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.