2012 is over. 365 days, 52 weeks, about 50 double take podcasts and 162 films: it has now come to the time of the year where those who look at films critically pick the highlights and lowlights of the year’s film releases. There are rules for this type of thing, films that were released theatrically in the year in question. Sounds simple enough, but there is a hand full of films that would be here, but they only received festival runs in 2012.
Before we get into the meat of the matter, here are some that didn’t make the top 25, but should be seen nonetheless:
- Amour (Dir. Michael Haneke)
- Martha Marcy May Marlene (Dir. Sean Durkin)
- Silver Linings Playbook (Dir. David O Russell)
- Holy Motors (Dir. Leos Carax)
- Wild Bill (Dir. Dexter Fletcher)
- Beasts of the Southern Wild (Dir. Benh Zeitlin)
- The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (Dir. Peter Lord & Jeff Newitt)
25. My Way (Dir. Kang Je-Gyu)
In the scheme of Korean directors to make the transition to the West Kang Je-Gyu doesn’t feature. Now if you mention his epic war Melodrama Brotherhood, people will start to become more receptive. Everything he did in his earlier film is improved upon in My Way. The growing friendship between two enemies over a series of world war two war zones develops the directors themes and fascinations. His skill at framing a war zone, his development of character and above all else his absolute talent at evoking emotion, it’s all here. Whether you want to or not, my way will run the gamut from loss and happiness to the uncontrollable chaos of war.
24. The Grey (Dir. Joe Carnahan)
Joe Carnahan surprised right out of the blocks. Not much was expected from the A-team director and the promo suggested that The Grey was ‘Liam Neeson wolf Puncher’. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Grey is a taut and occasionally terrifying survivalist and existentialist thriller which sees man pitted against nature. Whether it’s one of the best plane crashes committed to cinema or the relentless wolf packs that hunt down the survivors, The Grey is a superb package. While the second half doesn’t pop like the first, it still makes Joe Carnahan and the Grey a film to be reckoned with and then some.
23. Kotoko (Dir. Shin’ya Tsukamoto)
Director of Japanese filth and grunge, Tsukamoto, has been missing in action of late. He resolved that with his response to the Japanese tragedy in Kotoko. With a heart-stopping performance from Japanese musician Cocco, Tsukamoto stripped back all the layers to make a lo-fi drama about a woman coping with an increasingly aggressive mental unease. Losing her child and meeting a potential lover in Tsukamoto, she tries to cope with life. The film is disturbing, touching and reclaims stylized tropes to tell a genuinely disturbing tale. If he keeps this up, comparisons with Master of venereal and thoughtful horror, David Cronenberg, will be coming thick and fast. The film also owns the most shocking moment in any film this year. Blimey, once seen never forgotten.
22. End of Watch (Dir. David Ayer)
Found footage, ambient camera work, whatever you want to call it, that and the fact the film has a story are the only problems in David Ayer’s end of watch. While comments from William Friedkin that this is one of the best police films ever made may be strong. Ayer’s film is a remarkable feat of naturalism and acting, the scenes in which Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena are sat in the police cruiser talking are among the best moments in 2012. The naturalism, the performances, the chemistry, it’s the sort of simple cinema that I could watch endlessly.
21. Himizu (Dir. Sion Sono)
Based on a manga and it shows, the first of Sion Sono’s earthquake trilogy lives in an emotionally heightened and exaggerated world that will alienate many. With exquisite performances from Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô as the two young leads, Sono exploits their contemptible home lives to evoke a suffocating aura of dread and desperation post-disaster. Atmosphere aside, it all comes back to Sometani and Nikaidô to give the film an incredible emotional weight which is expressed through screaming histrionics like only the Japanese animated form knows how. A word of warning though, the film has a troubling relationship with domestic violence.
20. The Imposter (Dir. Bart Layton)
Bart Layton’s film was the documentary that would be met with derision and a failure to suspend disbelief if it wasn’t a true story. To that end, it would make a brilliant double bill with Craig Zobel’s Compliance. Without going into plot detail, as this is an exceptionally easy film to spoil. Layton presented an incredible true story with boldly framed and atmospheric re-enactments similar to Errol Morris in a film where the unbelievable truth just keeps on growing and growing. Leaving the film, you’ll either be angry that this happened or doubtful whether anybody on either side actually told the truth, whatever you leave the Imposter feeling; the truth remains that you will be putty in the director’s hands.
19. Looper (Dir. Rian Johnson)
While not on the same level as his breakout neo-noir, Brick, Rian Johnson gave the world 2012’s best science fiction film in Looper. Avoiding the elephant in the room that was Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s make-up, Looper managed to split itself into two tonally disparate and equally interesting halves. While more of a doppelgänger film than outright time-traveller, Looper morphed from high tension action thriller into something far more sedate and character driven in the second half. It also boats the most shocking character motivation for a character this year, with Bruce Willis. Whether it’s the most inventive and down-right terrifying conceptual torture scene of the year, the performances of Levitt and Willis, Looper confidently continued the theme of recent years with sci-fi films that could be both crowd pleasing without intelligence being lost in the process.
