A few weeks before New Year’s, my impression was that 2012 hadn’t been a great year for movies. But, then, I had seen and reviewed fewer films than in previous years, due to my beginning diaconal studies.
Following a late sprint of catching up with some movies I’d missed, I went from wondering how to fill the slots in my “top films” lists to debating what to exclude (and that’s not including the daunting list of notable films I still haven’t seen).
I’ve known since seeing it last April that my favorite film of the year would almost certainly be the latest film from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Belgian brothers recently honored with the Robert Bresson Prize, given each year by the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Social Communications to filmmakers whose work attests to the human search for spiritual meaning in life.
After that, though, there’ve been a lot of tough calls. Many titles consigned to the runners-up and honorable mention lists below could easily be swapped higher up, depending on taste. Was Argo or Zero Dark Thirty the best fact-based thriller about a CIA operation in the Middle East? Was the best animated family film with a remarkable father-daughter relationship Pixar’s Brave or Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty?
Was Les Misérables or Anna Karenina the best theatrically inflected adaptation of a sweeping 19th-century European novel? Did Batman or the Avengers have the better superhero blockbuster? Which oddball American filmmaker’s quirky blend of nostalgia and satire was most compelling, Wes Anderson’s or Whit Stillman’s? (This was perhaps the toughest, most personal call.)
Here are my takes. Your mileage may vary.
10 Films That Stood Out
- The Kid With a Bike. The Dardenne brothers’ latest masterpiece is one of their most elegant, universal and morally incisive: an examination of the towering importance of fatherhood in a boy’s life; of the gaping wound left by a father who is less than what his son needs him to be; of the social forces that rush to fill the vacuum; of the difference a person can make simply by saying Yes. Troubled family situation; brief violence; drug references; an obscene word. Subtitles. Teens and up.
- Barbara. Set in 1980s East Germany, Christian Petzold’s tense Cold War drama centers on a brilliant dissident doctor consigned for political reasons to a small rural hospital, where she faces surveillance by a friendly colleague, harassment by much less friendly Stasi officers and unexpected moral complications that jeopardize her plans. Brief sexuality and offscreen sexual encounters (nothing explicit); some crude language. Subtitles. Mature viewing.
- Argo. Ben Affleck directs and stars in a terrific yarn about a daring operation to rescue six Americans during the Iran hostage crisis — with the help of Canada and Hollywood. The film’s secret weapon: It’s both a geopolitical thriller and a fond satire of Hollywood — overtly Hollywood circa 1979, but implicitly Hollywood of today. Frequent, often comically intended obscene language; some profanity; a few violent images. Might be fine for older teens.
- The Avengers. From writer-director Joss Whedon, the year’s biggest superhero blockbuster is also, by my lights, the year’s most sheerly entertaining popcorn film — a winning blend of well-crafted spectacle, sharply sketched characterizations, sparkling banter and even some moral resonance. Much intense action violence and mayhem; limited cursing and crass language; a couple of suggestive references. Teens and up.
- The Secret World of Arrietty. Studio Ghibli’s ultra-gentle adaptation of Mary Norton’s Borrowers stories has the year’s most winsome animated heroine, with gorgeous artwork (and sound design) making the trappings of an ordinary house even more magical than medieval Scotland. A true gift to family audiences, from the youngest viewers to their grandparents. A couple of mildly frightening moments. Fine family viewing.
- Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis’ seemingly effortless embodiment of the most mythologized of American presidents anchors Steven Spielberg’s best film in at least a decade, a sharp depiction of the sometimes messy realities of the democratic process. Brief graphic depictions of battlefield violence and aftermath; an obscenity; some profane and crude language and racial epithets; a depiction of cohabitation. Older teens and up.
- Damsels in Distress. Whit Stillman’s first film in 13 years is a daffily absurdist Ivy League campus comedy roasting postmodern Western decadence in overtly Romanesque terms, obliquely lobbing bombs at targets ranging from the therapeutic culture to sterile sex (here linked to the Cathari heresy!). Sexually themed dialogue and implied sexual encounters (nothing explicit); references to mental illness and suicide; some cursing and crass language; a comic scene of self-inflicted violence. Mature viewing.
