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.
Best Picture (Availability)
1. The Master (Theaters, BD/DVD 2/26):
Leading up to the release of The Master,
the media was abuzz about how much of it was based on the early days of
scientology and, specifically, its charismatic founder L. Ron Hubbard. But, while Anderson acknowledges that the
founding of the controversial “religion” was an inspiration,
he obviously had more in mind. In
actuality, The Master is more
concerned with the question of the power, the limits of faith, and the
circumstances that cultivate certain types of belief systems. Anderson explores these weighty themes via the
relationship between traumatized, alcoholic World War II veteran Freddie Quell (a
never better Joaquin Phoenix) and the Hubbard-esque leader of one of a new
religion/cult that is gaining traction in postwar America (Philip Seymour
Hoffman). Through the dynamic nature of
their relationship (an unclassifiable mix of friendship, mentorship,
co-dependency, and leader/follower, and alcohol supplier/consumer), we follow
Freddie’s quest for companionship, peace, and order as Hoffman’s character
alternately bonds with and manipulates him.
The effects of these machinations are writ large across Phoenix’s face
(in glorious 70MM) as he struggles to figure out who he is and what, if
anything, he believes in. It is an
American masterpiece and, in my opinion, PT Anderson’s finest achievement.
2. Amour (Theaters): For Amour, Michael Haneke, the inveterate moralizer,
turned his professorial eye from the foibles and failures of humanity to the
more sympathetic territory of an elderly woman’s last days. True to form, Haneke’s work is stark, unsparing,
and brutally honest. Emanuelle Riva and
Jean-Louis Trintignant turn in exemplary performances in the lead roles,
imbuing their characters with dignity and gravitas rarely seen on film. Riva in particular shows every stage in her
slow degradation in heart-breaking detail.
It’s a new look for Haneke, one of the few true masters working today,
but he pulls it off wonderfully (as always).
3. Holy Motors (BD/DVD 2/26): In Holy Motors, Denis Levant plays a man
who is driven around town from appointment to appointment in the back of a
truly oversized limousine. At each
appointment he adopts a new face and a new persona and acts out a scene. In the space of a car ride he becomes a
demented leprechaun, an accordion player, a homeless man, and, well something
with a family of monkeys. If anything,
it’s actually crazier than it sounds. Holy Motors is simultaneously a
repository for all of the insane story ideas that director Leos Carax couldn’t
get financed over the past decade, a poetic celebration of film, an elegy for
analog moviemaking (ironically shot with a digital camera), and an excuse to
show some talking cars not named Herbie.
It’s glorious…and bugfuck insane.
4. Django Unchained (Theaters, BD/DVD 4/16): A Tarantino movie ranking high on
the Paulies? Shocking, I know. But what may actually surprise some
folks is that when I walked out of Tarantino’s latest, I wasn’t sure what I
thought about it. I enjoyed it but I left the theater feeling uneasy with
some of the depictions of violence in the film, particularly in the scenes
involving the abuse and torture of African American slaves. At first I
thought he had finally gone “too far” but, upon further reflection, I realized
that the very images I had issues with, were the entire point of the
movie. In Django, Tarantino uses violence like Pollock
used paint, layering it on in places, dialing it back in others, and always
emphasizing the aspects most important to the action on screen. The
cartoon violence, insane dialogue, and giant explosions that dominated the trailers
are limited to the pulpy revenge fantasy portions of the film while the scenes
of violence against and among slaves in the movie are rendered in an
uncompromising, hyper-realistic manner that refuses to allow the audience to
dismiss it as “only a movie.” In this way, Tarantino delivered the
revisionist spaghetti western that people were paying to see, while showing
more about the evils of the antebellum south in a few short scenes than others
have managed in entire films.
5. Moonrise Kingdom (BD/DVD): Do you like
Wes Anderson? If you pick up Moonrise Kingdom, you’d better because
this movie is so Wes Anderson it’s like Wes Anderson went into his own head Being John Malkovich style and spit out
a film. Mid-century kitsch –check;
quirky soundtrack (partially French) – check; children acting like adults (and
vice versa) – check; adults acting like children – check; overhead
action shots – check; serious daddy issues –check; Bill Murray – a grateful
check. It’s like he listened to the
criticisms of his style, processed them, and instead of trying something new,
he just Wes-ified (yeah, that’s a thing now) everything by 200%. Somehow, it works and the result is
Anderson’s most charming and poignant film since The Royal Tenenbaums.
6. The Loneliest Planet (Netflix Instant,
BD/DVD): Not much happens for the first chunk of The Loneliest Planet. We get
to know the primary (a couple hiking in the Georgian mountains and their local
guide), they talk, they hike, they take pictures of gorgeous scenery…and then
all of a sudden something shocking happens.
