Best movies of 2012 so far

[Chris Knipp]

BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR


Wes Anderson's newest [MOONRISE KINGDOM[ is the best film I've seen so far this year.
It's a lock for a Best Picture nomination. Even now in July.
It's an amazing movie, alright.
A match struck in a dark cave.
My faith in cinema is always tested, but movies like this one bring it all back home.
--Johann.
I agree with this assessment (July 4, 2012): best American film so far.

BEST AMERICAN MOVIES SO FAR:
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)
LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj)
_______


BEST FOREIGN FILMS SO FAR (Including non-US-release)
AMOUR (Michael Haneke 2012)
HOLY MOTORS (Leos Caras 2012)
*SISTER (Ursula Meier)
*RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
BREATHING (Karl Markovics 2011)
DAY HE ARRIVES, THE (Hong Sang-soo 2011)
DEEP BLUE SEA, THE (Terence Davies 2012)
ELENA (Andrei Zvigentsev)
I WISH (Hirakazu Koreeda)
MISS BALA (Geraldo Naranjo)
NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendoça Filho 2011)
OSLO, AUGUST 31 (Joachim Trier 2011)
RAID, THE: REDEMPTION (Gareth Evans 2012)

_____________
*No US theatrical release yet (August 31, 2012)

I was disappointed by DAMSELS IN DISTRESS (Whit Stillman) , but I will give it some kind of mention due to my admiration for Whit.

GOOD PROSPECTS? NOT YET OUT

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Benh Zeitlin) - OUT - SHORTLIST, NOT TOP LIST
COSMOPOLIS (Cronenberg) - OUT Aug. -- very much liked.
DARK KNIGHT RISES (Christopher Nolan) -
GRANDMASTERS (Wong Kar-wai)
GRAVITY (Alfonso Cuaron)
GREAT GATSBY (Baz Luhrman)
ROAD, THE (John Hilcoat) -
SAVAGES (Oliver Stone) - NOW OUT - FORGET IT
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
TAKE THIS WALZ (Sarah Polley) -- NOW OUT -- A TURNOFF
CLOUD ATLAS (Wathowskys, Tom Tykwer) -- interesting, not top ten

Polley's, Stone's, Nolan's, Hillcoat's and Zeitlin's are coming this summer, but LOOPER is scheduled for Sept,. 28.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks to Peter for getting the site up so quickly when there was a glitch today (July 9, '12)SAVAGES certainly didn't pan out. I still need to see TAKE THIS WALTZ, which opened here last week.

Armond White has his mid-year assessment list (http://www.nyfcc.com/2012/07/mid-year-reckoning-by-armond-white-for-cityarts/) of movies. This has reminded me I forgot THE DEEP BLUE SEA, which I have added above. Here are his top rated films:


Pantheon Directors
Unforgivable (Andre Techine)–a tumultuous view of private lives as society and society as family.
The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)–examines the linkage of desire and despair to find the value of personal resurrection.

The Far Side of Paradise
Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)–the rare campus comedy genre visits private worlds that reflect the eccentricities we recognize deep down.
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)–compares the innocence of youth and maturity.
Dark Horse (Todd Solondz)–tragedy found in the comedy of hopes squandered by misguided fashions.
The Skinny (Patrik-Ian Polk)–clarifies the blur of sex and friendship that gay-life faces straight-on.
A Thousand Words (Brian Robbins)–a Hollywood satire so casually profound it scared off the industry and its fans.

He also mentions CHRONICLE, GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING, and the (here) still awaited BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.

DARK HORSE is coming to the Bay Area July 20. There is a SFFS preview with the director present that I may attend July 19.

[oscar jubis]

I don't feel I have seen enough of the films released this year to give an authoritative answer to the topic. Lately I watch at least as many silents as I watch new releases, to be honest. However, I really like three movies you listed and they are
The Deep Blue Sea,
The Day He Arrives
and Elena.

By the way, I think it's cool that White's list borrows ranked categories from Sarris in what constitutes an homage to the recently deceased writer of "The American Cinema".

I watched a couple of "minimalist" films at the local fest that I liked a lot and will not be released commercially: The Last Christeros (Mexico) and Las Acacias (Argentina).

Another film I liked a lot which does have a chance to get distribution is Violeta by Andres Wood (remember Machuca?)

The best two films I have seen this year that have a distributor and a 2012 release date are:
Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold
Cafe de Flore by Jean Marc Vallee

[Chris Knipp]

I appreciate these comments. I haven't gotten to see those last two you mention yet. I certainly want to see The Andrea Arnold. FISH TANK was great and I think it's Fassbender's most intimate, haunting performance. I only know CAFE DE FLORE is French Canadian and C.R.A.Z.Y was unruly but fun. I had to refresh my memory on MACHUCA. I found flaws in it but said it's "essential viewing."

Those three you list are sterling:
THE DAY HE ARRIVES
THE DEEP BLUE SEA
ELENA

Top quality. Directors working at the top of their game.

You know we differed on LAS ACACIAS. I didn't think there was enough to it. But it is much admired at festivals. and by critics. To me FOUND MEMORIES had more substance, and though I wasn't crazy about it either -- magic realism ain't my thing -- the memory of it lingers very clearly.

Actually Armond White wrote a whole tribute to Sarris, whom he admires. What are the categories of his that he echoes though? I didn't realize that.

[oscar jubis]

I can see now that part of my post is redundant. Sorry.
White is placing this year's films in some of the categories used by Sarris to create a typology of directors who had worked in Hollywood: "Pantheon", "the far side of paradise", "expressive esoterica"...
Two new movies I watched recently turned out to be less interesting to me than I had hoped: Corpo Celeste and Americano...
I have high hopes for Philippe Garrel's A Burning Hot Summer, which I will watch Friday night...

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, I didn't know that about Sarris' categories. My ignorance. Must read White's tribute to Sarris.

Americano was terrible, really. I would not get your hopes up for Un été brûlant; it's pretty terrible too. I liked Corpo Celeste quite well. Was I wrong? As I've said I'm happy when anything good comes out of italy moviewise these days. I was ecstatic over The Double Hour, which did win prizes, but some are less impressed.

[oscar jubis]

Americano was terrible, really. I liked Corpo Celeste quite well. Was I wrong?
No, you weren't. I realize that Corpo Celeste generally succeeds in giving us a well-observed characterization of a girl at some kind of existential and/or developmental threshold relative to her concept of an after-life and her emergence as a sexual being. Writer/director Alice Rohrwacher knows her protagonist intimately.
However, I thought she has little to say about the world that surrounds her protagonist (unless saying that organized religion has nothing to offer her can be construed as an insight). Corpo Celeste gives too much screen time to the parish priest, a one-note, flat character if I ever saw one. The symbolism at the end of the picture (a crucified Jesus effigy falling off a vehicle into the ocean below, for instance) felt obvious and forced. Not a bad movie and yet it brings to mind a host of films with similar intents that are so much better in my opinion.

Americano is the lesser work, but not terrible until the last reel, when subtlety and coherence are sacrificed for those ole cheap thrills: cruel violence and (female) nudity.

[Chris Knipp]

Good points about CORPO CESLESTE which I'd want to take into account I were going to write about it again. It's a good portrait of the girl, and I can see the priest is a flat character, and the whole context is not as three-dimensional as it might be. Still, it grabbed me and held me and I can remember many of the scenes, and it seemed original even while working in a tradition. CORPO CELESTE was just shown (http://www.sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=0&pageid=2967&TitleId=FSC-CORPO) June 29-July 5, 2012 at the SF Film Society Cinema, whose presentations I'm trying to promote.

They're having a preview screening of Todd Solondz's DARK HORSE next week, Thurs., July 19, with Solondz himself at hand to answer questions, presumably. I expect to be there. It opens in in San Francisco for a theatrical release July 20. The East Coast film critic elite has already seen it and it's been showing in NYC since June 8. It's a NYTimes Critics Pick, recommended by A.O. Scott.

There are some worthwhile moments in AMERICANO. I thought Selma Hayek was brave. But the whole film got on my nerves.

[oscar jubis]

Great. I'm looking forward to Dark Horse too. I won't get to meet Solondz though...I'd like to also attend their showing of a new 35mm print of Bresson's The Devil, Probably.
At the Cosford, we're excited about three screenings of Japanese classics in 35mm prints which will include Ozu's swan song. I will be introducing one of the films.

[Chris Knipp]

I won't go to THE DEVIL, PROBABLY, which I have seen. It's just not that convenient for me to go to the SFFS Cinema to go to everything. BUt I have gone a few times and will continue to go. You're lucky if the Cosford is not out of your way.

[Chris Knipp]

Well, SAVAGES was not Best Movies material, TAKE THIS WALTZ was a turnoff. What about BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD? In accord with its Camera d'Or, I'd call it promising newcomer work and unusual, but not (I hope!) in my Top Ten. Some things about it made a lot of movie critics go way overboard on it, but if they wipe the stardust out of their eyes they are going to see some serious flaws in BOTSW as moviemaking and as thinking, despite its amazing starlet and dedicated location shooting.

Hope for these in the New York Film Festival, all from Cannes:

HOLY MOTORS (Leos Carax)
AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
REAUTY (Matteo Garrone)
NO (Pablo Larrain)

(I got my wish on all but Garrone's REALITY -- still not seen as of Nov. 17, 2012.)

[oscar jubis]

Distance is not an issue for me. I have two alternative cinemas within a 2-mile drive and three others within 10 to 12 miles. I'm lucky to live in Miami and it may not last long as I'll probably have to relocate after I get my doctorate. I have high hopes for Sarah Polley's film and look forward to Amour. Haneke is one director who'll be on my mind in the next year since a few of his films are relevant to my dissertation.

[Chris Knipp]

A great many films are quite close to me, in Berkeley. But the SFFS Cinema and SFIFF are across the Bay Bridge, which can be a hassle. When I'm in NYC, it's all near at hand.

I remember Mike D'Angelo's Cannes Day Five title, "Get out your Haneke-chiefs, we have a Palme d'Or favorite." And he was right. I know you like Polley but I was not as impressed the first time around, even though it was obviously a good start for a young director. I have to say the subject matter of Away from Her seems profound and important compared to the juvenile, boring young adult behavior considered in Take This Waltz/

What is your dissertation topic again?

[oscar jubis]

http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3068
It remains basically the same idea. The critical approach continues to be a mixture of narrative theory and phenomenology. I plan to write the whole thing in 6 months (November 2012 to April 2013) which may only be possible because of the preparatory work I've been doing for the past year.
I also hope to be able to write some criticism involving films from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. It has become increasingly clear to me over the past few months, while designing a course in Latin American Cinema I am teaching in Spring 2013, that generally speaking mid-20th century Mexican Cinema was as good as the Italian, Japanese, American and French cinema masterpieces of the Post-war period. Part of the reason for this is a general depreciation of Hispanic culture particularly in the US but also genre prejudice against melodrama, a prejudice I have finally expunged.

[Chris Knipp]

I see; thanks. Unresolved stories and open-ended narratives in film. Again I'd keep it specific and point out where it works artistically and where it's just incompetence.

Essays on Mexican cinema sounds like a fun idea. There were some early ones (http://www.houstonpress.com/2010-08-19/calendar/el-prisionero-13-prisoner-13-and-el-compadre-mendoza-godfather-mendoza/[URL=%22[URL=%22http://www.nypress.com/blog-7097-nyff-announces-masterworks.html/) we saw at the 2010 NYFF Fernando Fuentes' Mexican revolution trilogy (http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/09/new-york-film-festival-2010-fernando-de-fuentess-mexican-revolution-trilogy/).

[oscar jubis]

In 2006, 25 Mexican film critics were polled to produce a list of the best 100 Mexican films of all time and two of the films from Fuentes' trilogy, Let's Go with Pancho Villa and El Compadre Mendoza were #1 and #3 with Bunuel's Los Olvidados at #2. One thing about Mexican movies before 1960 is that the quality of the cinematography is consistently excellent. Gabriel Figueroa and Alex Phillips are two of the best EVER and they were so prolific. Figueroa won the first of many awards at Venice '36 for Alla en el Rancho Grande, Fuentes' follow-up to the Revolution Trilogy. When Gregg Toland died in 1948, Samuel Goldwyn offered Figueroa an exclusive contract. I'm glad he turned down this offer and stayed in Mexico (although he worked in a few Hollywood productions in the 60s and 70s).

[Chris Knipp]

We should see more of them.

[oscar jubis]

I am watching a lot of Mexican movies from the 30s, 40s and 50s on DVD right now. It is really a shame that most of them do not have English subtitles even though they are Region 1 releases. The underlying assumption is that only Spanish-speakers are interested in them. Pity.

I forgot to list THE KID WITH A BIKE, which is at least as good as the three movies I named as "best I've seen so far".

[oscar jubis]

I also liked Oslo, August 31st. I don't know where it would end up on a list of the year's best but I can see why you'd list it. We do disagree about Take this Waltz though, as I pointed out on the film's thread. I was surprised you didn't list The Kid with a Bike, a sure top 10 foreign film for me.

[Chris Knipp]

No I know you like Polley. I never have. Less so this time though.

I listed THE KID WITH THE BIKE last year because I saw it twice in theaters last year. So it came out March 2012 in the US, I see that now. It was first on my foreign list. You should list it. I do not dispute that at all. I find it very moving. (I listed MELANCHOLIA as American purposely.)



Chris Knipp's Best Movies of 2011

BEST FOREIGN
The Kid with the Bike (Jean-Pierre, Luc Darnenne)
Incendies (Denis Villeneuve)
Submarine (Richard Ayoade)
Miss Bala (Fernando Naranjo
Tomboy (Céline Sciamma)
Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine)
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish)
House of Tolerance L'Appolonide (Bertrand Bonello)
Weekend (Andres Haigh)
Queen to Play (Caroline Bottero)

BEST AMERICAN
Tree of Life (Terrence Mallick)
Melancholia (Lars von Traier)
The Descendants (Wes Anderson)
Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
Martha Marcy May Marlene Sean Durkin
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
Crazy, Stupid, Love (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)
Warrior (Gavin O'Connor)

[Chris Knipp]

I'm going to see the Swedish EASY MONEY next Monday. Reviews are goood and it sounds up my alley. HEADHUNTERS was somewhat a disappointment (I might mention that as a runner-up though, as another good recent Scandinavian crime thriller.)

Variety review (http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943507?refcatid=31)of EASY MONEY.
Film Forum page (http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/easy_money) on EASY MONEY.

[Chris Knipp]

HOLY MOTORS (Carax) and AMOUR (Haneke) will both debut in the US at Film Forum in October and I hope to see them there.

I hope REALITY and Larraín's NO are going to be included in the NYFF.

Audiard's RUST AND BONE, possibly the prestige French directed film of the year, needs a US release or NYFF inclusion but I am not sure that is happening.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is my favorite summer blockbuster by far.

RUBY SPARKS was a pleasant surprise.

EASY MONEY is a good one and could be Best Foreign (US released) material.

[Chris Knipp]

THE CAMPAIGN is the worst movie I've seen this year -- so far.

Horrible, horrible movie, tasteless, pointless and lame. Just awful. Critics: low/mixed; Metacritic 49.

[Johann]

All duly noted!

[Chris Knipp]

Hope we all get to see them all -- the good ones, that is. HOLY MOTORS will be the trippy, highly debatable one, but not one I'd want to miss now, after Mike D'Angelo's comments on it.

[oscar jubis]

Two recent viewings of note. On the positive side, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, the documentary about the prominent Chinese artist/activist, strikes me as particularly inspiring and important. On the other hand, I was rooting for the film Hermano (Brother) because Venezuela has rarely produced any movies worth mentioning and my hopes were high because it won a triple crown at 2010 Moscow: audience award, critics' award, and the top jury prize. This hybrid gangster film/sports movie shot in the slums of Caracas keeps your interest but it is dramatically inconsistent and ultimately wrongheaded. Nice lensing, performances, and keen sense of location simply not enough to recommend. I notice CK's listing of Miss Bala, which shares thematic elements with Hermano. The Mexican film is better but it's nothing special in my experience, rather superficial in scope, with a protagonist who comes off a bit too sketchy to suit me. I will make a point to see Ruby Sparks when it comes out on DVD. Planning to see the new Cronenberg soon. Right now he is hands down my favorite North American "commercial" director. I count M. Butterfly ('93) as his last failure, perhaps his only failure!

