Top 10 (Mostly) Movies of 2012

Update: I originally skipped number 4 on this list. I have since updated that. If you saw this before the change, well...it's been updated. So, check it out! :D

Here it is, my first Top 10 Movies of the Year list on here. I had a bit of fun putting this one together. There were a lot of good movies released this year, and unfortunately, I missed a few of them including The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Bernie, Holy Motors (really really wanted to see this, but just missed it), and since Zero Dark Thirty has yet to be released widely in the U.S., I have not seen it, either. So, you will not see those here. So, let's do this:

10. Lincoln/The Avengers (Tie)

Now, this probably seems like a really strange tie for 10th place. But, I really couldn't leave either one off this list. It's not that they are equal on quality or are really comparable, it's just that they do what they set out to do so well and they deserve recognition for it. Lincoln tells the story of how President Abraham Lincoln worked to get the 13th amendment passed to end slavery once and for all, and Spielberg does this with such deft that even as we all know the end result, we all were sitting on the edges of our seats, engrossed in what was happening. We also got a chance to see a somewhat more restrained Spielberg (most of the time), and that's always a good thing.

The Avengers was just recently voted as the most overrated movie of the year. Which I can't really disagree with, (though I would probably say The Dark Knight Rises, personally) The Avengers was overrated. It kind of became that overplayed song on the radio you once loved, but I don't think that means its a bad song. The Avengers is a flawed movie, by Joss Whedon's own admission, but it got the job done so well and exceeded everyone's expectations so far ahead, that it really is an accomplishment. Joss Whedon was able to successfully pull off the glaring elephant in the room, when Marvel Cinematic Universe plan was announced, and that was 'How in the hell are they gonna pull of the Avengers?' but he did and he did it extremely well, and that's why I couldn't leave it off this list.

9. Skyfall

Talk about movies that exceeded expectations. Skyfall really delivered the James Bond that was missing from the recent outgoings. A return to classic bond feel and tropes, a great bond-villain played by Javier Bardem, and a fantastic director with Sam Mendes. After Quantum of Solace, many of us were left feeling like something was missing, and we finally got that from Sam Mendes. Smart, funny, thrilling all the things we really ask for from a Bond movie (at least I do).


8. Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom comes off the success of Wes Anderson's last movie (and my favorite) Fantastic Mr. Fox, which had a whole lot more heart to it than his other movies. An easy criticism of Anderson is that his movies are cold and distant, but he has really done good on trying to change that with his last two films. Moonrise Kingdom is full of heart and community. It has a sense of togetherness and a helping each other vibe that makes just a great feel-good movie for me. I can't help but be smiling by the credits.

7. The Cabin in the Woods

Joss Whedon has had a good year. Written by Whedon and Drew Goddard, and directed by Goddard, The Cabin in the Woods follows five friends as they travel up to a cabin in the woods for the weekend, and are shortly met by crazy, horrific, and funny happenings. I don't want to give away too much, here, but Goddard and Whedon really know their stuff when it comes to horror tropes and filmmaking. This stands as one of the most clever movies (let alone horror movies) to come out in a long while.

6. Beasts of the Southern Wild

What to say about Beasts of the Southern Wild. It has great acting, great directing, great writing, and it is just down right magical. This is a gorgeous movie in really every aspect. At heart it is a coming of age story and it is told like a modern fairy tale. It really balances the striking realism of the characters with fantasy well. It's hard not to fall instantly in love with this movie when you see it.

5. Looper

After just watching this again when it came in the mail from my Amazon Pre-Order, I have to say this is a great fucking movie. Looper has been the original sci-fi we have been waiting for for a long time. Who better to deliver this than the magnificent duo who brought us Brick, Rian Johnson and Joeseph-Gordon Levitt? Brick may be the better movie of the two, but I think Looper will be remembered far more. There are echoes of Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, and Terminator throughout the movie, but yet it manages to be its own entity. Looper really blew me away when I saw it in the theater and managed to do it again when I watched it on Blu-Ray.

4. The Master

God, what a film. I mean, this is why we go to the movies right? In hopes we wander into a Paul Thomas Anderson film? Okay, well maybe we didn't wander in. But, damn, this is a great movie. For all intents and purposes, this is a relationship movie, a film about a relationship and the development of that. There's no real narrative, no real story other than these two's relationship and how they change one another forever after their meeting. It's a great lesson in subtlety, especially with Amy Adams' character. A great looking film, well-written, well directed, well acted! Well acted, indeed, wow Phoenix is on fire here. So, is Hoffman. These guys give the performances of their careers in this. Not the expose on Scientology everyone was expecting, but a really fantastic film and gotta be one PTA's best.

