Friday, 28 December 2012

MY FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2012

In a year where The Avengers assembled, Batman ended, Spider-man rebooted, and James Bond did a little of both, it wasn't the tent pole films that blew me away. More often than not, it was the small film with a big heart which won me over in 2012.

And yet, I'm sad to say, my Top 10 features no documentaries or Australian films, and only one foreign language film (two make an appearance via my Honourable Mentions).

So here then are my Top 10 Films of 2012*, in alphabetical order save for #1, and featuring a wallflower, an angel, a damsel and a knight; a boy scout, a Goth rocker, a time traveller, and a silent movie star.

Oh, and feel free to let me know what you loved at the movies in 2012.

*Note: Given Australian release dates, and my seeing some 2012 films in 2011, and a few 2013 releases now, this list is compiled of films released in Australian cinemas between January 15, 2012 and January 15, 2013.



The Angels' Share

A kitchen sink drama about down-and-out Glaswegians is nothing new for director Ken Loach, but about halfway through The Angels' Share the film becomes a Highlands heist comedy as a quartet of minor offenders attempt to pull-off a whiskey sting. By turns dramatic and comic, the third act of Loach's film, penned by regular collaborator Paul Laverty, is as tense as any thriller, and not for ages have I been so invested in the outcome of a film's protagonist. By no means a perfect drop, it's a damn near irresistible tipple.



Damsels In Distress

Not the best comedy of the year but possibly the most (and loudest) laughs I've ever heard in a theatrette media screening, Whit Stillman's first film in 14 years is a hoot. A delightful Greta Gerwig leads a clique of reverse-Mean Girls who operate a university campus suicide prevention centre armed with donuts and dance lessons, and who has very particular ideas about dating and posterity. It may not always make sense, but Damsels is never in danger of being dull.



The Dark Knight Rises

By no means a perfect film but perhaps a perfect end to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, TDKR touches base with its predecessors as it brings in new characters - Tom Hardy's Bane and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman the notable two - as, eight years after The Dark Knight, we find a city, and a superhero, under siege. Christian Bale gives his best performance yet as Bruce Wayne (perhaps as he spends less time in the suit), and Michael Caine's Alfred gets to carry the emotional load like the trooper that he is.



Le Havre

Named for the French port town, Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's Le Havre is fablesque but heartfelt and political. When an elderly shoe shiner's wife is diagnosed with a tumour, he distracts himself by taking in an "illegal" immigrant boy from Africa in the hopes of getting him to family in London. Le Havre is a gentle rebuke to the 'stop the boats' rhetoric our politicians like to shout about come election time, too easily forgetting that refugees are people.



Like Crazy

Oh, the joys of young love but oh, the tyranny of distance. When post-post grad lovers Anna and Jacob (Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, both excellent) are separated by a Visa snafu - she in London, he in L.A. - they determine to stay together, giving long distance romance a try. But time, the Atlantic Ocean and reality seem determined to work against them. In the best tradition of lo-fi, bittersweet romance, Drake Doremus' film won my heart just as easily as it broke it.





Moonrise Kingdom

A Boy Scout and a local girl runaway across the small isle of New Penzance in 1965, sending the adult population (including Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Ed Norton and, of course, Bill Murray) into a frenzy in Wes Anderson's delightful coming of age tale. With the writer-director's distinct look and characters, Moonrise Kingdom breaks through its deliberate artifice to connect with the young hopeful in all of us.



The Perks of Being A Wallflower

The coming of age film is a tried and true genre yet Stephen Chbosky, adapting his own book in an impressive directorial debut, manages to bring a freshness to the tale of high school outsider Charlie (a terrific Logan Lerman), and his discovery of life's joys through his adventures with fellow 'wallflowers', Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson). Amusing, heartfelt and emotionally affecting 'Wallflower' is top of the class.



Safety Not Guaranteed

Kenneth (Mark Duplass) is a supermarket employee with no friends and a fake ear who may also possess the technology to time travel. Darius (Aubrey Plaza), fellow magazine intern Arnau (Karan Soni) and their "superior", Jeff (Jake johnson), head to his coastal home town to find out if the man who posted the advert requesting a travel companion ("bring your own weapons, safety not guaranteed") is a real whack job or the real deal. Colin Trevorrow invests this small film with such heart that the truth is beside the point. Still, it's the best time travel film of the year (and yes, I saw Looper).



