Fave Flicks of 2012

2012 was an odd year for film. There were, as always, some great original ideas and amazing performances, mostly from the margins of the indie and mainstream realms, but this was not the most consistently amazing year for film. But, it didn't have to be. There was a lot of middling crap, but there were a handful of films that really stood out--or at least stuck with me after the credits rolled--that were spectacular in their own ways. 

That said, I offer my sort of comprehensive list of ten favorites from this year that managed to make me smile, think, or laugh a little bit more than the rest of this years releases.

10. Cabin in the Woods

Joss Whedon had kind of a big year, and if you ask the Scoobies and Browncoats, such recognition is long overdue.  Whedon's first big splash this year came in the form of the long-shelved horror movie satire, Cabin in The Woods. Cabin is far more intelligent and legitimately scary than any horror movie parody can ever hope to be, and while it doesn't rewrite the rules of horror movies, it offers a clever twist on the tried and tired formulas that have fueled horror franchises for decades. Best of all, Cabin is responsible for bringing us the unforgettable army of monsters.

9. The Raid: Redemption/Safe House/Safe (tie)

Far from the best movies this, or any, year--though The Raid is easily one of the best pure action movie in years--this trifecta of action flicks reminded audiences that good old-fashioned balls-to-the-wall mid-range action movies still have a place in the cinema. The Raid brought us brutal martial arts action to rival the best of Tony Jaa's output over the past few years while Safe House delivered spy action that was far more visceral and less restrained than 90% of the best spy fi from Abrams, Cruise, or the Broccolis. Safe, on the other hand, was clearly the lesser of the three, but it was a chaotic, brutal, and fast paced actioner that was far less neutered than most of Statham's disposable action flicks. 

8. Wreck-It Ralph/Rise of the Guardians (tie)

Fall brought us the one-two punch of Wreck-It Ralph and Rise of Guardians, two animated films with more heart and genuine thrills than most of the live-action cartoons Hollywood releases in the summer. The nostalgia-drenched Wreck-It Ralph was Disney's best shot at creating their own brand of Pixar magic, complete with heartwarming relationship between lost souls and the main character's search for self. Conversely, Rise of the Guardians is Avengers-lite, an all-star team-up superhero movie with fantasy characters like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny that is as well-crafted as the big-time Avengers, minus some of the plot gaffes.

7. Paperman

Playing in front of Wreck-It Ralph, Paperman was a delightful animated short that recalls the best qualities of 2012's Best Picture winner The Artist. Paperman hearkens back to the silent film era, following a salaryman and his comical, yet infinitely charming, pursuit of a cute-as-a-button secretary. With its charming characters, beautiful score, and gorgeous animation--courtesy of Disney's new Meander animation technology--Paperman encapsulates the heart and wonder of old-school romances with an amazing contemporary sheen.

6. Paranorman

Preceding the fall's animated delights was Paranorman, a sharp and touching stop-motion animation feature from Laika, the good people beyond the similarly creepy and affecting Coraline. Paranorman is a smart tale about forgiveness wrapped up in a classic, hilarious zombie comedy that actually does a better job of turning the genre on its ear than many of the more daring deconstructions that have hit theaters in the past decade. Filled with characters that were as three dimensional as the animation and a meaningful moral to boot, Paranorman was one of the true surprises of the summer.

5. Chronicle

Early this year, we finally got the live-action Akira movie we've been waiting for, and hopefully, the one that will halt Hollywood's plans to attempt a big budget remake. Josh Trank's Chronicle is Akira in all but name, only with a far more focused and cohesive plot, one in which Tetsuo is the center of the story and the overblown melodrama of post-apocalyptic Tokyo's warring factions are replaced by a taut examination of the toll of abuse on the fragile mind, and the damage that mind can do when it grabs the power to burn down the world.

4. Skyfall

Sam Mendes' soft reboot of the 007 franchise was one of the year's biggest blockbusters, and rightly so. Drawing influences from Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, boasting some of the most amazing cinematography to grace the screen this year, not to mention one of the best Bond themes ever, Skyfall brought Bond back to his roots, telling a wonderfully simple tale of revenge and rebirth while demolishing and honoring the continuity of the past decade. Bond is ready for the future, and judging by the box office receipts, so are audiences.

3. Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino's slave revenge fantasy may draw on the Boondocks' Legend of Catcher Freeman episode, but it does so with such craft that it canot be denied as a potential new classic. Jamie Foxx finally finds a role where his cockiness and vulnerability are not a handicap, but he is still outclassed by scene stealers Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio in a flick that is consistently fun, funny, and furious, just like a slave revenge fantasy should be.

