Darin's Top Ten Films of 2012

MY TOP TEN FILMS OF 2012

     In 2012 there were a lot of things that I went through.  I fell in love, got married, was hospitalized and moved half was across the country.  It was a year of ups and downs.  I would say the same for the year in film, at times it was some of the most brilliant pieces of art I’ve seen in a while and then at times it was some of the worst there could be.  As bad as it got, the good always overthrew the bad.  This year saw some of the best films and here are my favorite top ten of 2012.  But first here are some honorable mentions.

CASA DE MI PADRE

     Normally I would not mention a Will Ferrell film in my best of list, but I enjoy a few of them. What makes this one so special?  The whole film is spoken in Spanish and is subtitled; Farrell plays a member of a Mexican family whose brother is secretly a drug dealer.  This premise sounds dumb, but the joke works throughout the whole eighty minutes of the film.  It is the funniest film of the year and includes jokes like pretending the film had a low budget and a scene where a narrator reads an apology for not showing a big fight between animals because they didn’t know it was illegal to make them fight.

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME

     This film is good, but what makes it great for me is the theme of believing in fate and that everything happens for a reason.  This film follows Jeff a man with no job, he lives with his mom and is obsessed with fate.  The film does not look down on him, but does acknowledge the ridiculousness of what he believes. The film leaves you with one of the better endings of the year and great performances by all the cast.

ARGO

     Of course I have to put a film where one of the major themes is that movies can save lives.  Ben Affleck, who used to be a joke, has made a new name for himself as a director.  With his third feature he goes out of Boston and makes a film around a true story about rescuing five hostages out of Iran by pretending they are part of a film crew.  It is one of the most thrilling films of the year.  There are a few roll you eye moments but they are overshadowed by the great acting and direction of this film.

LES MISERABLES

     The movie musical, much like the western has faded away as a genre so when one comes around there is a big deal made about it.  It is a story that has been adapted so many different times.  The acting from it is great mostly because all the actors sang the songs live which allowed them to improvise and show more emotion while acting.  It is a well told story even though there is nearly no dialogue in the film, it is all sung.

PARANORMAN

     The one film that barely missed my top ten of the year was also the greatest animated film of the year.  The film is about a kid who can see and talk to the dead.  He is fine with this fact, yet he is still bullied for it and no one believes that he has this power.  The voice acting in this is wonderful and the stop motion animation is fantastic.  The film also benefits by being constantly funny.  The film makes you feel okay about something you might be ashamed of or embarrassed by.  It gives you peace about your strangeness.

Before you go on, here are some movies I didn’t get a chance to see but really wanted to:  AMOUR, COMPLIANCE, CLOUD ATLAS, HOLY MOTORS and LINCOLN

    

10. MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS

     Most of my favorite films are full of emotion, metaphors and complicated characters.  Most of them make you think, which I enjoy very much.  Rarely the films I enjoy are just pure fun.  Josh Weadon’s film Marvel’s The Avengers is the most fun movie that came out in 2012, while still being smart.  The film brings together several characters from previous films such as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor.  Weadon gives every character a moment and tells a great action story.  I like superhero movies, but I rarely love them.  This time it’s different.  I love Marvel’s The Avengers and I would say that it is the greatest superhero movie of all time.

9. SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

     I love film.  I watch all different kinds such as modern, black and white, silent and foreign.  The one genre I am not familiar with is Documentaries.  I’ve seen a few like Dear Zachary, Winnebago Man and Super Size Me.  I love each of these and I would add my number 9 film, Searching for Sugar Man to that list.  At its basics, it is about a musician that makes two records that don’t sell, but then they get widely popular in South Africa. In other ways this film is a modern day Bible story.  This man, named Rodriguez only makes two records and just stops. He has no idea that he basically changed a generation in South Africa. It is rumored in the film that Rodriguez committed suicide while on stage.  The story goes on from there and only gets more interesting.  It is a story that tells us that we can change the world and not even know.  It is one of the most beautiful and uplifting stories I’ve ever heard.

