As much as I understand the purpose of making year-end best-of lists, and am all for them, I always dread doing one. I’m almost never satisfied with my picks. Once I’ve completed the list, the enthusiasm I feel for these films that I’ve decided are the best of the year, is strangely muted.
I think the reason could be as simple as this: I’m bored by the predictability of most year-end lists (mine included). They all tend to be interchangeable, featuring the same films over and over again. I look at these lists and think “Jesus, do I need to see another list with Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty and The Master in the Top 3”? There’s ultimately no value in that for me. Yeah I dig the same films, but if you see one list with The Master in the #1 spot you’ve seen them all. Please show me something I haven’t seen. Surely of all the films made in the world, these can’t be the only Top 10 films in existence in the year 2012.
My favourite lists are the ones that make me go WHHAAAT? I’m looking for oddball choices and fresh perspectives. A list that says something about the viewer. That’s attractive to me because it’ll pique my curiosity: “This person likes X movie which no one else has mentioned/seen so there must be something interesting about it that deserves further investigation”. A good example would be this list Alamo Drafthouse’s Sam Prime provided for Badass Digest. Big hitters like Holy Motors and The Master are on there, but also unusual, offbeat picks like 4:44: Last Day on Earth, Turn Me On, Dammit! and Madonna’s universally trashed W.E. Now I’m weirdly curious about W.E, a film I previously had no intention of ever seeing, but which he apparently found “mesmerizing”.
Madonna's W.E.: "mesmerizing"?
The other type of year-end list I’m particularly fond of are the “favourite discoveries of the year” lists, such as the ones over at the Rupert Pupkin Speaks blog. Film fans, writers and programmers send in a list of films they’ve discovered for the first time and loved, and I usually wind up, excitedly, adding more films to my to-watch list. Then there are those obsessive stats-driven posts like this that I can definitely get behind just because I myself am or can be similarly obsessive.
A couple of years ago when I tried to do a Top 10 and struggled to remember what I had seen during the year, I decided to start a film log on Google Docs:
The last time I kept one was way back in the day in a scrapbook that didn’t have the benefit of sortable filters (if you’re wondering, V = VHS, LD = Laser Disc, SKY = SKY TV):
Having a handy film log, I can sleep soundly at night now, knowing I can share the following bits of info with you:
Number of movies watched in 2012: 263, down 13 from 2011.
Seen in a theatre: 58
First movie: A Pure Formality
Last movie: House of Pleasures
Rewatches: 51
Lowest rated (0 out of 5): Shaitani Dracula, Bat Pussy.
…and so forth.
Anyway, I’ve never really had the chance to do one of these “year in review” things on my own terms, so without further ado (and in no particular order)…
TOP 10 FILMS OF 2012 THAT’S SORT OF LIKE EVERYONE ELSE’S
I guess this would be what you’d call the “official” one. Though I’m already scratching my neck and umming at some of the picks. No notes for these since you probably know what they are.
A Separation
Zero Dark Thirty
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
This is Not a Film
The Raid
Searching for Sugar Man
Holy Motors
Killer Joe
Margaret
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
TOP 10 RECENT/NEW-ISH FILMS THAT TOOK ME BY SURPRISE AND COULD EASILY REPLACE ANY OF THE ABOVE
This list in no way represents films of lesser quality to the ones above. It’s a parallel/alternate list. An if-I-could-fit-20-films-on-a-top-10 list.
Road to Nowhere – Elegant, spellbinding film-within-film puzzle movie from Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop), his first feature film in 20 years. Hollywood noir taken to nebulous deep end.
Jess + Moss – Clay Jeter’s debut somehow got lost in the shuffle this year (the DVD came out from Vendetta Films here around the same time it was released theatrically in the States!). Equal parts Terrence Malick and Harmony Korine, this coming-of-age indie is a work of warm, decaying beauty that’ll be of interest to anyone into low-budget experimental filmmaking.
Warrior – Brothers duking it out in the mixed-martial-arts ring, a recovering alcoholic father at the centre = one of the most tremendously entertaining sports dramas in ages. Hackneyed material elevated by fantastic acting and the right amount of fist-pumpin’ rah-rah excitement.
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Files – Suitably obsessive doco tracking down the Banksy-esque phenomenon who’s been placing cryptic tiles all over the streets of the US. A British historian, a David Mamet play and short wave radio transmissions are all involved in this intriguing, tantalising, mind-expanding mystery.
