2012 Year End: 20-11

Monday, January 14, 2013

2012 Year End: 20-11

Any one of these films could have easily had made my top 10 list. Unfortunately there just wasn’t room.

20. Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)

I love the old screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s – and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook is as close as today’s films will ever get to those classics. The film stars Bradley Cooper – finally doing something with his talent – as a man just released from a mental hospital hell-bent on getting his wife back – although everyone else knows his wife doesn’t want him. As he struggles to fit in with his family, especially trying to reconnect with his father (a great Robert DeNiro) who has issues of his own, he meets Jennifer Lawrence, another mental health survivor, and the two connect. The film’s third act is pretty much standard issue romantic comedy stuff – the ending is never in doubt – but Russell’s whip smart screenplay, solid direction and the brilliant performances by the whole cast – especially Lawrence – makes this movie feel fresh and new. I don’t much like most romantic comedies, but I loved this one.

19. Flight (Robert Zemeckis)

Many people have viewed Robert Zemeckis’ Flight as little more than the Denzel Washington show. While it is true that Washington is brilliant in the movie – truly, this ranks alongside Malcolm X and Training Day as one of his very best performances – the film is actually much better, much deeper than that. I’ve had my problems with Zemeckis’ work over the years, but this story of an alcoholic pilot, who gets himself into trouble doing something drunk that most other pilots couldn’t do sober – is a fascinating character study of a man who wants to admit he has a problem and get better – but only on his own terms. Zemeckis is in his top form behind the camera (okay, so some of his music choices a little heavy handed), and Flight belongs on that short list of truly unique looks at the lives of alcoholics.

18. Kill List (Ben Wheatley)

Ben Wheatley’s Kill List came and went quietly in the first few months of the year, and never really left much of an impact in the movie world – unless, of course, you’re one of the lucky few who actually watched it. Because then, Kill List is impossible to forget. This is a film that starts out almost as a British kitchen sink drama, morphs itself once into a low key action movie about assassins, and then morphs itself yet again into a horror movie – the type of horror movie that only the British seem to make. The thing is though, that in all three segments of Kill List, the violence in the film is palpable, but very different – with the actions in the first act reverberating throughout the rest of the movie. The film was a critical hit when it was released in its native England last year, yet for some reason wasn’t really talked about very much upon its release in North America. No matter – Kill List is a cult film just waiting for its cult to find it.

17. The Grey (Joe Carnahan)

Joe Carnahan has made a career doing action movies about masculine men doing masculine things – films like Narc, Smokin’ Aces and The A-Team. With The Grey, he has made easily his best film to date – because it is deeper than those other films. It stars Liam Neeson as a man who may well want to die, but when the plane he is on crashes in the arctic, and leaves only a handful of survivors, he is determined to do everything possible to live – even fight off the pack of wolves that pursue them. The film takes Caranhan out of the sub-Tarantino knock-off mode most of his career has been so far, and moves him into John Boorman territory – man against nature in a fight to the death. The film is intense all the way through, and expertly crafted. But this is more than just a mere action film – something much deeper than that, right up to its wonderful, ambiguous ending (apparently, I missed something in the end credits, because I had to pee). Carnahan wasn’t a director I was much of a fan of before he made The Grey – but he’s certainly someone I’ll watch out for now.

16. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

I don’t blame people who didn’t like David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis – it is a film that deliberately places distance between itself and the audience. The dialogue, most of it lifted directly by Don DeDillo’s novel, is dense and unnatural – and yet in the movie it works tremendously well, because Cronenberg gets the entire cast to buy into the strange premise of the movie – and they all find the proper rhythm to the story. Robert Pattinson is better than he has ever been before (admittedly, not saying much) as a young Master of Universe on Wall Street, who rides around Manhattan in his stretch limo during the course of the day and will knowingly lose all of his money. People hop in and out of his car, and they have dense, disturbing conversations – and the whole world seems to be going to hell outside his window, but he doesn’t notice or care. DeDillo’s novel, written at the height of Wall Street’s power in the early 2000s, was ahead of its time, but Cronenberg’s film comes at just the right moment. I know many hated Cosmopolis, but I really don’t care. While this remained more an intellectual exercise than most of Cronenberg’s film, it is still a great one – and one of the more quietly provocative films of the year.

15. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a movie that takes place in the mind of a child. To her, the life she lives on an island off the coast of New Orleans, with her crazed father, and the other strange inhabitants seems completely normal. Doesn’t everyone live like this? When a Hurricane (Katrina?) hits, the whole place is flooded, and they take to the “streets” in their makeshift boats made of cars and anything else they can find. This is an odd, one of a kind film by newcomer Benh Zeitlin. I was reminded of the work of Terrence Malick – with the poetic voiceovers, long, languid shots and beautiful scenery, but that’s only a part of this movie. Few movies get – or remember – what is like to be a child. How the world the adults in lives inhabit seem strange and foreign – you’re always somewhat confused by what is going on – and at the same time you crave stability – a place to call home. Beasts of the Southern Wild remembers that, and places the viewer in that strange headspace. It is the most audacious debut film of the year.

14. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

Six years ago director William Friedkin teamed up with playwright Tracy Letts to bring the later’s play Bug to the big screen – and the result was Friedkin’s best film in decades. The two reunite on Killer Joe – and have made an even better film. Killer Joe is probably the vilest movie of 2012 – it is a movie about the stupidest family imaginable, who get in over their heads when they hire a hit man to kill the never seen matriarch of their clan. Matthew McConaghey delivers a truly great, frightening performance as the title character – the hit man – who normally requires a down payment for his services, but will make an exception this time if the family gives them their slow teenage daughter (Juno Temple) as a “retainer”. The rest of the cast is filled out by Thomas Haden Church, the dumbest of the dumb, Emile Hirsch, the “mastermind” and Gina Gershon, who undoubtedly gives one of the bravest performances you will see this year. So why, you may be asking, if all the characters are dumb, and the film is vile and cruel, do I think Killer Joe is one of the year’s best? It’s all in how the story is told. Letts is a great playwright (his August Osage County won him a Pulitzer – and will hopefully not be screwed up in its screen adaptation next year), his dialogue has a rhythm all its own and the entire cast gets it. And then there’s Friedkin, who dives headlong into the muck, just like he did on Bug, and made the film you would expect a hungry, young filmmaker to make – not a filmmaker who is 77 years old. Killer Joe is disgusting – and unforgettable.

13. Bernie (Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater’s Bernie is one of a growing number of films that crosses the boundary between documentary and fiction film. Many of the supporting players in this strange tale of greed and murder are playing themselves – and Linklater interviews them as if it were a documentary. The majority of the movie though has Jack Black, in a brilliant performance, as Bernie – who shows up in a small Texas town to be an assistant undertaker, and immediately has the whole town in love with him – especially the old widows. One of these widows, played by Shirley Maclaine as a bitch from hell, has him under her thumb, essentially running his life – although she also provides him with the money to live the type of life he wants to live. And then one day, no one sees the widow anymore – and don’t much care either. They hate her, and love Bernie. But something is bound to give. In yet another of his great performances of the year, Matthew McConaghey does a great job as the small town prosecutor, who knows precisely how to play a jury. Linklater is an underrated filmmaker, always doing interesting work. And Bernie is one of his films to date.

12. Cloud Atlas (Andy & Lana Wachowski & Tom Tykwer)

There was probably no more ambitious film this year than the Wachowskis teaming up with Tom Tykwer to adapt David Mitchell’s epic, six part novel thought by most to be unfilmable into a coherent movie. Rather than tell one story at a time, like Mitchells novel, they decided to mix them all up – which is even trickier – as they try to put similar scenes in each story next to each other. The use of actors to play multiple roles was a stroke of genius, and gives the movie a through line that makes it all easier to follow. The fact that these stories, that take place years apart but all touch on the same themes, works together as brilliantly as it does is a testament not only to the directing and the screenwriting, but the editing, which is surely the most complex job of the year. Does it all come together in a meaningful way? That’s for you to decide. For me, I’m just in awe that they attempted it at all. Out of all the films on this list, this is the one that I know will be more highly thought of a few years from now than it was this years (the critics who mocked the film were idiots).

11. The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan)

As an individual film, The Dark Knight Rises is the weakest of the three Nolan Batman films (which is why it was barely beat out by my number 10), but as a wrap up of the series as a whole, The Dark Knight Rises is brilliant. What Nolan has done in this film is bring Bruce Wayne/Batman’s journey full circle, from Batman Begins when he is driven to do what he must, to end here when he can finally leave it behind. He also introduced a great villain in Bane (a role that Tom Hardy owns), and made him far more realistic than I thought that character ever could be – as he perfectly fits into this series. And created the most sympathetic Catwoman ever (aided by Anne Hathaway’s great performance). You can complain that the film is slightly bloated if you want to, but Nolan needed the time and space he uses in this film in order to bring his magnificent superhero trilogy to a close. Superhero films will never be the same now that Nolan is done with them.

2012 Year End: Movies 30-21 and Runners-Up

2012 Year End: Movies 30-21 and Runners-Up

Runners-Up: As I said in my introduction, I think that 2012 was a very good year for movies. I would gladly watch any of the following films a second time, although they were not quite good enough to make my top 30: The Avengers (Joss Whedon) was popcorn movie fun at its finest. Barbara (Christian Petzold) is a film that mixes melodrama and thriller elements, but is much subtler and more of a character study than anything else. The Day He Arrives (Sang-soo Hong) is a small black and white gem from Korea about a director visiting Seoul. Elena (Andrey Zvyagintsev) was a small scale Russian noir. End of Watch (David Ayers) made good use of the found footage genre, and fine performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. Footnote (Joseph Cedar) was an expertly written Israeli comedy/drama about warring Talmudic scholars. God Bless America (Bobcat Goldthwait) was a poison pen movie about America’s disastrous culture. Goodbye First Love (Mia Hanson Love) mixed nostalgia and realism in this story of first love. Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai (Takahasi Miike) was Miike at his most restrained, but still a surprisingly good remake of a masterpiece. Headhunters (Morten Tyldum) was a thriller with multiple twists and turns to keep you guessing. The Hunger Games (Gary Ross) satisfied the fan-girls of the teen series, and also surprisingly good on its own terms. The Innkeepers (Ti West) proved why Ti West is among the best horror filmmakers in America. Life Without Principle (Johnnie To) is an immensely entertaining film about the financial crisis and gangsters. Michael (Markus Scheleinzer) was a disturbing look inside the mind of pedophile. Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo) was a twist filled Mexican drug soap opera. On the Road (Walter Salles) is probably about as good of an adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel as we could expect. Oslo, August 31 (Joachim Trier) was an extremely sad tale of a drug addict who has given up. Prometheus (Ridley Scott) was a technical marvel, even if the story didn’t quite live up to its ambitions. A Royal Affair (Nikolaj Arcel) was an uncommonly intelligent costume drama. Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Ferris) was an extremely entertaining, original romantic comedy. Rust & Bone (Jacques Audiard) was a heartfelt movie about two damaged people who help save each other. Savages (Oliver Stone) was an expertly crafted genre film, which will hopefully get the great filmmaker back on track. Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh) showed Martin McDonagh stretching his wings a little bit – and assembling one of the best ensembles casts of the year. A Simple Life (Ann Hui) is appropriately titled, but an uncommonly emotional film about a lifelong servant and the man who cares for her. The Snowtown Murders (Justin Kurzel) was a disturbing look at a psychopath, and how he ruins everything he touches. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr) was a slow burn of a film from Bela Tarr. We Have a Pope (Nannni Morretti) was a surprising warm hearted look at the election of a reluctant Pope, with a great Michael Piccoli performance. Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold) showed there is still room to twist the classic, oft-filmed novel.

