2012: The Movie Year That Was

As I reflect on the 2012 movie year, I find that I'm a lot more enthusiastic than I was this time last year, looking back at 2011. It's a bit strange to be saying that, given that there is no film from this year about which I feel even remotely as passionate as I did last year's top 2 picks, but taken as a whole I feel like 2012 was a more satisfying movie year than 2011 - perhaps even the most satisfying since I started blogging in 2007 (which was, incidentally, an unusually great year for movies).

Though there are admittedly few films from 2012 that I would describe as "great," there are a number of films which I think come achingly close to that distinction and an abundance of films which I would describe as "good." If I had to pick one word to describe 2012, it would be "consistent." It was a consistently good year for movies.

There are still a couple of movies that I need to see before I start making my top ten lists (chief amongst them Zero Dark Thirty and The Impossible), but I've seen enough to offer a few notes on the year that is coming to a close:

Library Project: December 22 - 28

Took a small detour from regular scheduled programming in order to watch some DVDs that I got for Christmas but, oh, what a fine detour it was:

December 22: Raging Bull (1980) - Martin Scorsese's brutal but poetic film about boxer Jake LaMotta. Robert De Niro has never been better than is here, playing a man who insists late in the film that he isn't an animal, despite behaving like one at every possible turn.

Oklahoma Film Critics Circle & Nevada Film Critics Society Winners

A couple of days late but over the holidays the Oklahoma and Nevada critics made their selections, giving Argo quite a bit to celebrate:

Oklahoma Film Critics Circle

Picture: Argo

Director: Ben Affleck, Argo

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Original Screenplay: Moonrise Kingdom

Adapted Screenplay: Argo

Animated Feature: Wreck-It-Ralph

Foreign Language Feature: Amour

Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man

First Feature: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Guilty Pleasure: 21 Jump Street

Body of Work: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Dark Knight Rises, Lincoln, Looper and Matthew McConaughey, Bernie, Killer Joe, Magic Mike

Obviously Worst Movie: That's My Boy

Not-So-Obviously Worst Movie: Prometheus

Review: Pitch Perfect (2012)

* * 1/2
Director: Jason Moore
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp

Call me cynical, but I get the sense that Pitch Perfect was assembled by a team of marketing execs determined to manufacture lightning in a bottle. Just mix the female centred comedy of Bridesmaids and the musical stylings of Glee, throw in a dash of 80s nostalgia, a touch of broad, gross-out humor, and spread it over a solid base of tried and true romantic comedy formula, and you've got a movie. And it worked, obviously, judging by the film's box office take, but while the film has its pleasures, it is somewhat lacking in soul.

Review: Hope Springs (2012)

* * *
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell

There are a few things which, as a rule, Hollywood movies don't do. One is to centre a narrative on older characters and another is to deal frankly with issues of sex. Hope Springs does both and, while it isn't in any way a "risky" or groundbreaking movie, there is a kind of unflinching honesty to it that is rarely found in mainstream fare. It's far from perfect (and maybe wraps things up just a touch too easily) but there is a lot of value to the piece, including but not limited to the great performances by its two leads.

Library Project: December 15 - 22

Uh, yeah, so Christmas is in, like, a day and a half so not a lot of DVD watching got done this week. Here's what I watched (all 2 of them!):

December 15: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) - one of Woody Allen's absolute best. Mia Farrow delivers a stellar performance as a Depression era movie lover who finds herself pursued by a man who literally walks off a movie screen. Alternately funny and sad, this is a beautiful.

December 16: Queen Christina (1933) - this one is pretty much neck and neck with Ninotchka as my favourite Greta Garbo movie. It takes a lot of liberty with history (to put it generously) but it makes for a pretty great story.

