by Jaime Grijalba.
2012 was a very interesting year. For some people it was worse than the plague, and for others it was filled with satisfactions and personal goals reached, for me it was something in the middle, with good and bad moments, days of sadness and joy were mixing every month that passed, and while it’s far from being my favorite year of my still short existence, I can say that I learned a lot about life and its many ways and paths that it can go through. I also finished my career at university, and even if the paper that says that I’m an Audiovisual Director (Film Director to put it simple) won’t be in my hands until November 2013, I don’t have any assignatures left, I directed a short film that was decently received among the people I know (and the teachers, more importantly), as well as I wrote a feature length script, the first I’ve ever written, that was also presented and was my theses, it was also received quite well among the teachers and filmmakers who had the chance to read it completely. Right now I’m in my internship (the second I’ve done) in a magazine for men that requires videos and a making-of for their big launch in March; the experience has been good so far and I hope that it continues to go that way, I’m also waiting for the decission on a government fee to work on my feature-length screenplay in the year 2013, it will be a lot of money for me so I hope I win it so I can work at my house so I can finally make my debut sooner than later.
Now, forget the personal stuff, how was the year for the movies of 2012? Well, I must say that, for me, it was better than 2011 in many ways, mainly because I was able to attend three different film festivals and I hope to make them more in this 2013 (I hope), and I’m proud to say that the film industry in Chile is looking up, movies are getting more interesting and what’s more important: better. There is now not a fear of experimentation and making big changes to what the cinematographic language can give us, and that is something that I need to applaud here. Above all it was an interesting year for documentary films, great conclusions and even greater new beginnings, as the film industry keeps its trail of making interesting products of massive entertainment and at the same time fierce discussion. I loved the criticism that happened among many people in the internet regarding many of the films that were released theatrically or played in festivals, there was always a discussion to be had and possitions to be defended, and that was the best thing about it all, you were supposed to have an stance about the film in question, and even if you felt a bit dirty for defending (or attacking) what the majority was hating (or defending), you still had to hold your ground and go the extra mileage to be proud of what your views on things were.
So, without further ado, here comes my top 20 movies of 2012. The criteria for eligibility is that it had to have a release of some kind in 2012 and no earlier, so you won’t see The Cabin in the Woods (2011), for example, as it had one brief screening in 2011… but consider it one of the best anyway, it’s really good. It can be shorts, miniseries, series, films, direct to video, whatever that was available and that had its first release in 2012 is here, festival screenings included. I usually do these list a bit later, but my limit date is always the Oscar nominations, and those were today, so I just finished early and decided that this list wouldn’t change much… except for Django Unchained that I’m sure would top this list when I finally see it. I will link to a previous review of the movie if it exists in my site or another. Oh, by the way, I changed my site last year as well, you can visit it clicking my name at the top, and talking about the top, I’d like to thank Bob Clark for making the stupendous image header for this post, I love it.
20. El otro día (The other day, Ignacio Agüero)
We start out with one of the interesting chilean films that I talked about, a documentary (something that, I must say, chilean filmmakers should really do all the time and never bother with fiction at all) that was handed out to me in a screener by Raúl Camargo, one of the programmers of the Valdivia Film Festival that I attended last year, he was impressed with my humble twitter daily coverage of the festival, so he contacted me and gave me the screener for this documentary that played on many festivals and that is directed by one of the most important working filmmakers of Chile right now, he has dedicated his life to documentaries and ever since he stood out with his Cien niños esperando un tren (1988), one of the most famous and important chilean films of all time, he has made them better and better as time goes by. This is one of his biggest accomplishments, a complicated film that talks about many things that start to happen in a man’s life, specially when you start to look back on the history of your parents, your life, coincidences and your own family. The way these themes are explored are through a gimmick: every person that knocked on his door would be recieved and then asked if Ignacio, the director, could visit them at their own house. So there we see a bunch of different individuals as the director travels to many places of Santiago, visiting his postman, a homeless guy, a woman who sweeps the streets and an art director that would like to work for the production company of Ignacio Agüero. This last segment, the one with the female art director, is easily the best one, as it has a cinematic and truth quality about the access to education and the filmmaking business in Chile. I would be really sad if this movie never gets out of the festival circuit.
19. Las mujeres del pasajero (The women of the passerby, Patricia Correa, Valentina McPherson)
Another chilean documentary, this one barely going over the 40 minute mark. It’s an interesting, simple and fascinating film that chronicles the life and work of the women who clean up one of the most famous motels of Santiago de Chile. There they talk about their love lifes, the place in which they work, their own sex life, what do they think of the people who go there, the kind of things they do and all that jazz. It’s great to see the scope of the interviews that made it to the film, everyone is interesting and precise on what they have to say about their own lives and their sorroundings, as well as their ages, ranging from young to mature and even to women over 60 years old cleaning up rooms that were recently wild places for sex and depravations of many kinds. It’s interesting to note that the film it’s not only the interviews, it’s also the portrait of the motel itself, in many places we see people get in rooms, we see the strange rooms themselves, and we even see how one of the women enters the room right after a couple had left it, as she talks about what they ordered (a lot of drinks and food) she goes through the sheets and messy bed, as well as a suspicious white dust that covers one of the tables… the frenzy of sex is also suggested but never shown in this film as we move in the hallways and hear the moans of men and women, while the workers go from place to place cleaning up the floor or bringing food or drinks to the people who paid for them. It’s an anthropological movie in the sense that it doesn’t only show us the women that work there, their anecdotes and love life, but also society itself and how it reacts and tries to have sex in a place like this, one that is just like any of the thousands of motels all around the world.
18. Argo (Ben Affleck)
The movie that at one time was the favorite to win the Oscar and now is still a strong contender is also one of my favorite films of the year. Ben Affleck with this film has prooven that he has a wide range up his sleeve director-wise, but he still hasn’t surpased the movie that practically blindsided every moviegoer in existence, Gone Baby Gone (2007). Still, this is the movie that will make him appear a serious filmmaker after the (not for me) dissapointment that for some was The Town (2010), the tense moments of this film make it worth the attention and the prize of admission. The story, based on real events, is fascinating, and specially for people who love movies, I had no idea before this movie came out that there was a real story about how a bunch of americans that worked on the USA embassy in Iran were rescued using a fake movie advertisement material and making them look as if they were part of a canadian crew. If the movie doesn’t follows the actual facts or if its a bit forgiving about the USA stance towards the whole situation of the hostages in the embassy, or even the figure of the Sha it’s pretty much not important, mainly because this is supposed to be a thrilling ride with many tense moments and great scenes that build up in tension, higher and higher until the last 30 minutes that are a masterclass of editing, where everything is edited down for maximum emotion and nothing else. It’s good to think that maybe here we have a new John Cassavetes in our hands, even if their approach to filmmaking are in complete oposite sides of the equation, their approach to their professions and how they mix them up it’s fascinating.