3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (US Release Jan. 4, 2012)

This movie. I included this move despite being "released" in 2011 because a) the official U.S. release was in 2012 and b) because I'm really in love with this movie. Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 2011, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia follows two prisoners and a local police force tracing their steps across the Anatolian steppes to find a dead body. It starts off as a pretty standard police procedural, but then quickly evolves into something far more greater, and will blow you away if you stick with it. With absolutely gorgeous cinematography, fantastic direction, and great acting this movie is one that really sticks with you.

2. Cloud Atlas

Ahh, Cloud Atlas, not getting a whole lot of love this year, huh? That's okay, there are few movies that are as flawed, corny, ambitious, and utterly brilliant as you that have and will come out. Cloud Atlas is so unbelievably ernest in what it is trying to say, and does it so heavy handedly, many have it called pretentious, cloying, preachy, etc. Other than pretentious I really cannot deny those criticisms, but what makes the film, for me, so unpretentious is the fact that it is so genuine. The movie so full heartedly believes in what it is saying that notions like "True Love" and "Love Conquering All" really feel like things that exist (or at least gives you hope for those things to exist). I think that is where this movie separates itself from the love themes of romantic comedies and other more "fake" feeling films. Cloud Atlas genuine in what it believes and it bears it soul for all of us to tear apart, and the majority of us did. The Wachowski's and Tom Tykwer created a movie symbolic of pouring your heart out to someone for them to tear apart, and the majority of us did, but I really choose to embrace it. This is a movie that you do have to buy into from the beginning and embrace it fully, and if you do, it fills you with just the best feelings of hope and love for cinema. It probably won't win any major Oscars, which is a shame, though if it doesn't win Best Original Score, then I will be majorly upset. Seriously, check out the score. It's amazing.

1. Django: Unchained

If this movie had not been so utterly perfect, Cloud Atlas would be at this spot. But, Django: Unchained is just a great movie. Following the supposed quasi-true story of a black ex-slave fighting his way with a bounty hunter to find his wife, Django is a mix of a blaxploitation, spaghetti western, and grindhouse. Two of which we have already seen from director Quentin Tarentino in the form of Jackie Brown and Death Proof. Tarentino managed to do something pretty great here and that is make the audience laugh out loud one minute and then shift really uncomfortably in their seat the next. Don't get me wrong, this is a really really funny movie, but at a certain point you kind of feel bad for laughing because there is just a crazy amount of violence going on screen. The violence towards the bad guys is this cheap looking, over the top, cartoonish blood splatters exploding on bodies and it is hilarious, but the violence done towards our main characters is so horrific that it is a bit disturbing. But, this is why this movie works so well. It manages to blend all those genres while also showing the violence that was done to slaves at the time. I think Tarentino pulled that off really well here.

So, there you have it, my top 10 movies of the year. Probably undoubtedly, people will disagree, and that is fine.  I really do need to see Zero Dark Thirty, Holy Motors, Bernie, and Perks of Being a Wallflower. But, from the movies I've seen here are my top 10, and I do feel pretty confident in these choices. Sound off in the comments with your Top 10.

The Marvel That is Cloud Atlas (Review)

Cloud Atlas is a marvel of a film. Having a $100 million budget that is almost entirely independently financed (the studio only payed $15 million of that) is rare, to say the least. This is a movie that needs to be seen, if only to make back its budget, which at the time of writing this has only made back about $22 million. That's 1/5 its budget. That is not good, especially for a movie that is deserving of so much more, and here's why:

We will probably get nothing like this ever again. Sure, directors and producers will try, but few will succeed the way the Wachowski's and Tom Tykwer have with Cloud Atlas. Whether you felt the movie worked or not, you have to agree that Cloud Atlas is important. Having seen it twice now, I believe I can safely say that this is my favorite movie of the year, and no, I haven't seen Skyfall yet (I plan to), and no, I can't see Lincoln (although it is supposedly FANTASTIC by the way) or The Hobbit or, even the movie I'm most excited for, the new Les Miserables really beating this movie. They might come close, but few movies come along that really really give me a pure sense of hope for cinema as an evolving art form like Cloud Atlas did for me.

