2012 was a strange year at the movies. While comic book movies, remakes and sequels continued their multiplex dominance, there was an entire wealth of indies, festival films and curiosities that made 2012 a pretty diverse year. Even now that it has come to an end, I can’t produce a confident list of 2012’s Best Films… and I saw almost everything (sorry, Cloud Atlas).
So instead of Best (as Matt Kelly provided after seeing only 15 films all year), here’s my list of ‘The Films I Enjoyed The Most of 2012;. It’s a wide-ranging, mixed list, appropriate for a pretty wide-ranging, mixed year. Yes, these are the ones that I got the most out of in my own selfish, film-loving way.
The List:
#1 – Life of Pi – Ang Lee has been one of my favorite filmmakers for about fifteen years. Strange that his one film that you’d think was made for me was the one I enjoyed the least (Hulk). Luckily, this year’s Life of Pi more than made up for it as my favorite moviegoing experience of the year. I bemoan most 3D films, as I should, because most 3D films look pretty bad and suffer from the 3D not being fully thought out. It becomes more of a distraction than attraction. Here, with Ang Lee’s careful integration of digital effects and visual care, is the best 3D film I’ve ever seen. Even in the quiet moments, the movie jumps with energy. And during the big visual crescendos the movie erupts. Life of Pi, both on the script and on the screen, is a complete celebration of storytelling. I loved every moment of it.
#2 – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Last January, I thought this movie would be on this list, and here it is. I just didn’t know that I’d try and experience it several times just to see it in different formats. Peter Jackson and company pulled off a Herculean task in bringing Middle Earth to the screen, both as The Hobbit and its integration into The Lord of the Rings. Yes, there was some awkward shoe-horning in the film (and where the hell did Radagast go!?!) but still, making a six-part film series of this level of quality can only be celebrated. I love being in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth and am excited to return next year, regardless of frame rate.
#3 – The FP – I probably saw this movie more than any other film in 2012 and I’m proud that Geekscape was the product pusher through which many of you discovered it for yourselves. Of any film on this list, if The FP were a living, breathing person, it would be the one you’d most want to hang with. It’s equal parts everything you loved about the movies you grew up with plus the addition of video games and attitude mainlined right into its twisted brain.
#4 – The Raid: Redemption – Everyone’s lumping this film in with Dredd. I’m not going to do that. Beyond the tower assault storyline, and the large amount of violence, these movies are pretty different. Watching The Raid at SXSX in March was the loudest and craziest I’ve ever seen a theatrical audience. They were ready to rip the seats out of the Paramount Theater and start hitting each other with them. Unlike the bullet-charged explosiveness of Dredd, The Raid is a pretty hardcore martial arts film. The pain it inflicts is more personal and visceral than Dredd’s machine gun violence. In my interview with The Raid director Gareth Evans last spring, we spoke about how the silat fighting discipline was sort of the joke of the martial arts world before he filmed The Raid (and its predecessor Marantau). It says a lot about the film that no one is joking about it today. It’s just 100% bad-assery.
#5 – John Dies At The End – This is the craziest movie I saw this year. Of all the films from 2012, John Dies At The End is probably the one I think most Geekscape readers will appreciate the most. It’s equal parts science fiction, monster and occult film… but told through a narrative that is just as slapstick as it is intelligent. Really, John Dies At The End is almost impossible to describe, especially if I want to avoid spoiling it for you (I really do)! Every time that you think the movie is going in one direction or is about one specific thing, it pulls a complete 180 on you and pursues a wilder and more satisfying direction. And just when you think you can contain this movie, it spills out and becomes about something much larger than you can imagine. Really, the most impressive thing about this already impressive movie is its ability to articulate some pretty complex ideas about our own existence in a fun and exciting way. This is one destined for cult status among us geeks.
#6 – Les Miserables – This was an impressive production. Just on a technical level, Les Miserables had some of my favorite shots of any film I’d seen this year. Director Tom Hooper’s visual communication with an actor’s performance was second only to the work I saw in The Master or Holy Motors (which was probably the best performance I’ve seen this year). In many of the film’s one take masters, the focal depth on the actor’s performances was almost razor thin, leaving little room for the performer to move. Then they both start moving. It’s pretty impressive to watch both the performances of the actor’s and the camera. I’m not a big fan of musicals so it’s hard for them to make my list. Les Miserables did it pretty easily.
