The 25 Best Movies of Summer 2013

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Director: Shane Black
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau, James Badge Dale

Depending on whether or not you're a comic book nerd, you either loved or absolutely hated Iron Man 3. The conclusion to the franchise saw Tony Stark's kingdom—everything he loves—come crashing down, literally, thanks to a terrorist known as the Mandarin. However, not one to back down, the egotistical genius with the indestructible heart goes on a quest to redeem and rebuild not only his own life, but the confidence of the nation.

Comic book fans will argue that it cheapens its villain, The Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley) and reduced him to a costumed loon found in front of the Graumann's Chinese Theater. Audience members who went into the film with no preconceived notion of the villain found the film's big twist, which we won't spoil for viewers waiting for the Redbox rental, hilariously entertaining. 

Whichever side you're on, it's difficult to argue that Iron Man 3 didn't deliver what you loved about the hero in the first place: his biting wit, his imaginative genius, and his knack for a fireworks display of action. —TA

Director: Maggie Carey
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Bill Hader, Johnny Simmons, Alia Shawkat, Rachel Bilson, Connie Britton, Scott Porter, Andy Samberg, Clark Gregg, Sarah Steele, Adam Pally, Donald Glover, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

It's been a summer filled with sexually frank female-centric films—Afternoon Delight, Blue Is the Warmest Color, to name a couple—and The To Do List is just another welcome addition. Led by Parks and Recreation's hilarious Debbie Downer Aubrey Plaza, who deserves more big screen time, director Maggie Carey's '90s-set comedy follows a braniac virgin named Brandy who makes it her mission to complete every sexual act she can think of before she enters her freshman year of college. She doesn't want to be the newb who has no clue what a penis looks like.

What follows is every bro comedy about getting deflowered, except with a woman as the unsexed hero. There's no slut-shaming, there's no wrist-slapping for sexuality. It's a matter-of-fact riot filled with crude humor and copious bodily fluid exchange that fits right in alongside Superbad and American Pie. —TA

Director: Jill Soloway
Stars: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jane Lynch

From a goofy rom-com premise—woman in a passion-less marriage befriends a stripper, eventually inviting her to stay in her home—writer/director Jill Soloway has made the year's most surprising movie about sex, class, and relationships. Nothing in the trailer for Afternoon Delight prepares you for the actual experience of watching the film, which takes all kinds of sharp dark lefts away from the basic plot outline.

In an Oscar-worthy performance, Kathryn Hahn plays Rachel, an unhappy L.A. housewife raising a son in a largely Jewish community with little support from her distracted husband, Jeff (Josh Radnor), a successful tech dude. In an attempt to end a long sexual dry spell, Rachel and Jeff go to a strip club with another couple. Wanting to explore her sexuality, Rachel gets a lap dance from McKenna (Juno Temple). The night out doesn't solve her and Jeff's problem, and Rachel begins going back to the club during the day for coffee and conversation with McKenna. After a nasty scene with her boyfriend, McKenna moves in with Rachel under the guise of looking after her and Jeff's son.

As a viewer, you're waiting for the film to take the expected turns toward a neat resolution. They don't come. Instead, Afternoon Delight becomes the rare movie that treats sex workers with respect and empathy while exposing the ugly pettiness of a walthy community tha ultimately doesn't have much honesty holding it together. It explores female sexuality in a way that doesn't rely on eye-rolling homoerotic experimentation. This movie gets uncomfortable, real, and messy as these characters are forced to tell each other the truth. All of your applause is owed to Soloway and her great cast. —RS

Director: Marc Forster
Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, David Morse, Fana Mokoena, Peter Capaldi, Daniella Kertesz

What everyone thought would be the summer's biggest disaster turned out to be one the season's most satisfying big-budget genre flick. We're just as shocked as everyone else.

Plagued by months of bad pre-release press, speculating on everything from its bloated price tag to reshoots and director/star beefs, World War Z premiered last month to critics and industry insiders ready to eviscerate it, but then the unbelievable happened-Brad Pitt's $200 million zombie action movie delivered on all of its promises. The pace is breathless, the zombies badass, and the massive set-pieces (particularly one set on a airplane that's suddenly overrun by infected ghouls) are executed with go-for-broke zeal by director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace).

