Revised: 20 Favorite Movies from 2012

2012 was the year of the franchises and big studio movies. This is the year where Nolan's Batman ended and Wheddon's Avengers began. The Hunger Games also began this year as with the journey of The Hobbit (which I have not seen yet as I opted to skip it). If you look at it, 2012 seems like a year of sequels: we have Skyfall, Expendables 2, Taken 2, Men in Black 3, Madagascar 3, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and Underworld: Awakening continuing their respective runs while Spider-Man gets its (rather unnecessary) reboot as well as the Bourne Legacy, sort of restarting with Jeremy Renner as its new lead. And finally, the Twilight saga closes, with boyfriends everywhere singing hymns of joy and praises that the nightmare is over. Tom Hooper's grandiose (and snooze-inducing) production of Les Miserables, The Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart-starrer, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Seth MacFarlane's Ted also produced big numbers for their big studios.

Honestly, I feel that last year was more for the big studios than artsy indies. While last year, my top 4 was dominated by limited theatrical releases: The Artist, Weekend, and Drive, with the exception of Bridesmaids being the only one given a wide release, I feel like my overall melancholy in 2012 resulted in my liking big studio comedies, while my intense love for Breaking Bad and Homeland made me like suspense thrillers over complicated, serious, and heartbreaking indies. Well, since I've been blabbing about these movies, might as well present the complete and revised list. Here is my 20 favorite movies from 2012.

20. Your Sister's Sister

Directed by Lynn Shelton

Stars Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark Duplass

The Offering: Struggling to get over his brother's suicide, Jack (Duplass) takes an offer from his bestfriend and brother's ex, Iris (Blunt), to stay at their isolated cabin to think. Upon getting there, he encounters Hannah (DeWitt) and has a one-night stand with her only to wake up to Iris joining them at the cabin the day after.

Admission ticket: Amazingly crazy, Your Sister's Sister begins like an average affair, but as it progresses, it becomes more endearing with every crazy turn it takes that pay off. It also helps that Emily Blunt was extremely likable, while Duplass, a rather odd choice for a leading man, works his part well. DeWitt is also equally likable, rounding up the amazing cast that weaves the insanity in every turn.

19. Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay

Directed by Antoinette Jadaone

Stars Lilia Cuntapay

The Offering: Mockumentary about a Philippine cinema extra Lilia Cuntapay receiving an award after 30 years of hardwork. Packs an unsuspected philosophical punch about recognition and self-fulfillment.

Admission Ticket: Jadaone's Cinema One Originals effort is one rife with heart. She did to Lilia Cuntapay what Letters of Iwo Jima did to the Japanese soldiers. She humanized a horror icon that haunted most of our childhood. The mockumentary format matched its quirky humor and Jadaone's tendency to show her lead in a comedic light.When humor is turned off, however, Cuntapay goes for the kill with her unique brand of philosophy, or her own brand of human drama that grips.

18. Dredd 3D

Directed by Pete Travis

Stars Karl Urban, Lena Heady, Olivia Thirlby 

The Offering: Karl Urban plays Judge Dredd in a world where the police is setup as the jury, judge, and executioner. He takes along Judge Anderson on what seems like a normal day until they're lockdown in a drug complex. Urban does not reveal his full face, not even once. And oh, Cersei Lannister is here, too!

Admission Ticket: Set up similarly to The Raid: Redemption, Dredd won me over by its tendency to be trippy and the effective battle of wills between Karl Urban's Dredd and Heady's Ma-Ma. There are no fist fights, but Dredd's tendency to make fun of itself and its dark humor it derives from its brutality makes it witty and well-adapted in its own right.

17. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Directed by John Madden

Stars Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel

The Offering: Britain's most prized veterans join forces as seniors who retires in India's "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" that apparently is crumbling and aging. Their stay in India, however, changes them, and as they start to grow fond of their stay, The Marigold Hotel becomes endangered of being sold.

Admission Ticket: Marigold Hotel may seem like an uninteresting British equivalent to The Expendables, but if given the chance, it's actually charming, sweet, and heartwarming like a grandma. Dench was charming as usual, while Maggie Smith begins dour but ends up lovable. Dev Patel as the enthusiastic Sonny is also a delight.

