Top 10 Movies of 2012

This last year proved to be a surprisingly entertaining year, although it was not without its disappointments. 2012 brought with it the sloppy and under-cooked return of sci-fi for Ridley Scott with Prometheus and the equally absurd and embarrassing finale to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises. Even Sinister, the Ethan Hawke horror/thriller scripted by Ain't It Cool News critic C. Robert Cargill, failed to deliver on its promise to be a fresh installation to the genre despite early positive reviews from the festival circuit.

Although all was not horrible in this year prophesied to reign in the apocalypse. Marvel/Disney attempted what no other studio has done before and successfully merged a half-dozen properties, culminating in the superhero mega-movie The Avengers, a feat few were sure they could pull off. Not only did they succeed, they swept the box office for the year, raking in over a billion and a half dollars worldwide.

As another year in film comes to an end, naturally the best-of lists will start to roll out. This will be my attempt at assembling a collection of the ten movies that stood out and above the rest. In line with my own grading standards, my favorite films aren't necessarily the most technically groundbreaking or dramatically moving. I wouldn't be surprised if over half didn't see a nomination at the Academy Awards next year. These are the films that resonated with me personally and I can wholeheartedly recommend to my friends. 

Please feel free to start or join in on the conversation below in the comments section. Criticism is appreciated. Feedback is encouraged.

10. ParaNorman

Most years I would feel almost obligated to put an animated film on my best-of list just to keep everything fresh. However, this year, after tallying up my favorite films, Laika Studio's ParaNorman naturally fell within my top 10 favorites without any fudging or rearranging anything. This stop-motion animated film by the same studio that brought us Coraline, one of my favorite animated films of the last decade, follows Norman, a young boy ostracized and labeled as "weird" by the community by his ability to communicate with the dead. When his small town becomes overrun with zombies he must take charge and help those who bullied him to lift a witch's curse and stop the undead invasion. Although it is aimed at younger audiences, I still felt it to be a particularly involving and emotional experience for adults. If for nothing else, it is worth a watch for an amazingly executed climactic battle towards the end of the film.

9. Kill List

Although it was technically released in the tail end of 2011, Ben Wheatley's Kill List made its debut in the states on video on demand and in limited theater release way back in January. The story is simple: a down-and-out hit man decides to return to his field of work to support his financially unstable family by completing one more job: a kill list containing three hits. Even though the plot progresses in a fairly straight-forward manner, there is always a looming sense that something is slightly off that makes for an uneasy stomach. The film ultimately takes a turn into familiar territory for fans of cult horror films such as The Wicker Man or The Village. Check out my full review here.

8. Cloud Atlas

Much like Marvel's colossal project of merging several superhero story arcs into one cumulative action explosion, The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tykwer's attempt at adapting David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas into a film was deemed impossible by many. The tale consists of six interlocking and nested stories exhibiting themes of past and future lives spanning from the 19th century up to and beyond a cataclysmic event that has shattered society as we know it. The principle cast is reused and recycled from one story to the next through use of impressive make-up and character design, sometimes swapping genders and races. Although the repetition of some of the themes gets to be a bit hokey and overplayed after a while, the idea that something this big and complex came together in such a vivid and coherent way is enough to restore anyone's faith in independent cinema (yes, this film was financed independently). The fantastic editing facilitates the flow from one scene to the next with artful flourishes such as a phone call being made in one time period giving way to another phone being answered years later or literal doorways opening and bridging gaps of time and space.

7. 21 Jump Street

A reoccurring theme in 2012 I noticed was movies that were either mismarketed or end up being much better or worse than they have any right to be. 21 Jump Street is a high-school comedy remake of an 80's crime drama television show starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. In no universe was this movie supposed to be as hilarious as was but as soon as the credits began to roll I knew exactly how it happened: directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (creators of the short-lived TV show "Clone High") and screenplay by Michael Bacall (co-writer of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). 21 Jump Street really shines because it acknowledges how youth culture has changed in the last decade and applies this idea to the buddy cop action/comedy genre by subverting expectations and creating genuine anti-humor. It is known that comedy is the most subjective of film genres, so this style of humor might not sit well with everyone, but luckily there is enough broad gross-out and vulgar humor to satisfy even the most lowest of brows. 