Utah Film Critics Winners

The film critics from Utah weigh in, making a few by now familiar choices but going in a few unexpected directions as well:

Picture: Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom

Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty and Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Adapted Screenplay: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Original Screenplay: Looper

Cinematography: Skyfall

Animated Feature: ParaNorman

Foreign Language Film: Headhunters

Documentary Feature: Indie Game: The Movie

Black Film Critics Circle Winners

The Black Film Critics Circle announced their winners today. Here are their picks:

Picture: Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Original Screenplay: Django Unchained

Adapted Screenplay: Argo

Animated Film: Rise of the Guardians

Foreign Language Film: The Intouchables

Documentary Feature: The Central Park Five

Ensemble: Lincoln

Review: Ted (2012)

* * 1/2
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis

If you're wondering what happened to all the low hanging fruit, look no further than Ted. If there's a lazy, obvious joke to make about something, this film will make it, hoping that by having it voiced by a foul mouthed teddy bear it will seem fresh. Is Ted funny? Sometimes. But the sheer number of jokes and gags ensures that at least some of them will land and some of them are, in fact, very funny. The more important question is: is Ted a movie? To which I say... it's kind of not.

Toronto, Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Florida Film Critics Winners

Another big day for awards as the critics from Toronto, Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Florida all made their selections. Here's what they chose:

Toronto Film Critics

Picture: The Master

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Actor: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors

Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Supporting Actress: Gina Gershon, Killer Joe

Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Screenplay: The Master

Foreign Language Film: Amour

Animated Feature: ParaNorman

Documentary Feature: Stories We Tell

First Feature: Beasts of the Southern Wild and Beyond the Black Rainbow

Best Canadian Film: Bestiaire, Goon and Stories We Tell

Review: Hitchcock (2012)

* * *
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson

Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock is a fine movie, a mostly light and airy look at the making of a masterpiece and the master filmmaker at its helm. The problem, of course, is that all that talk about that masterpiece sort of puts this film, which is far from that status, in a less than stellar light. Psycho is a watershed movie, one of most influential ever made, and Hitchcock never gets anywhere near that greatness. Granted, it never really tries - it seems content to simply be a run of the mill biopic (albeit a very charming one) - but while watching it you can't help but compare it to a film, and others like it, that did so much more for the art form.

Southeastern Film Critics, Indiana Film Critics, St Louis Film Critics, and Chicago Film Critics Winners

A big day for critics awards as the Southeastern, Indiana, St. Louis and Chicago Film Critics all made their selections:

Southeastern Film Critics

Picture: Argo

Director: Ben Affleck, Argo

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Original Screenplay: Moonrise Kingdom

Adapted Screenplay: Argo

Foreign Language Film: The Intouchables

Documentary Feature: Queen of Versailles

Animated Feature: ParaNorman

Ensemble: Lincoln

Cinematography: Life of Pi

Gene Wyatt Award: Beasts of the Southern Wild

San Francisco Film Critics Winners

Missed this when I did my last update, but the San Francisco Film Critics weighed in today as well:

Picture: The Master

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Supporting Actress: Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln

Original Screenplay: Zero Dark Thirty

Cinematography: Life of Pi

Editing: Argo

Production Design: Moonrise Kingdom

Animated Feature: ParaNorman

Documentary Feature: The Waiting Room

Kansas City Film Critics & African-American Film Critics Association Winners

More winners, this time from Kansas City and the African-American Film Critics Association:

Kansas City Film Critics

Picture: The Master

Director: Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Masters

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Adapted Screenplay: Argo

Original Screenplay: The Master

Animated Film: Frankenweenie

Foreign Language Film: Amour

Documentary Feature: The Imposter

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror Film: The Cabin in the Woods

Library Project: December 8 - 14

Another week, another set of films from my DVD collection. Here's what I watched this week:

December 8: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - hands down, one of the best Westerns ever made. Sergio Leone's tale of revenge and railroads is brilliant from beginning to end and features a great, image shattering performance from Henry Fonda.

Detroit Film Critics Winners

Excelsior! The Detroit Critics weigh in and show a little love for Silver Linings Playbook:

Picture: Silver Linings Playbook

Director: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook

Ensemble: Lincoln

Breakthrough Performance: Zoe Kazan, writer/actress, Ruby Sparks

Documentary: Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Friday's Top 5... Surprises from the Golden Globes and SAG

#5: Golden Globes Snub Tom Hooper
Les Miserables is looking to be a major player in the awards season and many pundits have predicted Tom Hooper as a sure thing for an Oscar nomination, so it was a bit of a shock to see him left off the Golden Globe nominee list. The Golden Globes aren't the Oscars, of course, so this doesn't necessarily mean anything, but still.