30-21

While I’m not sure that any of these are truly great films, they were all very good, borderline excellent and deserve your attention.

30. Les Miserables (Tom Hooper)
Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables has a few problems – it tries to be realistic and epic at the same time, and it doesn’t always work – but when it hits the right notes, few films this year were this powerful or emotionally satisfying. The two highlights are obviously Anne Hathaway’s rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, truly one of the very best scenes in any movie this year, and Samantha Barks excellent rendition of On My Own, which almost matches Hathaway’s in sheer intensity and skill. The rest of the cast is also excellent – especially lead Hugh Jackman who has a great voice, and the acting chops to make Jean Valjean’s moral struggle palpable. This is grand, epic, old fashioned movie musical magic at its finest – which also tries with mixed results, to make everything more realistic – although the decision to have them sing live pays off in the movies best moments. The sum may not be quite as good as the parts, but with parts this good, it’s impossible to complain too much.

29. Looper (Rian Johnson)

Rian Johnson’s Looper is his most complete film to date – and one of the best time travel films in recent memory. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hit man who kills people the mob of the future sends back in time, and Bruce Willis as his future self who he fails to kill and must chase down, Looper is an entertaining action-sci-fi hybrid. The film is extremely well acted by Gordon-Levitt, Willis, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels (wonderful, as ever, as a gangster) and very cleverly constructed in the screenplay stage. It is also Johnson’s most mature film visually. Johnson’s first two films – Brick and The Brothers Bloom – are both fun and entertaining, but they also both felt slightly like gimmicks (Brick – high school noir with Raymond Chandler dialogue, The Brothers Bloom – Johnson aping Wes Anderson) but Looper feels like a major step forward for a promising new talent.

28. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is undeniably the most beautiful film of 2012. Working with Claudio Miranda and a team of special effects wizards, Lee’s film, based on Yann Martel’s beloved book, truly is awe-inspiring to look at, pretty much from beginning to end. Having said that, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the book (I liked it, but didn’t love it like many did) and the story both the book and movie tell doesn’t move me like it should – especially in the bookending scenes in the film, which with the exception of a wonderful performance by Irrfan Khan, aren’t handled particularly well. Still, watching Life of Pi always gives you something to marvel at. This is a film where you can simply sit back and watch the imagery flow past you. A monumental visual achievement for Ang Lee and his entire crew – just not quite the religious experience for this atheist that the filmmakers wanted it to be.

27. The Kid with the Bike (Jean-Luc & Pierre Dardenne)

The Dardenne Brothers are among the most influential filmmakers of their generation – bringing neo-realism back to European cinema in a very real way over the years. At this point in their career though they are stretching – mixing their signature style with other genres. Their last film, Lorna’s Silence, was their realism mixed with film noir. And in The Kid with the Bike, it is neo-realism mixed with a fairy tale – which would seem to be completely at odds with each other, except somehow it works. The movie is about a boy with a father who dumped him off at a children’s home, promised to return, and never does. All he has in the world is his bike, which his father has sold. We see him as he tries to track down his father, and ends up with two surrogate parents, pulling him in opposite directions. A low-rent, teenage hoodlum who points him down a path that could lead to bad things. And a kind hearted woman who takes him into her home on weekends, for reasons even she does not understand. The Dardennes use their usual style of observation more than anything else in the movie. And yet, gone is the bleak, dire outlook of Rosetta, The Son or L’Enfant. The movie ends happily. Does life really work like this? Not really, but don’t you wish it did?

26. Haywire (Steven Soderbergh)

For reasons that remain unclear to me – nearly a year later – audiences pretty much rejected Steven Soderbergh’s first 2012 film – this wonderful action movie that is expertly choreographed, and has a great, lean, mean script by Lem Dobbs (who wrote Soderbergh’s The Limey). MMA star Gina Carano, who Soderbergh cast in the lead role, may not be Meryl Streep – but then again, Streep can’t do what Carano can do – which is go toe-to-toe in hand-to-hand combat with any man in the cast, win, and make it look believable. Besides, the supporting cast of slimy men – Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Channing Tatum among them – more than make up for Carano’s somewhat stiff delivery. And Soderbergh, who seems to be having fun genre hopping these days, has crafted some the year’s best action scenes. Haywire is a great action movie – and a real one. No special effects here, just ass-kicking goodness.