For the record, Hollywood: World War Z is the kind of expensive spectacle we want. We don't want more like Man of Steel. —MB

Director: Lucy Mulloy
Stars: Dariel Arrechada, Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Javier Nuñez Florian

The central premise of first-timer Lucy Mulloy’s Una Noche isn’t anything revolutionary: Set in the impoverished streets of Havana, Cuba, the NYU graduate’s debut feature follows a day in the life of three teenagers (all of which are strongly acted by Dariel Arrechada, Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, and Javier Nunez), two of which are determined to defect from their homeland on a self-made raft directed toward Miami.

The real sources of impact throughout the subtly powerful Una Noche, rather, are Mulloy’s ground-level capturing of real-life Cuba. The assured and gifted Mulloy presents a vibrant yet dangerous city that, while not as aggressively visceral as the Rio de Janeiro of 2002’s City of God, feels incredibly authentic. —MB

Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike, Martin Freeman, Pierce Brosnan

When you've got the best of British cinema taking top-billing, you know you've got a gem on your hands. Couple that with visionary director Edgar Wright behind the card and you've got straight-up gold. Or in The World's End's case, fried gold.

The exhilarating conclusion to The Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy—the inside joke turned name given to the series of films made by the Frost-Pegg-Wright trio—The World's End follows functioning alcoholic Gary King (Pegg) as he rounds up his now career-oriented best mates (Frost, Marsan, Considine, Freeman) for one last go at their hometown's fabled Golden Mile, the 12-pub crawl they failed to complete as ratchet teens. However, there's one slight problem: their hometown is has been completely brainwashed by pacifist alien robots.

True to the trio's style, the film is more than just a balls-out bro fest riddled with bar fights. It also conveys poignant messgaes about addiction, conformity, and the value of free will. Yeah, if you hadn't notice in Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, Frost, Pegg, and Wright are huge fans of puns and metaphors. In The World's End's case, drunk words are sober thoughts. —TA

Directors: Jim Rash and Nat Faxon
Stars: Liam James, Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Maya Rudolph, Amanda Peet, Rob Corddry

At first glance, The Way, Way Back appears very much like countless other movies you've already seen. There's a lot of Adventureland in it, as well every comedy ever made about families on beach vacations. There's also a heavy coming-of-age angle that breeds familiarity.

None of which, though, is to say that co-directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon' (the former from NBC's Community; together, Oscar winners for writing the George Clooney flick The Descendants) film is in any way trite. On the contrary, The Way, Way Back is the new gold standard for coming-of-age films set near the beach and featuring young characters finding themselves via summer jobs. It takes those been-there, seen-that elements and perfects them.

Duncan (a superb Liam James) is 14, antisocial, and unhappy—his mother (Toni Collette) has taken him on a summer-long vacation with her new lover (Steve Carell, playing against type as a first-class dickbag), whom Duncan loathes. Fortunately for the youngster, he's about to meet two people who'll change his life for the better: Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), his cute and sassy neighbor, and Owen (Sam Rockwell), the man-child who oversees the local water park, Water Wizz, where Duncan finds enjoyable work.

In a perfect world, where comedic performances were hailed as easily and commonly as Daniel Day-Lewis-like performances, Rockwell would be in Oscar discussions come November and December. He's that good in The Way, Way Back, playing the kind of funny, sarcastic, but genuinely sweet and endearing character Bill Murray would've played back in the '80s. Liam James is the the glue that holds The Way, Way Back together, but Rockwell's the film's MVP. —MB

Director: Peter Strickland
Stars: Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappelaro, Cosimo Fusco

Peter Strickland's wonderfully strange Berberian Sound Studio doesn't have much going on in terms of story-a nebbish British sound technician named Gilderoy (the great Toby Jones) abandons his usual ho-hum movie jobs to work on the sound effects for an Italian giallo film, a.k.a. the latest in Italy's signature brand of gruesome, stylish horror, titled, brilliantly, The Equestrian Vortex. And while surrounded by the production's colorful array of filmmakers and actors, Gilderoy slowly loses his mind.

