Best Movies of 2013
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
The Wolf of Wall StreetThree hours of pure appetite, staged as comedy and edited like an amphetamine.Read the review
RushPeter Morgan turns the 1976 Formula One season into a sharp two-hander about opposite ways to live, and Daniel Brühl's Niki Lauda steals it.
PrisonersRoger Deakins shoots rain and grief for two and a half hours, and Jackman is terrifying.
American HustleA costume party of a con movie, beautifully acted and edited into a shapeless middle hour it never escapes.
FrozenDisney's snowbound musical makes true love a bond between sisters, and its songs and ice dazzle even where the story around them runs thin.
HerA breakup film about software that treats both parties as people, and earns it.
12 Years a SlaveMcQueen refuses to cut away, and the film's power is entirely in that refusal.
The Place Beyond the PinesA structural dare that pays off twice and then spends its third act explaining what it had already shown.
The Great GatsbyThe party is spectacular and the ache underneath it survives, but the modern soundtrack keeps breaking the spell the money paid for.
EnemyA ninety minute anxiety dream about a man who meets himself, ending on cinema's worst spider.