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Thread: Best movies of 2012 so far

  1. #46
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    I arrived late to Moonrise Kingdom and by the time I was free to return it was no longer playing. I hope to catch The Master at the theater but I am insanely busy at the moment teaching, managing the Cosford, and writing a dissertation. The film I watched recently that rocked my world is NEIGHBORING SOUNDS. Your review of it is excellent too.

  2. #47
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    I guess you couldn't duplicate my experience of MOONRISE KINGDOM on the night of its premiere at Cannes in a Paris Odéon cinema. Yes, I really like NEIGHBORING SOUNDS, quite excellent film. Def. one of the best US foreign releases and an example of outstanding Latin American filmmaking.

  3. #48
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    As the P&I screenings and the 50th NYFF itself draw to a close, this weekend in NYC, October 12-14, 2012, there are six new films opened Fri., Oct. 12 in area theaters that are getting critical raves. This seems pretty unudual. Actually for some reason THE THIEVES is only currently showing now in Flushing, NY and Ridgewood Park, New Jersey, so I can't see that. It must be coming soon to NYC especially since it's a NY Times Critics Pick. The rest I can walk to theaters in lower Manhattan to see except for MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, which requires a subway ride to 42nd Street.


    Ben Affleck's ARGO Metacritic: 86

    Ross McElwee's PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY. Metacritic: 80

    Ava DuVernay 's MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Metacritic: 78

    Dong-hun Choi's THE THIVES. Metacritic: 77 (this is the one only showingin New Jersey)

    James Ponsoldt's SMASHED. Metacritic: 75

    Martin McDonagh's SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Metacritic: 66.
    Could one of these make it to my BEST MOVIES OF 2012 list? Stay tuned. I will try to see ARGO first. It has been hyped to death. The Metacritic rating puts it above MOONRISE KINGDOM and THE MASTER. I don't believe that, but the theme still sounds very promising.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 10-12-2012 at 06:45 PM.

  4. #49
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    I have seen ARGO. I was disappointed. It's overrated. FLIGHT (Zemeckis, the NYFF closing night film) is way stronger because it has action and a complex protagonist. I may not be able to see any of the other high-rated openers from Oct. 12 in NYC but will be able to see at least some of them in California.

  5. #50
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    Also yesterday (Oct. 15, 2012), on my last day in NYC for a while, saw two docs at IFC Center, PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (Ross McElwee), an autobiographical film, and AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART, about Rick Springfield's relationship with his fans today. Both worth seeing. PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY is a personal study that begins with the filmmaker's son Adrian as a cute child and an annoying teenager and 21-year-old, then moves on to a "search of lost time" sojourn in France (escaping Adrian) researching a period he spent in a small town in Brittany in the Seventies, when he was not much older than Adrian and may have been more like him than he realized (though his life then seemed more romantic and less techno-centric). He looks for the first man to hire him to work as a photographer, and for the woman he briefly lived with after, to his dismay, the photographer, who had become a mentor, had fired him. As for Rick Springfield, the interest is not so much him, though his ability to belt out pop rock at 63 and his youthful appearance are impressive enough, but that there are cults of woman, of various ages, who follow aging rock stars, he being an excellent example. The funny thing is that a lady I know quite well has begun doing this exact same thing, taking plane trips with or without her husband to go to Prince concerts. Sometimes the husbands are not to happy; others are accepting. One woman married another Rick cultist, so they go camp-following together, including Rick's annual cruise to the Bahamas.

  6. #51
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    Some updates to my lists:

    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)
    maybe:
    FLIGHT (Richard Zemeckis)
    BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (faute de miex?)
    _______

    Didn't make it for me:
    ARGO (Ben Affleck)
    or CLOUD ATLAS (Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer)


    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)

    _____________

    Coming Nov. 9, 2012: SKYFALL
    Coming Nov. 16: Spielberg's LINCOLN

  7. #52
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    Tab's Best Movies of 2012 so far

    I hedged about posting my list so early, but with only a few promising movies such as Lincoln, Hitchcock, Les Miserable, Zero Dark Thirty left, my list is pretty close to complete and I probably want to get the reaction sooner than later before I forget what I've watched:


    1. Argo (2012). With an excellent tight and well edited script by Chris Terrio and direction by Ben Affleck of an unique and real espionage event surrounding the rescue of six American Embassy employees during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Argo becomes a gripping, well told event movie that is both dramatically gripping and emotionally compelling on a very human level. [Reviewed 10/14/12]. 10/10.