25. The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard)

Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods seeks to turn the horror genre on its head – and does precisely that. In its way, the film explains every horror film ever made – and explains why they all seem so clichéd. The film has a standard issue setup of a group of young college students heading to a remote cabin, ignoring the warnings of a creepy gas station attendant, and then doing one stupid thing after another when they are up there. And yet the movies parallel scenes, set in an underground bunker, explain everything brilliantly. The film is hilarious, bloody and clever the entire way through, and has a killer ending. The only thing that would have made The Cabin in the Woods better is if it had actually been scary – which it isn’t. Other than that though, a great, original genre film.

24. Take This Waltz (Sarah Polley)

Sarah Polley’s first film, Away From Her, was about the end of a long marriage – and what spouses are willing to do for each other when they are truly in love. Her follow-up film is about a newer marriage – a couple who have been together since college, are now around 30, and one of them starts to wonder if there isn’t supposed to be more to marriage than what they have. The film is anchored by a brilliant performance by Michelle Williams, who plays the wife who starts considering having an affair. Seth Rogen is surprisingly good in a dramatic role as her lovable oaf of a husband. The weak spot in the film is Luke Kirby as the other man, who never quite seems believable. Still, Take This Waltz is a fascinating film about modern marriage – and what leads people to stray, and the consequences for their actions – and proves Polley is a filmmaker to watch. Combined with her excellent documentary Stories We Tell, also released this year, and Polley had a great year behind the camera.

23. Argo (Ben Affleck)

Argo delivers on the promise of Ben Affleck’s first two films as a director – Gone Baby Gone and The Town. Both of those were fine crime dramas, with some stellar performances, but Argo takes things to another level. This is almost two movies in one – a Hollywood comedy and a tense CIA thriller – both of which are handled brilliantly well. Affleck has one of the best ensembles of the year – he remains the calm center of the movie, which allows people like Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Scoot McNairy, Bryan Cranston and everyone else to pull focus away from him. Affleck is beginning to remind me of Clint Eastwood as a director – not the most daring filmmaker in the world, most of his choices are right down the middle, but one who knows how to tell a great story well. Before Affleck starting directing, he was in danger of becoming a Hollywood joke – now he’s one of the best mainstream filmmakers in Hollywood.

22. Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)

Steven Soderbergh’s second film of the year was even better than his first. In many ways, Magic Mike is like one of those old Hollywood musicals – as we see Channing Tatum’s title character become a star in his limited world, but then realize how hollow and empty that world is, and gives it up for love. In the hands of Soderbergh, Magic Mike transcends its clichés. Part of it is the intimate feel of the movie – Soderbergh isn’t afraid to get down and dirty here, isn’t afraid to use some techniques that may be off-putting, to capture the proper tone. Part of it is the performances – Tatum, all charm as Mike, Cody Horn, the picture of female perfection, Olivia Munn proving women can be just as shallow as men, Alex Pettyfer who needs to grow up. And best of all Matthew McConaghey, brilliant as their fearless leader, who is all smiles and Southern charm, until you cross him – and then a flash of vicious pimp comes out. And part of it, it must be said, is the dancing itself. Watching Magic Mike, I couldn’t help but think that female strippers are phoning it in by comparison to the choreography that these men put behind their dancing. Yes there’s nudity, but it doesn’t feel sleazy – it feel fun. And so does the movie itself.

21. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)

Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been read and loved by teenagers for years now, so it was only a matter of time before it was turned into a movie. But Chbosky held his ground and insisted not only on writing but directing the adaptation himself – and it pays off. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a rare film about teenagers – one that sees their world clearly, and how screwed it can be, how lonely, how confusing, how fucked up. It sees the importance of friends and role models. Logan Lerman is excellent in the lead role – a quiet, unassuming freshman with no friends until he meets two step-siblings – Ezra Miller, great as a gay teen, comfortable in his own skin, and Emma Watson, as his inevitable crush. They make he see the world in a different way. There are those films that come along once in a while that feel like they were made solely for you – The Perks of Being a Wallflower is that kind of film for me.

2012: Year End: An Introduction

2012: Year End: An Introduction

I’ve started off this introduction the past three years saying the same basic thing – 2007 was the best year in recent memory for movies, and 2008 was the worse, and this year falls somewhere in between those two years. The same thing is true of 2012 as 2011, 2010 and 2009 – except this year it’s much closer to 2007 than 2008. 2012 was a great year for movies – not just the best films of the year, but the sheer wealth of great or near great films this year made this the best year since 2007 to be an avid moviegoer.

But don’t tell that to some critics. If I read one more piece on the death of cinema or the death of cinema culture this year, than I may just scream. Did no one mention to these critics just how great this year for movies was? Did they not notice? The whole idea of the death of cinema mystifies me, but it really is nothing new. Every year, I read from some critics what a lousy year for movies it was. And as far back the Lumiere Brothers (who thought their invention “had no future”) people having been sounding the death knell for movies. From the advent of sound to the adding of color, to Godard’s jump cuts to the “blockbuster age” to digital cinema, it seems someone is always trying to kill cinema – and yet it continues to roll along.