17. Pieta (Ki-duk Kim)
I reviewed this movie for Wonders in the Dark about a month ago or so, and I liked it a lot because of its emotional strength and overall powerful scenes, characterizations and situations that it portraits. If you want to read the review, you can click the link on the name of the movie. I think that Ki-duk Kim has managed to do a great movie, despite all the criticism that I’ve been hearing towards the actual movie, I think that it’s still backlash because it defeated The Master (2012) to the main prize at a film festival (that is another movie that I wanted to see and I couldn’t because it never got released here), because the performances are strong from every actor present, and even if it features some animal cruelty (like any other Ki-duk Kim film, hey, what can you expect?) it is done in such a way that it helps the story move forward. The tale of a loan shark that seems to find his mother is extremely powerful and outrageous with scenes that would make anyone cringe or close their eyes just because of the moral consequences. There is violence, it’s harsh and as it’s been a staple of south korean filmmaking, filled with revenge and vengeance that delivers even better experiences than other films that have tried to take advantage of the vengeance craze after Chan-wook Park’s masterpiece trilogy of south korean films regarding the concept of vengeance.
16. [REC]³ Génesis ([REC]³ Genesis, Paco Plaza)
The most interesting thing about this horror series from Spain is that with every installment they are either expanding the universe and/or trying out new things, and while the first and second one are pretty much the best examples of the best use of first-person horror, or found-footage horror, those that have now plagued the genre with dull examples like the now yearly event of the Paranormal Activity films. This time, the game is different, it starts out at a wedding and we see different point of views of people who attend the ceremony, and when the zombies (or possessed creatures, whatever you want to call them) start attacking and one of the atendees (the man in charge of recording the wedding and party, a fat guy who likes to call his videos cinema verité and with a taste of russian cinema of the early 20′s) starts yelling to the groom that he has to record everything that is happening, in that moment the groom takes the camera and crashes it to the ground. Here we change the perspective to the one of a “normal” film, but this is far from being a normal flick you see a sunday afternoon, it’s wild, funny and scary, it draws from the classics like The Evil Dead series of films or others like Lucio Fulci or Mario Bava in their colour pallette or their stylistic choices for the shots or events that happen. With a great performance from the one of the most beautiful eyes and face of spanish cinema today, Leticia Dolera, in the role of the bride, this is a film that not only manages to entertain and scare, but at the same time romanticizes the concept of eternal love that goes beyond any circumstance and event, even beyond life and death. There has been much criticism towards this movie because of how different the tone is, and I disagree, the grisly tone of the other two movies is intact, here we just have more fun before we get to the really gruesome stuff. It’s one of the best horror films of the year if not the best.
15. Gyo (Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack, Takayuki Hirao)
This anime direct-to-video feature film was a complete surprise for me, and I shall direct you to the review I wrote for Wonders by clicking the link at the title of the film. This was an experience on its own, one of the first films I saw of the year 2012 and it was one of the grossest and most disgusting experiences that I had in a long time that didn’t involve blood, guts or gore, yet a sense of death was perpetually lingering over the whole enterprise… one day in Tokyo, all the fish and sea creatures start to climb out of the ocean with little legs, they are dead as their stench can clearly tell, yet they still move, open their mouths, look from one side to the other, it’s just madness and crazyness all over as the fish take over the cities of Japan as well as the smell of the fish makes it impossible to breathe in the streets. Based on a manga by the master of horror that is Junji Ito, this anime manages to translate all the disgusting events of the manga into an experience that has to be seen to be believed, even if you’ve already read the manga, it’s one of those that you have to see anyway not because of the changes, but because of how the animation has made possible what you thought at one time to be an experience streamed directly from the bottom depths of the most devilish hellish imagination, but there you have, photorealistic fish and sharks attacking people. This movie can actually make you sick because of watching it, the whole smell concept is so strong that even you start to hold your breath to not breathe what is coming out of the zombie fishes, even you start to smell badly and then, well, you’re hooked for the experience, and it’s a great one, even if the concept itself is a bit silly, you can’t deny that it’s one of the craziest, one that you have to live through.
14. Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris)
You know which is one of my favorite movies of all time? Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and I’m not even afraid to say it, it’s a gem, one of the funniest and closest indie comedies that has ever been done, a true masterpiece in my opinion, with a great set of characters, each one of them highly likeable even because of their faults. As you might’ve guessed, I was expecting something great from the director duo that gave us that movie, and while we didn’t have something of the caliber of that masterwork, we still had a pretty great film nonetheless… besides, who can ever surpass what was done in that year of 2006? Few, not even themselves. But anyway, Ruby Sparks has been compared with the films of Woody Allen in the sense that the protagonist is a nervous young writer who is doubtful about his own talent after not being able to follow up his debut novel, one of the greatest and most famous debut young-adult books of recent history, that is until a woman appears in his dreams, her name is Ruby Sparks and she is adorable, she is the perfect woman for him, so as an assignment for his shrink (another WoodyAllenesque element) he decides to write about her, and that expands and expands until it’s becoming a novel about a man who meets this perfect woman that is Ruby Sparks (played to perfection by the also screenwriter of the film, Zoe Kazan, and yes, she is related to Elia), until one day she appears in the writer’s department claiming to be his girlfriend, as if everything from the book had translated to real life. The comedy and the awkwardness that one thinks that this situation could ensue is there, the doubt, the fright, the acceptance, and while most would think that the whole thing ends there… it doesn’t, this movie goes dark places about the imagination and the power of the typing machine, and I applaud it for that, it’s a great movie, one that should’ve had a better chance when it was released.
13. La chica del sur (The Girl from the South, José Luis García)
Lim Su-kyung was one of the most famous figures of both Koreas starting 1989 when she left South Korea to visit the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in North Korea. She was named ‘Flower of Unification’ by the north korean government and when she tried to come back to South Korea, she was jailed in that instant and sentenced to 5 years under the law of betrayal to the nation, even though she claimed that it was an act of manifestation towards unification and not defection to the communist side of the country. Now, my first question is even if I did study korean history I didn’t know about this until I saw this movie at the Valdivia Film Festival, and my second question was why this wasn’t a korean movie, this is a documentary from Argentina that chronicles the story of the director, José Luis García, with the figure of Su-kyung, since he was also attending the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students when she appeared, he was representing the Communist Youth of Argentina at that time, and he was just blown away by the courage and the life story of this brave young woman, he filmed while he was there and we see exclusive footage of North Korea in those years as well as the visit of the flower of unification. We jump to the present day and after many intentions to interview and all, he has enough money to go to South Korea and finally interview the woman who inspired him to make a movie about her, but when we finally see her and her reactions about her actions, interviews and scenes… well, it’s not dissapointing, as it’s more of intriguing, and we just want to see more of her. She is a complex woman and this is a fascinating way to look at her, and it goes beyond any other documentary, chronicling the personal experience of the director and his relation to its subject more than the subject itself, and that fascinates me.