6. Argo

How great would the world be if Ben Affleck could act as well as he could direct? Let me answer that for you: it would be pretty great. After loving his direction in Gone Baby Gone, hearing great things about The Town, and then finally seeing him both act and direct in Argo, I have come to the conclusion that, as long as he stays out of acting in his own movies, he will continue to knock films out of the park. I'm not saying he was horrible in the role of Tony Mendez, a hispanic CIA ex-filtration specialist, but I could probably throw a stone inside a Home Depot and hit somebody more suited for the role. However, backing him up he had Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, and (my vote for this year's breakout actor) Scoot McNairy in the supporting cast, among many, many more smaller roles populated by popular character actors. Despite this small hiccup in the casting, everyone else was clearly firing on all cylinders because I was on the edge of my seat with my jaw agape for the majority of the film.

5. Holy Motors

Holy Motors is not actually a movie I can recommend to all of my friends. At its core it is a film about filmmaking, twisted and contorted into the weirdest thing I have ever had the pleasure of watching (outside of  some Alejandro Jodorowsky films). The film follows M. Oscar, some type of guerrilla "actor" who carries out roughly a dozen "performances" in about as many small vignettes all while being chauffeured to and from locations in his limousine dressing room. It clearly isn't meant to be taken as a literal story but rather a metaphor for the current state of the film industry. After the first two or three scenarios you start to get a feel for how the film plans to go about its business and it becomes a pure escapist daydream. If you consider yourself a fan of film (beyond seeing the obligatory blockbusters each year), I'd recommend you turn your brain off for two hours and enjoy the weird.

4. Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino might be one of the more divisive filmmakers when it comes to my immediate sphere of influence. Personally, I enjoy his films, but I know many fault him for his constant use (or overuse) of homage to exploitation films of the years long before I was born. Django Unchained is Tarantino's first full-blooded attempt at expressing his passion for the Italian-made western films of the 1960's (known more commonly as the "spaghetti westerns"). I feel this might be Tarantino's funniest movie to date, squeezing laughs out of good old-fashioned pre-Civil War racism. And the glorious gore. Exit wounds explode with the force of ammunition that shouldn't technically exist yet. As anachronistic as it may be, it's nearly three whole hours of bloody fun and I can't wait to see it again.

3. Looper

It's always refreshing to see a sci-fi film based on an original property among the dozens of remakes, sequels, and adaptations flooding the market. Rian Johnson's Looper is that much needed breath of fresh air, and I hope its mild success will be enough of a kick in the pants to Hollywood to start a surge or new and interesting intellectual property. With homages to some of my favorite sci-fi films (Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner among chief inspirations), Johnson uses the time travel trope as a catalyst to kick-start this unrelentingly brutal and stylish battle between the stars of new and old (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, respectively). Although I was a bit worried that the sudden shift in action halfway through the film would prove to be the movie's flaw, I can safely say that holds up very well for repeat viewings.

2. Killer Joe

Much like Holy Motors, Killer Joe is not exactly a film I can recommend to any regular Joe I meet (I totally did not intend that pun, but it's staying in anyway because I am tired). In many ways it reminds me of a classic Coen Brothers tale of greed and desperation, inundated with filthy and deplorable characters from the dirty blue-collared south. After finding himself in a large debt, Chris (Emile Hirsch) decides to hire detective and contract killer Joe (Matthew McConaughey) to kill his mother so that he can collect the insurance money. Being an adaptation of the 1993 play by Tracey Letts, the film is mostly dialogue-driven as the characters deal with events that happen mostly off-screen. Killer Joe is weird and gross and I wouldn't have it any other way.

1. The Cabin in the Woods

Not only is it my favorite movie of the year, it might even be my favorite movie of the last 10 years. The Cabin in the Woods didn't perform too well at the box office back in April because I suspect that most people didn't understand exactly what they were dealing with judging by the way they chose to market the film. At first glance, the assumption is that it is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill slasher, full of all the cliches and tropes that come hand-in-hand with the genre. This is actually a correct assumption, in part, as half of the film follows five teenagers thrown into the typical "cabin in the woods" horror scenario. The other half of the film follows the "filmmakers" behind the scenes as they meticulously craft this movie we are watching, throwing cellar doors open and manipulating the hormones of the protagonists.

Cabin is in actuality the best example of a filmmaker subverting the horror genre since 1996 and Wes Craven's Scream. Most of the classic beats and tropes of the slasher genre are present in this film, but are there completely intentionally and for good reason. By spinning the lens around and examining why society "needs" the modern horror film, director Drew Goddard and writer/producer Joss Whedon have created one of the funniest and batshit insane roller-coaster rides I have ever had the pleasure of placing on my movie shelf.