8. ZERO DARK THIRTY

     In 2010 we killed the man responsible for 9/11 almost ten years after the fact.  In 2012 Katharine Bigalow, who directed The Hurt Locker, tackled the struggle of finding and killing Bin Ladin.  In 2012 a major theme in film was remembering 9/11.  The Avengers boldly had an attacker basically trying to destroy New York.  Another superhero film, The Amazing Spider-Man, had Spider-Man saving a city with the help of the citizens.  Ben Affleck’s Argo was about saving Americans from an enemy country.  Bigalow’s film goes deeper into the theme, essentially telling a story about “saving” the world and the reality of stopping the bad guy.  The film ultimately turns into a revenge and obsession tale about getting even for a tragedy, this one being September 11^th and what that obsession could do to your humanity.  It is the greatest directed film of the year and has one of the best performances by Jessica Chastain.

7. THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES

     I saw only two documentaries this year and to my surprise, they both made my list.  The next one is a documentary that starts as a film about a rich family that sets to build the biggest house in the world.  Then the man’s stocks go down and he loses a lot of money.  The film then turns into the struggle of this family financially and emotionally.  Throughout they make cuts, getting rid of maids or selling many of their things.  After a while you really feel bad for these people and you hope they make it.  It’s a film about how no matter what class you are in, no matter your education, no matter your age; we all fall.  We never may get back to where we were, but we can get up and move on.

6. BERNIE

     If you told me that a movie with Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey that is based on a true story and also a comedy would be in my top ten, I would say that you were crazy.  However, this film made it.  That is because this film is unique.  It’s a true story about a murder in a small town that’s tone is a comedy.  It also acts like a criminal recreation while having interviews with the town people.  Usually programs similar are cheesy, but this one works.  Mostly because of the performances, especially from Jack Black who gives the greatest performance of his career.

5. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

     I try to respect all movie genres no matter what their reputation is.  The one I respect the least is the horror genre so when a good one comes around I take notice.  Even with the little amount of good horror films out there I still don’t love many of them.  So when I saw Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods I was shocked how amazing it was.  Much like Wes Craven’s Scream the film is a horror film that is aware of other horror films.  This one goes deep into the state of the horror genre and what the audience and creators bring to it, good and bad.  The film while saying commentary on the genre is also one of the funniest films of the year.

4. DJANGO UNCHAINED

     It was a fun year for film.  Some of that blame can be given because Quentin Tarantino made a film.  All of his films are filled with humor and violence. The more I think about this film, the more I think it is one of his best.  It gives an honest look at slavery while still being really funny.  It might have been the film with the greatest performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Christophe Waltz and Jamie Foxx.  The film also includes the best performance of the year by Leonardo DiCaprio, who leaves his comfort zone to play a silly, yet evil plantation owner.

3. BEAST OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

     Growing up is hard as it is, but when you’re still a little kid it’s probably even harder to do. Beast of the Southern Wild handles growing up in a short amount of time really well.  The film is narrated by the main character, Hushpuppy, who is about seven years old, and lives in a ratty old town with her father.  The films first act is about her explaining her town which they call The Bathtub.  There are many different fantastical elements like a house that almost looks like its floating above the ground or a boat made from a car.  While the movie goes on, these elements slowly go away as does the girl’s innocence as the cold reality sets in.  This is one of the greatest films about growing up and getting through the tough times.

2. THE MASTER

     Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most interesting directors of all time.  The first one I saw was 2007’s There Will Be Blood, which was very odd film.  Then I saw 2002’s Punch Drunk-Love starring Adam Sandler, who I despise, except in this weird film.  With those in mind when I went to see his new film The Master I didn’t know what to expect and when I left I felt the same.  More than any film I spent the most time thinking about this one, wondering what it was about or if I even liked it.  I have not made a full conclusion on all of my feelings about this film, and I might never fully know. This film like most of Anderson’s films has some of the greatest performances of the year.  These are the films I live for; this is why I watch film to figure out what it makes me feel and what I see in it.