And, story wise, it's as simple as that. But, technically speaking, Berberian Sound Studio is anything but simple. Strickland utilizes a large arsenal of visual and sonic trickery so that the film itself mirrors Gilderoy's fever dream reality. It's a horror movie that isn't interested in scaring its viewers, but, rather, hypnotizing them into a state of dark, twisted confusion. Which, thanks to Strickland's talents and Jones' dynamic performance, it accomplishes tenfold. —MB

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Stars: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Megan Mullaly, Mary Lynn Rajskub

It'd be easy to pigeonhole Jordan Vogt-Roberts' The Kings of Summer as another coming-of-age teen comedy just based on its premise and trailer. Three teenagers, tired of their controlling parents and looking for a change of pace, spend their summer vacation living in a house they've built in the woods. Fueling any Superbad-minded allusions is the fact that there's even an eccentric, McLovin-esque kid in the mix named Biaggio (Moises Arias).

A strange, unexpected thing happens while you're watching The Kings of Summer, though: It's tone moves from slacker comedy to scenic wonderment, something like early David Gordon Green, then back to wacky comedy and suddenly into avant-garde strangeness.

First-time director Vogt-Roberts uses the familiar kids-being-funny motif as a lynchpin for experimentation, subverting preconceptions and directing his characters into unpredictable, sometimes painfully dark places. That he's consistently able to undercut all of The Kings of Summer's quirkiness with a strong sense of warmth and heart makes Vogt-Roberts a filmmaker to watch. —MB

Directors: Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett

When people think about punk rock, a few usual suspects come to mind: the Ramones, Bad Brains, and the Sex Pistols, for example. But, as Howlett's film points out, the Detroit-based group simply known as Death (siblings Dannis, David, and Bobby Hackney) were just as, if not even more so, trailblazing as those aforementioned iconic acts. The only problem was, Death's Motown roots left record label heads and fans confused when it came time to listen to their 1974 demo: Why weren't these three black brothers from the D crooning harmonies? Why all of the aggressive, nihilistic rock?

Similar to last year's Oscar-nominated Searching for Sugar Man, A Band Called Death is all about redemption. Thirty years after the siblings recorded their failed demo, they found a fan base; and now, courtesy of filmmakers Jeff Howlett and Mark Christopher Covino, they've been given a superb platform to inspire music fans and family-minded viewers alike.

A Band Called Death thankfully doesn't posit the group, like less music documentaries would, as a recording industry treasure that people have unfairly slept on, even with on-camera commentary from Death fans like Kid Rock, Questlove, and Elijah Wood-Howlett and Covino focus on the Hackney family's deep, personal bonds. Through that, the film resonates as poignant character study, not a glorified Behind the Music episode. —MB

Director: Franck Khalfoun
Stars: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, Jan Broberg, America Olivo, Liane Balaban, Morgane Slemp, Genevieve Alexandra, Megan Duffy

Maniac shouldn't be as great as it is-it's a serial killer movie starring the pint-sized dude who plays Frodo Baggins, directed by the filmmaker behind the lame 2007 parking garage thriller P2, and, on top of that, it's yet another horror remake. And yet.

With its simultaneously retro and haunting score, impressive use of first-person POV camerawork, and Wood's multi-layered performance as a perverse sociopath, Maniac hits on every possible level. Wood's character, Frank, stalks beautiful young women, murders them, scalps them, and then places their severed head-tops on mannequins...and, through it all, he remains impossibly sympathetic. Maniac isn't a slasher movie, or a monster movie, as much as it's an urban tragedy, one that, mind you, is sadistic and voyeuristic.

For genre fans looking for something special, though, it's also a nasty crowd-pleaser. It's rare to find a new horror film that's an audacious, form-bending exercise in style matched with, not placed over, substance. Maniac is exactly that. —MB

Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite

When parents take their children to Sea World, they're hoping for that look of innocent amazement in their kids' eyes. The family watches huge, extraordinary Orca whales jump from the water. Then animals perform tricks, the kids gape, and then the family goes home.