12. Las Cosas Como Son (Things as they are, Fernando Lavanderos)
What a treat! A chilean fiction film that actually works as a fiction, has a solid script, great performances and even greater discussion about it! That’s a truly rare thing to find these days, a chilean film that doesn’t go the easy way in its shooting style, as well as not falling into the usual tropes of what can be considered art-ridden clichés, and that is something to applaud… but not only that, it is also a great movie, and one of the best of the year! It tells the story about a chilean man with the greatest beard in existence, but he also has an old house that he uses to house people that come from abroad to Santiago, Chile, and stay for a few months, he makes the rooms habitable, fixes the leaks, and does everything to maintain his life occupied, he is lonely and strange, barely talking with those who he receives, cutting the power when they are having a party and stuff like that. The month of February comes, it’s summer down here, and with that all the foreigners leave the house for their vacations, but one norwegian woman arrives at the last moment and she has to stay alone with the landlord for a few weeks. We get to see the personality of both of these characters, the strange man is the most obscure and difficult to understand, but that becomes even more inviting for you to see the film, and at times you end up agreeing with many of the things that he says or does, even if they are strange or awkward. The norwegian girl is sweet and adorable, a woman that is still young and has a lot to learn about life in Chile and in the world, but she is confident that what she does is right at every moment, and she also has an enormous confidence on her sexual power. It’s a heartbreaking film at times, and it makes a great case for fiction filmmaking that can be done in Chile for cheap and with great performances from people who aren’t really actors, like the main guy, who is just the most famous architecture photographer in the country, and he delivers what could be my favorite performance of the year.
11. The Avengers (Joss Whedon)
Boom! Crash! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Joy and pure amazing amazingness, awesome and more awesome… words can’t really describe the joy that was had at the theatre with this movie: amazing special effects, great action sequences, a sense of a world that exists beyond the boundaries of the screen (hell, a whole universe), funny performances, great moments of intelligent decissions by the filmmakers… I can’t say that the film is perfect, but I can say that it’s the most fun I’ve had the whole year at the theatre, and that’s pretty much anyone can say about this film before just rambling about the same subject again and again. Let’s just say that this is what many people were expecting, the reunion of these superheroes manages to have all the elements for them to shine individually and at the same time evolving their storylines for future projects and films, and the fact that the Marvel Films universe is now a thing that will continue (and that more than ever will experiment with the future movies by the way of the directors that they will choose for them), it gives you something to look forward from the machine of mass entertainment that is some areas of Hollywood.
Usually I used to stop you here right in your tracks and make you follow a link to my blog, but I won’t do that, so I’ll just continue here, this will be reposted at my site instantly for those who want to read and comment there. Anyway, let’s continue!
10. Where the Condors Fly (Carlos Klein)
Don’t be fooled by the english title, this is a chilean documentary and it’s my choice for the best chilean movie of 2012. Victor Kossakovsky is a russian filmmaker, director of many interesting documentaries that are contemplative and the critic darlings for many out there who prefer the wait over the movement, even if his films are always filled with a light touch of movement so that the frame is always interactive and mutant. His most recent work was Vivan las Antipodas! (2011), a documentary that travels around the world looking for the ground antipodes of the world, visiting Chile, Argentina, Russia, China, Hawaii and many other places of the world in search of the perfect image, the perfect connection between the monuments, the occurrences and the people who live in those places. So, when he visited Chile, he asked Carlos Klein, the director of this film, if he could help him to shoot some scenes in the chilean Patagonia, since it was one of the ground antipodes, and being Klein a filmmaker and a visitor of the Patagonia, he came to help, and at the same time he had the idea to make a documentary, a making-off of what the shoot around the world would be, and this is how one of the most entertaining figures of film that you didn’t know is discovered: he swears and fights a lot, he is just like a kid when he films, looking for the surprise, the most intimate perfect detail to make his films what he has seen in his minds, but also taking risks and playing the reality game towards what you can actually find when you start watching what your sorroundings can finally offer. It’s nice to see the kind competition between Klein and Kossakovsky, as both of them are fighting to have great cinematic shots, and at the same time, whenever the interviews come, the funny russian director isn’t pleased with the direction and the framing that Klein is having for the interviews, it’s a funny and profound picture that loves movies, directors and it’s highly entertaining at the same time.
9. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
I’ve never been a fan of Wes Anderson, and only recently he has been making movies that I can find some interest in, like his latest feature length project, Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) that was a joy ride and a complete surprise for me in the animation field of movies, it was just great to look at. Then, Wes surprises me once again with this movie, completely blindsiding me, a story about children and love, how amazing is that Wes is finally finding his foot in my taste by aiming at children stories, and I guess that his style of tableau vivant and exhibition of objects is more akin to that kind of stories, those little frames, edits and compositions that make up for the world that sorround these colorful characters. Here we have an impressive cast followed by the great inclusion of two young actors that do the job in a magnificent way. The story of profound love of two kids that leave their own “families” to meet after sending letters to each other for a whole year is just heartwarming, and how the occurrences that make them get together or split are just those of a fairy tale, make it more interesting taking into account the colours and the visual style approach that the film has from the first frame onwards. I love the moments at Moonrise Kingdom, and while I did think that Wes was veering into uncharted territory for him and for mainstream american movies, I thought that it was handled in such a perfect and innocent way that I couldn’t help but applaud and marvel at the subtile approach as well as the tremendous acting from the two kids. It’s one of those movies that once it ends, you just want to watch again and again, it’s a shame that I haven’t been able to do so, and I should do it soon enough.
8. Gyakuten saiban (Ace Attorney, Takashi Miike)
A movie based on a videogame makes my list for the best films of a year… now, that would be something to wonder about and even doubt for anyone, except for me, because I can admire and even love some of the craft that is put forward in these kind of films, and I was able to talk about this sub-genre a lot in the past year, about many other films, and this was just another one of them, my review of the film for Wonders can be read at the link at the title. Most of my love for the film comes from the amazing achievement that comes from imitation and craft: the movie looks and feels like the videogame that it’s based on, and it has all the necessary elements to even make a succesful series of movies out of these characters and world, just as much as the continuing videogames that come out for handheld consoles in Japan. The movie itself isn’t only visual style, flamboyant costumes and hair styles, or art direction, no, it’s also a compelling mystery with funny moments and suspenseful ones, it’s one of those that manage to juggle between the silly overacting and the overblown colors/style, and at the same time manage to create tension from the performances, the mystery, the killings, the clues and the tense court moments, that make up for the majority of the film, and the sense that there is a world where the judicial system works like that is just an amazing feeling that makes you crave for more, even if the movie itself is already quite long to begin with.
7. Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow)
Have you ever seen one movie, just to know how it is, just to get your curiosity satisfied, just because of how interesting the premise looks, but you know that it won’t be enough, but at the end you find yourself immersed in the story, the characters, the premise, everything and then it ends and you find yourself saying: wow, I’m glad that I saw this movie and that I didn’t miss it. Well, that’s what happened with me and this little lo-sci-fi gem that comes from the United States of America, it completely took me by surprise and made me love many actors that I didn’t think that I would ever love, as well as characters that seemed one-dimensional and unlikeable, evolved and are constructed as the movie moves forward, and that is the greatest surprise for me, it’s just impressive to find such a clever concept as the thought of someone being able to travel in time and at the same time looking for a partner to do it again, and deliver great performances at the same time, it’s just unthinkable for a first time director in this time and age (long gone are the times were the debut were the most impressive pictures). The concept of an intern going on a travel with a journalist trying to find and investigate this man who claims that had traveled in time turns into more than a search and fall in love story, it becomes tense as the elements pile up, as well as emotionally envolving as the rest of the characters find their own stories to live and cherish as this main event regarding the possible failed mental health of one individual. The ending, while completely surprising (and dissapointing to some) was just what this movie needed, the extra touch for me to completely fall in love with it and want to yell its name as one of the best movies of 2012 and one of the best debuts of recent memory in the USA.
6. Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski)
Many storylines from all over the world and from different times are combined in one film that edits them perfectly one after the other in an impressive work of editing that should win awards, and that can be said by anyone with a bit of brain, because this movie is a marvel, something that I can’t actually believe that it was made and released to the public in such a wide manner, I mean, it has american stars acting in it, but it’s a german production with the biggest budget in the history of its film industry, and why is that? Because no one in Hollywood wanted to take the chance with a film about multiple storylines and actors playing different roles in different times and spaces, and sometimes with thin connections between one story and the other. It’s also like having a lot of genre movies for the price of one: a sea adventure, a cop thriller, a escape tale, a love story, science fiction and post-apocaliptic film, all combined and connected in a deep way that you just can’t understand on your first viewing, you have to see it again, and I just can’t wait to do that again (one thing I haven’t been able to do was rewatch certain films I’ve wanted to, this mainly because I’ve prefered to watch something new instead, just to advance in my important backlog of films that I need to watch). I loved the art direction, the cinematography, the acting, the presentation, the editing, certain moments are just way too suspenseful, and every storyline is filled with its own quirks and inclinations… for example, I loved that Hugo Weaving was playing a woman in the present time story, it was hilarious and yet… it felt as if we’ve already seen it… if you remember Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (1994) you may agree with me, wouldn’t you? Anyway, haters go away, let me love this movie for what it is, an impressive achievement and fun.
5. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
Dear Leos Carax: it doesn’t matter what you say, oh, dear french director, your movie is a love letter to movies either you like it or not, it’s just an impressive work that since it starts it talks about film and the issues that it’s fighting right now: proliferation of them due to technology (should an actor start to multiply itself just to be able to work in all the movies that he’s being called into?) and projection issues (the sleeping audience at the start, is cinema dying as an experience at the theatre?), as well as genre films like the monster movies, or the special effects (the whole sequence with the green screen and the white dots), it’s that and more than that, so… please, Mr. Carax, next time someone asks you why you put the main actress of Yeux sans visage (1960) put a mask similar to the one she used in the film, just be honest with yourself and tell them that you love the movie and wanted to reference it. Is reference that bad to you? A love letter to cinema is something that I love to see, and this is one that accomplishes everything that I expected of it and much much more, with an impressive performance by Dennis Levant and the accompanying cast, with great musical sequences including the song “Who were we?” with Kylie Minogue and the Intermission, showcasing the great musical talent of Lavant. Mr. Carax, please, think about it, just see your movie once again if you need to do that, do it pour la beaute du geste and say it, you love movies and this is your homage, questioning and concerns about its modern state. We won’t judge you, we’ll just love you more and more. Regards, a fan.
4. Indie Game: The Movie (Lissane Pajot, James Swirsky)
The greatest documentaries are those who manage not only to inform, but to make a personal mark, an achievement of sorts, something that will follow you, inspire you, make you a better person at the end of the day. The first time I watched this documentary it was 2am in the morning, and I thought that I would see it for a couple of minutes before I shut it off and see it another day, but I just couldn’t, it caught me and I finished it at 4am in the morning and I was just won over by it, this is a masterpiece and the moment I saw it, I knew it, this was going to make my list of the best movies of 2012 without much contest, and well, here we are, and a fourth place isn’t too shaby for a movie that was founded via Kickstarter and that is a story about superation and success above any other, about art and the artist, about how much pressure and doubts must someone who wants to create and give something to society go through for it to come to fruition. Here we see two projects: Super Meat Boy and Fez, two videogames independently produced by small crews, in each case no more than 2 people to make an entire videogame, from its visual aspect to its music, everything is hand made, tested and shipped by them, and it’s a hard work, something that inspires anyone who is familiar (or not) with the world of gaming, you end up wanting to go out and make something out of yourself, make something, whatever it is, and that feeling to be traspassed to you via the real story of some hard-working videogame developers is just amazing for a couple of first time directors, who not only directed, but also edited and shot the movie, and this is a movie that looks gorgeous in every shot, the cinematography is brilliant for a documentary and I just can’t say any other thing than good work guys, you just managed something impressive… Mojang: The Story of Minecraft (2012), eat your heart out.
3. The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan)
I love the direction that Christopher Nolan took with this series of films, and I rate these three as the masterpieces of the genre, something that can’t be fully comprehended by everyone, and I understand that, and even some would say that I have fanboyish tendencies but no, I’m actually not that much of a fan of Batman in the comics (I prefer other superheroes and other kind of comics), but it’s the kind of story of Batman that I’ve always wanted to read or to be told is the one that Christopher Nolan constructed along these 7 years, creating a complex human character inserted in a world different than ours where the crazy technology alongside with the crazy characters and villains exist and can be destroyed so a new day can rise in Gotham. I won’t be saying that this is the best of the three, not even The Dark Knight (2008) takes that price, but whatever I say doesn’t matter, what I have to say is the following: I was at the edge of my seat the whole time at the cinema, it was just bombastic, with an impressive score, great special effects and an outstanding scope and concept for a film regarding the ultimate goal of Bane. And while the politics of Batman (and most superheroes) have been discussed for a long time, I still think that its unimportant (and for me still Batman is much more a communist in this movie than a fascist) towards what actually is happening in the screen: spectacle, good acting, great score, great framing, great cinematography, splendid action coreographies, great moments of awe and surprise, and Batman, while not everpresent in this movie, it was always a movie about his figure, his signal, his presence immortal and everpresent in the mind of the citizens of Gotham and our hearts… let’s see what happens with Superman now.
