Best movies of 2012 so far

[Johann]

So Robert Zemeckis' FLIGHT makes the Best list?

I'll just have to see that one then.
I was gonna pass, just because the poster is so lame. Denzel's face. That's it.
That was the best they could come up with?
A poster can make me buy a ticket or make me keep my $$$ in my pockets.
That one made me immediately say "PASS!"

[Chris Knipp]

So Will Smith should suffer your invective because he didn't grow up poor? Well, he didn't -- his mother was a school administrator -- but he did grow up black in America, in Philadelphia. Maybe you should reserve your contempt for me. You seem to resent success. In my review of THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS I commented that it was not the best that either Muccino or Smith could do, but that it doesn't lie to us, and it's a rare film that acknowledges the existence of homelessness in America. HAPPYNESS combines uplift with realism. It's a perfectly watchable movie, and a very decent project for Will Smith to have taken on.

Why don't you heap invective on Joseph Gordon-Levitt? He passed on a lead role in DJANGO UNCHAINED too.

Film critic Armond White, who is harsh and black and grew up in Detroit, was generally favorabble toward the film in his review and understood Smith's taking it on as producer as a statement. He sees it as an extension of hip-hop bootstrap philosophy.

The Pursuit of Happyness suggests that the drive for success is what defines Americans. In other words, Smith is no longer merely a figurine fronting the Hollywood institution; he now owns a piece of the plantation.

FLIGHT is a maybe for the best list, not a shoe-in, just a possiblity.. I've said that all along. It has intense performances and a strong message. Armond White wrote a complex, hard to read review of FLIGHT, highly critical of it but acknowledging that it's a complex role even if it's not a complex enough performance.

Whip’s epic debauchery embraces the post-hiphop image of the black badass–appealing to both the Obama era’s suppressed racism as well as the hiphop braggadocio that misunderstands the principled machismo of 70s Blaxploitation (stay tuned for Tarantino’s subversion in Django).

Whip Whitaker, an ace airline pilot who saves most of the passengers on a faulty commercial plane by piloting the aircraft upside down in Flight feels like a sympathetic Tom Hanks role. But Denzel Washington plays it differently; he eschews scrupulous heroism in order to display troubling masculine extremes.

Its at least potentially a fabulous role.

Flight puts Washington into complications that few black film actors get the chance to fully portray because they’re usually stuck in the mechanisms of ideology-laden genre.

BUT--

Grandstanding Washington isn’t a subtle enough actor–and this Robert Zemeckis-directed film isn’t sensitive enough–to make Whip Whitaker a great character. Instead, Flight confronts a brave man’s weaknesses as part of an ostentatious show:

I could never write about movies with black stars in them with the knowledge and perspective Armond White has. More people should read Armond White's reviews. I try never to miss them. He's unique, and largely unappreciated, even hated.

Your statement that you can't have sympathy for an African-American actor unless he grew up in the ghetto is incomprehensible. What do you know about growing up black in America, or what it's like to then make it big, in the white man's world? You describe arbitrarily passing on a movie because of the poster you saw, then heap contempt on actors for passing on a movie role that was a tough decision.

[Johann]

I can have sympathy. But not for that role and not for that movie. I'm talking about that one movie.
I don't believe Will Smith's performance for one second in that movie. It's a nice try at being a "regular-joe", like Ben Stiller in
Night At The Museum, a strong candidate for worst movie of all time. That movie takes the Razzies forever.
So cringe-inducing you cannot believe it.
I hate my intelligence being insulted, and that's what Will Smith does routinely.
He strikes me as a guy who's just having a ball, inflating his ego and making bad movie choices, while looking down on others.
Nobody sees it. Nobody detects it.

I will arbitrarily pass on a movie because of a poster. If they can't put more effort into getting my money, then why should I give it to them?
If the movie rocks or not?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is someone who wouldn't have a posse of bodyguards with him while he watched a movie, like I witnessed in Vancouver when Will was making the shit-tastic I, Robot. No one could get near him. I was wondering if he thought he was the President.
Joseph is passionate about movies. Will is not.
The most excited I ever saw him was when THE MATRIX came out and he was going ballistic: THIS THE FUTURE OF CINEMA! THE MATRIX! YEAH BABY!


Fuck Will Smith.
I have solid complaints against him. He sullies the greatness of cinema in my opinion.
I want him to KICK ASS, like his marquee name demands.
He could have kicked some major ass for All-Time in Django Unchained, but he has issues.
So maybe he should just stop making movies and fix his issues, whatever they are? Perhaps?
Because I don't think Will's next film will set the world on fire. Do you?

[Chris Knipp]

Okay, enjoy your rant. But you already said all this. Except where you contradict yourself like now saying Will Smith would have been great in DJANGO when before you said you would have not use for him in it. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS is a true story. As for the "posse," I don't know, but it's possible it was that Fox, who were responsible for I, ROBOT, were also responsible for any bodyguards, etc. They had them for the NYFF showing of THE STORY OF PI too.

Can we talk about something else, please? This was my BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR thread. I'm sorry I mentioned DJANGO. I should have started a DJANGO thread.

[Johann]

No contradiction Chris.
He COULD have been great. Not WOULD.
I'd have to see the movie to know for sure.
Tarantino's casting choice, not mine.
I wouldn't cast Will Smith for anything.