[Chris Knipp]

Being an auteurist you will fortunately be strongly inclinned to like COSMOPOLIS! I like it very much, except for the final scene -- Paul Giamatti isn't right for that part -- too strong (one could argue that the book itself is anticlimactic and over-dilatory at that point too). But starting with Cannes it has gotten very mixed reviews, apparently due to several prejudices: a distaste for and misunderstanding of the main character; a loathing toard the star Robert Pattinson for being the teen idol from 'Twilight' and allegedly being incapable of acting; a (to me) inexplicable lack of enthusiasm for the source book by Don DeLillo. I recently read the book and find it terrific -- first time I've really liked DeLillo. And, little though people may care if their minds are already made up, this is one of the most faithful and accurate of recent on screen literary adaptations,, as well as the first time any DeLillo novel has ever been filmed. I would agree Cronenberg hasn't had what you could call failures, though I prefer his more pulp efforts to some of his more serious recent ones. But almost everything he does, he does well for what it is. In the case of COSMOPOLIS everything clicked, starting with the director's natural affinity with DeLillo. I might be wrong, but I think people are eventually going to realize it's better than they knew.

I don't think MISS BALA is to be watched for depth of character portrayal (could its genre roots put you off, despite your protest that genre is fine with you?) but for its sweeping depiction of a passive picaresque survivor/victim's experience. Such characters, as in Fielding's TOM JONES, are not notable for introspection of psychological analysis. The accomplishment is in point of view and narrative technique. It is a technical tour de force. As I've mentioned, Ed Lachman, the cinematographer, was on hand at the screenings and was in awe of the long shots and went back to see MISS BALA a second time to study them. Why not see RUBY SPARKS on the big screen? Do at least see the beautiful, epic COSMOPOLIS that way.

AI WEI WEI may indeed be inspiring and important; the artist himself has certainly risked everything in his campaign to dramatize China's repression of free speech, and he's also a very noted artist (though I had not seen his work). But it's not a particularly outstanding or memorable film. Like so many documentaries it's celebrated for its content,in particularly for its newsworthiness, not its accomplishment as a film. And like so many documentarians, she just got lucky due to events that happened while she was making her mediocre film.

Unfortunately I haven't seen HERMANO. Did you see at at the MFFF? I see limited US release from Aug. 24 is listed, and it showed at Lincoln Center. It got its US debut i (http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/brother)n the Latin Beat series at the Walter Reade Theater showing Aug. 12, 13 and 14, 2012. And it was the Venezuelan entry in the Oscar Best Foreign competition. But the only name English language publication review I can find, Slant, is pretty reserved: "a well-meaning melodrama, equal parts heartfelt and contrived. . . . [it] ambitions ultimately break even with its mawkish ineptitude, and while the result is certainly more impressive than that of the average underdog sports film, the lingering aftertaste is that of what could have been." However I enjoy young man-coming of age things and will probably like it.

[oscar jubis]

Hermano is having a theatrical run at "my" Cosford Cinema.

Maybe the director of Never Sorry got lucky but so what? The point is that this film is compelling and I don't have any reason to call the film "mediocre". It's a straightforward presentation of the material that follows a clear chronology of events, with a good balance between the private and the public Ai Weiwei.

No doubt you like Miss Bala more than I do. The thin characterization of the protagonist detracted from my interest in the story. Naranjo not among Mexican filmmakers that truly impress me, although I liked his previous film a bit more than this one.

I don't think Ruby Sparks is still in theaters...but Cosmopolis is and I can't wait to check it out.

[Chris Knipp]

It is certainly okay to get lucky. It's better than okay. If I seem too harsh on AI WEI WEI, it's as a corrective. It simply does not deserve raves adding up to a Metacritic rating of 81. Documentaries tend to get too much of a free ride. They are rated too much on the merits of the subject matter they take on, not enough on their artistry as films. You can't get away with that on fiction films.

I think Naranjo has grown exponentially from film to film, and the appearance of superficiality of MISS BALA is deceptive because you are looking for the wrong thing. There is a lot there. I liked I'M GONNA EXPLODE a lot too, and I can understand how it might seem more complex to you. MISS BALA is complex too; it's just a completely different sort of film.

Judging by the Metacritic ratings, AI WEI WEI and COSMOPOLIS have been greatly overrated and greatly underrated, respectively; but MISS BALA got a fair shake (81, 59, 80) I hope you'll reassess.

It indeed appears that RUBY SPARKS is not showing anywhere around Miami. It is showing at five theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area, north, east, south, and west.

HERMANO was picked up by Music Box and offered a somet AMC theaters, but it looks like a quickie one-week release at them starting Aug. 24. Not now (Aug. 31) at the big downtown San Francisco AMC 16 cineplex where it listed an Aug. 24 opening. Could Miami be the number one US Spanish language movie market area?

I can't see HERMANO but I can see RED HOOK SUMMER in downtown Berkeley. Not very eager to though. That's an AMC release too.

COSMOPOLIS may not be the best American film of the year (or is it Canadian?) -- I still hold out for MOONRISE KINGDOM for that title -- but it has a better grip on the zeitgeist than any other 2012 release so far (but some people put it down even for that). It's resonant, relevant, and outright brilliant. It's like THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, which it in some ways resembles (with way less humor though; and I don't think as some do that the film has less humor than the novel). It looks destined for cult status. I'm collecting reviews and online pieces that "get" COSMOPOLIS (book and film). A blog review (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/08/cosmopolis-review)starts out promisingly: "David Cronenberg’s film version of Don DeLillo’s character-driven novel of the same name is one of the best book adaptations in recent memory." Absolutely true. I found watching the film immediately after reading the novel quite thrilling and astonishing.

[oscar jubis]

Could Miami be the number one US Spanish language movie market area? (CK)
This is an interesting question. Someone who works for a distributor told me that there are more Hispanics in New York than Miami but Miami Hispanics are higher income/education and watch more foreign language/art/indie movies.

Judging by the Metacritic ratings, AI WEI WEI and COSMOPOLIS have been greatly overrated and greatly underrated, respectively; but MISS BALA got a fair shake (81, 59, 80) I hope you'll reassess. (CK)
I was already aware that US critics have high regard for Naranjo and Miss Bala.

Documentaries tend to get too much of a free ride. They are rated too much on the merits of the subject matter they take on, not enough on their artistry as films. You can't get away with that on fiction films.(CK)
Do you think docs generally require less skill or artistry than fiction films? Perhaps. Different modes of filmmaking some say. Belong in different categories like at the Oscars. I use to have a separate list for docs.

[Chris Knipp]

Hispanics are more high profile and significant in the city cultural life in Miami than in NYC. Earlier like in the Sixties and Seventies they were more high profile in NYC pehaps, Puerto Ricans particularly, in the days of WEST SIDE STORY.

Yes definitely nowadays a doc can get out there with less to offer technically. And they are a different category of film. Content rules.

[oscar jubis]

That makes sense.

I just watched Unforgivable. Rich, complex characterizations all around. Characters may not be as sympathetic as audiences prefer...maybe that applies to critics too...None of the characters is a villain but none of them are easy to like, they feel so ...Human...I didn't like any French film from last year as much as this. Best French movie since Les herbes folles (2009) as far as I'm concerned.

[Chris Knipp]

In NYC now for the NYFF, main slate screeings schedule listed in Festival Coverage, begin Monday. Meanwhile the city is a film festival of its own and I watched these ten movies in six days (Sept. 11-16, 2012) waiting for the 50th New York Film Festival press screenings to begin. I wrote reviews of half of them.

DETROPIA, (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3344-DETROPIA-%28Heidi-Ewing-Rachel-Grady-2012%29) a beautiful elegiac documentary about Detroit. Urban destruction eye candy, and some smart comments by locals.

EYE OF THE STORM,THE (Fred Schepisi). Brittle, uninvolving, handsome, sometimes icky old-school adaptation of the super-famous Patrick White novel with big Aussie names Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis, plus Charlotte Rampling, slowly, elegantly dying. Despite the production values and cast, this is far from being one of Schhepisi's best films.

FOR ELLEN (So Yong Kim). As the droopy wannabe rock star unwillingly giving up rights to his daughter Paul Dano is perfect and does some cool things he's never done before; when he gets drunk and does some heavy metal air guitar in a dive bar it's amazing. But I'm not saying you have to sit through it. I have not seen the Korean-American director's TREELESS MOUNTAIN or IN BETWEEN DAYS, which Howard Schumann had really good things to say about on Cinescene, (http://www.cinescene.com/howard/treeless.htm)but this one was way too slow and downbeat for me or most people.

ARBITRAGE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3349-ARBITRAGE-%28Nicholas-Jarecki-2012%29)(Nicolas Jarecki) A "white-collar white-knuckler" where the bad guy gets away with it, like they do, a lot, on Wall Street. A slick, entertaining first feature.

INBETWEENERS/aka/THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE (Ben Palmer). From the Brit young guy TV series, crude, good natured humor. Helps if you're a Brit and watched the series.

THE MATCHMAKER, a nostalgic new Israeli film about a boy and an odd mentor in Sixties Haifa. Cute, but not as cute as MONSIEUR IBRAHIM, of which its theme and central relationship is somewhat reminiscent. Some of the intergenerational subtleties of the period would resonate most with Israelis of a certain age, but I think the main problem is the two principals haven't the charisma of Omar Sharif and Pierre Boulanger, which admittedly not to many people do, but this kid is a bit remote and the matchmaker guy is too crudely drawn.

KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, (http://www.cinescene.com/knipp/keepthelightson.html)a searching, intense, yet in some ways strangely one-dimensional new gay love relationship movie by Ira Sachs. (My review is on Cinescene.)

ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA, (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3346-ORNETTE-COLEMAN-MADE-IN-AMERICA-%28Shirley-Clarke-1985%29&p=28448#post28448)a restored print of Shirley Clarke's 1985 non-documentary about the great jazz revolutinary, which I found quite disappointing -- but for a jazz fan and an Ornette fan still a must-see.

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN. I had heard for a while about this documentary about a mysterious failed and disappeared singer of great talent from the early Seventies -- producers liked him better than Bob Dylan -- which is as thrilling as promised. A dream subject, elegantly handled by a Swedish director with an Arab name, Malik Bendjelloul.. Howard Schumann has a review of it just published on Cinescene. (http://www.cinescene.com/howard/searchingforsugarman.html) This mysterious Rodriguez guy remains a mystery, which is fine, but it is clear that he is some kind of holy person. I'm not sure this film is all it could be but it's an amazing story and beautifully made and satisfying. When Rodrigueez gets to perform in South Africa where he's a huge star it's unbelievably moving.

An exciting film event tomorrow (Friday, September 14, 2012):

THE MASTER, (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3348-THE-MASTER-%28Paul-Thomas-Anderson-2012%29&p=28452#post28452) Paul Thomas Anderson's new feature starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. It opens only here and in LA 9/14/12/ At the Angelika Film Center. I will be there.

P.s. THE MASTER is clearly one of the year's best. Wish I could have seen it projected in 70mm.

No, Tabuno, I didn't get to see THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN, so I can't comment.

[oscar jubis]

I remember watching Ornette Coleman: Made in America when originally released and just being so grateful to Clarke for it, as any Ornette fan must be. I love him so much that I did not think of the film as something that I can evaluate in the manner of a critic. I watched as one watches home movies of relatives and friends. The negative comments from critics (in the context of a Metacritic score of 82) are valid but, as far as I am concerned, inconsequential. It is almost as if the rough spots or boring moments in the film are a welcome respite from the excitement of seeing Ornette, talk, blow, and just plain hang out.

[Chris Knipp]

Re Shirley Clarke's ORNETTE COLEMAN: the Metacritic score of 82 bears out our earlier discussion: docs are rated for content not their accomplishment as films. Current reviewers also tend to give a free pass to any revival item, rating it as a "classic" because it could not have been made today. Both are, however, a mistake. Granted films of jazz greats in performance are so rare we are grateful for whatever we can get. But jazz greats deserve great filmmaking, not a home movie. And Shirley Clarke would probably rather have been panned for making a real movie than praised for making a home movie.

Re: THE MASTER. We can go back to the topic of this thread, because Paul Thomas Anderson has provided another to go on the so far very short list of BEST U.S. MOVIES OF 2012.

Good news: at Angelika where I saw THE MASTER (too bad I couldn't see a 70mm screening), I learned that Ursula Meier's SISTER/L'ENFANT D'EN HAUT is getting a US theatrical release shortly.

[Chris Knipp]

If you go back two posts in this thread to HERE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3304-Best-movies-of-2012-so-far&p=28447#post28447) I filled in the list of all ten movies I saw in the six days I've waited for the NYFF press screenings to begin.

[oscar jubis]

It is hard to separate form from content in terms of evaluation. It seems to some extent that content is one aspect by which documentaries have to be evaluated. I appreciate your comments and your interest in trying to be as objective as possible in film criticism, allowing for the fact, of course, that there is ultimately an unavoidable, inescapable subjectivity to the whole critical enterprise.

[Chris Knipp]

Of course content is central to docs but you can forgive me for preferring those that excel in every aspect, or in more aspects anyway.

[Chris Knipp]

http://imageshack.us/a/img59/7107/8820278600x338.jpg
RIVER PHOENIX IS DARK BLOOD

Recent Mike D'Angelo tweet:
My most anticipated film of 1993 has its world premiere in 6 days! (For college freshmen, River Phoenix has always been dead.)

A cut of the unfinished 1993 George (THE VANISHING) Sluizer film DARK BLOOD will be shown shortly. Ed Lachman, who was the cinematographer, told me this at a NYFF press screening thiis week (Sept. 17-21, 2012).

River Phoenix's final film 'Dark Blood' to debut at Netherlands Film Festival (http://www.ontheredcarpet.com/River-Phoenixs-final-film-Dark-Blood-to-debut-at-Netherlands-Film-Festival/8820273)

Click on that headline and watch the videos on the page and you'll learn George Sluizer decided to finish the film several years ago because he learned his days might be numbered. I wrote about a beautiful short film Ed Lachman made with Slater Bradley called SHADOW (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1653), celebrating the moment of the DARK BLOOD shooting in an oblique way. This was shown in installation at the Whitney Museum in October 2010; the piece was to be on view for three months but was received with such interest it ran for six. Earlier this year we had James Franco's variations on MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO "My Own Private River" (FCS) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3246-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2012&p=27426#post27426), now this, a Sluizer-edited "Dark Blood - The Unfinished Film."

Ed Lachman also told me about an interesting project he carried out at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid this summer, recreating Edward Hopper's 1952 painting "Morning Sun" as a tableau vivant. (http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/exposiciones/2012/hopper/recreacion_en.html) There's a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PldpPLXJu5g)of the installation. Lachman describes how the project came about here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Ic4ehoSfNjw). It was the result of Lachman's being asked to participate in a symposium on Hopper; he chose to recreate a Hoper painting instead of just talk about it. This resulted in discoveries of ways that the painting wasn't realistic. All kinds of alterations had to be made to duplicate the painting in real space and with actual light -- as film noir directors did, some shadows had to be panted on.