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson)
I’m glad to be back at Middle Earth. If that isn’t enough, I can say that I’m glad to be back at Middle Earth and with this story, this director, these actors, this magic world, these places, the golden afternoons, the cold mountains… the songs are given a warm welcome to my heart and vision of what the Middle Earth can hold: singing dwarves. Golum makes a stellar apparition and it’s just great to find that scene lifted from the Tolkien book exactly the way it was told in an amazing way and impressive cinematographed and coreographed way. I was left speechless when I left the theatre, I was back, I felt like when I was 10 years younger and I was seeing the first Lord of the Rings movie in an old theatre of the center of Santiago, and now I was seeing it again, with my parents, feeling a warmth and a familiarity. It’s nice to think that I’ll have the chance to visit Middle Earth two more times in the next two years… it will be pleasing.
1. Amour (Love, Michael Haneke)
This is the best film that I’ve seen in this young decade. Put simply, Haneke has never been more effective to me than here, making a personal experience even more powerful by putting it in film and experiencing it with a lot of people is something else completely, it’s just an impressive experience, one that can make you tear up and break your vow to never cry watching a movie (still unbroken, come at me bro). Haneke has always been a masterful director, one that knows where to put the camera at the precise moment and in the right position/framing, you just have to see the famous shot and countershot that has been made in the press material of the film, the perfect sinchronization and mirror images of the two protagonists of the film. Riva is an impressive actress, and here it’s just above everything anyone can do or say about performing handicapped people, it’s just amazing what she can do here, and it can bring memories to anyone who has been in the same position with a sick person. Here Haneke doesn’t leave his master shots, but at the same time, for the first time in my experience with him, he wasn’t afraid to feel, and in that we feel closer with the characters, we feel their feelings, we see things with their eyes, and that isn’t something that Haneke is used to do, and I appreciate that he did it this time, it was the right thing to do. A cold view at something that is so close to many of us would feel ironic and burlesque. I’m glad we have this and I’m glad we have these great actors still with us.
Hey Jaime…..Thoughts.
Moonrise Kingdom- Alot of people who don’t like Wes Anderson liked this film. But also alot of people who DO like Wes Anderson liked this one. Such as myself. I am a HUGE WA fan and I think this is one of his 2-3 best films and probably his best at least since Royal Tenenbaums. It was charming, innocent without being cutesy, funny, melancholic, beautifully shot and acted.
Safety Not Guaranteed- I didn’t like this one and had high hopes for it. It seemed too much the indie-darling sort of thing but I found much of it cliched. It was kind of cute, but didn’t add up to much.
The Dark Knight Rises- Wow I HATED this movie. I thought it was a huge step down from the masterpiece that was The Dark Knight. It was muddled and poorly written, the villain was sort of laughably bad….in a bad way, the setpieces were poorly executed (what was the deal with that silly football stadium sequence?).
what was the deal with that silly football stadium sequence? what was the deal with the silly magical gps cellphone vision from the Dark Knight?
I don’t know that wasn’t as over the top bad as the football stadium thing. Gadgets are one thing…..that sequence in the football stadium was just really hokey.
Interested in hearing you expand on the Batman political thing. Yes, Batman sacrifices himself for ‘the people’ (or actually, he doesn’t, he just takes advantage of their need for heroes and then jets off to Venice) but it’s all much more ‘noblesse oblige’ than ‘power to the people.’ While I enjoyed Dark Knight Rises, I thought it was pretty ideologically incoherent (wanting to be anti-populist but not actually having the guys to follow through) and less compelling than Dark Knight. I thought Bane was a pretty cool villain though, not sure why he got so much flack.
Someone did a post about it on another blog and I agreed completely, among the points were his disgust for weapons and other elements.
Communists are not known for the disgust for weapons, lol…
Whose disgust for weapon’s? Batman’s? You mean other than the tanks, the explosives, the aerial-batmobile, even the bat-ninja-stars?
I think if anything Bane is supposed to be a ‘communist’ but one thing that annoyed me about the film is it posited his class warfare simply as a cynical means to an end – in this case, nihilist mass annihilation. This is the standard right-wing line, and the reason they can simultaneously paint Obama as a secret Marxist ideologue and a calculating Chicago boss at the same time. Most of all, viewing left-wing politics this way allows them to skirt dealing with the substance of a leftist critique, and this what might be correct about it. Nolan’s work here pretty clearly takes that stand to my eyes, his disingenuous dissembling in the press notwithstanding. I think one reason that some people have trouble identifying the film as conservative is that it represents an older, more European/aristocratic strand of conservatism which doesn’t bear much resemblance to the individualistic, far less traditionalist conservatism prevalent in the U.S. (it hasn’t reared its head in American politics since the half-hearted days of “compassionate conservatism”). Nolan’s trilogy – or at least the second two – may be conservative, but it isn’t Randian which confuses many used to the libertarian rhetoric of the right in the past few years.
Joel you say you enjoyed TDKR…..but then go on to have many complaints about its idealogies. I just think the whole thing is a rambling mess that has no idea what it wants to do.
Because its sort of two different things – as a collection of set pieces, gestures, characters etc I enjoyed whiling away the hours in a theater in its presence. In other words, I was entertained. It’s ideas, however, were half-baked and evasive (albeit rather fascinating to unpack the implications of). The Dark Knight worked much better in both levels IMO (though I found Batman Begins disappointing as entertainment).
That makes sense I suppose. However, I found the draggy nature of the whole thing to even ruin the “excitement”. I was bored even from that standpoint. Ah well.
Maybe communist wasn’t the right word, maybe liberal.
http://seriousfilm.blogspot.com/2012/07/4-reasons-your-political-interpretation.html
And I think Bane reminds me more of Augusto Pinochet than any other communist leader in history.
Moonrise was charming but I don’t see the ‘there’ there that everyone seems to be getting from it. To my mind he still needs to collaborate with Owen Wilson again (as a writer).
This remarkable presentation is a triumph of plowing the waters for films from around the world that can be seen when there is a strong desire! That I misses a good number of the choices from Numbers 11 through 20, when I have seen over 150 films in theaters over this past year is proof that you have really gone that extra yard. I have neither seen the Chilean films, nor a few of these documentaries, but it is hoped I will do so at some point. Certainly AMOUR is a great choice for the top spot (it was my first runner-up after my top ten, not because I don’t think it is great, but rather because I don’t think I will watch it again) I don’t hate THE DARK KNIGHT RISES as Jon does, and think for what it is it was nicely done, but I wouldn’t have it on a top ten list. But you are not remotely alone there. I would love to see INDIE GAME especially of the ones on your list that I haven’t seen. I do love MOONRISE KINGDOM and ARGO, but I am no fan of CLOUD ATLAS. HOLY MOTORS is another great choice.