But what about the Orcas? They're stuck inside those tanks with many other whales, and they're getting angrier by the second. Especially since many of Sea World's workers are abusive, basically prodding the Orcas until they lash out at them, which some have done, particularly a giant male whale named Tilikum. Tilikum has killed three humans and seriously injured several others. Because it's not supposed to be caged like that. Have you never seen Free Willy?

In the grim, eye-opening documentary Blackfish, filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite presents that reality with an unflinching gaze. You'll never want to visit Sea World again—that or you'll be returning on a mission to free the animals back to their natural ocean habitat. There, they'd be able to function normally and in their own personal spaces, not forced to coexist with other Orcas in one tank, a recipe for angry whales ready to hurt people.

Through archival footage and candid interviews with people who've worked alongside these confined whales, Cowperthwaite brings previously unrecognized human-on-animal cruelties to light, ones in which little kids and their parents unknowingly participate. —MB

Director: Lake Bell
Stars: Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Demetri Martin, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Rob Corddry, Alexandra Holden, Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro

We guarantee that this is the first thought you'll have after seeing In A World...: Lake Bell needs to write, direct, and star in every single movie. Her debut film as a triple threat follows Bell as the daughter of a famed voice actor trying to hack it in a misogynistic world of voiceover. The ultimate goal: to be the voice to revive the legendary "In a world..." phrased popularized by the late Don LaFontaine. It's a hilarious and original underdog story filled with quotable one-liners and meta-humor that only one so embedded in Hollywood, like Bell, could make work.

With the rest of the cast rounded out by comedic heavyweights, such as Parks and Rec's Nick Offerman, and undersung comedians Demetri Martin and Tig Notaro, it's as much lighthearted fun as you'll have in the movies this summer. Skip the crowd at AMC and opt for this at your local indie theater instead. —TA

Director: David Lowery
Stars: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine, Rami Malek, Charles Baker

Simply put, Ain't Them Bodies Saints is poetry on the big screen, and director David Lowery sure has a way with words. The story doesn't bite off too much: it's about a couple of former outlaws torn apart by prison who struggle to find their way back to each other in 1970s Texas. Rather than focusing on the heyday of the Bonnie-and-Clyde-like pair, Lowery explores their lives after the gun powder and dust settles. What results is a dreamlike meditation on love, loss, and responsibility. 

Not only does the indie film boast moving performances by top-tier actors Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, and Ben Foster, but it reveals the extraordinary talent of newcomer David Lowery. Already being compared to Terrence Malick and David Fincher, David Lowery proves his knack for capturing sweeping landscapes and conveying emotion with the utmost subtlety. —TA

Director: James Wan
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, Shanley Caswell,Joey King, Hayley McFarland, Mackenzie Foy

Between standard Hollywood productions and edgier indies, horror movies come a dime a dozen, but movies that are actually scary? Those are harder to find, but when they arrive, the world takes notice. And collectively shits its pants.

Such was the case in July as word spread that Saw/Insidious director James Wan's The Conjuring was the real deal, a horror movie that could legitimately terrify audiences. And people flocked to theaters to see for themselves, to check whether it was all hype or if their summer sleeping routines were about to get disrupted. Incredibly, the latter happened for damn near everyone who saw The Conjuring, a testament to Wan's superlative ability to create frights with nightmarish precision.

In The Conjuring, Wan has his very own The Amityville Horror by way of The Exorcist. Part haunted house movies and part demon-heavy freak-out, it's Hollywood's first direct exposure to real-life paranormal investigation mavericks Ed and Lorraine Warren, played wonderfully by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Summoned to the Perron family's new off-the-grid house, the Warrens encounter dead kid spirits, Satanism, and a batshit crazy Lili Taylor, and Wan plays it all with terrific patience.

Little is seen throughout The Conjuring first hour, though the mood is taut and the dread keeps on mounting, but once all hell breaks loose, Wan goes for the viewer's jugular. It's old-school horror filmmaking done right, by a director who's at the top of his game. The bar for modern-day scary movies has been raised, significantly. —MB

Director: Joe Swanberg
Stars: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston, Ti West

Beer, four hilarious actors, and director Joe Swanberg, Drinking Buddies proves that there's not much more you need for a great time. Thanks to endearing performances by the cast, watching the film is as fun and as disarming as the title suggests.

