Editorials
[BEST & WORST ’13] The Best Performances Of 2013!!
With 2013 being such a good year for horror films it’s only natural that there are a few great performances to celebrate as well. From intimate and personal, to hilarious, to tragic – there was a wide breadth of choices that pushed at the conventions people normally associate with the genre.
Horror films aren’t always full of one-dimensional characters being sliced and diced, there’s real humanity on display and these performances remind us of that.
Head below for The Best Performances Of 2013!
Lonmonster (Best/Worst) | Lauren Taylor (Best/Worst) | Ryan Daley (Best Novels)
Best Posters | Best Performances | Best Trailers | Best Albums
Simon Pegg’s Gary King is funny, to be sure. He’s also the most tragic figure on this list. Hopelessly trapped in nostalgia, he’s a flat out alcoholic who has lived in the past for over half his life. The energy with which he gets his friends together for a final stab at The Golden Mile is manic, a last ditch effort to will himself into being what he was never able to leave behind. This is certainly the most personal performance of Pegg’s career (and his work with Edgar Wright from “Spaced” until now has always had a personal bent), and it’s also his most fully realized statement as a performer.
Mia Wasikowka’s journey as India Stoker from innocent to… well, not so much… is one of the more complete arcs in horror cinema this year. It’s also one of the most nuanced performances of the year regardless of genre. There must have been a hell of search to cast this part, and I can’t imagine anyone pulling it off quite as well.
Elijah Wood isn’t onscreen a whole bunch in Maniac, but that doesn’t mean he’s unable to deliver a great performance. While his character Frank is insane and a violent killer, he’s also insanely insecure and it’s kind of funny to hear his inflections as he deals with the normalized world against him. You almost feel sorry for the guy.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga do such a great job embodying Ed and Lorraine Warren I honestly can’t wait to see them tackle another case together. It’s exciting that The Conjuring may have just launched a franchise with two cutely offbeat protagonists going from film to film solving cases. There’s a real warmth between them that plays with a specificity that takes it beyond rote shorthand for “likable.”
You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. While Bad Milo is a hugely broad comedy, Ken Marino gives a heroic performance as the gastrointestinal challenged Duncan. Grounding this kind of film is hard work, you have to go smaller than everyone else around you. Marino manages to do that but remain hilarious at the same time, and he also imbues the character with a decency and internal (in more ways than one) struggle that keeps the audience invested.
I think one of the reasons The Battery engaged me as much as it did was that I couldn’t decide who I sided with most among the duo’s feuding protagonists. Jeremy Gardner’s Ben is an often abrasive pragmatist, calling out Cronheim’s more sensitive and romantic Mickey at almost every turn. Both characters represent two different ways of responding to loss and tragedy, and I’d like to think that my personal approach would fall somewhere in the middle (though, of course, I haven’t been tested on that yet). But they’re not just ciphers, they’re fully realized human beings. Gardner and Cronheim deserve major recognition for allowing them to thrive.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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