For my first post in almost a year and a half (I know, you’ve been counting the days haven’t you) I thought I’d do something fresh, something unique, something that literally nobody else in the entire world is writing about at the moment…!
And then I realized I’m spectacularly lazy so I figured I’d just give you my top 10 films of the 2012 instead.
This is not an easy list to compile however. Originally I wanted to make it a top 5 until I quickly realized that I would have to leave out some spectacular films. And there have been some true standouts this year, from blockbusters to unexpected art house treats, covering all ends of the spectrum. I think it is fair to say I haven’t been as invigorated in the cinema for a long time as I was this year. It’s been a true pleasure to see some original tales amongst the usual blockbuster hype and I hope that this list reflects that
So without much further ado, here is my Top 10 of 2012
10. Searching for Sugar Man
A documentary which I knew almost nothing about before seeing it, Searching for Sugar Man proved to be a heartwarming and almost ‘too crazy to be true’ real life tale of folk singer Rodriguez. Almost completely forgotten in popular culture, Rodriguez became, unbeknown to himself, a mega star in South Africa. Whilst rumors of his death/suicide created a mystery around the legend, a group of fans decided to find out the truth. This eventually lead them to the singer himself, living an incredibly regular life, with no knowledge of his South African Superstardom. An incredibly touching and beautiful documentary, this is one which had me tapping my toes to Sugar Man for days afterwards. A completely unexpected treat.
9. Moonrise Kingdom
Sort of Wes Anderson-meets-Submarine. A lovely, funny and perfectly Anderson-esque quirky tale of a young scout falling in love and eloping with the girl of his dreams. Featuring everything you expect from a Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom also had a lot more heart that some of his recent work. This made for a perfect blend of that awkwardness of young love and the kind of kooky comedy that I love in Anderson’s filmography. The young cast were brilliant and supported by some unexpected turns from the likes of Ed Norton, Bruce Willis (as a cop again, but not that kind of cop) and Tilda Swinton’s hilariously named “Social Services”. Plus, Bill Murray with an axe is always a funny site.
8. Looper
If you start to pick it apart Looper makes absolutely no sense. But then again, director Rian Johnson specifically has Bruce Willis tell us to NOT think about that or we’ll just start drawing diagrams out of straws and everyone will get confused. Instead, let’s focus on the fact that in a year dominated by mega superheros and alien worlds, here was an original sci-fi film which excited and thrilled in equal measure whilst posing some very interesting questions.
Joseph Gordon Levitt is fast becoming my favourite actor and he once again proved himself here, perfectly aping Bruce Willis without ever doing a Bruce Willis impression.
More than anything though, the future/past torture scene has to be the scene of the year and triumph in visual storytelling.
7. The Cabin In the Woods
There is literally nothing you can say about Cabin in the Woods without giving away spoilers. Like an incredible episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with a budget, Josh Whedon (co-writer and producer) and Drew Godard (co-writer and director) have managed to completely subvert the horror genre and make you rethink everything you knew about slasher films. The whole review of the film can in fact be summed up by reworking the tag line a little
“5 teenagers go into the woods. Amazing things happen.”
6. The Muppets
Though it came out 2011 in the USA, we here in Ol’ Blighty only got it in February 2012, but by the grace of Kermit was it worth the wait. Without a doubt the funniest film of the year, helped in no small part by Flight of the Conchords’ Brett McKenzie on song writing duties and fellow FotC alumni, director James Bobbins. The Muppets truly had everything we expect from out felt friends; from off the wall humor, ludicrous but loveable characters and cameos galore (top prize to Neil Patrick Harris’s “no, I don’t know why I’m not presenting this either”).
The only downside? – is Jack Black really the best ‘celebrity host’ they could think of…or maybe that was part of the joke?
5. Skyfall
“Bond. Is. Back.” So read the marketing which was plastered on everything from soft drinks to the foreheads of anyone standing still in Leicester Square for more than 5 minutes.
Thankfully though Daniel Craig’s 3rd outing as the spy who loved then shot me was more than worth the hype. Over and above the engaging action and heart felt story though was the fact that here was a Bond film which was far more beautiful than it had any right to be. With Roger Deakins’ outstanding cinematography and Sam Mendes’ perfectly balanced directing, here was an art house action film which just happened to be an entry into the biggest franchise in the history of cinema.
Possibly the greatest Bond movie since Goldfinger and with Craig now firmly on pair with Connery as best Bond ever (sorry Rog’) Skyfall was the perfect way to celebrate 50 years of Bond. Long live 007.
