Film Review: A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III

I don't want to say that Roman Coppola should leave the filmmaking to his father and sister, but after sitting through - not watching, mind you, but sitting through - the godawful train wreck that is A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, that thought did indeed cross my mind.  Now, I did enjoy Coppola's first, and so far only other, directed film - 2001's CQ.  Sure, it was not a great work of art or anything, but it was cute and quirky, and made me feel like a daffodil.  This one though?  This one is just about as awful as one can get.  Just two weeks into the new year, and already a viable candidate for inclusion on my worst of the year list.  In fact, I would almost guarantee this film's inclusion on said list.  Otherwise there may not be a list at all, because if I end up seeing - or sitting through - more than nine other films worse than this one, I may just end up blowing my brains out before year's end.

With Charles Swan, Coppola is attempting to make his own 8 1/2, but the only problem is that when Fellini created his introspective masterpiece, and, for that matter, when Woody Allen was making Stardust Memories, his homage to 8 1/2, the directors were both in transitional periods.  Fellini was being criticized for his departure from neo-realism, while Allen kept getting told that he should go back to his slapstick comedy days.  Both of these directors were aching to become something more in their work, and with these films (granted, Woody had Annie Hall and Manhattan at the same time as well), they did just that.  As far as I know, Coppola is in no sort of transitional period.  Hell, what does he have to transition from in the first place?  But still, here he is with a film that so wants to be Fellini, that it almost hurts.  No, make that, definitely hurts.  At least it hurt me to watch the damn thing.  Sure, there are some nice shots herein - he inherited something after all - but the film never stands up to the promise of either his heritage or his first film.  Coppola may want to be Fellini - his first film was Felliniesque as well, but done in a less obnoxious way - but he has yet to back up such a desire, with the work that would prove it.

Hell, even if Coppola were only being all tongue-in-cheekiness with his Fellini obsession - and one must assume that he must be - this film fails on all levels as well.  The premise of having Charlie Sheen playing a self-absorbed, womanizing prick (a metaphorical descendent of Proust's more genial womanizer, perhaps), and surrounding him with buddy Wes Anderson's stalwarts Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, makes for a lovely, even quite bubbly, postmodern idea for a movie.  Taking stabs at movies and media, and finally breaking the fourth wall that was never truly there in the first place (this film ends eerily similar to the aforementioned 8 1/2), are all good too.  I think this is why I was more than just averagely offended by this film.  The fact that the premise and promise had me thinking that, despite the obvious obstacles, this could be a fun movie - a deconstruction of a man's mind, which takes us back to another Woody Allen film, the appropriately titled Deconstructing Harry.  But alas, this was not to be.  Well, at least Coppola has his recently announced Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (nominated, along with Wes Anderson, for Moonrise Kingdom) to keep him warm at night.  I wonder when Sofia's new movie is coming out.

Film Review: Barry Battles' The Baytown Outlaws

The one thing I wonder, when detractors and haters begin to put down Quentin Tarantino as nothing more than a director who rips off every movie he has ever seen, is why then, have so many directors since QT first put his foot into the directorial waters, try to copy him?  If he is only a copy, then why is everyone trying to copy him in turn?  The 1990's had a slew of bad Pulp Fiction wannabes lining dusty video shelves, and there have been multiple attempts at recreating the director's Kill Bills over the better part of a decade now.  None of which can stand up to the originals, or, if the aforementioned haters are talking, the originals of the originals.  Now, here we are in early 2013, eight films deep into Tarantino's career, and we have a film that vainly tries to recreate, not just one of these, but pretty much all but the director's latest (they were filming at the same time after all).  And, for more or less, this latest QT wannabe, is as successful, or should we say unsuccessful, as all the others.

