Well, all up it was a pretty good year. We got some good stuff from
Hollywood with superior blockbusters such as The Avengers, The Dark Knight
Rises and Skyfall, there were
some amazing low budget horror films such as American Mary and Excision,
indies such as Martha Marcy May Marlene
and Beasts of the Southern Wild and
great world cinema such as Holy Motors
and A Separation.
Although I have always chosen to ignore the fearmongers who constantly
say that cinema is dead (because I’ve been hearing it ever since I became
interested in cinema, and that was almost twenty years ago), I must admit a
slight concern about the loss of the cinema projectionist. Most cinemas now use
digital projection (which Quentin Tarantino recently derided as “television in
public”) and I do think there is a certain change in the quality of the image,
a change made abundantly clear when I was able to see an actual film print of
John Carpenter’s The Thing at the
Alamo Drafthouse earlier this year. I kinda miss all those blips and scratches
and cigarette burns. I have also noticed a rise in the amount of faults in
screenings, sound or vision issues that are not rectified because there is no
longer a projectionist present to see them. Unfortunately, this is the way
things are going now, but I do mourn the changes.
And don’t get me started on cinema conduct. I just want to state that it
would be really really awesome if everyone in the world right now decided to
shut the fuck up while they watched a film. And turn your mobile phone or iPad
or iPod off. For the love of God.
But here are some films that I really enjoyed this year (note: these are
films released in 2012 in Australia). In alphabetical order:
AMERICAN MARY
I’ve already written about American
Mary in a blog entry, but I just want to reiterate how good this film was.
Written and directed by two women who obviously have a lot of love for the
genre, American Mary manages to refer
to other films while also creating an iconic lead character that I can see
being replicated in many Halloween costumes to come. Incorporating elements of
rape-revenge, mad science and body horror, this film manages to use established
narrative codes and conventions and convey them in a stunningly beautiful and
vibrant way.
ARGO
This is a really hard film to dislike. It has a feel akin to thrillers
from the 1970s (think Sidney Lumet and Alan J. Pakula) where there is a realism
and weight to the drama, while also delivering real tension and thrills. There
are moments of comic relief, the acting is solid, historical events are treated
with respect. Possibly it typifies the kind of awards-bait that comes out later
in the year, but it carried it all off in a way that totally won me over.
CABIN IN THE WOODS
Even more meta and reflexive than American
Mary, apparently this film had been sitting on a shelf for the last couple
of years. Therefore, its release this year meant that Joss Whedon pretty much
owned 2012 (although Whedon only penned the script for this, he didn’t direct).
Managing to walk a fine line between just riffing on other films and building
its own actual story with tension and character development, this was a more
funny than scary but managed to take me on a journey where I never knew what
was going to happen next. See it before someone spoils it for you.
COSMOPOLIS & A DANGEROUS
METHOD
The only thing better than a new Cronenberg movie is two of them. We were
doubly blessed this year, but with two very dialogue-driven films lacking
Cronenberg’s trademark visceral visual style. A Dangerous Method, a period drama based on a stage play, seems on
the surface to be a real departure from Cronenberg’s previous cinematic
hypotheses about the “new flesh”, but in fact it goes to the source of ideas
about how reality and the mind affect our bodies and sexuality. Psychoanalysis
and Cronenberg have always been closely related. But whereas his early films
show, A Dangerous Method is all about
telling (and I personally prefer the film’s original title, The Talking Cure) which makes for a
viewing experience that stimulates the mind but doesn’t punch you in the gut.
Even more arch and distancing is Cronenberg’s second release of the year,
Cosmopolis. Again, the emphasis is on
talk, on long monologues about society, capitalism, about humanity’s growing
inability to connect on any form of real, emotional level. There is a real
sense of something ending in this film, that all attempts to hide from this inevitable
fall will be in vain. Like Cronenberg’s previous film Crash, the car (in this case a limousine, a symbol of financial
superiority and detachment) functions as both comforting womb that shelters its
inhabitant from the world outside, and a tomb, housing a protagonist that
appears to be one of the walking dead.
HOLY MOTORS
Like Hugo, Holy Motors explores cinema’s past and future, and like Cosmopolis, the protagonist spends much
of his time in a limousine. Despite these similarities, however, this is a film
that is utterly unique. Dispensing with a traditional narrative and consisting
instead of a series of vignettes, each sequence takes us to a completely new
place. From moments referring to past filmmakers and film actors (Kylie Minogue
with Jean Seberg hair, Edith Scob donning the mask similar to the one she wore
in Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face),
traversing between the heights of avant-garde experimentation and the depths of
low humour and disgust, to a sequence involving motion-capture and new technology,
Holy Motors takes us across all
aspects of the cinema experience. It is never clear if the many characters that
Denis Lavant plays (and there are many of them, and he is extraordinary as each
one) are created for the amusement of those who have made the “appointments”
that he is driving to, or whether everyone within the world of the film is
performing solely for our benefit or for the cameras that surround us all.
HUGO
A film so full of love for the medium of cinema that I immediately connected
to it. What was truly magnificent was the way Hugo was able to look at cinema’s beginnings through the use of
contemporary technology. This is one of the very few films where 3D has added
to the viewing experience. A beautiful film.