It is true that cinema culture has changed over the years – perhaps more so in the last decade than in the previous few. The rise of the internet has made “everyone a critic” (and that includes me, I guess). Everyone now not only can have an opinion, but can share it with the world. While some hate this new “culture”, I rather like it. Movie culture has certainly become more niche driven than ever before, yet there are more places than ever in which one can read about or become involved in discussions about movies. If you want to dissect the latest superhero movie, there are plenty of places for you to go. But you can also have intelligent discussions, with informed moviegoers, about even the smallest indies, little seen foreign films or documentaries. In short, cinema culture is only dead to you if you don’t put any effort into it.

One thing I have heard repeatedly this year is that television has replaced cinema where the best work in being done. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Louie, Homeland, etc. have become the place for true artists, and movies are poorer for it. To that, I call bullshit. There is no doubt that TV is better now than ever before – at least certain shows. What Matthew Weiner and Vince Gilligan are doing on Mad Men and Breaking Bad is quite simply brilliant. And 2012 was also the year that the other AMC show The Walking Dead actually delivered on its promise (although with show runner Glenn Mazzara leaving, it remains to be seen if the show can keep up the unusually high quality of the second half of season 2 and the first half of season 3). Better than any of them – at least in 2012 – though was Louie, in which comedian Louie C.K. brilliantly blew up the sitcom genre, with the strangest, funniest, most painful season yet. The Parker Posey arc (if you can call it that) was utterly, completely brilliant – and yes, as good as anything I have seen in a movie theater this year.

But I don’t understand how the fact that some TV shows are getting better, and defying the boundaries of their medium, translates into movies become worse. Sure, the internet lights up every Sunday night to discuss the latest adventures of Don Draper, Walter White or Sheriff Rick, but did no one notice the impassioned discussion and debate out there on films like The Master, Django Unchained, Amour, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight Rises, Holy Motors or countless others this year? You would have to willfully bury your head in the sand to not see that movies still matter to a lot of people. Movie culture keeps changing, adapting, morphing into something different. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. 2012 offered film goers an embarrassment of riches. If you think cinema is dying, than I think you’re not looking close enough.

I will admit that sometimes, movie culture can become a drag. We’re in the midst of one of those periods now – the post Oscar nomination, pre-show phase, where apparently everyone who loves movies is supposed to pick a side and lob bombs on everyone else’s side. So you read the people who are on “Team Silver Linings Playbook” berate those on “Team Lincoln” – and vice versa. We get ridiculous pieces written about how Michael Haneke or Benh Zeitlin “stole” Oscar nominations from Ben Affleck or Kathryn Bigelow – as if Affleck or Bigelow “earned” those Oscar nominations they didn’t get because everyone said they were going to get them. I have strong feelings about what the best films of the year are – and yes, some people (including Bigelow) were, for me, unfairly overlooked. But Haneke and Zeitlin had nothing to do with it – the Academy did. And perhaps instead of bitching and moaning that the Academy threw a few wrenches in the works this year, we should be celebrating. After all, don’t we normally bitch and complain that the Academy simply falls lock-step in behind what every other group has already awarded, and complain that they should think for themselves more? And isn’t Michael Haneke the precise type of foreign master everyone has bitched about the Academy overlooking for decades? And don’t we normally bitch that a great indie film like Beasts of the Southern Wild is the type of thing the Academy never goes for? Of course, bitching about the Oscars is a pastime movie lovers enjoy endlessly, but so much for what passes for “analysis” during the Oscar season is ridiculous. So, I for one am glad that I am done my year end wrap up – it makes it easier to ignore it all, enjoy the Oscar ceremony in 6 weeks, and move on to the 2013 movie year. Let’s hope it’s as good as 2012.

The posts that follow are, like every year, admittedly overkill. In addition to a traditional top 10 list, I do two posts for runners up (posted today, Monday), a post for the top 10 performances in each Oscar category (to be posted Wednesday) and another for the best ensembles casts of the year something I still think the Academy should adopt (Thursday), my own personal Oscar ballot (Thursday as well) as well separate posts for the top 5 animated films and top 10 Documentaries (to be posted Tuesday)- please note, if either an animated film or doc was good enough for a top 10 placement – and none were this year – they would be included as well as a depressingly long post on the worst and most disappointing films of the year (Friday).

Yes, this is overkill. But there is a method to my madness. The reason I go so overboard with lists and naming films is because I feel too often – especially at Oscar time – the conversation about movies becomes too narrow – anything that isn’t an “Oscar movie” gets shunted aside and not even mentioned. In my own small way, I try to combat this. Yes, a lot of the films on the following pages are “Oscar films”, but there are as many if not more that won’t come close to the Kodak theatre this year. To me, the value in the Oscars – and the awards season as a whole, that includes critic’s top 10 lists – is in the conversations and debates they inspire, as we all let the world know what we think represents cinema at its best over the past 12 months.

I endeavor to see as many of the “great” films of the year – or at least the ones others think are great. But, as always, it’s not possible to see everything. I would have loved to see the following films, but either I missed them when they played in my area, or they never did and still haven’t come to DVD or other means of home viewing: How to Survive a Plague, The Gatekeepers, Neighboring Sounds, Sister, Almayer’s Folly, Room 237, The House I Live In, Not Fade Away, The Central Park Five, West of Memphis, Middle of Nowhere, and Farewell My Queen. So who knows, maybe I missed one of the great films of 2012.