The final room in the exhibition has been transformed into a film set in which the American filmmaker Ed Lachmann has produced a recreation of Hopper’s work Morning Sun (1952). The installation, which will be open for the entire period of the exhibition, comprises a three-dimensional reproduction of the scene in the painting, revealing Hopper’s use of cinematographic devices. --Thyssen Museum webpate. (http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/exposiciones/2012/hopper/recreacion_en.html)

http://imageshack.us/a/img339/9995/97754463.jpg
ED LACHMAN AND HIS MADRID TABLEAU VIVANT

Ed Lachman might most be remembered for ERIN BROCKOVICH, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, FAR FROM HEAVEN AND I'M NOT THERE. Also (the notorious) Larry Clark film KEN PARK (banned from showing in the US) and Todd Solondz's LIFE DURING WARTIME. He recently worked on Ulrich Seidl's PARADISE trilogy.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for all that. Informative and interesting.
One movie that is likely to get some votes in year-end polls is Compliance. If memory serves, that reviewer you like (D'Angelo?) liked it a lot. A lot of people I talked to found the film "uncomfortable to watch" which applies to me. Ebert and others have talked about people walking out, not because they think the film is bad or boring but because they just can't take it. Is that a symptom or an attribute? What does it say about the movie? The critical response is quite interesting to consider, particularly a few extremely negative reviews for a film that seems to me has obvious merits. The zero and one star reviews from Wall St. Journal, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, and Slant reflect to me a neurotic evasiveness or denial about what the movie compellingly demonstrates about human weakness and frailty. More specifically, I think Ebert is right when he say that Compliance proves we (humans? Americans?) are afraid of authority.

[Chris Knipp]

COMPLIANCE

I don't think it's one of the year's best or even one of the year's best "non-fiction" films but if I were teaching a class in current documentaries I'd certainly include it because it would stimulate debate. THE IMPOSTER, which I compared and preferred in my joint review (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3335-THE-IMPOSTER-%28Layton-2012%29-and-COMPLIANCE-%28Zobel-2012%29&highlight=compliance) is about the same subject of gullibility. Sure Ebert is right as usual and stating the obvious as usual. The Miami Herald guy is right too: the filmmaker doesn't completely "sell" his mockup. And that's a big reason for the walkouts.

Sounds like you remember only the opening part of D'Angelo's COMPLIANCE review (http://letterboxd.com/gemko/film/compliance/1/) or forgot all the serious shortcomings he points out further down. Note the socre he gave it was 53/100. That's not a pan in his system but it's very, very far from a rave. He was stimulated and liked one actress "a lot." Compare my collation of D'Angelo's 2012 Cannes and Toronto Twitter reviews (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2183) to see where a 53 fits on his scale.

[Chris Knipp]

More new theatrical releases I watched in NYC in between NYFF screenings:

186 DOLLARS TO FREEDOM/AKA/ CITY OF GARDENS. Camilo Vila directed Monty Fisher's story starring John Robinson of ELEPHANT and LORDS OF DOGTOWN. I respect Fisher's long struggle to get his MIDNIGHT EXPRESS-like 1980 personal Peruvian prison escape story into a movie, but this low budget production by a mainly commercials director, though shot in Peru, is too lurid and Robinson is too bland, and the writing may be too influenced by MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, which Fisher says he watched when he had just escaped into Ecuador, and he's never gotten over it. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS remains unchallenged. This has won some small Latin American-oriented fest prizes but is under the radar and the NYTimes review (http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/movies/186-dollars-to-freedom-directed-by-camilo-vila.html) is right that the hero (Robinson) comes off "less as principled than as stupendously naive" -- which makes him hard to sustain interest in as a protagonist.

DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL. Doc with three directors, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, and Frédéric Tcheng, 2011, just released. Vreeland the Harper's Bazaar and Vogue fashion queen and Met Costume curator was a great character and a huge influence on glossy magazines and fashion, though this is just a eulogy. What I didn't know was that William Klein's black and white 1966 French film WHO ARE YOU, POLLY MAGOO? was apparently based on Vreeland at her most imperious and stylish, and footage from the film is used effectively here. I enjoyed this but had hoped for more.

END OF WATCH (David Ayer 2012). Rogue cop story and bromance starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, who give their all, but the choppy, simplistic script doesn't make much out of it. What you do get is it's scary to walk into a drug cartel house in South Central LA, or most anyplace when these two macho, idealistic, but out of line partners do it. An exciting watch but stories and characters don't develop; the fake home movie effects are irrelevant, except to jazz things up artificially -- a horror movie device. Anna Kendrick is under used and the bad guys and bad girls are crude lurid stereotypes. Lucky Peña is there at the wheel or this would look anti-Hispanic. Ayer, who knows this milieu and has devoted his career to it, tries to be original, the lead actors try very hard and achieve young-cop authenticity, but for all the effort the result is mediocre. Manohla Dargis sums it up better than I could in her NYTimes lead: "a muscular, maddening exploitation movie embellished with art-house style and anchored by solid performances."

[oscar jubis]

I don't know if you want to discuss Compliance more in detail because you barely say anything about it except that, for some reason I don't understand, you call it a "documentary". Then you call it "poor, bastardized kind of drama" without explaining what makes it so. I think you may have been better off not reviewing this film at all. It is waaaay below your usual high standards.

[Chris Knipp]

Well, I said it would be good to use in a class. It's true it's not one of the films I'm most interested in discussing but I have every right to review it, and combined it with THE IMPOSTER for a reason. I hope you're reread D'Angelo's review. It does send a mixed message, but the outcome is that it's best for its acting, in his view, not as a film otherwise. And since he keeps a running best list it's clear it's not to be found there. "Basterdized" because it's an element of docs without the other usual elements. Sort of like a training film and it reminded me of the improvisations by actors I experienced during my army training.

http://letterboxd.com/gemko/list/best-of-2012/

We have agreed on COSMOPOLIS. (MOONRISE KINGDOM? I forget.) What about THE MASTER. That's a good one to debate.

[Chris Knipp]

Here's a possible candidate given Martin McDonagh's track record and the cast. His plays are hilarious, shocking, and brilliant, and his IN BRUGE was a hoot. This ups the ante with some of the best actors out there to play nut cases.

http://imageshack.us/a/img268/802/9a12ef5a995a9942857ff65.jpg

Leads/psychopaths:

CHRIS WALKEN
WOODY HARRELSON
SAM ROCKWELL
COLIN FARREL
TOM WAITS
ABBIE CORNISH
OLGA KORYLENKO


This might also be a suitable chaser, given the related plot, to Ben Affleck's well-hyped ARGO, or a weird movie production scheme. But then again, SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS has been described as a bad example of sophomore slump, and ARGO's hype doesn't mean it's a great movie.

[oscar jubis]

I arrived late to Moonrise Kingdom and by the time I was free to return it was no longer playing. I hope to catch The Master at the theater but I am insanely busy at the moment teaching, managing the Cosford, and writing a dissertation. The film I watched recently that rocked my world is NEIGHBORING SOUNDS. Your review of it is excellent too.

[Chris Knipp]

I guess you couldn't duplicate my experience of MOONRISE KINGDOM on the night of its premiere at Cannes in a Paris Odéon cinema. Yes, I really like NEIGHBORING SOUNDS, quite excellent film. Def. one of the best US foreign releases and an example of outstanding Latin American filmmaking.

[Chris Knipp]

As the P&I screenings and the 50th NYFF itself draw to a close, this weekend in NYC, October 12-14, 2012, there are six new films opened Fri., Oct. 12 in area theaters that are getting critical raves. This seems pretty unudual. Actually for some reason THE THIEVES is only currently showing now in Flushing, NY and Ridgewood Park, New Jersey, so I can't see that. It must be coming soon to NYC especially since it's a NY Times Critics Pick. The rest I can walk to theaters in lower Manhattan to see except for MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, which requires a subway ride to 42nd Street.



Ben Affleck's ARGO Metacritic: 86

Ross McElwee's PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY. Metacritic: 80

Ava DuVernay 's MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Metacritic: 78

Dong-hun Choi's THE THIVES. Metacritic: 77 (this is the one only showingin New Jersey)

James Ponsoldt's SMASHED. Metacritic: 75

Martin McDonagh's SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Metacritic: 66.

Could one of these make it to my BEST MOVIES OF 2012 list? Stay tuned. I will try to see ARGO first. It has been hyped to death. The Metacritic rating puts it above MOONRISE KINGDOM and THE MASTER. I don't believe that, but the theme still sounds very promising.

[Chris Knipp]

I have seen ARGO. I was disappointed. It's overrated. FLIGHT (Zemeckis, the NYFF closing night film) is way stronger because it has action and a complex protagonist. I may not be able to see any of the other high-rated openers from Oct. 12 in NYC but will be able to see at least some of them in California.

[Chris Knipp]

Also yesterday (Oct. 15, 2012), on my last day in NYC for a while, saw two docs at IFC Center, PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (Ross McElwee), an autobiographical film, and AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART, about Rick Springfield's relationship with his fans today. Both worth seeing. PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY is a personal study that begins with the filmmaker's son Adrian as a cute child and an annoying teenager and 21-year-old, then moves on to a "search of lost time" sojourn in France (escaping Adrian) researching a period he spent in a small town in Brittany in the Seventies, when he was not much older than Adrian and may have been more like him than he realized (though his life then seemed more romantic and less techno-centric). He looks for the first man to hire him to work as a photographer, and for the woman he briefly lived with after, to his dismay, the photographer, who had become a mentor, had fired him. As for Rick Springfield, the interest is not so much him, though his ability to belt out pop rock at 63 and his youthful appearance are impressive enough, but that there are cults of woman, of various ages, who follow aging rock stars, he being an excellent example. The funny thing is that a lady I know quite well has begun doing this exact same thing, taking plane trips with or without her husband to go to Prince concerts. Sometimes the husbands are not to happy; others are accepting. One woman married another Rick cultist, so they go camp-following together, including Rick's annual cruise to the Bahamas.

[Chris Knipp]

Some updates to my lists:

BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR


Wes Anderson's newest [MOONRISE KINGDOM[ is the best film I've seen so far this year.
It's a lock for a Best Picture nomination. Even now in July.
It's an amazing movie, alright.
A match struck in a dark cave.
My faith in cinema is always tested, but movies like this one bring it all back home.
--Johann.
I agree with this assessment (July 4, 2012): best American film so far.

BEST AMERICAN MOVIES SO FAR:
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)
LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj)
maybe:
FLIGHT (Richard Zemeckis)
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (faute de miex?)
_______

Didn't make it for me:
ARGO (Ben Affleck)
or CLOUD ATLAS (Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer)


BEST FOREIGN FILMS SO FAR (Including non-US-release)
AMOUR (Michael Haneke 2012)
HOLY MOTORS (Leos Caras 2012)
*SISTER (Ursula Meier)
*RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
BREATHING (Karl Markovics 2011)
DAY HE ARRIVES, THE (Hong Sang-soo 2011)
DEEP BLUE SEA, THE (Terence Davies 2012)
ELENA (Andrei Zvigentsev)
I WISH (Hirakazu Koreeda)
MISS BALA (Geraldo Naranjo)
NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendoça Filho 2011)
OSLO, AUGUST 31 (Joachim Trier 2011)
RAID, THE: REDEMPTION (Gareth Evans 2012)

_____________

Coming Nov. 9, 2012: SKYFALL
Coming Nov. 16: Spielberg's LINCOLN

[tabuno]

I hedged about posting my list so early, but with only a few promising movies such as Lincoln, Hitchcock, Les Miserable, Zero Dark Thirty left, my list is pretty close to complete and I probably want to get the reaction sooner than later before I forget what I've watched:


1. Argo (2012). With an excellent tight and well edited script by Chris Terrio and direction by Ben Affleck of an unique and real espionage event surrounding the rescue of six American Embassy employees during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Argo becomes a gripping, well told event movie that is both dramatically gripping and emotionally compelling on a very human level. [Reviewed 10/14/12]. 10/10.

2. Cloud Atlas (2012). A movie for the ages, spanning 500 years and six different stories with actors playing multiple roles that captures both the eternal bonds of love and individuality along with individual and corporate corporation or control. A visually dizzying, sometimes raw, and at time funny look at individuals and their convoluted relationships and their environments. [Reviewed 10/28/12]. 9/10.

3. Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Reminiscent of Stand By Me (1986), A Christmas Story (1983), and Juno (2007), this story of two runaways on an island community is a contemporary fairy tale of a entertaining, captivating cinematic experience loaded with stylized humor and presentation. [Reviewed 6/22/12]. 9/10.

4. Looper (2012). Similar to Bruce Willis in 12 Monkey’s (1995), this fusion of time travel, action, mystery thriller, and family drama incorporates more layered characters and emotionally riveting scenes thanks to director Rian Johnson. The acting is solid and the script is cerebral, taut, and substantive. Except for an “initial” futuristic set design that is too heavy on its reliance from other sci fi movies and an unnecessary looper wannabe character’s persistent overuse, Looper is defined by intense universal themes of sacrifice and personal dreams of love and humanity. [Reviewed 9/30/12]. 9/10.

5. The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The movie unfolds almost like a human mystical fairy tale with all the tortuous agonies of human angst experiences in everyday life. Even with its technical flaws like There Will Be Blood (2007), this movie is able to over come them with its qualitatively deep characters, a densely morally ambiguous theme about rich and poor, about good and bad, and a cerebral undercurrent and a well executed, edited dramatic action thriller along with a summertime climax. [Reviewed 7/21/12]. 9/10.

6. People Like Us (2012). This relatively straight-forward family drama has Chris Pine having to decide about following his deceased father’s desires for him to give a large inheritance to a sister he never knew he had. With a new focus on brother-sister, mother-son, this mainstream but edgy movie brings forth strong emotion resonance involving relational issues that many of us at one or another must face ourselves. [Reviewed 6/30/12]. 9/10.

7. Big Miracle (2012). A compelling and one of the few recent movies to be well edited in its pacing that sustains a dynamic riveting tension reminiscent of A24" without physical action and violence. Based on a real-internationally news broadcast animal event, Drew Barrymore and cast provide a family drama that captures its audience wholesale. [Reviewed 1/5/12]. 9/10.

8. The Devil’s Carnival (2012). This odd crazed fantasy with hideously florescent garish colors with incredibly few special effects and mostly set design throws the audience into a dark circus-like nightmare of the devil to test the souls of three people. With off-balance trapping like the animated Coraline (2009) and the exaggerated, over the top Billy Flynn's Chicago (2002) flash, and even echos of television's Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Once More, With Feeling" 2001 musical episode, The Devil's Carnival offers a strange, but captivating nightmarish brush with emotive intensity. From the female selfish thief, to the naive young girl, to the grief-stricken father each has the tale to tell in trials that aweigh them. This short, low-budget movie moves smartly in a well paced, off-kilter musical bonanza of sight and sound...a less sexy version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show of today but with as much if not more underlying substance and as shockingly different and innovative as Dogville (2004). [Reviewed 11/10/12]. 9/10.

9. Brave (2012). An animated medieval coming of age movie that particularly highlights the mother-daughter relationship, with great visuals in 2D, strong storyline, good editing, liberal dose of humor, a strong message, and good action that makes great use of the animated medium. [Reviewed 6/24/12]. 9/10.

10. Dark Shadows (2012). An uneasy, but successful blend of comedy, drama, horror, and thriller in this Tim Burton/Johnny Depp adaptation of the television series. Mr. Burton has carefully incorporated the old and the new, making more sharp and poignant the essence of vampirism and the connection to the core of eternal love. [Reviewed 5/13/12]. 8/10.


Honorable Mention

Lucky One, The (2012). A carefully, well edited, and solid romantic drama with the nicely underplayed rich storyline. Except for the need for unnecessary, dramatic or more stereotypical ending, this movie may have been able to capture a top-ten movie listing. [Reviewed 4/22/12]. 8/10.

Men In Black III (2012). Another solid, fun, and entertaining sci fi action comedy adventure with Josh Brolin putting in a for seamlessly younger Agent K. This movie’s strong plotline, nice twist, and a trans-temporal character make for a crisp, new adventure with this well-paced, and interested. The movie is weakened in the beginning by Tommy Lee Jone’s character seemingly oddly aged and dull listless performance in the beginning of the movie, along with an inordinately harsh and violent opening, and an underdeveloped Emma Thompson as Agent O. But in the end, the movie was well worth the money spent and engaging throughout. [Reviewed 5/27/12]. 8/10.