4. Beasts of the Southern Wild
Can someone just give 9 year old (6 years old at the time of filming) Quvenzhané Wallis an Oscar already please? There was no performance so real, so intense and so utterly raw this year as this child marvel.
Beats of the Southern Wild is probably a film you’ve heard of (there were posters all over the Tube) but have no idea about. I don’t want to ruin the experience of seeing it basically blind as I did so I won’t give away any story points. Instead let me tell you that this spectacularly beautiful fairytale (because make no mistake, that is exactly what this is) is one of the most joyful, touching, heartbreaking and stunning pieces of cinema I’ve seen in an incredibly long time.
And would somebody please give Quvenzhané Wallis her award already!?!
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Here’s my little curveball for the list. Perks is my all time favourite book (yep, even above that Potter kid), so the movie had to be pretty good to compare. However, as the film was written and directed by author Stephen Chbosky there wasn’t really much to worry about.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a teen movie without the usual tropes that you expect, and with the surprisingly hard hitting and downbeat ending of the book still in place it is incredibly satisfying from start to finish.
The leads as well are just perfectly cast, with Logan Lerman’s Charlie a wonderful interpretation of the titular Wallflower and Ezra Millar’s continual push for being the best thing in every film he is in going strong in the role of Partick. That’s not forgetting Emma Watson being everything I imagined Sam to be without crossing over into the dangerous Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl arena.
If you haven’t seen it, do so, and if you haven’t read it go and buy the book immediately. You won’t be sorry; you’ll just feel infinite.
2. Life of Pi (3D)
A late entry but a very worthy one. I haven’t read the book (though I do intend to) so I can’t comment on the adaptation, just the film itself but that’s fine by me in this case.
2012 feels like it has been the year of real life fantasy in movies- from Beasts of the Southern Wild to the seeming fairytale aspects of Searching for Sugar Man – and Life of Pi perfectly exhibits everything that was in these films but with that added touch that only a director of Ang Lee’s skills could elicit. Whilst it may essentially boil down to Cast Away with a tiger, LoP has so much depth, so much poignancy, so much heart that I just sat in the cinema for 5 minutes after it had finished attempting to process all of the emotions that I was feeling.
I’ve had discussions with people who believe that the film ladles on the messages a bit strong at the end, which may be true, but I honestly didn’t care. By this point I was so engrossed that I could have been smashed over the head by Ang Lee with a hammer whilst he screamed “IT’S ABOUT THE HUMAN SPIRIT!” at the top of his lungs and I still would have had this as one of my films of the year.
Life of Pi is a film about stories, hope and faith and in every single way it succeeds. Even the 3D is unrivalled here, matching only Hugo for times that I feel the 3D actually benefitted the film. The depth of each shot and vastness of Pi’s plight is evident in these shots in a way I’ve never seen before whist the outstanding CGI work pops with the vibrancy of a painted image.
It’s still out in cinemas so go and see it on the best 3D screen you can now.
1. The Avengers
What else was it going to be? Those who know me will know that I have been waiting for this film my whole life in one way or another. As such, there was a lot that could have gone wrong. Luckily, nothing did.
The true hero here though, as many people much better than myself have pointed out, is Joss Whedon. The “greatest TV writer ever ™” has now become the God of Marvel as he did the impossible, pulling together 4 of the biggest characters in any medium and made a perfect action movie. It had everything – the huge action sequences, the colourful costumes, the ability to make me feel like a child again, watching with gleeful delight as the camera did a 360 around the greatest team in history (sorry Arsenal).
Yet at its heart Whedon never forgot the one thing that makes The Avenger’s special – THEY’RE A FLIPPIN COMIC BOOK! Batman can go as dark as he likes, that’s who he is (though Nolan maybe went a little far with Rises) but Marvel have always been a little bit different. Even in his darkest moments Captain America is still a man wearing a giant flag and this film didn’t back away from it, in fact it reveled in it. Where else would we have seen an epically long 1 take, taking in all of the horror and destruction occurring around New York only to have it end with Hulk punching out Thor?
For proof of how much I enjoyed this film, not only did I see it 4 times in the cinema but on the day of release, after seeing it once (I was really nervous beforehand- what if it disappointed?!) I walked straight of the cinema and into the next showing. Where I enjoyed it even more.
For my money, this is the greatest superhero film of all time as it perfectly replicated that joy of reading a comic book. Flicking from page to page to see the action unfold, the whizz and bang, the character’s breaking up before coming together for the greater good. Everything was here, nothing was left out.
Oh, and Hulk. He smashed it.
Honorary mentions:
The Hunger Games
The Hobbit
The Amazing Spiderman
The Dark Knight Rises
ParaNorman
Reece's Pieces 