Top 50 Films of 2012: No.20 - 11

Ordinarily most of the films below would've made my Top 10 List, and some almost were, however I've had to make some alterations and tough choices so here's the latter half of my Top 20 with ten more great films.

Berberian Sound Studio 
Director: Peter Strickland
Sometimes a film really takes you on an odd journey and Berberian Sound Studio was definitely one of those films. The piece is set during the 1970s where Toby Jones' sound man travels over to Italy to work on a film that, unbeknownst to him, is a very bloody horror movie. The focus on sound effects over dialogue is great as is the lead performance from Jones who is one of the most underrated British actors working today. Best of all though was Peter Strickland's script as Jones' protagonist begins to lose his mind though I personally found the ending a little flat.

Carancho 
Director: Pablo Trapero

Previously the director of the Oscar-winning The Secret in Their Eyes, Paolo Trapero returned with a very moody look at the Argentinian night-life in Carancho. The Carancho of the title is an ambulance-chasing lawyer played by Ricardo Darin who, over a number of evenings, falls in love with a young idealistic paramedic. Trapero concentrates a lot of the look of his films so we feel trapped in hospital corridors or claustrophobic in the backs of ambulances while the end sequences were just amazing. What I liked the most though was that this was primarily a love story between two damaged characters who were destined to be apart mainly because of their occupations.

Even the Rain 
Director: Iciar Bollain

Sticking in South America we have Even the Rain which tells the story of a film crew shooting the story of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the new world. The film is also set against the backdrop of the protests in Bolivia where the government started to raise the prices of water which is a problem for the film crew as their lead actor is also one of the central protesters. Even the Rain was a great film for a number of reasons namely Paul Laverty's great script and the performances from Luis Tosar and in particular Juan Carlos Aduviri who is completely compelling as the rebellious Daniel. More than anything this was a film about standing up for what you believe and changing your opinions of people both of which I find are universal themes.

The Imposter 
Director: Bart Layton

As I've said time and time again throughout this countdown this really has been the year for great documentaries and Bart Layton's fantastic story about French conman Frederic Bourdin who pretended to be missing Texan teen Nicholas Barclay almost seem too unlikely to be true. Barclay really was able to covey the odd nature of the tale with both talking heads and reconstruction while building to a very compelling climax. The interesting thing about this documentary is who you actually believe is it the conman, the private detective or the grieving family? In the end we don't get all the answers we need but this story certainly stuck with me and this is why it's one of my films of the year.

Killing the Softly 
Director: Andrew Dominik

Andrew Dominik and Brad Pitt teamed up successfully for the great western - The Assassination of Jesse James back in 2007. Five years later they left the wild west behind them to make an old fashioned crime movie in which Brad Pitt plays hitman Jackie Coogan a smooth-talking guy who is hired to find out who orchestrated a heist during the poker game of Markie Trattman played by Ray Liotta. Dominik is able to produce a very slick, stylised film that doesn't outstay its welcome while also linking events in the film to the financial crisis in America. While it may not be a perfect film, James Gandolfini was a little too over the top for my liking, ultimately this was a purely enjoyable movie that I got a lot of entertainment from.

The Master 
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Four years ago Paul Thomas Anderson's awesome There Will Be Blood topped my Films of 2008 list but in 2012 his latest feature fails to make the Top 10. I found this was mainly due to the fact that the narrative structure was a little bit weak towards the final third of the film and it became a little repetitive. Despite this The Master is still one of the best-acted films of the year thanks to the performance of Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Sutton a drifter who falls under the spell of Philip Seymour Hoffman's cult leader Lancaster Dodd. While Hoffman's grandstanding is a joy to watch, and Amy Adams puts in a great supporting turn as Mrs Dodd, I personally thought this was Phoenix's show and loved his performance as this very messed up character. As is always the case with PTA's films I found The Master to be visually stunning however there was just something missing for it to find a place in my Top 10.

Monsieur Lazhar 
Director: Phillipe Falardeau

Sometimes a film you know very little about can catch you unawares and Monsieur Lazhar was definitely one of those films. This French Canadian feature, which was nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar, sees Mohammed Felag's Algerian refugee volunteer to teach a class of primary school children whose teacher has just committed suicide. Far from being another inspirational teacher film, Monsieur Lazhar is quite a harsh tale mixing themes of second chances, missed opportunities and doing the right thing to create a truly spectacular movie. In fact Monsieur Lazhar was one of those films that I would say was too short but the final scene really got to me emotionally and I'm not ashamed to say that I had a little tear in my eye.


