Written by Kirk Baird
The year is over. But before we march completely into 2013, let’s glance back at some of my favourite films of 2012.
Argo: Ben Affleck stars as Tony Mendez, the CIA operative who pulled off the daring rescue of six Americans in hiding at the home of the Canadian Embassy ambassador in Iran during the hostage crisis in Tehran. Affleck’s most impressive work is behind the camera, directing a gripping drama that almost never lets up its relenting pace. Even though we know how the true story ends, it’s a testament to Affleck that we sweat it out anyway.
The Avengers: Leave it to a comic-book geek to reinvent the superhero film…again. Writer-director Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is far removed from Christopher Nolan’s deadly serious reflections on what motivates masked avengers and villains, and amps up the fun, action, and a surprising amount of laughs as six superheroes band together and fight an evil god, an alien army, and each other.
Lincoln: Steven Spielberg delivers his most ambitious work yet in this stirring epic of behind-the-scenes politics in the waning days of the Civil War, as Lincoln marshals support for an anti-slavery amendment among a bitterly divided Congress. Tony Kushner’s weighty screenplay resonates with modern-day relevancy, and the superb ensemble is led by Daniel Day-Lewis as a president driven by conscience, not popularity.
Ruby Sparks: Zoe Kazan wrote and stars in this edgy, funny, and occasionally painful to watch romantic comedy about a celebrated literary genius (played by Kazan’s real-life boyfriend Paul Dano) who writes his ideal woman into existence, falls in love with her, discovers he can control her by whatever he types, and must deal with the consequences of that ability as their relationship changes.
Silver Linings Playbook: Bradley Cooper is terrific as a husband shattered by his wife’s affair as is Jennifer Lawrence as a neighbourhood woman who offers to help. Writer-director David O. Russell’s brilliant comedy drama, based on Matthew Quick’s novel, of two emotionally crippled people who find love and coping mechanisms in a Philadelphia suburb redefines the possibilities of what a romantic comedy can be — and should be.
Zero Dark Thirty: The Oscar-winning team of director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal ( The Hurt Locker) deliver a riveting and mostly true account of the U.S. government’s hunt for Osama bin Laden. Jessica Chastain stars as CIA operative Maya, who sacrifices her personal life, breaks government rules, and violates her own code of ethics in her decade-long obsession to find the terrorist leader.
Life of Pi: Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel offers serious subtext involving questions of God, faith, and humanity as part of this wondrous tale of a boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger. Lee nimbly straddles the worlds of indie drama and big-budget release with aplomb, and produces a gorgeous spectacle that entrances and amazes at almost every turn.
DOCUMENTARIES:
The House I Live In: Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki examines America’s never-ending crusade against drugs with an articulate and persuasive group of journalists, law enforcement officials, victims, as well as the creator of The Wire David Simon and a Lincoln historian -- all of whom make a sobering case that the biggest casualty in the war on drugs are young, impoverished black men.
The Imposter: In 1997, Nicholas Barclay, a Texas teenager missing for three years, suddenly and mysteriously appeared in Spain. His story of being kidnapped and held as a sex slave for years was stunning. And none of it was true. That’s just the beginning of this fascinating account of a young French con man named Frédéric Bourdin who fooled the missing teen’s family for three years. Or did he?
Searching for Sugar Man: Detroit folk singer Rodriguez was considered Motown’s answer to Bob Dylan in the early 1970s. Then he disappeared. Yet in South Africa he emerged as an anti-establishment icon to the young. So what ever happened to Rodriguez? That’s what a pair of his fans in South Africa wanted to know. Searching for Sugar Man is their dogged quest to find the answers.
MOVIES THAT DIDN’T MAKE THE LIST, BUT ARE WORTH SEEING:
Here are some other 2012 films that didn’t quite make my best-of list, but are certainly worth your time.
The Sessions: John Hawkes and Helen Hunt are dazzling as a man immobilized by polio as a child and an understanding sex surrogate who agrees to help him lose his virginity.
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Director Benh Zeitlin’s stunning debut about a post-apocalyptic future is full of relevant commentary about our post-Katrina world.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi: This quiet and beautiful documentary about an 85-year-old Japanese sushi master has as much to say about culture and tradition as it does food.
