It's been some time since I've written anything, but 2012 was such an incredible year for movies, I just couldn't resist making a list. This is going to have to go a lot longer than just 10, but I'll separate those first since they warrant the most attention.
The Top Ten
10.
Silver Linings Playbook
Misery loves company and one good way to help deal with your problems is to find someone else with similar ones. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both give the best performances of their careers in this one, as a pair who are both recovering from some serious mental health problems and find help in working with one another.
9.
Flight
The greatest flight crash sequence ever put to film. Not to be underestimated, it also had another great performance by Denzel Washington as an alcoholic who finds redemption at a moment which is simultaneously his greatest triumph and biggest disgrace.
8.
Arbitrage
Richard Gere gives an incredible performance that should've garnered him an oscar, playing a total Wall Street sleaze ball who we strangely enough can't help but sympathize with and wonder whether or not he will get away with it all when everything in his life begins collapsing around him.
7.
Lincoln
A flawless piece of work about the battle for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Tightly directed, concise, and peerlessly made.
6.
Life of Pi
An unbelievable journey that was considered un-filmable. Was the tiger just an aspect of Pi's personality? And if so, what does it say that the beast left him once they finally reached shore? If the savage instincts of our psyche are what is needed in survival situations, perhaps it is true they are not needed when we re-enter the "civilized world".
5.
Looper
The most well made movie about time travel to come around in years and an excellent sci-fi noir to boot. With time travel movies invariably come paradoxes and this one is no exception, but this one does arguably play by the rules it establishes, and the concepts it suggests will keep you thinking long after it's over.
4.
Prometheus
The first two Alien films (Alien and Aliens) are sci-fi classics whose progeny have been a succession of mediocre sequels. It's great to see Ridley Scott setting things to rights once more, and doing so in a way that expands the universe beyond just the aliens themselves, with interesting questions about humanity and its desire to know its creators, even if they might ultimately lead to disappointment or danger.
3.
Argo
Ben Affleck has come a long way. This movie is just so well made it's ridiculous. Putting aside the complaints some had about embellishing upon the facts to make things more interesting, this movie is one of the most skillful I have ever seen at winding up the tension and keeping us there. It doesn't seem to matter that we already know the ending walking in. That really takes something.
2.
Ookami no kodomo Ame to Yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki)
Japanese animated film that is easily up to par with what Ghibli often produces though it was done by a different studio. The concept is simple and so is the story. We have a single mother with two children and a secret which must be kept from the outside world. This premise had the potential to go overboard and become completely insipid, but while the design might make it look cutesy and childish, the makers of this film had enough sense and patience to follow the ideas brought up to their natural conclusions. There's real terror and fear when the characters stand to be discovered, and real drama and sadness when their paths take different turns. Explores the conflicts of nature's call against the desire for inclusion in human society and the need to hide our secrets with the need to share them. (Note I don't know if this has had its international release yet or not, I saw it in the theater in Japan without subtitles.)
1.
Cloud Atlas
A lot of people are going to disagree with me on this one. An absolute masterpiece whose brilliance I am hard pressed to describe. Flowing across multiple centuries with multiple stories and characters. It is simultaneously a historical period drama, 70's murder-mystery-suspense, and futuristic actioner. Who would've thought that watching a bunch of old folks escape from a cruel lock-in community could be just as tense as a bloody battle between post-apocalyptic tribes? And it all comes together as the campfire story of an old warrior beneath the stars. While it does demand some patience and attention on the part of the audience to follow the multi-pronged story, I didn't try to make too much of the links between the stories, (some are easy to spot, others aren't) and concentrated more on the feelings and emotions of the characters. To achieve its effect of souls being reborn throughout the ages in different bodies, this film used actors in multiple roles, a concept I first heard of when Tarrantino described it in making Kill Bill (Gordon Liu and Michael Parks both had multiple roles in that film). It reminded me a little of the excellent short story "The Egg" (available: here)
Runners up
And there's going a lot of them. 2012 had enough great movies for two ordinary years.
