As voted by yours truly, and as part of a time-honored tradition, I now present the list of the ten best films of the year of our Lord two-thousand twelve. As always, if you disagree with me you are wrong.
10. The Amazing Spider-Man
If you know the business behind why this movie was made, it means that like me you're probably a huge nerd and spend way too much time on the Internet. But it also means that we were sort of doomed to dislike this film. However, because I'm also a die-hard fan of the character, I waited with bated breath to see how this movie turned out. Legal issues aside, and ignoring the money machine that demanded it, Spider-Man's return to the silver screen, while not glorious in every regard, turned out way better than I expected it to. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy is a revelation, and the pieces are in place to turn this into an *ahem* amazing franchise.
Sorry about that.
9. Skyfall
In a year full of reboots and remakes and sequels (that's the nature of the beast, live with it), Skyfall actually manages to stand out and meets the standard set by Casino Royale so many years ago. Daniel Craig is perfect, the new additions to the story were well implemented, and the use of practical effects, amazing stunts, and engaging set-pieces make Skyfall a candidate for one of the best Bond films of all time. A perfect marriage of the old and the new, and one of the best experiences I had in the theater all year.
8. Killer Joe
William Friedkin seems to have this new thing about making movies based on plays about characters who are fucking insane. And that's exactly what makes Killer Joe so damn entertaining. Matthew McConaughey plays a deranged hitman hired by a family of trailer-park dwellers to off their mother and collect her life insurance policy. You can already guess that things go wrong. What follows is a treat to behold. Friedkin gets incredible performances from his actors every time, and the last fifteen minutes of this movie (much like Michael Shannon at the end of Bug) is one of the stand-out moments of the year for me. Unforgettable, shocking, crude, darkly hilarious. Seek it out.
7. Indie Game
This year's documentary slot goes to a film about three independent video game developers that allows us to learn about their lives, their craft, and the passion they have for what they do. Although some of them have differing philosophical ideas about what they do, they are all artists. They are all human beings. And the best documentaries should be about just that: humans and their nature. Even if you don't play video games, this movie is entertaining, emotional, and enlightening.
6. Moonrise Kingdom
Coming in to this film fresh and unclouded, I found it to be just as amazing as die-hard Wes Anderson fans did, and I don't even watch Wes Anderson movies. It's innocent without feeling kitschy. The power and immediacy of young love is captured perfectly, and it's combined with Anderson's visual flair, striking photography, and a roundtable of great performances from an ensemble cast. It's like a capsule of joy and good feelings waiting to be opened.
5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Not a whole lot to say about this one. If you don't like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you aren't going to like this either. If you do, then you've probably already seen it or are waiting to see it. It's not perfect (it's a little too long, little too much WETA magic, story kind of meanders and takes liberties with the source material) but it is a fun and joyous return to Middle-Earth, which is all I could ask for.
4. Looper
I knew I was going to love this movie going in, but I honestly did not expect it to end up as high on this list as it did. But it's a testament to just how great original ideas are, and how desperately we need more of them in Hollywood. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays an assassin who takes out criminals sent to him from the future, then the older version of him (played by Bruce Willis) shows up and everything gets topsy-turvy. Sound confused? Don't let it deter you. Very few films about time travel are this risky, and you could drive semi trucks through the plot holes, but that would destroy the purpose of the film. Rian Johnson doesn't want to bog you down in semantics and logic of time travel and its implications. What he does want to do is a little difficult to talk about. Good sci-fi is hard to come by, but we faithful know it when we see it, and Looper fits the bill.
3. Prometheus
Our other sci-fi candidate of the year, and it just barely edges past Looper on the count that it has slightly more to say and is made by a master of the craft, who after an extremely long wait has returned to the well to deliver a film that is big, bold, thought-provoking, thrilling, visually arresting without sacrificing believability, and includes enough fan service to satisfy us faithfuls (who are notoriously picky and difficult to please) but also remain welcoming to newcomers, reminding the new school (Chris Nolan comes to mind) to respect their elders. A mighty achievement indeed.
2. Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino doesn't make bad movies. Django is no exception. While still ostensibly a tale of revenge, do not make the mistake of thinking Tarantino is relying on old tricks to make a paycheck. Django and his journey is the most well-developed thing Tarantino has crafted so far. Django Unchained is about a lot of nasty things, things Tarantino doesn't want you to ignore, but he also doesn't want to make a film that is preachy. And so this thematically rich, extremely well-written film gets wrapped up in a bloody, Spaghetti western-style/exploitation homage package that fires on every cylinder. It's impossible to deny. Don't write it off as just a splatterfest either. Perhaps the most incredible thing about Tarantino's latest movie is that he has learned to temper himself: when the film explodes in a parade of violence and gore, it's because the story calls for it, and you will want to leap out of your seat and roar in satisfaction.
1. The Avengers
Call me biased, but The Avengers was always the obvious choice, if for no other reason than it is a goddamn miracle this film turned out this good. Joss Whedon flexes about as much muscle as a geek can and makes a movie that accomplishes several things at once:
A) being a gigantic, holy-shit popcorn movie that nerds wet themselves over,
B) making good on a promise made many years ago that some people (including me) have been waiting most of their adult lives to see,
C) representing the capstone to a franchise that began with Iron Man that is attempting (and royally succeeding at) something never tried before, bringing different fictional characters from the comic-book landscape together into one shared fictional universe of movies, just like the comic books themselves share one fictional universe,
D) being well-written enough to bring all those characters together at once, get at the heart of who they are, create believable conflicts between them, and make sure none of them feel flat or one-dimensional,
E) raising the bar for superhero films and summer action films all at once.
The Avengers, simply put, is a monument of this generation. No matter where the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes from here or how old I get, I will always remember the excitement, the anticipation, the apprehension of waiting for this film to happen, and the indescribable joy and ecstasy of finally seeing it on the big screen.
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