Action
Rod Lott
Premium Rush is the Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie from 2012 that didn't have him playing a Gotham City rookie, a time-traveling hit man or a POTUS' son. (Damn, was this kid busy!) It's the only one of those four that ended the year without any hint of Oscar buzz, yet I'd argue it's the most purely entertaining.

Drama
Rod Lott
Nearly every scene of the made-for-HBO Game Change, I recall from John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's excellent nonfiction book of the same name. But the movie directed by Jay Roach (of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises) tells only half — maybe even just one-quarter — of the story, ignoring the 2008 presidential-campaign narratives of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards for the one it finds most compelling: that of Sarah Palin and John McCain, and not the other way around.

Thriller
Rod Lott
From 1954, Suddenly is the lesser-known of Frank Sinatra’s two films centered on a presidential assassination. Cry “sacrilege” if you wish, but I actually prefer it to the later, more polished, highly revered The Manchurian Candidate. Yes, Suddenly is a B-noir treatment of the same theme, but the underdog proves ridiculously effective.

Comedy
Rod Lott
If there's one thing I love more than a good Sherlock Holmes movie, it's a vintage Alan Arkin performance, and 1976's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution provides both. Widely acclaimed upon its release, the film has become somewhat forgotten — here's hoping Shout! Factory's Blu-ray/DVD combo release will help reverse that.

Action
Rod Lott
Here's the first great Blu-ray surprise of 2013: Tai Chi Zero, a Hong Kong martial-arts spectacle that's inventive and invigorating.

Rock
Joshua Boydston
The landlocked state of Oklahoma might not seem the most likely breeding ground for excellent surf-punk bands, but it’s bore more than a few in recent years, although none so fabulously named as Tulsa’s The Fabulous St. Knicholas Cage.

Music
Louis Fowler
Junebug Spade with Sonic Violence
8 p.m. Friday
Kamp’s Deli & XIII X Lounge
1310 N.W. 25th
819-6004
$5

Music
Zach Hale
Ex-Cult with Psychotic Reaction and Truckside Down
8 p.m. Monday
The Conservatory
8911 N. Western
conservatoryokc.com
607-4805
$7

Thriller
Rod Lott
From 1971, Wake in Fright is a lost film recently and literally rescued from near-oblivion. While I can’t say I was familiar with it before its Drafthouse Films re-release, I’m glad it was saved. To have lost a work this good would have been a blow.

Documentary
Phil Bacharach
This is a golden age of documentaries, and I don’t mean the propagandistic variety via Michael Moore or 2016: Obama’s America. Given the pervasive timidity and lack of imagination in Hollywood today, film buffs are well advised to take stock of documentaries, where the most gripping stories are being told.