The Queen of Versailles: Director Lauren Greenfield’s documentary is proof that our economic collapse affected almost everyone, including a billionaire Florida businessman and his eccentric, shop-a-holic wife.
Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson’s quirky comedy of young love and those adults trying to prevent it is his warmest and most human film in years.
The Dark Knight Rises: Christopher Nolan’s finale to his Batman trilogy wasn’t the epic we hoped for, but it was at worst a spectacular misfire.
Hyde Park on Hudson: Quibble with the film’s historical accuracy, but its star Bill Murray and his charismatic FDR is an old-school triumph.
The Cabin in the Woods: Just when you thought the zombie-horror genre was dead, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard give it a jolt of new life with their wild script.
Take This Waltz: Others were more enamoured with writer-director Sarah Polley’s love story gone wrong, but the ho-hum drama cracks this list for Michelle Williams’s heartbreaking performance as a wife who sacrifices what she has for what she wants.
Skyfall: Daniel Craig as 007 and Oscar winner Judi Dench as M, plus Oscar-winner Javier Bardem as the revenge-minded villain and Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes at the helm equals arguably the best James Bond movie ever.
Written by Kyle Slagley
By now you should be finished rolling your eyes, groaning,
banging your head against the wall, or whatever else you do when subjected to
an onslaught of really, really bad puns.
Yesterday, I presented the idea that 2012 was the year of
the vampire, and today I would like to posit the theory that 2013 will be the
year of the zombie. Here’s a look at what’s in store.
World War Z (Released June 21) – Based on the
New York Times bestselling book by Max Brooks, this film stars Brad
Pitt as Gerry Lane, a U.N. employee tasked with stopping a deadly pandemic
that turns the infected into deadly zombies. The book is written in
journalistic style as Brooks compiles his fictitious historical account of the
outbreak that nearly wiped humanity off the planet, complete with testimonies
from faux witnesses. The movie, on the other hand, is an edge-of-your-seat war/action
thriller packed with adrenaline.
Warm Bodies (Released February 1) – It was only a matter of
time before someone dreamt up a zombie romance. Nicholas
Hoult stars as a zombie who becomes involved with a human girl, and their
romance, as it turns out, could change the game for zombies all over the world.
Based on the breakout
novel by Issac Marion, this film offers a lighthearted twist on an
otherwise dark fascination.
Evil Dead (Released April 12) – A remake of the famously
low-budget film
from 1981, a group of friends take a trip to a remote cabin in the woods
where they discover the Book of the Dead and accidentally release a zombie
hoard. Sam
Raimi probably had no idea what he was unleashing when he made it, but fans
of the original film and the two sequels, Evil
Dead 2 and Army
of Darkness, rank this trilogy among the most “Awesomely Bad Horror Films”
of all time. It was so awesomely bad, they even made an off-Broadway
musical about it!
R.I.P.D. (Release July 19) – Based on a Dark Horse comic, a
“recently slain” police officer joins the rest of the undead cops of the Rest
In Peace Department and tries to discover who murdered him. With actors like Ryan
Reynolds, Kevin
Bacon, Jeff
Bridges, and Mary-Louise Parker in the cast, this one will definitely be
worth seeing.
The
Walking Dead – If you don’t watch this AMC drama, you’re missing out on one
of the best shows on cable. This series doesn’t just cash in on the zombie
craze; it redefines primetime drama. With a slew of awards, this series will
most likely finish out the third season as strong as ever, leaving fans
anxiously waiting for a fourth.
Written by Kyle Slagley
At the risk of sticking my neck out, I’d say this was a
monster year for the vampire fad. Audiences everywhere thirsted for the
numerous movies and TV shows that were featured. Leave it to Hollywood to stake
their claim on the trend-du-jour.
Vampire films accounted for a big bite of this year’s box
office numbers, but here are a few to sink your teeth into.
Abraham
Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – The premise, although different and maybe a
little twisted, is nonetheless quite simple: Abraham Lincoln, 16 th
President of the United States, hunts and kills vampires throughout his
entire life. I read the book
first and wondered how the heck they were going to make a decent movie out of
it. A couple weeks later I decided to see what all the fuss was about, so I
borrowed the DVD. I must say I was surprised at just how entertaining the movie
was! This may be one of the few cases when the movie was better than the book.
