"And the Winners are...": Part III (5-1)

Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Ed Norton, and Bruce Willis in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.

So here are my top five favorite movies from 2012. They are stories of love and loss and success and failure and are all told with some brand of beauty and simplicity and detail and truth.  I loved every single one of these movies. 

5. Wanderlust (Directed by David Wain; Starring Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux)

Years ago now, I saw probably one of the best comedies I've ever seen. Still to this day, I think about it all the time and try to watch it here and there. It got me through my first year of teaching. I would literally watch it three or four times a week just to keep my head about me and give me an escape. That movie is Wet Hot American Summer. Since then, David Wain, Michael Showalter and Co. have continued to make really solid comedies, including the hit Role Models. This one, the latest, ranks right up there with the best comedies of recent years. In Wanderlust, Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play a stuffy New York couple, who, due to a downward spiral of unfortunate events, find themselves on the road out of the city, looking to start over somehow. They land in a Georgia hippie commune where free love abounds and an organic lifestyle becomes the spark to reignite this couple's marriage in many more ways than one. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that this movie contains a monologue by Paul Rudd that is the absolute funniest thing I've seen in a comedy since the stun-gun scene in The Hangover. 

4. Life of Pi (Directed by Ang Lee; Starring Suraj Sharma)

A quote from, and nod to, Mr. Roger Ebert, the best film critic there ever was: "Ang Lee's Life of Pi is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that many readers must have assumed was unfilmable, it is a triumph over its difficulties. It is also a moving spiritual achievement, a movie whose title could have been shortened to 'life.'" I can't say it better, and I whole-heartedly agree. This is a stunningly beautiful masterpiece that unfolds as a story-within-a-story, touching on love and faith and hope and survival and the simple magic of storytelling itself. An Indian boy named Pi ends up on a lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker and does his absolute best to survive, while selflessly caring for a dangerous, wild animal. I felt alive during and after this movie. It is unbelievable.

It is also the only 3D experience I have in which the 3D glasses never got in the way and actually enhanced the movie. 

3. Moonrise Kingdom (Directed by Wes Anderson: Starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, and Bob Balaban)

Moonrise Kingdom is the third great movie Wes Anderson has made. The other two are, of course, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. It tells the story of 12-year-olds in love on a small New England island town called New Penzance. Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) and Suzy Bishop (Kara Heyward) had met the year previous during a town school pageant. He, an orphaned Khaki scout, and she, an avid reader playing a raven in the play. We see this in flashback as they correspond and plan to meet and run away together. When they finally do, it is the most fresh and magical romance I've seen on screen in a long while.

It is incredibly ridiculous and funny as well. The cast of characters rivals The Royal Tenenbaums. Bruce Willis as Police Captain Sharp, tasked with leading the search party for the missing; Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as Mr. And Mrs. Bishop, Suzy's absent-in-plain-sight, attorney parents; Ed Norton as Scout Master Ward, the man guilted and motivated by his loss of a scout; Jason Schwartzman (in a brilliant cameo) as Cousin Ben, a Scout Master from a neighboring troop, who also officiates weddings; and Bob Balaban as the coolest movie Narrator of all-time. Anderson is able to use all his tricks and fill all the frames with his idiosyncratic details while, this time, maintaining a sweet, honest coming-of-age love story. It contains the truest young love scene since last years Terri. I couldn't believe I was seeing it. 

2. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Directed by Behn Zeitlin; Starring Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, and Lowell Landes)

Shortly after the credits had rolled and I had wiped the tears from my sobbing eyes, I read a few reviews on IMDB. One guy went on and on about how this movie glorified child abuse and alcoholism and blah-blah-blah. All I could think was: Man, did that guy miss the point or what!? Behn Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild is unlike anything I've ever seen at the movies. It plays like a shared dream between Terrence Malick and Maurice Sendak set in the Louisiana bayou. It is a sight to behold. Quvenzhane Wallis, at six-years-old, does more than any adult actor could ever dream of. The carries this brilliant labor of love on her shoulders and never misses a beat. The story is one of poor bayou people, who choose to live in a very dangerous swamp land they dub "The Bathtub." There is a storm coming, a flood looming, and these people, including Hush Puppy (Wallis) and her Daddy (Dwight Henry), choose to live a simple life. The trouble is that everything seems bent to destroy Hush Puppy's life. Her Daddy is sick and a bad alcoholic, her home is on the brink of being washed way, and a prehistoric beast just may be out there coming with the storm. Every minute of this movie offers something to think about and admire, and the last five touched me more than any new movie I've seen in years. 