Moonrise Kingdom 
Director: Wes Anderson
It's fair to say that Wes Anderson is a director that divides viewers with some finding his films charming while others find him annoyingly quirky. I personally was a fan of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums but found his later films a little annoying thankfully then Moonrise Kingdom was a dazzling return to form. Moonrise Kingdom featured Anderson's usual style and love of music however for once the two protagonists were people you actually liked as we followed twen outcasts Sam and Suzy as they run away from home and fall in love. The performances from the two young leads were spectacular and they were backed up with some fantastic work from Bruce Willis, Ed Norton and Tilda Swinton. I would go as far as to say that this was Anderson's best work to date and I feel he'll have a hard time topping what he did in Moonrise Kingdom.

A Royal Affair 
Director: Nikolaj Arcel

2012 was an excellent year for Scandinavian imports both on the small and big screen and A Royal Affair is the first of three films from area to feature on this countdown. The film tells the story of the young English lady Caroline Mathilde who is forced to marry the supposedly deranged crown prince Christian of Denmark.  The film then focuses on the couple's relationship with controversial royal physician Struensee who falls in love with Caroline while at the same time convincing Christian to stand up to his court. What could've been just another period drama is saved by a trio of great performances, notably from the incredible Mads Mikkelsen as Struensee, as well as some brilliant production design. The film combines themes of sacrificing what you believe in and changing people's perception of you and also sheds light on a piece of history that I knew very little about.

Skyfall
Director: Sam Mendes

Finishing off this section we have the latest Bond film which celebrated 50 years of the franchise by producing arguably the best Bond movie to date. Following up the inconsistent Quantum of Solace, Skyfall captivated straight away thanks to it thrilling opening train sequence and didn't let up to the final Home Alone-style set piece in the Scottish Highlands. Daniel Craig was at his best portraying a weakened Bond while Javier Bardem played a believable bad guy an Judi Dench even got to use her handgun as M featured quite heavily throughout. Skyfall was by and far the year's best blockbuster and was rightfully the most successful Bond film of all time.

So there are ten films that could've easily made it into the final part of the list, to discover what I've chosen in my final ten tune back soon.

Review No.91: Carancho

In 2010 there was a bit upset at the Oscars in the foreign language category as a barely-seen Argentinian film entitled The Secret in Their Eyes beat the critically-praised A Prophet and Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon to the prize. Personally though it was one of my favourite films of that year, if not quite as good as A Prophet, however the year later Argentina's entry Carancho failed to make it into that year's nominated films though I'm not quite sure why. The Secret in Their Eyes' leading man Ricardo Darin stars as Sosa an ambulance-chasing lawyer known as a 'Carnacho' or vulture. Sosa's work often means he gets beaten up by those who profit from the dead, and indeed the opening subtitle tells us that 8,000 people die in traffic accidents every year in Argentina, though he does have members of the police as well as paramedics who help him target the families of those who die or have been injured. As we learn Sosa was once a lawyer but when lost his lisence he started work for The Foundation an unscrupulous organisation who try and take as much of the compensation money that they can rather than give it to the families. Early on Sosa meets Lujan a doctor who is picking up extra shifts as a paramedic despite her knowing what he does the two fall for each other but when one of his schemes causes the death of an old man she distances herself from him. Eventually he decides to become legitimate but The Foundation won't let him leave easily especially after he manages to represent family members of people who were killed in an accident and give them their full compensation money. The final third of the film sees a race against time as Sosa tries to leave his dodgy past behind and leave the city with his beloved Lujan but whether or not this will happen or not is another question altogether.

For me Pablo Trapero's film was very reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead as a lot of it happens at night and focuses on paramedics who often work at night. Trapero takes us into the street-lit scenes of Argentina at night a haunting place where a lot of dirty deeds take place. What I liked about the film is the way in which the camera angles made us feel trapped in narrow hospital corridors or in the back of ambulances which I believe represented the fact that the lead characters were trapped in lives that they struggled to get out of. The film also keeps the viewer's interest by switching in tone from a moody drama to a high impact thriller with both genres fitting in with the overall themes of the film. I thought once again Darin succeeded in playing a morally ambiguous leading man who was both charming yet damaged however in this film at least he tries to better himself. Martina Gusman is also great as Lujan her character is well is a lonely one, working most of the hours in the day she and Sosa really find each other as they are both lonely souls. Carancho is also an incredibly violent film however it is all contextual even the violence against women, which I'm never comfortable with seeing on screen, was justified and it was kept as brief as possible. For me the film isn't perfect and I found the scenes following the budding romance between the two leads to be a bit dreary and the film really dragged in the calmer scenes in which they were just being a couple. Overall though Carancho demonstrates just how good Argentinian film is and I have to say that I'm really surprised that this well-acted, densely-plotted and brilliant stylised film didn't make into an Oscar category which was won by the fairly average In a Better World.

Verdict: While dreary at times this Argentinian film was gripping and looked great so for those two reasons it gets an 8.5/10