KILLING THEM SOFTLY
Yes, this film is somewhat heavy handed in its attempt to equate
organised crime and politics. But you can’t say its message isn’t clear. Killing Them Softly portrays a world
where all forms of interaction have become a transaction (which explains the
treatment of women in the film, an aspect that I think has been wrongly criticised).
Quite wordy, but its moments of violence pack a real visceral punch whenever
they erupt (and it is always there, seething below the surface of every scene).
Andrew Dominik is a very interesting filmmaker, with the tautness of this
standing in counterpoint to the languid beauty of his previous film The Assassination of Jesse James By the
Coward Robert Ford. Very keen to see what he does next.
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
Almost a horror film. There is such tension and dread built up throughout
this film, as well as a very believable psychological depth. A study of a young
woman who has escaped from a cult, the film slowly unveils her past
experiences, while also showing us the repercussions of her indoctrination.
Elizabeth Olsen is quite stunning in the lead role.
THE MASTER
This is a hard film to write about as I am still trying to figure it out,
so unless I’m going to write a huge essay it is difficult to encapsulate what
this film is really about. So many elements are brought up and explored, but
for me personally what I really feel the film is about is trauma. The
protagonist, Freddie Quell, is traumatised, by his upbringing and by his
experiences during the war. At first he appears to be a twisted id, expressed
through Joaquin Phoenix’s contorted and stooped physical performance and the
character’s lack of impulse control. But he is also a frightened child, wanting
to be nurtured and loved. The scenes of his indoctrination into Lancaster Dodd’s
group, with its use of repetition and confession, are like rituals (such
exercises wouldn’t be out of place in an acting class, and aptly enough this
film has some of the best acting that I have seen in quite some time). The main
connection between Quell and Dodd falls into the framework of a father-son
relationship, but there is also a homoerotic edge (the scene where they
playfully wrestle on the ground, a moment near the end when Dodd serenades
Quell), and even more so I see a master/slave dynamic coming into play, with
Dodd requiring absolute and unquestioning devotion.
MOONRISE KINGDOM
I have always been a fan of Wes Anderson. His style and storytelling are
very distinct and recognisable, and I have always found his films to be very
humourous and just on the good side of twee. Moonrise Kingdom continues along in this vein, and I am glad that
it does. Anderson isn’t really stretching here, but I don’t think he really has
to – I like the consistency of the universe he has created throughout his
filmography, and I like that every few years I get to go there again and have a
new adventure. There is a shift in focus this time to younger adolescent
characters, and that it is set in the past really captures the danger and
excitement of a childhood spent in an age before health and safety regulations
completely took over.
THE RAID
This film is just too much fun. One of the few cinema experiences I have
witnessed where everyone in the audience spontaneously cheered and applauded. I
have no doubt that this will go on to be considered a benchmark of action and
martial arts cinema, alongside Die Hard,
Hard Boiled and Drunken Master 2. The narrative is completely stripped back, with
the emphasis entirely on creating thrills and delivering stunning fight
sequences. Taking this approach works, giving the viewer all killer, no filler.
A SEPARATION
What a complete powerhouse of a film. While telling you a seemingly
simple story about very realistic characters, A Separation delivers many twists and turns, and as a viewer I felt
a total empathy and understanding of each character and the choices they made
as events continued to escalate. It was this identification and empathy that
made everything that occurred so much more devastating – you never took sides,
you actually hoped that somehow everything could work out well for everyone
involved. Yet, the film is unflinching in its depiction of the separations
between us all – the separation between genders, classes and generations, the
separation between truth and lies. By making the film so specific to Iranian
society means that we are offered an insight into a place that is often
demonised and feared in the Western media – a place that seems to be so
separated from us, but ultimately is shown (and yes, it is a cliché) to be so
very much the same. As this film reveals, most of us are decent people who don’t
want to make life difficult for others, but our different circumstances can
lead us to come into conflict.
SHAME
I saw this a week after seeing Martha
Marcy May Marlene and it seemed almost like a companion piece, with this
film showing us a story of male psychological and sexual dysfunction. After
seeing this and Hunger I am quite
convinced that Steve McQueen will be one of this generation’s most significant
filmmakers, in terms of pushing the medium thematically and technically.
THIS MUST BE THE
PLACE
If pressed, I guess I would say this was my film of the
year. Although it doesn’t reach the heights of Paolo Sorrentino’s previous
masterpiece Il Divo, this film does
have the greatest scene of the year, where David Byrne performs the eponymous
song. Every shot in a Sorrentino film seems to be so meticulously composed, so
breathtaking in its assuredness and invention. The film’s plot is quite bizarre
(to boil it down: it’s about an aging goth rocker who becomes a Nazi hunter),
as is Sean Penn’s performance, and the film straddles several different genres,
but it has real heart amongst all the weirdness.
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER
SPY
I have a fondness for protagonists that are introverted and
betray little emotion. In this film Gary Oldman’s Smiley is the calm centre of
a labyrinth of intrigue (so many shots of the back of his head – how were these
shots able to convey so much?). The slowly unfolding narrative didn’t bore me
at all, as I relished the chance to revel in the 70’s aesthetic, all damp and
brown like a cigarette stubbed out in a puddle.
I mentioned earlier my favourite scene of this year, and here it is. If you haven't seen This Must be the Place yet then don't watch this. Those of you who have can relive the moment:
