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Staff Selections: 2012 The Year in Review

Andrew

A Separation
  1. A SeparationOscar-winning Iranian drama that is as profoundly insightful as it is formally precise. Indisputably brilliant.
  2. Another EarthThis much more subjective pleasure could just as well have been my #1, as it engaged my senses (and sense of wonder) like no other.
  3. Margin CallA white-collar thriller of many layers and attributes, this is the most audacious writer-director debut in recent memory.
  4. Take ShelterExpertly directed, this compulsive tale of paranoia and survivalism is a textbook example of America's 'cinema of unease'.
  5. The ArtistAn immaculately conceived silent film pastiche perfectly tailored to my taste!
  6. Cloud 9Courageous and beautifully devised German drama about the illicit sex life of an elderly couple.
  7. PinaExquisite dance documentary that matches inspirational content with innovative form.
  8. Sleepless NightA supple yet exciting French crime thriller that dispatched and disarmed its machismo with finesse and wit.
  9. The Tree of LifeThis reaches for the stars and almost touches - we don't have Kubrick anymore but we do have Mallick.
  10. The Woman in BlackThe best 'Hammer Horror' in fifty years, this ghost story pulls out all the stops to be aesthetically rich and hair-raisingly scary.

Coulda been contenders: Chronicle, Attack the Block, Troll Hunter, Le Quattro Volte, Eames: The Architect and the Painter, Shihad: Beautiful Machine, Arrietty, The Trip, Prometheus, Submarine, The Descendants, Last Train Home, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Best catalogue: Urgh! A Music War (1981), Lisztomania (1975)

Tim

This is Not a Film
  1. This is Not a FilmMade in captivity, this erroneously titled piece of contraband is much more than a film - it's a defiant expression of creative freedom and the still endless possibilities of cinema.
  2. Take ShelterIn a year full of doomsday narratives, none were more convincing, literal, and terrifying than this Midwest vision of End times, a rational masterpiece of irrational behavior.
  3. Mysteries of LisbonThe late Raul Ruiz's labyrinthine costume drama not only makes Downtown Abbey look like daytime television; it proves that brevity is hugely overrated.
  4. MargaretAnother long-form narrative triumph that lurches like a creaky roller coaster, yet from moment to moment (and performance to performance), is truly unforgettable.
  5. Once Upon a Time in AnatoliaA stunning return to form for Turkish auteur Ceylan, a specialist in blue-ribbon existential angst.
  6. The Turin HorseBela Tarr's final film. End of story.
  7. MoneyballThe eternal themes of baseball are struck out of this dream-dashing sports anti-drama, as unromantic as it is pragmatic about the changing world.
  8. Weekend An archetypal, yet organically grown same-sex romance whose point is that no asterisk should ever be required.
  9. Le Quattro VolteA miraculous feat of minimalist doco-fiction open to the possibility of life becoming art—and a sheepdog receiving a best actor Oscar nod.
  10. Last Train Home This high watermark in recent Chinese documentary cinema finds real chaos and despair amidst the great migration of a hundred million workers.

Best of the Rest: Arrietty, Love Like Poison, The Forgiveness of Blood, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, The Sunset Limited, Pina, The Raid, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Nostalgia For the Light, 13 Assassins, Treeless Mountain, Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl, Tokyo Sonata, The Innkeepers, Haywire, Young Adult, Hugo, Cabin in the Woods, Terri, Best TV: The Story of Film, Enlightened, Community, The Trip…

Svenda

Position Among the Stars
  1. Position Among the StarsOne chunk in an epic trilogy of joy and struggle, which, like the best of Terrence Malick's films, presents us with that eternal "war in the heart of nature".
  2. The InnkeepersA moody and endlessly absorbing horror movie which gorgeously reflects the listless ennui of working in a near-defunct historic hotel.
  3. This is not a FilmAn inquisitive investigation of film philosophy, Iranian culture and the domestication of giant lizards, which aptly demonstrates the creative flowering which can arise from severe limitations
  4. The Forgiveness of BloodImpressively presents a local Albanian cultural setting with authenticity and detail, where the an ancient social code of blood vengeance lingers awkwardly into present-day rural life.
  5. Colossal YouthA strange Portuguese treasure which enjoyably embodies the post-punk ethos of the quietly exquisite Young Marble Giants album it was named after.
  6. This is England '88Shane Meadows' gritty and glossy stories of youth in 1980's England overflow with glorious (neo) romanticism.
  7. Dollhouse (TV Series)Moving ever closer to a tech-apocalypse which is explored posthumously in a series of comics, this show overflows with thought-provoking sci-fi twists, jam-packed ever more desperately as it approaches its cancellation point after two seasons.
  8. Take ShelterSuperb representation of the psychological obsession with the end-times.
  9. MarwencolThe enjoyably awkward relationship between "life" and "art" provides great insight into the way one person processes trauma.
  10. Troll HunterTerrifying and informative documentary about the rarely-seen multi-headed mountain trolls of Western Norway.

Runner Ups: The Avengers, The Turin Horse, Cabin in the Woods, Another Earth, One Upon a Time in Anatolia, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Shirin, Sound it Out, Jane Eyre, Kill List, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Homeland (TV), Justified (TV), Best catalogue: World on a Wire (1973), Deep End (1970).