Directed by Barry Battles, an actor-turned-director so obscure that he doesn't even warrant a Wikipedia entry, The Baytown Outlaws is the story of three redneck brothers who work as hired guns.  One of the brothers is a large mute ex-wrestler, the other two are so interchangeable that I had a hard time telling them apart throughout the film.  I suppose this is apropos of how unoriginal the movie as a whole is.   With dialogue that sounds like a cheap knock-off of Tarantino, and cinematic aspects lifted right out of Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 and 2, Deathproof and Inglourious Basterds, but given a cheap twist that makes them even drabber than the typical Tarantino wannabe film.  Hell, Battles even gets Zoe Bell, QT's ass-kicking, stunt-driving, car-surfing bella donna from Death Proof (and muse Uma's stuntwoman in Kill Bill), to play a small part in his film.  Hell, he's not only stealing ideas and scenes and the such, but actors as well - and she doesn't even kick any ass in this one.

Now, I should probably take it easy on Battles for his so-called theft of ideas, for my vaunted dear Quentin does this as well (he is quoted as "I steal from every movie ever made"), so let us look at this film with newly opened eyes.  How exactly does it stand on its own two feet?  Not well I'm afraid, not well at all.  Hitting on every cliché in the proverbial book, Battles, whomever he may be, has created - nay, concocted - one hell of a messy movie.  The lines given to Billy Bob Thornton as the mob boss our aforementioned redneck brothers run afoul of, would be the perfect opening chapter in a book describing how to act and sound like a stereotypical bad guy.  Granted, Billy Bob is good enough that he almost manages to make it work, but no one else fares as well.  When one of the brothers is hurt, guess who comes to the rescue of these white trash, immigrant-hating killers.  That's right, an illegal immigrant.  Seriously, who is writing this shit?  Perhaps Battles is better to keep himself under the radar.  Anyway, going on from here would just be unsportsmanlike, so I will end things right here.  So long.

Film Review: Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty

Okay, let's get all that controversy-cum-in-defense-of boiler plate crap over with right away.  As anyone who has not been living under a rock (or in a cave in Afghanistan) knows, director Kathryn Bigelow's military procedural action thriller Zero Dark Thirty, though mostly praised by we critics (a thing I will be mostly doing myself in this review), has been getting cut down left and right.  Literally (or is that figuratively) from the actual left and right.  As conservatives bitch that they think the Obama white house gave away too much confidential information in helping the filmmakers make the film, liberals are whining that Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, are acting as Bush/Cheney apologists, and condoning torture.  Social critic Naomi Wolf has even likened Bigelow to Third Reich director extraordinaire Leni Riefenstahl.  In my, not-so-humble opinion, I believe these allegations, form both sides of our bi-coloured political spectrum, to be total and utter bullshit.

Yes, the film does open up a dialogue on the moral ramifications of torture.  Was it a necessary evil?  Would we have gotten Bin Laden without the aid of torture?  These are questions we cannot possibly answer.  Yes, information gotten by means of torture led to the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden, but how are we to know we still wouldn't have gotten him without it.  Is torture wrong?  Of course it is, but perhaps, in some cases it was that very same necessary evil I questioned just above.  The fact that war even has supposed social conventions is quite ridiculous.  Basically, the act of war comes down to one side hoping to kill more people than the other side.  To question tactics in such an endeavor is downright ridiculous.  Of course, all this rambling about the use of torture, will probably bring controversy to me as well.  Maybe Naomi Wolf will liken me to fascist-sympathizing writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline - an assumption that would be just as wrong as her comparison of Bigelow to Riefenstahl.  Should torture have been used?  Morally no, but pragmatically, we can never say.  But no matter what was done to get the information that helped to track down and kill the man who orchestrated 9/11, in no way does Bigelow condone such acts in this film.

