I saw about 20 movies in the theater between January 1st and December 31st, and I have to say I think I chose pretty well. With the limited time I have, I don't make it to the theater nearly as much as I did in my moviegoing salad days (My record is 54, set in the glorious movie year of 1994.) and I have to be more discerning. More often than not, though, when I waited till Netflix to see something I missed, it turned out to be the right move.
But only seeing such a low number of films makes it hard for me to do a traditional top ten list. So in choosing the cream of the crop, I fell short by a few titles. There are also a few films I have not yet seen that may have made the list, but if i waited then put them on the list it wouldn't be the Best of What I Saw in 2012 anymore, would it?
ARGO
Director Ben Affleck's tour de force about the CIA's daring rescue of six Americans during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis was easily one of the most entertaining movies of this or any year. After turning in impressive work behind the camera with the grim crime dramas Gone Baby Gone and The Town, Affleck proved with Argo that he is the real deal, smoothly switching gears between action, suspense and comedy without ever losing his sense of tone. Featuring outstanding supporting work from John Goodman and an ever-hilarious Alan Arkin, Argo was about as much fun as you could have in a movie theater in 2012.
DJANGO UNCHAINED
Is it much of a surprise to say Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti western-cum-slave revolt drama is one of the most outrageous movies of the year? Probably not. How about one of the most entertaining? No, again. A new QT movie is always cause for celebration, and Django is no exception. All the usual Tarantonian hallmarks are here: the over-the-top violence (this might actually be the bloodiest movie Tarantino's made yet -- and that's saying something), the clever dialogue, the brilliant set pieces. But once again, the man finds ways to consistently surprise and delight his audience. With great work by Leonardo DiCaprio (in role and performance that need to be seen to be believed), Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained is yet another wild and crazy ride through the mind of Hollywood's resident lunatic.
FLIGHT
Daniel Day-Lewis may have brought the 16th president to vivid life in Lincoln (and may yet become the first person to ever win three Best Actor Oscars later this year) but for my money, no male performance tops Denzel Washington's in Robert Zemeckis' harrowing tale of addiction and redemption. When I first saw the trailer for Flight, I assumed the big plane crash in the movie would be spread out as a flashback throughout the film. Instead, Zemeckis cannily front-loads the movie with the crash so that it reverberates as Washington's boozy pilot Whip Whitaker tries to put his life back together while under federal investigation. Washington has phoned it in for so long in cheesy action movies that it's easy to forget what a great actor he can be when he puts his mind to it. Flight puts Washington back in the top echelon, allowing him to create a three-dimensional portrait of a man simultaneously falling apart and picking up the pieces.
HAYWIRE
Director Steven Soderbergh may have gotten more attention for his male stripper movie Magic Mike (a major letdown, IMHO), but I thought this subversive action thriller -- which was unceremoniously dumped in theaters in January -- was a blast. Soderbergh has always had fun taking genre pieces and putting his own spin on them and Haywire was no exception. Mixed martial arts star Gia Carano plays a lethal government agent marked for death, but the preposterous story is just an excuse to show her kicking major ass in some exotic locales. Soderbergh upends the usual action movie tropes again and again, even to the point of having a series of flashbacks at the end fill in all the plot holes. Set to a groovy, David Shire-circa-1974-type musical score, Haywire proves that sometimes the execution is all that's needed to make the familiar seem fresh and vital again.
KILLER JOE
William Friedkin is another director who has marched to the beat of his own drummer for most of his career. But while some filmmakers might start slowing down at age 76, Friedkin turned up the heat with Killer Joe, easily the most outrageous movie of 2012. (Yes, even more outrageous than Django Unchained.) This unhinged, Southern gothic comedy about murder, money and fried chicken consistently raised the bar for bad taste until I found myself sitting mouth agape during the last half hour, wondering just how batshit crazy the whole affair would get. Matthew McConaughey turned in some excellent performances in 2012 (see Bernie and Magic Mike) but none of them redefined his career like his turn as a psychotic Texas cop who runs a side business as a hired killer. He was matched with fearless actors like Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church who followed the nuttiness wherever it went. And all the time you can almost hear Friedkin behind the camera laughing his ass off at what he's just pulled off. Killer Joe is a movie that earns its NC-17 rating and then some.
LOOPER
Rian Johnson's twisty time travel thriller hit theaters riding a wave of anticipation so big, you could almost forgive the movie if it didn't live up to the hype. But it did live up, in dazzling ways. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a hit man from the future who is routinely sent back in time by the mob to rub out other "loopers" who have outlived their usefulness. But when he is set back to kill himself, his older self (played by Bruce Willis) escapes and goes after the people responsible for sending him to his death in the first place. Got that? Johnson's screenplay clearly lays out the situation and the paradoxes involved, but he's not afraid to pile on the plot developments including the introduction of a young boy with telepathic powers who may hold the key to Willis' and Gordon-Levitt's future. (Or is it their past? Or both?) Couple that with Johnson's stylish direction and you get an exciting, suspenseful and surprisingly moving entry in the science fiction canon.
ZERO DARK THIRTY
This thriller about the 10 year hunt for Osama bin Laden felt like the raid on his compound in Pakistan: tight, taut, and tough. Kathryn Bigelow gives us a lean, diamond hard look at the CIA's investigation, including all the dead ends, failed leads, and deadly mistakes that kept bin Laden from justice. Jessica Chastain gives an incredibly controlled performance as Maya, the lead investigator (based on an actual CIA agent) who keeps the probe going through sheer force of her confidence and drive. And after ratcheting up the suspense for two hours, Bigelow directs the hell out of the actual raid on bin Laden, creating a pulse- pounding sequence despite the fact that we know how it all turns out. It's a shame that the controversy over whether or not the movie endorses torture has been clouding discussions of the film. To me, ZD30 is a thoughtful, objective take on one of the most painful eras of American history, one that arguably still goes on even though bin Laden does not.
And the best movie I saw in 2012 is...
MOONRISE KINGDOM
All of Wes Anderson's movies dating back to Bottle Rocket have largely been about adults who act like children. With this lyrical tale of young love in the mid-1960s, Anderson tells the story of two children who act more grown up than the adults -- and conjured up his best and most entertaining film since 1998's Rushmore. All of Anderson's stylistic touches are on full display: the arch dialogue, the deadpan performances, the rigid formality of the set design and cinematography. But this time, instead of focusing on his characters' quirks to the detriment of the story, he leaves them to the supporting players and turns his attention to the teens at the heart of the film -- giving us a young couple we care deeply about. But as poignant as Moonrise Kingdom is, it's also funny as hell. It's the only movie I saw twice in the theater this year -- that's how much it has to offer.
Honorable Mention goes to...
THE MASTER
Oh, how I wanted to put P.T. Anderson's latest epic on this list. His previous film, There Will Be Blood, was my pick for best film not just of 2007 but of the entire decade, so it was with breathless anticipation I waited for The Master to open. But while I admired its incredible look and astonishing performances, I was left cold by its story. I had all intentions to see it a second time, but never got around to it. That being said, parts of it have stayed with me so when I do see it again, there's a chance I may change my mind about it. I sure hope so...The Master is the type of film that demands to be seen again, and I feel it will reveal a lot more of its secrets on subsequent viewings.
And the worst movie I saw in 2012 was...
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
I don't care how much critical praise this amateurish production gets, but its handleld shooting style made me want to vomit after about 5 minutes. How can you fairly criticize a movie you can't even watch? You can't. So for wasting my money and giving me nothing but nausea, BOTSW is the worst movie of the year.
And that closes the books on 2012. Here's to a great year of moviegoing in 2013!
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