Cinemaps' 2012 Year in Review

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'TIS WAS THE YEAR OF ...
J. Law in Hunger Games & Silver Linings Playbook
The rise and rise of J. Law: Ms. Spunkness is at the forefront of new Hollywood, and she's on fire. On one occasion, literally.

Hollywood endings: Argo. Silver Linings Playbook. The Avengers. Beasts of the Southern Wild. Even Zero Dark Thirty. Not that I want to spoil these movies, but, well, I just did, didn't I. Hm. <-- SPOILERSS!

Law of diminishing returns: Hobbit < LOTR. Bourne Legacy < every other Bourne. Prometheus < Alien / Aliens. The Dark Knight Rises < That one with Heath Ledger. Brave < previous Pixar films (a wild guess!). Seven Psychopaths < In Bruges. And MIB3 exists only to remind us Will Smith has a deal with the devil in exchange for eternal youth.

Worst added special effect: Joseph Gordon Levitt's prosthetic nose to look like Bruce Willis. It's like having exposed nipples on your face. Who can pay attention to anything else?

CINEMAPS' BEST OF
It was really hard to fill out 10 slots for best picture, actually. So. Much. Mediocrity. That's why I'm just gonna do 5. Because, honestly, that's all I can really stand behind? This is my preferential ballot!
Top 5
01. Tabu (Gomes, 2012) ****1/2
'Tis the most magical film of the year. I love it with all my black and white heart.
02. Holy Motors (Carax, 2012) ****1/2
What outrageous, daring fun. It even has a musical number! In the middle of a meta-film about the life of cinematic performances and the tragic immortality thereof!
03. Amour (Haneke, 2012) ****
A very stoic, confident European film to accompany its softer sister-from-a-different-mother Canadian film on love and letting go at the end of life, Sarah Polley's Away from her.
04. Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012) ****
That quiet, powerful ending proves Bigelow is one mother***** playing in the big league, to semi-quote the cheesiest line from the film that announced the arrival of Jessica Chastain.
05. The Master (Anderson, 2012) ****
Beautiful and manic take on the cult of saviour, with power-full performances from all three leads.
Tabu
Grin & Pulse
The most fun I had watching a movie this past year
Tabu
The Avengers
Life of Pi
Hodejegerne (Headhunters)
The cabin in the woods

Director
Miguel Gomes, Tabu
Leos Carax, Holy Motors
Michael Haneke, Amour
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
P. T. Anderson, The Master
Denis Lavant in Holy Motors
Performances
Denis Lavant, Holy Motors
Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour

Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Aksel Hennie, Hodejegerne (Headhunters)
Mark Ruffalo, The Avengers

Writing
Holy Motors
Amour
The Master
Bernie
Django Unchained

Editing
Tabu
Holy Motors
Zero Dark Thirty
The Master
Hodejegerne (Headhunters)

Cinematography
Tabu
The Master
Life of Pi
Holy Motors
Moonrise Kingdom
Moonrise Kingdom
Art Direction
Moonrise Kingdom
Life of Pi
Prometheus
Django Unchained
The Hobbit
Richard Parker, Life of Pi
Effects
Life of Pi
The hobbit
Prometheus
The cabin in the Woods
The Avengers

Sound
Tabu
Zero Dark Thirty
The hobbit
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The raid: redemption

Score
The hobbit
The Dark Knight Rises
Moonrise Kingdom
Looper
Django Unchained

Uncharted (yet to be seen)
Barbara
Cosmopolis
Queen of Versailles
Brave
Wreck-it Ralph
Les Misérables
Cloud Atlas
Anna Karenina

Charted
****1/2
Tabu (Gomes, 2012)
Holy Motors (Carax, 2012)

****
Amour (Haneke, 2012)
Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012)
The Master (Anderson, 2012)

***1/2
Hodejegerne (Headhunters; Tyldum, 2012)
Bernie (Linklater, 2012)
Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012)
Life of Pi (Lee, 2012)
Argo (Affleck, 2012)
The hobbit: an Unexpected Journey (Jackson, 2012)
Skyfall (Mendes, 2012)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012)
Marvel's The Avengers (Whedon, 2012)
Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012)
Serbuan maut (The raid: redemption; Evans, 2012)
Prometheus (Scott, 2012)

***
Lincoln (Spielberg, 2012)
Silver Linings Playbook (Russell, 2012)
The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2012)
Seven Psychopaths (McDonagh, 2012)
Looper (Johnson, 2012)
Batman: The dark knight rises (Nolan, 2012)
The place beyond the pines (Cianfrance, 2012)

**1/2
The Bourne Legacy (Gilroy, 2012)
Magic Mike (Soderberg, 2012)
Men in Black 3 (Sonnenfeld,2012)

**
Total recall (Wiseman, 2012)
The hunger games (Ross, 2012)

*
The dictator (Charles, 2012)



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4 Response to Cinemaps' 2012 Year in Review

Grizzly
February 24, 2013 at 8:09 AM

Haven't seen Tabu cause those films are harder to come by.. But I did see Holy Motors not too long ago and it was quite something! Don't know if it'll make my top ten, but it's up there. Other than that I haven't seen any of your top 5 just yet. Sheesh.

As for your uncharted films, I'd like to throw these in for consideration as well: Safety Not Guaranteed (enjoyable oddball of a indie comedy), Dredd (for a night of all-out action), Frankenweenie, The Pirates! and ParaNorman (because stop-motion is great) and Damsels in Distress (for Greta Gerwig's performance).

Also, films I haven't seen but seem like they should be on your list: Killing Them Softly, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Sessions (which won John Hawkes a Spirit Award yesterday!).

By the way, only ONE female performance listed?? And it's Wallis? Don't get me wrong, she was great, but it was more reacting than acting.. Hard to really judge it against "real" performances.

February 24, 2013 at 6:15 PM

I know! I was so aware that she's the only female on the list AND she's so little. But I can only put down whom I think deserves the spot! I loved her in Beasts! Because she's so young, she's not higher ranked but I'd feel wrong for not putting her on the performance list.

I don't know that any of those would make a difference on my Best of list? Thanks for the recs though! I'll definitely see them ... on Netflix! haha. I should see The Session though?

Grizzly
February 24, 2013 at 8:05 PM

Oops, I didn't mean to say I'm recommending them because I think they'd be top ten material, they're just films I think you should check out in general. Like, if you're in the mood for some crazy non-stop action then Dredd is a really nice choice!

I had Netflix, but the selection here (they just launched this past autumn) was too terrible to bother with it. Maybe I'll get it again if they shape up.

February 26, 2013 at 12:56 AM

But my time is reserved for epicness? If it's not top 10 material, it's DOA!

Unless it's on Netflix, horrible, terrible mediocre time-filler.

 

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