Top Ten of 2012

I didn't do this last year, but there were too many films I loved not to this year. I also totally cheated with my number 3, but those movies feel like kindred spirits and no one is going to read this anyway. Here's the lists:

The Worst:

10. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

9. WRATH OF THE TITANS

8-1. PROMETHEUS

The "I Have No Clue What You People See In This" Movie of the Year:

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

The "The More I Think About It, The More I Realize It's Not Very Good" Movie of the Year:

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

The Best:

Runners-up: THIS IS 40, MOONRISE KINGDOM, SOUND OF MY VOICE, THE RAID, JOHN CARTER, WRECK-IT RALPH, LES MISERABLES, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, SAVE THE DATE, MISS BALA, HEADHUNTERS, THE INNKEEPERS, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

10. CLOUD ATLAS - Tonally inconsistent and overlong, CLOUD ATLAS still manages to be completely thrilling when The Wachowski's/Tykwer start weaving their stories of love, captivity and the search for freedom together. It's an easy movie to roll your eyes at and dismiss, but it's audaciousness is impossible to deny.

9. THE MASTER - The most hypnotic and challenging movie of the year, as much as I enjoyed watching THE MASTER, it was the discussions I had afterward that made me love it. The acting on display is astounding.

8. YOUR SISTER'S SISTER - Man, Lynn Shelton just has my number as a writer/director. Her aesthetic and themes seem almost tailor-made for me and I'm defenseless against her films, even when they're as flawed as this one. Though it can't equal the excellent HUMPDAY, this follow-up still feels authentic in a way few films do.

7. CABIN IN THE WOODS - The rare horror film that works as both text and subtext, the film completely dissects the horror genre-- and what the audience wants from it-- all the while being unbelievably entertaining. The last act is a horror nerd's wet dream.

6. 21 JUMP STREET - What could've been a lazy rehash of a crappy TV show is instead the funniest and easily most rewatchable movie of the year. Jonah Hill is reliably funny, but it's Channing Tatum that's truly surprising with a hilarious, and oddly vulnerable, performance.

5. THE AVENGERS - The most fun I've had in a movie theater in YEARS, this is the movie I dreamed of when I was a little geeky kid, and the fact that it's ridiculously entertaining without insulting your intelligence is just one of it's MANY strengths.

4. DJANGO UNCHAINED - Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, this may just be Tarantino's most mature movie to date. The film walks an incredibly tricky line of being wildly entertaining while constantly reminding the audience of the undeniable horrors of the slave trade. It doesn't hurt that DiCaprio gives the performance of a lifetime as the despicable Calvin Candie.

3. (TIE) TAKE THIS WALTZ/MARGARET -
WALTZ- A portrait of a deeply flawed woman questioning her deeply flawed marriage, Sarah Polley's 2nd film has no easy answers and never lets it's characters off the hook. Where most films would've ended, Polley takes hers a bit further to show that happy endings really are just stories that haven't ended yet.
MARGARET - An undeniably flawed but absolutely riveting snapshot of a teenage girl going through a crisis after she holds herself responsible for the death of a random passer-by in NYC. Kenneth Lonergan's long-delayed film is undeniably messy-- and often frustrating--but that serves to make the film feel more alive than almost any other movie this year. 

2. LOOPER - On the surface a stylish and entertaining sci-fi/noir mashup, repeat viewings only serve to deepen Rian Johnson's film with themes of vicious cycles and maternal love. An incredibly game cast push it over the top to be one of the most unique and surprisingly moving films of the year.

1. ZERO DARK THIRTY - Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal manage to make what is essentially a procedural into the most thrilling, engrossing and riveting piece of film-journalism of the year (decade?). It's rare that a movie so impersonal (and not about people in a room just talking about their relationships) hits me so hard, but it's so expertly assembled and performed you have to remind yourself you're watching a fictionalized version of the hunt for Bin Laden. The fact that it feels wrong to use the word "fictionalized" in that last sentence shows what a towering achievement the film is.