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.

Films of 2012: Half Term Report

So we're officially half way through the year now folks and I thought I'd just bring you up to date on the current rankings so far.

Best Films of the Year so Far
Of the 120 films that I've watched there are 17 that have garnered a mark of 8 or higher in my reviews and they are:

Carancho

Coriolanus

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

The Descendants

Even the Rain

Headhunters

The Hunger Games 

Juan of the Dead

The Kid with a Bike

Like Crazy

Marley

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Moonrise Kingdom

The Muppets

The Raid (Possibly my favourite film of the year thus far)

Shame

Young Adult 

Worst Films of the Year So Far 

 And conversely ten films have got a score of 2 or less and they are: 

 

Deviation

The Devil Inside

The Divide

Gone

Hard Boiled Sweets

Jack and Jill

Piranha 3DD

Project X

The Sitter

This Means War

So there you go a lot of treats and a lot of duffers. Do you agree with my lists? If not tell me what you think should be in either category by leaving a comment below.  

Review No.86: Moonrise Kingdom

A trip up to see my Manchester-based friend resulted in a cinema trip to Corner House, my sixth cinema this year if you're keeping track, the film was the latest from Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom. Though I have a love of Anderson's films, particularly his eye for detail in designing the main sets, however I've often found his characters emotionally alienating due to their awkward nature. That is not the case however with Moonrise Kingdom partly I think due to the fact the central characters, 12 year olds Suzy Bishop and Sam Shakusky, are strange runaways who are yet to be truly emotionally scarred by the parental figures in their life. Of the two Suzy's life is the most fraught thanks to the fact that her lawyer parents, played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand, are sleeping in separate beds while her mother continues an affair with Bruce Willis' melancholic police sheriff. Rather than distancing herself emotionally I felt that Suzy tried to distance herself physically looking down on the town using a pair of binoculars which she later describes as her super-power. Music also plays an important part in the Bishop house as demonstrated through a record player owned by one of her brothers on which the family listen to Benjamin Britten's Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra while she herself prefers the music of Francoise Hardy. After no longer being able to stand life in her house she takes the record player along with several other items and runs away eventually running into escaped scout Sam. Sam is another lost soul as he is an orphan who has been rejected both by his foster parents and by his fellow scouts eventually quitting the troupe and running away much to the horror of Ed Norton's scout-master.

The pair are able to survive fairly well due to Sam's wilderness training and eventually declare their love for each other moving down to the coast where they learn to dance, kiss and basically set up a small family unit. They are torn apart once again when they are tracked down and while Suzy is chatsised Sam must await the fate that lies in the hands of Tilda Swinton's Social Services a magnificently scary Mary Poppins figure all-decked out in pastel blue. Though we don't know what exactly will happen to our protagonists we are told at the start by Bob Balaban's omnipresent narrator that the time period and setting, a New England island community in 1965, is about to be hit by one of the biggest storms in American history.

From the opening scene of Moonrise Kingdom, which occurs in the Bishop house, you know you're watching an Anderson film as the camera tracks through every room in the house allowing us to get to know the characters. Unlike other films though Anderson doesn't keep us in one location for long allowing us to explore the scout camp with its uniformly aligned tents and unusually high treehouse as well as the caravan in which Willis' cop leads a lonely life. The fact that the characters escape the Anderson settings and try to start their new life is possibly one of the things I liked about the film as vast exterior locations aren't something you always associate with the director. In turn this allows us to explore New Penzance and its neighbouring islands as places that are separated from the rest of society with our guide in these scenes being Balaban, who is dressed up like a Christmas elf with a baromtoer around his neck, who uses maps to pinpoint the direction of our young characters. As well as sets, costumes always play a big part in the world of Anderson with uniforms especially being important to Moonrise Kingdom what with Willis' cop outfit, Swinton's hat and jacket combo, Suzy's Sunday school dress and the uniforms worn by the scouts all being important in some way especially in the final scene involving Sam.

As far as the performances go it's newcomers Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman who rightly steal the show from more accomplished actors really inhabiting these strange adolescents who have finally found each other. They almost become little adults with Sam smoking his pipe and Suzie feeding her cat I found the first half of the film to resemble a geeky Blue Lagoon at times. Talking of young actors I don't think the boys who play the scout troupe have been given enough praise in other reviews as I feel they acted as a small family and like with all the youngster in the film were much more grown-up than the adults. Anderson's strength as a director is getting the best out of his actors and I never once thought like I was watching Bruce Willis or Ed Norton but rather swept up in the exploits of Captain Sharp and Scout Master Ward. Anderson's script, co-written with Roman Coppola, was both warm and moving but most importantly it was extremely funny in fact it was possibly the film I've laughed most at this year. It is true that Anderson's film is still a little twee and also I did forget from time to time that this was actually set in the past as there were no real references to this however these are very small niggles. Finally the importance of the Britten music that the Bishop siblings listen to is in the fact that each part of the orchestra is separated but only sounds full when all of these pieces are put back together. That is true of the characters in Moonrise Kingdom separated they think they sound fine but it is only after being reunited and sticking together that they find their happy ending.Talking of music don't leave until the end credits role as you get a special treat involving Alexandre Desplat's score.

Verdict: With characters you care about, a script that never stops you laughing and two great central performances plus the usual Anderson charm this is definitely the comedy of the year so far so I will give it 9/10