[Johann]

What do I know about growing up black in America and making it big in a white man's world?
Zilch.
And if I did, my ego would never, ever inflate. Will's has been inflating since his first rap record.
I'd never tell Charlize Theron that a shitty fucking movie "will be good for her career", like he did on the set of the ridiculous HAND-ON-COCK.
Mr. Box-Office is giving her tips on being successful.
Yeah.
She won an Oscar, didn't she? For an UNBELIEVABLE part.
Will has how many statuettes?
That's right.
The big GOOSE EGG.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, see the movie. DJANGO UNCHAINED. I recommend it, and these others. I know you'e seen MOONRISE KINGDOM. Did you see THE MASTER? I forget. How about THE DEEP BLUE SEA? Oscar and I agree in rating that very high. Then COSMOPOLIS? A Canadian director, one of the best and coolest literary adaptations I've seen -- THE DEEP BLUE SEA is one, but of a play, and much freer. LOOPER? After that if you haven't much time or cash for movie-going, switch over to the Best Foreign list, and see AMOUR, and try to see HOLY MOTORS, SISTER, OSLOW, AUG. 31, and RUST AND BONE. Those are musts.

But if you can't find most of those you might enjoy FLIGHT and also KILLING THEM SOFTLY. I guess LIFE OF PI isn't your thing, though it's a beautiful visual experience. Or if you want a scary wake-up call, see CHASING ICE.

[oscar jubis]

I plan to watch a lot of 2012 releases during Winter Break. I missed so much during the year...and still there are 10 films released in 2012 I like a lot so I could realistically submit a list of favorites. What's great is that I can watch any film I want in a theater screen late at night after the theater has officially closed. I plan to watch The Master, Beasts of Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom soon, and Life of Pi before it leaves theaters. I have to say that I like very few new films as much as old films I treasure including some I am just discovering. Film is almost 120 years old. It's a deep well of magnificence and wonderment that is rarely matched by contempo films in my heart.

[Chris Knipp]

Good. I hope the format is okayl.

[oscar jubis]

I have a DVD/BR player hooked up to the theater projector. It's quite a luxury to be able to do this; I feel it is a sort of compensation for not having $ to dine out or travel. Tonight I will screen Mario Monicelli's The Organizer (1963), with Mastroianni in the lead role. Last night my friends and I watched Kon Ichikawa's amazing An Actor's Revenge aka Revenge of a Kabuki Actor.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm on the same period, watching Bergman's "Faith Trilogy". It's a great period in film.

[oscar jubis]

Indeed. And Bergman is so worth your time and attention.

I give my highest recommendation to THE ORGANIZER. I watched it in Criterion BD but I've seen captures from the DVD and it looks almost as great. This film is as funny and as serious as films get. Perfect balance of comedy and pathos, like Lubitsch at his best. Absolute must-see for everyone. The Ichikawa film may be more inventive, in the way that the style comments on the relationship between theater and film, and the fresh use of the widescreen frame, but it may be too "arty" or "stylized" for some viewers, and the print and transfer are just OK (not pristine like the Monicelli).

[Chris Knipp]

There are some nice looking restorations of B&W Italian films, and Monicelli did some very funny stuff. I've seen some at Lincoln Center. The Italians did some great comedies in the Fifties and Sixties. Where are they now?

WINTER LIGHT is remarkable. We can be glad we aren't the sons of strict Swedish ministers. Now I'm going to watch THE SILENCE. I had not watched this trilogy. I am catching up on Bergman I didn't see. I don't like FANNY AND ALEXANDER and now I know why I walked out of it originally. But I've seen it all now. in many ways it is inauthentic and weird (the glamorizing of his own past) but the basic problem is that this was a TV miniseries that was cut down to 3+ hours and it becomes an incoherent patchwork. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE was the same thing, a TV miniseries, but it is very simple and unified, so the cutting down works fine. I liked SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, which would be very interesting to analyze. It has a kind of comic subtext. Awesome acting, as is true of all Bergman. Gunnar Björnstrand amazing in WINTER LIGHT. The last moment of THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY when the son is by himself and says "My father spoke to me!" and it's's like saying God spoke to him: brilliant, stunning. The last sequences of THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY are better than anything in WINTER LIGHT, but the latter has an austere beauty. It's like a design by Mies or Le Corbusier. I can see links with Antonioni. It is of the period but timeless.

I've also been watching all the Luis Bunuel films I avoided when they came out. I didn't like him; they sounded false to me. But now thanks to Criterion bonus material I know Bunuel was a really cool, fun guy who was true to his school in the deepest sense all his life, the only surrealist who stayed a surrealist all the way, and he had an amazing career of 50 years or so. His collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière is impressive, and humane. The "The Last Scenario" doc from 2009 by Carriere and Juan Luis Bunuel is very warm and enjoyable. Amazing how Dali' screwed Bunuel when he was struggling and in NYC working at MoMA. What is the compatibility of being a surrealist with being an anti-clerical anti-bourgeois leftist? Do Bunuel's film critiques of the bourgeoisie have any validity to leftists?

[cinemabon]

I wonder if Friday's news will affect "Django" box office. There's already been discussion over holding back release of Tom Cruise's new film, "Jack Reacher."

My views on Quentin's work have not changed and are well documented on this website. I will read your comments but refuse to see any more of his work and I won't reiterate my reasons why. However, if you wish to discuss violence in cinema on a separate thread, I will join in.

The link between violence in media (and that includes the news) and violence in society is correlated. Whether movies, games, television, or other sources of media - this glorification of gun play is a sad running commentary on what we view as most note worthy.

[Chris Knipp]

I try to judge films on a case by case basis rather than give a pass or fail to a director's work as a whole, but we don't have to discuss DJANGO, a film you're not going to see. My dream would be that I'd make it sound so interesting or so good that you'd break your rule and go and see it.

As for changing release of JACK REACHER and DJANGO UNCHAINED because of the school killings I hope not. That would be more American hypocracy. Coountries that watch and read about very violent stuff, like Japan, have a hundred times less gun violence than we do.