Mirror, Mirror (2012). Tarsem Sigh has directed a lavish and difficult live action fairy-tale with remarkable acuity incorporating Julia Roberts evil persona with a dramatic, humorous dose of fantasy that never is broken in its presentation. [Reviewed 3/30/12]. 8/10.

Odd Life of Timothy Green, The (2012). This family drama is a fusion of August Rush (2007), a young adult version of Meet Joe Black (1998) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). What makes this particular movie stand out is how it avoids the traditional sweet syrupy sludge of typical feel good juvenile movies. Instead the script incorporates a more encompassing view of life, including its funny moments, innocent experiences as well as the drama of hurt, sadness, and loss. In sort, this is a very nicely balance movie that includes a slice of life look at our own experiences but through the lens of honesty and the hopes and dreams of many parents and their children as well. This is a movie about what can be and is. Almost one of my top ten movies of the year. [Reviewed 8/26/12]. 8/10.

Total Recall (2012). Using the same fascinating plot points of the original (1990), this remake can easily stand on its own with this nicely layered Blade Runner (1982) setting admit a innovative jump in the futurist and logically believable car chase and remaining plot editing. Unfortunately, the psychological twists have already been revealed for old-timers, taking some of the unpredictable, suspense our of the movie. [Reviewed 8/4/12]. 8/10.

Rock of Ages (2012). Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones (in a limited role), and new comers Julienne Hough and Diego Boneta offer strong vocal performances in this movie for the aging that nevertheless bring new life to the lyrics of love and pain. A few weaknesses in production number balance, a clashing number on a billiard table scene take a bit of the shine of the Rock in this movie. [Reviewed 6/17/12]. 8/10.

Safe House (2012). Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds star in this solid espionage action thriller that has great cinematography and gritty action. Unfortunately a few weaknesses and an overly American ending keep this movie from being a qualitatively and consistently step above even The Bourne Identity (2001). [Reviewed 2/12/12]. 8/10.


Good But Failed to Make the Grade

The Amazing Spiderman (2012). The movie’s plot weaknesses can’t make up for a sincere attempt at a slightly darker and grittier Spiderman in the way The Dark Knight transformed into a much more human Batman (2008). [Reviewed 7/7/12]. 7/10.

The Avengers (2012). A rather chaotic and disparate collection of superheroes that Joss Whedon, director and writer can’t quite get the ensemble cast smoothly working together even as actors. Somewhat enjoyable, but too many characters and subplots to be supremely satisfying. [Reviewed 5/6/12]. 7/10.

Bourne Legacy (2012). This fourth Bourne movie without Jason Bourne is also a great script with an adequate director and performance by its cast making for many missed opportunities to raise the level of action thrillers. Adding in a rather unspectacular ending, the movie can only offer some tantalizing glimpses of a Bourne movie scenario that takes as its fascinating premise a real-time side-by-side playbook of Bourne Legacy co-existing with the Bourne Ultimatum story line. [Reviewed 8/28/12]. 7/10.

Snow White and The Hunter (2012). An unwieldy attempt at producing a mature version of Snow White that although exciting at times, unsuccessfully humanizing the evil queen, fails to retain the original magic and fantasy of the original. [Reviewed 6/3/12]. 7/10.


Disappointments

Prometheus (2012). Another fabulously amazing visual experience that can’t hide the blemishes of a weak plot that becomes two-dimensional by the end of the movie. [Reviewed 6/10/12]. 6/10.

Skyfall (2012). Oddly enough the aging Bond theme unlike Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again (1983) is perhaps too successful in this movie in that this latest version seems tired and worn out, containing big explosions as if to make up for the loss of connective tissue in this movie. Oddly enough this humanizing version of Bond as well as its limp attempt a incorporate some of Roger Moore’s humor doesn’t work well and the emotional connection remains distant, disconnected. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) angle does work well here but Bourne’s crisp, tight, cerebral script is lacking in Skyfall. [Reviewed 11/9/12]. 6/10.


Terrible

Missed/Haven=t Seen Yet

Earthling (2012)
Hitchcock (2012)
Les Miserables (2012)
Lincoln (2012)
Loneliest Planet, The (2012)
Perfect Family, The (2012)
Red Lights (2012)
Rust and Bones (2012)
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)
Wall Flower (2012)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

[Chris Knipp]

Your choices are a lot different from mine except for MOONRISE KINGDOM and LOOPER. I actually have not seen as many of your choices as you have not seen of mine.

I want to add another title to my top ten US list for 2012: THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. So that gives me five. I have a lot of doubts about BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD and pretty many doubts about FLIGHT, though they are good shortlisted material. I'll have to hone down my best foreign list to have only ten, but that's easy if I cut out the unreleased in US ones.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is definitely a great feel-good movie, with originality. It has just enough to make it seem like a David O. Russell movie, and it has great performances. I didn't recognize Jackie Weaver (of the great Australian family gangster movie, ANIMAL KINGDOM). I'm not sure she's ideally used but maybe Russell intended some sort of in-group irony. DiNiro is much more natural and balls-out than usual lately. I will publish a review of this Friday. I'm waiting till LINCOLN comes over to the East Bay Friday (Nov. 16); it opened in San Francisco last week though.

THE LONELIEST PLANET by the way I actually kind of hated, tabuno, even though you liked the way I mead it sound in my review of it. I can sort of see what people like about it but I found it unbearable to watch. I think I made that clear. RUST AND BONE (Audiard) in my opinion is a great movie, but I would like to see how it looks the second time around. I am such a huge fan of Audiard I'm biased. I would not expect much of LES MISERABLES but that's just because I'm not a musicals fan. It could be a breakthrough in the form if you believe the hype. I don't think HITCHCOCK is going to be very good but we'll have to see. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is a nice little indie movie. It runs out of steam a bit, but I like low-budget sci-fi (like PRIMER). SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN I would not waste my time on. Too tame.

I guess by WALL FLOWER you mean THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. I just started this post with that.

It looks like with ZERO DARK THIRTY Kathryn Bigelow throws her lot in completely with the NeoCons. She was tending that way with THE HURT LOCKER. But if Gandalfini is playing a general again as he did in IN THE LOOP, then that could ad an ironic subtext and I'd be wrong. Not if it's getting Bin Laden though.

[tabuno]

As an educated commoner, it there can be such a label, my movie picks are very subjective based on the emotional connection I obtain from each movie I see. With little time and money and living adrift Utah about an hour and a half from Park City and Sundance, and being married, my selections are usually limited to the mainstream American theater. I have a strong preference for relational movies as a social worker involved with most of the time family and marriage issues - so love and death, separation, and reunion on big issues for me in almost any movie. As for musicals, there aren't that many out there and even as I've grown up, I initially hated musicals as a boy, except for the kid movies like Sound of Music, Mary Poppins...but now music for me is a wonderful form of expression that isn't captured in the same way as the straightforward narrative form. Perhaps such interest came from my focus on dance in high school instead of sports.

[Chris Knipp]

You probably live in a beautiful, serene place.

You will probably be able to see most of the US releases I've seen if you really want to, just not necessarily in time for the year's end best lists. I do think it's good to be able to chose from everything. This is why Oscar likes to wait to make his list. I'm also in favor of a running list though, hence this thread.

I love every kind of music movie, except musicals. That's not to say I don't love some of the old musicals. Any other thing with music in it, I'll go, from Metallica to Glenn Gould.

[tabuno]

"You probably life in a beautiful, serene place." Besides a view of the Rocky Mountains, that portion north of Salt Lake City, Utah (the state's capital) which has the more majestic peaks, Clearfield really is mostly noted for its Clearfield Job Corp Center (one of the biggest in the country) and the Freeport Center, an aging World War II material depot that now houses a large diversity of industrial warehouses and manufacturing, and perhaps some of the best local corn. But one I doubt anybody really would place the city on the list of beautiful, serene places. Most I gather come, live here, and the move on.

[Chris Knipp]

Then they ought to have more movies.

[Chris Knipp]

I notice Ursula Meier's SISTER [L'Enfant d'en haut] is Switzerland's official Best Foreign Oscar entry this year. Meier is my director discovery of the year and she is coming into her own. I had not watched Meier's well publicized 2008 second feature (her first was the TV film STRONG SHOULDERS), HOME but am watching it at home. Olivier Gourmet, Isabelle Huppert, and Kacey Mottet Klein, who was about nine and it was his first acting. Meiler liked him so much she built SISTER around him. I thought Meier is considered a Swiss director as this entry suggests, but she was born June 24, 1971 in Besançon, Doubs, France.

STRONG SHOULDERS was shown in New Directors/New Films. Jonathan Rosenbaum reviewed HOME along with Ade's ANYTHING ELSE.
Meier’s Home, a second feature, introduces us to an eccentric but lovingly and happily close-knit family living in the country next to an unfinished superhighway — mother (Isabelle Huppert), father (Olivier Gourmet), older daughter (Adéläide Leroux), younger daughter (Madeleine Budd), and son (Kacey Mottet Klein) — who are gradually driven bonkers by the sound, pollution, and lack of privacy brought by passing vehicles once the superhighway opens. More precisely, all of the family members seem to go to pieces except for the older daughter, who manages to escape relatively early.--rosenbaum.

Both HOME and SISTER/L'ENFANT D'EN HAUT were photographed by Agnès Godard (of BEAU TRAVAIL and other Clair Denis films)..

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1229/home2t.jpg
STILL FROM HOME WITH HUPPERT, KLEIN, AND GOURMET

[Chris Knipp]

BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR

BEST AMERICAN/ENGLISH LANGUAGE MOVIES SO FAR: update
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)
LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj)
LIFE OF PI (Ang Lee)
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
still maybe:
FLIGHT (Richard Zemeckis)
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (faute de miex?)
_______
I also like:
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
Not:
ARGO (Ben Affleck)
or CLOUD ATLAS (Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer)


BEST FOREIGN FILMS SO FAR (Including non-US-release)
AMOUR (Michael Haneke 2012)
HOLY MOTORS (Leos Caras 2012)
SISTER (Ursula Meier)
OSLO, AUGUST 31 (Joachim Trier 2011)
ELENA (Andrei Zvigentsev)
DEEP BLUE SEA, THE (Terence Davies 2012)
MISS BALA (Geraldo Naranjo)
NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendoça Filho 2011)
DAY HE ARRIVES, THE (Hong Sang-soo 2011)
I WISH (Hirakazu Koreeda)
_________________
*RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
BREATHING (Karl Markovics 2011)
RAID, THE: REDEMPTION (Gareth Evans 2012)

_____________

[tabuno]

Oops. I'm half a sleep.

[oscar jubis]

I watched HOLY MOTORS today and I am glad I did. It is interesting and intriguing but not sufficiently to include in my year-end list (if I end up catching up with enough 2012 films to justify posting a personal list of "best" or favorites). This cinephilic, open-ended, fragmentary puzzler seems to have something to say about life and performance, about religion and cinema, about the death and rebirth of film but, ultimately, its allusions and gestures don't add up to anything substantial or genuinely insightful. Still, quite a trip if you're in the mood.

[oscar jubis]

Another interesting film released this year is The Loneliest Planet which CK reviewed as part of his NYFF coverage. I have been enjoying for many years a type of "festival film" that involves close observation of actors in deceptively simple, lightly plotted scenarios. These films tend to emphasize real time ordinariness or dailiness. Two very different films come to mind as being trend sources and they are Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman (1975) and Abbas Kiarostami's Where is my Friend's Home? (1987). The Argentinian film Las Acacias is the best in this year's crop. I am glad the film got a bit of distribution even if it was very limited. This type of film often makes my undistributed list. I am also glad that The Loneliest Planet was shown theatrically in a few markets. It is clearly no crowd-pleaser as it is too slow (read uneventful) for the average viewer. The film boasts naturalistic perfs by actors and non-actors and great photography but I am left with the feeling that Julia Loktev fails to take full advantage of a very intriguing set of circumstances. The Dardenne Brothers would have found an ending/resolution/denouement that enhances the build-up and resonates with import rather than the somewhat unremarkable closer of TLP.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, I continue to love HOLY MOTORS, which I got to see again during a brief Landmark run in Berkeley's Shattuck Cinemas. I am not a sophisticated enough cineaste to adore the indeed very slow LONELIEST PLANET, whose main event you'll miss if you look away for ten seconds, but it has gotten raves from younger critics so I think you'll be pleased to see it turn up on year's end lists. It's overall critical rating (Metacritic 76) is very good but not top of the line. But Mike D'Angelo, a sort of youthful (i.e. 40-something, in his case 44) movie reviewer bellweather for me whom I've been following esp. for his thorough and forceful Cannes evaluations (and I've added his Toronto ones this year and followed him more and more on Twitter. where these guys live and breathe), recently added THE LONELIEST PLANET to his in-progress 2012 best list(s). Here are his two lists as they now stand:

THE "PURE" LIST (2012 premiere)
01. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, France/Germany)
02. The Imposter (Bart Layton, USA)
03. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, USA)
04. Amour (Michael Haneke, France/Germany/Austria)
05. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, USA)
06. Eat Sleep Die (Gabriela Pichler, Sweden)
07. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! (Alain Resnais, France/Germany)
08. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, France/UK/USA)
09. Looper (Rian Johnson, USA)
10. Pursuit of Loneliness (Laurence Thrush, USA)

THE "POLLS" LIST (2012 commercial release)
01. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, France/Germany)
02. The Imposter (Bart Layton, USA)
03. The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, USA/Germany)
04. Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico)
05. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, USA)
06. Amour (Michael Haneke, France/Germany/Austria)
07. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies, UK)
08. Looper (Rian Johnson, USA)
09. This Must Be the Place (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France/Ireland)
10. Haywire (Steven Soderbergh, USA)

Maybe you who understand movie technicalities better than I do, Oscar, can explain what these two lists are exactly--why he has to have both of them. Anyway he has also added THE IMPOSTER recently, and that's good; it shows that he appreciates and recognizes craftsmanship. I agree on top-rating HOLY MOTORS, MISS BALA, MOONRISE KINGDOM, AMOUR, THE DEEP BLUE SEA -- some of my topmost choices.

He saw EAT SLEEP DIE at Toronto but I have not been anywhere where i could see it. I understand where he's coming from with Resnais, and you might agree on that one, Oscar, but I'm not so sure about it, though it certainly deserves mention. FRAMCES HA I don't think has enough to it. I'd prefer DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. But both are a bit less than one might have hoped. LEVIATON I guess is non-released. I think it deserves strong mention (NYFF) among the more abstract kind of documentaries. I do not really like the too-quirky and arthouse THIS MUST BE THE PLACE; Sorarentino's CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE remains his most human and I didn't warm to IL DIVO but it's more significant than this oddity, though I'd recommend cinephiles to watch it. It took me a while to "get" LOOPER but I do now think it's one of the US year's best. As for HAYWIRE, absolutely NOT! What is D'Angelo thinking of? But he tends to go overboard a bit on some of the young man-ish macho movies, like for instance Hillcoat, and rating SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS way too high. He also does not particularly "get" documentaries that are "archival footage + talking heads," even when they're as significant as THE GATEKEEPERS, and he dismisses or walks out on quiet arthouse films like A LATE QUARTET (though the latter, admittedly, is mostly just a soap for genteel white people, but if you love classical music, it's got to be a pleasure to watch; I'm guessing he hasn't spent many evenings at the symphony hgall).

Something seems to have displaced Ursula Meier's SISTER -- too bad.

[Chris Knipp]

Indiewire's Year-End Critics Poll

Here are my submissions to the Indiewire critics poll sent today (Dec. 3, 2012). This is not my final personal list, where I'll separate English language and foreign language films so I can include more, as well a ten best documentaries and other lists as before. This is the imposed Indiewire format and I did it quickly without pondering it too deeply. I couldn't find ten undistributed films that seemed essential viewing but these seven are ones that I genuinely liked and seem well made. I saw most of those at Lincoln Center or MoMA series but AVÉ I saw in Paris at MK2 Beaubourg. Otherwise I notice some movies I liked a lot didn't get mentioned, such as THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, of LIFE OF PI, and some of my Best Foreign list got left off such as MISS BALA. I did what I could with the format.

