25 Great Moments in 2013 Films

American Hustle

 

Continuing a tradition I started last year, I present 25 memorable/impressive/thrilling scenes and moments from 25 films that came out in 2013, in alphabetical order by film title:

1. The brief, illuminating meeting between Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) and Mistress Shaw (Alfre Woodard) in 12 Years A Slave.

2. Merry Clayton remembers recording her background vocals on The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” in 20 Feet From Stardom.

3. Anwar Congo’s gut reaction at the scene of his “crimes” at the end of The Act of Killing.

4. Irving (Christian Bale) shows us how he fixes his hair (including toupee and epic combover) at the start of American Hustle.

5. The epic hotel room argument between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) in Before Midnight.

6. Curly (Corey Stoll) brings David (Jonathan Groff) home to his trailer to meet his mother and his
“collection” in C.O.G.

7. Various feline infiltration at the hotel throughout Computer Chess.

8. The concluding, bittersweet porch stoop conversation between Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Albert (James Gandolfini) in Enough Said.

9. Frances (Greta Gerwig) runs down Broadway in lower Manhattan to David Bowie’s “Modern Love” in Frances Ha.

10. The first interior shot in Gravity where Ryan (Sandra Bullock) takes off her space suit.

11. “The Moon Song” montage in Her.

12. Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) attends and disrupts the Christmas church services in The Hunt.

13. The flight attendants’ lip-synch performance of the song that gives I’m So Excited! its title.

14. Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) performs for Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham) and then hears Grossman’s brutally honest reaction in Inside Llewyn Davis.

15. Fred (Suzanne Clement) makes a grand, floating entrance at a party to Visage’s “Fade to Grey” in Laurence Anyways.

16. The song Anne (Mary Margaret O’Hara) sings to herself near the end of Museum Hours.

17. Kate (June Squibb) both eloquently and vulgarly tells off her extended relatives at a family reunion in Nebraska.

18. Marie’s (Berenice Bejo) reaction to her daughter Lucie’s (Pauline Burlet) secret and her subsequent treatment of Lucie in The Past.

19. The chase/confrontation between Avery (Bradley Cooper) and Luke (Ryan Gosling) in The Place Beyond The Pines.

20. When Alvin (Paul Rudd) meets the unnamed lady (Joyce Payne) at the former site of her home in Prince Avalanche.

21. The lengthy, opening overhead tracking shot that eventually leads us to the wedding ceremony in Reality.

22. The big reveal of what Marcus (Keith Stanfield) asked his fellow residents to make for Grace (Brie Larson) in Short Term 12.

23. Tina (Alice Lowe) writes a letter to Chris (Steve Oram) using her unwieldy souvenir from the Pencil Museum in Sightseers.

24. The final scene (and in particular, its note-perfect ending) in The Spectacular Now.

25. The series of silent cuts between members of the Polley family as they all mournfully pause to consider/remember their deceased matriarch Diane in Stories We Tell.