12 Years a Slave [2013]

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man born in the North and sold into slavery in the South, and he is as painfully brilliant as the beatings he endures. Steve McQueen directs, and he is black, so there is no saccharine — just filmmaking.

d: Steve McQueen | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
What’d You Say to Pats? | Wesley Morris [Grantland]

The Counselor [2013]

Michael Fassbender plays the title role, Javier Bardem plays in designer clothes, and Cameron Diaz plays them both in this stylized drug thriller. Diaz writhes around on a car, makes confession sexy. She is a predatory animal, too feared to win an Oscar.

d: Ridley Scott | imdb.com | trailer | HBO: First Look
Truth has no temperature. | Rattling your cage

Carrie [2013]

Director Kimberly Peirce’s remake of Brian DePalma’s 1976 classic includes more blood, more whatever, but it seems perfunctory. Chloe Grace Moretz, 16, is the right choice and right age for the title role. Sissy Spacek was 27 when she was in the original.

d: Kimberly Peirce | imdb.com | trailer

The Family [2013]

The witness relocated mob family of Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and their two kids beat up and blow up things in Normandy, France. The results are just OK, not explosive. The highlight is De Niro’s animated review of a certain Martin Scorsese mob movie.

d: Luc Besson | imdb.com | trailer | Dating | Paying the plumber

Kick-Ass 2 [2013]

The ultra-violent sequel isn’t as good as the original, but high school is an uneven period, so Chloe Grace Moretz (now 15) takes down mean girls as well as evil motherfuckers. Jim Carrey (finally) doesn’t chew the scenery — in a movie that actually calls for it.

d: Jeff Wadlow | imdb.com | trailer

20 Feet from Stardom [2013]

The documentary isn’t just a celebration of back-up singers, most of them black women essential to 60s soul and rock records. This is their art, their life. My favorite is Merry Clayton, the force of nature who backs Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter.”

d: Morgan Neville | imdb.com | trailer | Interview