I may spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how a movie directed and starring Ben Stiller ended up as my #1 movie of the year, but I absolutely loved what Stiller did with the source material about a meek individual with grand fantasies. Much of it is based around his desire to get the attention of Kristin Wiig as his co-worker and once Mitty finally goes out into the world, the film shows how Stiller has transformed himself into a fantastic director on par with some of the greats.

My top doc of 2013 could very well have been my #1 movie of the year, because I fell in love with Morgan Neville's portrait of the unsung heroes of rock and soul--the back-up singers--when I first saw it at the SXSW Film Festival in March... and then I watched it three more times. If you love classic rock and soul music, you really need to see this movie. (Check out the rest of my top docs of the year on Page 2.)

What more can be said about Alfonso Cuaron's 3D magnum opus in space? Whatever problems it may have in terms of credibility are quickly forgotten as you're sent on an immersive 90-minute E-ticket thrill ride along with Sandra Bullock. Yes, I actually liked a Sandra Bullock movie enough for it to make my Top 3. Go figure.

It also took me a long time before I finally had a chance to see the third part in Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke's relationship series. You can tell all three of them have grown up while growing as actors/filmmakers in the nine years since Before Sunset and the performances by the two actors are absolutely phenomenal.

Ryan Coogler's powerful drama was all the talk of Sundance this year and though it took me eleven months to see it, I finally got to marvel at Michael B. Jordan's breakthrough performance as a San Francisco youth whose day-to-day dealings we watch leading up to his accidental shooting on New Year's Eve by transit police. Based on a true event, Coogler's movie used a naturalism that made it feel all to real.

Demolishing any doubt that there's only one Martin Scorsese, his fifth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio had them tackling Wall Street in a way that made Oliver Stone's movies look relatively tame. It's three hours of sex, drugs, money and more F-words than most of Scorsese's previous movies without a single moment wasted and some classic and unforgettable scenes, mostly involving Leo and Jonah Hill.

First seen at Sundance in 2012, James (Man on Wire) Marsh's tight political drama stars Andrea Riseborough as a Belfast woman caught in the war between the Republican Army of Northern Ireland and Britain's MI6, as represented by Clive Owen. It was as moving as it was fascinating, carried by Riseborough's powerful performance.

After the disappointing "An Unexpected Journey," Jackson is back in form, giving us the type of movie that "Lord of the Rings" fans had been begging for, and it paid off, mainly with the introduction of the dragon Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, and a much more exciting second chapter that brought back Orlando Bloom's Legolas and delivered a new favorite character in Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel.

While Dame Judi Dench gives another phenomenal performance as a woman looking for the son who was taken away from her 50 years ago--by nuns, no less--I was equally impressed by Steve Coogan, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Directed by Stephen Frears, it was the perfect blend of humor and heartbreaking drama.

A joyous look at the makings of Mary Poppins with Emma Thompson as the book's author PL Travers, who is resistant to sign over the rights to Walt Disney (Tom Hanks). As entertaining as it was to watch the tumultuous behind-the-scenes creative process, the core of the film is a deeply poignant secondary story showing Travers being raised in the Australian outback by an alcoholic father (Colin Farrell).

It's been some time since a DreamWorks Animation movie made my Top 10, but this one, featuring the voices of Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage, was a sweet and funny throwback to "The Flintstones" that I just couldn't resist seeing multiple times. If DWA can make more movies that are this much fun, I'm all in, and I can't wait for a sequel.

David O. Russell tackled the ABSCAM scandal of the '70s with a fantastic cast made up of actors from his earlier films. As obvious as it was at times that Russell was trying to do Scorsese (or Boogie Nights-era PT Anderson), for the most part, it worked very well due to his inimitable knack for entertaining dialogue and the unbelievable dedication of his cast.

Any question that Ron Howard is one of America's finest directors was set aside when he tackled the fast-paced world of Formula One racing, in particular the ongoing feud between Chris Hemsworth's James Hunt and an arrogant Austrian racer named Niki Laudi - represented by an unforgettable and movie-stealing performance by Daniel Bruhl.

