10. Lincoln:I believe the Oscars exists solely for the purpose of giving Daniel-Day Lewis awards every time he's in a movie. Really, his performance and Sally Field's is what makes this movie compelling to watch through the boring parts. And sorry guys, but there are a lot of long-winded dialogues and dialogue scenes that seem endless. But the positives outweigh the negatives. Every performance ranges from great to absolutely masterful, there's never a moment where it feels like these actors aren't invested in their roles. The immersion of the 1800s doesn't just stop at the acting. The set decoration and costumes are exquisite. Nothing about it feels fake.
Probably my favorite scenes involved the congress meetings about the new amendment. Something about a bunch of white guys yelling at each other works here, in the way the entirety of "12 Angry Men" worked. The way realistic tension of dialogue and body language mixes with comedy is easily what makes this more memorable then a usual Lincoln biography.
9. The Dark Knight Rises:This is probably the best conclusion we fans could hope for. Is it a little hard to follow, sure, but the thrills are still there. There as epic and visceral as the last film. While granted, the villain is not as disturbing as The Joker, Heath Ledger is gone, (R.I.P.) and I'd much rather take this over recasting the part. I love Anne Hathaways' and Joseph Gordon-Levitts' performances. The Cat woman she creates is a great, confident character, that thanks to the film's taut writing, finds the balance between villain and hero.
The ending of the film is another great part. A perfectly emotional, complete end with a sly wink to Batman's past that before that point hadn't been talked about before in this trilogy.
8. Zero Dark Thirty I originally had Argo in this position, so you'd think I would just bump that to #9. Yet, thinking about both, Argo just fails in comparison. Still a great movie, but not as good as this. I think that mostly comes down to how melodramatic Argo is, whereas this is much more realistic and unflinching. ZDT looks at the actions of America and knows that we were sometimes desperate and took drastic, brutal measures, and sometimes there are repercussions.
One major element of this movie that is lightyears ahead of Argo is the dialogue, and the characters as a whole. In Argo, Ben Afflecks' character always makes the sensible, right decision, as well as he never feels that emotionally involved in that case. It's all just a normal day at work. In this movie, however, every character has true emotional involvement for what they do. They make decisions based on what's sensible, and they clearly all know what they're doing, of course. But sometimes they make choices based on their gut, wether it's out of revenge, or just not thinking clearly. This adds a great layer of depth. They're not just government agents, but people. Jessica Chastain delivered a great, understated performance, without ever having to overact. And while Daniel-Day Lewis' performance as Lincoln worked, that's because Lincoln is considered one of the greatest american's of all time, and a loud, powerful performance is the only way to do him justice, honestly. Especially if the movie is so melodramatic, like Lincoln. But if you want to do a modern, sophisticated thriller about a scarred, quiet, passionate hero is to do a quiet performance. I also want to mention Jennifer Ehle's performance as Jessica. She was another great example of an understated, realistic performance of a relatable character.
7. Beasts of the Southern Wild:If you've ever seen my IMDB page, (which I highly doubt you have) you would know that when I ranked the films I saw of 2011, I put "Tree of Life"on the bottom. Like Tree of Life, this is a mood piece laden with visual metaphor, but why is this one of my favorites of the year? Simple: This has a plot! And characters! That we can connect to! You see, Terrence Malick, you can have a film with cerebral metaphors and an emotionally resonant, non- alienating plot.
I loved how this movie looked at it's characters, there's a sweetly spirited feel to it that empathizes with the characters and there way of life, you get a feel for there culture and lifestyle and don't pity them because they never hate there lives and wish for more. Sure there are a few jokes, but it never feels cruel.
I'm not going to say much about the acting because so many people have already praised them so much, but I will say that Quvenzhane Wallis completely deserved that oscar nomination, and Gina Montana and Dwight Henry were fantastic as well.
6. Amour:This is, yet again, proof that art films can be emotional and ya' know,"plot-having", while still containing metaphors and having art-house techniques. This, compared to "Beasts" ,has noticeably less visual parables to the events of the film, and the ones that are there are hard to decipher, (like, I think the pigeon was supposed to represent her...maybe). Amour still has some of the more surface features of art films. There's a very quiet, slow moving pace, and long, lingering shots.
I actually really liked the lingering cinematography, at least in context of the movie. The point was too really make you feel comfortable with this couple and their day-to-day events, they feel less like characters on a screen but more people you know, in an apartment your'e familiar with. The lack of music and the still, unmoving shots make you feel like your'e at home. When this comfortable aroma slowly becomes dark and depressing, it's not just you watching sad people on screen, it's you watching people you know have there strong love tested by age and disease, and it's absolutely heartbreaking.
This is not at all an easy movie to watch. While the camerawork and minimalist approach help a lot, It's Emmanuelle Riva's performance that makes this movie all too hard to watch. Over the course of two hours, she transforms from a sweet woman into a dying, hallucinating cripple. She has to slowly change and she works the part so well, it's almost too much to take. The character feels too realistic, too overwhelming in how bare and unflinching the film is. As the film spirals down to it's inevitable end, it climax's into something that made me have to turn away, and it leaves you with an open finale, one that after everything that happened, is the closest the characters will ever get to a happy ending.
