Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, stated that “experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.” This quote lingered within my thoughts for the majority of the 2013 movie year because there is a remarkable number of films that confirm Huxley’s statement with shocking clarity. During 2013 the majority of characters in cinema experienced a relentless assault of either irrepressible physical violence or emotional turmoil, resulting in each character clinging to their lives, praying that they won’t become defeated. Characters had to either sink or swim. No film provided for them a middle ground that would grant them an easy way out or provide a buoy for them. Characters had to act, and act fast.

In Gravity, becoming disconnected from her partner in the infinite void of space, Dr. Stone had to gain composure quickly or endure an onslaught of debris and isolation. In The Place Beyond the Pines, a cop had to rely on his survival instincts and the ramifications of his decision reverberated throughout generations. In Blue is the Warmest Color, a confused teenage woman, utterly love-sick, discovers the throes and pangs of first love and is left even more confused after the indelible experience. In Dallas Buyers Club, an AIDs victim with a guaranteed death-sentence uses his situation to give hope to thousands of other AIDs victims. And in The Counselor, a man’s experience overwhelms him and he is soon exposed to the most unsavory circumstances that are beyond his control and the most heinous individuals.

Without further hesitance, the best 2013 had to offer.

People who use an iPhone have become accustomed to hearing the voice of Siri whenever they need help or have a good joke. Spike Jonze‘s Her centers on a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with a Siri-like AI. Of course when that AI is voiced by Scarlett Johansson, it’s not too hard to fall madly in love with a piece of software.

The trailer feels very simple telling the story of the main character, who has anti-social issues after going through a huge break up. After purchasing a new computer and answering a few personality questions, he “meets” Samantha. This isn’t the kind of relationship we would normally see between a human and a computer. There is a real sense of pain these characters go through as they develop a close and tender relationship but suffer because they are unable to have any sort of physical contact with each other.

The first trailer for Her has been released, and you can watch it below.

Paramount Pictures is doing a bit of shuffling of their upcoming release slate. Instead of releasing Paranormal Activity 5 on October 25, 2013—which would have made five in the same amount of years—the studio has instead decided to push the next installment in the found footage horror franchise back to January 3, 2014.

To fill the vacated October 25th spot, Paramount has announced that they will release Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa on that date. The title may not sound familiar at first, but anyone who’s watched the Jackass movies will be familiar with the Bad Grandpa sketches in which Johnny Knoxville is completely transformed into a convincingly realistic old man named Irving, who would set out and cause mischief.

With her star distinctly on the rise, if it hasn’t already gone through the roof, actress Carey Mulligan has now become one of the biggest names in the acting game.

Variety is reporting that both The Coen Brothers and Spike Jonze have tapped the actress to star as the female lead in their respective next pictures. For the pair of brothers, she’ll star opposite Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis, and opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Jonze’s next project.

The first trailer for Jackass 3D has been released and it is something to see. The trailer proves that the movie is absolutely selling the product on their use of 3D, and that they’re set to push the limits even further than they ever have before.

The whole crew — including Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, and Wee-Man — are all back to inflict massive amounts of pain on themselves and each other. Also returning are director Jeff Tremaine and producer Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are). The movie is set to be released everywhere and in almost full 3D on October 15, 2010.

Make sure that all safety precautions including helmets, knee pads, and Pepto-Bismol are at the ready before clicking over to check out the first trailer for Jackass 3D!

NOTE: For structural reasons and to ensure that this list is super-duper pretty at all times, we’ll be posting this same intro for all sections of The Decade List. If you’ve already read all of this, you can just head down to the continuation of our list!

Let’s just get it out of the way right off the ol’ bat: yes, we know it’s been a few months since we left the decade. Most folks undertook this heavy task pre-2010, but we decided that it would be a little bit better to let the new year settle in a bit before hitting you with something of this magnitude.

So here we are, geeks: we’ve officially arrived in FUTURE *cue retro ’50s sci-fi music* and still we have no freakin’ flying cars yet. What’s the deal with that? While it is pretty exciting to be inside of the year 2010 — a year that always seemed unreachable to us mere mortals — we are also exiting another entire decade that leaves us staring at one majorly epic task. That task? To search, dig, locate, retrieve, organize, polish, and present the very best films of the past ten years!