Just as sad was the thought that Love Actually's Richard Curtis might be bowing out of filmmaking after writing and directing this sci-fi tinged love story starring Domhnall Gleeson as a young man with the ability to travel back in time and change his own mistakes. Besides featuring my favorite Rachel McAdams performance in a long time, it had another wonderful turn by Bill Nighy as Gleeson's father.

Hayao Miyazaki's bittersweet final film took a drastic departure from his earlier fantasy-tinged films with a film that follows engineer and aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi whose design of Japanese fighter planes has created an interesting debate on Miyazaki's overall intentions. It's a fascinating subject given more emotion with a tragic love story thrown in for good measure.

Destin Daniel Cretton's look at a facility for high-risk teens featured a very different performance from Brie Larson, but as far as indie films go, it was one of the stronger ones of the year (along with another one higher on this list), which is why it was no surprise it won many awards at the SXSW Film Festival.

Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End) tackle a modern-day story about a young girl named Maisie, played by the incredibly photogenic Onata Aprile, who is shunted from her divorced parents, played by Steve Coogan and Julianne Moore, but ends up mostly being taken care of by their respective lovers (Alexander Skarsgard, Joanna Vanderham). The film had a quiet charm with Aprile and Skarsgard being especially good on screen together.

Another terrific foreign language film--this one which did receive an Oscar nomination--Kim Nguyen's portrait of a pre-teen girl forced into servitude as a child soldier but who rises above her rank was unlike any other movies that has covered similar territory, mainly due to a riveting performance by newcomer Rachel Mwanza.

Having swept Israel's Academy Awards, Rama Burshtein's debut about a teen girl caught up in a controversial family decision after the death of her older sister should have gotten a lot more attention this year. To me, this was this year's A Separation - a truly satisfying dialogue-driven character drama.

An impressive directorial debut from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, based on a screenplay he also wrote, about an Italian-American lothario who tries to settle down and find love with Scarlett Johansson's "10," only to have his obsession with porn form a wedge between them. The movie was hilariously funny but also as deep as some of Gordon-Levitt's previous films like 50/50 and (500) Days of Summer.

Jean Marc-Vallee's '80s based drama looking at the early days of HIV and AIDS through the eyes of Matthew McConaughey's Ron Woodroof, a heterosexual (and homophobic) rodeo worker who finds himself diagnosed as HIV positive. Instead of letting it get him down, he becomes a pioneer in getting AIDS medicine to those who needed it, along with an unrecognizable Jared Leto as his right hand transgendered helper.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson gives a surprisingly strong dramatic performance in Ric Roman Waugh's thriller pulled from real stories about a father who tries to get his son out of prison by working for the DEA to take down high-powered drug dealers. A fascinating look at the world of drugs with a similar approach as Waugh's Felon, but also featuring a fantastic final action setpiece.

Another film that thrilled the Asia-phile and monster-lover in me was Guillermo del Toro's first movie as a director in far too long, a fun romp that modernized the giant monster movies I loved as a kid but never lost sight of the humans within the giant robots built to stop the monster invasion.

Bringing director James Mangold into the fold proved to be exactly what this franchise spin-off needed, but it didn't hurt that they brought Hugh Jackman's Logan to Japan where he'd fight street thugs, ninjas and samurai--all which are very cool in my book--alongside newcomer Rila Fukushima's kick-ass Yukio.

Baz Luhrmann's triumphant return with an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's beloved literary classic played up to all of Luhrmann's strengths (and eccentricities) as well as those of his Gatsby, Leonardo DiCaprio. A visual feast filled with emotion that harked back to the classic filmmaking of the '30s and '40s.

The previous installment ended up much higher on my year-end list, but I still enjoyed Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki and the rest of the characters so much I could easily put up with the somewhat confusing new villain, Malekith. "Game of Thrones" director Alan Taylor stepped up to the bat to make a visually-exciting film with a smoother transition between Asgard and Earth as well.