What Bigelow and Boal do in Zero Dark Thirty is show what occurred (and yes, torture did occur, whether the denyists want to believe it or not), and allow we, the viewers, to decide what is right and what is wrong, what is necessary and what is beyond the scope of morality.  We see Jessica Chastain's CIA operative, Maya, turn from someone who is disgusted by the waterboarding she witnesses as a newly assigned foreign agent, to a woman so determined to catch Bin Laden, that she is willing to do anything to make that happen.  It is not the filmmaker's job to say this is right or wrong, but instead to show us what they show us, and let us decide for ourselves.  Was the torture the right, or better yet, the necessary thing to do, or what is just wrong, pure and simple.  To paraphrase a famous quote from A Few Good Men, "Perhaps, deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want certain people, certain acts, on that proverbial wall," and in thinking this, maybe we are all complicit in the actions, whether right or wrong, of what it took to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.  As for the right wing's accusations that the Obama white house allowed Bigelow and Boal and their crew, access to secret files - that too is pure bullshit.  If they were allowed access to anything, it was only files involving a mission that has already been done and gone several years prior.  But enough of all this tallywagging about who did what and who condoned what and who complained about what - let us move on to a review proper.  

The story, as if you didn't already know (really, have you been in a cave in Afghanistan the past six months?), is about the hunt for public enemy numero uno, Osama bin Laden.  The film stars the most dangerously talented Jessica Chastain - drop dead in both looks and ability - as a woman who spends the better part of a decade in search of the phantom known as bin Laden.  We watch her Maya go from determined but disenfranchised field newcomer, shading her eyes from the waterboarding of a detainee, to willing participant, to obsessed, self-proclaimed motherfucker, to, finally, when all is said and done, and the big man is dead and buried at sea, and her long, lonely struggle is at an end, a lost soul with no idea where to go from there.  Chastain pulls off this difficult, multifaceted character with a subtle grace and wicked chutzpah, that just helps to prove that the actress, since suddenly popping on the scene just two years ago (she was in every movie of 2011, right?), has become one of the finest actors around today.  All this and an almost inevitable Oscar in her near future.  Chastain is surrounded in the film by the likes of Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Duplass, Kyle Chandler, Édgar Ramirez and James Gandolfini, but this is her picture, and she not only makes it her own, but she, as the kids are saying these days, blows it out of the motherfucking water.

And to go along with this bravura performance by Chastain, is the pinpoint screenplay by Mark Boal and the balls out direction of Kathryn Bigelow.   Women can't make action films, my ass!  Much like the duo's previous collaboration, 2009's Oscar winning The Hurt Locker, the film that made Bigelow the first ever woman to win the Best Director Oscar, Zero Dark Thirty is an intense military drama - a procedural thriller that is as much an adrenaline rush as a psychological mindfuck - that gives as much of its attention to those quiet moments between battles, as it does to the battles, the missions, themselves.  Let's face it, we all know how this film is going to end.  We all saw the announcement on TV, when the president let the nation know that its number one villain was dead and gone.  There is no real mystery here - by film's end, we will get the bastard.  What Bigelow does though, is make every moment - from those aforementioned quiet ones to the explosive ones - filled to the veritable brim with a living intensity.  The film never shuts down.  It is always on.  Whether we are in the CIA offices, a detention center, or at the titular half past midnight, with the night-visioned Navy Seals creeping up on their eventual target like deadly goblins in the night, Bigelow's film vibrates with intensity.   We know what is coming next (though I must admit to experiencing a rather jump-out-of-my-seat moment) but it never calms down.  It never lets us rest.  It is unrelenting - and it damn well should be.

Zero Dark Thirty is an uncompromising thriller-diller of a motion picture, created by a director that, oddly enough, much like the aforementioned Fraulein Riefenstahl, can turn the horrendous into the gorgeous. Zero Dark Thirty is more than just a movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden - more than mere, albeit harrowingly seductive, action movie.  Zero Dark Thirty is a film that opens up a dialogue - a much needed dialogue.  Zero Dark Thirty is a film that dares us to think for ourselves - understand what needs to be done, and what did or did not need to be done.  Whether we see the condoning of torture or not (and to reiterate, we most certainly do not see that), Bigelow may very well be seen, to borrow a term from Woodrow Wilson, on Griffith's Birth of a Nation, as writing history with lightning.  What she is really doing, is making a film full of viscous, ofttimes reprehensible acts, as well as heroic, redemptive ones - and she is putting it all together with a surprising melange of subtlety and intensity.  What she is doing, is making a film that doesn't necessarily make us choose between right and wrong, between blind patriotism and questioning our government as Jefferson had wanted us to do, but a movie that makes us realize that good and evil - whatever those terms even mean in a discussion such as this - need each other in order to survive.  And I for one, applaud that, and in turn I applaud Zero Dark Thirty as well.