We must once again declare that this list is also simply opinion. You are are without doubt going to find movies here that you hate and do not think deserve to be included. You will surely think of movies that you think should not only be on here, but that should be at the very top of the list. There will even be some that I have not seen and thus, can not add. Even at this very moment, I sit, worrying and wondering if I’ve forgotten any that I would include; that’s just the way things fly when compiling something this massive.

With all of that said, we invite you in to relax and check out Chapter IV our list, The Decade List: The 59 Best Films of the Past Ten Years!

At the end of last month, the entire soundtrack for Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are by Karen O was up to listen to free of charge (Read: New ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ Images Set To The Full Soundtrack). You can still head over there and listen if you have not yet done so (it’s very good), and now you can peek at an equally good little video showcasing the making of said soundtrack.

The feature talks about how Jonze always had Karen O in mind for the music, and how her work with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs always had a that childlike innocence to it. You’ll see the movie’s young star, Max Records, in the studio to do some small voice recordings for the tracks; a peek a what looks like a really beautiful snowy scene using a Daniel Johnston (The Devil and Daniel Johnston) cover song; as well as their use of a children’s choir in some of the recordings.

Click on over to the other side to check out the video, it’s very much worth it, I promise.

It’s just about that time: Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are is about to finally be released in theaters on October 16, 2009. It’s been a while since the trailer was released and our excitement was at an all-time high, so right here and now you can listen to the entire movie soundtrack free online. Even better, while listening to the music that shall accompany this beautiful film, you can also check out a bunch of new images from the movie and its production. The soundtrack contains original songs by Karen O And The Kids — Karen O as in the singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

As you all likely know, the movie has endured a battle to get to our eyes, with rumors at one point claiming that the movie had been entirely scrapped and Jonze taken off the job by Warner Brothers because it was too dark and they wanted it more aimed at kids. Thankfully it was decided that the original vision was obviously the best, and things moved forward as planned.

Where the Wild Things Are is based on the novel by Maurice Sendak about a young boy named Max (Max Records) who becomes angry with his mother and travels dangerous seas to mystical lands inhabited by large creatures known as the Wild Things who decide to make Max their king.

Click on over to the other side to listen to the soundtrack and check out the images. The soundtrack was also released yesterday on CD, MP3, and vinyl. May I suggest throwing on the music before enjoying the pictures. Sets the tone quite nicely. Head on over to io9 for more images.

The second official trailer for Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are has been released by Yahoo! Movies.

The trailer consists of a lot of the stuff that we saw in the first trailer, but this time there’s a bunch of dialogue included. This is particularly amazing to see when it comes to the Wild Things. We finally get to see these amazing creations interacting with young Max (Max Records) and you can see why so much work went into combining the physical costumes with the computer animated facial features and expressions. Spike Jonze has created real living, breathing creatures here, and this trailer takes that magic to a whole new level. I imagine this is a shorter peek at what the people who went to Comic Con were shown (Read: SDCC 09: ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ Panel).

Click on over to the other side to check out the trailer.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in all of the highs and lows of the production of Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are, it’s that this right here is how to faithfully adapt a book. From the very beginning, the movie was a passion project that saw the director working closely with the book’s author Maurice Sendak to make it a beautiful and fitting adaptation, while also making it his own. This pure love for the material is showing in what we’ve seen so far, and the movie is shaping up to be something truly, truly special.

The Wild Things crew made an appearance at the recent San Diego Comic Con as part of the gigantic Warner Brothers panel, and while the panel didn’t have any big announcements or anything like that, they did bring a lot of wonderful footage and videos to watch. The clips were introduced by young Max Records, who plays Max in the film. The boy came out and stood strong, though he was a little nervous, which lead him to write some things on his hands so he didn’t forget. The one thing that stuck out was a great quote he relayed from Sendak that said: “You know I really love this movie and I hope people like it, because if not they can all go straight to hell.” They played three new clips from the movie with stuff we haven’t seen — mainly an extended look at some of the very brief clips that we saw in the first official trailer. They show more from the scene where Carol (James Gandolfini) is carrying Max, and also the scene where the Wild Things are chucking each other all over the place.

Click on over for more and a cool video that was shown that features a look at both Jonze and Sendak.