    2. Cloud Atlas (2012). A movie for the ages, spanning 500 years and six different stories with actors playing multiple roles that captures both the eternal bonds of love and individuality along with individual and corporate corporation or control. A visually dizzying, sometimes raw, and at time funny look at individuals and their convoluted relationships and their environments. [Reviewed 10/28/12]. 9/10.

    3. Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Reminiscent of Stand By Me (1986), A Christmas Story (1983), and Juno (2007), this story of two runaways on an island community is a contemporary fairy tale of a entertaining, captivating cinematic experience loaded with stylized humor and presentation. [Reviewed 6/22/12]. 9/10.

    4. Looper (2012). Similar to Bruce Willis in 12 Monkey’s (1995), this fusion of time travel, action, mystery thriller, and family drama incorporates more layered characters and emotionally riveting scenes thanks to director Rian Johnson. The acting is solid and the script is cerebral, taut, and substantive. Except for an “initial” futuristic set design that is too heavy on its reliance from other sci fi movies and an unnecessary looper wannabe character’s persistent overuse, Looper is defined by intense universal themes of sacrifice and personal dreams of love and humanity. [Reviewed 9/30/12]. 9/10.

    5. The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The movie unfolds almost like a human mystical fairy tale with all the tortuous agonies of human angst experiences in everyday life. Even with its technical flaws like There Will Be Blood (2007), this movie is able to over come them with its qualitatively deep characters, a densely morally ambiguous theme about rich and poor, about good and bad, and a cerebral undercurrent and a well executed, edited dramatic action thriller along with a summertime climax. [Reviewed 7/21/12]. 9/10.

    6. People Like Us (2012). This relatively straight-forward family drama has Chris Pine having to decide about following his deceased father’s desires for him to give a large inheritance to a sister he never knew he had. With a new focus on brother-sister, mother-son, this mainstream but edgy movie brings forth strong emotion resonance involving relational issues that many of us at one or another must face ourselves. [Reviewed 6/30/12]. 9/10.

    7. Big Miracle (2012). A compelling and one of the few recent movies to be well edited in its pacing that sustains a dynamic riveting tension reminiscent of A24" without physical action and violence. Based on a real-internationally news broadcast animal event, Drew Barrymore and cast provide a family drama that captures its audience wholesale. [Reviewed 1/5/12]. 9/10.

    8. The Devil’s Carnival (2012). This odd crazed fantasy with hideously florescent garish colors with incredibly few special effects and mostly set design throws the audience into a dark circus-like nightmare of the devil to test the souls of three people. With off-balance trapping like the animated Coraline (2009) and the exaggerated, over the top Billy Flynn's Chicago (2002) flash, and even echos of television's Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Once More, With Feeling" 2001 musical episode, The Devil's Carnival offers a strange, but captivating nightmarish brush with emotive intensity. From the female selfish thief, to the naive young girl, to the grief-stricken father each has the tale to tell in trials that aweigh them. This short, low-budget movie moves smartly in a well paced, off-kilter musical bonanza of sight and sound...a less sexy version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show of today but with as much if not more underlying substance and as shockingly different and innovative as Dogville (2004). [Reviewed 11/10/12]. 9/10.

    9. Brave (2012). An animated medieval coming of age movie that particularly highlights the mother-daughter relationship, with great visuals in 2D, strong storyline, good editing, liberal dose of humor, a strong message, and good action that makes great use of the animated medium. [Reviewed 6/24/12]. 9/10.

    10. Dark Shadows (2012). An uneasy, but successful blend of comedy, drama, horror, and thriller in this Tim Burton/Johnny Depp adaptation of the television series. Mr. Burton has carefully incorporated the old and the new, making more sharp and poignant the essence of vampirism and the connection to the core of eternal love. [Reviewed 5/13/12]. 8/10.