#7 – Dredd 3D – This is my favorite comic book movie of 2012. It didn’t have the loose plot threads and “what the fuck logic” of The Dark Knight Rises or the multiple personality complex of The Avengers’ first act that completely took me out of loving the movie the first time I saw it. And I’m not even going to elaborate on the heartbreak that was The Amazing Spider-Man for me. You can listen to the linked podcasts for those. What I will say is that Dredd 3D is the most faithful adaptation of the 2000AD source material that you’re ever going to see on-screen. Everything about the movie was spot on and completely drenched in kerosene from beginning to end. The non-stop violence. The broken world. The breakneck pace. Much like 2000AD, mainstream American audiences weren’t ready to accept this movie into their theaters. This isn’t Spider-Man. It isn’t Batman. And it isn’t The Avengers. It’s just pure adrenaline. I can’t wait to see it over and over.
#8 – Django Unchained – All of Quentin Tarantino’s movies are interesting… and this is one of his more interesting ones. I still don’t know if I 100% loved it. In my book, it does the same near-fatal thing that Inglourious Basterds does. It hits a dinner table scene during which the movie’s locomotive energy runs out of steam and is only re-injected by a high octane shoot out like an adrenaline needle stabbed through a breastbone. Sound familiar? It’s almost scary how structurally similar the last acts of these movies are and you can start at the Django scene around the dinner table and the underground cafe scene in Inglorious to start your study. Both involve characters carefully masking their identities but ultimately showing their hands. They both end in those identities being revealed and the main characters forced to move their plans into action and within twenty minutes a historical building full of people is being shot to shit with almost no survivors. And ultimately, the movie ends with an ambush by the movie’s lead on the movie’s biggest sellout, whether that be a turncoat Nazi or a race traitor of a house-slave. And that’s where Tarantino’s ability to make cinematic mix-tapes saves the day. In anyone else’s hands, this would all be painfully redundant. But these aren’t anyone else’s hands. While you often get the feeling while watching Tarantino’s films that you’ve heard these songs before, damn if they aren’t arranged and cranked up in the greatest possible way here. Bring on the director’s cut.
#9 – The Master – This is a film I actually enjoyed much more after it was over. It just stayed with me for a long time. The precise camera work, the performances, the riddle of the film’s subject, everything in this movie felt done with so much care that I couldn’t dismiss it upon leaving the theater. The Master makes you work to appreciate its message, and whether it be a study of the birth of Scientology, a condemnation of the audience’s passivity or an admission of P.T. Anderson’s own insecurities, there is a lot to explore here on several levels.
#10 – The Impossible – Can you love a movie simply for its sound design? I think you can… but luckily The Impossible is a whole lot more. The incredible sound design is just the first thing you experience. I know that Zero Dark Thirty and a few other movies I experienced this year did the whole “the audience will hear our movie before they see our movie” black screen intro… but none of them did it as effectively as the opening moments of The Impossible. It really sets the mood for a film whose most intense moments exist in 360 degrees and not just on screen in front of you. J.A. Bayona’s 2007 ghost film The Orphanage made me a fan, but here his camera work is so selective and claustrophobic that it really gives you a sense of helplessness against the rushing tide. This game of visual keep away and the way that the story is told a little out of sequence to keep information from us, combines with the immersive sound surrounding you to create a movie that is as visceral as it is inspiring. Much like Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, I realized afterwards that I’d been holding my breathe for much of the movie. Combined with two perfect tight-rope performances by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor (really, the entire family in the film), this is a movie that’s only going to get better as people discover it over time. From here on out, Bayona’s name should be spoken alongside the other elite Spanish speaking directors like Alejandro Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón (so really, it should be spoken among any elite directors period).
Close, But No Cigar (Not that we condone smoking…)
The following are movies that I loved this year, and they’re a pretty eclectic mix, but for some reason or another they stayed out of the Top 10. In a few hours I may look back and change them again… but by then we’ll be too deep into the new year. We can only move forward!
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Holy Motors
Wreck-It Ralph
End of Watch
The Avengers
Moonrise Kingdom
Safety Not Guaranteed
The Imposter
Brave