This Must Be The Place

Two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn can do just about anything, and his turn as a former Goth rocker cum Nazi hunter pretty much confirms it. Italian Paolo Sorrentino's first English language feature is by turns comedy, drama, road movie and Holocaust film. It may even be a dream, but it's Penn's Cheyenne (think The Cure's Robert Smith with a touch of Ozzy Osbourne) that makes it a real gem.



#1 The Artist

Black and white. Silent. Oscar winner. But The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius' love letter to the silent era of Hollywood and filmmaking generally, wasn't made in the 1920s but 2011. And I think by the time the Oscars rolled around, and The Artist delivered on its tag as favourite, people forgot just what an achievement a black and white silent film in the 21st century was. Without sound the film manages to hold audiences spellbound, thanks in no small part to the charm-filled performances of Berenice Bejo and Best Actor Oscar winner, Jean Dujardin. I actually saw The Artist in late 2011; released in Australia in February 2012, nothing could surpass it for me.



Honourable Mentions:

A Separation, The Avengers, The Grey, King of Devil's Island, Life of Pi, ParaNorman, The Raid, Take This Waltz, Weekend, Your Sister's Sister



AND THE WORST:

Battleship

In lieu of a Transformers film (sadly, a fourth is on its way), Battleship was the next best thing. And by best I mean worst. And by worst I mean a steaming pile of IQ (and will to live) destroying shit. Peter Berg's 131-minute US Naval recruitment video was akin to being repeatedly hit in the face by a house brick, all the while having the director and cast yelling at you; "Can you feel yourself getting dumber? Can you?" To those who sought to somehow defend the "film" by saying "at least it was entertaining", I say, FUCK YOU!
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Thursday, 20 December 2012

FILM REVIEW: WRECK-IT-RALPH


Walt Disney Studios Films
Opens Boxing Day




The video game industry has become the largest entertainment industry in the world, expected to gross an estimated $68 billion in 2012. It's no wonder Hollywood wants to get in on the action. Not that that a new occurrence: films based on video games, and games based on films have been produced for a good two decades now.

Wreck-It-Ralph isn't based on a video game but it taps into the gamer's world, particularly those of a certain age who spent a good deal of time and pocket money in games arcades in the 1970s and '80s, whether fighting space invaders or simply helping a frog successfully cross a swamp. I was never much of a gamer as a child and I am not at all today (after all, I am an adult), but that didn't affect my enjoyment of Wreck-It-Ralph. With its nostalgia, splendid visuals and delightful characters, it's an entertainment to be enjoyed by gamer and non-gamer alike.

Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) is the bad guy in an arcade game called Fix-It-Felix; basically, Ralph wrecks stuff and Felix (Jack McBrayer), well, you know. But as he laments to his Bad Guys Anonymous group (populated by a collection of villains from various generations of games), he doesn't want to be the bad guy any more: Ralph wants to be a hero.

And the best way to become a hero, as Ralph sees it, is to earn a medal. Or steal one (he's a bad guy after all). Venturing out of his game and into a modern warfare one, Ralph does indeed steal a medal, but his escape into another game, the appropriately named Sugarland -- a child's paradise and a dental hygienist's nightmare -- sees him lose his newly acquired bling as well as unleashing an alien virus.

The animators have done a great job of creating each gaming world with its own aesthetic, including the movement of the characters; some fluid, some jerky depending on the type of game they inhabit.

In Sugarland, Ralph meets Vanellope Von Schweetz (a by no means saccharine Sarah Silverman), a character in the car racing game who has been banished because she suffers from a glitch. Or so she believes. Candy isn't the only source of rotten in Sugarland, and Ralph and Vanellope form an initially uneasy alliance in an attempt to get back his medal and get her on the race track, both fates lying in the hands of Sugarland's King (Alan Tudyk).

Reilly and Silverman make for a perfect odd couple pairing; neither is your typical heroic or lead actor type and so neither has to conform to 'good guy' typecasting. Both Ralph and Vanellope are likeable in spite of their flaws: he's aggressive and she's annoying. Naturally they will come to an understanding and a softening in their ways, but the spark between the two provides a great deal of the humour before the denouement.