Beautiful presentation, passionately penned capsules. Authoritative post!
Thanks Sam!
Jaime,
First of all I would like to congratulate you on doing something that we seem to be seeing fewer and fewer instances of not only across the blogosphere but in the critical arena as well, which is go with your heart when it comes down to assembling your year end list. When you think about it, isn’t that what really matters when it comes to criticism after all? I mean, OK yes I may disagree with some of your choices but if we are not putting our personal spin on these lists then what value do they really have? To promote the same old junk Hollywood has been throwing at us year in and year out? What good would that do?
One needs look no further than the amount of nominations thrown at such trite trivial nonsense as SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK to understand that there is a serious problem in the critical establishment of sheep following the herd, so to speak, and you have absolutely not done that with this list, and I applaud you for it. As a matter of fact my list, which I have been holding off on handing in because I have a few more titles to catch up on (I have been kept out of the theaters the past few weeks while dealing this horrifying new strain of the flu everyone on the news has been talking about) is going to look a lot like yours when all is said and done.
And as for today’s nominations you can cry and complain about them all you want but you have to hand it to them for finally getting something right by giving Haneke a nomination that is, in my opinion, long overdue. You can ask Sam, I have been promoting him as the heir apparent to Bergman and Kubrick for as long as anybody. I can still remember walking out of the Angelica theater in the city on a snowy night after seeing FUNNY GAMES for the first time and being literally incapable of lighting my cigarette because my hands were shaking so badly. The tension he created in that film was stomach churning, and the metaphorical insights he was making as far as violence in our culture and parental responsibility and manners were dead on as far as I was concerned and I turned around to Sam that night and said it, there was no doubt in my mind, we were witnessing the birth of a master. AMOUR is next up on my plate, and as excited to see it as I was, your placement of it in the top spot has just served to wet my appetite for it even more and I will be shocked if I don’t fall in line behind you and Sam on this one.
The only bone I have to pick here is seeing THE HOBBIT so high up on your list. Nobody on this site has more nostalgic feelings toward this series than I do. I wrote a twenty-seven page analysis of the book my sophomore year of high school that floored my English teacher Mr. Cardozzo. I can still remember him laughing when I handed him the binder it was in, he couldn’t believe how much I worshipped Tolkien then and while I have gotten into other writers over the years, explored philosophy and foreign literature, I still have a big place in my heart for science fiction of any kind, and for my money there’s nobody who has ever even come close to Tolkien when it comes down to building a universe. I have been saying it for years, as much as I love the STAR WARS films, and as much as I respect Lucas for what he was able to do with them, there would be no Lucas without Tolkien. Case closed.
That being said, this film just depressed me. At this point in his career Jackson has said everything he really wanted to say on his previous go around with this material, and from the first frame I could see this was more about the doll house of effects and locations for him than it was about emotions and metaphors. These characters have withstood the test of time because while they may occupy the realm of fantasy they have complex personalities and desires which resonate with people of all ages, and call me crazy but I just wasn’t getting that from this film. THE HOBBIT had the stench of another attempt by a studio to squeeze as much money out of moviegoers as possible, and as far as they were concerned, the fact that Jackson was willing to hop back on board was just a bonus.
I understand you have nostalgic feelings toward this picture but I think you’re doing yourself a disservice by placing it so highly on this list, because your capsule doesn’t really dig into the overall content as much as some of your other ones do, your THE DARK KNIGHT RISES review, in particular, was dead on and a whole lot of fun to read.
Dennis I’m very sorry to hear you’ve been sick with the flu. Please get better my friend we’ve been missing you around here of late.
I agree the nominations brought some surprises. Of the pleasant variety it was great to see Haneke and Amour getting much love. I haven’t seen it yet but this is a good development. Throwing your weight around at Silver Linings Playbook is not something I am on board with though. I thought it to be a well acted film. It was a bit sloppy at times, but it had a lovable quality that I didn’t find anywhere else last year. My main issue is with Beasts of the Southern Wild and the child actor getting a nomination. That’s a slap in the face to people like Rachel Weisz and Marion Cotillard. Completely preposterous she would get a nomination over them. It’s really nothing special as a performance and the film is overwrought with things that just don’t work at all…..the fantasy elements, the faux grittiness, the shaky cam.
Thanks for the incredible comment Dennis. I know I didn’t go extra on why I liked The Hobbit so much, for one I don’t think that it’s better than the Lord of the Rings movies personally, but I do think that it’s better paced and a marvel just to watch. Many exciting characters and situations make for whatever fault there was regarding the adaptation itself.
“There would be no Lucas without Tolkien”? Don’t think so. Tolkien was certainly an influence on the early development of “Star Wars” in its rough draft stages, but so were a bunch of things, especially the self-conscious, even reverential pastiche that he makes to the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Frank Herbert, Flash Gordon, the Lensmen books and all sorts of other things even before you get into non-sci fi cinema (Godard, Ford, Leone and obviously Kurosawa all have much more to do with SW than Tolkien). Would there have been a Lucas without Tolkien? Yes– he’s not as essential an ingredient in the hodge-podge of homage. But I doubt there would’ve been a Jackson without Lucas (at the very least, he’s a bigger influence on that director than the author is on either of them).
Bob,
While I usually prefer not to split hairs on matters like this (I am busy enough between working at the cab stand 60 hours a week and then keeping pace with all of the new movies and reissues of opera and classical music pieces which have reemerged, as Sam can attest to, as an obsession of mine almost on par with cinema) but I am not going to let you off the hook on this one.
I respect your right to have an opinion on this and as much as you admire STAR WARS you’re forgetting something. I was there when it happened. I stood on line for three hours to get into the original picture. I woke up at 7am to get on line to be in the theater for the first screening of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK at the Sharon Cinemas in Fort Lee, and thanks to a connection made by my father at the restaurant I saw a preview screening of RETURN OF THE JEDI a few months before it came out, and while I’ll be the first to admit it did not live up to the previous two I still think that film had a lot of offer as far as multilayered story telling, special effects and as was par for the course throughout the series, musically.
I will be the first one to acknowledge Kurosawa, and the comic book serials of the fifties, you can even go further back to the German cinema of Riefenstahl if you want to, as far as the compositional staging of the medallion ceremony in the original STAR WARS. You are right, there are other influences at play throughout the series.
However, if you made a pie chart of all of the ingredients that fed into the formation of the series, you would find that Tolkien would take up a HUGE chunk of the puzzle. Lucas himself has said it time and time again that he leaned on Tolkien throughout mapping out the narrative of the original films, and it’s without question that Tolkien’s attention to detailing every nook and cranny of the universe inspired Lucas to his core.
So I think it’s safe to say that there would be no Lucas without Tolkien, as much as it’s safe to say that without a lumpy mattress and some cheap vodka there would likely be no you.