    Honorable Mention

    Lucky One, The (2012). A carefully, well edited, and solid romantic drama with the nicely underplayed rich storyline. Except for the need for unnecessary, dramatic or more stereotypical ending, this movie may have been able to capture a top-ten movie listing. [Reviewed 4/22/12]. 8/10.

    Men In Black III (2012). Another solid, fun, and entertaining sci fi action comedy adventure with Josh Brolin putting in a for seamlessly younger Agent K. This movie’s strong plotline, nice twist, and a trans-temporal character make for a crisp, new adventure with this well-paced, and interested. The movie is weakened in the beginning by Tommy Lee Jone’s character seemingly oddly aged and dull listless performance in the beginning of the movie, along with an inordinately harsh and violent opening, and an underdeveloped Emma Thompson as Agent O. But in the end, the movie was well worth the money spent and engaging throughout. [Reviewed 5/27/12]. 8/10.

    Mirror, Mirror (2012). Tarsem Sigh has directed a lavish and difficult live action fairy-tale with remarkable acuity incorporating Julia Roberts evil persona with a dramatic, humorous dose of fantasy that never is broken in its presentation. [Reviewed 3/30/12]. 8/10.

    Odd Life of Timothy Green, The (2012). This family drama is a fusion of August Rush (2007), a young adult version of Meet Joe Black (1998) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). What makes this particular movie stand out is how it avoids the traditional sweet syrupy sludge of typical feel good juvenile movies. Instead the script incorporates a more encompassing view of life, including its funny moments, innocent experiences as well as the drama of hurt, sadness, and loss. In sort, this is a very nicely balance movie that includes a slice of life look at our own experiences but through the lens of honesty and the hopes and dreams of many parents and their children as well. This is a movie about what can be and is. Almost one of my top ten movies of the year. [Reviewed 8/26/12]. 8/10.

    Total Recall (2012). Using the same fascinating plot points of the original (1990), this remake can easily stand on its own with this nicely layered Blade Runner (1982) setting admit a innovative jump in the futurist and logically believable car chase and remaining plot editing. Unfortunately, the psychological twists have already been revealed for old-timers, taking some of the unpredictable, suspense our of the movie. [Reviewed 8/4/12]. 8/10.

    Rock of Ages (2012). Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones (in a limited role), and new comers Julienne Hough and Diego Boneta offer strong vocal performances in this movie for the aging that nevertheless bring new life to the lyrics of love and pain. A few weaknesses in production number balance, a clashing number on a billiard table scene take a bit of the shine of the Rock in this movie. [Reviewed 6/17/12]. 8/10.

    Safe House (2012). Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds star in this solid espionage action thriller that has great cinematography and gritty action. Unfortunately a few weaknesses and an overly American ending keep this movie from being a qualitatively and consistently step above even The Bourne Identity (2001). [Reviewed 2/12/12]. 8/10.


    Good But Failed to Make the Grade

    The Amazing Spiderman (2012). The movie’s plot weaknesses can’t make up for a sincere attempt at a slightly darker and grittier Spiderman in the way The Dark Knight transformed into a much more human Batman (2008). [Reviewed 7/7/12]. 7/10.

    The Avengers (2012). A rather chaotic and disparate collection of superheroes that Joss Whedon, director and writer can’t quite get the ensemble cast smoothly working together even as actors. Somewhat enjoyable, but too many characters and subplots to be supremely satisfying. [Reviewed 5/6/12]. 7/10.

    Bourne Legacy (2012). This fourth Bourne movie without Jason Bourne is also a great script with an adequate director and performance by its cast making for many missed opportunities to raise the level of action thrillers. Adding in a rather unspectacular ending, the movie can only offer some tantalizing glimpses of a Bourne movie scenario that takes as its fascinating premise a real-time side-by-side playbook of Bourne Legacy co-existing with the Bourne Ultimatum story line. [Reviewed 8/28/12]. 7/10.

    Snow White and The Hunter (2012). An unwieldy attempt at producing a mature version of Snow White that although exciting at times, unsuccessfully humanizing the evil queen, fails to retain the original magic and fantasy of the original. [Reviewed 6/3/12]. 7/10.


