So, once again we find ourselves in late February. Winter is hopefully on its last legs and so
is the interminable season of Hollywood self-congratulation. But before we bid the films of 2012 adieu, we
all must endure one more bloated awards show featuring Seth Macfarlane…and, of
course an equally bloated write-up featuring me. I leave it to you to decide which of us is
more annoying.
Overall, it was a very good year at the movies and even the
Academy recognized it. While the Academy
and I were not in complete alignment (and where would the fun be in that), at
least they only nominated two terrible movies for Best Picture (oh Les Miserables how I loathe you) and
that’s progress in my book. The rest
ranged from excellent (Amour, Django Unchained) to entertaining enough
(Lincoln, Argo) to a unique but confounding first feature (Beasts of the Southern Wild). Not too shabby. Of course they left the best movie of the
year out in the cold but that’s just par for the course.
This year, I did manage to see everything that was nominated
for Best Picture so I have included capsule reviews of each of the Best Picture
nominees in addition to the usual top-10. However, I didn’t get to
everything. Some notable films that I missed this year are: Tabu,
The Turin Horse, This is Not a Film, Cloud Atlas, Barbara, and Rust and Bone.