The story goes as follows: Revolution Brewery workers Luke and Kate (Johnson and Wilde) are a pair of best friends, who've got the chemistry of Judd Apatowian BFFs, clearly meant for each other. The only problem is, they've each got longterm partners (Kendrick and Livingston, respectively). Naturally, shit hits the fan. 

Drinking Buddies is a realistic and refreshing rom-com that doesn't pay off the way you'd expect. Which can be attributed to two main factors: 1) All of the dialogue is improvised by the actors, resulting in a curious mixture of half-truths 2) Joe Swanberg has already proven himself to be a master at naturalism—just revisit Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends. —TA

Director: Adam Wingard
Stars: Sharni Vinson, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton

The underwhelming box office performance of You're Next isn't all that hard to understand. The explanation is twofold. One, summer movie audiences already received their big horror movie fix through The Conjuring, and, two, You're Next's commercials made it look like a familiar hybrid of The Strangers and this summer's surprise home invasion hit The Purge. A better move for Lionsgate would have been to release You're Next in October, not August, since this year's 10th month is curiously light on big-deal horror, save for the shaky-looking Carrie remake. But no worries—indie filmmaker Adam Wingard's unlikely mainstream film will find its audience on home video. And those late-coming viewers will kick themselves for missing You're Next in theaters, because it's tailor-made to be seen with large, loud, energetic crowds.

It's also far better than the more successful The Purge, in that You're Next cleverly subverts the home invasion norms, rather than mindlessly submitting to obvious tropes. With a strong, sly sense of humor, screenwriter Simon Barrett, along with help from the film's excellent cast, takes everything you know from movies like the aforementioned The Strangers and toys with those expectations. The masked intruders, for once, aren't unstoppable killing machines. No victims get tied to any chairs tp be sadistically tortured. And, finally, one of those victims actually fights back.

That fighter is played with impressive physicality and gumption by Sharni Vinson, whose performance guarantees she'll be asked to quite a few horror conventions in the years to come. She's the reason why the lucky folks who've watched You're Next in packed theaters have stood up and cheered. When Vinson's character, Erin, attacks the bad guys with screwdrivers and other home-improvement weaponry, it's a rush, and often played brilliantly for laughs. Other home invasion movies are too maliciously one-note to yield that kind of reaction. —MB

Director: Ryan Coogler
Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray

The year's most heartbreaking performance so far? Short Term 12's Brie Larson certainly deserves that honor, but we're calling it a two-way tie between Fruitvale Station co-stars Melonie Diaz and Octavia Spencer, the two unsung devastators in first-time filmmaker Ryan Coogler's overwhelmingly powerful film about Oscar Grant (played by Michael B. Jordan), the 22-year Bay Area man who was wrongfully gunned down by cop January 1, 2009.

As Grant's girlfriend and mother, respectively, Diaz and Spencer represent the lights in Grant's often dark life—watching them break down once Fruitvale Station reaches its tragic, inevitable climax is gut-wrenching, thanks to performances so raw and heartfelt.

As for Jordan, the film's anchor, he's just as strong, though in different ways. Always a solid screen presence, from The Wire to Friday Night Lights and last year's surprise box office hit Chronicle, he's a revelation here, proving himself to be a charismatic leading man who's able to effortlessly bounce around from sympathetic to explosive, though he's consistently multifaceted.

Coogler doesn't shy away from Grant's criminal past in Fruitvale Station, and he doesn't have to—Jordan plays Grant with such convincing warmth and honesty that Grant's never less than likable, flaws and all. And when the story's maddening injustice happens, you're right there with Diaz and Spencer's characters, left in shambles. —MB

Directors: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Stars: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson, Michael Cera

The first trailer for This Is the End, released in April, was the first taste anyone got of co-writers, and first-time co-directors, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg meta apocalypse comedy, and the reaction was split. Those who liked what they saw welcomed the chance to watch Rogen and his colleagues/friends James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson berate each other indoors while the Devil brings the motherfuckin' fire-and-brimstone ruckus outdoors. McBride finding it hard to believe that "James Franco didn't suck any dick last night?" Bring on the jokes.