Some of you will agree with my lists, some of you will undoubtedly think I’ve lost my damn mind in placing these films over your own favorites. This would be the case no matter what list I came up with. I am more interested in hearing what YOU think are the year’s best, rather than tell me why I’m such an idiot, but I suppose there’s room for both. But as I always say, this is my list. If you don’t like it, make your own.

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty
Directed by:  Kathryn Bigelow.
Written by: Mark Boal.
Starring: Jessica Chastain (Maya), Jason Clarke (Dan), Mark Strong (George), Jennifer Ehle (Jessica), Kyle Chandler (Joseph Bradley), Mark Duplass (Steve), James Gandolfini (C.I.A. Director), Stephen Dillane (National Security Advisor), John Schwab (Deputy National Security Advisor), Édgar Ramírez (Larry from Ground Branch), Reda Kateb (Ammar), Harold Perrineau (Jack), Fares Fares (Hakim), Yoav Levi (Abu Faraj al-Libbi), Fredric Lehne (The Wolf), Tushaar Mehra (Abu Ahmed), Joel Edgerton (Patrick - Squadron Team Leader), Chris Pratt (Justin – DEVGRU), Taylor Kinney (Jared – DEVGRU), Callan Mulvey (Saber – DEVGRU), Siaosi Fonua (Henry – DEVGRU), Phil Somerville (Phil – DEVGRU), Nash Edgerton (Nate - DEVGRU EOD), Mike Colter (Mike – DEVGRU).

Zero Dark Thirty opens not with images of 9/11 but with only the sounds of 9/11 – desperate phone calls from people saying goodbye, begging for help that they know will never come. In many ways this brief, imageless segment is more effective a representation of 9/11 than the few movies that have dealt with the tragedy in a more direct way in the years since. Those images are already burned into our collective memories – we don’t need to see them again. These sounds bring the events of that day roaring back – and is perhaps the most effective opening sequence you could ask for.

The following two and half hours of Zero Dark Thirty is about the CIA’s efforts to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind responsible for that tragedy. The movie focuses its attention of Maya (Jessica Chastain), a CIA agent who will simply not let go until she has caught Bin Laden. We see her, and other CIA agents, as they use “enhanced interrogation methods” on detainees, and any delusions you have about whether or not this is torture will fly out the window fairly quickly. It is torture. And it is brutal. Eventually the interrogations lead to a name – Abu Ahmed – who the CIA is told is a courier for a man named Faraj, a key financier for Al Qaeda. Abu Ahmed is the man who is responsible for transferring messages back and forth from Faraj to Bin Laden. And may be the only person who really knows where the Al Qaeda leader is hiding. Maya doggedly pursues this lead for years – refusing to give up on it when everyone else in the CIA believes it to be a dead end. But since we know how the movie will end, we also know that Maya is right.

Zero Dark Thirty does many things – all of them well. On one hand, it is a portrait of a woman who becomes obsessed with putting the pieces of a puzzle together. We’ve seen this in a few great movies in the last few years – David Fincher’s Zodiac springs to mind. Because like Robert Graysmith in that film, who thinks he has all the pieces of the puzzle to figure out who Zodiac is but cannot quite make them fit, Maya is similarly driven and obsessed. Both are lonely characters – Graysmith’s family being literally replaced around the dinner table by boxes and boxes of paper – and Maya doesn’t even have a family to begin with. When one character (Jennifer Ehle, wonderfully sympathetic) asks her if she has is sleeping with anyone on base, Maya bluntly responds “I’m not the girl who fucks” – Maya is driven solely by her obsession. There is nothing else in her life. And it’s to Chastain’s credit that she makes Maya’s obsession seem real and turns Maya into a real character instead of the robot she could have seemed. It really is one of the very best performances of 2012.

The other great performance in Zero Dark Thirty is by Jason Clarke, who plays Dan, who heads up the “detainee” program – and is the one who is principally responsible for all the “enhanced interrogation”. Dan is a likable guy – when he’s not interrogating people, which is when he becomes downright scary. “You lie to me, and I’m gonna hurt you” he tells the detainees – and they believe him, because he’s more than willing to back up his claim. Clarke, poised to become a star thanks to great performances here and earlier this year in Lawless (not to mention several high profile upcoming releases) makes Dan into an intelligent, thoughtful, yet brutal human being.

And these two performances (and the one by Ehle) are key because they add the human element to what could have “just” been an expertly crafted procedural. And make no mistake, this is an expertly crafted film. Mark Boal’s well-researched screenplay takes you through, one step at a time, what happened, and what led to that night when Bin Laden was killed. And Kathryn Bigelow’s direction is even sharper here than it was in her Oscar winning The Hurt Locker, especially in that final night time raid, which is the most suspenseful sequence of the year, even though we know how it turns out. Boal and Bigelow have once again crafted a timely, important movie – one that leaves politics aside, for the most part, and allows the audience to make up their own mind.

