Now that the Oscar nominees have been announced, I can tell you how wrong they are. Here are my five favorite movies of 2012. Keep in mind that these may be different from the ones I put on the communal Best Of list the site put together a few weeks back. Life changes and so goes my tastes. (Also, for some reason, I kept that list to five, also. I could have mentioned about 10-15 there. Oh well.)
DJANGO UNCHAINED
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino can rub people the wrong way. I understand that, but that doesn’t mean that I choose to hang out with those people. (Spike Lee, I’m looking at you.)
His latest film is not only a fun romp through the Old South full of violence, references to older grindhouse movies (especially spaghetti westerns) and language that you wouldn’t use around your African-American grandmother, but it’s also a scathing indictment of racism.
No. Seriously. Whereas many of Tarantino’s films are just meant to be violent fun, Django Unchained is actually ABOUT something. When violence happens to bad guys, it’s splattery and hilarious. When it happens to good guys, it’s brutal, realistic and disgusting. The slave fight is harrowing, disturbing and among the hardest scenes of any Tarantino film.
Beyond all of that, the movie is entertaining as hell, has amazing performances all around (special mentions to Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Don Johnson) and absolutely worthy of its spot in the pantheon of Oscar nominees.
MOONRISE KINGDOM
Directed by Wes Anderson
Written by Wes Anderson/Roman Coppola
Wes Anderson is consistently robbed of accolades in Hollywood. I’m sure it doesn’t matter too much to him, but he should get SOMETHING from these folks. His movies are always inventive and, if a bit twee at times, almost always great.
Moonrise Kingdom is his best so far. It makes young love look and feel real even if the circumstances of it are fairytale-ish. But that really is the charm of the film and its world. Everything going on around these two kids (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) is kind of insane, but their love for each other is as real as it ever could be for two 12 year olds. It helps that those two kids are great actors and that they’re surrounded by a cast that kept them on their toes (Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and seemingly about a dozen others).
LEE’S ADVENTURE
Directed by Frant Gwo/ Yang Li
Written by Frant Gwo/Xiao Bei Zhang
(This trailer is a bit better (and longer) than the trailer I used the last time I wrote about this movie. If you know Mandarin, though, you may want to steer clear of it. I think it gives the whole movie away.)
Lee’s Adventure is my dark horse. It’s a movie that very few people have heard of and probably fewer will actually see…and that’s a real shame. It stars Jackie Chan’s son, Jaycee, and has a plot that can’t be summed up in just a few lines. It’s a drama, comedy, video game, action, adventure, sci-fi, time-travel romance that not only blew my mind, but pulled my heart strings…all in a good way. Imagine Donnie Darko with a slightly political edge and you might be starting to grasp what’s going on here. Basically, Lee will go to the ends of the earth to get his lady-love back, even if it means bending time and space and (possibly) making up an outlandish (and amazingly animated) story about starting and ending a war.
Jaycee Chan is apparently becoming quite the star over in China. Hopefully his movies will start to show up over here. If Lee’s Adventure shows up, go see it.
PARANORMAN
Directed by Chris Butler/Sam Fell
Written by Chris Butler
There were a LOT of great animated films this year. If I had enough spots here, I would also add Wreck-It Ralph and Frankenweenie to this list. But Paranorman beats them out by a hair. First off, it’s sort of a zombie movie for kids. Gotta love that. Second, the protagonist, Norman, is the kind of kid you just want to hug and say, “It’s gonna be ok, Norman. Everything’s gonna be ok.” His fight to save the town from an ancient curse (full of ghosts and zombies and monsters, oh my!) just barely convinces him of that until he actually starts to accept that he has friends and that they can help him and, even better, they believe him when he says that he can see ghosts.
The movie is beautifully stop-motioned with great characters and an incredibly progressive bent. One of the characters has a secret that he doesn’t reveal until the very end…and it’s actually no big deal. It’s also just barely a secret to him, but it’s not obvious to anyone else.
BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING
Directed by Neil Berkeley
Written by Chris Bradley/Kevin Klauber/Neil Berkeley
Wayne White is not a household name, but he should be. He created some of the most inventive set pieces and characters of the 80s and 90s for Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Beakman’s World. He’s an amazing artist who does things that, while simple, no one else does. And he’s generally a crazy, compassionate, insane and cool guy. Neil Berkeley’s documentary about this unsung hero of television (among other art forms) is a love song to this man that no one knows, but everyone has seen his work. Between the stuff for tv and his music video work (Peter Gabriel‘s “Big Time” and Smashing Pumpkins “Tonight, Tonight“) and his studio art, he’s amassed a body of work that will make you say, “OH! I remember that!” at least three times during the movie. It’ll also inspire you in some pretty amazing ways.
Beauty Is Embarrassing is available on DVD now, so I highly suggest picking it up sometime. You’ll love it.