BEST FILM
You may vote for up to 10 films.

1. HOLY MOTORS (Léos Carax)
2. MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
3. AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
4. THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. SISTER (Ursula Meier)
6. RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
7. THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Terrence Davies)
8. OSLO, AUG. 31ST (Joachim Trier)
9. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
10. COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)

BEST DIRECTOR
You get one vote. Remember to list both the director's name and the title of the film.
1. Léos Carax, HOLY MOTORS

BEST PERFORMANCE
You get five votes. Remember to list both an actor's name and the title of the film he or she appears in.
1. Jean-Louis Tritignant, AMOUR
2. Joachim Phoenix, THE MASTER
3. Kacey Mottet Klein, SISTER
4. Denzel Washington, FLIGHT
5. John Hawkes, THE SESSIONS

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
You get five votes. Remember to list both an actor's name and the title of the film he or she appears in.

1. Nicole Kidman, THE PAPERBOY
2. Kelly Reilly, FLIGHT
3. Helen Hunt, THE SESSIONS
4. Jackie Weaver, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
5. Sally Field, LINCOLN

BEST ENSEMBLE
You get one vote. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. MOONRISE KINGDOM

BEST SCREENPLAY
You get one vote. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. LOOPER

BEST FIRST FEATURE
You get one vote. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. NEIGHBORING SOUNDS

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OR SOUNDTRACK
You get one vote. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. LOOPER

BEST DOCUMENTARY
You get one vote. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE

BEST UNDISTRIBUTED FILM
You may vote for up to 10 films. You may select any new film screened anywhere (festival circuit, one-off screenings, etc.) that is still without a U.S. distributor. Do not include films scheduled for future release (such as "Simon Killer," "Reality," "To The Wonder"). If you are uncertain about the distribution status of a film, please contact us at critic@indiewire.com.
1. BREATHING (Karl Markovics)
2. THE OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY (Terrence Nance)
3. TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (Angelina Nikonova)
4. DONOMA (Djinn Carrénard)
5. SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (Robert Guédiguian)
6. THE REBELLIAN (Mathieu Kassovitz)
7. AVÉ (Konstantin Bojanov)
8.
9.
10.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for sharing your submission. When will the poll be available at Indiewire?
Have you reviewed Starlet?

[oscar jubis]

Just found your Starlet review.

[Chris Knipp]

I don't know exactly when they publish the poll but around the third week of Dec; deadline for submitting to the poll is 16 Dec.

There was a mistake in my STARLET review that I've corrected: Sean Baker did not work on THE STORY OF ANVIL; that was the director of HITCHCOCK, Sasha Gervasi. However Baker's work has had a documentary element and he collaborated on TAKE OUT (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2299-Sean-Baker-Tsou-Shih-Ching-Take-Out-%282003%29&highlight=sean+baker), made in 2003, which I saw at Quad Cinema in NYC in summer 2008 and reviewed then. (I saw THE STORY OF ANVIL, but didn't write a review; it was on DVD, some time after release.)

A list of all films released in NYC in 2012 through 7 Dec. can be found here. (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/nymaster.html) From that I realize that BREATHING (released 31 Aug.) doesn't qualify as unreleased so I have to withdraw that.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6608/directactionquentint010.jpg

Saw DJANGO UNCHAINED preview Thursday night. I can't publish a review of it till just before Christmas, but I can say that it is worthy of inclusion among the year's best. Tarantino harnesses his wild humor and gift for pastiche (the latter rarely if ever so fully exploited) in the interests of angry historical revision. DJANGO is a historical film far more important to watch than Spielberg's tame LINCOLN. Deals with the brutality of slavery as never before by a modern director. A pretty remarkable combination (plus many striking performances, especially those of Waltz, Foxx, and DiCaprio). To understand where Tarantino is coming from, read about his statements at the recent UK preview of the movie apparently delivered the same day I saw it in San Francisco but probably half a day earlier in our time.


"We all intellectually 'know' the brutality and inhumanity of slavery," Tarantino reportedly said at a screening of "Django Unchained" in the U.K. on Thursday. "But after you do the research it's no longer intellectual any more, no longer just historical record –- you feel it in your bones. It makes you angry, and want to do something ... I'm here to tell you, that however bad things get in the movie, a lot worse shit actually happened."

You can get more of what Tarantino said from the article in the GUARDIAN, (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/dec/07/quentin-tarantino-slavery-django-unchained) from which that quotation comes. DJANGO was shown in London at The British Academy of Film & Television Arts, AKA Bafta.

Sammuel L. Jackson's role is pretty mind-blowing too, as the chief "house niigger," Steve.

[tabuno]

From the trailers I've seen of DJANGO, as in the debate between style over substance in cinema, DJANGO seems to project a lot of theatrical flash and style much like Chicago's Billy Flynn in the musical's courtroom scene of which of course the movie, as musical itself, won best Oscar picture. But when dealing with a docudrama and authenticity with respect to the Civil War, it would be of interest to find the balanced medium between Saving Private Ryan (1998) and its opening sequence or the emotive drama of The Help (2011) versus something like stylized version of drama and thriller like Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004). Whether this movie will be a No Country for Old Men (2007) which seemed on its surface to have this style, but weak integrity or There Will Be Blood (2007) which had a solid core around a strong performance, time will tell. I will be watching for the 2013 remake of The Great Gatsby when it comes to stylized theatrical drama.

I'm concerned that this movie instead of a restrained and subtle performances encourages the usual cliches of the cinematic movie screen.

[oscar jubis]

Movies about slavery are rare. But there are 3 I like a lot: Nightjohn, Mandingo and Amistad. I don't think Django is "about slavery" but I am curious about its depiction in it. Last Tarantino movie I really liked was Jackie Brown so by now I have realized that Tarantino may just not be "my cup of tea".

[Johann]

I saw the trailer for Django Unchained at the new Bond flick, as well as the new one for The Hobbit.
Both seemed quality stuff.
Django is exactly the kind of movie I expect from Tarantino. Stylish and Rumbling.

I am beyond happy that Will Smith didn't play the lead. I simply do not believe in anything Will Smith does.
None of his films have weight to me except Ali, and if you think about it, it was more Michael Mann's direction than Will's performance, which was worthy of an Oscar nomination. He didn't get the Oscar. I predict that Will Smith will never win an Oscar.
We've seen the limits of his talent. He has no more faces in his pockets (and he only ever had one anyway- himself).
Will Smith is not an actor, like many in Hollywood. He's a line-deliverer. His charisma and likability has gotten him far and that's good for him.
But what has he done since Ali?
Nothing.
He just cashed in and has now become a goof who can blow-off Tarantino. He actually told Quentin:."If you can't find anybody else, I might do it".

WHA? WTF? SAY AGAIN, OVER? Repeat your last, Over?

Wow does Will Smith have a Titanic ego.
Can't stand that rich turd anymore.
Hey Will: Jamie Foxx is the Actor, you are the Rapper.
Don't ever forget it. You guys may be pals but I don't care. You worked together in Ali but Jamie Foxx is clearly and obviously the man with talent. In fact I think he can do anything. He's Willie Beamen, You're "Big Ego, Big Willie Style"
I wouldn't even want a conversation with Will Smith.
What's so great about him?

Anybody here love Will Smith?
Make me a convert to his quote unquote GENIUS.
Make me see where I'm dead wrong on Will Smith. I beg you.
That guy is bankrupt. Oh he's got benjamins....but he's fucking bankrupt.
LOL

[oscar jubis]

Smith is a very bankable talent because of that charisma and likability you mention, but he is not a "genius" and I "get" your outrage at his behaving as if there is genius in him (as opposed to "talent"). A lot of people including the Academy liked him in The Pursuit of Happyness. I don't remember if I saw the film or just the trailer, to tell you the truth. Did you see it?

[Chris Knipp]

I saw THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS on the big screen in its entirety and it is quite good, and an interesting story. I regretted that Gabriele Muccino defected to Hollywood but he had a good screnplay. On the other hand SEVEN POUNDS (Muccino again directing Smith) was pretty lame. I may have liked Smith best in Fred Schepisi's terrific SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, a very edgy role for him that he took on before he was a big star in feature films. I have also liked Will a whole lot in some of his blockbuster roles, such as I AM LEGEND. Smith has intensity, presence, charisma. If he has a big ego that doesn't make him different from a lot of movie stars. I can't figure out why Jamie Foxx is marvelous according to Johann and Will Smith is a "turd." Jamie Foxx has been in a couple of cool movies, RAY certainly and also COLLATERAL, but his career doesn't seem to me dramatically more brilliant than Smith's.

Furtehrmore Johann is misleading in implying Will Smith blew off the DJANGO role in a egotistical way. He has recently stated his commitments got in the way and highly praised the screenplay:


"I came really close, it was one of the most amazing screenplays I had ever ever seen," Smith said. "I was in the middle of 'Men In Black 3' and [Tarantino] was ready to go, and I just couldn't sit with him and get through the issues, so I didn't want to hold him up. That thing's going to be ridiculous. It is a genius screenplay."
--Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/14/will-smith-django-unchained-quentin-tarantino_n_1596077.html) More detailed article on MTV MOVIES BLOG (http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/06/14/will-smith-django-unchained/)

If Smith is trying to correct a bad impression he created when his originally passed on the part (said to have been written with him in mind), he does a good job of it here. Sure, he has tended to go for feel-good blockbuster parts, but give him some slack, and don't believe everything you read on the Internet. I think Will Smith is unduly locked into these franchises but his aversion to anything risky or non-heroic seems something blown out of proportion by the blogosphere.

David Gordon-Levitt is also reported in the Wikipedia DJANGO article to have turned down a lead (unspecified) in DJANGO due to commitments, in equally diplomatic, admiring fashion:


"I would have loved, loved to have done it. He’s one of my very favorite filmmakers.

Jamie Foxx seems to me very understated in DJANGO UNCHAINED. He doesn't have to toot his horn because he gets to kill practically everybody, so no bragging necessary. On the other hand given his skill at getting great performances out of actors who haven't done anything interesting lately, QT might have done something even better with Will Smith than he does with Jamie Foxx. It's been commented in blogs about Smith's then possible role in DJANGO that he a better "dialogue actor" than he's acknowledged to be and this is true: his delivery is fast and he has great timing, ideal for a Tarantino script. But Django is a lead role overshadowed (except for the spaghetti western revenge massacre) than other roles: Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schmidt does more talking; Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio are more memorable. DiCaprio in particular tears up the screen. That said, Jamie Foxx is splendid in the lead role.

Don't try to figure out what DJANGO is like from the trailers; they're particularly choppy, out of order and misleading.

It is about slavery by the way. Very much so.

I would save future comments on DJANGO UNCHAINED for Dec. 25th and my review, which I have written but have to hold for release time. All I want to say now and the reason I posted about DJANGO on this thread is that I have to add this to my still not very full English-language BEST MOVIES OF 2012 list; the foreign film ten is already full to overflowing and probably might be even more so if we had gotten to see Vinterberg's THE HUNT and Matteo Garrone's REALITY.

[Chris Knipp]

So what I've got now (Mon., Dec. 10, 2012) from what I've seen so far for for the English-language list is as follows, with DJANGO UNCHAINED added. I now realize that THE DEEP BLUE SEA is the only one in my Best Foreign list so I can put it over here.

I'm not at all sure of this order yet and may revert to alphabetical.

BEST ENGLISH LANGUAGE MOVIES SO FAR: update
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)
THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Terence Davies)
LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj)
LIFE OF PI (Ang Lee)
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
still maybe:
FLIGHT (Richard Zemeckis)
also liked:
THE SESSIONS (Ben Lewin)
or?
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (faute de miex?)

[Johann]

Great stuff.

Will Smith just annoys the living fuck out of me. I don't get jacked up for anything he does.
And his explanation why he didn't do the movie is priceless. Genius script? OK.
Was MIB3 so hard to make that he couldn't get through "issues". What issues?
Tarantino is asking you to be the lead in one his movies. And you have issues with it.
Tell me why I should give you another thought Will. I mean, you are a big enough star to call some shots, no?
Did you ever in your life say to yourself:"If Werner Herzog, Terrence Malick or Tarantino want me, I will move planets to be there"
Apparently not.
I am not being misleading.
Will Smith actually said the words: "If you can't find anybody else"
It came from Quentin's mouth. Quentin left the meeting with Will by saying "Look, I'm going to be seeing other people". I read it in the newspaper. That makes Will Smith the biggest idiot in Hollywood.
He obviously doesn't understand what the word "Legacy" is. He obviously thinks he's so awesome that he can brush off whomever he wants.
He can eat shit.
The Pursuit of Happyness is a prime example of a Will Smith movie I can't watch. It's so ham-handed. That story would be one of the best movies ever made if it was with an actor who I can genuinely believe is struggling to make it. The story is priceless, a great human-interest uplifting thing. But Will Smith sours it because I know he hasn't struggled in his whole life since he lived in West Philly, or did he?
Anybody know if Will Smith was ever poor, living the projects?
If he did I may muster an apology.

[Johann]

So Robert Zemeckis' FLIGHT makes the Best list?

I'll just have to see that one then.
I was gonna pass, just because the poster is so lame. Denzel's face. That's it.
That was the best they could come up with?
A poster can make me buy a ticket or make me keep my $$$ in my pockets.
That one made me immediately say "PASS!"

[Chris Knipp]

So Will Smith should suffer your invective because he didn't grow up poor? Well, he didn't -- his mother was a school administrator -- but he did grow up black in America, in Philadelphia. Maybe you should reserve your contempt for me. You seem to resent success. In my review o (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=711)f THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS I commented that it was not the best that either Muccino or Smith could do, but that it doesn't lie to us, and it's a rare film that acknowledges the existence of homelessness in America. HAPPYNESS combines uplift with realism. It's a perfectly watchable movie, and a very decent project for Will Smith to have taken on.

Why don't you heap invective on Joseph Gordon-Levitt? He passed on a lead role in DJANGO UNCHAINED too.

Film critic Armond White, who is harsh and black and grew up in Detroit, was generally favorabble toward the film in his review (http://nypress.com/will-smiths-american-dream/)and understood Smith's taking it on as producer as a statement. He sees it as an extension of hip-hop bootstrap philosophy.
The Pursuit of Happyness suggests that the drive for success is what defines Americans. In other words, Smith is no longer merely a figurine fronting the Hollywood institution; he now owns a piece of the plantation.

FLIGHT is a maybe for the best list, not a shoe-in, just a possiblity.. I've said that all along. It has intense performances and a strong message. Armond White wrote a complex, hard to read review of FLIGHT, highly critical of it but acknowledging that it's a complex role even if it's not a complex enough performance.


Whip’s epic debauchery embraces the post-hiphop image of the black badass–appealing to both the Obama era’s suppressed racism as well as the hiphop braggadocio that misunderstands the principled machismo of 70s Blaxploitation (stay tuned for Tarantino’s subversion in Django).


Whip Whitaker, an ace airline pilot who saves most of the passengers on a faulty commercial plane by piloting the aircraft upside down in Flight feels like a sympathetic Tom Hanks role. But Denzel Washington plays it differently; he eschews scrupulous heroism in order to display troubling masculine extremes.

Its at least potentially a fabulous role.
Flight puts Washington into complications that few black film actors get the chance to fully portray because they’re usually stuck in the mechanisms of ideology-laden genre.

BUT--
Grandstanding Washington isn’t a subtle enough actor–and this Robert Zemeckis-directed film isn’t sensitive enough–to make Whip Whitaker a great character. Instead, Flight confronts a brave man’s weaknesses as part of an ostentatious show:

I could never write about movies with black stars in them with the knowledge and perspective Armond White has. More people should read Armond White's reviews. I try never to miss them. He's unique, and largely unappreciated, even hated.

Your statement that you can't have sympathy for an African-American actor unless he grew up in the ghetto is incomprehensible. What do you know about growing up black in America, or what it's like to then make it big, in the white man's world? You describe arbitrarily passing on a movie because of the poster you saw, then heap contempt on actors for passing on a movie role that was a tough decision.

