This is TJ, writing for YPOIW's Abandoned Theater feature, and I love Oscar season. I like competitive awards (I'm a sports fan) even though I recognize that competition in art is stupid. Is there really a best? There is on one side--I'll fight someone to prove my #1 movie of the year is better than my #70, at least--but then on the other side, isn't everything a bit subjective? Ahh, who cares. I'm going just to have some fun with this. For the next 3 weeks, I'm going to post sections of my Top 20 films (and honorable mentions)!
I liked a
lot of movies this year’s Oscar season. Overall, I’d say it was a really strong
year. I saw a little less than 70 of 2012’s offerings and there were more than
20 films on my “loved list” – including some whipping boys, which you’ll see
here. I don’t want to exclude the plethora of awesome movies, so here are some
highlights did not make my Top 20 films, aka the Best of What Didn’t Make It.
Most Surprisingly Good Film: The Grey
I thought this movie was going to suck. I even wanted it to suck. The premise seemed supremely stupid to me. But oh what I wrong. Liam Neeson has his best role in ages as a man trying to survive in a Jack London-esque tale of survival. The Grey also features some of the best, most dense philosophy of any popular film in 2012: we should not rely on God to save us. Rather, we should take our fates into our own hands, tape broken glass on our knuckles, and punch a wolf in the face.
Crazy Film Concept That Worked: Turin Horse
This movie features two hours of a man eating boiled potatoes with his bare hands. Also there is a bit about the decay of the world, but that is secondary to the potatoes, seriously. And it’s engaging. And apocalyptic. There is no way to prepare someone for Turin Horse, except to say it is well worth the watch for the ambitious of you. And the Bela Tarr fans.
Best Looking Movie: Prometheus
Prometheus deserves kudos for its production
design and special effects. The greys and blues were beautiful. Many fault the
film’s script, side-character acting, and even Ridley Scott’s direction, but
few people fault how this movie looks. Prometheus
is landmark in sci-fi production design and special effects. Also, it is a rare
example great usage of 3D.
Best Film Directed By a Great Director, and
Features Great Moments, but Doesn’t Add Up To a Great Film: Tie, Cosmopolis and Killing Them Softly.
David
Cronenberg (Eastern Promises, A History
of Violence, Cosmopolis) and Andrew Dominik (The Assassination Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly)
are talented auteurs, but their 2012 output does not feature their best work. Cosmopolis has a genius final 10-minute
scene that encompasses an ultimate conversation of egos between Robert
Pattinson and Paul Giamatti, while Killing
Them Softly also has a great final scene that is an argument between Brad
Pitt and Richard Jenkins. But these movies hit the viewer over the head with
their (mostly anti-)capitalism messages and drag a bit. Some claim The Master is this year’s overrated
auteur work, but where I believe that movie soars, these movies don’t quite
make it.
Best Career Resurgence: Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe and Magic Mike
Steven
Soderbergh and William Friedkin showed up in 2012 and left two really good
movies (three for you Haywire fans—pretty
decent to me, though a lot lesser than Magic
Mike) and two really good Matthew McConaughey performances. He owns these
charming yet creepy roles that hit different sides of the film world. Where Magic Mike is a flashy expose on the
male stripper world, Killer Joe is a
dark white-trash melodrama featuring a supremely creepy hitman, played of
course by McConaughey.
What’s
funny: McConaughey also gave a great, funny performance in a movie that did make my Top
20.
Best Bromance: Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavalta
(Michael Pena) in End of Watch
Kudos to
Pena and Gyllenhaal. Both actors did fantastic work. And kudos also to David
Ayer’s script. You care about these two
silly cops, about as much as they care for one another. Plutonic, brotherly
love is something that goes deep in life, but in films, these relationships
make me sick to my stomach—not because I’m heartless but because they feel very
corporate and phony, on the part of an over-sentimental filmmaker and a
money-grubbing studio. This relationship here in End of Watch is natural and realistic, and when the end of the
movie hits the audience, no one leaves not feeling something, bro.
Best Nearly-Nameless Side Character: Agent Coulson
(Clark Gregg) in The Avengers
Best Documentary (for crying): Tie, How to Survive a Plague, The Invisible War, and Shut up and Play the Hits
Best Documentary At Making Me Dance Like a
Crazy Person: Tie, Girl Walk // All Day
and Shut Up and Play the Hits
Best Documentary: Searching For Sugar Man
This
documentary inspires the audience into curiosity. Who is Rodriguez, and what
kind of life did he live? How was he so
little known in his own country (here in the good ole US of A) but exploded in
South Africa? What was his music and
Dylan-esque poetry about? And how did he die—self-immolation or on-stage bullet
in the temple?
The truth
is revealed half-way through the doc, and everything shifts, somehow uppting the ante and fulfilling all the promises made early in the film. Searching for Sugar Man is fantastic and emotionally engaging
throughout both of its halves.
Best Animated Feature: ParaNorman
I have
not yet seen Wreck It Ralph (all credibility
out the window, I know) but it would be hard-pressed to be as pleasing and
heart-felt as ParaNorman. Its story
was fresher than Brave’s and more
complicated than Frankenweenie’s. ParaNorman was through-and-through a success.
Also, ParaNorman and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie both continue the usage of
stop-motion animation, which I’m a big fan of. When I eventually see Wreck It Ralph, I will reassess.
Most Overrated (but still good) Oscar Contender:
Tie, Argo and Silver Linings Playbook
Like The Artist and The King’s Speech, 2012 had its years of critical darling, crowd
pleasing motion pictures that are favorites to win a few Oscars, including possibly
Best Picture. These movies are well made by their directors, Ben Affleck and
David O. Russell, but they’re hardly their best works. Gone Baby Gone and The
Fighter are much better examples of awesome filmmaking and would have been better
Best Picture contenders, the latter of which was such a contender at the 2011
ceremony. While I enjoy Alan Arkin cursing and Bradley Cooper actually
appearing in an engaging role for once, I wouldn’t say any aspects of these
movies were overly impressive. They were just—good.
Worst Oscar Contender: Les Miserables
Duh.
Worst Film of 2012: Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Duh.
II
Here are my individual awards, Oscars style.
Best
Soundtrack: Moonrise Kingdom
Best
Score: Jonny Greenwood, The Master
Best
Song: “Skyfall” by Adele, in Skyfall [1]
Best
Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer, and
Donald R. Elliott, Life of Pi
Best
Production Design: Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Anna Karenina
Best Cinematography:
Mihai Malaimare, Jr., The Master
Best
Adapted Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln
Best Original
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Django
Unchained
Best
Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django
Unchained
Best
Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master
Best
Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Best
Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Best
Director: Ang Lee, Life of Pi
So based on this information, where will my picks line up?
Predictions in the comment section! Expect my top 20 soon!
20-11 here!
and 10-1 here!
-----
[1] This might be the only time we here at YPOIW praise Adele. Actually, I'm anticipating my pink slip at any moment. Seriously though, awesome song.