2. The Avengers

The Avengers was unquestionably the highlight of Joss Whedon's big year. With the Avengers, Whedon brought fun back to the superhero narrative after years of grim tales of brooding sourpusses dominated the silver screen. As much as it was every true Believers dream come true, Avengers also happened to be a generally light-heartened, fun experience that was more ride than movie. It also brought us one of the single most exciting third acts in superhero films ever committed to film. With Whedon now the "head" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the future of Marvel's movie future looks bright in more ways than one.

1. Looper

Great sci-fi makes you think. Great movies make you feel. Looper does both. Rian Johnson's third film continues a short streak of perfection that began with high school noir Brick. Looper may be the tale of time-traveling hitmen, but it is truly a story about consequence, the power of compassion, and the ability of love to make us better people. Looper is that rare film that leaves audiences thinking about how they can better themselves while entertaining them with a clever plot and deep, affecting characters. Looper is a modern classic, no question about it, and one can only hope it is a sign of many more great things to come from Johnson.

Looper: Easily One of The Best Films of 2012.

Not even a silly futuristic comb over can smudge the gleam on this masterpiece.

 Grade: A

Profound.

That's the best word to describe Rian Johnson's third film, Looper.

Rarely have I had the opportunity to say that a film has moved me, but Looper is such a film.

I'll admit I have loved Rian Johnson's work, which is only two films and a handful of Breaking Bad episodes deep right now, since Brick, but he has truly exceeded even my highest expectations of his talents with Looper.

On its surface, Looper is a Terminator-adjacent tale of a man, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, continuing an absolute bang-up year of work), who kills for the mob of the future by blasting away unsuspecting (read: bound, gagged, and blinded) targets sent back in time through illegal time travel. Joe is a looper, a rather short sighted group of assassins who get a significant payday after they close their loop by killing their future selves, thus closing the 'loop' and tying up all loose ends for the mob. Joe enjoys the good life as one of these select few individuals who manage to prosper in a time when the world has become 99.9% occupied by the 99%. When the time comes for Joe to close his loop, his older self (a crustier, crankier, sadder Bruce Willis than we normally get) is not quite ready to face down the barrel of a Blunderbuss (the futuristic short-range shotgun favored by loopers). Older Joe disarms his stunned younger self and launches a mission to change the future, but is he the hero, the villain, or just a man possessed? And how does Emily Blunt's hard scrabble recluse farmer and her pensive child, Cid (Pierce Gagnon), play into all this time-skipping action that culminates not with an epic CGI battle through time and space but with three people on the outskirts of a Kansas farm?

As much these questions seem like the setup for some trite exercise in convoluted, contrived sci-fi action--looking directly at you Total Recall remake--they actually lay the groundwork for one of the most heart-rending examinations of the human condition committed to film this year. Looper is not really about time travel or gangland assassins. It is about selfishness and the reasons we grapple with this terrible and beautiful emotion. It is also about companionship and love, and the reasons we need people and they need. It is a movie with something to say in an era where most films, of any genre, have stopped speaking to us in favor of yelling about nothing.

A few weeks ago, Drew McWeeny over at HitFix said this film moved him to tears, and I am not ashamed to say he is right. It was hard to be unaffected by Looper because Johnson clearly went out of his way to craft characters who are far more than the cliched afterthoughts they so often are. In the process, he makes us care deeply for characters who do some pretty deplorable things. Yet, you never feel guilty about that empathy because it is based on an understanding of characters with very clear purpose. Young Joe is, for most of the film, a selfish, mopey wisp of a man who is visibly disturbed by his profession (as evidenced by his growing addiction to drops), but he is a man who wants to see the day when he no longer has to watch his stopwatch and wait for some poor sucker to pop up in his Blunderbuss' sights. His older self is just as broken, but he is driven by a love that has given him a resolve he never had as a care-deficient youth. Blunt's Sara is haunted by the mistakes of her youth in a manner much like Older Joe, but she is resolute in her desire to atone for those mistakes and give her son a better life than he would have lived without her. Cid doesn't want to make his mom sad, which is a far more challenging task than it appears to be. It is each characters desires and the very human, natural quality of those desires that make Looper so resonant. These characters are each utterly, perhaps irreparably, broken, but they are trying, desperately, to make correct their errors, not for themselves, but for the ones they love. A quality so rare in today's more popular movie's that it's more heartbreaking than Looper's denouement.