- Planet of Snail. Possibly the year’s gentlest, most inspiring love story, documentarian Yi Seung-jun’s quiet film follows an extraordinary Korean couple helping each other with very different handicaps — one blind and deaf, the other with dwarfism related to a spinal condition — amid activities ranging from everyday tasks and recreation to religious studies and church events. Marriage is seldom so beautiful onscreen. Subtitles. Nothing problematic, but not for kids.
- I Wish. A bittersweet tale of childhood hopefulness and hard realities, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s contemplative ensemble story focuses on a pair of brothers separated by divorce. Amid longings for a better world, the brothers and their friends embark on a road trip to witness the passing of two high-speed bullet trains, a portent like a falling star that they hope will make their wishes come true. Potentially stressful themes, including divorce, family separation, parental irresponsibility and drinking; a dead pet; mild language. Subtitles. Older kids and up.
- Anna Karenina. Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard’s inspired choice to couch Tolstoy’s great Russian novel as a semi-stagebound British stage production serves the material well on many levels, thematic, narrative and visual. Like the source material, it’s morally serious without moralizing, feeling Anna’s pain without excusing her faults or scapegoating her flawed but noble husband. Some sexuality and fleeting rear nudity; a grisly train accident and a later similar incident; limited profanity and cursing. Mature viewing.
10 Runners-Up (in alphabetical order)
- Beasts of the Southern Wild. First-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin’s visually dazzling depiction of the harshness and beauty of Louisiana life beyond the levees, starring astonishing 6-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis. Older teens and up.
- Brave. Pixar’s first fairy tale, a magical parable about the dangers of pride and anger, the need to accept responsibility and admit mistakes, and even filial piety. Older kids and up.
- The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan’s ambitious, grandiose finale to his Batman trilogy. Older teens and up.
- Elena. Andrei Zvyagintsev’s darkly mesmerizing tale of mix-and-match family loyalties, money and class in post-Soviet, postmodern Moscow. Older teens and up.
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi. An eye-opening look at the dedication and craft of one of the world’s foremost sushi masters. Nothing problematic, but not for kids.
- Les Misérables. Tom Hooper’s lavish adaptation of the popular musical, rife with Catholic motifs, with strong support from Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Samantha Barks. Mature audiences.
- Moonrise Kingdom. Wes Anderson’s most accessible film to date, and one of his best, a quirky, sometimes painful story of a special bond between two troubled 12-year-olds. Mature viewing.
- The Queen of Versailles. Lauren Greenfield’s astonishing documentary portrait of a super-rich family and the ups and downs of too much money. Teens and up.
- Skyfall. Daniel Craig’s third outing as James Bond, thematically and emotionally a cut above most franchise installments, highlighted by Roger Deakins’ gorgeous cinematography. Mature viewing.
- Zero Dark Thirty. Kathryn Bigelow’s commanding dramatization of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, starring Jessica Chastain as a driven CIA analyst. Mature viewing.
Honorable Mention
- Arbitrage. A smart, morally thoughtful white-collar crime thriller starring Richard Gere, from first-time writer-director Nicholas Jarecki. Mature viewing.
- A Cat in Paris. An animated French thriller featuring a dashing catburglar, a traumatized young girl and the cat who belongs to them both. Older kids and up.
- First Position. Bess Kargman’s uplifting documentary about young ballet dancers competing for awards and scholarships. Fine family viewing.
- For Greater Glory. The long-untold story of Mexico’s Cristero War, starring Andy Garcia and directed by Dean Wright. Older teens and up.
- Frankenweenie. Tim Burton’s loving stop-motion homage to classic monster movies. Teens and up.
- The Impossible. A grueling, fact-based survival story set during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. Mature viewing.
- Monsieur Lazhar. A moving exploration of a new teacher’s efforts to help middle-school students cope with a teacher’s suicide. Teens and up.
- The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Aardman Animations’ bonkers stop-motion swashbuckling comedy. Fine family viewing.
- Ruby Sparks. A provocative rom-com deconstruction of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” stereotype, written by and starring Zoe Kazan. Mature viewing.
- The Turin Horse. Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr’s self-declared final film, a bleak, rural apocalypse with inverted Genesis 1 themes. Mature viewing, I guess.
Steven D. Greydanus is the Register's film critic.
