Best movies of 2012 so far

[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 of EASY MONEY.
Film Forum page 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 in 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 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.