Chronicle – Two genres I’m exceedingly wary of – the Found Footage and Superhero – are brought together in smart, imaginative ways. Like Project X with a brain, with enough goosebump-raising moments to make it the best of its ilk since Cloverfield.
Sleepless Night – Best actioner of the year next to The Raid. Simple premise (cop rescuing son from drug dealers in a nighclub), bursting with no-bullshit, knife-to-throat adrenalin. Hand-held camerawork done right.
House of Pleasures – Dreamy, engrossing, richly episodic trip into a turn-of-the-century Parisian bordello depicts day-to-day life of working girls without judgement. Drips with opium den-like atmos.
Arbitrage – Richard Gere’s best in ages. Nothing terribly new thematically – money still corrupts! – but a slick, satisfying, well-crafted thriller that sneaks up on you. Loved seeing Gere playing a retiring rich dude throwing his money around and trying to maneuver himself out of a tight spot.
Pitch Perfect – Comedies rarely make my top 10 lists because I’m generally a moody curmudgeon who finds most comedies out there out of step with my own sense of humour. Basically it takes a lot to make me laugh. If a film can do that consistently, it’s special. Pitch Perfect gets that honour this year. Solid laffs, irresistibly catchy songs and Rebel Wilson.
Beyond the Black Rainbow – Panos Cosmatos’ heady sci-psych-whatsit proudly flaunts its influences: bit of Kubrick here, bit of Carpenter there. But its hazy spell stays in your mind like a bad dream you can’t quite shake, and needless to say there weren’t too many films in the past couple of years that looked and felt like this visually arresting oddity.
TOP 10 FAVOURITE DISCOVERIES OF 2012
Older films seen for the first film that made me go YESSS. This was difficult to pare down ‘cos there were so many.
Camera Buff (1976) – I love Kieslowski but haven’t been acquainted with his pre-A Short Film works until this stunning early feature, about a guy (Jerzy Stuhr, fantastic) who buys an 8mm to film his newborn daughter and becomes obsessed with filming everything. More overtly documentary-like than his later works but it’s as intelligent, probing and profoundly human as anything he’s done, and not to mention, subtly comic.
The Swimmer (1968) – A little-seen, emotionally devastating masterpiece of ‘60s suburban malaise. Exceptional Burt Lancaster performance, and a gut-punch ending that will haunt you for days.
Taking Off (1971) – Previously difficult to see, Milos Forman’s first American film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK last year, and it’s one of his best films, a sharp, thoroughly endearing poke at the generational gap in counterculture America.
Great hippie-folk soundtrack, featuring Kathy Bates (as Bobo Bates) performing a beautiful number.
No Highway in the Sky (1951) – Maybe the greatest film about airplane metal fatigue ever made? To be honest when I first read the synopsis it didn’t sound too enticing but watching Jimmy Stewart as a slightly dotty scientist trying to convince people that the tail of an aircraft is about to fall off was one of the most entertaining 90 minutes I’ve had this year. A gem.
Patty Hearst (1988) – Paul Schrader’s absorbing, stylish, underrated take on the 1974 kidnapping of the newspaper heiress features a great lead performance from the late Natasha Richardson as Hearst, and marvellous support from Ving Rhames and William Forsythe as Symbionese LIberation Army members who took her.
The Other Woman (1954) – The story of Hugo Haas (Czech actor moves to Hollywood to make low-budget movies!) has fascinated me for a while now – he probably deserves a biopic – so I was stoked to finally catch one of his films.
This Tinseltown melodrama is a must if you like your B-noirs dirt-cheap, and it’s much better than you’d expect for someone who’s been called the “foreign Ed Wood”.
Endgame (1983) – Huge Italian post-nuke fan here, and I think I can confidently place this wonderful Joe D’amato movie up there with Escape from the Bronx and 2019: After the Fall of the New York as the best the genre has to offer.
The Door (2009) – It’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in The Twilight Zone directed by Roman Polanski or something. Oh yeah, and time travel is involved. As good and mind-bending as that sounds.
The Nickel Ride (1974) – No fan of low-key ’70s crime flicks should pass this up. See here.
Natural Enemies (1979) – Amazingly downbeat drama starring Hal Halbrook as a magazine publisher who fantasises about offing his entire family. Superb feel-bad time. See here.
