Bests of 2012

Happy New Year!

There are still a few items on my 2012-viewing short list that I expect to see in the next week or two, most notably Zero Dark Thirty, Rust and Bone and Amour.

In addition, at some point I need to track down several films that never seemed to come my way, like This Is Not a Film, The Turin Horse and The Color Wheel.

And then there are movies that I let slip by but still hope to catch up with, like The Imposter, End of Watch and The Loneliest Planet.

All of that said, here's my look back at the year in film, which included viewings of about 60 new releases, most of which are included below, in some fashion or another.


Best Animation: Frankenweenie

Best Animated Movie: Brave

Best Classic Cinema Allusion: The chanting Oreo ("Orrr-EEEE-oh") guards in Wreck-It Ralph

Best Impression of a Classic Cinema Character: Michael Fassebender as David as Lawrence of Arabia's title character in Prometheus

Best Impression of Walter Matthau Doing an Impression of Sean Connery While Stuck Inside an Air Duct: Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

Best Actor: Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street and Magic Mike)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: James Gandolfini in Killing Them Softly

Best All-Too-Easily-Overlooked Performance: Simon Russell Beale as heartbroken husband Sir William Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea

Best Use of Sound: Ray Liotta's Markie takes a vicious beating in Killing Them Softly

Best Original Score: The Grey by Marc Streitenfeld

Best Musical Performance: The accordion and percussion jam of "Let My Baby Ride" in Holy Motors

Best Song, Individual: Anne Hathaway's one-shot "I Dreamed a Dream" as Fantine in Les Miserables

Best Song, Ensemble: London's various economic classes sing "Molly Malone" to wait out an air raid in The Deep Blue Sea

Best Use of a Pop Song: The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" in Take This Waltz

Best Soundtrack as Apparently Recommended by iTunes Genius: The painfully on-the-nose selections of Flight

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises and Les Miserables)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Williams in Take This Waltz

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises

Best Costume and Makeup: Suzy as a raven in Moonrise Kingdom

Best Facial Hair, Individual: Wes Bentley's Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games

Best Facial Hair, Ensemble: Lincoln

Best Commentary on Cinema: 21 Jump Street

Best Commentary on Criticism: Room 237

Best Journalism: The Invisible War

Best Journalist: Astute and articulate New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer in The Central Park Five

Best Reason to Leave the Theater Early: Compliance

Best Indication the 1% Can't Relate to the 99%: This Is 40

Best Film With the Magic of M. Night Shyamalan (But Not Really): Safety Not Guaranteed

Best Evidence M. Night Shyamalan Can Succeed Making M. Night Shyamalan Movies Provided They Aren't Utter Crap: Looper

Best Totally Ludicrous Movie That Kind of Works Anyway: Your Sister's Sister

Best Throwback: Argo

Best Time Capsule: Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary: Samsara

Best Musical: Les Miserables (only musical of the year?)

Best Musical Staging: Anna Karenina

Best Cameo: Martin Sheen in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Best Verification That Eva Green Is Terrific in Anything: Dark Shadows

Best Confirmation That Women Are Unequal to Men in Hollywood: The frequent and mostly unnecessary nudity of Helen Hunt versus the absent and yet comparatively essential nudity of John Hawkes in The Sessions

Best Nudity: The contrasted bodies in the shower in Take This Waltz

Best Black Comedy: Killer Joe

Best Surgical Procedure: Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw performs an abortion in Prometheus

Best Comedic Action Outburst in an Otherwise Unfunny, Unexciting Action Comedy: The Hulk swings Loki like a ragdoll in The Avengers

Best CGI Animal: Richard Parker the Bengal tiger in Life of Pi

Best Use of Practical/Analog Effects: Hogs as Maurice Sendak's wild things as aurochs in Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Plane Crash: The Grey

Best Disaster: The tsunami in The Impossible

Best Reminder That Tom Hooper's Cinematography Could Be Worse: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Extended Take: Lancaster Dodd "processes" Freddie Quell in The Master

Best Hyperedited Sequence: Sam and Suzy exchange letters in Moonrise Kingdom

Best Wide Shot: The president shuffles out of the telegraph room in Lincoln

Best Sequence We'd Be Going Apeshit About If It Appeared in a Feature Film by a Name Director: All 5:40 of Quik by Colin Kennedy with Austyn Gillette

Best Casting: Richard Gere as the smooth yet desperate, likeable yet detestable, caring yet aloof, cunning yet in-over-his-head Robert Miller in Arbitrage

Best Miscasting: Hugh Grant as a face-paint-wearing cannibal in Cloud Atlas

Best Marriage of Myth and Man: Daniel Day-Lewis' Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln

Best Humanization of a President: Bill Murray's Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson

Best Biopic: Bernie

Best Performance by a Graduate of the 'Kevin Costner School of Accents': Jared Harris as Ulysses S. Grant in Lincoln

Best Primal Scream: Batman, at the end of himself, fighting Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

Best Line, Deadpan: "You absolutely reek of sexual discharge." — Sarah Gadon's Elise to her husband in Cosmopolis

Best Line, Triumphant: "Fuck you, science!" — Channing Tatum's Jenko completes a scientific equation of his own invention while tripping on HFS in 21 Jump Street

Best Line Delivery: Asked by his science geek friend, who is an unwitting accomplice to an undercover investigation, if there's any urgency to testing the illegal wiretap they set up together, Channing Tatum's thick-headed Jenko tilts his head in search of an answer and responds with a hint of "been here before" frustration, "Not that I can think of that would make sense," in 21 Jump Street

Best Threat: "I'm going to start beating the shit out of you in the next five seconds, and you're going to swallow a lot of blood for a fucking billfold." — Liam Neeson's Ottway to Frank Grillo's Diaz in The Grey

Best Come-on: "No, I said: What kind of a bird are you." — Jared Gilman's Sam to Kara Hayward's Suzy in Moonrise Kingdom

Best Heart: Steve Carell's Dodge in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Best Fragility: Bradley Cooper's Pat and Jennifer Lawrence's Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook

Best Sensuality: Naomie Harris' Eve gives Daniel Craig's Bond a shave in Skyfall

Best Sorrow: Liam Neeson in The Grey

Best Self-consciousness: Logan Lerman's Charlie in Perks of Being a Wallflower

Best Narrator: Bob Balaban in Moonrise Kingdom

Best Storyteller: Christoph Waltz's Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained

Best Villain: Charlize Theron's Ravenna in Snow White and the Hunstmen

Best Antivillain: Matthew McConaughey's Killer Joe Cooper in Killer Joe

Best Shootout: The mostly imagined bloodbath when Bruce Willis' Joe goes looking for Jeff Daniels' Abe in Looper

Best Execution: Gina Carano's Mallory uses her legs to squeeze Michael Fassbinder's Paul into an unconscious state before finishing him off with a gunshot through a pillow in Haywire

Best Absurd Image in an Absurd Movie: The little train that can in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Best Use of Color: Skyfall

Best Landscapes: The Hunter

Best Images, Documented: Samsara

Best Images, Dramatized: Skyfall

Best Sequence: A snooping suspicious husband is spied via a makeup mirror; a nervous lover's pounding heart is suggested by the rapid flutter of her fan; horses thunder across a stage; a racer and his horse tumble to the ground; and with a cheating wife's scream there are no secrets anymore, in Anna Karenina

Best Final Shot: Mile 3.25 Tidal Inlet is renamed in Moonrise Kingdom

Best Picture: Moonrise Kingdom


OK, your turn. What are some of the bests of 2012?