Hotel
Transylvania – The vampire (and other monsters) craze bled into kids’ entertainment
with this one. When Dracula invites the entire who’s who of monsters to his
daughter Mavis’s birthday, nobody was expecting the human Jonathan to stumble
onto the party. With a cast of voices that looks like one of Tinseltown’s best
all-star lists, audiences will be dying to get their hands on it when the DVD
streets on January 29.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II: Who could forget
the most successful vampire film of the year? The final installment of the record-breaking
movie series inspired by Stephenie
Meyer's bestselling books sparkled in theatres, ranking number four overall
in box office sales with $282M. Although BD2 was supposedly the final film, the
coffin lid may not have completely closed. At Comic-Con this year, rumours began
to pulse that a spinoff focusing on the Wolf Pack and/or Jacob and Renesmee may
be on the horizon.
Vamps
– This one is on my list of movies to see. Directed by Amy
Heckerling and starring Alicia
Silverstone and Krysten
Ritter, this film was in theatres a whole week and a half before being
released on DVD. Silverstone and Ritter play Goody and Stacy, two vampires
addicted to the club-hopping party-girl life in modern-day New York. Although
this film won’t be the one to raise Heckerling’s career from the (un)dead, it
has the same campy charm as Clueless,
providing a tongue-in-cheek take on vampire romance.
Television networks rode the vampire craze all the way to
the blood bank this year too. HBO’s summer series True
Blood had a successful fifth season and has already been renewed for a
sixth. Being
Human, originally a BBC series, finished its second season on SyFy in 2012
and is set to begin season three in January. Last but not least, the CW
continues to lure in audiences with the successful drama Vampire
Diaries.
Even though audiences were drawn by bloodsuckers in 2012,
with the Twilight franchise finished (at least for now), the popularity of
vampires may not continue. I predict a different creature will sit on top of
the supernatural heap in 2013, which is fine with me because coming up with all
these vampire puns is a real pain in the neck.
Written by Kirk Baird
For Terry Gilliam fans, December brought an early gift in the form of the long-awaited Brazil on Blu-ray. Criterion’s deluxe package, with its lovingly restored high-definition transfer of the 27-year-old film, is one holiday present that will not disappoint.
Having co-written the final Monty Python film, 1983’s The Meaning of Life, and directed its ambitious and clever Crimson Permanent Assurance short, Gilliam, the most twisted and comically dark mind of the famed comedic group, still clearly had Python on the mind when he dreamt up Brazil. This Orwell-inspired tale of a paranoid city government sometime in our near future, muddled in inefficiency and paralyzed by bureaucracy while its population of grim and desperate citizens toils away to no real purpose, features brilliantly absurdist Python-esque gags and scathing commentary that echoes the best of the troupe’s work.
The protagonist is Sam Lowry, played with marvelous befuddlement and an eventual sense of derring-do by Jonathan Pryce, a happy cog in the bureaucratic machine who is jolted out of willful complacency when he encounters the woman of his dreams — literally — while attempting to correct a major government error not of his doing. These two disparate events yank him out of his placid life and place him in a position of danger, as an emboldened fugitive rebelling against a broken system who is motivated by love and justice.
In Brazil, Gilliam achieves a tricky thematic balance to his film: warnings of an impending Big Brother-like state (note the government propaganda posted on signs throughout the film: “Suspicion breeds confidence,” “Be safe — be suspicious”) and of the dehumanizing — and failing — technology that makes such a world possible; a brilliant dark comedy that happens to be set in dystopian world; a terrific science-fiction universe filled with stunning art direction; and an old-fashioned love story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy does everything he can to get her back.
To the latter, Gilliam and fellow screenwriters Charles McKeown and Tom Stoppard cooked up a rather stunning and bleak conclusion to the film in being true to the stark mood of the story; however, the American studio behind Brazil, Universal, balked at the dark twist in favour of a more audience-friendly “Love Conquers All” version, which also chopped nearly 50 minutes from Gilliam’s submission. And thus began a contentious war between a filmmaker driven by artistic vision and a studio motivated by box-office receipts. It was Gilliam who ultimately prevailed, but only after the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded his version of Brazil as its top film, as well as awards for director and screenplay. Universal relented, and released a 132-minute “compromise cut” of the film, which included Gilliam’s original ending.