[Johann]

I can have sympathy. But not for that role and not for that movie. I'm talking about that one movie.
I don't believe Will Smith's performance for one second in that movie. It's a nice try at being a "regular-joe", like Ben Stiller in
Night At The Museum, a strong candidate for worst movie of all time. That movie takes the Razzies forever.
So cringe-inducing you cannot believe it.
I hate my intelligence being insulted, and that's what Will Smith does routinely.
He strikes me as a guy who's just having a ball, inflating his ego and making bad movie choices, while looking down on others.
Nobody sees it. Nobody detects it.

I will arbitrarily pass on a movie because of a poster. If they can't put more effort into getting my money, then why should I give it to them?
If the movie rocks or not?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is someone who wouldn't have a posse of bodyguards with him while he watched a movie, like I witnessed in Vancouver when Will was making the shit-tastic I, Robot. No one could get near him. I was wondering if he thought he was the President.
Joseph is passionate about movies. Will is not.
The most excited I ever saw him was when THE MATRIX came out and he was going ballistic: THIS THE FUTURE OF CINEMA! THE MATRIX! YEAH BABY!


Fuck Will Smith.
I have solid complaints against him. He sullies the greatness of cinema in my opinion.
I want him to KICK ASS, like his marquee name demands.
He could have kicked some major ass for All-Time in Django Unchained, but he has issues.
So maybe he should just stop making movies and fix his issues, whatever they are? Perhaps?
Because I don't think Will's next film will set the world on fire. Do you?

[Chris Knipp]

Okay, enjoy your rant. But you already said all this. Except where you contradict yourself like now saying Will Smith would have been great in DJANGO when before you said you would have not use for him in it. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS is a true story. As for the "posse," I don't know, but it's possible it was that Fox, who were responsible for I, ROBOT, were also responsible for any bodyguards, etc. They had them for the NYFF showing of THE STORY OF PI too.

Can we talk about something else, please? This was my BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR thread. I'm sorry I mentioned DJANGO. I should have started a DJANGO thread.

[Johann]

No contradiction Chris.
He COULD have been great. Not WOULD.
I'd have to see the movie to know for sure.
Tarantino's casting choice, not mine.
I wouldn't cast Will Smith for anything.

[Johann]

What do I know about growing up black in America and making it big in a white man's world?
Zilch.
And if I did, my ego would never, ever inflate. Will's has been inflating since his first rap record.
I'd never tell Charlize Theron that a shitty fucking movie "will be good for her career", like he did on the set of the ridiculous HAND-ON-COCK.
Mr. Box-Office is giving her tips on being successful.
Yeah.
She won an Oscar, didn't she? For an UNBELIEVABLE part.
Will has how many statuettes?
That's right.
The big GOOSE EGG.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, see the movie. DJANGO UNCHAINED. I recommend it, and these others. I know you'e seen MOONRISE KINGDOM. Did you see THE MASTER? I forget. How about THE DEEP BLUE SEA? Oscar and I agree in rating that very high. Then COSMOPOLIS? A Canadian director, one of the best and coolest literary adaptations I've seen -- THE DEEP BLUE SEA is one, but of a play, and much freer. LOOPER? After that if you haven't much time or cash for movie-going, switch over to the Best Foreign list, and see AMOUR, and try to see HOLY MOTORS, SISTER, OSLOW, AUG. 31, and RUST AND BONE. Those are musts.

But if you can't find most of those you might enjoy FLIGHT and also KILLING THEM SOFTLY. I guess LIFE OF PI isn't your thing, though it's a beautiful visual experience. Or if you want a scary wake-up call, see CHASING ICE.

[oscar jubis]

I plan to watch a lot of 2012 releases during Winter Break. I missed so much during the year...and still there are 10 films released in 2012 I like a lot so I could realistically submit a list of favorites. What's great is that I can watch any film I want in a theater screen late at night after the theater has officially closed. I plan to watch The Master, Beasts of Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom soon, and Life of Pi before it leaves theaters. I have to say that I like very few new films as much as old films I treasure including some I am just discovering. Film is almost 120 years old. It's a deep well of magnificence and wonderment that is rarely matched by contempo films in my heart.

[Chris Knipp]

Good. I hope the format is okayl.

[oscar jubis]

I have a DVD/BR player hooked up to the theater projector. It's quite a luxury to be able to do this; I feel it is a sort of compensation for not having $ to dine out or travel. Tonight I will screen Mario Monicelli's The Organizer (1963), with Mastroianni in the lead role. Last night my friends and I watched Kon Ichikawa's amazing An Actor's Revenge aka Revenge of a Kabuki Actor.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm on the same period, watching Bergman's "Faith Trilogy". It's a great period in film.

[oscar jubis]

Indeed. And Bergman is so worth your time and attention.

I give my highest recommendation to THE ORGANIZER. I watched it in Criterion BD but I've seen captures from the DVD and it looks almost as great. This film is as funny and as serious as films get. Perfect balance of comedy and pathos, like Lubitsch at his best. Absolute must-see for everyone. The Ichikawa film may be more inventive, in the way that the style comments on the relationship between theater and film, and the fresh use of the widescreen frame, but it may be too "arty" or "stylized" for some viewers, and the print and transfer are just OK (not pristine like the Monicelli).

[Chris Knipp]

There are some nice looking restorations of B&W Italian films, and Monicelli did some very funny stuff. I've seen some at Lincoln Center. The Italians did some great comedies in the Fifties and Sixties. Where are they now?

WINTER LIGHT is remarkable. We can be glad we aren't the sons of strict Swedish ministers. Now I'm going to watch THE SILENCE. I had not watched this trilogy. I am catching up on Bergman I didn't see. I don't like FANNY AND ALEXANDER and now I know why I walked out of it originally. But I've seen it all now. in many ways it is inauthentic and weird (the glamorizing of his own past) but the basic problem is that this was a TV miniseries that was cut down to 3+ hours and it becomes an incoherent patchwork. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE was the same thing, a TV miniseries, but it is very simple and unified, so the cutting down works fine. I liked SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, which would be very interesting to analyze. It has a kind of comic subtext. Awesome acting, as is true of all Bergman. Gunnar Björnstrand amazing in WINTER LIGHT. The last moment of THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY when the son is by himself and says "My father spoke to me!" and it's's like saying God spoke to him: brilliant, stunning. The last sequences of THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY are better than anything in WINTER LIGHT, but the latter has an austere beauty. It's like a design by Mies or Le Corbusier. I can see links with Antonioni. It is of the period but timeless.

I've also been watching all the Luis Bunuel films I avoided when they came out. I didn't like him; they sounded false to me. But now thanks to Criterion bonus material I know Bunuel was a really cool, fun guy who was true to his school in the deepest sense all his life, the only surrealist who stayed a surrealist all the way, and he had an amazing career of 50 years or so. His collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière is impressive, and humane. The "The Last Scenario" doc from 2009 by Carriere and Juan Luis Bunuel is very warm and enjoyable. Amazing how Dali' screwed Bunuel when he was struggling and in NYC working at MoMA. What is the compatibility of being a surrealist with being an anti-clerical anti-bourgeois leftist? Do Bunuel's film critiques of the bourgeoisie have any validity to leftists?

[cinemabon]

I wonder if Friday's news will affect "Django" box office. There's already been discussion over holding back release of Tom Cruise's new film, "Jack Reacher."

My views on Quentin's work have not changed and are well documented on this website. I will read your comments but refuse to see any more of his work and I won't reiterate my reasons why. However, if you wish to discuss violence in cinema on a separate thread, I will join in.

The link between violence in media (and that includes the news) and violence in society is correlated. Whether movies, games, television, or other sources of media - this glorification of gun play is a sad running commentary on what we view as most note worthy.

[Chris Knipp]

I try to judge films on a case by case basis rather than give a pass or fail to a director's work as a whole, but we don't have to discuss DJANGO, a film you're not going to see. My dream would be that I'd make it sound so interesting or so good that you'd break your rule and go and see it.

As for changing release of JACK REACHER and DJANGO UNCHAINED because of the school killings I hope not. That would be more American hypocracy. Coountries that watch and read about very violent stuff, like Japan, have a hundred times less gun violence than we do.

[Chris Knipp]

NEW YORK TIMES BEST LISTS.

Let's get back to 2012 BEST LISTS. I'd like to report the New York Times' three chief critics' 2012 llists, which were published yesterday (Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012). Click on the names to go to the whole articles with accompanying discussion, for each critic.

AMOUR and ZERO DARK THIRTY were the winners. On all three top ten lists. LINCOLN and THE MASTER on two top ten lists. Only Manohla lists HOLY MOTORS- points from me for that. MOONRISE KINGDOM doesn't do as well as I would have thought. Notably absent here: LOOPER. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK only on one list. I'm pleased that THE GRAY got one top ten listing, and regret having neglected that myself. I'm glad RUST AND BONE fared well. DJANGO only once.

Scott is doing like me, somewhat, with a separate documentaries list, though I don't think five is enough. Like Oscar who thought my referring to COMPLIANCE as a "documentary," I am jarred somehow by having THIS IS NOT A FILM persistently listed as one. It is more than and different from a documentary.

MANOHLA DARGIS. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/movies/manohla-dargiss-top-films-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all)
Top ten, alphabetically:
AMOUR
THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE GATEKEEPERS
HOLY MOTORS
THE MASTER
MOONRISE KINGDOM
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
ZERO DARK THIRTY
The rest of the best, alphabetically: AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, ARGO, AUGUST AND AFTER, AUTO=COLLIER xv, BARBARA, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, BERNIE, BROOKLYN CASTLE, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, DEPARTURE, FOOTNOTE, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, THE KID WITH A BIKE, LIFE OF PI, MAGIC MIKE, A MAN VANISHES, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, MISS BALA, NAPOLEON OSLOW, AUGUST 31ST, THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS, RUST AND BONE, SKYFALL, STARLET, THIS IS NOT A FILM, THE TURIN HORSE, VIEW FROM THE ACROPOLIS.

A.O. SCOTT (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/movies/a-o-scotts-25-best-films-of-2012.html)
1. AMOUR
2. LINCOLN
3. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
4. FOOTNOTE
5. THE MASTER
6. ZERO DARK THIRTY
7. DJANGO UNCHAINED
8. GOODBYE, FIRST LOVE
9. NEIGHBORING SOUNDS
10. THE GREY
HONORABLE MENTION
ARGO, BARBARA, BRAVE, CONSUMING SPIRITS, THE DEEP BLUE SEA, MOONRISE KINGDOM, PITCH PERFECT, RUST AND BONE, TAKE THIS WALTZ, THE TURIN HORSE.
TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES:
1. THE GATEKEEPERS
2. THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES
3. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
4. THIS IS NOT A FILM
5. THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

STEPHEN HOLDEN (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/movies/lincoln-and-amour-top-stephen-holdens-best-of-list.html?pagewanted=all)
1. LINCOLN
2. AMOUR
3. ZERO DARK THIRTY
4. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
5. ARGO
6. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA
7. ELENA
8. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
9. THE INVISIBLE WAR
10. THE SESSIONS
11. RUST AND BONE

[Chris Knipp]

FILM COMMENT'S 50 BEST FILMS OF 2012.

This is complied from a poll of film critics and other film-related people chosen by the FSLC monthly. (FAREWELL MY QUEEN just won a major French best-of-the-year award; here, it dcomes in as #47. Due to the makeup of the polled group, a number of items score high that mainstream audiences will not even have heard of -- TABOO, for instance, and THE TURIN HORSE. I like that HOLY MOTORS is at the top.

1. Holy Motors
Leos Carax, France/Germany
2. The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson, U.S.
3. Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson, U.S.
4. This Is Not a Film
Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Iran
5. Amour
Michael Haneke, France/Germany/Austria
6. The Turin Horse
Béla Tarr, Hungary/France/Switzerland/Germany
7. The Kid With a Bike
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, France/Belgium
8. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey
9. Lincoln
Steven Spielberg, U.S.
10. Zero Dark Thirty
Kathryn Bigelow, U.S.
11. Tabu
Miguel Gomes, Portugal
12. The Deep Blue Sea
Terence Davies, U.K.
13. Bernie
Richard Linklater, U.S.
14. Beasts of the Southern Wild
Benh Zeitlin, U.S.
15. Cosmopolis
David Cronenberg, Canada/France
16. Barbara
Christian Petzold, Germany
17. The Loneliest Planet
Julia Loktev, U.S./Germany
18. Silver Linings Playbook
David O. Russell, U.S.
19. Oslo, August 31st
Joachim Trier, Norway
20. Neighboring Sounds
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil
21. Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino, U.S.
22. Almayer’s Folly
Chantal Akerman, France/Belgium
23. Magic Mike
Steven Soderbergh, U.S.
24. Argo
Ben Affleck, U.S.
25. Attenberg
Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece
26. The Color Wheel
Alex Ross Perry, U.S.
27. Rust & Bone
Jacques Audiard, France/Belgium
28. Killer Joe
William Friedkin, U.S.
29. Looper
Rian Johnson, U.S.
30. Life of Pi
Ang Lee, U.S.
31. A Man Vanishes
Shohei Imamura, Japan
32. Skyfall
Sam Mendes, U.S.
33. The Gatekeepers
Dror Moreh, Israel
34. Elena
Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia
35. Haywire
Steven Soderbergh, U.S.
36. Damsels in Distress
Whit Stillman, U.S.
37. Abendland
Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria
38. Two Years at Sea
Ben Rivers, U.K.
39. How to Survive a Plague
David France, U.S.
40. Keep the Lights On
Ira Sachs, U.S.
41. A Burning Hot Summer
Philippe Garrel, France
42. Miss Bala
Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico
43. Footnote
Joseph Cedar, Israel
44. Compliance
Craig Zobel, U.S.
45. Alps
Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece
46. Kill List
Ben Wheatley, U.K.
47. Farewell, My Queen
Benoît Jacquot, France/Spain
48. In Another Country
Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
49. The Dark Knight Rises
Christopher Nolan, U.S.
50. The Day He Arrives
Hong Sang-soo, South Korea

[Chris Knipp]

FILM COMMENT'S BEST UNDISTRIBUTED FILMS OF 2012 LIST. (From the same poll of the same chosen list of film writers and others.)