Which, unfortunately, brings me to the made up “controversy” that surrounds the film. Do I think that Zero Dark Thirty endorses torture? No, I don’t. I think it shows torture, without judgment, and allows the characters who commit it to explain their actions. But showing something does not equal endorsing it. Do you really need to be told that torture is wrong? Can you honestly sit there and watch what happens to these detainees and not think that it shouldn’t be done to another human being? As for the question about the movie saying that torture was essential to capturing Bin Laden, and the claims of politicians and pundits saying it wasn’t, I have to wonder what they were watching. It is true that the first person in the film who mentions the name of the courier, which will eventually lead to Bin Laden, was subjected to “enhanced interrogation methods”. It is also true that while he is being enhancely interrogated, he doesn’t reveal the name of the courier – he only does that later, when they are being nice to him, and trying to build up trust. Besides, any movie that is about the War on Terror that doesn’t include torture would be a needless whitewash of history. Whether you like it or not, America engaged in torture for a time to try to win the War on Terror. Zero Dark Thirty faces this head-on.

I’m sorry I even had to include the above paragraph in this review of one of the best films of the year. This is a film that intelligent people will be able to go into and make up their own minds – and the whole time, they will also be entertained by a tight thriller made my filmmakers at the top of their game. Believe the buzz – Zero Dark Thirty is a masterwork.

Interesting Oscar States

Friday, January 11, 2013

Interesting Oscar States

1.       Only three films in history have won the Best Picture Oscars without having their Director nominated – Wings (1927/28), Grand Hotel (1932) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989). I do think that both Argo and Zero Dark Thirty have a better chance than anything since Driving Miss Daisy to make it four – but the odds are still slim.

2.       Wings and Grand Hotel were the only two to win Best Picture without a Director or Screenplay nomination, so sorry Les Miserables fans, it is dead in the water for the win.

3.       Only 11 Films have won the Best Picture Oscar with no actors nominated – although it should be noted that it has happened twice in the past decade (Return of the King and Slumdog Millionaire). This isn’t a death knell for Life of Pi, but certainly makes it harder – both of those films were legitimate cultural phenoms – Life of Pi is not.

4.       No Film since 1980’s Ordinary People has won the Best Picture Award without being nominated for Best Editing (only 9 in total), although that shouldn’t be a factor this year since Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook – your five most likely winners – did get in.

5.       Silver Linings Playbook became only the 14^thfilm in history – and the first since Reds in 1981 – to get nominated in all four acting categories. Before supporters of that film get too excited though, only two of the previous 13 (Mrs. Miniver in 1942 and From Here to Eternity in 1953) actually won the Best Picture Oscar.

6.       Only 22 – or roughly a quarter – of the Best Picture Winners have gotten the win with fewer than 8 nominations. This bodes well for Lincoln (12), Life of Pi (11) and Silver Linings Playbook (8), less so for Argo (7) and Zero Dark Thirty (5).

7.       With the 12 nominations Lincoln received, Steven Spielberg’s films have now received a total of 122 nominations – second only to William Wyler (127). Spielberg’s films have currently won 29 Oscars, second only to Wyler’s 37. Can Lincoln win 8 to tie or 9 to beat Wyler?

8.       With the three nominated performances in Lincoln, the total number of acting nominations Spielberg’s films have received is now 12. Zero have won an Oscar, but that should change this year.

9.       This is Spielberg’s 7^th Best Director nomination – putting him in a tie for third all time with David Lean, Fred Zinneman, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen. Billy Wilder was nominated 8 times, and William Wyler 12.

10.   If Spielberg wins the Best Director Oscar, he’ll join John Ford (4), Wyler (3) and Frank Capra (3) as the only director to win three or more Directing Oscars.

11.   Daniel Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington, Robert DeNiro and Sally Field all have the opportunity to join Katherine Hepburn (4), Jack Nicholson (3), Meryl Streep (3) and Walter Brennan (3) as the only actors to win three or more Oscars. Sally Field would be the only one to go 3 for 3 with nominations to wins.

12.   Cinematographer Roger Deakins (Skyfall) received his 10^th nomination this year – the most of any active cinematographer. He has never won. Robert Richardson (Django Unchained) received his 8^th nomination (second among active cinematographer), but has already won three Oscars.

13.   Composer Thomas Newman (Skyfall) received his 10^thBest Score nomination this year. He has yet to win an Oscar. John Williams received his 48^th Nomination – and has won five times. Of those 48 nominations, 4 were for “Score Adaptations” back when that was a category, 5 for Original Songs, and the other 39 for Original Dramatic or Comedy Score. He is the most nominated living person. Walt Disney himself holds the all time record – 59 nominations, 22 wins and four honorary Oscars.

14.   Nominated Sound Mixer Greg P. Russell received his 16^th nomination for Skyfall. He is still looking for his first Oscar win.

Movie Review: Life Without Principle

Movie Review: Life Without Principle

Life Without Principle
Directed by: Johnnie To.
Written by: Kin-Yee Au & Ka-kit Cheung & Ben Wong & Nai-Hoi Yau & Tin-Shing Yip.
Starring: Lau Ching Wan (Panther), Richie Ren (Cheung Ching Fong), Denise Ho (Teresa), Myolie Wu (Connie), Lo Hoi-pang (Yuen), So Hang-suen (investor).

Every time I watch a Johnnie To movie, I anxiously await the gunfights. More than any other filmmaker in Hong Kong right now, To is the one who has taken over for the likes of John Woo as an expert action filmmaker. His gunfights in films like Breaking News, Election and Election II, Vengeance and Full Time Killer (to name but a few of his films) are expertly crafted, and unlike American action films, not cut to shit with rapid fire editing. John Woo described his films as ballet with bullets, and To has a similar style. He is one of the best action film directors in the world right now.