16. Skyfall
Directed by Sam Mendes
Stars a bunch of British people JK! Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem

The Offering: James Bond gets and presumed dead, while he actually enjoys lounging around in some tropical island. Silva, a terrorist goes for M's neck, and pretty much wrecks England in the process, prompting Bond to go out of hiding.

Admission Ticket: Best Bond film ever! Seriously, this is the only Bond film I've seen other than Casino Royale. And since the internet is in agreement that Casino Royale was the best Bond film of all time, then my finding of Skyfall better than Casino Royale as the better Bond film supports my claim that this is the best Bond film ever. Seriously, crazy action plus a great villain in Bardem makes this Bond film one for remembering.

15. 21 Jump Street
Directed by Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Stars Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube

The Offering: Two underachieving cops are entered into the 21 Jump Street program after failing to read the Miranda Rights to the person they're arresting. Just when you think a movie with Channing Tatum is bound to suck, 21 Jump Street proves you wrong.

Admission Ticket: Perhaps the funniest comedy movie this 2012, the bumbling duo Hill and Tatum hasn't been this funny or good in a long time. The jokes are perfectly timed for Jump Street and it can be credited to producing one of 2012's most profound movie quotes "Fuck you, science!" Tatum goes under the influence of the drug they are supposed to stop the spread. It's crazy and stupid fun, something you can watch over and over.

14. Pitch Perfect
Directed by Jason Moore
Stars Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin

The Offering: Bring it On meets Mean Girls meets Glee. Probably not the best way to describe Pitch Perfect. Anna Kendrick plays goth girl who wants to be a music producer but instead becomes an a capella girl that she did not think she'd become.

Admission Ticket: Rebel Wilson. Anyone who says otherwise will be slayed immediately. The numbers are just great and the secret lead Rebel Wilson is given enough opportunity to display her talent. The commentary exchanges between Gail and John are also laugh out loud offensive.There's also a fat heart somewhere in the movie and we are told that if we love each other enough, we will win an a capella contest.

13. Seven Psychopaths
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Stars Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson

The Offering: Farrell plays Marty, an Irish writer struggling to come up with a screenplay for a movie while Sam Rockwell plays Billy his bestfriend with psychopathic tendencies who kidnaps dogs for a living. Billy one day kidnaps a mobster's Shih Tzu which begins a crazy spin on their lives.

Admission Ticket: Absurd by design, darkly fun, grandly entertaining, and overwrought with crazy, McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths features a fine performance from Sam Rockwell as the crazy Billy Bickle that buoys the whole story along.

12. Ruby Sparks
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Stars Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Chris Messina

The Offering: Calvin Weir-Fields is a celebrated young  writer whose sophomore project just wouldn't materialize. While consulting with his psychologist who helps him get through his fear of being a one-hit wonder and his breakup, he was given a writing assignment that soon turned to a book idea that soon materialized its main character in his kitchen.

Admission Ticket: Dayton and Faris' follow up to Little Miss Sunshine is no less quirky. Paul Dano starts a bit awkward and unlikable but finishes strong with a little help from Zoe Kazan. The idea that we reduce people to expectations that we don't state until they start not meeting those expectations is the central premise of Ruby Sparks that just works for me.

11. Silver Linings Playbook

Directed by David Russell

Stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro, Jacki Weaver

The Offering: Pat Jr. (Cooper) is a (hardly) recuperating bipolar who's had a restraining order from his estranged wife after beating his wife's lover severely. After getting out of the Baltimore facility, he tries piecing his life together to eventually win his wife back. He sees a silver lining when he meets Tiffany (Lawrence) who can help him communicate with his wife through letters.

Admission Ticket: Released at a time of rom-com recession, SLP manages to be fun, funny, smart, and sensitive, with Lawrence at her most convincing and human performance of a recuperating sex addict, while De Niro and Cooper were equally terrific as father and son with explosive tendencies, rounding up to make a rare rom-com gem.

10. Holy Motors

Directed by Leos Carax

Stars Dennis Lavant, Edith Scob, Kylie Minogue

The Offering: Trippy as fuck, Holy Motors is about a man named Oscar travelling Paris in a limousine, assuming identities that people completely accept as his. It's a surreal ride filled with allusions and terrific performances with each identity change.