Yet, Looper's quality extends beyond its dense story and exceptional character studies to include an earthy visual style that renders the world of 2044 in tangible terms. With only a few features under his built, Rian Johnson proves himself an absolute master of the language of cinema. He understands the value of "show don't tell" in a way that few of today's filmmakers do. Near the middle of the film, Johnson executes a montage that traces Joe's life as he ages from Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Bruce Willis. It is a stunning, purely visual sequence that captures that character's demoralizing tumble into depravity and his eventual rescue. It is a masterful series of shots that are economical and purposeful in a way that few montages are. It also reveals, in short measure, the depth of Johnson's talents. Johnson, for a such a relatively "young" director, is quickly proving himself a maestro of style and substance. His compositions are masterful. His close-ups exquisite.The world he built is distant yet familiar. So much of the craft and artistry that makes Looper amazing comes directly from Johnson's masterful direction, and the quality of the overall experience is enhanced because of Johnson's singular vision.

The remaining strengths of Looper can be traced to the Gordon-Levitt, Blunt, and Willis' amazing performances. Gordon-Levitt continues a banner year with his role as young Joe. Aided by a prosthetic that makes him look like Moonlighting-era Bruce Willis, Gordon-Levitt does a masterful mimic of Willis, capturing all of the sly, self-deprecating mannerisms that have madeWillis such an endearing talent. Beyond his interpretation of Willis, Gordon-Levitt brings a squinty soulfulness to Joe that occurs at the dangerous intersection between naivete and ambition. Joe is clearly a man possessed by short-sightedness, but he is not an evil, amoral man; he is simply practical and desperate, traits which Gordon-Levitt so subtly imbues in Joe that they may go unnoticed. Meanwhile, Willis brings his signature slyness, wry wisecracks, and exasperated cool to older Joe, but this time he saddles his character with a thick melancholy and a desperate level of obsession. What's great about Willis' performance is that his Joe is not limited to those typical Willis moments. There are scenes where he is lost in love then there are a few where he is so consumed with rage that it's hard for the audience to empathize with him. Blunt, on the other hand, continues to show why she is such a valuable component of any production. Her poise and rawness makes Sara accessible, but it is the moments where she is most vulnerable that show just how great she is. Her Sara is just as wounded as Joe, but she has a resoluteness that carries Sara through some very challenging moments, partcularly with the amazingly poised Pierce Gagnon.

From performances to direction to story, Looper is a complete package, an incomparable experience that demonstrates the best of what film can be. Granted, the film is enthusiastically dense with a second act that drags slightly, and some might even find this hews too closely to Terminator. I would encourage those who find these to be points of consternation to recognize that these are only minor snags in a fantastic masterwork. Looper should make Rian Johnson a hot commodity, he surely deserves to be, but if it doesn't, cinema, as a whole, will certainly suffer for it.

The In Between Notes:

• The future is indeed drab, but it must be pretty bad when Miatas are considered classics
• Blunderbusses, gats? Are we talking about guns or Steampunk cosplay props?
• I feel worse for Willis having to sport the ridiculouos wrestler comb over for a scene than I do for Gordon-Levitt's probiscous prosthetic
• SLIGHT SPOILER: Hopefully, Hollywood can now drop its pursuit of remaking Akira.

Comic Con Day 2 (Day 1 for us) Report

Comic Con belongs to the young. But, it sure enough goes out of its way to make you want to be at least ten to fifteen years younger.

There are few experiences as simultaneously thrilling and painful as shuffling through the crowds on the Exhibit Hall floor of San Diego's expansive convention center to make your way to a, at least, thousand-person line that seems to go nowhere. By the end of the day, your feet feel like they've been stabbed by hot needles and your back is almost numb. But, the waiting and shuffling is all worth the pain, as long as you get to see that one panel or actor or creator or toy or video game or, heaven forfend, comic book. Isn't it?

That thought crossed my mind as soon as my girlfriend, Danielle, and I missed Nickelodeon's Legend of Korra panel--yes, we're fans and we're not ashamed, mostly--because Con security cut the line to Ballroom 20, forcing us to mosey around the Exhibit Hall for almost six hours before we managed to get into a 45-minute line to access the elusive Hall H. Between missing the line to Ballroom 20 and capturing two back row seats in Hall H, we managed to find a few bright spots that made our end-of-the-day exhaustion and pain seem almost worth the trouble. Almost.

Highlights:

• Managed to score a print of a cover to the new Cyber Force #1 series by Top Cow Comic founder Marc Silvestri for a meager twenty bucks.  Check it out.

