But don’t
tell that to some critics. If I read one more piece on the death of cinema or
the death of cinema culture this year, than I may just scream. Did no one
mention to these critics just how great this year for movies was? Did they not
notice? The whole idea of the death of cinema mystifies me, but it really is
nothing new. Every year, I read from some critics what a lousy year for movies
it was. And as far back the Lumiere Brothers (who thought their invention “had
no future”) people having been sounding the death knell for movies. From the
advent of sound to the adding of color, to Godard’s jump cuts to the
“blockbuster age” to digital cinema, it seems someone is always trying to kill
cinema – and yet it continues to roll along.
It is true
that cinema culture has changed over the years – perhaps more so in the last
decade than in the previous few. The rise of the internet has made “everyone a
critic” (and that includes me, I guess). Everyone now not only can have an
opinion, but can share it with the world. While some hate this new “culture”, I
rather like it. Movie culture has certainly become more niche driven than ever
before, yet there are more places than ever in which one can read about or
become involved in discussions about movies. If you want to dissect the latest
superhero movie, there are plenty of places for you to go. But you can also
have intelligent discussions, with informed moviegoers, about even the smallest
indies, little seen foreign films or documentaries. In short, cinema culture is
only dead to you if you don’t put any effort into it.
One thing
I have heard repeatedly this year is that television has replaced cinema where
the best work in being done. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Louie, Homeland, etc. have
become the place for true artists, and movies are poorer for it. To that, I
call bullshit. There is no doubt that TV is better now than ever before – at
least certain shows. What Matthew Weiner and Vince Gilligan are doing on Mad
Men and Breaking Bad is quite simply brilliant. And 2012 was also the year that
the other AMC show The Walking Dead actually delivered on its promise (although
with show runner Glenn Mazzara leaving, it remains to be seen if the show can
keep up the unusually high quality of the second half of season 2 and the first
half of season 3). Better than any of them – at least in 2012 – though was
Louie, in which comedian Louie C.K. brilliantly blew up the sitcom genre, with
the strangest, funniest, most painful season yet. The Parker Posey arc (if you
can call it that) was utterly, completely brilliant – and yes, as good as
anything I have seen in a movie theater this year.
But I
don’t understand how the fact that some TV shows are getting better, and
defying the boundaries of their medium, translates into movies become worse.
Sure, the internet lights up every Sunday night to discuss the latest
adventures of Don Draper, Walter White or Sheriff Rick, but did no one notice
the impassioned discussion and debate out there on films like The Master, Django
Unchained, Amour, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight
Rises, Holy Motors or countless others this year? You would have to willfully
bury your head in the sand to not see that movies still matter to a lot of
people. Movie culture keeps changing, adapting, morphing into something
different. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. 2012 offered film goers an
embarrassment of riches. If you think cinema is dying, than I think you’re not
looking close enough.
I will
admit that sometimes, movie culture can become a drag. We’re in the midst of
one of those periods now – the post Oscar nomination, pre-show phase, where
apparently everyone who loves movies is supposed to pick a side and lob bombs
on everyone else’s side. So you read the people who are on “Team Silver Linings
Playbook” berate those on “Team Lincoln” – and vice versa. We get ridiculous pieces
written about how Michael Haneke or Benh Zeitlin “stole” Oscar nominations from
Ben Affleck or Kathryn Bigelow – as if Affleck or Bigelow “earned” those Oscar
nominations they didn’t get because everyone said they were going to get them.
I have strong feelings about what the best films of the year are – and yes,
some people (including Bigelow) were, for me, unfairly overlooked. But Haneke
and Zeitlin had nothing to do with it – the Academy did. And perhaps instead of
bitching and moaning that the Academy threw a few wrenches in the works this
year, we should be celebrating. After all, don’t we normally bitch and complain
that the Academy simply falls lock-step in behind what every other group has
already awarded, and complain that they should think for themselves more? And
isn’t Michael Haneke the precise type of foreign master everyone has bitched
about the Academy overlooking for decades? And don’t we normally bitch that a
great indie film like Beasts of the Southern Wild is the type of thing the
Academy never goes for? Of course, bitching about the Oscars is a pastime movie
lovers enjoy endlessly, but so much for what passes for “analysis” during the
Oscar season is ridiculous. So, I for one am glad that I am done my year end
wrap up – it makes it easier to ignore it all, enjoy the Oscar ceremony in 6
weeks, and move on to the 2013 movie year. Let’s hope it’s as good as 2012.
The posts
that follow are, like every year, admittedly overkill. In addition to a
traditional top 10 list, I do two posts for runners up (posted today, Monday),
a post for the top 10 performances in each Oscar category (to be posted
Wednesday) and another for the best ensembles casts of the year something I
still think the Academy should adopt (Thursday), my own personal Oscar ballot
(Thursday as well) as well separate posts for the top 5 animated films and top
10 Documentaries (to be posted Tuesday)- please note, if either an animated
film or doc was good enough for a top 10 placement – and none were this year –
they would be included as well as a depressingly long post on the worst and
most disappointing films of the year (Friday).
Yes, this
is overkill. But there is a method to my madness. The reason I go so overboard
with lists and naming films is because I feel too often – especially at Oscar
time – the conversation about movies becomes too narrow – anything that isn’t
an “Oscar movie” gets shunted aside and not even mentioned. In my own small
way, I try to combat this. Yes, a lot of the films on the following pages are
“Oscar films”, but there are as many if not more that won’t come close to the
Kodak theatre this year. To me, the value in the Oscars – and the awards season
as a whole, that includes critic’s top 10 lists – is in the conversations and
debates they inspire, as we all let the world know what we think represents
cinema at its best over the past 12 months.
I endeavor
to see as many of the “great” films of the year – or at least the ones others
think are great. But, as always, it’s not possible to see everything. I would
have loved to see the following films, but either I missed them when they
played in my area, or they never did and still haven’t come to DVD or other
means of home viewing: How to Survive a Plague, The Gatekeepers, Neighboring
Sounds, Sister, Almayer’s Folly, Room 237, The House I Live In, Not Fade Away,
The Central Park Five, West of Memphis, Middle of Nowhere, and Farewell My
Queen. So who knows, maybe I missed one of the great films of 2012.
Some of
you will agree with my lists, some of you will undoubtedly think I’ve lost my
damn mind in placing these films over your own favorites. This would be the
case no matter what list I came up with. I am more interested in hearing what
YOU think are the year’s best, rather than tell me why I’m such an idiot, but I
suppose there’s room for both. But as I always say, this is my list. If you
don’t like it, make your own.
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