Admission Ticket: Holy Motors will catch you in surprise. Carax keeps an air of mystery around the premise that would make one think for days about what the film is actually about.  Who pays Oscar for these appointments? Why is his identity change fully accepted? What are the actors really? Does the Holy Motors company name relate them to, uh, God? Why do the limos talk?

9. Marvel's The Avengers
Directed by Joss Wheddon
Stars Robert Downey Jr, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evnas, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Samuel L. Jackson

The Offering: 4 years in the making, Marvel's Avengers is (Disney's) Marvel Studio's culmination in everything it learned about making a good superhero movie. 

Admission Ticket: There's just too many to mention here. The great CGI for starters, the epic moments of The Avengers fending off the huge floating aliens, Thor teasing Iron Man about using mom's curtains for his cape, The Hulk cleaning the floor with Loki, Thor flooring Iron Man, Iron Man flooring Thor, Jeremy Renner being badass, Scarlett Johansson being flexible, you know where this is heading. It's the most fun you can have in cinema, and Wheddon's reward for being an unnoticed talent.

8. Chronicle
Directed by Josh Trank
Stars Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell

The Offering: Three high school seniors stumble upon an underground cavern where a crystalline boulder lies, emitting strange lights that eventually give them telekinetic powers that they agreed to keep secret. Soon enough, one of them begins acting out of line, endangering their secret and the people around them.

Admission Ticket: Chronicle at first glance feels like a normal cash-in movie: Superhero origins, found footage format, but a charmingly depressed Dane DeHaan, a boy who wanted to do good, but ends up doing the opposite, would propel a could have been vapid film into a thrilling superhero flick that works. And best of all, the found-footage format works with Trank playing with inventive ways of mounting the camera to make it feel floating.

7. Pieta

Directed by Kim Ki-duk 

Stars Lee Jung-jin, Jo Min-su

The Offering: A man working for a loan shark who cripples the clients to get their insurance money for payment comes across a woman who introduces herself as the mother who abandoned him 30 years ago, fills a hole in him, and changes him. But who is this woman, really?

Admission ticket: The Golden Bear winner this year (by means of disqualification) is a South Korean film that echoes a common element of Korean drama: a manic pixie dream girl. But this time, the MPDG is a mother who teaches her son to be a good person. Some scenes may be difficult to watch, but the film's resolution is so breathtakingly gorgeous and haunting, it deserves a re-watch.

6. Wreck-it Ralph
Directed by Rich Moore
Stars Kristen John O' Reilly, Sarah Silverman, lots of video game characters

The Offering: A video game villain is tired of not being appreciated in his job and so he travels to other arcade games to get himself a medal and be treated like the hero Fix-it Felix. The movie features a lot of video game characters and humors.

Admission Ticket: Rich in nostalgia and humor, Wreck-it Ralph is Disney's closest to becoming Disney Pixar. There hasn't been anything as joyful and nostalgic as Wreck-it Ralph (other than The Muppets) in recent memory, that's why it claims the 5th spot. And how cute was the Sugar Rush game and characters? For me, this is the best animated movie of 2012. Hands down.

5. The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard

The Offering: Nolan's Batman trilogy ends with a Billion dollar bang. Bruce Wayne mourns and becomes a recluse after the death of his love. But a certain burglary leads Bruce Wayne to a man they call Bane who's out to destroy Gotham City.

Admission Ticket: Some will say that The Dark Knight Rises pales in comparison to 2008's The Dark Knight. But let's be fair, Bane is hardly as popular a villain as The Joker. Yet, he worked (though that accent, ugh! Feels like he's in a cooking show)! Plus that twist somewhere near the end and Nolan making us think that someone will be making a Nightwing movie even Gordon-Levitt couldn't even throw a punch without hurting himself.

4. Beasts of the Southern Wild
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Stars Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, a bunch of other unknowns

The Offering: Set in a Louisiana bayou community cut-off from the rest of civilization by a levee, Beasts explores Hushpuppy's journey into adulthood after a violent storm threatens their carefree life in the bayou and her father's health further sinking to deep mud.

Admission Ticket: In a nutshell, it's a poor man's Pan's Labyrinth with a tendency for vivid pictures of poverty and to stick to its convictions, right or wrong. Rife with childish stubbornness, imagination, glee, carefree, and bayou-survival brand of wisdom, Beasts seesaws between fantasy and reality and often emerges imbalanced thanks largely to its dedication to create its own problems. But even so, Wallis's performance pays its own emotional dividends while the movie wraps itself up with a fantastic score.