A Nameless Gangster
Korean crime flick about a man with contacts and audacity and a lot of luck... and possibly a unexpressed death wish too. Like "Arbitrage", we're on the edge of our seats wondering whether this slimeball of a main character is going to get away with it or not when the walls start closing in on him.
Django Unchained
Another great Tarrantino flick, though not his best. Flawed, and probably more deserving of the director's original idea to split it into two parts, I'm hoping for a director's cut that does just that or at least expands on what he cut out. Still the end result is a great and memorable trip nonetheless.
Zero Dark Thirty
Katheryn Bigelow is back, and while the result isn't as great as "The Hurt Locker", this is still a pretty well made movie. Like Argo, the final scenes really ratchet up the tension even though we already know the outcome.
Kiseki (I wish)
The most recent film by the great Japanese director Koreeda about two young boys living in different cities after their parents split. Still holding out childish hopes of their parents reconciling, they hear an urban legend, which resembles a modern day folk-tale regarding a phenomenon that grants wishes to those present to see it. Along with their young friends, the two secretly set off without their parents' knowledge to meet each other half-way between their cities to witness it in some scenes that reminded me some of the kids sneaking away in "Stand By Me". A good coming of age film about the acceptance of harsher realities and the release of childish dreams (Note: this was actually released a couple years ago in Japan but I didn't see it until 2012, which I believe is the year of its international release).
The Secret World of Arrietty
"NO"
Starring Gael Garcia Bernal as an ad-man hired to try and prevent Chilean dictator Pinochet from clinging to power in the 1988 referendum election with a campaign to sway public opinion against him. Shot partly with older cameras in use for that era to help give it a more authentic look. (I'm not sure if this had its official release in 2012 or not, I saw at the Tokyo International Film Festival)
also:
Les Miserables
The Avengers
The Hobbit
The Dark Knight Rises
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Lawless
Not so much a great film as an overlooked one, but I really am a sucker for well made period pieces and this one takes us to a time and place few if any others have (The Prohibition-Era Appalachian countryside) and recreates it well.
The "Better Late than Never" Category
So what was the best film I actually "saw for the first time" in 2012? While for the most part, I would still stand by the list I've made, the first few films on this list would easily rival any of those in the Top Ten. Perhaps I'm making this list a little too personal (and exhaustive), but what else are lists like this for other than to share the things we love that would make good recommendations?
The Secret in their Eyes
A murder mystery revenge story that is also a poignant melodrama and has a story which spans several decades. Argentina won the oscar for best foreign language film a few years back with this title, and it's as fine a movie as I've ever seen.
Another Year
This really should've been nominated for best film last year instead of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". Mike Leigh has got a certain style with his films that is truly unique, and this is one of his best.
The Hurricane
Another great Denzel Washington performance. This one about a wrongfully imprisoned boxer who fights years to regain his freedom.
The Emperor's Club
This year I finally saw "Dead Poet's Society" for the first time (which wasn't terrible, but I was not much impressed with). I watched it back to back with this movie (which are similar) and thought that not only was DPS over-rated but that "Emperor's Club" was the superior movie. It deals with tougher themes, and asks difficult questions about the future roles of cheaters and bad students after their formal education ceases, and what responsibility teachers have in it.
The Princess of Montpensier
A well-done period piece that is part swashbuckling adventure, part sultry romance, and part court intrigue about a young princess in revolutionary France who is shuffled from one kingdom to another in the tumult of wars and alliances.
The Hunter
Willem Dafoe as a black market hunter, searching the wilds of Tazmania for the last rumored Tazmanian Tiger (a creature that was brought to extinction by humans nearly a century ago).
Pascali's Island
Featuring a young Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, and Charles Dance (from recent Game of Thrones fame), this movie had western characters thrown in to exotic locales with dangerous subterfuge (think "The English Patient"), yet another thing I am an absolute sucker for in certain movies.
The Man from Nowhere
Plays out like a darker, grittier, more violent version of "Taken" in the underworld of Seoul's black market organ trade.
This Boy's Life
Starring a very young Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro as a boy and his abusive stepfather.
Beginners
Disney's Christmas Carol
Nixon
You Can Count On Me
The Top Ten
10.