50 BEST UNDISTRIBUTED FILMS OF 2012
BY ON 12.13.2012
* denotes self-distribution

1. Our Children
Joachim Lafosse, Belgium/Luxembourg/France/Switzerland
. Memories Look at Me
Song Fang, China
3. First Cousin Once Removed
Alan Berliner, U.S.
4. When Night Falls
Ying Liang, South Korea/China
5. Bwakaw
Jun Robles Lana, Philippines
6. Gebo and the Shadow
Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France
7. differently, Molussia
Nicolas Rey, France*
8. Perret in France and Algeria
Heinz Emigholz, Germany
9. The Extravagant Shadows
David Gatten, U.S.*
10. Three Sisters
Wang Bing, France/Hong Kong
11. Dormant Beauty
Marco Bellocchio, Italy/France
12. Far From Afghanistan
John Gianvito, Travis Wilkerson, Jon Jost, Minda Martin & Soon-Mi Yoo, U.S.*
13. Camille Rewinds
Noémie Lvovsky, France
14. Greatest Hits
Nicolás Pereda, Mexico/Canada/Netherlands
15. small roads
James Benning, U.S.*
16. Everybody in Our Family
Radu Jude, Romania/Netherlands
17. Shepard and Dark
Treva Wurmfeld, U.S.
18. Hannah Arendt
Margarethe von Trotta, Germany
19. Araf: Somewhere in Between
Yesim Ustaoglu, Turkey/France/Germany
20. Thursday Through Sunday
Dominga Sotomayor, Chile/Netherlands
21. Goodbye
Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran
22. After Lucia
Michel Franco, Mexico
23. Reconversão
Thom Andersen, Portugal/U.S.
24. Tiger Tail in Blue
Frank V. Ross, U.S.
25. Traveling Light
Gina Telaroli, U.S.
26. Sun Don't Shine
Amy Seimetz, U.S.
27. Postcards from the Zoo
Edwin, China/Germany/Hong Kong/Indonesia
28. 3
Pablo Stoll, Uruguay/Argentina/Germany/
Chile
29. The Invisible Ones
Sebastien Lifshitz, France
30. Everyday
Michael Winterbottom, U.K.
31. Twilight Portrait
Angelina Nikonova, Russia
32. Age Is…
Stephen Dwoskin, France/U.K.
33. The Strawberry Tree
Simone Rapisarda Casanova, Italy/Canada/Cuba
34. Here and There
Antonio Mendez Esparza, Spain/U.S./Mexico
35. Louise Wimmer
Cyril Mennegun, France
36. Outrage Beyond
Takeshi Kitano, Japan
37. Back to Stay
Milagros Mumenthaler, Argentina/Switzerland
38. The Final Member
Jonah Bekhor & Zach Math, Canada
39. Kinshasa Kids
Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Belgium/France
40. The War
James Benning, U.S.
41. Nights with Theodore
Sébastien Betbeder, France
42. The Minister
Pierre Schöller, France
43. Celluloid Man
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, India
44. Gangs of Wasseypur
Anurag Kashyap, India
45. The Dead Man and Being Happy
Javier Rebollo, Spain/Argentina/
Franc
46. The Invader
Nicolas Provost, Belgium
47. Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
Laurence Cantet, France/Canada
48. Donoma
Djinn Carrenard, France
49. Me and You
Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy
50. Miss Lovely
Ashim Ahluwalia, India

[cinemabon]

Yeah, I've been following the conversation. It is true that places like Hong Kong and Great Britain have films and games with even more violence than we do, yet have one tenth the violent crimes. We can look to our liberal gun laws and the over abundance of firearms in our society as the leading difference.

Still, I abhor violence in films. I have no taste for it and even cringed Thursday night when animated characters were beheaded (Hobbit).

[Chris Knipp]

Indeed. You put your finger on the causes of gun deaths in the US. The beheading in HOBBIT was not of an animated man.

[Chris Knipp]

My Best Movies of 2012 list, for now (Dec. 18, 2012)

Here is where my Chris Knipp Best Movies of 2012 So Far are below. Suggestions welcome. I am going over lists to see what I've forgotten. This does not include documentaries because I make a separate list of those.

1. HOLY MOTORS (Léos Carax)
2. MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
3. AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
4. THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. OSLO, AUG. 31ST (Joachim Trier)
6. SISTER (Ursula Meier)
7. RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
8. THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Terrence Davies)
9. DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
10. COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg) + SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)

This could change when I see THE IMPOSSIBLE and ZERO DARK THIRTY or something else I've missed so far

Including my English language list would add

LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj),LIFE OF PI (Ang Lee),
probably
FLIGHT (Richard Zemeckis),
maybe
THE SESSIONS (Ben Lewin) and
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Including my ten best foreign list would add
BREATHING (Karl Markovics 2011)
DAY HE ARRIVES, THE (Hong Sang-soo 2011)
ELENA (Andrei Zvigentsev)
I WISH (Hirakazu Koreeda)
MISS BALA (Geraldo Naranjo)
NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendoça Filho 2011)
and
RAID, THE: REDEMPTION (Gareth Evans 2012)

[Chris Knipp]

JOHN WATERS' BEST MOVIES OF 2012 LIST. This is from ArtForum. (http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=37454) Interesting personal note: I saw BELOVED with John Waters! He bought his ticket right in front of me at the Lumiere Theater in San Francisco (I didn't talk to him). This reminds me of BELOVED, which I had forgotten all about. I'm a fan of Honoré but this one was a disappointment. Not to Waters. Good list, as usual personal. I hate Compliance. I have not seen the Seidl films. Views on them seem to differ. i haven't seen the Abramovic doc. Probably should be seen.


"1 The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies) The agony and passion of obsessive love and a broken heart are so well wrought here that you’ll wish you were suicidal over someone who didn’t love you back.

2 Paradise: Faith (Ulrich Seidl) Fassbinder died, so God gave us Ulrich Seidl. I laughed uproariously throughout this horrifying portrait of a religious fanatic, and if there’s something the matter with you, you will, too.

3 Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl) Middle-aged women sex tourists can be just as piggish as their male counterparts. But when the sexually exploited begin to exploit back, who’s the victim? The audience, that’s who, and we deserve it.

4 Amour (Michael Haneke) Misery is really in this year. “Hurts! Hurts! Hurts!” yells out the dying elderly wife to her longtime-caretaker husband, and ticket buyers will agree. Makes Saw seem like a romantic comedy.

5 Killer Joe (William Friedkin) The best Russ Meyer film of the year—only it’s not directed by him. Gina Gershon, you shocked me raw!

6 Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin) Directed as if the film crew snuck aboard a Weather Channel boat during Hurricane Katrina, kidnapped the skipper, hijacked the storm chasers’ equipment, swam ashore, and made a boldly original movie.

7 Compliance (Craig Zobel) A “based on real life” horror story that will make you want to regurgitate both the fast food and the blind allegiance to authority served up in this restaurant setting. Ann Dowd, who plays the ChickWich franchise’s manager, is by far the best actress of 2012.

Matthew Akers, Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, 2012, digital video, color, sound, 105 minutes.

8 Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers) Maybe the most perfect documentary ever made about an artist. Abramović stares back at the public with a magic-trick power that will get you high and make you cry.

9 Beloved (Christophe Honoré) Another crackpot Umbrellas of Cherbourg homage by the French director who adores unrequited love, cigarettes, Catherine Deneuve, and especially Louis Garrel. Yes, it’s L-O-N-G, but I wished the characters would have kept on singing in the theater even after the projectionist had gone home for the night.

10 The Imposter (Bart Layton) A whodunit documentary that is better than any mystery novel. When Frédéric Bourdin, a twenty-three-year-old teen imposter and scam-artist supreme, dances alone on camera in his prison cell looking like an exhibitionist Sirhan Sirhan, you’ll want to hide your children and lock the doors.

John Waters recently hitchhiked alone across the USA. He is currently writing a book on his experience, titled Carsick, to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux next year."


--ArtForum. (http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=37454)

[cinemabon]

Did you speak to him? John Waters brought his film, "Pink Flamingos" to Columbus, Ohio back in the early 1970's and invited all of the students from film school (where I was attending). The theater was packed and Waters introduced the film. They even handed out "barf bags" which amounted to small paper bags stamped with a "Pink Flamingo" logo and the title of the film. I had mine for a long time but I'm certain its probably gone with the wind. No one puked in the audience but many people, me included, gagged.

[Chris Knipp]

Interesting personal note: I saw BELOVED with John Waters! He bought his ticket right in front of me at the Lumiere Theater in San Francisco (I didn't talk to him).

I grew up in Baltimore though. My mother knew his mother. They both volunteered at Friends of the Towson Library. And my mother and I went to see most of Waters' later, more mainstream, barf bag-free films at The Senator, the theater on York Road where they premiered which also happened to be near our house.

[Chris Knipp]

John Waters' Ten Best lists are models or originality, and he's well informed too (as you must be to be original). Who else would list JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER along with HADEWIJCH? I'ts best to read his 2012 list along with his comments -- so here it is along with his 2011 and 2010 lists. It says he lives in Baltimore and New York, but he has apparently started living in San Francisco too. I'm not the only person who has sighted him there. Imagine the balls of hitchhiking across the country at his age, alone. If you don't know this, I can assure you he writes very well.

ART FORUM FILM BEST OF 2012 (http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=37454)

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2417/id37454.jpg
ABRAMOVIC FILM STILL FROM ARTFORUM

John Waters

1 The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies) The agony and passion of obsessive love and a broken heart are so well wrought here that you’ll wish you were suicidal over someone who didn’t love you back.
2 Paradise: Faith (Ulrich Seidl) Fassbinder died, so God gave us Ulrich Seidl. I laughed uproariously throughout this horrifying portrait of a religious fanatic, and if there’s something the matter with you, you will, too.
3 Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl) Middle-aged women sex tourists can be just as piggish as their male counterparts. But when the sexually exploited begin to exploit back, who’s the victim? The audience, that’s who, and we deserve it.
4 Amour (Michael Haneke) Misery is really in this year. “Hurts! Hurts! Hurts!” yells out the dying elderly wife to her longtime-caretaker husband, and ticket buyers will agree. Makes Saw seem like a romantic comedy.
5 Killer Joe (William Friedkin) The best Russ Meyer film of the year—only it’s not directed by him. Gina Gershon, you shocked me raw!
6 Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin) Directed as if the film crew snuck aboard a Weather Channel boat during Hurricane Katrina, kidnapped the skipper, hijacked the storm chasers’ equipment, swam ashore, and made a boldly original movie.
7 Compliance (Craig Zobel) A “based on real life” horror story that will make you want to regurgitate both the fast food and the blind allegiance to authority served up in this restaurant setting. Ann Dowd, who plays the ChickWich franchise’s manager, is by far the best actress of 2012.
8 Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers) Maybe the most perfect documentary ever made about an artist. Abramović stares back at the public with a magic-trick power that will get you high and make you cry.
9 Beloved (Christophe Honoré) Another crackpot Umbrellas of Cherbourg homage by the French director who adores unrequited love, cigarettes, Catherine Deneuve, and especially Louis Garrel. Yes, it’s L-O-N-G, but I wished the characters would have kept on singing in the theater even after the projectionist had gone home for the night.
10 The Imposter (Bart Layton) A whodunit documentary that is better than any mystery novel. When Frédéric Bourdin, a twenty-three-year-old teen imposter and scam-artist supreme, dances alone on camera in his prison cell looking like an exhibitionist Sirhan Sirhan, you’ll want to hide your children and lock the doors.

John Waters recently hitchhiked alone across the USA. He is currently writing a book on his experience, titled Carsick, to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux next year.

ART FORUM FILM BEST OF 2011 (http://artforum.com/inprint/id=29547)

John Waters

1 The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodóvar) A dark, twisted, beautiful, and, yes, funny shocker from the greatest director in the world. God bless you, Pedro Almodóvar!
2 Mildred Pierce (Todd Haynes) This elegantly shot, pitch-perfect made-for-TV melodrama makes everyone who watches secretly yearn to be a woman with issues. The best period film in decades—period.
3 Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (Jon M. Chu) I’m not kidding. A well-made doc that proves the Bieb was a child prodigy. Wait until you see Justin stick his head into the audience and shake his hair in 3-D. I screamed.
4 Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont) In this grim, fiercely uncommercial movie, a fanatical Catholic young lady from a rich family hooks up with a handsome male Muslim terrorist, and together they blow up a commuter train. Love is strange, especially when God is involved.
5 Kaboom (Gregg Araki) A sexy, well-written, end-of-the-world comedy that succeeds beyond all expectation. Doomsday never looked so hot.
6 If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman) This sad documentary debates the regrets of radicalism as a pack of lunatic-kid tree huggers get caught up in frenzied activism and are suddenly accused by the government of terrorism.
7 The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick) You’d think I’d hate this film, and I almost did—until I realized it’s the best New Age, heterosexual, Christian movie of the year.
8 I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive (Claude and Nathan Miller) This beautifully acted French film is a tragic, harrowing warning to all adoptees: Finding your real-life birth parents isn’t always such a good idea.
9 We Were Here (David Weissman) Half my friends died of AIDS, so this simple and painfully told doc on the disastrous epidemic’s effect on San Francisco is personal. If you don’t sob watching, maybe you should be dead too.
10 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) A spooky, witty, never pretentious meditation on the otherworldly lust of ghosts and wild animals. Aren’t you glad art films don’t get test-screened?

John Waters is touring in December with his spoken-word act A John Waters Christmas.


FILM FORUM - JOHN WATERS - BEST FILMS OF 2010 (http://artforum.com/inprint/id=26857)

John Waters

John Waters is a film director, author, actor, and photographer who lives in Baltimore and New York. His most recent book, Role Models, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux earlier this year.

1 Domain (Patric Chiha) My favorite movie of the year. A forty-year-old alcoholic aunt (played by Béatrice Dalle—“Betty Blue” herself!) and her gayish teenage nephew form a perversely close relationship by taking walks together. Lots of walks! So many walks you’ll be left breathless by the sheer elegance of this astonishing little workout.
2 Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé) The best film ever about taking hallucinogenic drugs. Seizure-inducing title credits, cinematography that looks as if it were shot by a Gerhard Richter–influenced kamikaze pilot—even vagina cams. Gaspar, thank you. You’re my sweetheart.
3 Buried (Rodrigo Cortés) The most excruciatingly painful date movie imaginable comes complete with a very smart feel-bad ending. See it with someone you hate.
4 Ricky (François Ozon) A great special-effects movie, though there’s only one effect: a flying baby. If David Lynch and David Cronenberg had sex and one of them magically got pregnant, this film could be their offspring.
5 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg) Talk about granting access! Are you crazy, Joan?! If Jews went to confession, this film would be a sacrament.
6 Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremaine) A scatological, gay, s/m, borderline snuff movie amazingly embraced by a wide, American blue-collar family audience. Isn’t Steve-O chugging down a glass of sweat collected from the ass-crack of an obese man and then vomiting at you in 3-D the purest moment of raw cinema anarchy this year?
7 Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz) Paul Reubens (without a trace of Pee-Wee) is a suicidal ghost who’s still miserable, and Charlotte Rampling plays a bitter, self-loathing hotel hornball. Both performances will break your heart.
8 Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos) If your parents raised you into your teen years without ever once letting you out of the house and taught you that “outside” means climbing in the trunk of the family car and locking yourself in, are you in mental trouble? Hilarious, original, and very discomfiting, the way movies should be.
9 Carlos (Olivier Assayas) I loved all five-plus hours of this French hymn to celebrity revolutionary–turned-mercenary Carlos the Jackal. He’s so sexy that even militant, left-wing German feminist terrorists give him head and his own hostages ask for his autograph.
10 Mesrine (Parts 1 and 2) (Jean-François Richet) Four and a half more hours about another French criminal–folk hero–stud. Who’s badder? More butch? Cuter nude? Carlos or Jacques Mesrine? Why not a subtitled ten-hour “Freddy vs. Jason” combined sequel about both? In Sensurround, s’il vous plaît.

[Chris Knipp]

Other 2012 movies I want to remember or I wish I'd seen

I'll draw on these and maybe some others I'm forgetting to make up my final multiple lists. I'll add to this list and update it as I rememer

AV Club list (first half) this is based on:
https://docs.google.com/a/theo... (This is in two installments, Jan-July and July-Dec. )

Their ongoing breakdown:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1N-oucSU9PjQLR1yuRJYRgtiiA2XYYLxh8ZVKSEG9TpQ

Seen and liked a lot:
Looper /Rian Johnson
Goodbye First Love /Hansen-Love
The Kid With a Bike/Dardennes
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Imposter
Step Up to the Plate
Barbara (Dec. 21 NYC release)
This Is Not a Film /Panahi
Photographic Memory / Ross McElwee
Ruby Sparks
Arbitrage
Damsels in Distress / Whit Stillman
Dark Horse / Solondz
Declaration of War / Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm
Middle of Nowhere
Smashed
Safety Not Guaranteed
The Grey /Joe Carnahan
Coriolanus /Fiennes [technically 2011]
Chronicle / Josh Trank
Bullhead
The Day He Arrives / Hong Sang-so
Farewell My Queen / Benoit Jacquot
Art of Rap
Wuthering Heights / Andrea Arnold
The Well-Digger's Daughter / Daniel Auteuil
Premium Rush (David Koepp)

Should see:
The House I Live in
Only the Young [def. must see]
West of Memphis [another exonerated film<The Central Park Five]
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Brave

Worst or most dissappointing of the year:
Cabin in the Woods

The Camopaign
The Dictator (Enough, already!)
Easy Money (should have been better)
Haywire
Hyde Park on Hudson (smarmy humor, bad history)
Rock of Ages
The Pirates! Band Of Misfits
Prometheus (promised so much)
Jeff, Who Lives At Home
Seven Psychopahts (should have been better)
Take This Waltz

Favorite blockbusters:
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Hunger Games
Skyfall
Avengers

In a class of weirdness by itself:
Cloud Atlas

People think it's trash, but it's meant to be, and it's entertaining:
Paperboy

[oscar jubis]

So many good movies. Such riches!
Good idea to post John Waters' lists. Great to find out he loves the new Mildred Pierce much as I do.