1. Silver Linings Playbook (Directed by David O. Russell; Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Jacki Weaver, and Chris Tucker)

If the last five minutes of this movie had been as true and powerful as that of my number two selection, I would rank Silver Linings Playbook with the finest movies ever made. There seems to be a large amount of criticism of the formulaic ending of this film. I, in no way, want that to deter you, and, honestly, I have no problem with it whatsoever. I laughed during this movie and felt things and related to the characters and felt like I knew them. That's what makes a great movie to me. Bradley Cooper plays Pat Solitano, a Philadelphia man just released from a mental health facility. He has horrible anger issues and panic attacks. He lost his job, his wife, his life, and now sees a chance to start over. He meets a young widow named Tiffany (the beautiful Jennifer Lawrence) and begins a friendship that is so odd and touching and wonderful that the supposed mis-steps in the end make no matter. I just love so many things about this film: the acting is top-notch (see all the Oscar nominations), the characters watch and love professional football, there is dancing, foul language, love, truth, fiction, regret, Led Zeppelin on the soundtrack, and a happy ending. I felt happy at the end. Isn't that what you're supposed to feel? Aren't "Hollywood endings" "OK" is what comes before is so entertaining and perfect? I think so, and this is, ultimately, the reason that Silver Linings Playbook is the best movie of 2012. 

Best Actor nominee Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook

"And the Winners are...": Part II (10 - 6)

The Best Movies of 2012

Quvenzhané Wallis as Hush Puppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild

10. Flight (Directed by Robert Zemeckis; Starring Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood and John Goodman)

Flight is a good movie. That's all I can really say. I went in expecting something else and got what I got. Robert Zemeckis has never made a movie quite like this, which is interesting. He has been on that motion-capture animation kick for awhile, and I can't say what drew him to this picture. Denzel Washington does great work here and certainly deserves his Oscar nomination. He plays a really bad alcoholic and addict, who at the start of the film, rolls out of a hotel bed, lights up a Winston, swigs a warm High Life, toots two major gaggers of coke, dresses up and flies a commercial jet from Miami to Atlanta. To add to the already fueled up tone, Mr. Zemeckis then directs one of the most suspenseful 20 minutes of movie you could ask for as CaptainWhip Whitaker (Washington) maneuvers this machine out of imminent disaster and into a safe-ish landing. What ensues is the investigation of the crash. After the glorious, tense opening, though, this movies slows down greatly and becomes a study of alcoholism and addiction. It has its moments, and John Goodman is great as the comic relief. 

9. Argo (Directed by Ben Affleck; Starring Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman)

At this point, I'd say this is the movie poised to win the big prize at the Oscars in a couple weeks. It just won the BAFTA, and Ben Affleck is winning awards left and right. As a director, he got no love from the Academy, and I'm not sure why. This is, above all, a very well-directed movie. Argo is essentially a movie about two things: the movie business and international terrorism. In 1979, a group of American Embassy employees stationed at the embassy in Iran escape the uprising by seeking refuge in the home of the Canadian Ambassador. Affleck play CIA man, Tony Mendez. His mission: sneak the Americans out of Iran. His method: pretend to make a Hollywood sci-fi movie and smuggle the Americans out as players in a Canadian film crew. This movie is suspenseful and tense and often funny, thanks to Alan Arkin and John Goodman as the Hollywood guys, who help Mendez find a script and a front company to make it seem legit. A side note: my fiance is in love with Ben Affleck. 

8. Lincoln (Directed by Steven Spielberg; Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln opens with a beautiful scene. President Lincoln (the man, the myth, the legend, Daniel Day-Lewis) engages several Union soldiers in an Army camp in conversation. They end up trying to recite "The Gettysburg Address," poorly. Then, a black soldier joins the conversation, speaks to the President beautifully and eloquently and perfectly finishes the brilliant ending of the famous speech. It is a beautiful opening. Then, as the film shifts to political discussions with Secretary of State William Seward (Davis Strathairn), I became incredibly confused. I felt like I should've been so lucky as to have had a decent American History teacher in my life, for I was lost. I have to say, though, that eventually I caught on and caught up and this became an incredibly enthralling and beautiful movie once again. It is those things while simply being the story of the President trying to wheel and deal to pass the 13th Amendment, ending slavery and the Civil War. 