1. MOONRISE KINGDOM

With all the things I went through in 2012, the good and the bad, by far the best was getting married, so it’s clear why I picked a romantic comedy for my favorite film.  While being that, there is also so much more to Wes Anderson’s film Moonrise Kingdom.  Anderson, who has made great films all around this year made his most beautiful and emotional film.  The film is about two kids coming from broken homes that try to run away together.  This leads to the parents and a few more adults going on a search for the kids.  This film is about young love.  It also shows how children and adults are not that far apart.  An adult while still sounding grown up has a temper tantrum by trying to chop down a tree, while the two kids form an entire romantic relationship throughout their time getting to know each other.  The chemistry between the two leads is so great that I believe that nothing bad will happen to them.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Review

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Review

By Darin Skaggs

     The romantic comedy genre, once a movie staple, is now a joke and rarely works anymore.  The only way these types of films get any praise or recognition is to try something new. In David O. Russell’s new film Silver Linings Playbook he tries just that.

     Russell’s new film opens with a man in a mental hospital when his mother comes in to take him out.  We find out that the man is in the hospital for anger issues after attacking the man who was having an affair with his wife.  The film progresses and he meets a girl who also has mental problems for the reasons that she has lost her husbands.  He signs up with her for a dance contest in exchange for giving his wife letters because of a restraining order.

     The film has some great performances by mostly everyone.  Robert De Niro gives one of his greatest performances in years.  The two leads of the film give some of the best.  Bradley Cooper, who I only have seen in The Hangover, does great at being a recovering man with anger issues.  Jennifer Lawrence is great as usual, her being one of the only good parts of The Hunger Games.  Everyone else does fine work, despite some of the dialog not being real good. 

     The story is good.  All the exploration of dealing with anger issues and people knowing all about the issues is handled well.  They explore the loss of someone you love, both with them just leaving and with them passing away.  These parts of the film are great and highlight of the film.  The problem with the story is when some of the comic moments come in to play.  There is a character played by Chris Tucker that keeps being “let out” of the mental hospital that Cooper was being held in.  These moments in the film are played for comedy to lighten the mood, but the majority of them fall flat.

     The film works most of the time.  Then there is a point where it all falls apart.  Throughout the film there are not many stakes.  Then comes a scene where everything comes together and the stakes are finally raised.  To raise the stakes there is a bet that is made.  The stakes seem very low and forced to add some tension for the conclusion of the film.  This is where the film falls apart.  There are some nice moments after this scene but the majority of them are just cliché filled and predictable.

     The film is nice and a fun time.  The jokes mainly don’t work well, even though the film is very well acted.  The film is a good time, but not a great time.  The film is not the best but still beats more than the average romantic comedy.

DJANO UNCHAINED Review

DJANGO UNCHAINED Review

By Darin Skaggs

     Some directors make one movie a year, others take longer.  One of those directors is Quentin Tarantino, who has made seven films in sixteen years, the last one being 2009’s Inglourious Basterds.  Now he has come out with his new film Django Unchained.  This is yet another great addition to Tarantino’s film collection.

     On previous occasions he has dealt with gangsters, bank robbers, samurais and most recently Nazis.  With this new outing Tarantino has tackled slavery.  The film starts with a group of slaves traveling across the desert plains.  Eventually a man comes asking to take away one of the slaves named Django.  His name is Dr. King Schultz who ends up being a bounty hunter and takes Django so he could identify some men and kill them.  They team up and eventually devise a plan to find Django’s wife and get her back.

     Like most of Tarantino’s films this film is darkly funny, overtly violent and has great music.  Also like all the other of his films the acting is brilliant.  This film contains some of the greatest performances of the year.  Christophe Waltz plays the great Dr. Shultz, the bounty hunter pretending to be a dentist, Jamie Foxx playing the title role, Samuel L. Jackson with an amazing performance as a loyal slave.  The best performance comes as a surprise from Leonardo DiCaprio.  He leaves his comfort zone and plays a straight up bad guy that is really goofy and funny. 