[Chris Knipp]

I'll keep in mind Mildred Pierce. Mean to re-wach Kaboom. I've seen everything else he mentions, except Jackass3D--not sure I've got the stomach for that though.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1956/thebestmoviesof2012docu.jpg
PETER STALEY IN HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE


Best documentaries of 2012

I love documentaries, and there are so many kinds and so many to choose from these days. The most important of 2012, I've decided - of the couple of dozen I can remember seeing - are HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE and THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, but maybe the topic of global warming examined in CHASING ICE is more important still, for the future. It's hard to pick and choose when so many documentaries deal with important subjects, are so well researched, and are made with such a combination of passion and restraint. There are other strong ones. THE GATEKEEPERS and THE LAW IN THESE PARTS are powerful, revealing studies of Israel. THE IMPOSTER is superbly done. SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN is an amazing rediscovery of a lost rock star/singer-songwriter, so suspenseful. THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES is a shocker about American stupidity and materialism. Then there are smaller, more personal, often quite elegant films like STEP UP TO THE PLATE, about a great restaurant family in France (maybe perfect for a double bill with JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI); or Alan Berliner's unrelleased documentary about his famous scholar cousin Edwin Honig's Alzheimer's, FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOMVED, or Ross McElwee's delicate exploration of his relation with his difficult son and of his own not entirely responsible youth in France, PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY. The "Have Not Seen" list is of documentaries that from what I've heard are important or wonderful, in all the different categories. I'll have a Ten Best Documentaries list later. I've reviewed nearly all the ones in the first list and you can read my reviews by Googling "chris knipp" + name of film. Look for all these (if released) on DVD.

2012 DOCUMENTARIES LIST (alphabetical)
5 Broken Cameras (Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi)
Ai Wei Wei - Never Sorry (Alison Klayman)
The Ambassador (Mads Brugger)
Bill W. ( Dan Carracino, Kevin Hanlon)
Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975, The (Göran Hugo Olsson 2010)
The Central Park Five / Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
Chasing Ice (Jeff Orlowski)
Crazy Horse / Frederick Wiseman
Detropia (Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)
Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey (unreleased)
First Cousin Once Removed (Alan Berliner) (unreleased)
The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh)
How to Survive a Plague / David France
The Imposter / Bari Layton
Informant / Jamie Melzer (unreleased)
The Invisible War (Kirby Dick)
The Law in These Parts (Alexandrowicz) (NYC)
Neil Young Journeys (Jonathan Demme)
Photograpic Memory / Ross McElwee
The Queen Of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield)
Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Benjelloul)
Something from Nothing: the Art of Rap (Ice-T, Andy Baybutt)
Step Up to the Plate (Entre les Bras, Paul Lacoste)
This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
The Waiting Room (Peter Nicks)
Woody Allen: A Documentary (Robert B. Weide) (PBS "American Masters" series -TV)

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2135/tt2062996.jpg
COOL POSTER FOR A VISUALLY COOL FILM

HAVE NOT SEEN
Beware of Mr Baker (Jay Bulger)
Bully (Lee Hirsch)
The House I Live in (Eugene Jarecki)
The Island President (John Shenk)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (David Gelb)
Marina Abromovic: the Artist is Present (Matthew Akers, Jeff Dupre)
Only the Young (Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims)
Room 237 (Rod Ascher)
West of Memphis (Amy Berg)

[Chris Knipp]

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/8927/imgresxi.jpg

A.V. Club's 20 Best Movies of 2012 list.

The little IFC rrlease animation by Don Hertzfeldt (which I didn't even notice in NYC in Oct.-reviewed very briefly in the Times by one of their stringers) and the 2011 NYFF film The Loneliest Planet are odd, more "youthful" choices. (I'm pretty sure the A.V. writers are younger as a group than the regular print "critics circles"). A recent A.V. Club piece discusses the "bitter feud" between NY and LA critics, supposedly signaled by the LA group's snubbing Zero Dark Thirty in their top awards. The A.V. Club puts Amour, the LA Best Picture choice, down at number six. Don't know if comparing the LA List (http://www.lafca.net/years/2012.html) with the NY Film Critics Circle (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/new-york-film-critics-circle-awards-2012_n_2231093.html) one will show any clear difference, except for two documentaries NY chose: as best first film, How to Survive a Plague is about ACT-UP, which was primarily a NY group, as best documentary, The Central Park Five, which involves a NYC crime. Maybe Looper, The Cabin in the Woods and even Killer Joe are also "younger," more "fanboy" choices. Some choices are drawn along age lines, as well as along mainstream vs. more cinephile lines. I try personally to straddle these categories. And I'm even sort of bicoastal, since I live on the West Coast but do some of my key movie viewing in NYC. The A.V. Club (http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-films-of-2012,90039/) list includes paragraphs for each choice justifying and explaining it, which you should probably read, but I think you can read a lot simply into the bare choices.

1. The Master
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Holy Motors
5. The Deep Blue Sea
6. The Loneliest Planet
7. Amour
8. It's Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeld)
9. Beasts of the Southern Wild
10. Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold)
11. The Cabin in the Woods
12. Looper
13. Life of Pi
14. Lincoln
15. Only the Young (Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims)
16/ The Queen of Versailles
17. Killer Joe
18. Miss Bala
19. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
20 I Wish

A.V. Club, which does cover a lot of what comes out, has also provided its list of 20 "Worst Movies of 2012 (http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-worst-films-of-2012,90103/1/)." I mut be doing something right, because I've only seen two of them: Hyde Park on Hudson, and The Paperboy. Both were in the New York Film Festival so you'll find my reviews of them in the Festival Coverage 2012 NYFF thread. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3341-New-York-Film-Festival-2012) I also disapproved of Hyde Park on Hudson's inclusion, but thought and still think the disapproval of Paperboy has been excessive. You'll find it at worst a guilty pleasure.

[cinemabon]

You left "Lincoln" off your list, Chris?

[Chris Knipp]

Controversy surrounding ZERO DARK THIRTY.

Unfortunately this movie is one a lot of us (including me) may have to wait till 4 Jan. 2013 to see, and it is already clouded by nothing less than a protest sent by US Senators Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin, and John McCain in a well-publicized letter to Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, calling the film "grossly inaccurate and misleading in its suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location" of Osama bin Laden, the NY Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/senators-say-zero-dark-thirty-torture-scenes-are-misleading.html) today (19 Dec. 2012) says.

This was hotly debated on Twitter and the blogosphere last week, and I was surprised myself at how quickly younger writers (like one connected with the A.V. Club) jumped to the defense of the film. They saw it. Did the senators see it? Did Glenn Greenwald see it before writing his article in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/14/zero-dark-thirty-cia-propaganda), "Zero Dark Thirty: CIA hagiography, pernicious propaganda"? A well-known movie blogger, Glenn Kenny, hotly protested (http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2012/12/anti-torture-anti-art.html) this article in his blog, claiming Greenwald showd an ignorance of "film grammar" that would disprove his characterizations.

I'm against torture, and was impressed by the speakers in Alex Gibney's 2008 documentary TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (http://www.cinescene.com/knipp/taxidark.htm) who state with authority that besides being wrong, it simply doesn't work. It looks "incriminating," so to speak, that ZERO DARK THIRTY (which coming right after THE HURT LOCKER suggests an increasingly pro-military stance by this director) begins with a lengthy torture sequence and ends with a lengthy sequence of the finding and killing of bin Laden. No connection, they say? Can "film grammar" really counteract this ordering of events?

Some (Dargis, (http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/movies/jessica-chastain-in-zero-dark-thirty.html?nl=movies&emc=edit_fm_20121221) Tobias) (http://www.avclub.com/articles/zero-dark-thirty,90029/) are saying that the virtue of ZERO DARK THIRTY is that it's morally complex, and leaves you to figure things out. We have to see the movie to decide. Richard Brody,. film editor and blogger at The New Yorker, has entered the fray with a typically complicated discussion. (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/12/richard-brody-on-the-deceptive-emptiness-of-zero-dark-thirty.html) He seems to take a contrary stand that ZERO DARK THIRTY achieves its effects by narrowing down its vision and eliminating context.

If I were in NYC I'd have seen the movie already; or at least I could see it today; but, as mentioned, being in Northern California (not LA where it opened 19 Dec., as in NYC), and I have to wait till January.

[Chris Knipp]

cinemabon:

No LINCOLN, neither did Manohla Dargi (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/movies/manohla-dargiss-top-films-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all)s include it. But I'll have more lists at the end, Best English language, Best Foreign, Shortlisted, and Best Documentaries.

[Chris Knipp]

Controversy surrounding ZERO DARK THIRTY - 2


Now the acting CIA chief Michael Morrell has spoken out against the impression ZERO DARK THIRTY gives about torture. His statement is reported on in the NY Times today (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/us/politics/acting-cia-director-michael-j-morell-criticizes-zero-dark-thirty.html?ref=movies&_r=0), 22 Dec. 2012.


In a message sent Friday to agency employees about the film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” Mr. Morell said it “creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Laden. That impression is false.” He goes on to say there were many sources that led to bin Laden's alleged lair and even whether the detainees subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" had to be is subject to question.

Morrell also faulted the movie's implication that only a few CIA agents were key to the operation to "get" bin Laden, when in fact the search 'involved “the selfless commitment of hundreds of officers.”'

He also feared that the movie could "cloud our memory" of CIA officers killed in a terrorist bombing in Afghanistan in 2009.

All this came in a message Morell sent to agency employees.

[cinemabon]

I wonder if the fear of reprisals is fueling this surge in criticism, most from the right. The recent debacle over a "youtube" vidieo may have prompted this or the fact that Obama is portrayed in a positive light. It will be interesting to see where it develops.

If I don't get another chance, Merry Christmas to you, Chris, and Oscar, Tubano, Johann, Howard, and all of the others who contribute to this site and are enjoying the "rush to the Oscars" splurge in film releases this December. May you all have a Happy New Year.

[oscar jubis]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, cinemabon, and all filmleafers.

Hasn't it been 10 years since we started our 'lil online cinema-loving community ?! Wow!

[Chris Knipp]

Same here to all of you.

[Chris Knipp]

Mike D'Angelo has posted his year's end list. If you follow me here you know I follow him. I've copied him a bit in running a constantly updated list myself this year. He has recently added ONLY THE YOUNG and IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY and YOU ARE HERE. I haven't seen those, and would never put THE LONELIEST PLANET, HAYWIRE, or ARGO in a best list though combining them shows indepdence on his part perhaps. THIS MUST BE THE PLACE also seems an odd choice. To each his own. I like a lot of his choices and it was from his I first heard about HOLY MOTORS and LOOPER. I'm glad he has SISTER on his list. Ursula Meier is my discoery of the year.

Mike D’Angelo: 15 Best Films of 2012 (as published by The A.V. Club (http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-films-of-2012,90039/3/); it has lists by eight of their writers)

1. Holy Motors – Leos Carax
2. The Imposter – Bart Layton
3. The Loneliest Planet – Julia Loktev
4. Miss Bala – Gerardo Naranjo
5. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
6. Amour – Michael Haneke
7. The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Davies
8. Only The Young – Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims
9. Looper – Rian Johnson
10. This Must Be The Place – Paolo Sorrentino
11. Haywire – Stephen Soderbergh
12. You Are Here – Daniel Cockburn
13. It’s Such A Beautiful Day – Don Hertzfeldt
14. Argo – Ben Affleck
15. Sister – Ursula Meier

[Chris Knipp]

One more little 2012 best list from Mike D'Angelo

I missed this earlier, which went up on Las Vegas Weekly (http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/dec/27/best-2012-films/) Dec. 27, 2012 is logically the same as the AV one missing the last five titles. I am glad to be free of Haywire and Argo. D'Angelo's Twitter thumbnails from Cannes and Toronto and longer AV Club bulletins from Cannes seem the highlights of his year's work as a film critic, frankly, but that is a not inconsiderable contribution. He seems to write very few reviews, only for Las Vegas Weekly. All we get from September is (out of five ratings) End of Watch 2 1/2, The Master 3 1/2, Holy Motors 4, Silver Linings Playbook 2 1/2, This Must Be the Place 4, Les Mis 2 1/2, and ZD30 3 1/2. Given the precision on his personal numerical grading system, these 1-5 ratings lack nuance, and the reviews themselves are a bit skimpy. It seems like anything he didn't like that much got a 2 1/2; and since Holy Motors was his favorite of the year, why not give it more than 4? Because he means to be a very strict grader.

1. Holy Motors
2. The Impostor
3. The Loneliest Planet
4. Miss Bala
5. Moonrise Kingdom
6. Amour
7. The Deep Blue Sea
8. Only the Young
9. Looper
10. This Must Be the Place

[Johann]

HOLY MOTORS. TIFF Bell Lightbox. 3:20 PM. I'll be there. Got my ticket already. can't wait. Will post, of course.

[Chris Knipp]

Great. If you wanted to you could post about it on the New York Film Festival 2012 thread because that's where we talked about it first on this site

http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3329-Nyff-2012&p=28890#post28890

[oscar jubis]

I watched Sister last weekend. I was surprised that it's not in IndieWire's Top 50 but thinking about it a little more I realize that the film is a bit too slight and cryptic to make it into many Top 10s (overall, that's what the editors ask for, right?) but probably would make it into many critics' top 20 or 25 on account of its sense of place, naturalistic performances, and two revealing and emotionally-affecting moments.

[Chris Knipp]

I found it very special and have said Ursula Meier is my directorial discovery of the year. I go with Mike D'Angelo's Cannes Twitter comment, "Surprisingly Dardennes-y, but it's not like that's a bad thing." The action, the irresponsibility of siblings/family members, the constant running around on the hustle, the underclass existence, are indeed all very Dardennse0-y. The Dardennes in fact however would be unlikely to create this distinct and different a milieu, or go so far from Belgium for that matter, and the combination of Kacey Mottet Klein (surely one to watch) and Léa Seydoux (already well watched) is a brilliant one, she (D'Angelo's tweet again) "ideally cast." Thanks very much for your comment.

Film Comment and Indiewire don't seem to give Sister/L'enfant d'en haut a listing, but I don't think one big list is very useful and that's why I make separate lists. What you say about listings is probably true, but "slight and cryptic" don't mean anything to me. I'd say BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, which I think overrated, is "slight and cryptic" too but in less interesting ways: BEASTS doesn't delve into real people the way SISTER does. Not in my opinion, anyway.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm disappointed to learn now that ON THE ROAD only ran one week (the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley has a series of such runs) and ended Friday (Jan. 25) so it is probably gone for good and I'll have to wait till March-April DVD/BluRay release to see it. Minor ripoff.

P.s. There was no need for me to slur BEASTS to praise SISTER. They are both worthy, in some people's view. SISTER is on a few, if a very few, critics' 2012 ten best lists, I think, or top twenty, as with D'Angelo.

A MAJOR COMPENDIUM OF LINKS TO 2012 ONLINE BEST LISTS CAN BE FOUND HERE. (http://yearendlists.com/2012/12/mike-dangelo-15-best-films-of-2012/)

THIS OTHER ONE ON FANDANGO HERE (http://www.fandor.com/blog/the-year-in-film-2012-feature-and-nonfiction-top-tens) (which may or may not be in D'Angelo's compendium). I notice MOONRISE KINGDOM, HOLY MOTORS, and THE MASTER come up a lot in these more "cinephile" and less "mainstream-Oscar-oriented" critics' lists.