Best movies of 2012 so far

[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, 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. From that I realize that BREATHING (released 31 Aug.) doesn't qualify as unreleased so I have to withdraw that.

[Chris Knipp]

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, 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. More detailed article on MTV MOVIES BLOG

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.