Film Feature: The 10 Best Films of 2012

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6. “Skyfall”

Skyfall
Photo credit: Sony

The best blockbuster of 2012 by some stretch looked like it would surely be Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” or, maybe after people saw it, Joss Whedon’s “Marvel’s The Avengers.” Or perhaps Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. All of those films pale when compared to Sam Mendes’ well-oiled machine of escapist entertainment in arguably the best James Bond film ever made. From Roger Deakins’ Oscar-worthy cinematography to the best supporting cast in 007 history in Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, and Ralph Fiennes, “Skyfall” is a lesson in how to take a typically shallow genre like the action film and make it artistically deep. By looking both to the past and the future of the most famous spy of all time, Mendes and his team delivered a blockbuster that works on so many levels — from pure action adventure to character-driven drama.

5. “Les Misérables”

Les Misérables
Photo credit: Universal

Here’s where we get back to that theme of my favorite films of 2012 — grand, epic storytelling. Yes, cinema offers plenty of room for intimate, personal films, but there’s also a tradition of larger-than-life emotions painted big across a massive movie screen that has been lost by critics and people who watch movies on their iPhones. Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables” is the best musical in over a decade because its director lets the emotion of his beloved source material resonate through his performers instead of technical wizardry. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Samantha Barks — it’s their faces and their voices that convey pain, love, redemption, and loss instead of the lavish costume design, swooping cinematography, or quick-cut editing that typically accompanies a modern musical. It’s undeniably cheesy and melodramatic, but sometimes movies, especially musicals, should be those things. They should embrace their emotional arcs instead of muting them for audiences who think anything heartfelt is automatically a cinematic weakness. Let the cynicism fall away, give into the scope of “Les Miz” for nearly three hours, and don’t feel guilty about it.

4. “Zero Dark Thirty”

Zero Dark Thirty
Photo credit: Sony

Admittedly, while my #5-15 fluctuated often while considering this list, what was in my #1-4 never did. And so these are truly the four films that I consider to be at a level above the rest from what 2012 had to offer and they’re quite interchangeable. These are the four movies that historians will remember from 2012 and this is merely the order they’re in today. Let’s start with Kathryn Bigelow’s stunning accomplishment in capturing an entire decade of the world’s war on terror. With Oscar-worthy work from Jessica Chastain to anchor the film as her lead, Bigelow displays such confidence as a director, conveying a scope of storytelling that one can really only appreciate once “ZDT” is over. She opens with 9/11 and takes us through most of the major signposts along the way so that when we get to the final hour, the actual assault on Bin Laden’s compound, we know the stakes. We feel the tension. We hold our breath and board the helicopter. It’s amazingly transportative filmmaking, what I was clearly looking for all year — something to take me away to a world I would never otherwise understand. Bigelow did that with the war on terror more remarkably than I could have ever imagined.

3. “Lincoln”

Lincoln
Photo credit: Sony

Steven Spielberg’s long-delayed film about Abraham Lincoln is the best movie ever made about the intersection of politics and ideology. The political machine that must be built, oiled, and turned to transform belief into action is fascinatingly dissected in Tony Kushner’s brilliant screenplay, the best of 2012. And then there’s that ensemble, led by Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, and Sally Field, but also ably supported by a roster of A-list talent like Michael Stuhlbarg, James Spader, John Hawkes, and David Straithairn. Kushner’s intellectual approach and Spielberg’s sentimentality perfectly intertwine in a way that amplifies the other’s strengths and smoothes over their weaknesses. This project went through numerous incarnations over the years and seemed like it would never come to the screen. The wait turned out to be worth it.

2. “Argo”

Argo
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Ben Affleck’s crowd-pleasing thriller is a master class in how to tell a story like this — one for which we already know the happy ending but can still somehow feel the tension as if we do not. Like “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Lincoln,” the final result here is a known commodity and yet we still feel the risk and danger due to the skill Affleck brings as a director. Every scene, every line, every shot feels both carefully considered by its creator and organic to the action happening on screen. It hums like a perfectly-made car, one we love to drive even if we know where it’s going.

1. “The Master”

The Master
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company

When I walked out of “The Master,” I was convinced that some of the narrative ambiguities of the final act would keep it from topping my list at the end of the year, a position that a P.T. Anderson film has never held (although many have come close). And yet, when I think back on 2012, it is the images, themes, and performances from Anderson’s daring meditation on free will vs. personal freedom that have rattled around my brain more than any other this year. It is the best film of 2012 because it is the least forgettable film of 2012. It dares you to not just experience something but also interpret it in personal ways and allows its ideas to resonate as much as its plot.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com