The Criterion Collection release includes two of the three versions of Brazil: disc one features Gilliam’s 142-minute director’s cut, while disc two features the studio’s 94-minute version of the film. Also included on disc two is the fascinating documentary The Battle of Brazil, detailing Gilliam’s struggles with Universal; What Is Brazil?, Rob Hedden’s on-set documentary; and the production notebook, consisting of interviews and video essays. The two-disc set comes with an informative essay booklet by film critic David Sterritt on the importance and merit of Gilliam’s master work.
While Brazil won no Academy Awards — nor was it nominated for any of the major categories save Best Original Screenplay — it nevertheless remains one of the great films of the 1980s and the unquestioned high point of Gilliam’s mostly brilliant and occasionally maddening film career. As important, Brazil stands as a testament to a director who battled the system…and, unlike the fictional world he created, won.
Written by Kirk Baird and Kyle Slagley
There have been a dozen or so film versions of Victor Hugo’s
beloved French historical novel, Les Miserables, from 1862, but the
latest adaptation is arguably the most anticipated. Based on the acclaimed musical
adaptation of Hugo’s novel, Les
Miserables features a starry cast – Hugh
Jackman, Russell
Crowe, Anne
Hathaway, Helena
Bonham Carter, Sacha
Baron Cohen, Amanda
Seyfried – a big production, and an Oscar-winning director, Tom
Hooper (The King’s Speech).
Even before its Christmas Day release, there’s big buzz for this
period musical, including acting nominations by several awards groups for
Jackman as the redemptive Jean Valjean and Hathaway as the tragic Fantine; her
touching and powerful performance, in particular, resonates long after the film
is over.
Set during the years between 1815 and 1832, Les Miserables shares the woeful fate of
several French men and women and their connection to each other: Valjean as a
petty criminal turned successful businessman who is wanted by the law; Javert (Crowe)
as the dogged police inspector who is obsessed with bringing Valjean to
justice; Fantine as a sad soul searching for good fortune to save her and her
young daughter, Cosette; and an adult Cosette (Seyfried), who has fallen in
love with one of the members of the
doomed Paris Uprising.
Cooper and the film’s art directors seize their opportunity
to expand the stage production’s scope to a spectacular, massive scale that
brings justice to Hugo’s epic story. The dreary set design and costumes are a
character unto themselves, casting an appropriate melancholy on the plight of
the unfortunates of the story. Just as impressive are the “live” performances
of the cast, who sang onset to the camera, rather than record their songs later
in a studio. The technique lends naturalism to the actors’ performances, with
Cooper often drawing the camera in closer to heighten the immediacy of the
moment.
The music of the show conveys many different emotions, but
perhaps one of the most difficult to convey is that of pure desperation. These
are the songs in this film with the most punch, and the live performances allow
the actors to really get the emotion across to the audience.
Hathaway’s performance of the song “I Dreamed a Dream” is
the prime example of this. Rather than being the grand operatic spectacle that
so many stage performances seem to have, it is rough and gritty. Her sobs
interrupt the notes and at times it seems as though she is on the verge of
going completely mad because she is so overcome with emotion. It would have
been extremely difficult to replicate that depth of emotion in a studio
recording.
As with previous musicals-turned-films, fans of the stage
show should remember that film is a different game than the stage. Because stage
shows are limited in ways films are not, music theatre fans often zero in on
the vocals and consider other elements second. This film is as much about the
visual spectacle as it is about the music, and although many of the stars are
actors first and singers second, they each bring the characters to life in a
way that makes this movie worthy of all the hype.
Written by Kyle Slagley
I’ve been sitting on this topic for a couple weeks, and I confess my reactions are no less conflicted than they were when I heard the news for the first time. On November 30, it was announced that Carrie Underwood would star as Maria Von Trapp in a live NBC broadcast of The Sound of Music, scheduled to air sometime in 2013.
Go ahead and take a minute to process that. I’ll wait.
That’s right, the Oklahoma-bred country music princess will be playing the prim and proper Austrian nun-turned-governess-turned-wife and I for one was left wondering who the heck made that casting decision.
About half of your theatre buffs will say Maria Von Trapp is the most loved nanny in all of musical theatre; the other half will say that honour goes to Mary Poppins. Both characters were immortalized in the 1960s when Julie Andrews played them on the silver screen – Mary Poppins in 1964 and Maria Von Trapp in 1965.
