Thursday, January 17, 2013

Top 12 of 2012






                            I know it is the middle of January and everyone has been waiting for my favorite movies of 2012. There were some good movies that came out this year, a lot of ok movies and of course those movies that no one wants to admit they saw. So I don’t want to keep you waiting for the real reason you are reading this (drum roll) so here we go.
12. Beasts of the Southern Wild
         If you missed the gem that came out earlier in the year, then don’t feel bad, most people did. First time director Benh Zeitlin delivers a moving film about a little girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) and her ailing father. Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love as deals with a natural disaster.
11. Holly Rollers
         To watch this film by writer and director Leos Carax will leave you mesmerized. We follow Monsieur Oscar as journeys from one life to the next from dusk to dawn in Paris. Sometimes you will be amazed while other times you might be confused. In the end though it will leave in wonder at what you just saw.
10. Killing the Softly
          Some directors bring out the best in certain actors. For Brad Pitt that director is Andrew Dominik. With their follow up from “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, Dominik and Pitt deliver another great film. Pitt plays a hit man who is trying to do his job in hard economic times. With the help of a great supporting cast, this is a film that tells a great story.
9. The Imposter
    The documentary about a French kid who convinces a Texas family he is their missing 16 year old son. With this one lie, it opens up new questions to what really happened to the kid, as the story becomes more tangled with each answer.
8. The Life of Pi
       Richard Parker might be mad at me with my placement of this film, but I will take my chances. The best looking film to come out all year and a lesson on how to use 3D. Ang Lee’s vision of Yann Martel’s classic novel is a movie you won’t soon forget.
7. The Intouchables
      A French film that will leave you feeling real good about life. This is a story of a quadriplegic and the man who he hires to help him with everyday life. There are so many things that will make you smile and a few that may make you cry. In the end you experience something unforgettable.
6. The Avengers
     How could I not include the perfect superhero movie? Joss Whedon made a lot of geeks happy this past summer as well as pretty much everyone else.  He found the perfect mix of action, story, and laughter, and made a film that had some flaws, but made up ten-fold in fun.
5. Lincoln
        This movie would have been hard not to be good. Steven Spielberg has added another great movie to an already long list of great films. With the amazing performance by Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln, this might be one of Mr. Spielberg’s greatest movies yet.
4. The Master
     Paul Thomas Anderson is a genius filmmaker. I wish every year I could see a new movie by PTA. The Master is the tale of one man who is lost, until he finds The Cause and its charismatic leader. This film any other year might have been my number one, but ether way still a great watch.
3. Zero Dark Thirty
     Everyone has heard about this movie, and after seeing it, you will be telling all your friends about it. Kathryn Bigelow’s film about the hunt and capture of Osama Bin Laden with leave you in awe of what it took to end one of the greatest manhunts of all time.
2. Silver Linings Playbook
    This film about love and life will leave you smiling. Written and directed by David O Russell it’s sure to be one of his best. With great performances by everyone involved and a great story, this film is everything you want a movie to be.
1.  Cloud Atlas                                                                                                 
For me, no movie left me in awe this year more than Cloud Atlas. I left the movie theater still processing the magic I had just seen on the movie screen. I wish more movies were like this, but it is just not meant to be. The story how actions can affect everyone’s life through time, is breathtaking. Every year I look for that one film that reminds me why I love movies and to me it doesn’t get much better than this.

   Honorable mentions:
   Argo, Searching for Sugarman, My Sister’s Sister, End of Watch, and Looper

Brian Taylor

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