It is over almost immediately but that one moment (no spoilers)
irrevocably alters the dynamic between the characters. To say more would be to spoil the film but as
yourself, how would you react if you discovered you weren’t the person you
thought you were? What about your
partner?
7. Zero Dark Thirty (Theaters, BD/DVD
3/19): It is nearly impossible to discuss Zero
Dark Thirty without addressing the film’s depiction of torture as a means
to gather information in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The film depicts the torture of detainees in
a raw, uncompromising fashion and makes no secret of the fact that the
information gained from such methods would be of dubious quality at best. But, in the story, some such information does
indeed lead to the capture of Bin Laden.
Only folks with much higher security clearance than me (which isn’t
tough since I have no clearance) know whether that is how the mission actually
went down. If it didn’t, Bigelow’s
choices could be considered irresponsible (given the film’s claims to
historical accuracy). But I just don’t
know. What I do know is that the film
itself is a very methodical, tightly plotted procedural (think Zodiac with explosions) that expertly
tracks the “largest manhunt in history” without losing sight of the human toll
of both the investigation and the war.
It is a technically precise, mentally exhausting epic that makes use of
every bit of Kathryn Bigelow’s well-honed directorial skillset and leaves the
audience as simultaneously elated and emotionally drained as Jessica Chastain’s
lead investigator by the final frame.
8. Cosmopolis (BD/DVD): Hey it’s the second
limousine movie on this list! However,
this time instead of taking an unknown French actor around a city to play
different roles, it takes Robert “I’m not really a Vampire” Pattinson across
town to get a haircut. Of course that
trip is sidetracked by protesters, death threats, booty calls, and funerals all
while Pattinson’s multi-billion dollar fortune disappears as a result of his
own hubris. Pattinson rarely seems
ruffled by these events and at all times pushes forward to his appointment with
an icy, fatalism. The film itself seems
to mirror its main character’s icy detachment, refusing, but for fleeting
moments, to engage the audience on conventional cinematic terms, even in the
final scene (a stellar interaction with Paul Giamatti). It is Cronenberg’s most
psychologically complex (and least accessible) work since Spider and, as much as I love his recent genre deconstructions, it’s
good to see he can still get weird when the mood takes him.
9. Oslo, August 31st (Netflix
Instant and BD/DVD): Oslo, August 31st tracks a single day in the
life of a recovering drug addict named Anders as he struggles to reconnect with
his life after a stint in rehab. You
want to root for him as he deals with the effects of his past actions, the
ongoing burden of his addictions, and the crippling depression he experiences
as he goes through the motions of planning his future. However, from the first
scene (depicting his half-hearted suicide attempt), it is obvious that Anders
might be lost, a fact that is hammered home with every relationship he poisons
and lifeline he discards. The end result
is the most stark, brutal depiction of addiction that I’ve seen since Requiem for a Dream.
10. The Kid with a Bike (Netflix Instant and
BD/DVD): The Kid with a Bike focuses
on a deceptively simple story (a young boy is abandoned, taken in by a foster
parent, and runs into trouble with some local small time criminals). But, as with all of the Dardenne Brothers
movies (The Son, Rosetta, etc.), it
is the character development and interactions that elevate the story and show
the beauty and sorrow of these seemingly mundane situations. It is this talent of finding the exceptional
in the everyday that sets the Dardennes apart and makes each of their films an
experience worth celebrating.
Best Director
1.
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
2.
Leos Carax, Holy
Motors
3.
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Best Actress
1.
Emanuelle Riva, Amour: If Riva doesn’t win, whoever takes her statuette should
apologize. She’s just that good. It’s the kind of role (a dying woman wracked
with disease) that encourages overacting but Riva plays it with subtlety and
grace. It is a performance for the ages
and whatever awards she receives will barely do it justice.
2.
Keira Knightley, Anna Karenina
3.
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Actor
1.
Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master: I’m cheating a little here
but these two performances are absolutely inseparable from one another. True, the Academy says that Phoenix was the lead
actor and Hoffman was his supporting player (and, if put to the question, I
would agree) but it was their complex relationship that formed the beating
heart (and cancer-riddled bowel) of the film.
These were the best performances of the year (non-Riva division) and they
deserve to be honored as such.
2.
Leos Carax, Holy
Motors
3.
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour
Best Supporting Actor
1.
Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained: Waltz has (deservedly) gotten a lot of attention
for his performance but it was Samuel L. Jackson’s performance that was the morally
compromised, twisted core of Django. Jackson plays a house slave that looks
like the man on the front of the Uncle Ben’s box, sounds like “Samuel L.