7. Django Unchained (Directed by Quentin Tarantino; Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson)

The poster to your right is really cool. However, I'm confused. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is NOT in this movie. I just checked. That's not the point, though, and I'm going to use the poster anyway. I feel like Tarantino would appreciate a fan-made poster of that caliber. Anyway, this movie is unbelievably violent. That's all I could think after I left. Most of Tarantino's movies have violence. Kill Bill is actually bloodier. But the violence in this movie seems real. I think that has to do with the subject matter involved...slavery. Django (Jamie Foxx) is a recently freed slave in the years just before the Civil War. Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is the bounty hunter who frees him. They embark together on a Western journey of revenge that is entertaining and funny and everything you would expect from a Tarantino movie. This is not one of the Q man's best, though. It's great, just as they all are, but it's just too long and too much. There were times when I could barely watch the brutality no matter how well-done it was. I wish he'd been a little more precise in the editing room, but I will own this on Blu-Ray as soon as I'm able. 

6. Looper (Directed by Rian Johnson; Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt)

The trailer for this movie is great. It gives you nothing. I went into Rian Johnson's Looper thinking I knew what it was all about. I was dead wrong. This is an unstoppable entertainment involving two of my favorite things: Bruce Willis and time-travel. In this movie, as the trailer suggests, we are invited into a future where mob guys hire "Loopers" to stand in a field and wait for a time-traveling target to appear, and then blow him away with a shotgun. Eventually, it becomes clear that one day your "loop will be completed," and you will be faced with killing your future self. That pretty much sums up the first 20 minutes of the movie. I won't even begin to get into it any further. It is brilliant and mind-blowing and must be seen. 

Note: You should also see Rian Johnson's first film Brick, a neo-noir set amidst the lives of high school students. 

Still to come: beasts, tigers with human names, pre-teen love, football fans, and hippies. 

"And the Winners are...": Part I (20-11)

"And the Winners are..."
The Best Movies of 2012
by Kevin Powers

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook

Out of the hundreds of features released in the Year 2012, Amanda and I saw 20. I enjoyed all of them, some much more than others. It, ultimately, was a great year for movies, and there are plenty of great ones that I, no doubt, have not yet seen. Here are the 20 I have seen, ranked and discussed from least favorite to favorite:

20. Monster's Inc. 3D (Directed by Pete Docter; Starring John Goodman, Billy Crystal, and Steve Buscemi)

Pete Docter's Monster's Inc., originally released in 2001, has continued to stand up as one of the greatest of the Pixar movies. It is a brilliantly paced and funny comedy for all ages. It flips us into an alternate universe where monsters go to the factory and work to collect children's screams as their primary energy source. When a human child accidentally enters the monster world, it is a non-stop action-packed race of love and care as top-scarer, Sully (John Goodman) and his sidekick Mike Wasowski (Billy Crystal) struggle to return young Boo back to her bedroom. The update to 3D, though, adds nothing. In fact, it takes away from the brilliant colors and simply becomes an annoyance. I'll just continue to watch it on DVD in 2D.





19. Anna Karenina (Directed by Joe Wright; Written by Tom Stoppard; Starring Keira Knightly and Jude Law)

This most recent adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic Russian novel is crafted much like a stage play with backdrops being moved in and out behind the actors from scene to scene. Director Joe Wright and his screenwriter (the great Tom Stoppard) use interesting techniques, including the stage idea, to condense the long novel into a viewer-friendly movie of only around two hours. At several points during the film, the camera glides along in front of Stiva as he passes the workers in his office, who stand at his presence in perfectly choreographed movements, which offers a very interesting style and a touch of humor. Much of the dialogue is taken directly from the book, especially in the conversations and enamored stares shared between Anna (Keira Knightly) and Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Knightly is a great actress and plays the title role well. However, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky is completely miscast and often seems silly and overly-boyish. However, the costume design and art direction nearly make up for the casting errors and are sure to gain attention from the Academy Awards in a movie that is beautiful to look at. All-in-all, Anna Karenina is a good adaptation that stays true its source material even if it does omit quite a bit of the novel, while creatively utilizing film and screenwriting techniques to highlight its themes.  

18. Les Miserables (Directed by Tom Hooper; Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne)

What an utterly boring first hour of a movie! I was nodding off in the theater. Then, miraculously, this movie picks up, finishing strong and making me very happy by the end. Based on the musical version of Victor Hugo's unreadably long French novel, Les Miserables is just not a movie for me. The exchanges between Jean Valjean (Jackman) and Javert (Crowe) with the whole singing/talking thing was almost embarrassing. However, at about the mid-point of the movie, this chick named Samantha Barks enters as Eponine, does "On My Own," and from then on Les Miserables is beautiful and nothing short of spectacular. 