This was very much the case when I sat down to watch his latest. Life Without Principle. But a strange thing happened as I watched the film – I got so invested in the different characters in the movie, the expertly crafted story, and the fast paced storytelling employed by To, that I barely noticed that he didn’t have any action set pieces in the film at all. By the end of the movie, I realized that I had seen perhaps To’s best film to date – and it didn’t even contain the type of action he is best known for.

The movie basically has three plot threads – all of them revolving around the financial crisis. In the first one, we see a woman whose job it is to sell stocks to people for a major Hong Kong bank. Obviously, the riskier the stock, the more than bank wants to sell it – and she has a quota to meet and could be out of a job if she doesn’t meet it. The problem is, anyone who knows about stocks, knows that the bank are ripping you off with bank fees and would rather invest themselves for far less – and anyone who doesn’t know about stocks, shouldn’t be investing in this sort of stock anyway, which means you have to lie to them to get them to buy. It appears her co-workers have no problem with doing so – but she has a conscience.

The second story line is about a group of gangsters. Even they seem to have trouble raising funds recently – their once posh banquets have now fallen on hard time, with fewer tables and fancily named vegetarian entrées to disguise the fact that they are cheap. They have even lost some of the ranks to the financial trade themselves – you can’t make enough money being a gangster, so you may as well trade stock. Panther is perhaps the only loyal gangster left – he hopes from one of his “sworn brothers” to the next, getting them all out of jams.

The third story line is about a police Inspector, who is called out to several crimes throughout the movie (he really is the unifying character of the movie). While he appears to be just a cop with no involvement in the financial crisis, his wife gets him involved anyway – going from wanting to buy a new apartment, to insisting they do so when they unexpectantly become the guardians of the little sister he didn’t even know he had. Of course, she buys at just the wrong time – when the bottom starts to fall out.

To weaves these stories together with ruthless efficiency. There is murder and bloodshed in the film to be sure, but it’s low-key compared to most of To’s other efforts. The message is simple and direct – there really is no difference between the cutthroat world of high finance and the cutthroat world of gangsters. Like last year’s Margin Call, Life Without Principle shows just how far bankers will go to make money – not caring who they hurt in the process. Of the two, I think I prefer this one – To’s film is less preachy than Margin Call, and a hell of a lot more entertaining. Sure, the ending could use a little work (I don’t think it needs the happy ending that gets tacked on here), but overall I think Life Without Principle shows To at the height of his powers – even if there are no gunfights to speak of.

Movie Review: The Day He Arrives

Movie Review: The Day He Arrives

The Day He Arrives
Directed by: Sang-soo Hong.
Written by: Sang-soo Hong.
Starring: Jun-Sang Yu (Sungjoon), Sang Jung Kim (Youngho), Seon-mi Song (Boram), Bo-kyung Kim (Kyungjin / Yejeon).

Sang-soo Hong’s The Day He Arrives is a quietly moving film. In many ways, I suppose, it is autobiographical. It is about a filmmaker Sungjoon who returns to Seoul for a few days visit from his teaching post in the country. He directed four films, but apparently no one saw them, so he has taken up teaching. He has no plans while in the city except to visit his old friend Youngho, a movie critic. But he spends the first night alone, not being to get in contact with his old friend, and instead going drinking with a group of film students before confusing them by taking off on them. He then visits an old girlfriend, and begs forgiveness.

Finally, he will meet up with Youngho, and the rest of the movie plays like variations on a theme. In each, Sungjoon and Youngho go to a bar with Youngho’s attractive female friend Boram, a film professor, where they spend their time drinking while the owner is away. Eventually, the owner Yejeon, comes back – and Sungjoon is struck by how much she looks like that old girlfriend (since they are both played by the same actress, he’s right). But what happens in each of these variations changes slightly. They have similar discussions, but they take on different meanings as one character will say or do something different. Twice they will meet up with a former actor of Sungjoon’s – once he is angry with Sungjoon for abandoning him for a bigger star after their first movie, and one time he is a lovable, drunken oaf. In all of them, Boram seems to be attracted to Sungjoon, even though he thinks she should be with Youngho, and she flirts with him, oblivious to the fact that he is more drawn to the bartender. And the way Sungjoon expresses that attraction to the bartender – and the results – is also different each time.

The movie is both funny and sad. As with other films of Sang-soo Hong that I have seen (and I feel I should see more), the film is made up of a series of scenes where the characters drink and talk – and then go somewhere else to drink and talk some more. The film is shot in beautiful black and white, which gives an element of sadness to the proceedings. Sungjun seems lost and aimless. He has nowhere to go – either in Seoul or in his life – so he just keeps repeating his day ad nausea. The film students recall what he once was – young and idealistic – and while its fun to look back at that for a while, eventually he must flee. His relationship with his girlfriend is over – but he has to go back and revisit that as well. And then, when he meets the barmaid, who looks just like her, he must repeat the pattern all over again. Some people have criticized Sang-soo for simply remaking the same film over and over again – and I can’t help but think that The Day He Arrives is a slight shot at those critics, as he has made a film about a filmmaker who keeps living the same day, with slight variations again and again.

The movie is filled with Sungjoon’s longing for something more – something he will not discover, at least not during the film’s fleet 79 minute running time. At the end of the film, he’s still wandering around in circles, still melancholy, still doomed to repeat his mistakes again and again. The Day He Arrives is a deceptively simple little film.