Retro Review: Troll Hunter (André Øvredal, 2010)

The following is part of a series where I bring back some of my "older" reviews (those written during my 2004-2011 tenure at the now mostly defunct The Cinematheque) and offer them up to a "newer" generation.

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Due to how the film is shown in a first person documentary style (almost a mockumentary style) by three students trailing the title huntsman with constant camera in tow, its image seen only through such a lens, the film has been inevitably compared to The Blair Witch Project and/or Cloverfield (though often despairingly so, which should not be the case), but still, André Øvredal's Troll Hunter, the Norwegian answer to our vampire/werewolf obsession perhaps, is a whimsical, satiric romp that starts off innocently enough before turning itself on its own head midway through and eventually driving itself into the most giddy of monster movies by the time its quite abrupt ending and subsequent end credits arrive - all too soon in my opinion.  Okay, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, the film is called Troll Hunter after all, but when the titular woodsman comes running toward the aforementioned omnipresent camera and yells "Troll!!” you know right there that you are in for a fun ride - and what a fun ride indeed.

It is a very basic story.  Trolls, giant ones, some as tall as 100 feet, roam the fjords and forests of Norway and it is the troll hunter's job to keep their population wrangled and out of sight of the Norwegian populace.   Kept on reservations of sorts, these trolls (more beast than man we are told by the titular zookeeper) come to symbolize the multitudes of oppressed throughout history while at the same time being shown as mere stupid mammals who need to be controlled or at the sympathetic least, be put out of their own misery.  It is a government job so of course you know there are going to be some bureaucratic entanglements as well as your typical giant-ass monster problems - and this is where the socio-political satire comes even more into play.  Still though, satiric prose aside, what we get in Troll Hunter at its most basic level is a fun monster movie that perhaps never reaches the heights of which it has the potential, still happily harkens back to a simpler time of moviemaking - even if it does all get captured on the very modern technique of digital filmmaking and is shown through the tech-savvy eyes of a younger, more jaded generation.

Following around this somewhat loony government-sanctioned (but not government-controlled we are happy to learn) monster hunter, our three intrepid college student filmmakers are used as the skeptical eyes of the average person and are given such fun (and funny) instructions as bathing with "troll-smell" and making sure they had none of that dirty Christianity left inside of them (apparently trolls can smell Christian blood, and believe me they sure do like to devour them first).  This band of “warriors” goes about their business (one hunting trolls, the others documenting whatever they see) with a smooth efficiency and of course inevitable tragedy.  Full of beautiful scenery of the Norwegian countryside and a full array of surprisingly good special effects of the monsters themselves, and with an acerbic tongue-in-cheek attitude toward storytelling, Troll Hunter is a cool blend of pop moviemaking and dark-humoured satire (of both the genre and of society itself) that works pleasingly as a peach as pure entertainment.  Of course now we are inevitably left with a palpable sense of dread as the American remake (rights already procured) is soon on its way.  

[Originally published at The Cinematheque on 06/26/11]

There Be Oscar Nominations Maties!...and a New Poll Too!!

Well folks, Oscar Nomination Morning (a strange little holiday in our household) has come and gone, and we are left with all of our why's and WTF's - and I am left with my worst prediction rating in...well, in as long as I can recall.   Garnering a rather pathetic prediction percentage of just 71% (slightly lifted to a still quite poor 77% when including just the big eight categories), I should well be ashamed of myself.  I am not, but I should be dammit.  Anyway, to get on with what gave me such a low rating, here we go.