18. The Dark Knight Rises (Dir. Christopher Nolan)
Up there with the disappointing Prometheus as one of the most anticipated films of the year is number 18, Christopher Nolan’s final entry into his Batman Trilogy – the dark knight rises. This is the only film that could have come after the dark knight in Nolan’s consequence laden Gotham; its patience caps the trilogy in fine form. What makes it worthy of mention in this list is the character drama and build up that is impeccably played. From Wally Pfister’s extraordinary cinematography to the performances of the entire ensemble, little more could be asked for. If anything holds the film back it’s that the finale settles for simple-minded running clock set-up. For all the smack talk the film suffered from so-called fans, the dark knight rises is the very pinnacle of blockbusters which offer more than a contingent of explosions and one liners, long may the tradition continue.
17. 21 Jump Street (Dir. Phil Lord & Chris Miller)
Every year has its best comedy, 2010 had black dynamite, 2011 had Tucker & Dale versus Evil, and now 2012 has Phil Lord & Chris Miller’s 21 Jump Street. Nobody expected this to be anything other than another lazy rehash of old material; no-one expected it to have such a satirical and surreal streak. Lord and Miller together with leads Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum make fun of 1980s tropes and the cleverly twist expectations of the high school genre. Clever comedy may be one thing; this is also spectacularly funny for those that enjoy a sense of anarchy and the surreal in their comedy.
16. The Cabin in the Woods (Dir. Drew Goddard)
Another clever film hits the mark at number 16, with Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s deconstructive horror Cabin in the Woods. Not only is it fantastically entertaining, with a final third that offers much in the way of re-watchability, it also satirises the very existence of horror movies. Whether it was that white board or the general tone of the ‘other scenes’, Goddard and Whedon have made the most entertaining thesis on horror tropes for years. Why do we enjoy watching people being grotesquely killed off? Why? Well, cabin in the woods knows why and as well as providing the best ‘horror as spectacle’ film of the year, it’s also the best ‘cabin in the woods’ film since Sam Raimi gave us Evil Dead 2.
15. The Innkeepers (Dir. Ti West)
A much more traditional horror film now, from keeper of the old way Ti West. Nothing in 2012 (2011) showed how impatient horror fans are. Instead of favouring gore, jump scares and visceral film making that the genre has been known to support, Ti West is more of a classicist. With more in common with Polanski’s horror trilogy or the sedate character horror of the 50s-70s, West builds up the tension brilliantly through developing his two leads. Only when he is good and ready does he allow the film to become shocking as a genre piece. Then he has the bravery to pose a sense of doubt over what happens in the final third. There are few auteurs in horror as brave or good as Ti West; long may the young director’s ascendancy continue.
14. Cosmopolis (Dir. David Cronenberg)
Difficult and demanding patience, no two words could sum up number 14 greater. Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don Delillo’s novel Cosmopolis doesn’t exactly welcome viewers with open arms. It’s hard, obtuse visage with its otherworldly worldview and language, the first half of Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis is horrible. Then around kicks the second half. We get a fantastically self-destructive performance from Robert Pattinson and that sense of other that permeates the film, so proudly, finally makes sense. The film is viewed from Pattinson’s perspective, he is divorced from the real world and the film grows to reflect his alien perspective, echoing Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth. By the time Paul Giamatti turns up the film has grown into something quite remarkable.
13. Moonrise Kingdom (Dir. Wes Anderson)
From hard and obtuse to lovely and warm, at number 13 is Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. His lovely ode to childhood covers all the Anderson bases, he has a fantastic cast of mainstays and new inclusions that suggest an unshakable feeling of community and place. New faces Edward Norton, Bruce Willis and Tilda Swinton proved fantastic additions to the quirky director’s stable. But it was not the high-profile that made Moonrise Kingdom the film it is, it was the young stars Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Their youthful enthusiasm is a perfect match for Anderson’s oeuvre in a film about the long, magical days of summer holidays without any contentious bone of cynicism (the fantastic Mr. Fox).
12. Shame (Dir. Steve McQueen)
Featuring in many 2011 lists, Steve McQueen’s sophomore effort finally arrived in UK cinemas in 2012. Alongside his muse in Michael Fassbender, McQueen’s film is an uncompromisingly honest character study of a sex addict in New York. With an actor of Fassbender’s intensity in a film like this the result was bound to be good. Through his unflinching gaze and adoption of long take camera work, McQueen brings his visual art onto a living frame. With the directors début he proved that he had a predisposition towards dark subject matter and he has followed up Hunger with one of the best movies about addiction ever to be committed to cinema. It is as simple as that.
11. Once upon a time for Anatolia (Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Honours for the most beautifully photographed film of 2012 to Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s once upon a time in Anatolia. Using the Turkish countryside the auteur made one of the most visually arresting films you’re ever likely to see. That alone would be enough to call for a place on this list, films are after all a visual medium above all else. But there’s more the glacial pacing works here unlike that which could be said for other euro entries. Ceylan turns the police procedural into something far more reflective and existentialist. Anatolia is a beautiful film that expresses some nuance about the nature of man, such a statement almost entirely condemns it solely to the arthouse crowd, but whenever was that a bad fate for a film to suffer?
Stay tuned to No Frame of Reference all week for more of the 2012 wrap up, where tomorrow we shall be looking at the worst films the year had to offer.
Filed under: Editorials