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Ha ! All the movies I saw in theaters in 2012 are on your list !
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But then again that’s not that much extraordinary considering I only saw 3 movies in theaters in 2012 : The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and Anna Karenina. Loved all 3 of them, glad to see them on your list.
Thibaud:
In the words of the knight in Last Crusade, “You have chosen … wisely.”
Note: The Kid with a Bike is now streaming on Netflix. Barbara, Argo and Lincoln are still in theaters. Many of the others are on DVD, or will be within a month or so.
I’m shocked - shocked! - that The Master is nowhere to be found.
Good list, though. I’m especially interested by your description of Planet of Snail; I do quite a bit of reading about movies but I haven’t even heard of that one.
Pachyderminator:
Thanks, and thank you for calling out Planet of Snail, a movie that went almost completely unnoticed by everyone, and was my very last discovery before finalizing the list. (Props to Victor Morton for bringing it to my attention.)
If there is one film on my list readers are almost guaranteed not to have heard of, let alone seen — yet which I would emphatically say “See it when you can!” — it would be Planet of Snail.
The rapport between these two people is just amazing — the way she “types” on his fingers in tactile Braille to communicate, the way they’re just so in tune with each other. There’s an unforgettable “set piece” where they struggle to replace a ring-shaped fluorescent bulb that she can’t reach and he can’t see — and then you reflect that the whole joint enterprise was for something that only benefits one of them. Which is nice, because a lot of the time she’s the one helping him. It turns out he’s an accomplished essayist and poet, too. The background Christianity is icing on the cake.
Planet of Snail debuts on home video February 12.
P.S. The Master is among the many films of 2012 I never caught up with, so I have no contribution to make, direct or indirect, to the brouhaha over that film. (Except very indirectly, I suppose, by my decision not to prioritize seeing it.)
For Greater Glory deserved more than an Honorable Mention. I thought it one of the better films I have viewed and opened a period of martyrdom I was not familiar with until the movie was made. It certainly was violent, but , is there any martyrdom that is not violent.
I see that its IMDb page has a rating from only 95 users. For comparison, the comparatively obscure Turin Horse has almost 5,000.
Any chance of a full review coming?
Hi SDG,
I am glad to see you enjoyed Damsels in Distress. I love Whit Stilman’s earlier films, but have not yet been able to see this one. PS, did you know that Barcelona, long out of print on DVD is recently available through warner’s print on demand DVD service?
Charles:
I was as generous to For Greater Glory as I could possibly be. Also, violence was not the reason it didn’t rate higher. Read my review (and ensuing discussion) for more.
Pachyderminator:
Thanks for that eye-opening analysis of Planet of Snail‘s obscurity. I will do what I can to correct that.
I will do my best to write something by the DVD release date, February 12.
Josh Wilson:
FWIW, Damsels is tonally quite different from Stillman’s earlier films, overtly satiric and silly, though still unmistakably Stillman. (Suz, who is not a Stillman fan, recognized his hyper-erudite cadences walking through the room while I was screening the DVD.)
I hadn’t even heard of print on demand DVD. Thanks for the heads up.
I’m off to see Lincoln with my bro this Saturday, hopefully. Looking forward to it - just finished Team of Rivals so I can be all knowing and superior when I see it.
BTW, what did you think of Zero Dark Thirty’s take on torture? As in, against or for? Or neutral?
Great to see Anna Karenina included. That was my most pleasant surprise of the year. I thought I was going to hate it, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.
Out of curiosity: was The Hobbit considered for an honorable mention?
I just have to say, your yearly top 10 always provides my husband and I with our viewing for the year to come. We are working students with a bunch of kids and hardly any free time. Wasting an evening with a bad movie has become intolerable for us. Your lists never let us down, so many, many thanks to you!
The Warner Archive sells a lot of old stuff: obscure movies and old TV shows, mostly stuff that is not today commercially viable for a DVD release. Probably for good reason in a lot of cases. But there are some good things in there too. Here’s the link to Barcelona:
http://www.wbshop.com/product/barcelona+1000298919.do
Harry: I think ZD30 handles the torture scenes well. The movie is honest about what happened, but doesn’t tell they viewer want to think about it.