     Even though this film is funny and entertaining some things keep you distracted from fully enjoying the film.  The film is set two years before the Civil War.  Slavery is a big part and Tarantino keeps the dialogue accurate.  The N-word is thrown around constantly in the film.  It makes sense for the time, but still is used so often that it is sometimes uncomfortable.  There is also, mostly towards the finale of the film, a lot of violence.  It is shocking and sometimes hard to watch all of the violence go down.  These are staples of Tarantino’s filmmaking so hardcore fans will not be disappointed, but people not familiar with his work might be offended.

     As entertaining as this film is, the morality of the film is questionable.  In Tarantino’s previous film Inglourious he made a revenge tale on the Nazi’s.  It felt like he was punishing them for what they did.  This film looked like it was a revenge tale on slavery and racism.  There is a possibility that this was never the intention, but sometimes the film just seems like an excuse to be violent and just happens to be set in the time of slavery.

     Tarantino has made another great film with some insane violence. It features some of the best performances of the year. This is one of the top movies of the year and top three of Tarantino’s.

LES MISERABLES Rerview

LES MISERABLES Review

By Darin Skaggs

     The musical movie genre was once the king of the movie business in the 1950’s with classics like Singin’ in the Rain, Gigi and The Sound of Music.  Ever since then it slowly disappeared.  In the early 2000’s however it has made somewhat of a comeback with movies like Moulin Rouge!, Chicago and Once.  The majority of these films are filled with silliness and humor with little drama.  Rarely does a musical explore drama full on.  Tom Hooper, the director of The King’s Speech, tries to accomplish this with his new effort Les Miserables and with very much success.

     Les Miserables is a musical adapted from a stage musical that is adapted from a stage play that was adapted from a novel written hundreds of years ago.  Clearly this story has been told many different times and this is just one more addition to the many adaptations.

     The story begins with hundreds of slaves pulling a huge boat into shore.  In this scene we met Jean Valjean a criminal slave, played by Hugh Jackman, and Javert a prison guard, played by Russell Crowe.  Valjean is released on parole; he has a change of heart after meeting a forgiving priest.  He meets a women and promises to protect her daughter.  Obviously it’s called Les Misribles, or translated it’s called The Retched Ones so things get worse from there.

     Tom Hooper makes a very risky decision for the filmmaking process.  Instead of prerecording the songs he made the actors sing on set and record them live. Luckily this worked out great, you could see what the characters were going through and the occasional cracks in people voice fit with the emotions they were feeling, with one exception.

     The singing and acting in this film is pure brilliance.  All the kids and young adults were great along with a wonderful performance by Hugh Jackman.  The greatest performance of the film is Anne Hathaway.  Her early big song gets your emotions to just the right place and that song called “I Dreamed a Dream” carries that feeling throughout the rest of the film.  There are lesser performances from the comic relief played by Sasha Baron Coen and Helen Boman Carter, which does not keep in tone with the film as a whole.  The worst performance comes from Russell Crowe.  His singing is alright, but they could have found someone with a better voice.  He is stiff and looks really awkward during the entire course of the film. It feels like there was a point where Hooper regretted his decision but didn’t have the heart to fire Crowe.  His character felt like he should have been bigger but he just felt like a side character that was inconveniencing Valjean’s life.

     The transitions in the film are on the weak side.  The film has a lot of big moments and goes from one big scene to the next with no breathing room.  Some of the character development is not believable.  I don’t know how the book or play is but characters earn each other’s trust way too quickly throughout the film.  They could have added more scenes to add to the story and character development.  The film also has many close-ups while a character is having big monologue type moments.  Some of these don’t work, but the majority of them work really well.  I think Hooper did this because you can’t get that close on a stage. He wanted the viewer to see all the emotion on the face of the characters.

     The film is a great achievement and a step up from his 2010 film The King’s Speech.  It has amazing sets, great looking costumes and make up.  The songs in the film are beautiful and moving; the acting is some of the year’s best and should deserve to win some Oscars.  I love a good musical and I am glad to add this one to the list.