Jackson,” works overtly to preserve the plantation status quo, and viciously undermines
Django’s break out plans. It is a deeply
unsettling and subversive role and Jackson just kills it.
2.
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
3.
Paul Giamatti, Cosmopolis
Best Supporting Actress
1.
Amy Adams, The
Master: With due respect to Helen Hunt…most….unsettling….handjob….ever.
2.
Cecile de France, The Kid With a Bike
3.
Ann Dowd, Compliance
Best Documentary
1.
Ai Wei
Wei: Never Sorry
2.
The
Invisible War
3.
Searching
for Sugarman
Most Disappointing Film
The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey in 48 FPS 3D – I wish I could say that this was really a
surprise but really this film has been a debacle from the start. During the production, the director changed,
production stalled, the plan changed from two films to three (never mind that
the source material is only about 300 pages), and finally Peter Jackson
announced that the whole thing would be shot in REVOLUTIONARY 48 frames per second
3D. Despite all that, I hoped against
hope that Jackson would bring some of his Lord
of the Rings magic to this prequel.
Instead what we got was a bloated mess of a movie incorporating parts of
the Lord of the Rings appendices, a dash of the Book of Lost Tales, some
shoehorned movie mythology and, oh, some of the book it was ostensibly based
on. Unsurprisingly, the tone was more than
a bit off, veering wildly between family adventure, comedy, dark fantasy, and
horrible foreshadowing.
Oh, and about that “revolutionary” technology…its awful….just
awful. Middle Earth is rendered in such
sharp focus that you can see the seams in the costumes, the layers of stage
makeup, the edges between the real scenery and the green screen. Characters look stacked in layers on an abruptly
foreshortened background. It’s like looking at a 300 million dollar elementary school
diorama (that somehow includes a goblin with balls on his chin). Sadly, I’m probably still going to pony up my
money for the next two installments, if only out of morbid curiosity (and a
need for material for this list) but at least I’ll be sure to save a few bucks
by eschewing the 3D next time.
BEST PICTURE ROUNDUP!
Amour: See Above.
Django Unchained:
See Above.
Zero Dark Thirty:
See Above.
Les Miserables:
And so we come to the worst film of the year (early favorite Snow White and the Huntsman can breathe
a sigh of relief and Life of Pi is
getting of easy as well). This movie was
so bad that to list all of its faults would take more time than the Oscars take
to watch. So, in the interest of brevity, I give you the Top-5 worst things
about Les Mis:
1.
Live Singing.
Anyone who saw the ubiquitous “live
singing featurette” knows, the actors in Les Mis were REALLY SINGING on the set instead of recording a
studio track and lip syncing on camera.
This is an interesting idea…in theory.
In practice, it sounds like crap.
A movie is not a stage show. The characters
aren’t standing in a Broadway theater belting out their lines. They are sitting, running, jumping (generally
doing movie things) and that affects the sound.
Also some movie stars have no business singing studio tracks, movie
stars like…
2.
Russell Crowe.
Inspector Javert is kind of a big role (being the main villain and all) and,
since Les Mis has no spoken lines,
typically a strong vice and some modicum of vocal talent would be seen as a
necessity. However, despite his
extensive experience fronting for 30
Odd Foot of Grunts, Russell Crowe is just not a very good singer. He is basically the guy in the karaoke bar
who compensates for not being able to hit more than two notes by drunkenly yelling
the lyrics to “Livin’ on a Prayer.” But
for three hours.
3.
Story Development (or lack thereof). This one might not be entirely fair. Fans of the musical tell me that the movie
hewed pretty closely to the plotline of the stage show and that inexplicable
character interactions, love at first sight, and seemingly random temporal
leaps are all part of the story. But I’m
judging it against other movies and it just didn’t hold up.
4.
Tom Hooper. Wait, the ‘auteur’ behind The King’s Speech couldn’t handle a big
budget, large scale musical? I’m
shocked, shocked I say. Pretty much the
entire film was shot in close up. Extreme close up. Like, counting Hugh Jackman’s nose hairs
close up. Hooper claims that all the
close ups were in the service of “emotional
intimacy” but they came off as uninspired and claustrophobic. Film
Crit Hulk broke this down much more comprehensively than I ever could. It’s
a good read if you have an interest in cinematography (or lengthy takedowns of
Oscar winning directors).
5.
Hathaway Hype.
