The Usual Choices
Argo (Ben Affleck)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
But how about...
Quartet (Dustin Hoffman)
An undeniably charming little flick about a group of old-age musicians (mainly orchestral and opera) who plan to put on a show to save their retirement home. Hardly an original plot idea, right? What saves it is the Gang of Four - Maggie Smith / Tom Courtenay / Billy Connolly / and (especially) Pauline Collins: all veterans of stage & screen guaranteed to raise the ordinary into the realms of...better. Probably more emotionally meaningful if you're old too, this film doesn't so much make an impact as it gives you a gentle nudge and suggests you feel something. And, unless you are a statue, you will.
...and what about...
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
The most affecting movie I know about High School. While it's USA-centric (homecoming; going to the game), it does share experiences which I recognise from my Australian adolescence (sex & sexuality; drinking & dope; fierce fights & fierce friendships; and music which seems to play 24/7). I am particularly moved by its exploration of the tentatively-intimate conversations between kids, as they discover the difference between truth and perception, and the anger over the harm done to them by adults who claimed to care. Very little of this film rings false; a lot of it really was like this for me, too.
...not to mention...
Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh)
The darkest of dark comedies...and I'm talking absolute pitch. I'm not one for laughing at self-congratulatory violence and amusing serial killers (I'm the only person on the planet who wasn't enamored with Breaking Bad or Dexter), but the psycho-guys in this flick made me chortle a number of times. As blood-drenched and surprisingly funny as Tarantino but with less entertainingly mundane chit-chat, SP is blessed with a novel idea (writing a filmscript as the movie goes along) and a superlative ensemble performance by Messrs Farrell, Rockwell and Walken. This is the sort of movie I shouldn't love...but I do, despite my goody-two-shoes misgivings.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Les Miserables (Tom Hooper)
Labelled on its Wikipedia page as a "British epic romantic musical period drama" (phew!), this version of the great novel is one of those movie-musicals where everyone sings all their lines, disregarding melody or how silly they look. I am allergic to musical-theatre (been dragged along by friends; fallen asleep both times) and for me to be appreciative, musicals need to have humour (Singin' in the Rain; A Hard Day's Night) or a sensible reason why people are suddenly bursting into song (Cabaret; A Star is Born). This film has neither and, consequently, it bored me shitless. Sorry Hugh; sorry Anne - it's just not my cup of tea.
My Top 10 Films of 2012
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| The young Mao Tse-Tung, writing a letter home from camp: "Dear Mum. A gang of four boys teased me today about being a counter-revolutionary, so I'm planning a famine." |
#02 A Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson)
#03 A Skyfall (Mendes)
#04 A- The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Chbosky)
#05 A- Seven Psychopaths (McDonagh)
#06 A- Mud (Nichols)
#07 A- The Avengers (Whedon)
#08 A- Frances Ha (Baumbach)
#09 A- The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan)
#10 A- Arbitrage (Jarecki)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- The Impossible (Bayona)
#12 A- The Company You Keep (Redford)
#13 A- The Master (Anderson)
#14 A- Django Unchained (Tarantino)
#15 B+ Being Flynn (Weitz)
#16 B+ Prometheus (Scott)
#17 B+ A Late Quartet (Zilberman)
#18 B+ Robot & Frank (Schreler)
#19 B+ Quartet (Hoffman)
#20 B+ Silver Linings Playbook (Russell)
#21 B+ Argo (Affleck)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Beasts of the Southern Wild [apart from the kid, what is the big deal?]
> B The Amazing Spider-Man [a severe case of premature reboot]
> B Lincoln [I never completely understood what was going on...too American for this Australian?]
> B Life of Pi [looks sensational but far too delicate and genteel]
> B Flight [even druggies & drunks can be heroes - who knew it?]
> B The Sessions [too-simplistic mixture of pity, heartache and titters]
> B Killing Them Softly [makes lowlife thieves & assassins seem like ordinary working guys who have bills to pay]
> B Sinister [have I ever mentioned that I'm not a scare-the-crap-out-of-you fan?]
> B The Sapphires [aka The Female Commitments From Down Under Go To War and Fall in Love]
> B- Satellite Boy [Aussie quest movie with a good message, an underdeveloped script and a questionable gun]
> B- Hyde Park on Hudson [I could've sworn that FDR had far more substance to him than this]
> B- Byzantium [another vampires + sex flick which, apart from Saoirse, lacks presence]
> B- The Odd Life of Timothy Green [silly fantasy with too much schmaltz]
> C Looper [it's 2044: we've got time travel and hover-bikes, but we've also still got drug-taking, sexism and the belief that killers with guns are cool]
> C Hitchcock [that fat guy isn't even slightly Alfred Hitchcock]
> D I Declare War [they smoke, they swear, they torture, they kill..and they're still in primary school]
> D Cosmopolis [but...what does it all mean and why should I care?]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 2012 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
The Cabin in the Woods (Whedon); Cloud Atlas (Tykwer; Wachowski); End of Watch (Ayer); Magic Mike (Soderbergh)
Best Performances of 2012
Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables
Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables
Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained
But how about...