It therefore goes without saying that the shoes Carrie Underwood has to fill are about as large as the interior of Mary Poppins’s handbag. In a circle of friends full of movie buffs, trained opera singers, and general theatre snobs, I’m the odd one out that says Carrie could do a decent job. Notice how I said “could.”
In order to succeed in this role and leave the dissenters behind her, Carrie has to walk into it and keep repeating two simple things: Maria Von Trapp is not Carrie Underwood, and Carrie Underwood is not Julie Andrews. That may sound like some existential “method actor” concept, but I assure you it’s not.
Let me explain. Maria Von Trapp is not from Oklahoma and certainly isn’t going to “take a Louisville Slugger to both headlights” of a Nazi Mercedes Benz. Carrie is going to have to leave all of her down-home American girl mannerisms at home; hence, Maria is not Carrie.
Secondly, you don’t find stars like Julie Andrews anymore. For 60 years, she’s been classy, charming, and with her four-octave vocal range at age 77, still astoundingly talented. Carrie has got to realize that if she goes into this role trying to be Julie, she’s setting herself up for failure. If she can harness that country-girl determination, take the role by the Do-Re-Mi, and make it her own, then there’s a very real chance for her to shine in her own right.
It’s a fine line, to be sure, but Carrie showcased her ability to adapt to different styles when she won Season Four of American Idol back in 2005. Moreover, her rendition of the title song “Sound of Music” on CBS’s Movies Rock! broadcast in 2007 was by no means bad.
Carrie’s success may lie heavily on how well she clicks with whomever is chosen to play Captain Von Trapp, as even the most experienced stage veterans know that chemistry between actors is crucial to a show’s success. Who will be chosen? Hugh Jackman? Liev Schrieber? A yet-to-be-discovered media blogger?
Oh well, a guy can dream…
Written by Kirk Baird
The End is Nigh.
At least, that’s what some believe the Mayans gloomily forecast for us 1,300 years ago by having their ancient calendar end at Dec. 21, 2012.
Experts, of course, tell us otherwise. But since when did facts get in the way of a good story? Certainly it’s never stopped Hollywood and its ability to find creative ways to demolish humankind and our precious planet.
We’ve been smashed by asteroids and other planets, wiped out by global floods, and killed by strains of mutant viruses. Oh, and in one strange twist, our species faced extinction because we were no longer able to reproduce.
To celebrate our impending demise, here are several ways the movies have tried to wipe us out.
Melancholia (2011): Lars von Trier’s moody and disturbing end-of-the-world drama features what should have been an Oscar-nominated performance by Kirsten Dunst in a beautifully shot film that, in typical von Trier fashion, polarized audiences and critics.
The Last Wave (1977): Richard Chamberlin stars in Peter Weir’s strange tale of an Australian attorney plagued by end-of-the-world visions after he takes on the case of defending five Aborigines on trial for a ritual murder.
Take Shelter (2011): Michael Shannon’s gripping performance as a husband and father increasingly obsessed with prophetic visions of a coming apocalyptic storm anchors this brilliant film with a much-discussed ending.
2012 (2009): Director and co-writer Roland Emmerich throws out all the CGI stops in this ultimate big-budget Earth snuff film starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover as the president, and Woody Harrelson as — wait for it — a paranoid hippie.
Deep Impact (1998): This loose remake of 1951’s When Worlds Collide features an all-star cast led by Robert Duvall, Vanessa Redgrave, Elijah Wood, and Morgan Freeman struggling to survive the horrific impact of an asteroid and plan for the future.
Twelve Monkeys (1995): Terry Gilliam’s mind-twisting sci-fi posits a doomed future Earth that sends a convict (Bruce Willis) into the past for clues to save humanity from near extinction by a mysterious virus. But is it all in the mind?
Children of Men (2006): In Alfonso Cuaron’s beautiful drama, the end of the world comes not through the violence of humanity or nature, but in our inability to reproduce, with a pregnant woman named Kee as our one hope, and Clive Owen as the man who must protect her.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012): Strong performances by Steve Carell and Keira Knightley elevate this comic and dramatic story, as a husband loses his wife but gains a friend and much more in the final days before a giant asteroid collides with Earth.
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