Yes she lost some weight, shaved her head, and belted out one pretty
good song (you know the one). But one
decent song in an awful movie does not an Oscar make. I mean she dies half an hour into the movie
and doesn’t pop back up until her ghost is making eyes at Hugh Jackman on his
death bed. I am not a Hathaway hater at
all…its just annoying that, in a year filled with excellent, nuanced
performances in quality flicks, she is going to win an Oscar based on a damn trailer.
Life of Pi: I
barely know where to start with this movie.
It’s basically Castaway with a
CGI tiger in place of Wilson and an unknown Indian actor in place of Tom
Hanks. Oh, and a framing device where
the audience is told straight away that the story will “make you believe in
god.” Spoiler alert…it won’t. As an allegory/examination of the human
desire for faith, the obvious symbolism, candy colored visuals, and pseudo-New
Age spirituality are borderline insulting (especially in a year when similar themes
were dealt with so expertly in The Master). Even the much lauded special effects were disappointing,
rendering scenes that should have been majestic and awe inspiring as only so
many pixels on a green screen. Ang Lee is a fabulous director but every time he
is given a big CGI budget he goes overboard (See also, Hulk). Unfortunately, Life of Pi made a ton of money and garnered 11 Oscar
nominations. I fear that this success may encourage Lee to pursue other
big budget spectacles that are too artsy (or boring) for James Cameron to bother
with.
Argo: So, this is
probably going to win Best Picture. Ben
Affleck will complete his Hollywood redemption story and snag his second Oscar. In a lot of ways, it’s the perfect movie for
the Academy. It’s a grown up thriller
that moves briskly and stars likeable actors. It deals with heavy historical subject matter in
a way that feels intelligent but glazes over the real murky questions of the
situation in question. But most importantly,
it fellates the movie industry, allowing the voters to believe that their
business has had an outsized impact on world events. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Argo but it was steeped in (mostly
harmless) bullshit and Hollywood mythmaking.
Moreover, Affleck didn’t try anything new; he just resurrected a style
of moviemaking that has fallen out of fashion in recent years. In fact, if it had been made in the 70s
(yeah, yeah the hostage scandal actually took place in the 70s), I doubt it
would have garnered nearly this much praise.
Lincoln: When is the last time Steven Spielberg made a
truly great movie? At this point, I’d
have to say it was Saving Private Ryan in
1998, and even that film employed an atrocious framing device and an overly
simplistic story structure. Lincoln doesn’t change that trend. It is a well done political drama that keeps
an admirably tight focus on the political intrigue behind the passage of the 13th
Amendment. Tony Kushner’s script is
excellent and all of the performances (particularly Tommy Lee Jones and Daniel
Day Lewis) are spot on. But Spielberg’s
approach to Lincoln himself is pure hagiography. While he shows the President engaging in somewhat
shady legislative dealings, there is never any doubt about the purity of his
motives or the morality of his cause. No
one doubts that Abraham Lincoln was an important man…but he was still a man,
not an American saint. His story was ill
served by the lack of nuance in Spielberg’s approach. And don’t get me started on that final scene….
Silver Linings
Playbook: Is it a screwball romantic comedy? Is it a serious examination of treatment of
mental illness in this country dressed up in a farcical package? Well that all depends on where you are in the
Great Weinstein Promotion Cycle. It’s a comedy
when Harvey needs to sell tickets and a Serious Film when he needs to grub for
awards. What I saw was a well-crafted
romantic comedy anchored by a dynamic Jennifer Lawrence performance but I’m not
sure where all the best picture love came from (oh yeah…WEINSTEEEEEEEEEEEIN!). Everything about the story, save for the fact
that everyone has psychological problems of some sort, is pretty generic. I like David O. Russell but even he can’t overcome
the unexceptional source material.
Beasts of the Southern
Wild: This is tough. I would be
lying if I said that Benh Zeitlin’s magical realist bayou fantasia/family
drama/environmental fable/poverty porn didn’t tug on my heart strings. It was beautifully rendered and young
Quvenzhane Wallis is an absolute force of nature (let’s just agree to set aside
the non-question of whether she was actually ‘acting’). But I would also be lying if I said that,
after months of reflection, the movie made a lick of sense. I understand where Zeitlin was trying to go
but I don’t think that the series of beautifully rendered images that ended up
on screen held together in any sort of cohesive fashion. In the end, it was an exercise in exquisite
style (and a powerhouse performance) overshadowing a woeful lack of
substance. That’s enough to get me
excited about Zeitlin’s future but not enough to make his first feature worthy
of an Academy Award.
Well that’s it for 2012.
Tune in once again in 2013 when we award worst picture to Baz Luhrmann’s
Great Gatsby 3D (Seriously, watch the
trailer…it’s
a shoe in). Have a comment? Leave it on the site or drop me a line. Thanks for reading.
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