Evan: Yes, Anna was one of my happier surprises too. I rated The Hobbit B-minus; I am pleased to note that nothing in honorable mention rates less than B-plus. I’ll be listing The Hobbit in “Also worth mentioning” when I finish pulling the titles together.
Sarah: Glad to hear it! Thanks!
Beasts of the Southern Wild… really? IMO the only astonishing thing about that movie was the complete and utter dysfunction of not only a family but an entire community. It is a tragically sad movie that continues to get sadder and more dysfunctional the longer you watch it, culminating with the girl sending her fathers dead body away on their make-shift boat.
Patti.RCIA:
There’s certainly dysfunction in Beasts of the Southern Wild, but also something primal and beautiful in its celebration of beauty and celebration, of community and self-reliance, of closeness to the earth. No film with a heroine as magnificent as Hushpuppy deserves to be dismissed, even if it’s not everyone’s cuppa.
Maybe it’s because I can relate to Hushpuppy on so many levels that I feel the way I do about the movie. Some may say “being a victim is a choice”, or in your words call her “a heroine”, I happen to disagree.
Patti.RCIA:
I can absolutely understand how one’s personal history could make one recoil from a movie like this. I’ve seen similarly visceral repudiations of other difficult films based on life experiences, particularly films with abusive or criminal men from Dead Man Walking to The Apostle. For those who’ve known such men, such a film may easily strike too close to home.
I don’t know what you mean by people saying “being a victim is a choice.” Hushpuppy is only six; she’s certainly not morally responsible for anything bad that happens to her. That said, reducing her to a victim seems, well, reductive to me. In my experience, most people who appreciate Beasts of the Southern Wild admire her; are in awe of her, even.
Thanks for the shoutout on PLANET OF SNAIL, Steve.
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I saw that film last summer at SilverDocs, an all-documentary film festival in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring. And I was able to see it a second time the day after the festival was over (and drag along a mutual friend of Steve and I whom I won’t name Schdavid Schmedberg) because a celebratory post-fest screening was added when the festival jury named it Best Foreign Film. SNAIL also won the prestigious Amsterdam documentary festival and as I type has a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and mostly not from Christian outlets ... its excellence as a marriage / love story is clear to all). SNAIL is a film that very few people have seen, but one that everybody who has seen it likes.
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Among the many wonderful things about SNAIL that Steve doesn’t mention, or mentions in between the lines, is that this is not only a film about a happy marriage between two good people (rare enough in itself) but it’s also a fun film about people relaxed enough in themselves to laugh and let their hair down. The first scene, before we’ve had any indication of who’s who and what’s what, is the couple flying kites. In other words, recreation. And while it’s recreation that presents barriers to them it doesn’t for us, SNAIL presents those barriers matter-of-factly and shows how they get around them.
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But more importantly, the film-maker and the couple find ways to share their fun with us. One of the best scenes not involving a lightbulb shows the couple at a ski lodge, rubber-tubing it down the slopes and Yi puts his camera inside one of the tubes, observing the husband and swirling around with him, and with the world. In another much-praised scene, the husband talks to a tree. That makes it sound silly, but it really isn’t ... he feels its every contour, caressing it with his hands and whispering to it. It’s as if he’s literally in love with the tree. But the scene ends with the wife tricking her husband into throwing pine cones at Yi and his camera. It’s one of the few times the camera is acknowledged in a film that is otherwise almost totally observational—fly-on-the-wall, no voiceover narration, no talking-head interviews, few title cards (and none of them expository ... IIRC there’s a few of the husband’s poetry). But in both scenes, through different means, the audience shares in the couple’s fun, in their love, a love that witnesses to the world. And given the references to the couple’s religiosity, it’s as good a demonstration of “preach the Gospel always, when necessary use words” as I’ve seen in a long time. I’m already thinking I may have under-rated it (it’s #9 for the year for me).
Now for the part that I wanna ask Steve about ... BARBARA, which I would not have put in his wheelhouse.
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I liked the film too, but rather mildly (here’s my review ... 3rd capsule—http://vjmorton.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/toronto-2012-capsules-day-8/). It felt to me a bit emotionally constipated or narratively thin—like THE LIVES OF OTHERS, only a bit more Teutonically frigid. Maybe it was festival fatigue on my part ... it was the 35th or so film I’d seen in 8 days ... but once I remembered how the 3rd act went, it made more sense.
