Half-Time
2012 is halfway done and although I’ve been out of the American commercial loop for almost two months (I’m flying back to NY today), I’m dead certain of the year’s best so far. Cannes favorites are included because I’ve seen ‘em and I know what I know. Beyond the top category is a mashup of my April-June assessments plus January-March judgments. The usual admonishments, corrections and disputes are requested.
Best Films of 2012 So Far: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Magic Mike, Miss Bala, Holy Motors (Cannes), Haywire, Bernie, On The Road (Cannes), No (Cannes), God Bless America, Killing Them Softly (Cannes), Amour (Cannes…continues to grow upon reflection but a grueling sit), The Three Stooges, The Sessions (formerly known as The Surrogate), Michael, Rampart, 21 Jump Street, The Grey, Rust and Bone (Cannes) (18)
April through June Toppers (commercially released): Beasts of the Southern Wild, Magic Mike, God Bless America, Bernie, The Three Stooges (5)
Austere, Penetrating, Disciplined, Bressonian: Beyond The Hills (Cannes) (1)
Good Things (April-June): The Dictator, Moonrise Kingdom (2)
“Impressive” But Bothersome/Cumbersome, Don’t Wanna See it Again, Eff It: Prometheus (1)
Not Half Bad (January through June): Safety Not Guaranteed, The Hunt (Cannes), Take This Waltz, Neil Young Journeys, Polisse, Your Sister’s Sister, Under African Skies, We Have a Pope, Monsieur Lazhar, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Declaration of War, Coriolanus, Footnote, Friends With Kids, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Woman in Black, Damsels in Distress, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope.
Stirring Production Design (April-June): Dark Shadows, Snow White and the Huntsman (2)
Enhanced, Undiminished: Titanic 3D (1)
Reportedly Awful (March-June): Rock of Ages, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2)
Passable with Great Musical Finale: Mirror Mirror (1)
Special Awfulness Distinction: The Paperboy (Cannes) (1)
Arousing/Primitive/Punishing: The Avengers, Hunger Games, The Raid: Redemption, Lawless (Cannes) Cabin in the Woods, Lockout (5)
Catastrophes (April-June): John Carter, Battleship (2)
Mostly Grotesque: Peace, Love and Misunderstanding (1)
Unseen As We Speak (a ridiculous amount given my absence from the American megaplex for the last two months): People Like Us, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Brave, Seeking A Friend For The End of the World, To Rome With Love, Men in Black 3, Five Year Enagegement, Piranha 3D, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Bel Ami, Paul Williams Still Alive, Lola Versus, Dark Horse, El Gringo, My Way, Life Happens, The Lady, etc., etc.
Entirely Decent Tony Scott Film With An Ending That Underwhelms: Safe House (1)
Mildly Gripping: Silent House (1)
Mildly Likable, Amusing: Wanderlust (1)
Best Docs: Undefeated, Bully, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Pray for Japan, The Island President (5)
Slow-going: Turn Me On, Dammit!, 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2)
Lesser Dardennes: The Kid With A Bike (1)
Unfulfilling, Irksome, Bad: Contraband, Red Tails, Man on a Ledge, One for the Money, Flowers of War (5)
Labored, Less-Than-Likable Family Relationship Dramas: Being Flynn, The Snowtown Murders, Boy, The Deep Blue Sea, W.E. (5)
Didn’t See (January-March): Chronicle, Act of Valor, The Forgiveness of Blood (3)
Avoided Like Plague: Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Let the Bullets Fly, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, A Thousand Words (4)
Where does Prometheus fall on this list?
Off your unseen list, I thought the 5-Year Engagement was the best and is definitely worth the VOD (and Jason Segel lost 30 pounds for it, so Jeff doesn’t need to bring a sleep-mask). And The Deep Blue Sea’s my early-going #1. Weisz was incredible.
Feel like a moron for missing The Grey. Probably best seen on the big screen, too.
The fact that I initially forgot to include Prometheus says it all, I think.
Nice to see The Grey on there. Most wrote it off as a genre flick, but it succeeds as a visual tone poem.
Visual tone poem is a nice way to describe ‘The Grey’. Not much going on but pleasant to look at.
I think most people have forgotten ‘Prometheus’ Jeff.
Battleship is the best movie of 2012, and will only be tied by SAVAGES, GREAT GATSBY, and possibly Killing Them Softly or Lawless or whatever. The Grey is number two.