Silver Linings Playbook
Misery loves company and one good way to help deal with your problems is to find someone else with similar ones. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both give the best performances of their careers in this one, as a pair who are both recovering from some serious mental health problems and find help in working with one another.
9.
Flight
The greatest flight crash sequence ever put to film. Not to be underestimated, it also had another great performance by Denzel Washington as an alcoholic who finds redemption at a moment which is simultaneously his greatest triumph and biggest disgrace.
Arbitrage
Richard Gere gives an incredible performance that should've garnered him an oscar, playing a total Wall Street sleaze ball who we strangely enough can't help but sympathize with and wonder whether or not he will get away with it all when everything in his life begins collapsing around him.
7.
Lincoln
A flawless piece of work about the battle for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Tightly directed, concise, and peerlessly made.
6.
Life of Pi
An unbelievable journey that was considered un-filmable. Was the tiger just an aspect of Pi's personality? And if so, what does it say that the beast left him once they finally reached shore? If the savage instincts of our psyche are what is needed in survival situations, perhaps it is true they are not needed when we re-enter the "civilized world".
5.
Looper
The most well made movie about time travel to come around in years and an excellent sci-fi noir to boot. With time travel movies invariably come paradoxes and this one is no exception, but this one does arguably play by the rules it establishes, and the concepts it suggests will keep you thinking long after it's over.
4.
Prometheus
The first two Alien films (Alien and Aliens) are sci-fi classics whose progeny have been a succession of mediocre sequels. It's great to see Ridley Scott setting things to rights once more, and doing so in a way that expands the universe beyond just the aliens themselves, with interesting questions about humanity and its desire to know its creators, even if they might ultimately lead to disappointment or danger.
3.
Argo
Ben Affleck has come a long way. This movie is just so well made it's ridiculous. Putting aside the complaints some had about embellishing upon the facts to make things more interesting, this movie is one of the most skillful I have ever seen at winding up the tension and keeping us there. It doesn't seem to matter that we already know the ending walking in. That really takes something.
2.
Ookami no kodomo Ame to Yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki)
Japanese animated film that is easily up to par with what Ghibli often produces though it was done by a different studio. The concept is simple and so is the story. We have a single mother with two children and a secret which must be kept from the outside world. This premise had the potential to go overboard and become completely insipid, but while the design might make it look cutesy and childish, the makers of this film had enough sense and patience to follow the ideas brought up to their natural conclusions. There's real terror and fear when the characters stand to be discovered, and real drama and sadness when their paths take different turns. Explores the conflicts of nature's call against the desire for inclusion in human society and the need to hide our secrets with the need to share them. (Note I don't know if this has had its international release yet or not, I saw it in the theater in Japan without subtitles.)
1.
Cloud Atlas
A lot of people are going to disagree with me on this one. An absolute masterpiece whose brilliance I am hard pressed to describe. Flowing across multiple centuries with multiple stories and characters. It is simultaneously a historical period drama, 70's murder-mystery-suspense, and futuristic actioner. Who would've thought that watching a bunch of old folks escape from a cruel lock-in community could be just as tense as a bloody battle between post-apocalyptic tribes? And it all comes together as the campfire story of an old warrior beneath the stars. While it does demand some patience and attention on the part of the audience to follow the multi-pronged story, I didn't try to make too much of the links between the stories, (some are easy to spot, others aren't) and concentrated more on the feelings and emotions of the characters. To achieve its effect of souls being reborn throughout the ages in different bodies, this film used actors in multiple roles, a concept I first heard of when Tarrantino described it in making Kill Bill (Gordon Liu and Michael Parks both had multiple roles in that film). It reminded me a little of the excellent short story "The Egg" (available: here)
Runners up
And there's going a lot of them. 2012 had enough great movies for two ordinary years.
A Nameless Gangster
Korean crime flick about a man with contacts and audacity and a lot of luck... and possibly a unexpressed death wish too. Like "Arbitrage", we're on the edge of our seats wondering whether this slimeball of a main character is going to get away with it or not when the walls start closing in on him.
Django Unchained
Another great Tarrantino flick, though not his best. Flawed, and probably more deserving of the director's original idea to split it into two parts, I'm hoping for a director's cut that does just that or at least expands on what he cut out. Still the end result is a great and memorable trip nonetheless.