Las Vegas Film Critics Winners

And the winners keep coming - here they are from Las Vegas:

Picture: Life of Pi

Director: Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Screenplay: Rian Johnson, Looper

Foreign Language Film: Amour

Documentary: Bully

Animated Feature: ParaNorman

Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi

Editing: Zero Dark Thirty

Original Score: Life of Pi

Production Design: Prometheus

Costume Design: Anna Karenina

Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Original Song: "Skyfall," Skyfall

Breakout Filmmaker Award: Behn Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Youth in Film Award: Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi

Lifetime Achievement Award: Alan Arkin

Golden Globe Nominees

And they are:

Picture - Drama
Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Picture - Musical or Comedy
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

Director
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Golden Globes Predictions

They announce tomorrow morning, here are my predictions:

Picture - Drama
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Zero Dark Thirty

Picture - Musical or Comedy
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
This Is 40

Director
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Review: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

* * 1/2
Director: Lorene Scafaria
Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley

If nothing else, watching Seeking a Friend for the End of the World gave me a renewed appreciation for Last Night, the low key "end of the world" film from 1999 which covers some of the same ground. Making an even remotely funny movie out of such relentlessly depressing subject matter isn't easy. Lorene Scarfaria's Seeking a Friend for the End of the World comes close to making it work, but ultimately just can't find the right balance of tones. Of course, it doesn't help that the relationship that acts as the story's focal point is at times sweet but mostly just weird and unbelievable.

Screen Actors Guild Nominees

And the nominees are:

Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Denzel Washington, Flight

Actress
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Supporting Actress
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy
Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Ensemble
Argo
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook

Stunt Ensemble
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Bourne Legacy
The Dark Knight Rises
Les Miserables
Skyfall

San Diego Film Critics Winners and SAG Predictions

San Diego breaks the mould and goes a different way in several categories. Their picks:

Picture: Argo

Director: Ben Affleck, Argo

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Michelle Williams, Take This Waltz

Supporting Actress: Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, Argo

Foreign Film: The Kid with a Bike

Animated Film: ParaNorman

Documentary Film: The Invisible War

Ensemble: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Cinematography: Life of Pi

Film Editing: Argo

Original Score: The Master

Production Design: Cloud Atlas

Body of Work Award: Greig Fraser, cinematographer, Zero Dark Thirty, Killing Them Softly, Snow White and the Huntsman

In other news, the Screen Actors Guild announces its nominees tomorrow. My predictions:

Canadian Film Review: Laurence Anyways (2012)

* * *
Director: Xavier Dolan
Starring: Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clement

With an eye for visual flair and a sense for well-rounded and realized characters, writer/director Xavier Dolan is poised to become one of Canada's best filmmakers - if he can find a way to curb his self-indulgent tendencies at least a little. His third feature, Laurence Anyways, is always wonderful to look at and often moving, but it's story is far too thin to warrant its nearly three hour running time. It's a good movie, but could have been a great one with a tighter, more focused narrative.

Washington DC Film Critics Winners

Another day, another set of winners (albeit, many of the same winners as yesterday). Today it's the Washington DC Critics:

Picture: Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Original Screenplay: Looper

Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook

Foreign Feature: Amour

Documentary Feature: Bully

Animated Feature: ParaNorman

Art Direction: Cloud Atlas

Cinematography: Life of Pi

Score: The Master

Acting Ensemble: Les Miserables

Youth Performance: Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Los Angeles Film Critics, Boston Society of Film Critics, and New York Film Critics Online Winners

A big day for critics awards, as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, and New York Film Critics Online all make their picks:

Los Angeles Film Critics

Picture: Amour

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook & Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master

Supporting Actor: Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Screenplay: Chris Terrio, Argo

Documentary: The Gatekeepers

Animated Feature: Frankenweenie

Film Editing: Zero Dark Thirty

Cinematography: Skyfall

Music/Score: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Production Design: The Master

Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award: Leviathan

Library Project: December 1 - 7

It was a busy week, but I managed to watch a couple of DVDs, and some good ones, too:

December 4: Mysterious Lady (1928) - a silent spy thriller/love story starring Greta Garbo as a Russian honey pot. The number of crosses and double crosses starts to feel a bit repetitive towards the end, but it's a decent thriller and Garbo is great.

