ticket for one

2012 IN REVIEW (much belated)

                                              favorites

1. beasts of the southern wild (an ephemeral film of beauty with no time for sentimentality, but lots of grit and magical realism)
2. django unchained (tarantino once again blurs the boundaries between subversion and exploitation,comedy and cruelty, and genius and masturbation).
3. zero dark thirty (its stance on torture is a red herring, as it is a technical masterpiece in american myth-making)
4. the raid (the only cops action movie that ever needs to be made)
5. holy motors (a bizarrely entertaining french gem perfectly suited for late night conversation, debate, and coffee)
   
6. amour (haneke once again brings the pain, but injects the hurt with clinical precision and surprising tenderness)
   
7. prometheus (an absolutely gorgeous and entertaining summer sci-fi thrill ride. the haters can resume rehashing “aliens”)
   
8. moonrise kingdom (twee as fuck)
   
9. the master (like watching a heavyweight prize fight between phoenix and seymour-hoffman with wes anderson in both corners)
   
10. starlet (the aimlessness of youth meets the loneliness of dying in the sunny but alienating melancholia of southern california).
    

                                        honorable mentions

1. 17 girls (only french teens could make pregnancy cool)
2. killing them softly (lots of talking, lots of violence, lots of drugs, lots of brad pitt)
3. wreck-it ralph (disney finally made a great movie again)
   
4. compliance (most uncomfortable film of 2012)
   
5. kill list (the nearly impenetrable british accents adds to the harrowing creepiness of this crime/occult movie)
6. the waiting room (is it even possible to film a documentary on the emergency room at highland hospital that isn’t moving and inspiring? highly unlikely.)
   
7. chronicle (sorry, “dark knight”, “spiderman”, and “the avengers”, this was the best super hero movie of 2012.)
   
8. turn me on, dammit! (unlike the movie “shame”, in norway, masturbation, sex fantasies, and phone sex are all just a part of growing up)
   
9. the perks of being a wallflower (the best coming-of-age 80’s movie since the 1980’s. john hughes sends his regards from heaven)
10. life of pi (didn’t think i’d like this, but i saw it at midnight, drunk on fancy wine, and in 3D. i was charmed.)
11. the silver linings playbook (although undeserving of all the oscar hype, a pleasantly painful and enjoyable dark comedy)
    
12. queen of versailles (haters gonna hate, but rich people are people too)
    
13. argo (dangerously close to overrated, particularly given the laughable ending; redeemed by the opening scene and fantastic recreation of 1970’s iran)
    
14. rust and bone (fierce disabled killer whale trainer meets fierce single father street brawler. not your typical romance)
15. jiro dreams of sushi (michelin sushi porn)
16. the man with the iron fists (a kung-fu movie inspired by the doodled daydreams of every late adolescent boy)
17. looper (i for one liked the “akira”-esque ending)
18. the sessions (true life “40 year old virgin” and in an iron lung to boot)
19. take this waltz (loved michelle williams, seth rogan not so much)
20. this is not a film (a documentary? performance art? political act? all three?)
21. bernie (jack black as a loveable, small town, gay, funeral director… who commits murder?)
22. end of watch (surprisingly smart cops drama)
23. polisse (a surprisingly smart cops drama, but french)
24. project x (the new gold standard of the “teen party gone amok” genre)
25. the avengers (whedon pulls off a remarkable marvel’s all-star movie, half a decade in the making.