I went four for five in all the acting and both the writing categories, and I went eight for nine in Best Picture (I even aced the costumes - so there), but alas, it was Oscar's quite surprising choices for the director slot that got me, and many other Oscar precogs I am sure, all befuddled and bewildered.  Allow me to quote what I wrote yesterday, when predicting this category. "The top three here are locks.  No doubts.  In fact, I think Affleck may actually take the Oscar, but that is a story for next month."  Well, those top three, and I may add, the top three on nearly every other prediction I came across yesterday, were Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck.  Anyone who was up early to watch the nominations this morning, or anyone who has looked up the nominees since then, you already know full well that the latter two of those supposed locks, were not named today.  Snubbed, royally snubbed indeed.  So, in the very same category that I boldly claimed that I was assured of at least a 60% accuracy rate, I got just a 40%.  Yeah, I figured picking Tarantino was a bit of a stretch, but I figured Affleck and Bigelow were safe bets.  Locks, no doubt, some said.  Anyway, I digress.

There were some nice surprises too.  Like, to go right back to that director fiasco, Michael Haneke's first ever nomination in the category - as well as a nod for screenplay (and the film is also up for picture, actress and, of course, foreign language as well).  I did have the Austrian master pegged as my dark horse pick at least.  Other dark horse picks to grab nominations were Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor and Quvenzhané Wallis for Best Actress.  Wallis, along with Haneke's Amour star Emmanuelle Riva, are now the youngest and oldest ever Best Actress nominees, respectively.  Other nice picks were Tarantino for Screenplay and Christoph Waltz for Supporting Actor.  As a fun sidenote, for the first time ever, all five nominees in a single category (Best Supporting Actor in this case) are former Oscar winners.  So there.  Granted, I would have liked to have seen Matthew McConaughey and/or Ann Dowd get surprise nods, or possibly P.T. Anderson, but alas, 'twas not to happen.  As for who will win, my best conjecture right now is Lincoln, Spielberg, DDL, Chastain, De Niro, Hathaway.  My Alt. Picks: SLP wins all six of these. My Alt. Alt. Picks: Haneke wins Best Director, and Lars von Trier suddenly becomes frontrunner for next year.  But, I am getting ahead of myself here.

Hey, before I go, I should probably mention the new poll here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.  Starting today, and running through February 22nd, you can cast your vote for the film that you think SHOULD win the Best Picture Oscar.  As I am sure you can see (this golden-coloured poll can be found near the top of the sidebar of this very site), all you need do is choose which of the nine nominees you would vote for if you had a ballot.  Remember, not what you think will win, but what you think SHOULD win.  Winners (and losers) will be announced the day before the Oscars - as will my final Oscar predictions.  Here's hopin' I do better than I did today.

Oscar Nomination Predictions

Well, ladies and germs, it is that time of year again.  Granted, it is a bit earlier this time around, but it is still time for my annual Oscar nomination predictions.  With the announcement coming tomorrow morning, here are my predictions for who will get nominated in the wee hours of 5:30 am PST (8:30 am around these Atlantic coast parts).  In 2009, I did a bang up job of predicting, and had a prediction rate of 89%.  In 2010, I dropped ever-so-slightly, to an 87%, and then last year, I kind of plummeted a bit, to a rather lackluster 82% prediction rate.  Here's hopin' I can bring that number back up again, but this year seems a bit more difficult to narrow in, so that may not happen.  Anyway, here we go.

Best Picture

Since we are never sure these days, just how many nominations will come in this top category (the academy officially says between five and ten), I will list them in order of probability, starting with the big five.

• Lincoln
• Les Miserables
• Zero Dark Thirty
• Argo
• The Silver Linings Playbook

If it goes further (my prediction is eight)...

• Life of Pi
• Django Unchained
• Beasts of the Southern Wild

Then again, it could go to ten...