National Board of Review Winners

It's been a good week for the yet to be released Zero Dark Thirty, as it adds a few more awards to its haul courtesy of the National Board of Reivew:

Picture: Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Supporting Actress: Ann Dowd, Compliance

Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Original Screenplay: Looper

Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook

Animated Feature: Wreck-It-Ralph

Foreign Language Feature: Amour

Documentary Feature: Searching For Sugarman

Review: Anna Karenina (2012)

* * * 1/2
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Keira Knightley, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jude Law

When it comes to adapting classic literature, most films err on the side of caution, delivering straight forward pieces that stick as close to the source material as possible. What makes this new version of Anna Karenina, directed by Joe Wright and adapted by Tom Stoppard, so refreshing is that it finds a way to stay relatively faithful to the source material, while breathing fresh life into it through bold stylistic choices. Whether it ends up being regarded as one of the highlights of the 2012 movie year remains to be seen (and given the mostly mixed reviews, it seems unlikely), but it is certainly one of the most interesting.

Review: Life of Pi (2012)

* * * *
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Suraj Sharma

That Life of Pi exists at all is amazing, that it exists in such excellent form is a minor cinematic miracle. Based on an "unfilmable" book, centering almost exclusively on two characters, one of whom is a tiger, and almost exclusively in one small location, and giving the bulk of the emotional heavy lifting to a first time actor, Life of Pi has more obstacles than any one film should be able to overcome. And yet, here it is, not just existing, but existing in a form that is best described as glorious. Not perfect, perhaps, but pretty damn close.

New York Film Critics Circle Winners

Awards season gets into gear with the New York critics weighing in on their picks:

Picture: Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln

Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln

Cinematography: Greg Fraser, Zero Dark Thirty

Foreign Language Feature: Amour

Documentary Feature: The Central Park Five

Animated Feature: Frankenweenie

First Feature: David France, How to Survive a Plague

Library Project: November 24 - 30

It was a pretty great week for DVD viewing - a week so great, it practically speaks for itself. Here's what I watched:

November 24: Manhattan (1979) - one of Woody Allen's best (and I'm sure some would argue his absolute best). A loving tribute to the city which has been the setting of so many of his films, Manhattan is smart, funny and beautiful.

Friday's Top 5... Movies Set in New Orleans

#5: The Cincinnati Kid
A Depression era poker drama starring Steven McQueen, and a transitional film in the career of director Norman Jewison, who helmed several light comedies prior to this one and then afterwards made such classics as The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and In the Heat of the Night.

Review: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

* * * 1/2
Director: David O. Russell
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro

Hollywood doesn't always have a great track record when it comes to depicting mental illness, often resorting to playing it as a "quirk" to be mined for comedy, or as something completely dark and debilitating, prime material for high drama. Rarely is mental illness depicted with any real degree of complexity and nuance - there's "crazy" and there's "movie crazy" and the latter tends to play better cinematically - and though Silver Linings Playbook is a comedy, it takes its subject matter very seriously. It offers a deft mix of comedy and drama, of plot-based and character-based story, and is highly entertaining.

Review: The Sessions (2012)

* * 1/2
Director: Ben Lewin
Starring: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt

No one film can have universal appeal, so it's only natural that every once in a while there will be a film that seemingly everyone else loves but that does nothing for you. For me, that film is The Sessions, a well-meaning and well acted film that just ended up falling flat for me. While the film certainly has many excellent qualities, I didn't feel that they quite held together - or, to be more specific, that the fine first two acts were completely let down by the third.