Victor Morton:
Did you know that The Lives of Others made my top 10 list for 2007? Apparently I have a thing for emotionally constipated, narratively thin, Teutonically frigid drama.
Also of course I’m a sucker for the kind of morally resonant storytelling that many of the current crop of German filmmakers seem interested in, either moral awakening, as in The Lives of Others, or conflict between self-interest and moral principle, as in Sophie Scholl and Barbara.
Of course Barbara is reserved. She has to be. Beneath her guarded exterior, though, there’s oceans of conflict, hope and fear. Her emotions are all the more affecting for being beneath the surface. (Her male colleague, of course, is more affable, and a scoundrel, or at least in cahoots with the scoundrels.)
Your capsule calls out a number of the outstanding sequences. How about that bike ride in the forest on the howling windy day? Visually quite lovely, and I’d think the sound design would appeal to you, Mr. Turin Horse.
To clarify (and my wording is at fault ... what I wrote can be read either way) ... I did NOT mean to say THE LIVES OF OTHERS was narratively thin or emotionally frigid. LIVES made my Top 10 too and at least the former of those descriptors is plainly, objectively false (and yeah, a Bela Tarr fanboy doesn’t get to call any movie narratively thin ... I deserved that). What I was saying was the BARBARA was like TLoO—an escape from East Germany story—except that it had these other flaws.
But I’m gonna give BARBARA another look at the weekend, as I’m starting to think I may have under-rated it from Day 8 at Fest Blues. Earlier today, composing my earlier note, I couldn’t think of anything particular wrong with that. Even going back to read my own capsule from September, it reads like someone who liked everything about it but mostly just didn’t *feel it*—and that’s a symptom of Festival Fatigue, according to 4 out of 5 dentists surveyed.
and Head over Heals?
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/a_pro_marriage_oscar_nominee
Cuz it was one of the nominated animated shorts, HEAD OVER HEELS will be released in theaters in early February as part of a program of all the nominated shorts. It’s up against (among others) a Simpsons short and a genuinely great short (PAPERMAN, which played before WRECK-IT RALPH in theaters earlier this year). So HEELS will have a hard time winning, but ... hope springs eternal.
Les Miserables is the best
Great list SDG, wonderful to see so many good titles (as well as a number of which I still need to catch up with).
One question: Did you see my (I think it was half-year) recommendation of ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA?
Benchwarmer: I have to admit, without any prejudice to the film, I only saw about half of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. This was toward the end of my final sprint, and about halfway through I admired the film quite a bit, especially the utterly gorgeous nighttime cinematography, but I was pretty confident I wasn’t watching a top 10 contender and that my remaining hours might be better spent elsewhere. I do intend to finish watching it at some point.
If your family, like mine, is looking for family-friendly videos and/or videos with Catholic themes, I recommend you take a look at Pius Media.
Pius Media has an extensive selection of such movies (both for kids and grown-ups) and screens out the garbage that we want to keep away from our families.
You can find more information about Pius Media here:
http://allhands-ondeck.blogspot.com/2011/09/recommended-piusmediacom-for-catholic.html
Just a quick note that I caught up w Kid On A Bike thru Netflix streaming. Like a fine wine, it resonates more strongly as one reflects upon it (unlike the many disposable comedies out there).. Thanks for the distraction!
But alas, my fave film—The Raid—didn’t make any of your lists. *sigh*.
I might have liked THE RAID more if it had had a scintilla of emotional weight or any excuse for a plot or ... really, anything except nonstop ass-kicking. That said, ass is kicked more effectively and creatively here than in any film in many a moon.
Hi SDG, I saw The Impossible a couple of weeks ago. Often hard to watch, especially since with my disability I would probably not survive an ordeal like that depicted. But, definitely worthwhile, and I think it’s fair to say, the best “disaster movie” I’ve ever seen.
Hey SDG, just curious about your ranking Damsels where you did. Just finished watching it and thoroughly enjoyed it, but my friends that I watched it with that it was terrible/dumb. Any possibility you’ll write a review/make a 60-second segment about it to go into greater detail on what you thought was so good about it? I’m just curious what about it you enjoyed.
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