But two hours' worth of famous people lampooning themselves? Those who weren't as responsive to This Is the End's trailer feared the worst-meaning, an excuse for Rogen and his buddies to cash easy paychecks while simultaneously massaging each others' egos.

Good news: There's no figurative dick-sucking among the rich and famous here, only jokes about it. This Is the End isn't just the year's funniest movie to date-it's also worthy of sitting alongside last year's The Cabin in the Woods in the annals of great horror-comedies. Rather than derive all of the film's laughs from tons of inside-baseball one-liners delivered by actors making fun of other actors, This Is the End applies the Shaun of the Dead tactic of playing all of the horror elements without any irony or silliness-the humor comes directly from how everyone responds to the horror. Dick jokes and all. —MB

Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Peter Sarsgaard, Alex Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K.

It seems like every couple years there's an opportunity to call Woody Allen's new film his best since [insert generally agreed upon Allen classic], so here we go again: Blue Jasmine is Allen's best film since 2005's Match Point. Though the film's central character, a once-rich widower forced out of her bubble of wealth amidst a huge scandal, is a kind of Blanche DuBois, Cate Blanchett's performance as Jasmine Francis is so commanding it's possible to leave the theater without even thinking of A Streetcar Named Desire. She's going to win a Best Actress Oscar for this.

Blue Jasmine follows her as she travels to live with her sister in San Francisco. Jasmine, as she'll tell anyone that will listen, is used to a certain kind of lavish life, one we see in the film's frequent flashbacks to her time with a Bernie Madoff-esque New York multimillionaire named Hal (Alec Baldwin in Jack Donaghy mode, minus the jokes). That Hal cheated Jasmine's sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins), out of a small fortune is still a point of tension between the sisters. But not as big a problem as Ginger's new boyfriend, a handsome goon with slick hair and bad designer jeans named Chili (Bobby Cannavale).

As Jasmine tries and fails to distance herself from the harsh realities of her new life without Hal, her grip on the world slips and slips. It provides Allen with plenty of opportunities to clown moneyed New Yorkers but Blue Jasmine is a downer with one of the most devastating endings in movies this summer. —RS

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

With each entry, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke's Before series gets better. What began in 1995, with Before Sunrise, as a small film about two strangers meeting in Vienna and falling for each while walking and talking through the city has grown to become one of the most important cinematic works about love ever made.

Before Midnight opens in the present. Celeste (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) have been living together for years. They have children together, two twin girls. Jesse left his first marriage in America to be with Celeste in Paris, but his unhappiness about his long-distance relationship with his son from that marriage is becoming a problem.

Linklater doesn't alter the style of the first two films for Before Midnight; the characters have long, discursive conversations about time, memory, and love in extremely long takes, and those conversations always lead back to their relationship. The care placed in this dialogue, in particular the argument Celeste and Jesse have in a hotel room near the film's end, is unmatched in American cinema this year. The dialogue is hyper-realistic, sounding superficially like regular speech but with such subtext and intelligence, it's not at all like how people talk. The lengthy scenes make you look at editing with fresh eyes. Each cut in this film means something (pay close attention to a shot of a cup of tea late in the game).

But the real reason you're here is to check in on the relationship between two characters movie lovers have come to care about over the course of 18 years. They aren't falling in love here; no, they're testing the limits of their relationship and their own happiness, exploring what sacrifice means between partners of many years. You'll be surprised by how funny so much of this winds up being, but it's also so painful, you might not have it in you to laugh. —RS

Director: James Ponsoldt
Stars: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brie Larson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kyle Chandler, Kaitlyn Dever, Bob Odenkirk, Andre Royo, Dayo Okeniyi

Bittersweet, melancholy, and nostalgic—these are all words that've been used over and over to describe this summer's most poignant coming-of-age film. Adapted from Tim Tharp's YA novel of the same name, James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now tells the story of Sutter Keely (Teller), a class clown fighting off the inevitable: growing up. His dreams of partying forever with his high school classmates and being with his dream girl all come to screeching halt when his girfriend dumps him, leaving him alone with only his thoughts and the whiskey in his Big Gulp.