BERNIE and SEEKING A FRIEND… are the two best low-expectations “whoa, holy shit” surprise gut-punches. Man, MAN is Jack Black good in BERNIE. And McConaughey. The kind of movie everyone will forget once the big guns drop, but the notes Jack Black hits in that, that’s a truly unique performance as a really weird guy in a movie with a strange tone that takes a while to settle into, but by the end you’re completely riveted. Top three Linklater for sure.
Minority opinion for most underrated?
BEING FLYNN.
You were smart for avoiding Act of Valor. I just caught it on video and it was terrible. The “acting” (in quotes because it barely qualifies) is beyond awful and the action sequences, supposedly the highlight, aren’t really anything special. It plays like an 80′s military movie as produced by Roger Corman.
IDK, that ONE BIT in ACT OF VALOR where that Richard Hatch-looking nonactor interrogates one of the villains, I think on a boat? That was shot in a beautiful and distinctive way and had an edgy undercurrent I remember more than most of the big setpieces. The interrogator’s acting was as bad as anybody else’s in the movie, but in that one scene it worked for the movie, and the way the key light glistened on the faces was nice work by Shane Hurlbut of YOU’RE FUCKING AMATEUR and FILMING INTO THE BLUE fame.
I don’t really care if anyone likes, loves or hates THE GREY, but it’s kind of a stupid comment to say it doesn’t have anything going on beyond visuals. You could argue I’m sure it’s kind of primitive or surface in the way it goes about it, but it has a shit-ton of Peckinpah-Hill type rumination on masculinity and loss and sacrifice. If that doesn’t work for you, fine, I’m not gonna argue it, but you guys make it sound like it’s a pretty pictures movie with no thought in it whatsoever. Personally I thought the last stretch with Neeson going thru those wallets and giving this sense of humanity to what would be stock tough-guy characters in a lesser movie packed an emotional wallop, as did Neeson’s arc.
This is a BROAD stupid thing to say, but sometimes? I honestly think the vast majority of “film geeks” aren’t very in touch with their own emotions and don’t have much sense of loss or mortality; Not saying this about anyone here in particular, everyone’s different, everyone’s free to their opinions… But very very few film geeks, bloggers, commenters approach movies from an emotional place or view anything with ANY sense of relating it to their own fears, thoughts, feelings or fetishes. IDK, The Grey or Inception or whatever might not be the best movies to hang this argument on, but I’m consistently surprised by how many of “you” guys don’t “feel” anything watching movies, even BAD movies… I choke up on cue and view things thru my own fears, failures, lusts, nostalgia, whatever. I think most of you guys watch from such a place of remove that’s part your scientific approach, part that you have this weird sociopathy of youth where there’s no sense of weakness or mortality or fragility.
Movie geeks are WEIRD.
That was a great rant, actually.
Agreed.
Lex, I have to hand it to you, the thoughtful side that peeks out every blue moon is very much spot-on. Art is made to make us feel something. Clinical detachment so as to be ‘objective’ about art defeats its purpose.
“IDK, that ONE BIT in ACT OF VALOR where that Richard Hatch-looking nonactor interrogates one of the villains, I think on a boat? That was shot in a beautiful and distinctive way and had an edgy undercurrent I remember more than most of the big setpieces. The interrogator’s acting was as bad as anybody else’s in the movie, but in that one scene it worked for the movie, and the way the key light glistened on the faces was nice work by Shane Hurlbut of YOU’RE FUCKING AMATEUR and FILMING INTO THE BLUE fame.”
That scene stuck out too because it’s obvious that with all the “actors” they were terrible at acting but the moment you put them IN THEIR JOBS they shined.
That guy’s like, “You want me to read WHAT?” until that point, then all of a sudden, “Go ahead and do your day job,” the lights go on.
Finally got to see John Carter video and it wasn’t half bad. Considering that the source material was classic meandering episodic pulp, I think they did surprisingly well. I was especially impressed with the Tharks, which were some of the best mo-cap I’ve seen. Certainly not the catastrophe some were describing.
And yes, I think Kitsch was miscast. He certainly looked the part, but he’s more of a slow burn guy than a broad epic strokes guy. His scenes with Cranston were quite good. He needs to stop doing the big epic stuff and try for more early Eastwood roles.
Had Disney tapped Chris Hemsworth – who is good at broad epic strokes – for this instead of Thor, the film might have done better. Probably not enough to overcome the oblivious marketing, though.
Yo awesome rant KitLatura1. Very true. That’s why I kinda stay away from Devin Faraci now. His reviews have become so impersonal as to describe a movie either great or terrible. That simply doesn’t cut it for me anymore.
Haywire, Magic Mike, and The Three Stooges all top your best list? That tells me it must’ve been a pretty awful year for movies so far.
