Ten Best Films of 2013

10. Perfect Sense

For being the most terrifying apocalyptic film I've seen, coupled with a strange romance, and a beautiful score by Max Richter.

9. Lincoln

For Tony Kushner's brilliant script and Daniel Day Lewis' towering performance.

8. The Deep Blue Sea

For Rachel Weisz, giving the best performance of the year as a woman made psychotic by love.

7. Pitch Perfect

For being consistently funny, and for having great music, and for not degenerating into a mean girls bitch fight.

6. Zero Dark Thirty

For those last thirty minutes, and for Bigelow's direction, resisting action-film cliches, and big emotional moments.

5. Moonrise Kingdom

For the two in the above picture, living the pain of nostalgia while it's happening.

4. Haywire

For being the closest thing to a great Modesty Blaise adaptation I'll ever get, and for Gina Carano's thighs.

3. Looper

For taking chances--emotional, structural--in a sci-fi actioner, and for Rian Johnson's whipsmart camera moves.

2. The Cabin in the Woods

For being the best time I had in a theater this year. Funny, scary, and surprising up until the very end.

1. Django Unchained

For Tarantino, who makes every movie as though it's his only one.