Based on the acclaimed novel by David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas follows six different stories, taking place in six different periods of history and into the future and explores ideas and themes involving reincarnation, spirituality, love, slavery, altruism, the convergence of man and machine, and others. The six stories are:

• The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing - follows a lawyer on his trip back from the Pacific Isle to San Francisco to complete a business transaction and becomes deathly sick during the voyage.
• Letters from Zedelghem - follows an aspiring musician, Robert Frobisher, as he takes up the job of apprenticing with an acclaimed musician in the Netherlands.
• Half Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery - takes place in 1973 and follows Luisa Rey, a columnist for Spyglass Magazine as she unearths a deadly geo-political coverup.
• The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish - A publisher gets into debt and turns to his brother for help who tricks him into checking into a retirement home.
• An Orison of Sonmi-451 - An artificially made servant in future Korea escapes her captivity and has a choice to make involving the future of her society.
• Sloosha's Crossin' an' Everythin' After. - In a post-apocalyptic world, a valleysman tortured by voices of the devil is forced into helping a member of an outside race do research and complete a trek up a dangerous mountain.

If that sounds impossible to make into a coherent movie (let alone let actors play different roles in each of these stories), you would have been right, before the release of Cloud Atlas. The most miraculous thing to come from this movie is that these six stories and their interrelated themes are easy to follow. You might be confused or caught up at first trying to connect the story lines together, but eventually there comes a point where it quickly becomes evident what is going on and you just let it wash over you. 

I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, and if you haven't seen it, you really should go buy a ticket now, so I won't get into the intricacies of each of these story lines and what happens exactly. What I want to talk about is the structure and construction of this movie and why it works. One of the things the film does so well is it's ability to shift tone drastically without losing focus. The movie will cut in between scenes via movement, the same actor being in each scene, it will often shift thematically, and by having a similar line repeated in both scenes. If a character says one thing in one storyline, the movie may shift to another storyline where another character says the exact same thing or something very similar. And this translates beautifully on screen, subconsciously giving your brain a reason to connect the two stories together. Shifting quickly from the over the top "british comedy-esque" tones of the Timothy Cavendish to the somber, beautiful chords of the musician, Robert Frobisher, seems silly, and by any other measurement, it would be, but, here, it works. It really works.

Something else the movie does to let your brain make the transitions more easily is have actors play six different roles in each of the stories. Tom Hanks goes from playing a Doctor on board the voyage with Adam Ewing, to a scientist, to Zachry, a valleysman haunted by the voices of the devil, and others. It's really incredible. Tom Hanks really deserves an oscar for at least his role as Zachry. It's really freaking incredible.

This leads into something I wanted to address and that is the makeup. Yes, at times, the make up is wildly inconsistent (poor Hugo Weaving). But, to me, the makeup was meant to represent a thin veil between the actor and the audience so that the audience would make the connection that it is the same actor playing different parts. In other words, you're supposed to be able to tell that Hugo Weaving is in drag at one point, and yes, it's supposed to be funny in that context. There is also the issue of some of the cross-race casting. Jim Sturgess who plays Adam Ewing in the first storyline also plays a Korean man in An Orison of Sonmi-451, and Hugo Weaving also plays a Korean man, but you do also have Halle Berry and Doona Bae playing white women at one point as well (though the historical and racial implications may not leave the same sour effect in most people's mouths). Normally, this would leave a sour taste in my mouth as well. After all, the implications are that you are taking an acting job from a Korean man who would be able to play a Korean man better than a white man would. However, in this case and in the context of the movie, this idea of casting these actors in different races and genders, works beautifully.

As stated before, the makeup, in my opinion, acts as a thin veil to keep the audience in the loop about what actors are playing who, but it also serves as a commentary on race and gender being social constructs and man-made barriers. Whether you agree or not, this is a core theme in a movie all about the breaking down of barriers. Therefore, in my mind, casting black actors as whites, whites as Koreans, and men as women, really helps to reinforce this core theme.

Overall, Cloud Atlas is a movie all about theme. It dares to explore and break boundaries we set up between our culture and others', between men and women, and between past and present. And I believe at the heart of all of this is the idea: Just be a good person. That even a single act of kindness could have a ripple effect through time. After all, if you saved one persons life now, that person can then have kids, whose actions will affect other people, whose actions will affect other people, and so on. It's a theme that I absolutely adore in a movie, and is a reason that Cloud Atlas just isn't a well-made film but is one of my all-time favorites.

5/5