Library Project: November 17 - 24

It was a Maltese Falcon kind of week as I continued my way through my DVD collection. Here's what I watched:

November 19: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - the epic to end all epics. Even on the small screen, David Lean's biopic of T.E. Lawrence is majestic in scope and execution and Peter O'Toole has never been better than he is here as the film's complicated, contradictory hero.

Friday's Top 5... Unfilmable Books

#5: One Hundred Years of Solitude
The sheer scope of this one would make it nearly impossible to adapt to the screen - or, at the very least, to adapt well. Following seven generations of one family, the story is rooted in the complex history of its many characters, which means you couldn't easily remove any of them and still have a story that makes sense and has an emotional impact.

Review: The Queen of Versailles (2012)

* * * 1/2
Director: Lauren Greenfield

Timing is everything and the bad timing of David and Jackie Siegel, who decided to build a replica of Versailles in their home state of Florida only to watch the real estate bubble burst before it could be completed, turned out to be the good timing of filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, who originally set out to document the building of what would have been the largest single family dwelling in the United States and ended up with a far richer and more relevant story about the ethos that fed the economic collapse. That is the story of The Queen of Versailles, which may just as well have been titled "Hubris: The Movie." It would be easy for a film like this to become a celebration of schadenfreude, but instead it is a surprisingly balanced and complex portrait of a long, hard fall from the heights of excess. It's pushing it to say that you end up feeling bad for the Siegels - but you do sometimes come close.

Review: Lincoln (2012)

* * * 1/2
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field

A film like Lincoln inevitably ends up being caught in a Catch-22. On the one hand, a story this important and compelling must be told. On the other, it's impossible to tell it without it having that aura of the "Important Story," which makes it feel like the kind of movie you see because it's "good for you," the cinematic equivalent of brussel sprouts. Lincoln is an "Important Story" - it just is, there's no fighting that - but it is told with a minimum of period piece fussiness and it takes material that might otherwise be dry and makes it engaging and even entertaining. Lincoln is a movie that is good for you, but it is also a good movie.

Library Project: November 10 - 16

It was a particularly excellent week of DVD watching, if I say so myself. Here's what I watched:

November 11: Julia (2008) - Tilda Swinton delivers one of her best performances to date as a volatile alcoholic who gets involved in a kidnapping and then finds herself more and more in over her head and desperate. A great thriller and amazing performance.

Review: Knife in the Water (1962)

* * * *
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Zygmunt Malanowicz, Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka

You would think that a premise as simple as this could only be really effective once. Yet, I've seen three films that center on two men and a woman on a boat that range from good to excellent (to wit: this film, Purple Noon and Dead Calm), so obviously the closed and isolated location offers a wealth of possibilities. Knife in the Water, the feature debut of Roman Polanski, isn't really a thriller like either of the other two films, but it's a tense character film that often plays like one.

Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

* * *
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni

"Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll be paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed." So reads the ad, and such is the premise, of Colin Trevorrow's comedy/drama Safety Not Guaranteed. Though it could easily have played as a broad comedy, the film is instead a surprisingly touching character study about loneliness and regret. And time travel, sort of.

Library Project: November 3 - 9

All in all, a pretty good week for DVD watching, with genuine quality mixed in with a bit of frivolity. Here's what I watched this week:

November 3: Heathers (1988) - A cult classic which, to be honest, has always left me just a little bit cold. Still, it's a darkly funny film and one of the better movies about teenagers ever made.

Friday's Top 5... Performances as Real-Life Presidents

#5: Dan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in Dick
Yeah, okay, in the comedy Dick Dan Hedaya isn't so much playing Richard Nixon as he is the "idea" of Richard Nixon, but his performance is so hilarious it doesn't matter.

Review: 8 1/2 (1963)

* * * *
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee, Sandra Milo, Claudia Cardinale

What's left to say about a film as beloved and influential as Federico Fellini's 8 1/2? Not much, I fear. I can merely affirm its dreamy, sublime greatness. It isn't my favourite Fellini film - that honor goes to La Dolce Vita which, in addition to being a great movie, was the first Fellini film I ever saw and so has a special place in my heart - but it is a great and very entertaining movie. It's easy to see why it influenced so many subsequent films, some of them great in their own right, some of them... not so much.