17. Ted (Directed by Seth MacFarlane; Starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, and MacFarlane)

Ted is a very funny movie. Seth MacFarlane (creator of "Family Guy") effectively makes a buddy comedy unlike any ever seen before. Mark Wahlberg plays a guy, who, as a child, wished for his Teddy bear to be a real friend and, man, does he get more than he bargained for. This is a raunchy, non-stop comedy, and the signature deep, New England accent that MacFarlane does so well as Peter Griffin shines here. It is not nearly the best comedy of the year and is ultimately forgettable, but I laughed a whole lot and enjoyed myself. Looking forward to seeing Mr. MacFarlane as host of this year's Oscar ceremony.






16. American Reunion (Directed by Who Cares; Starring the original cast of American Pie)

I really hope this is the last "American Pie" movie, for real. All those made-for-DVD one's need to stop. I have to say that this one, though, is the best of the original sequels. Nothing will ever top the original, but it is so great, and nostalgic, to me to have grown up with these characters. Being in high school when this series started, I feel lucky to have been a part of this originator of the New Wave of Teen Movies in the late '90s. And the gang is all back in this one, in which they return to East Great Falls, Michigan, for a high school reunion. There are many great laughs and plenty of dirty, foul-mouthed humor. Excellent send-off...I hope.




15. This is 40 (Directed by Judd Apatow; Starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude and Iris Apatow, Albert Brooks)

I expect too much from Judd Apatow, I think. What he does is strange to me. He makes these comedies that are way too long, though very funny. Relatable, but out of touch with reality. True, but pure fiction. He is a great comedy writer, an excellent producer of comedies, and a really good filmmaker when it comes to nice-looking production value. As my best friend, Joshua, puts it: "He's like a dirty Jim (James L.) Brooks." The sad thing is that I keep waiting for him to make a really great movie like Terms of Endearment or Broadcast News or As Good as it Gets. He keeps disappointing me. I'm not sure if it's the unnecessary lengths or the feigned "first world problems" of his characters or what. I do know that I laughed uncontrollably at several scenes, but when he tries to add the drama, it's just not there, not real or true. I hope he finds it and one day makes a really great movie that is worth its running time.



14. 21 Jump Street (Directed by Who Cares; Starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum)

I am a bit too young to know the Johnny Depp Fox series from which this movie was based. I will say, though, that I enjoyed every second of this movie. It has everything: buddy movie, teen movie, cop movie, role reversal, and laughs all the way through. Skinny Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play two horrible LAPD officers, who get an undercover gig as high school students trying to bust a teen drug ring. If follows a pretty standard formula of all the genres it contains, but there is one scene that just comes from out of nowhere that introduces comedic violence and cameos that alone makes it worth watching.





13. The Hunger Games (Directed by Gary Ross; Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson)

Perhaps the greatest young adult novel of the last five years gets a fantastic treatment here in the film version. Watching this on Blu-Ray just the other day for the first time since I saw it on the big screen, I was reminded of how well-made this movie is. Director Gary Ross had really made a gritty, violent adaptation of an interesting sci-fi story. The people of Panem, a distant future America, must offer up "Tributes" in the form of one female boy and one female girl from each of the 12 Districts that surround the Capitol to fight to the death using any means available. The beautiful Jennifer Lawrence plays the lead character, Katniss, brilliantly in a non-stop entertainment.





12. The Five-Year Engagement (Directed by Nicholas Stoller; Starring Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie)

Jason Segel is a very good screenwriter. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is one of the best comedies of recent years. You can add this one to that list. Though not quite as funny, this is a very good portrayal of a couple in their late 20s trying to find personal success while making their relationship work. Segel is always hilarious as is Chris Pratt, who plays the worst best man ever, who make a PowerPoint presentation of Segel's past lovers and runs it at the engagement party. And Emily Blunt is surprising, as I've not seen her in many movies. There are several scenes in The Five-Year Engagement that will make you laugh-out-loud. I enjoyed it.






11. The Dark Knight Rises (Directed by Christopher Nolan; Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard)

Well, I guess we all wondered if Nolan could best himself after The Dark Knight (2008). He couldn't. However, this Batman movie is still better than any by Burton or that joke-of-a-hack Schumaker. The best thread of this last one is the addition of a hungry young cop played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. People complained a bit about the ending, but I liked it. I think it was very fitting. I do agree that there were some sound issues with the uber-villian Bane's (Tom Hardy) voice early on in the film. I also don't like how the first two movies were shot in Chicago and that this one was obviously not. It just doesn't fit with the earlier two in the Dark Knight Trilogy, no matter how hard it tries to.

Still to come: beasts, time travel, hippies, young love, Iran and filmmaking, football fans, slavery, tigers with human names, and a US President.