It’s still a bit early to do my run down of the best films of the year because I’ve still got a few more to see. I don’t really like doing my favourites of the year until I’ve seen all the main films to see that year, which usually leads to me not doing a best of list until the year after. In fact, I never got around to doing one for last year because I had so many films to catch up with. The same this year but I’m not going to hold on too long before doing my favourites which may mean I don’t get to see a few that I’ve missed like Argo and The Master.
2011 was a very strong year for film and because I didn’t do my countdown of the best of 2011 I’m putting them here as a reminder of how good last year was.
| 1 | Meek’s Cutoff |
| 2 | Le Quattro Volte |
| 3 | A Separation |
| 4 | Neds |
| 5 | Amer |
| 6 | Moneyball |
| 7 | The Interrupters |
| 8 | Margaret |
| 9 | Black Swan |
| 10 | Poetry |
| 11 | Howl |
| 12 | Contagion |
| 13 | Life In A Day |
| 14 | Bobby Fischer vs the World |
| 15 | Hugo |
| 16 | We Have A Pope |
| 17 | 50/50 |
| 18 | Snowtown |
| 19 | Drive |
| 20 | Tyrannosaur |
| 21 | The Fighter |
| 22 | The Tree of Life |
| 23 | The Artist |
| 24 | TT3d: Closer to the Edge |
| 25 | Fair Game |
| 26 | Fire in Babylon |
| 27 | Super |
| 28 | The Portuguese Nun |
| 29 | Pina |
| 30 | My Dog Tulip |
A very good list of films there and that’s not including several others which were definitely worth attention e.g. Senna, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Take Shelter, Attack The Block, Project Nim, 13 Assassins, The Ides of March, and I could go on. Onto this year and I’ve decided just to name my favourite performances, comedies, scenes and scores of the year. There are no plot spoilers.
Acting Performance (Female)
Michelle Williams (Take This Waltz). Williams has really come to the fore the past couple of years but her performance in Sarah Polley’s film is the best I’ve seen from her yet. It probably helped that I connected a lot with the story in the film, but Williams was excellent as the conflicted and indecisive lead. Worth a mention: Deannie Yip (A Simple Life), Marion Cotillard (Rust And Bone), Charlize Theron (Young Adult), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene).
Acting Performance (Male)
Michael Fassbender (Shame). Most of the early Oscar buzz is for films I haven’t seen yet e.g. Lincoln, The Master, so I may be missing a few in here. That said, Fassbender’s turn as a sex addict was as taught as his character, never really allowing you to form a clear opinion on Brandon in one of the stand out films of 2012. Worth a mention: Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus), Matthew McConaghey (Magic Mike), Seth Rogen (Take This Waltz).
Worst film of 2012
Rock of Ages (Dir. Adam Shankman). By some way this Glee/X-Factor hybrid was the worst of a the worst. A jukebox musical to start, it came to tell us that corporate music was killing off rock and roll and proceeded to use corporate rock music to tell us. Clanger! What was probably more disappointing was the number of people who really should know better e.g. Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Tobey Maguire and Justin Theroux. Add into that, the budget, which was $75m, and I present this as the argument against needing Hollywood, or Broadway for that matter.
Favourite Action film of 2012
Haywire (Dir. Stephen Soderbergh). The Raid took all the plaudits yet I found it to be a fairly repetitive martial arts film with zero emotional attachment or interest and a series of set pieces more recognisable as a video game than a piece of action cinema. It wasn’t awful just not that interesting for me. Haywire wasn’t perfection but it married the martial arts excitement of The Raid with a plot, Soderbergh’s endlessly watchable direction and a typically smooth David Holmes score. Worth a mention: The Dark Knight Rises, The Grey, The Bourne Legacy.
Favourite Comedy film of 2012
Jeff, Who Lives At Home (Dir. Jay & Mark Duplass). There were lots and lots of comedy films about this year although only a few scraped above average. This, like most of the better comedies of recent years lends itself more to the dramedy description, hovering just below absurdist and away from quirky. Worth a mention: Young Adult, Goon, Dark Horse.
My 3 Favourite Scenes of 2012
Take This Waltz (Dir. Sarah Polley). I won’t reveal too much in case you haven’t seen it because the scene at the fairground with an old 80s tune contains almost the entire emotional swing of Michelle Williams’ character, matching the melodrama of of a three minute pop song.
Rust And Bone (Dir. Jacques Audiard). Katy Perry will never sound useless ever again. The Turin Horse (Dir. Bela Tarr). A horse taking five minutes to arrive at a farm may not sound enthralling but it was an unmatched moment of slow cinema in 2012. Favourite Cinematography of 2012 A Simple Life (Dir. Ann Hui). Close call with Once Upon A Time In Anatolia which was incredible and has picked up several awards already. However, I loved the closeness that was matched with great editing (my favourite of this year too) to fuse Ozu with Greengrass. Favourite Scores of 2012 I couldn’t really pick one for this because of the sheer variety and quality. Certainly The Dark Knight Rises would be half the film it was without the pounding military score of Hans Zimmer whilst Lawless gave us an excellent Nick Cave/Warren Ellis driven soundtrack. Elsewhere Rust And Bone, Take This Waltz and Jeff, Who Lives At Home added narrative and meaning. Even the a capella of Pitch Perfect had some noteworthy moments. Disappointments of 2012 Ted and Skyfall. Neither film was terrible and I did enjoy Skyfall, to a degree. However, both received plaudits way above what was merited. I like Seth McFarlane but, like with Family Guy, I find that he’s good rather than great and Ted became bogged down with a trite love story and nowhere near the amount of gut laughs that was promised. Skyfall, was, well a bit meh after the hype. The part of the film I enjoyed was the story and development given to Judi Dench’s M. Unfortunately the film was a step backwards after Quantum of Solace, which had a daring plot about the US government’s involvement with the overthrowing of democratically elected leaders in South America. This timely and relevant discourse was abandoned for a straight-up homage to British Secret Services. Given our secret service’s involvement with overthrowing leaders in places like Iran (and the obvious repercussions that still has today), this sat a bit uncomfortably with me or rather it was a cop out after promising so much in the previous film. Throw in a return to Bond cliches like blatant nods to over films and it felt regressive. The one thing I did find interesting was the William Tell connections (the folk hero who ran across country to chase down a corrupt official), however it wasn’t enough especially as I thought there were at least five action scenes in QoS that were much better e.g. opening car chase, scaffolding, Sienna, opera, Haiti. I know a lot of people loved it but for me it lacked the ambition and style of where it looked like it was heading. Safe film making over imagination. Meh. Thanks for reading. Hopefully there are a few films you may not have sought out yet that you may look at now. I’m hoping to do my full run down by the end of January. In the meantime, have a great Christmas and peaceful New Year.
Cinematic Soul 