5. LooperSo... how about I distract you fom the depressing story with... TITS AND VIOLENCE! Woohoo!
Despite the joke, actually, there's a surprising lack of both. Only one scene involving a naked woman and a few moments of blood. This movie did really surprise me, not just from the lack of brainless adolescent stuff, but the plot really wasn't what I was expecting it to be. The scriptwriter had an in to make it just a bunch of fights between Willis and Levitt, but instead took a completely different, original path about morality, especially an interesting question to ponder over; "is it right to punish someone who will do something bad in the future but hasn't yet?" The story is very unique and solid, and I liked how it shifted focus from Levitt's character to the mom and kid. The characters are developed, connectable, and there's a very heavy plot that's goes has many twists in it. Really, it's just a lot of fun, but has an emotional grounding to keep it from being just fluff. These elements are mixed perfectly. I'd say it's even better then two other masterful sci-fi movies of the same dark type, "Inception"or "Source Code" but I'd probably get a lot of crap for that.
4. ChronicleOne of the most under-rated films of the year, and easily one of the best found-foootage films of all time, even though there's not a ton of competition there. This film completely bends the idea of super heroes into something very modern, fresh, and original. The people that have these powers aren't vengeful super villains or have the heroic morals and courage of super heroes. They're teenagers, and they do the things teenagers would do with these powers, and these pranks they pull and random things they do are fun to watch. The whole movie feels real. It's not as darkly-toned or epic as The Dark Knight movies and doesn't have the bright popping colors of Superman and Batman & Robin. That makes the appearance of the powers even more strange and fascinating. The arc of our main character becoming psychotic is believable, he has valid points, and doesn't go full on stereotypical super villain with a maniacal laugh, which he easily could've. He's also played by a brilliant Dane Dehaan, who captures the melancholy turned dangerous emotions. All of the performances are great, and they're all well-written, likable characters. Even the black guy is real and charming, when he, like our anti-hero main character, could've been stereotypical. This is a film that truly could've been lazy and forgettable and still have gotten away with a lot of money, but decided to put in some heart...and brains.
3. The Secret World of ArriettyYay, Studio Ghibli never disappoints! I've said it 1,000 times before and I will say it 1,000 times more; In a country of mostly loud, formulaic animated fare, Ghibli produces a great fantasy alternative to that. And while I will always love Miyazaki's opus "Spirited Away", with it's beautiful animation and original fantasy world and story, this movie is still refreshing an pretty with a smaller scale and quaint story. It's a story that can transcend to all ages by focusing more on a solid story and warm-hearted characters instead of juvenile humor. It's a simple story, one that kids can easily comprehend while being entertaining to older kids, taking interesting turns and developing a great friendship between the two main characters. All of the characters are great; they have clear characterizations, but there not as in your face as other kids movies, like "The Goonies".
I also really love the ending. It's melancholy, but it's still a little hopeful, which to me, is the usually my favorite ending, especially to kids films. These sad moments and endings can make it memorable for kids and older people too, while still leaving a sense of wonder and ability for you to make your own ending for the characters you've come to know and love.
(Note: Released in Japan in 2010, but released in America in 2012, so I decided to count it)
2. Life of PiIn my opinion, this is not just a great example of ho to adapt a book to be a mainstream movie, but also a prime example of how to make a movie. I'm not joking when I say this film should be taught in media history classes for getting everything right. The cinematography and all of the effects are just gorgeous, and I should not even have to mention that tiger. I knew it was fake, it had to be, but it feels so tangible and real. You can tell how much labor was put into it.
But it's not just technically brilliant, the emotional depth of the script, and the power of Pi's (Suraj Sharma's) performance holds your attention throughout, and plays a major part in making you believe the tiger Richard Parker is really there. The script is also perfectly balanced. it heavily leans on the strange bond between the two and how Pi learns to survive, but there are some great moments of comedy as well, some moments of suspense, and elements of fantasy delivered through the most drop dead beautiful imagery in any movie of the last decade. An absolute modern-day masterpiece.
1. Moonrise KingdomSo you would think with me calling Life of Pi a modern-day masterpiece that I would put that at no. 1, but honestly, years from now I'll remember the slightly off but grounded characters and unorthodox plotting of the romance in this film.
One of the first elements I should bring up is all of the fine performances, mostly the unusual choices of Bruce Willis and Edward Norton. It's great to see actors take roles completely out of their comfort zone and for the most part succeed. And they're not just succeeding in a regular comedy, oh no, this is a Wes Anderson comedy, with dry, unnatural comedy.
The characters are all very well-rounded, and the two main kids were especially better then I expected. You start off thinking they're pretty awful people; pretentious, selfish, snobby. Yet, over he course of this movie, they're given development, we find out why they want to run away from civilization, and we know why they feel so different and alienated. They're acting was very dead-on. They stayed in a very dead pan, almost always unemotional tone, yet through simple looks and conversations become real people. I was able to easily connect to these two people that I ,at the beginning, hated.
Of course there is the candy-colored camerawork and the off script Anderson is known for. The only two movies I've seen from him are this and "Fantastic Mr. Fox". In both, I always found these ideas sincere. The reality he creates is charming and memorable, so much more then other films. Wes creates world's that are far enough from reality to make plots that unfold in ways that wouldn't happen in real life. He also makes sure these plots aren't in so much of a fantasy world that it becomes convoluted and has relatable characters. And this perfect balance and sincerity, more then anything else, makes this my favorite movie of the year.
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