3. Amour
Directed by Michael Haneke
Stars Jean-Louis Tritignant, Emanuelle Riva

The Offering: Simply put, Haneke's Amour is a tale of love surviving even after death. But to capsulate it as such is careless. Amour's a painful look at the trials of growing old together and keeping in love amid the difficulties that accompany old age.

Admission Ticket: It's easy to name Amour as one of 2012's best, watching it is a more difficult task, however, especially if you can identify with the characters. A heart-wrenching tale of growing old together and love surviving even the test of physical death, Amour is a fine work from Austrian director Haneke, laced with subtle symbolisms and an emotionally shattering final act that redeems as much as it stabs.

2. Argo

Directed by Ben Affleck
Stars Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman

The Offering: Based on the clandestine CIA operation known as the Canadian Caper during a tumultuous time in Iran during the 80s, Argo sees Ben Affleck as CIA officer Tony Mendez trying to smuggle American diplomats out of Iran after the American embassy was taken over by the Iranian government.

Admission Ticket: Precision. Tension. Ah, Argo, without any doubt, is Affleck's best directorial effort to date. So much that it's scary for Affleck to be making a new movie because it may not equal Argo's masterclass in control and build up. It's one of the few movies that kept me literally on the edge of my seat. The actors, bar Affleck, are lovable: Cranston, Arkin, Goodman, and even the Iranian guards at the airport that speak Farsi. 

1. Zero Dark Thirty

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Stars Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Joel Edgerton 

The Offering: An unsweetened dramatization of the decade-long search for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty centers in on Maya, a CIA analyst stationed in Pakistan, as she comes to terms with the nature of her work and how she battles terrorism and bureaucracy to accomplish her job--find and kill Bin Laden.

Admission Ticket: Bigelow's and Boal's take on the hunt for Bin Laden possesses the same quiet explosive tendency that Hurt Locker has but has twice the control and tension. It's hard to pinpoint exactly which of the factors of Zero Dark Thirty would stick out as its most defining one. With Argo, that would be Affleck's direction, but in Bigelow's everything just works: the editing, the quiet script that suddenly explodes, the narrative, and Chastain's Maya that goes toe to toe (in terms of cool) with Gosling's Driver in Drive. It edges out on Argo by a small margin, possibly because Argo has no central character to anchor you in on the story, but this one has, and a very cool one, something that Affleck's Tony Mendez had some trouble with.

In Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Joel Edgerton

What I Liked

Bigelow's no-nonsense direction, Chastain's powerful performance, narrative is fast-paced, controlled, and quietly intense

What I Disliked

Carrie and Saul's missing cameo in Langley. Why, Bigelow, why?

Gist

Bigelow respects her source material by not over-dramatizing the harrowing experience of her subjects. She instead delivers an intelligently executed gripping thriller possessing the same quiet explosive tenacity as her previous war movie, Hurt Locker, but with twice the control and surprise, thanks to Jessica Chastain's incredibly reserved cool and intensity popping out unexpectedly from her seemingly frail frame.

Maya (Chastain) was recruited to work for the CIA in highschool. 2 years after 9/11, she got her first overseas assignment in Pakistan where she accompanies a colleague, Dan (Clarke), to a CIA black site where a detainee is held. Initially, Maya distastes at the sight of torture, but eventually grew unflinching and sly--outsmarting the detainee even after failing to prevent an attack. The revelations from the outwitted detainee soon lead her to a trail rife with peril, putting her at odds with insurgents and superiors as she try to prove what she believe is the right trail to avenging her nation.

When I was 22 or 23, can't remember, and I haven't seen a lot of movies, I went to see Hurt Locker on DVD (as is the usual case of non-moneymaking machine movies, it didn't get shown in my country until it was up for like Oscars for Everyfuckignthing). Initially, I couldn't finish it, not because it was too intense--that would come a bit later--but because it dragged a great deal for the first thirty minutes. Besides, who was Jeremy Renner then, though? He played bad guys mostly (primarily remembered for his role in SWAT as an antagonist, and last billed among the list) and wasn't particularly likable at the start if the movie. Months after my first attempt, and I had no social functions to go to (i.e. get drunk till I needed to be driven home for my own good), I picked up my copy and managed to finish the whole thing. It was a rather emotionally harrowing experience of the war on Iraq and I understood why Bigelow got the nod in 82nd Oscars. It was an intense thriller that had multiple build-ups of tension and release.

Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (ZDT) does not stray far from Hurt Locker's atmosphere. But it had tighter control. It was noticeably quieter than its predecessor, with its build-ups going in unnoticed until it's time for the release. And what a release! The only sort of suspense that could've equaled it is this year's Argo, which, for the sake of comparison, only had one monumental build up and release, and quite a joyous one. ZDT had multiple build ups, multiple acts that build up tension and release them, all of which are as masterful as Affleck's, and, I daresay, a step ahead of him. The sort that needed good editing to quicken the pace. One climax: boom! There you go. Let's move on to the next one, shall we? Bigelow shows us how it's done.

And since we're on the topic of comparing ZDT and Argo, I might as well finish. I have to say that it's a toss between the two for my favorite movie of the year. The similarities: both are about CIA intelligence operations, both are rife with suspense and have masterful direction and storytelling, both have endings that are part of history and already known to the audience--and yet they still manage to be an engaging watch, amid having its audience spoiled. The major difference between them, and I would need an analogy here, is this: if they were orange juice, Argo would be the sweetened sort, having spiced itself with delightful characters (Goodman and Arkin) and good old drama. ZDT appears to be the unsweetened sort, no drama, no delightful characters, just pure orange-y goodness. Some people would prefer one over the other, but both are orange juice and orange juice is good for you unless your hyperacidic, or in the sense of these suspense thrillers, tachychardic.

Not to say that Affleck has been curt with Argo, but Bigelow respects her source material by not over-dramatizing her subjects and their harrowing experience. She delivers an intelligently executed gripping thriller possessing the same quiet explosive tenacity as her previous war movie, Hurt Locker, but with twice the control and surprise, owing perhaps to Jessica Chastain's incredibly reserved cool and intensity popping out unexpectedly from her seemingly frail frame.

Both Chastain and Danes play strong CIA female analysts,
and the physical similarities align nicely, too: wide eyes,
deep eye sockets, big thin lips, thin nose, strong cheekbones,
delicate frame. 

Chastain's "Maya," a role she has performed with reserved cool and quiet tenacity that goes toe to toe with Gosling's Driver in 2011's Drive in my book, has drawn several comparisons with Danes' Carrie Mathison, prompting people to look up their inspiration. After all, both Carrie and Maya possess the same love for poring over details and obsession to what they think they're right about, clashing even with their superiors to arrive to the truth. Some digging in the internet suggests that they are based off from the short story "No Easy Day" whose central character, a "Jen," is a female CIA analyst. Whether their similarities are coincidental or not, Chastain's Maya is more controlled than Danes' Carrie who tends to employ dangerous assumptions and equipped with a penchant for reckless abandon. And I think that's what makes Maya work for ZDT's brand of suspense. She has no drama that she throws on about (even at the death of a close friend, she remains calm), she sticks to the plan, and keeps everything toned down. The sort of storytelling that ZDT came up with demanded control and Chastain delivers that to Boal and Bigelow. Her Maya is our guide, connecting to our minds rather than to our hearts (that is handled by the events depicted in the movie), the voice of calm in a shitstorm of clusterfuck, pardon the language, and if she has gone over-the-top, it would not have helped the audience understand the goings-on in the movie. And does Chastain deserve all the accolade she is getting? Yes, and she'll probably even get the Oscar.

Perhaps, that was the problem with Argo. It didn't have a Maya. We are presented with a Tony Mendez, performed by a less than likable (as an actor) Affleck, who isn't as sure as Maya in his convictions. He couldn't calm the storm the way Maya. Mendez knew his plan can fail, and when that happens, God help him--he is sure they're fucked. With Maya, there was no failure. She has data and she even wants to drop a bomb because she is that sure. In a movie full of suspense, a Maya would be more preferable than a Mendez as a guide.

Judgment: 2012's Best Picture? For me, it's no question. Bigelow delivers a mastefully executed thriller,  doubling the control and tension from her previous war movie. The result is a film that has a heavier weight than any of the competition--one that entertains as much as it educates. 5 out of 5 stars.

For this movie, I'm willing to pay: 250 to 320 PHP.