NFOTD 2013

As indicated by the tweet below the Twitterverse of Tweeters who tweet about #nfotd (New Film of the Day) tweeted their favorite films of 2013.

#TeamNFOTD - time for #nfotd2013. Tweet by 12/31 1 Fav nfotd in theaters 2 Fav on DVD/streaming 3 Fav most obscure/ or overlooked 4 Fav doc
— New Film of the Day (@CybelNfotd) December 15, 2013

Below are my choice with expanded commentary in reverse order.

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#nfotd2013 4. FAV DOC: 3 WAY TIE: Marley, Hoop Dreams & Iceberg Slim: Definition of a Pimp. The last doc is excellent and the first two are phenomenal.

I found that the key to a good documentary is extraordinary coverage and archival footage and or photos. By extraordinary coverage I mean good interviews with KEY people related to your subject. For example, if you’re going to make a documentary about the Jackson 5 it’s important to have interviews with ALL the surviving members, not just two of them.

I saw Marley because I read so much about it and a friend of mine had it on his desk forever. I watched it and WOW it was everything that people said about it and more. Filmmaker Kevin MacDonald had interviews with everybody and I mean EVERYBODY who was related and or worked with legend Bob Marley. The interviews alone do not make extraordinary piece of work, but the story crafted with all that footage and archival material does! A phenomenal documentary.

I heard about Hoop Dreams since it came out in 1994, but never got around to seeing it…until 2013. LOL. Once again, everything I heard about it was true and once again, the story crafted with footage and archival material made this a phenomenal documentary.

The other doc in this tie, Iceberg Slim: Definition of a Pimp, isn’t phenomenal, but it damn sure is excellent. Replete with aforementioned “extraordinary coverage” it offers a great look into the life of the “seminal pimp” who became famous for writing his autobiography which included his life as a pimp. It has tons of interviews with the man called Iceberg Slim and gave a great focus on his literary life. He wrote several more novels making him one of the best-selling African-American writers of his generation.

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#nfotd2013 3. Fav most obscure/ or overlooked: Gimmie the Loot Such a wonderful film and one of most authentic NYC pictures I've seen in a long time.

Read my full review @ here

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#nfotd2013 2. Fav on DVD/streaming: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox DC makes some of the best superhero animated films out there, but out of the many great ones they have made, and yes there are many, I was not expecting this film to be one of their BEST. Story and action, an excellent animated film.

You can read my review/reaction on Instagram here

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#nfotd2013 1. Fav nfotd in theaters: TIE Mother of George and Gravity

First and foremost I thought both were excellent pictures, but their
cinematography put them in my #1.

I saw the utter brilliance of Bradford Young's cinematography as it should be seen
on the BIG screen in Mother of George and had a Pure Cinematic Experience watching Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography in Gravity in 3D.

People who follow me online know my love for Mother of George. I saw the film in May as the Closing Night Film of the 2013 Maryland Film Festival and just hadn’t seen anything to top it the remaining seven months of the year. Yes there were higher budgeted extravaganzas that I thought were excellent, but this small indie hit every note of a great film across the board acting, story, direction and especially cinematography.

The other film that blew me away on a larger scale could also be called “small” as far as story. Even though visually it was expansive (with OVER 500 people working on the Special Effects and Visual Effects), the story was straight forward—survive. The characters were minimal, the story minimal, but the experience—big! It also was one of the handful of 3D experiences I thought was truly worth the money.

You can read my further comments about Mother of George here

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You can see my previous posts about NFTOD here