Just when Sutter's about to fall off the deep end, he meets an enchanting girl named Aimee Finecky (Woodley), a sweet wallflower with dreams that extend far beyond their podunk town. Through her, a sense of hopefulness is once again restored in the boy who was ready to resign himself to an all-dead-end-everything kind of life.

This generation's Say Anything, it's the kind of film you watch when you want to be reminded of who you are. Sure, it may not be exactly your story, but we can all relate to growing pains and first loves. —TA

Director: Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley's remarkable Stories We Tell deserves multiple "best of the year (so far)" superlatives. It's the year's best documentary, best family film, most heart-wrenching work, craftiest mystery, and most quietly ambitious experiment. Simply, Stories We Tell is a powerful masterwork from a gifted filmmaker who's gradually positioning herself as the indie scene's strongest female voice.

Through several interviews with her own family members, Polley investigates the true identity of her birth father, a question that's been on her mind for years and yields raw, earnest, and often amusing anecdotes from everyone on camera. Stories We Tell shows how shared memories aren't always recalled in the same ways by each individual, that truths often lie in the beholder's eyes.

Once Polley reveals the film's biggest gut-punching twist, Stories We Tell becomes a different kind of film, one that'll make you question reality and, even more profoundly, want to hug your loved ones. —MB

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Stars: Brie Larson, John Gallagher, Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Rami Malek

Short Term 12 flirts with several cinematic forms of hokeyness, from potentially turning into a white savior movie to, in concept alone, possibly being one of those films where unlucky kids are used as tear-jerking devices. And in the hands of an inferior filmmaker, either one of those would have surely happened, but indie writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton is too gifted for that.

With a remarkable knack for organic character development and naturalistic storytelling, Cretton crafts a film that's comparable to Half Nelson, not something like, say, Hardball. Except that Short Term 12 is better than Half Nelson. Furthermore, it's an exceptionally powerful work that'll make you laugh, cry, and rejoice, to the point of thinking, yes, they still do make movies like this.

Carrying most of the emotional weight is breakout actress Brie Larson (21 Jump Street), playing Grace, a supervisor at a California group home who has deep, troubling issues of her own. Through one kid in particular, a female newbie with serious daddy issues (played greatly by Kaitlyn Dever), Grace is forced to confront her inner demons, and, yes, Short Term 12 then heads into some rather dark places, but it's never morose. Cretton loves his characters too much to send them into the abyss—by Short Term 12's beautifully optimistic end, all's not right in their world, but it's certainly hopeful. Just like in real life. —MB

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn

The easiest way to describe The Act of Killing is to say it's a documentary about a few of the men who committed terrible crimes during the brutal Indonesian killings of 1965-1966. Director Joshua Oppenheimer set out to make a film about the family members of those killed during the slaughter, but found it wouldn't be safe for him or that documentary's intended subjects. In a horrible twist, he discovered it would be far easier to approach the massacre by focusing on the killers instead of the victims. After all, the killers are still in control of the country.

The Act of Killing, then, becomes an experience that, to quote Jewish film critic J. Hoberman, is like "living in a nightmare alternate universe in which the Third Reich won World War II." And the Nazis are more than happy to discuss their methods.

What makes The Act of Killing the best movie of the summer (and who knows? maybe the year when 2013 wraps) is the formal kink Oppenheimer works into his story. See, he asks Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, two of the self-described gangsters who participated in the killings, to recreate interrogations and murders. With Congo and Koto acting as consultants, directors, and actors, Oppenheimer shoots various scenes of death and destruction. Then he plays them back for Congo and Koto, and we, the viewers, watch their reactions. We hear their feedback. At one point Congo says he wouldn't have worn white pants to kill someone, that you never wear white pants when killing someone.

The dizzying formalism doesn't distract from the film's true subject: empathy. This is about how someone could come to not feel something for another human being so that they could most easily kill that person, and whether or not it's possible to come back from that. Oppenheimer, far from playing the detached God-type figure most documentaries employ, interacts with Congo, prods him and interrogates him. By the film's end, the breakthrough Oppenheimer achieves with Congo is sickening, a testament to the power of cinema and what it means to watch. You will leave the movie changed. —RS