Seriously, there’s love for “The Grey”?
See it again. It’s dumb characters, posing with tone-deaf profanity, making stupid move after stupid move. The place that they wind up at the end had me howling with laughter.
Also the trailer cheats big time, the only really good thing about it is the plane crash scene, and Liam Neeson’s dad’s poem suuuucks.
Surprise of the year for me so far: “Jeff Who Lives At Home”, which I caught on VOD this weekend. I have hated pretty much everything the Duplass boys have been involved in but I watched JWLAH because of Segal and Sarandon and was amazed at how much i liked it — sweet, compact and precise. I was expecting stoner-doofus rambling and it went someplace else. A major breakthru IMHO.
And speaking of the Duplasses, I then saw “Safety Not Guaranteed” and thought it was an interesting little movie that would’ve been twice as good with someone other than Mark Duplass in that role. Man, is he hard to like.
Please do watch The Grey again. In fact, buy the Blu-Ray. It’s one of the only films so far this year that’s worth a purchase. Favorite of the year so far.
It’s that rare film that asks: What’s the worst that could happen when a bunch of loud-mouthed stereotypical jerks leave the relative safety of a plane and wander out into wolf-infested woods with no clear plan whatsoever.
Best of the year so far: Bernie.
By this time last year, there were several films in the best of category: Tree of Life, Jane Eyre, and Midnight in Paris.
Hoping for a much stronger 2nd half of 2012…
Best is The Grey, followed by Prometheus.
Most underrated = Contraband. I thought it was going to be this fast paced Tony Scott-ish action movie, but it was a lot slower, and gritter. It’s pretty much the action parts and plot of a Mann film, without the deeper introspection that normally are in his films. 90 minutes, in and out. Perfect for what it is. Could have used a car chase though.
What’s the worst that could happen when a bunch of loud-mouthed stereotypical jerks leave the relative safety of a plane and wander out into wolf-infested woods with no clear plan whatsoever
You didn’t watch the movie.
Rashad, do you ever even try to be right? You should sometime.
What does that even mean? You’re the one talking nonsense about the movie. They pretty much explained why they couldn’t stay at the plane anymore. And the wolves started eating people there too.
I didn’t buy it. The crash site offered shelter and burnable fuel and materials that could be turned into weapons. It was also out in a field and gave them a better chance of being spotted by a rescue plane. I realize the movie needed them to go into the woods to move the story, but the script’s rationale wasn’t convincing to me.
And if the wolves are attacking the crash site, all the more reason to set up defenses and NOT wander out into the open wilderness. Because look where the hell they ended up.
Also, I’ve argued with someone about this movie who claimed Neeson was suicidal and that he intentionally led the men to their deaths. That’s actually an interesting idea, but there’s not enough foundation in the script for me to find that convincing either.
If you enjoyed it, you enjoyed it. But when you just “Best is The Grey” and leave it at that, I’m going to say that’s not right.
That’s an interesting take Travis. I think the entire movie post suicide attempt displays an anti-suicide anti-complacency attitude. When he leaves the plane and when he goes one on one with the wolf at the end both times it’s “one more time into the fray.”
There is no “right.” What people think is the best, is the best.
Why would they setup in the middle of nowhere? No resuce plane was going to come, especially not in time. They had a better chance getting to the water, and following the path, than they did just sitting there, and getting picked off, one by one. There is no defense for getting surrounded. The fact that Neeson ended up in the den isn’t a fault; shit happens. He was going to die, either way. The point is that he chose to fight at the end, even in the bleakest of situations.
Oh, yeah, “the path.” The path that leads you out of the Alaskan wilderness. I guess that does make more sense. You’ve convinced me. It’s a great movie.
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There is no “right.” What people think is the best, is the best.
Why would they setup in the middle of nowhere? No resuce plane was going to come, especially not in time. They had a better chance getting to the water, and following the path, than they did just sitting there, and getting picked off, one by one. There is no defense for getting surrounded. The fact that Neeson ended up in the den isn’t a fault; shit happens. He was going to die, either way. The point is that he chose to fight at the end, even in the bleakest of situations.
you should really check out chronicle. terrific film for many reasons you wouldn’t expect if your expectations are based on nothing but the trailers.
the grey and prometheus are my two faves for the year. god bless america, the raid, and seeking a friend were great in their own ways. perfect sense was creepy and upsetting and very well done. haywire is essentially a perfect action film, and one of my favorites from soderbergh.
this weekend i am checking out magic mike, ted, and moonrise kingdom, then next week is savages and spiderman, so lots of interesting stuff ahead.