Filmmaker John Waters is certainly known for eclectic taste. Indeed, he's created of some of the more memorable (and infamous) scenes in movies. Also an avid consumer of films, this year Waters has placed Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers atop his list of the best of 2013. His annual list, published in Art Forum Magazine, ushers in a wave of year end lists and awards that will roll out in the coming weeks. Monday night the Gotham Awards will unveil their choices followed by New York Film Critics Circle voting for their picks on Tuesday and the National Board of Review revealing its winners on Wednesday.
Writing in ArtForum, Waters called the film, which stars Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, James Franco and Ashley Benson “the best sexploitation film of the year” and also noting that the film features “Disney tween starlets starlets hilariously undulating, snorting cocaine and going to jail in bikinis.”
Bruno Dumont has two films in Waters' Top 10. Camille Claudel 1915 came in at number two, while Hors Satan placed fourth. “Not since Freaks has there been such a harrowing pairing of a star (the sensational Juliette Binoche) with a cast of genuinely handicapped actors,” he said of Camille Claudel.
Catherine Breillat's Abuse of Weakness, which played the New York Film Festival in October came in at number 3. Waters also picked New York Jewish Film Festival feature Hannah Arendt by Margarethe von Trotta (sixth) in addition to other screenings that played at Film Society, Beyond The Hills by Cristian Mungiu (seventh), Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen (eighth) and I'm So Excited! by Pedro AlmodĂłvar (tenth).
<p>Waters also gave some of his “runners-up” to FilmLinc Monday, saying he “really loved Matt Porterfield's I Used to Be Darker. Other picks of the year include The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer), Paradise Hope (Ulrich Seidl), Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel), Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh), Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley) and Bad Grandpa by Jeff Tremaine.
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers.
John Waters' Top 10 (full comments available on ArtForum):
1. Spring Breakers, directed by Harmony Korine
2. Camille Claudel 1915, directed by Bruno Dumont
3. Abuse of Weakness, directed by Catherine Breillat
4. Hors Satan, directed by Bruno Dumont
5. After Tiller, directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
6. Hannah Arendt, directed by Margarethe von Trotta
7. Beyond the Hills, directed by Cristian Mungiu
8. Blue Jasmine, directed by Woody Allen
9. Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
10. I'm So Excited!, directed by Pedro AlmodĂłvar