Review: Flight (2012)

* * *
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Bruce Greenwood, Don Cheadle

Flight is a film that places itself firmly in a moral gray area. On the one hand, its protagonist, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), is right when he says that he was given a broken plane and that, inebriated or not, no other pilot could have landed it as safely as he did (the question of whether even he would have been bold enough to try what he does had he not been drunk and on drugs remains unspoken). On the other hand, there's really no excuse for being drunk on the job, especially if you're a pilot. Though the film is advertised as a disaster and aftermath drama, it's actually a cerebral addiction drama in which its protagonist tries again and again to justify his actions, until finally getting to the point where he no longer can. It's a film that often descends into inelegant manipulation, but that ultimately succeeds in spite of itself and on the strength of its extraordinary cast.

Library Project: October 27 - November 2

My DVD viewing last week wasn't much for quantity, but quality is another matter. Here's what I watched as I continue to work my way through my DVD library:

October 27: Gentleman's Agreement (1947) - A well-meaning drama about bigotry, but one that plays it a little too safe and falls a bit flat. Still, it did manage to win a Best Picture Oscar - which frankly says more about AMPAS than it does about the film itself. Nevertheless, Gregory Peck is always worth watching and is in fine form here.

Friday's Top 5... Denzel Washington Performances

#5: Philadelphia
Tom Hanks won the Oscar, but Washington's performance is just as vital to Philadelphia. Playing a homophobic lawyer who takes on a wrongful dismissal case for the money, but slowly comes to see his AIDS striken client as a human being, Washington expertly guides his character through what could be a rote transformation, and makes it something deeper and more profound.

Review: Magic Mike (2012)

* * *
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey

A plot point by plot point description of Magic Mike would make it sound like a basic backstage performance story, where a wide-eyed tyro is taken under the wing of a solid mentor, and everything is fun until suddenly it isn't so much fun anymore. Fortunately for the film, it is helmed by Steven Soderbergh, a director with enough strength of craftsmanship that he can take well-worn genre notes and make them sing like new. This isn't to say that Magic Mike is a brilliant piece of work, but it's a solid enough drama, and a fairly entertaining one at that.

Review: Cloud Atlas (2012)

* * * 1/2
Director: Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Bae Doona, Ben Wishaw, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant

Cloud Atlas is a lot of things - ambitious, extravagant, messy, a mix of genres with sometimes jagged pieces that don't quite fit together - but it is never, ever boring. If audiences embrace it more than critics have, it may well develop a reputation as one of the most entertaining movies of the year. That is has some pretty fierce detractors is not surprising - the film does have its flaws - but, in the end, it is less a film than it is an experience, one you are either willing to give yourself over to or you're not. If you are, you'll certainly be rewarded.

Library Project: October 20 - 26

A busy week left me without a ton of time to work through my DVDs, but I managed to squeeze in a few good ones. Here's what I watched:

October 20: Far From Heaven (2002) - Todd Haynes's beautiful homage to the work of Douglas Sirk, anchored by Julianne Moore in one of her absolute best performances. It works brilliantly as both a throwback to a distant style of filmmaking, and as a film in its own right.

Friday's Top 5... Multi-Character Performances

#5: Ralph Fiennes as Ignatz Sonneschein, Adam Sors & Ivan Sors in Sunshine
Sunshine is a sprawling epic in which Ralph Fiennes plays men from three generations of the same family, each forced to confront anti-Semitism in various forms and to varying degrees of intensity. Fiennes creates three distinct characters within the film, while also instilling them with the common threads that connect each of their stories beyond the fact that they're connected by a generational line.

Review: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

* * * *
Director: Robert Wiene
Starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher

Robert Wiene's German Expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is, perhaps, the only film ever made where the production design is the star. Its jagged, highly stylized sets are some of the most memorable ever put on film and go a long way to creating the film's nightmarish vision of madness and horror. Caligari is a film that stands the test of time in part because it presents a vision so weird that it can never seem dated, but also because it's simply a great piece of filmmaking.