By now I think people generally understand I have pretty broad tastes in films and this list represents that. Also, keep in mind please, that this list is reflective of me and my opinions ALONE. I'm not here to please anyone or to just jump on the bandwagon of opinions about the best movies of the year. I'm not a critic, so I can be as free-wheeling as I want with my selections, the general consensus be damned. But that's not to say I'm not unaware of the different criticisms leveled against some of these movies, some of them are indeed flawed, but the point I'm trying to emphasize is that my movie-going experience is unique to myself (obviously). We all go to the theaters for different reasons and we bring different perspectives and feelings about movies when we sit down and watch them. If I feel like dismissing the weaknesses of a given film because I think its strengths outweigh those flaws then I can do that.
Finally, the reason why there's nineteen of these Best Films is because of how I rate movies. Any film that I give 5 Stars (thank you, Netflix rating system) is one I consider pretty damn good. And this ranking of least greatest to superb is also my own.
19. Prometheus (Ambitious and incredible to watch on the big screen. The main problem is of course the rambling plot, there are too many characters and too many thematic asides being made that distract from the overall story, making it all a little confusing at times.)
18. The Amazing Spider-Man (Much better than Raimi's trilogy with genuine human pathos and emotional growth on the part of all the characters. The main issue was with the rather over-stuffed plot that inflated the running time unnecessarily.)
17. The Avengers (Saw three times; Joss Whedon is a god. It's kind of amazing how well this film works as an actual film. There's a solid story, all of the characters have their moments to shine, and there's a surprising amount of genuine drama. The final battle is a little too excessive in retrospect, but I admire the attempts at being supremely epic.)
16. Chronicle (Best use of the found footage format I've ever seen. Some of the effects are rather astonishing given what I assumed was a relatively modest budget. There are characters and emotions and everything feels oddly realistic given the story. Only criticism would be the occasional bouts of melodrama between the eventual antagonist and his abusive father.)
14. Michael (A deeply unsettling film from Austria that barely anyone saw. It skimps on the backstory and emotions a little too much, but ultimately the direction and performances sell everything and make for a very creepy, very engrossing dissection of the life of a pedophile.)
13. Looper (Hard mother fucking science fiction. Probably one of the most original films of the year featuring an exceptional script and excellent direction. As with Tron: Legacy however, the CGI-rendered face of JGL to make him look like Bruce gets distracting at times.)
12. Seven Psychopaths (It breaks all the rules and I love it because of that. Arguably one of the most promising directors out there, McDonagh knows what he's doing behind the camera. And yet there are brief moments and scenes that seem a little too willing to blur the lines of reality and fantasy and sometimes not in a good, fun way but in a confusing, lacking way.)
11. Life of Pi (It could've done with a stronger opening and closing to bookend the main themes and ideas of the entire story, but Life of Pi is ultimately a wonderfully imaginative visual feast. The CGI is at times astounding, I may even be willing to shell out a few extra bucks to see it in 3D, and the story is surprisingly moving. Full of a love and appreciation for nature and life and spirituality, Ang Lee impresses me once again with his endless talents behind the camera as a director who is capable of creating vastly different worlds in each of his movies.)
10. The Master (A big fat puzzle of a movie. I don't even know what the hell it's about, but I don't care. Well, sometimes I do. But really the pure FILM of this film is incredible from the production design and cinematography to the carefully modulated performances and bizarre script.)
9. Zero Dark Thirty (It has some structural issues in the beginning and middle, but ultimately the entire movie is an incredibly intense and impressive feat of docu-drama style filmmaking. I'm not usually the biggest fan of historical dramas that depict modern conflicts and war in a graphic manner, mainly because they tend to feel overly political and I wasn't a huge supporter of Bigelow's previous effort, The Hurt Locker, which I thought was weirdly languid and unfocused. But everything she got wrong then, she hits out of the ballpark here. The acting is superb by pretty much everyone, Chastain especially, and the production is at times startlingly realistic.)
8. Lincoln (A screenwriter's wet dream come to life. This movie is written so ridiculously well it overshadows the sometimes lacking direction and occasionally melodramatic performances by the lesser actors. I usually don't like Day Lewis, but in this he astonishes.)
7. ParaNorman (What an imaginative and original little film. This is the kind of animation I like. Where the characters and environments come to life as real people and places, but where fantasy is also bursting at the seams to overtake their world. A nice, simple, relevant message well-conveyed in a wonderfully dark, scary, and moving story. And I LOVE Mitch's twist at the end. Of course.)
6. Skyfall (Saw twice; I already talked about this at length in my post before. Read it instead.)
5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Saw twice; Same world. New story and characters. Yes it gets silly at times and is overlong. But I love me some ambitious filmmaking and as usual Jackson delivers with an awesome recreation of a world we've seen before, but not necessarily like this. It further establishes how much fantasy there is to be had in Middle Earth and how much exciting adventure there can be there as well.)
4. Silver Linings Playbook (A wonderfully written, bittersweet, and at times painful family drama with just the right amount of hidden snarkiness and black comedy. I usually don't like David O. Russell's style of direction or writing, but this time he hits all the right marks and gets some excellent performances by pretty much the entire cast. Though it devolves into melodrama a little too frequently at times, the nicely upbeat and romantic ending wraps things up neatly without feeling all that forced.)
3. Django Unchained (Seeing a second time tomorrow; Tarantino hits another one out of the park. Better than Inglourious Basterds because it feels a little more focused and fine-tuned in the script and production department. As usual the dialogue is incredible and as usual the tension is nail-biting.)
2. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Granted it's technically a 2011 film, but the limited release in theaters was kind of confusing and it bled over into 2012 a fair amount, so that's why I'm including it here. Dark, dark, dark. Tilda's incredible as always. The direction is nauseating in its unsettling detail. And Miller really really makes me terrified. An extraordinarily real film that delves head first into the horrors of modern youth, violence, culture, and family.)
1. Cloud Atlas (Saw twice; One of the most daunting, moving, strange, ambitious movies I've ever seen or can imagine. It's very flawed, but I kind of like it more because it is so relatively problematic at times. A big grand epic that reiterates similar ideas and themes through different stories and events and characters, BUT they're all played by the same people.)
No comments:
Post a Comment