Zero Dark Thirty
Katheryn Bigelow is back, and while the result isn't as great as "The Hurt Locker", this is still a pretty well made movie. Like Argo, the final scenes really ratchet up the tension even though we already know the outcome.
Kiseki (I wish)
The most recent film by the great Japanese director Koreeda about two young boys living in different cities after their parents split. Still holding out childish hopes of their parents reconciling, they hear an urban legend, which resembles a modern day folk-tale regarding a phenomenon that grants wishes to those present to see it. Along with their young friends, the two secretly set off without their parents' knowledge to meet each other half-way between their cities to witness it in some scenes that reminded me some of the kids sneaking away in "Stand By Me". A good coming of age film about the acceptance of harsher realities and the release of childish dreams (Note: this was actually released a couple years ago in Japan but I didn't see it until 2012, which I believe is the year of its international release).
The Secret World of Arrietty
What wonders the human world would hold if it could be viewed from someone the size of a mouse, and what terrors too... Bringing both those aspects to life in an effective way, this film told a simple story but told it well. One of the better Ghibli offerings in recent years. (Note: like "Kiseki", this one had its Japanese release a couple years ago. Unlike that film, however, I did watch this one in the theaters, unsubbed when it came out, but had a chance to revisit it in 2012, the year of its international release).
"NO"
Starring Gael Garcia Bernal as an ad-man hired to try and prevent Chilean dictator Pinochet from clinging to power in the 1988 referendum election with a campaign to sway public opinion against him. Shot partly with older cameras in use for that era to help give it a more authentic look. (I'm not sure if this had its official release in 2012 or not, I saw at the Tokyo International Film Festival)
also:
Les Miserables
The Avengers
The Hobbit
The Dark Knight Rises
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Lawless
Not so much a great film as an overlooked one, but I really am a sucker for well made period pieces and this one takes us to a time and place few if any others have (The Prohibition-Era Appalachian countryside) and recreates it well.
The "Better Late than Never" Category
So what was the best film I actually "saw for the first time" in 2012? While for the most part, I would still stand by the list I've made, the first few films on this list would easily rival any of those in the Top Ten. Perhaps I'm making this list a little too personal (and exhaustive), but what else are lists like this for other than to share the things we love that would make good recommendations?
The Secret in their Eyes
A murder mystery revenge story that is also a poignant melodrama and has a story which spans several decades. Argentina won the oscar for best foreign language film a few years back with this title, and it's as fine a movie as I've ever seen.
Another Year
This really should've been nominated for best film last year instead of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". Mike Leigh has got a certain style with his films that is truly unique, and this is one of his best.
The Hurricane
Another great Denzel Washington performance. This one about a wrongfully imprisoned boxer who fights years to regain his freedom.
The Emperor's Club
This year I finally saw "Dead Poet's Society" for the first time (which wasn't terrible, but I was not much impressed with). I watched it back to back with this movie (which are similar) and thought that not only was DPS over-rated but that "Emperor's Club" was the superior movie. It deals with tougher themes, and asks difficult questions about the future roles of cheaters and bad students after their formal education ceases, and what responsibility teachers have in it.
The Princess of Montpensier
A well-done period piece that is part swashbuckling adventure, part sultry romance, and part court intrigue about a young princess in revolutionary France who is shuffled from one kingdom to another in the tumult of wars and alliances.
The Hunter
Willem Dafoe as a black market hunter, searching the wilds of Tazmania for the last rumored Tazmanian Tiger (a creature that was brought to extinction by humans nearly a century ago).
Pascali's Island
Featuring a young Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, and Charles Dance (from recent Game of Thrones fame), this movie had western characters thrown in to exotic locales with dangerous subterfuge (think "The English Patient"), yet another thing I am an absolute sucker for in certain movies.
The Man from Nowhere
Plays out like a darker, grittier, more violent version of "Taken" in the underworld of Seoul's black market organ trade.
This Boy's Life
Starring a very young Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro as a boy and his abusive stepfather.
Beginners
Disney's Christmas Carol
Nixon
You Can Count On Me