Nope. It’s one of the more famous ingredients, but one you could lose without affecting the whole too much. Probably the biggest debt that Lucas owes to Tolkien is some of Gandalf in the various Jedi mentor figures, but frankly you don’t really need that to get to the same basic character. So much of what Tolkien was doing was merely homaging Arthurian and Norse mythology, and that’s something Lucas was getting into directly anyway through Campbell. So if there wasn’t a Gandalf to influence the development of Obi-Wan, Yoda or Qui-Gon, the same basic archetype would’ve already been covered by the wizard Merlin, and the plentiful depictions of the character from old and contemporary sources alike (perhaps more of an influence from TE White or CS Lewis would’ve surfaced– they’re better writers anyway).
There may have been minor differences, but not as much as if there hadn’t been an Edgar Rice Burroughs or Kurosawa to draw from (there’s more of Takashi Shimura in the Jedi than Merlin, easily). And certainly less difference in his career overall than if Lucas hadn’t been there to inspire Jackson.
Let’s not forget that Lucas also inspired Lynch, and Kubrick, and Welles, and D.W. Griffith… maybe even that Melies guy (didn’t he use special effects and stuff??)… and I thought we had finally turned the page on this particular discussion lol.
Either way, I’m amazed that while The Hobbit made money, it didn’t seem to really grab the popular imagination like LOTR’s. It basically made some cash and then disappeared into the ether (at least that’s my impression). Jackson probably would of been better served producing instead of directing. Maybe a fresh approach could of made him even more money to stuff that chubby face of his. Other than Jaime’s high placement, I really haven’t heard anyone else pontificating on the picture. Is this just me?? Or has the film insinuated itself into pop culture in a way my ignorance on such matters might have missed. I expect an answer guys…
I’m only saying Lucas inspired Jackson, Mauriz. I don’t think that’s a great leap, nor do I think that Jackson is anywhere remotely near the same level of talent as those you list.
As for the film itself, I think it made some inflated money thanks to its 3D and IMAX screenings, but aside from that it’s just another disposable crowdpleaser, and one without anything really original of its own to make anymore than a recycled impression on the audience. A “Transformers” movie is more original. Perhaps if Jackson had only decided to make two, or dare I say, even just ONE movie out of that humble little book, the end product wouldn’t be so watered down and pointless.
It did have an air of disposability Bob. Even though I found the LOTR trilogy underwhelming, those films were like pop culture events with crazy anticipation from filmgoers. With The Hobbit I didn’t get that sense at all. It just came, made some dough, and then slinked out the back door. Stuff like The Hunger Games, Prometheus, and The Avengers had way more anticipation it seemed.
Way more anticipation, and, quite frankly, way better performance against stronger competition. One of the reasons I’ve always thought that the LOTR films did so well is because they gamed the system nicely, opening amidst the more downplayed winter season, where the only real rivals at the box office are Oscar bait, which anything with a semblance of mainstream appeal has an advantage over. They didn’t play in the spring or summer, against half a dozen other aspiring blockbusters. They’d probably have done okay if they were summer releases, but if they’d been competing with the likes of “Star Wars”, “Spider-Man”, or any given Bat-film, they may not have done quite as well.
I like the first LOTR movie well enough, though the other two bored the hell out of me. “The Hobbit” strikes me as a really odd proposition as a series of movies, because unlike other prequel narratives, theres’ really no unanswered questions left in the audiences’ mind. This isn’t the story of how Anakin became Vader or how the Empire took over; this isn’t the story of how Professor X and Magneto went from being friends to enemies, or how Wolverine got his claws and lost his memory; it’s not even the story of how James became Bond or how Batman learned how to fight crime from meglomaniacal ninjas. Anyone who watched the first 5 minutes of LOTR knows all the important information, what the One Ring is, and how Bilbo Baggins found it. All “The Hobbit” does is add details, and tell a larger adventure of what Bilbo does with the ring, and if it were just one 3 hour movie, that’d be okay. Instead, there needs to be 9 hours (at least), so they stretch everything out long past its welcome, and have to add in subplots and ties to the previous movies just to padd the length. And again, all this for a story we already know the ending, and all the pertinent information for. The story may not be rotten, per se, but it’s certainly pre-spoiled.
I disagree here. I think that maybe you are in circles of elitists snobs that don’t appreciate anything, but around with the people that I know and love, we lined up to see this masterpiece of film. It is also making over a billion dollars in little more than a month! So, it isn’t fading out nor it’s going to make a quieter entrance next year, if anything it will be bigger, louder and even more enticing than this film ever was.
Hey I won’t pretend to know how things are in Chile, but in the USA The Hobbit hasn’t received anywhere near the attention the LOTR’s trilogy did in the 00′s. I’m sure Sam himself would agree if you ask him. And the circle I’m in is called New York City… the place where everything happens and where it usually happens first. Trust me, the enthusiasm was at a lowercase. There was either fatigue or outright apathy towards another Tolkien trilogy from Jackson around these parts. It certainly made tons of money, but didn’t come close to transcending it’s medium. Love or hate Star Wars, but even the prequels got 10 times more attention. The vibe towards The Hobbit was muted at best…
Sorry for not living in New York, which seems to be the only place where things happen, people live and the actual reality exists
Lol – not a Jackson fan in the slightest but this response made me chuckle, as someone who has lived in and been alternately exasperated/bemused with the NY perspective on things (which is that north Jersey and southern Long Island are the outer edges of the universe beyond which nothing interesting or relevant ever happens). Noted with all requisite affection for you guys, haha…
Stuff happens everywhere obviously. I just found it absurd that Jaime’s example of The Hobbit’s cultural dominance was predicated on him witnessing a couple of Chileans waiting on a movie line.
I’m not arguing that Jackson’s film isn’t a money making blockbuster (as the box office has clearly proven) but that the film hasn’t transcended it’s medium like every Star Wars film and LOTR’s did. The reviews were/are mixed and overall anticipation for further installments seems dampened. You just don’t get the vibe that people are desperately clamoring for more Peter Jackson/Tolkien as soon as possible. Yeah if it gets released, audiences will go see it, but the general vibe feels muted.
Another good recent example was “Skyfall”. That was a later release, but it was a bonafide box-office event. Certain franchises have proven that there’s always something of a renewed appetite for them, Bond being the longest running of them. LOTR/Hobbit just isn’t, at least not as much as the others.
“a couple of Chileans waiting on a movie line.”
the derogatory tone of this sentence speaks for itself. Cheerio.