    Disappointments

    Prometheus (2012). Another fabulously amazing visual experience that can’t hide the blemishes of a weak plot that becomes two-dimensional by the end of the movie. [Reviewed 6/10/12]. 6/10.

    Skyfall (2012). Oddly enough the aging Bond theme unlike Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again (1983) is perhaps too successful in this movie in that this latest version seems tired and worn out, containing big explosions as if to make up for the loss of connective tissue in this movie. Oddly enough this humanizing version of Bond as well as its limp attempt a incorporate some of Roger Moore’s humor doesn’t work well and the emotional connection remains distant, disconnected. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) angle does work well here but Bourne’s crisp, tight, cerebral script is lacking in Skyfall. [Reviewed 11/9/12]. 6/10.


    Terrible

    Missed/Haven=t Seen Yet

    Earthling (2012)
    Hitchcock (2012)
    Les Miserables (2012)
    Lincoln (2012)
    Loneliest Planet, The (2012)
    Perfect Family, The (2012)
    Red Lights (2012)
    Rust and Bones (2012)
    Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
    Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)
    Wall Flower (2012)
    Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

  8. #53
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    Your choices are a lot different from mine except for MOONRISE KINGDOM and LOOPER. I actually have not seen as many of your choices as you have not seen of mine.

    I want to add another title to my top ten US list for 2012: THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. So that gives me five. I have a lot of doubts about BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD and pretty many doubts about FLIGHT, though they are good shortlisted material. I'll have to hone down my best foreign list to have only ten, but that's easy if I cut out the unreleased in US ones.

    SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is definitely a great feel-good movie, with originality. It has just enough to make it seem like a David O. Russell movie, and it has great performances. I didn't recognize Jackie Weaver (of the great Australian family gangster movie, ANIMAL KINGDOM). I'm not sure she's ideally used but maybe Russell intended some sort of in-group irony. DiNiro is much more natural and balls-out than usual lately. I will publish a review of this Friday. I'm waiting till LINCOLN comes over to the East Bay Friday (Nov. 16); it opened in San Francisco last week though.

    THE LONELIEST PLANET by the way I actually kind of hated, tabuno, even though you liked the way I mead it sound in my review of it. I can sort of see what people like about it but I found it unbearable to watch. I think I made that clear. RUST AND BONE (Audiard) in my opinion is a great movie, but I would like to see how it looks the second time around. I am such a huge fan of Audiard I'm biased. I would not expect much of LES MISERABLES but that's just because I'm not a musicals fan. It could be a breakthrough in the form if you believe the hype. I don't think HITCHCOCK is going to be very good but we'll have to see. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is a nice little indie movie. It runs out of steam a bit, but I like low-budget sci-fi (like PRIMER). SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN I would not waste my time on. Too tame.

    I guess by WALL FLOWER you mean THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. I just started this post with that.

    It looks like with ZERO DARK THIRTY Kathryn Bigelow throws her lot in completely with the NeoCons. She was tending that way with THE HURT LOCKER. But if Gandalfini is playing a general again as he did in IN THE LOOP, then that could ad an ironic subtext and I'd be wrong. Not if it's getting Bin Laden though.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-14-2012 at 04:59 PM.

  9. #54
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    Moved By The Heart and Past Experiences

    As an educated commoner, it there can be such a label, my movie picks are very subjective based on the emotional connection I obtain from each movie I see. With little time and money and living adrift Utah about an hour and a half from Park City and Sundance, and being married, my selections are usually limited to the mainstream American theater. I have a strong preference for relational movies as a social worker involved with most of the time family and marriage issues - so love and death, separation, and reunion on big issues for me in almost any movie. As for musicals, there aren't that many out there and even as I've grown up, I initially hated musicals as a boy, except for the kid movies like Sound of Music, Mary Poppins...but now music for me is a wonderful form of expression that isn't captured in the same way as the straightforward narrative form. Perhaps such interest came from my focus on dance in high school instead of sports.

  10. #55
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    You probably live in a beautiful, serene place.