I'm partial to the multiple Crow knock-off characters. Sue me.  I was lucky enough to get this print signed by the artist after waiting in line for about 45 minutes. Standing in line with Art Hunters--those intrepid few who cross the country form convention to convention collecting sketches (some costing upwards of thousands of dollars) and signatures from comic artists--will teach you a lot about patience and devotion. Most art hunters are mega-fans with a ridiculous amount of investment in stories behind the art, and they will bicker about which storylines and characters are the better than others while hounding unshapely cosplayers for a quick picture. Devotion. Patience.

• I played a demo of Square-Enix's upcoming Hong Kong GTA action game, Sleeping Dogs. In ten minutes, I chased a bald dude with a knife through the crowded streets of Hong Kong and broke many a thug's bones. It was great. I'm looking forward to this title probably more than any other movie this summer. 
• We moseyed on over to the least trafficked section of Comic Con: the comic book vendors section. I managed to pick up a cheap hardcover of American Vampire for roughly what it would have cost to buy the same book on Amazon, which was fair.
• We snuck outside to get some air around 3pm, sacrificing the opportunity to be denied a spot in the Ballroom 20 line to see the new Green Arrow show panel. The Gaslamp Quarter just beyond the edge of the Convention Center was almost as packed as the Convention Center and navigating the streets of the Quarter is easily the same as traversing Times Square on a Saturday morning.
• After gulping down a couple of slices or charred pizza, we decided to brave the line to Hall H, which stretched from the side of the convention center to the front of the Hilton behind the Convention Center.  

Thankfully, the line moved swiftly, and we made it into Hall H in time to see the end of the Resident Evil: Retribution panel, which Milla Jovovich dominated with a spark of charisma unseen in most of her onscreen roles.

• Following the Resident Evil panel, Sony delivered a panel around three of its biggest upcoming sci-fi flicks: Total Recall, Looper, and Elysium.

• The Total Recall, a reboot of the Paul Verhoeven-Arnold Schwarzenegger "classic" directd by Len Wiseman, panel brought director Len Wiseman and stars Colin Farrell, Bryan Crnaston, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel to the Hall H stage. Here are the panel highlights:
• Wiseman spoke about building an intricate sci-fi world and differentiating the narrative of the reboot from the original and maintaining the presence of the three-breasted hooker from the 1990 original. 
• Farrell talked about his character's, Doug Quaid, search for identity as well as his efforts to distance his performance from Arnold's, a challenge I'm sure.
• Beckinsale fielded more questions than Biel, mostly centered around being a bad ass action hero in multiple movies.
• Cranston delighted with astute non-sequitirs and glib comments while also promising that his character would be different from the original.
• Wiseman also delivered an extended trailer with a lot of footage that's already available online somewhere, none of which made Total Recall seem all that more spectacular than the mindless diversion it is destined to be. (apologies for the grainyness--remember, back row seats.)

• Next, director Rian Johnson, of the impressive Brick; Joseph Gordon-Levitt; and Emily Blunt came out to discuss this September's Looper, the tale of a time-traveling assassin forced to kill his older self, who looks a lot like Bruce Willis--or is it the other way around. Highlights ensue:
• Johnson's goal was to maintain the feel a smaller film despite the scale and scope of Looper, which Gordon-Levitt echoed, and to keep the time travel elements from dominating the narrative.
• Gordon-Levitt, a frighteningly smart guy who seems far too candid and aware to be a movie star, mentioned the challenges of acting as a young Bruce Willis and echoed Johnson's appreication for narrative over spectacle.
• Blunt, also disarmingly smart and candid, shared some interesting insight into going radically against the typical hardy Brits she plays with her role as a Midwestern "bad ass", indeed the most overused word of any comic convention
• The extended trailer for Looper revealed what appears to be a fairly thoughtful yet action packed take on the time traveller's dilemma and looks to be one the better flicks to come out this fall.

• Finally, District 9 director Neil Blomkamp debuted footage from his second major film, Elysium, which stars Matt Damon as man with days to live in a future where the rich have created an exclusive space station that orbits an overpopulated, diseased Earth. 
• Blomkamp briefly expressed an unease with hawking a movie and wished to be in the "darkness" with the fans before debuting the fairly impressive, if typical sci-fi, footage. 
• Damon and co-stars Jodie Foster and Sharlto Coply joined Blomkamp to discuss the importance of creating a flick that was both meaningful and exciting. 
• Overall, the footage was solid, but not exactly revelatory, save for Copley as--you guessed it--a "bad ass". 

After the Elysium screening, we ran back to the Exhibit Hall to snag some free stuff. We did okay, but there's still two more days.