I sort of agree, though I’m skeptical of the next film’s possibilities. Again, this is based on the problems of turning the book into three gargantuan films. It’s especially troublesome, I think, that this first film had the most famous sequence from the book, “Riddles in the Dark”, and the only one that has the showcase character of Gollum. It’s only thanks to recently watching the Rankin/Bass film that I even remember anything else from the book’s story, and I can’t say that very much is left that has that same memorable feel. How much more peripheral elements can they force-feed into the narrative? At this point it’s really nothing more than going off to fight a dragon and a big battle. Gollum gave the early portion some extra dramatic weight, something you can preserve for the rest if you keep it a single feature. But now, everything’s spread too thin.
That’s the reasoning behind the inclusion of Radagast. When it was two movies they knew they had only the Riddles as a memorable sequence, so they had to add something to the second part that was equally important: here comes the battle between Gandalf and Sauron in an early form before he starts raising a new army, it will be a cool spectacle of wizardry.
Does it belong in the story of the Hobbit? No. Is it at the same time as the Hobbit? Yes. Will people complain? Only those who don’t want to see Ian McKellen’s Gandalf being a badass.
The problem is… or rather I guess ONE of the problems is… it’s embellishing a story we already know the important details of, from the expository stuff in “Fellowship”. There’s no real gray areas like there were in the prequels for “Star Wars”, “X-Men” or “Batman”– we already know that Sauron was gaining strength in this period, and fixing it to the character of the Necromancer may be an attempt to concretize it, but it all adds up to the same stuff we know in “Fellowship”, with no real sense of discovery, and the way it’s forced into the story is horribly strained. Without the narrative impulse, a lot of the recycled stuff of Gandalf and the rest just feels rather rote and boring.
Again, there’s enough material for one good movie, but stretching it out to three or even just two requires too much padding.
I think I am getting a sense of discovery here with these movies, it wasn’t told the story of Smaug nor the one about why the dwarves had to go underground (that was the most impressive addition to me), and while you found it boring, you can’t call it boring as if it were an inherent characteristic of it, because I was always entertained.
I didn’t get that much sense of “amazement” or “discovery” with the prequels, even if the third one is the best I already knew beat by beat what was going to happen and it never surprised me, hell, I knew when I was 9 years old and even before the first prequel came out that Anakin was a good pilot, had anger issues and that he would get maimed at a lava planet after a fight with Anakin, and in part because of the movies and in part because of what friends told me, so I’m discovering more with the Hobbit films here than with the Star Wars prequels.
Obviously the reverse is true with me. I loved seeing all the stuff in the Prequels of how the Old Republic was like before the dark times of the Empire, how the Jedi Knights were at the top of their game before they were wiped out, and how Anakin went from being a hero to villain. But there’s already a sense of grey area to those backstories because they have something the “Hobbit” movies don’t– a real sense of before and after, because for better or worse, LOTR already covered that. Furthermore there were enough empty spots entirely in the SW prequel stories that provided the “Why’s” and “Hows” to the “Whats” we already knew– argue about the quality of their execution or not, but we didn’t know that the Republic would become the Empire through conspiracy and proxy-wars, that the Jedi would effectively sell out before being branded rebels, or that Anakin would fall to the dark side over love. This is all stuff that the original trilogy didn’t really give us any hints on, and that even hardcore SW fans would’ve been hard-pressed to guess from the scant clues of interviews and whatnot over the years. You may not have liked what you discovered, but there was more genuine discovery.
Again, I like to bring up some of the other recent movie prequels that might have a little less baggage to deal with. Take “X-Men First Class”. There, you have something that was wholesale inventing backstories for the Marvel characters to fit in with world history and the events established in the previous movies, but they still kept up a lot of real discovery. We knew that Magneto and Professor X were once friends, and that they turned enemies over disagreeing over the fates of mutants and humanity, but that’s it. We didn’t know that Magneto watched his mother gunned down by a mutant superemacist who trained him to become a living weapon, or that he later spent years hunting down Nazis around the world. We didn’t know that Professor X was a swinging-sixties ladies’ man, or that he grew up with Mystique as a sort-of sister. We sure as hell didn’t know that they all teamed up with the CIA to stop a mutant plot to start World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The same sort of thing can be said of “Batman Begins” or “Casino Royale” for how they fill in new details of characters we already knew. And to an extent they may simply do the same thing that Jackson attempts with the Necromancer, introducing new backstories to help support what we already know. But Jackson’s telling a story he already told us in full from the first LOTR movie, albeit in summary, and all we got in the first “Hobbit” so far was to see that in extra detail, or along with other narrative strands that have nothing to do with the rest of the narrative in question.
Probably the perfect prequel for both of us to consider, though nobody else will get it, is “Snake Eater”. That game does a great job of filling out a story we already knew some of the details to, but introducing all kinds of new stuff in order to give weight not only to its story but everything we saw before. That’s the real job of a Prequel– to change how you see the originals, and I don’t think that’s even really being attempted with “The Hobbit”, which is natural of course because it wasn’t originally written as such by Tolkien.
THIS IS NOT ME. JASON GIEMPIETRO IS USING MY NAME TO MAKE THESE COMMENTS… The REAL dennis
Does anyone know what the fuck is going on?
You should get a website on wordpress or just a wordpress account so we don’t get confused.
Jaime -
Congratulations on a year of personal achivement and on a wonderul and diverse list. I haven’t seen most of these, but you make such a persuasive case for the growin maturity of Chilean cinema that I’m interested to find some of these films and watch them myself. I’m particularly happy that you included RUBY SPARKS which I thought was the year’s best romantic comedy. I re-watched LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE just a couple of weeks ago and found myself really enjoying and admiring its blend of absurdity and acute observations of human foibles.
Thanks Pat. I do love both films quite a lot.
I haven’t seen most of these (I’m hoping to catch more new releases in 2013; I’ve probably never seen fewer films in theaters than last year). But I still had fun reading this, and you made me want to see all of these, yes even The Hobbit haha. Actually the two I’m most intrigued by are the documentaries you open with, neither of which is heard of before.
Good luck to you in the coming year and years with your filmmaking, and during the rougher patches just remember when someone says ‘No’ it’s their loss and your chance to prove them wrong.
Thanks MovieMan!
Nobody’s said this yet, so I’m going to say it.
OBJECTION!!!
I’m sure only Jaime will get that.
WAIT!
I love the comments and the discussion, thanks a lot!
For those who already commented, I have another treat by me, I list all the 2013 films I look forward to. You can check it out here:
http://overlookhotelfilm.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/movies-i-look-forward-in-2013/
I’m not sure there’s a better way to describe The Avengers than “Boom! Crash! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” That’s a perfect way to explain the fun of that surprisingly charming movie. It’s also cool to see you pointing out Safety Not Guaranteed and Ruby Sparks. I caught up with both on DVD late in the year and enjoyed them. The former has a lot of charm from Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass, and the latter does a great job digging into the darker areas of a writer’s mind. I still need to check out a lot of your picks, including Holy Motors and Amour. I’m also intrigued by some of the choices that I hadn’t heard about in the past. Nice job!