    You will probably be able to see most of the US releases I've seen if you really want to, just not necessarily in time for the year's end best lists. I do think it's good to be able to chose from everything. This is why Oscar likes to wait to make his list. I'm also in favor of a running list though, hence this thread.

    I love every kind of music movie, except musicals. That's not to say I don't love some of the old musicals. Any other thing with music in it, I'll go, from Metallica to Glenn Gould.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-15-2013 at 12:55 PM.

  11. #56
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    Clearfield, Utah is Considered a Low-Moderate Income Labor Town

    "You probably life in a beautiful, serene place." Besides a view of the Rocky Mountains, that portion north of Salt Lake City, Utah (the state's capital) which has the more majestic peaks, Clearfield really is mostly noted for its Clearfield Job Corp Center (one of the biggest in the country) and the Freeport Center, an aging World War II material depot that now houses a large diversity of industrial warehouses and manufacturing, and perhaps some of the best local corn. But one I doubt anybody really would place the city on the list of beautiful, serene places. Most I gather come, live here, and the move on.

  12. #57
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    Then they ought to have more movies.

  13. #58
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    I notice Ursula Meier's SISTER [L'Enfant d'en haut] is Switzerland's official Best Foreign Oscar entry this year. Meier is my director discovery of the year and she is coming into her own. I had not watched Meier's well publicized 2008 second feature (her first was the TV film STRONG SHOULDERS), HOME but am watching it at home. Olivier Gourmet, Isabelle Huppert, and Kacey Mottet Klein, who was about nine and it was his first acting. Meiler liked him so much she built SISTER around him. I thought Meier is considered a Swiss director as this entry suggests, but she was born June 24, 1971 in Besançon, Doubs, France.

    STRONG SHOULDERS was shown in New Directors/New Films. Jonathan Rosenbaum reviewed HOME along with Ade's ANYTHING ELSE.
    Meier’s Home, a second feature, introduces us to an eccentric but lovingly and happily close-knit family living in the country next to an unfinished superhighway — mother (Isabelle Huppert), father (Olivier Gourmet), older daughter (Adéläide Leroux), younger daughter (Madeleine Budd), and son (Kacey Mottet Klein) — who are gradually driven bonkers by the sound, pollution, and lack of privacy brought by passing vehicles once the superhighway opens. More precisely, all of the family members seem to go to pieces except for the older daughter, who manages to escape relatively early.--rosenbaum.
    Both HOME and SISTER/L'ENFANT D'EN HAUT were photographed by Agnès Godard (of BEAU TRAVAIL and other Clair Denis films)..


    STILL FROM HOME WITH HUPPERT, KLEIN, AND GOURMET
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-17-2012 at 11:58 PM.

  14. #59
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    BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR

    BEST AMERICAN/ENGLISH LANGUAGE MOVIES SO FAR: update
    MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
    THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
    COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)
    LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj)
    LIFE OF PI (Ang Lee)
    SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
    still maybe:
    FLIGHT (Richard Zemeckis)
    BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (faute de miex?)
    _______
    I also like:
    THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
    Not:
    ARGO (Ben Affleck)
    or CLOUD ATLAS (Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer)


    BEST FOREIGN FILMS SO FAR (Including non-US-release)
    AMOUR (Michael Haneke 2012)
    HOLY MOTORS (Leos Caras 2012)
    SISTER (Ursula Meier)
    OSLO, AUGUST 31 (Joachim Trier 2011)
    ELENA (Andrei Zvigentsev)
    DEEP BLUE SEA, THE (Terence Davies 2012)
    MISS BALA (Geraldo Naranjo)
    NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendoça Filho 2011)
    DAY HE ARRIVES, THE (Hong Sang-soo 2011)
    I WISH (Hirakazu Koreeda)
    _________________
    *RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
    BREATHING (Karl Markovics 2011)
    RAID, THE: REDEMPTION (Gareth Evans 2012)

    _____________
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-29-2012 at 12:39 AM.

  15. #60
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    2012 Really?

    Oops. I'm half a sleep.
    Last edited by tabuno; 11-19-2012 at 11:55 AM. Reason: Wrong thread post.

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