Misma

Marwencol
  1. MarwencolEverything one could hope for in a documentary, a stupendous, endlessly endearing, surprising, funny, moving as all hell, humbling gem of a film!
  2. Of Gods And MenLuminously austere, this factual account of trappist monks embracing death is filled with a watchful beauty I rarely find in films.
  3. Le Quattro VolteThe grace and humour in every frame of this not-quite story of the transmigration of souls will transfix you to your very core. Watching I felt as if I never cared for anything as much as that lost little goat!
  4. A SeparationMasterfully told Iranian film that begins with a couple seeking a divorce. The cultural differences fascinate, but it's the abundantly insightful understanding of human motivations and behavior that grips from the first moment on.
  5. Anton Chekhov's The DuelFilmed in so sublime a place it almost hurt to look upon it, this seductive, cutting film is such great fun, with the devilishly brilliant Andrew Scott giving my favourite performance of the year.
  6. Tree Of LifeMaddening to so many, I delighted in every rapturous moment of Malick's celestial masterpiece.
  7. TomboyDisarmingly naturalistic, observational story of a young girl in a new town passing herself off as the boy she yearns to be, swaggering on the basketball courts as the end of the summer holidays loom ever closer.
  8. The Woman With The 5 ElephantsIntimate portrait of the wizened translator of Dostoevsky's novels, approaching the end of her twilight years yet still enchantingly insightful about language, literature and life.
  9. The FutureAs with all things July offers, there is much silliness and surrealism here and underneath sadness and a great sympathy for the dark heart in all of us.
  10. How I Ended This SummerPoetic Russian thriller (aren't you sold already?) darkly witty and set in an Arctic wilderness so beautiful and severe it might drive anyone to hysteria.

Bubbling under:Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, The Forgiveness of Blood, The Sunset Limited, Margaret, Jane Eyre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Weekend, Take Shelter, Carnage, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Moonrise Kingdom, Nostalgia for the Light, Buck...

Further recommendations...

The Genteel: Midnight in Paris, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Cherry Blossoms, Chinese Takeaway, Footnote, Letters to Father Jacob, The Well-Digger's Daughter, The Salt of Life, Trishna.

The Grown-Up: A Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, Carnage, The Deep Blue Sea, The Eye of the Storm, Cafe de Flore.

The Growing-up: The Art of Getting By, Like Crazy, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Jess + Moss, The Kid with a Bike, Goodbye First Love.

Brit-crime: The Fades, Father and Son, Five Days, The Hour, The Jury, The Shadow Line, Zen.

Scandi-crime: Headhunters, Jackpot, Lulu and the Bank Robber, Last Will, Easy Money, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US).

Scandi-drama: Melancholia, A Somewhat Gentle Man, King of Devil's Island, Le Havre, A Royal Affair, The Human Resources Manager.

Girl Trouble: The Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman, My Week With Marilyn, Tabloid, We Are the Night.

Man vs. Wild: Contagion, The Grey, The Hunter.

Man vs. Evil: Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Attack the Block, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Bourne Legacy, The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Sky.

Man vs. Technology: Real Steel, In Time, John Carter.

Good clean fun: Men in Black 3, Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Muppets, The Pirates! - Band of Misfits, Red Dog, War Horse, The War of the Buttons, We Bought a Zoo.

Good unclean fun: Magic Mike, 21 Jump Street, 50/50, The Five-Year Engagement, The Dictator, Ted.

Le Fun: The Women on the 6th Floor, Nothing to Declare, Romantics Anonymous.

The Inspirational: Undefeated, Bill Cunningham New York, Buck, Being Elmo, Life In A Day, The Way, Temple Grandin, Declaration of War.

The Educational: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Into the Abyss, If a Tree Falls, Hell and Back Again, The Tillman Story, The First Grader, The Help.

The Political: Too Big to Fail, The Iron Lady, J. Edgar, Game Change, Client 9, Triangle Wars.

The Militant: The Whistleblower, The Debt, In Darkness, The Round Up.

The Mouth-watering: Jiro Dreams of Sushi, A Matter of Taste, El Bulli - Cooking in Progress.

The Competitive: Bobby Fischer Against the World, TT Closer to the Edge, Fastest, Knuckle, The Tents.

The Ex/Erotic: Shame, House of Pleasures, The Skin I Live In, Sleeping Beauty, Destricted, X.

The Underworldly: Drive, Killer Joe, Rampart, Haywire.

The Well Drawn: The Illusionist, Arthur Christmas, Brave.

The Iconoclastic: Marley, The People vs. George Lucas, Woody Allen - A Documentary.

Lost in Music: Who is Harry Nilsson?, James Rhodes: The Piano Man, Shut Up and Play the Hits, Katy Perry: Part of Me, Paul Kelly: Stories of Me, Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Harry Belafonte: Sing Your Song, In Search of Haydn.

The Homegrown: Good for Nothing, Kiwi Flyer, The Most Fun You Can Have Dying, Rest for the Wicked, Desert, Sam Hunt: Purple Balloon and Other Stories, When a City Falls.

The 'Small Screen': American Horror Story, Awkward, Birdsong, Episodes, Falling Skies, Game of Thrones, Girls, Justified, Luck, Mildred Pierce, Portlandia.


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