2013 was a great year for craft beer and not a bad year for movies either. Yes, last year had its share of predictable sequels (although even one of those made our list), duds, and disappointments. But overall, 2013 provided us with plenty of reasons to feel good about shelling out twenty bucks at the local multiplex…

So here are, in no particular order, our Favorite Movies of 2013.

Gravity – Sometimes, when a film receives as many rave reviews as Gravity did, you steel yourself against being let down. We’ll there’s no need to worry, because Alfonso Cuarón’s astonishing science-fiction thriller lives up to all the hype – and then some. Visually, it’s spectacular – the opening scene alone is a twelve-minute-long tracking shot that makes the experience of astronauts working in deep orbit an unquestionable reality and lays the groundwork for everything that follows. George Clooney is as always solid but it’s Sandra Bullock (who’s in almost every scene) that gives this thriller its heart. Gravity is landmark science-fiction moviemaking and destined to take its rightful place alongside classics such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Many reviewers compared The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to the second Star Wars film, and they were right to do so. The Empire Strikes Back took the Star Wars saga into darker and more consequential places and demanded to be taken seriously. That same argument can be made for the second installment of The Hunger Games. Credit is due to new director Francis Lawrence (who took over for Gary Ross) for smartly re-envisioning the dystopian world of Panem and delivering a powerful sequel that’s both edgy and emotionally satisfying.

How I Live Now – Very few saw this small British movie – it arrived at theaters with little pre-promotion and disappeared shortly after that. Set in the near-future, UK’s How I Live Now tells the tale of an alienated American teenager (Saoirse Ronan) sent to spend the summer with her relatives in the English countryside. But what begins as an idyllic stay with her cousins is shattered when a nuclear bomb destroys London and she is forced to survive among opposing forces in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world.

The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese’s latest opus is brash, excessive, and almost borderline pornographic – and it’s also wildly entertaining and one of the best movies of 2013. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the true story of Jordan Belfort, a wealthy stockbroker living the high life, and it might just be the best performance of his career. And Jonah Hill is equally impressive as his partner Donnie Azoff, who helps Belfort build an empire while fooled on cocaine, greed, and securities fraud. This is three hours of debauchery that in lesser than Scorsese, it would have grown tiresome. Almost Tarantino-esque in both attitude and delivery, The Wolf of Wall Street is an audacious and artful “guilty pleasure.”

American Hustle – In a lot of ways, The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle are companion pieces and in many ways, they couldn’t be more different. Both films are locked in recent eras (which each film beautifully recreates) and both take their lead from real-life characters and events. Both movies were made by acclaimed directors and both feature popular actors and actresses at the top of their games. And both films tell darkly comic tales of crime, corruption, and (ultimately and to differing degrees) redemption. That said, these films are almost polar opposites in tone, direction, and delivery – so much so that many movie-goers are taking sides. There are passionate “Wolf” fans that think it’s one of Scorsese’s best films, while many in the American Hustle camp dismiss it as “over-the-top greed porn” that lacks a moral center. Some in the Wolf camp accuse American Hustle of having lesser production qualities and being unrealistically good natured tonally given its subject. There’s some truth to all these arguments – but we think that both of these films deserve inclusion on anyone’s “best of” list and that you need to see them both. While Wolf succeeds as a directorial showcase, the power of American Hustle is about watching great actors like Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro interact with great actresses like Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence in the performances of their lives!

Honorable Mention

The World’s End
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Before Midnight
20 Feet From Stardom
Blue Jasmine
The Conjuring
Inside Llewyn Davis
Her
Drinking Buddies
Dallas Buyers Club