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Thread: Best movies of 2012 so far

  1. #1
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    Best movies of 2012 so far

    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.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-07-2012 at 08:21 PM.

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    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 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.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-10-2012 at 10:26 AM.

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    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

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    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.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-11-2012 at 01:36 AM.

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    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...

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    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.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-11-2012 at 08:20 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Knipp View Post
    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.

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    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 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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.)
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-17-2012 at 11:19 PM.

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    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.

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    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?
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-14-2012 at 10:11 PM.

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    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.
    Last edited by oscar jubis; 07-15-2012 at 02:30 PM.

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    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 we saw at the 2010 NYFF Fernando Fuentes' Mexican revolution trilogy.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-15-2012 at 04:26 PM.

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