Saoirse Ronan in Byzantium
This is a classic example of one actor dominating an otherwise mundane film by just sheer presence - that mysterious "something special" that can't be entirely quantified or logically explained. There are shots in this film of Saoirse just simply staring, speechless, passive, that are simply stunning in both beauty and emotiveness. How does anyone do that? Greta Garbo apparently had it (not that I could ever tell); Lillian Gish certainly had it - the ability to just be, without any apparent acting methodology or artifice. And now Saoirse. Watch the actress grow.
...and what about...
Christopher Walken in A Late Quartet
Christopher doesn't unexpectedly dance in this movie, and he doesn't do anything psychopathic, but there remains a vaguely weird presence about him. He plays a classical cello player in a highly-regarded quartet, who teaches music classes and is diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease: a good, meaty role for a sensitive actor. The other cast members perform emotionally and effectively, but Christopher only needs to walk into the room, say a couple of words and all the attention is sucked away from the others. How does he do that? No Mr Shouty histrionics; no little bits of distracting business - the man just is.
...not to mention...
John Hawkes in The Sessions
Virtually only a talking head, this role is about a severely disabled man discovering the rest of his body sexually. John's challenge is to communicate the man's desires and fears pretty much through voice only - even his head is static and his facial features are somewhat frozen. And he is filmed in horizontal close-up for most of the movie - no creative camera angles to jazz the performance up and offer alternate expressions to add drama. And the guy succeeds beautifully. While the film itself is a bit one-note and simplistic, John manages to portray a man of complexity.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Pity the actor who plays a pre-20th century icon such as Abraham Lincoln. First of all, you have to closely physically resemble the person, based only on portraits or grainy photos (with Honest Abe, this usually involves a big beard, stovepipe hat and being tall & lanky); next, you have to invent a voice which satisfies the public's perception of what this great man probably sounded like; and you have to develop a collection of body movements and gestures deemed to be wholly appropriate. Then, after nailing all of that, hope that you come across as flesh 'n' blood rather than just a mere impersonation.
In regards to Lincoln, the only cinematic performance that has successfully achieved this is Henry Fonda in Young Mr Lincoln. Sorry Daniel.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 2012
#01 Colin Farrell & Sam Rockwell & Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths
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| "Geez. I hate it when I've got to borrow my wife's Lady Remington." |
#03 Pauline Collins in Quartet
#04 Michael Fassbender in Prometheus
#05 Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha
#06 Tom Holland in The Impossible
#07 Jaoquin Phoenix in The Master
#08 Christopher Walken in A Late Quartet
#09 Ben Mendelsohn in Killing Them Softly
#10 Jamie Foxx & Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Denzel Washington in Flight
#12 Tye Sheridan in Mud
#13 Paul Dano in Being Flynn
#14 Naomi Watts in The Impossible
#15 Richard Gere in Arbitrage
#16 John Hawkes in The Sessions
#17 Saoirse Ronan in Byzantium
#18 The cast of I Declare War
#19 Jennifer Lawrence & Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
#20 Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
#21 Matthew McConaughey in Mud
#22 Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables [earnest but artificial]
> Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables [ditto]
> Helen Hunt in The Sessions [very brave of her, but the performance is nothing special]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 2012 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
SILVER: Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
BRONZE: Skyfall (Sam Mendes)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
SILVER: Denzel Washington (Flight)
BRONZE: Paul Dano (Being Flynn)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)
SILVER: Saoirse Ronan (Byzantium)
BRONZE: Naomi Watts (The Impossible)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Michael Fassbender (Prometheus)
SILVER: Christopher Walken (A Late Quartet)
BRONZE: Ben Mendelsohn (Killing Them Softly)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Emma Watson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
SILVER: Pauline Collins (Quartet)
BRONZE: Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Colin Farrell & Sam Rockwell & Christopher Walken (Seven Psychopaths)
SILVER: Jamie Foxx & Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
BRONZE: Gage Munroe & Siam Yu & Michael Friend & Mackenzie Munro & Alex Cardillo & Dyson Fyke & Spencer Howes & Andy Reid & Kolton Stewart & Aidan Gouveia (I Declare War)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Tom Holland (The Impossible)
SILVER: Tye Sheridan (Mud)
BRONZE: Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
The Alternate Razzies for 2012 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Russell Crowe (Les Miserables)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Noomi Rapace (Prometheus)
