with:

The best contemporary English-language films I saw in 2013 (listed alphabetically):

Frances Ha. I've been up and down on director Baumbach, but definitely a fan of Frances Ha, a terrific movie about a young woman in NYC trying to find her way as an artist, daughter, friend, girlfriend - and seems to me to very much capture the mood and spirit of a segment of the under-30 generation. Greta Gerweg terrific in the title role, and the film has a nice understated quality - and a sense of what NYC really looks like, not scrubbed clean as it is in so many movies and TV shows, e.g. Sex and the City, Seinfeld, anything by Woody Allen.

Happy-Go-Lucky. One of the most likable films in years, totally carried by the great performance of Sally Hawkins in the title role, and a very smart script, in the British manner.

Much Ado About Nothing. One of the very best Sheakspeare on film I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. A terrific transposition to contemporary LA - hard to belief how effective and credible the words of Shakespeare (largely unaltered in this screenplay) can sound in a contemporary setting. The subplot humor comes across far better than in an production of this play I've ever seen, and it's nice for once to hear S. played in American English.

Nebraska. I've been a big fan of Alexander Payne's films; in Nebraska he takes a new direction - working from an original screenplay rather than from an adapted novel - for a "buddy" movie, a father-son movie, and road-trip movie, that breaks with convention in many ways and is consistently moving and surprising. Some terrific subtle humor, and beautiful wide-screen b-w cinematography that captures the look and feel of isolated, dying Plains State small towns. (For whatever reason, 3 of the 5 films on this list are shot in black-and-white - go figure.)

Zero Dark Thirty. Fast-paced, dramatic, and intelligent account of the hunt for and killing of OBL. Obviously not a documentary but at times has the sense of veracity and real-time that documentaries convey. Examines the tough decisions interrogators and agents had to make regarding use of torture, physical and psychological, to extract info that could save lives of others.