Meanwhile, Ralph's absence from his game has seen the arcade owner shut it off and preparing to send it away to be decommissioned. This sends Felix out in search of Ralph, teaming up with Calhoun (Glee's Jane Lynch), a tall blonde commando who takes orders from no one and no BS either. She's aware that should the alien virus take hold in Sugarland it is only a matter of time before the rest of the arcade's games are infected.

Ultimately, Wreck-It-Ralph is a story about self determination: about becoming the character you want to be and not the one you were programmed to be. Ralph wants to be the good guy, the hero, and initially believes that all one requires to be a hero is a medal. But he soon learns that a hero - and a friend - is judged by their deeds and not what's pinned to their chest.

And you could view Vanellope as differently-abled: her glitch prevents her from being seen as one of the others and from competing. But Vanellope has a big heart and a will to compete; her glitch makes her differently-abled not disabled and her determination to race, to prove herself not just equal but worthy should inspire the little ones (or the little one in us all).

It's been an underwhelming year for animation. Actually, a lacklustre two years, with 2011 highlighted by the Oscar-winning Rango and little else. 2012 has seen a small collection of good animated features -- ParaNorman; Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, both stop-motion -- of which Wreck-It-Ralph is arguably the best. It's certainly the most accessible, and with its colour and movement for the kids, and nostalgia for their gaming parents, it should please on every level.

Note: Be sure and get to your session of Wreck-It-Ralph on time for screening before it is the short film, Paperman, a black and white gem that, sans dialogue, reduces a rom-com to mere minutes and imbues it with so much more heart than any Hollywood film of said genre has for a good few years.
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Wednesday, 19 December 2012

MINI FILM REVIEW: QUARTET


Paramount Pictures/Transmission Films
Opens Boxing Day




Adapted by Ronald Harwood from his own stage play, Quartet marks the competent though inauspicious directorial debut of veteran actor, Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman couldn't have found an easier choice of material, or better troupe of actors, with which to make his debut (not to be dismissive or insensitive to the director's plight, but I'd be surprised if filming required little more from Hoffman than to point the camera and say 'action' and 'cut').

Set in an English retirement home for musicians and musical performers, we're introduced to a trio of residents -- reserved Reginald (Tom Courtenay), randy Wilf (Billy Connolly), and daffy Cissy (Pauline Collins) -- and long time friends as the annual benefit concert celebrating the birth of composer Verdi approaches.

But into their tranquil twilight comes Jean (Maggie Smith), a former opera diva who also happened to be married to Reginald many moons ago (and all for a mere nine hours), with past tensions and resentments planning to derail plans for a reunion performance by the four at the benefit.

Guaranteed to appeal to the same audience which made The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel a surprise box office hit earlier this year, Quartet is a non-taxing comedy buoyed by the performances of seasoned pros who aren't required to shift out of first gear but are charming nonetheless. That includes Michael (Dumbledore) Gambon as the self important organiser of the benefit who steals every brief moment he has.

One to treat your mother and grandmother to these holidays.
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MINI FILM REVIEW: SAMSARA


Hopscotch Films
Opens Boxing Day




A beautifully shot documentary (?), Samsara captures stunning images -- vistas natural and man-made, people, rituals -- from around the world, scored by music but sans dialogue.

Shot over five years and on 70mm (though the marketing for Samsara hasn't been as eager for everyone to know about it like those of The Master were), Ron Fricke's film is a stunning evocation of the natural world and the quite often beautiful constructs of man; the mist covered temples of Thailand are more impressive than any CGI-rendered universe.

But there is also the occasional political point: man's consumption and waste; his exploitation of animals; and the general blindness to the beauty that does surround us.

It's debatable whether or not Samsara is little more than a 100-minute screensaver (it would look just as stunning on Blu-ray as in a cinema), but for those who find themselves in a food-induced Christmas coma this Boxing Day, and not up for the "epic-ness" of either The Hobbit of Les Mis, or colour and noise of Wreck-It-Ralph, it makes for perfectly good meditative viewing.
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