TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

I'm happy to report 2013 was another fantastic year for cinema, making the top five list and the honorable mentions a difficult but wonderful chore to select from. For me, it was not a strong year for superhero movies, (except "Man of Steel," which was underrated in my opinion) though with the likes of "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Avengers" last year, it is pretty hard to follow up.  On this list you'll find superheroes of a different sort, men and women undergoing hardships, tight situations and impossible circumstances, some rising, some falling. It was a great year for movies with characters against unthinkable adversity. Keep in mind I'm not a professional critic, and only count movies I've seen from 1/1/13-12/31/13. I'm still heavily anticipating seeing critical favorites like "Her," "August: Osage County," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Nebraska" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." Now tha...

Kicking off the feel-good movie of the year that is Denis Villeneuve's "Prisoners" is a scene where your typical blue-collar family (Hugh Jackman, with a perfect American accent and Maria Bello with their son and young daughter) visits another typical blue collar family (with Viola Davis and Terrence Howard as the parents) for Thanksgiving. After a walk where the two girls pick off icicles on a large white van, they excuse themselves from listening to Terrence Howard's horrendous trumpet playing to pick up a red whistle they left at Jackman's daughter's house. When the parents go back outside, poof, the children have disappeared. This remarkably grim, depressing and involving film is a surefire for the upcoming Oscars, and is one of the year's best thrillers by a landslide. With it's lengthy two and a half hour running time, one would expect there to be a significant amount of character study, and the actors, along with a labyrinthine script from Aar...