• Moonrise Kingdom
• Skyfall

But Don't Count Out: Amour
Dark Horse: The Master

Really, any of the top three could be considered the frontrunner here, but we are not here to talk about who might win, but instead, who will get nominated, and the top three are definite locks for that.  In fact the top five are all locks for nominations.  I think Django, though controversial, will slip in there as well, as will Life of Pi and Beasts.  Then it gets tricky.  Will there be a ninth or tenth nominee?  Who knows.  There were nine last year, but what does that matter?  The PGA gave nominations to the top nine on this list, and a tenth one to Skyfall, but will Oscar actually nominate a Bond film?  Probably not, but hey, almost anything can happen when we reach ten nominees.  As I say above though, I think it will stop at eight.  Then again, we should not count out Michael Haneke's Amour.  A virtual lock for the Foreign Language Oscar, it's name has been ballyhooed about on many an Oscar predictor's table.  And then, we also have The Master.  PTA's film had once been thought the frontrunner, but those days are long past.  Now it is merely wishful thinking that this film, my second favourite of the year, will get a BP nomination.  As for one final longshot possibility - let's go with Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and leave it at that.

Best Director

• Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
• Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
• Ben Affleck for Argo
• Ang Lee for Life of Pi
• Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

But Don't Count Out: Tom Hooper for Les Miz and/or David O. Russell for Silver Linings
Dark Horse: Michael Haneke for Amour

The top three here are locks.  No doubts.  In fact, I think Affleck may actually take the Oscar, but that is a story for next month.  As for Lee, I think he has a strong near-lockish feel.  But this is when we get into trouble.  Who will be that fifth nominee?  The DGA just announced its nominations, and the top four, along with Tom Hooper, were their choices.  Normally, the DGA and the Oscars match four for five, so that means one of these five will need to be tossed aside tomorrow morning.  Obviously, I have chosen that person to be Hooper. Common sense says this won't happen. Les Miz is probably too big a film to let that happen, and it is considered a frontrunner for the BP Oscar, but still, my heart says go for the wishful thinking of good ole QT, so go with him I shall.  I suppose Hooper could still get in, and Tarantino would replace Lee.  Of course, we could see a 5 for 5 match with the DGA.  Then again, we should not count out Russell, and some people are talking a surprise nod for Haneke.  As for P.T. Anderson - like his film, three months ago he would have been a veritable shoo-in.  Now though, forget about him.  It would be great to see though, huh?  Anyway, to throw one other possible, but quite unlikely surprise in, howzabout Banh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild.  Yeah, probably not.  Like I said, this is the most difficult category this year, but at least I am assured of a 60% ratio on this one.

Best Actor

• Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
• Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables
• John Hawkes in The Sessions
• Bradley Cooper in The Silver Linings Playbook
• Denzel Washington in Flight

But Don't Count Out/Dark Horse: Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

This is probably the easiest category to predict this year.  Almost anyone who is anyone has these exact five names getting announced tomorrow morning.  I see no reason to change that.  A few months ago, both Bill Murray and Anthony Hopkins were thought to be pretty good bets, but now, we can forget 'em.  The only other possible surprise would be Phoenix sneaking in, but I suppose that ship has pretty much sailed.  Still would be fun to see though.

Best Actress

• Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
• Jennifer Lawrence in The Silver Linings Playbook
• Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone
• Naomi Watts in The Impossible
• Emmanuelle Riva in Amour

But Don't Count Out: Helen Mirren in Hitchcock
Dark Horse: Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild

Chastaine and Lawrence are pure locks.  The actual Oscar is probably a battle between the two of them.  Cotillard is what one would call near-lockish, and Watts seems to be a pretty strong contender as of late.  Then we have that fifth spot. Helen Mirren was thought of as a lock just a month ago, then her film came out and it just wasn't very good.  Rachel Weisz, for The Deep Blue Sea, may have had a chance, but no one remembers the film.  For the longest time, many - myself included - were pushing for a nod for nine year old Quvenzhane Wallis.  That could still happen, but I think instead of the youngest (she was just six when she made the film) will end up making way for the oldest, in 85 year old Emmanuelle Riva.  Riva blew most - myself included - away with her stunning performance, and even though it is a foreign language performance (Oscar has never been overly big on such, and Cotillard may already have the token foreign spot here), I think she will grab that fifth nod.  Then again, Wallis could still get in, taking Watts place instead. 

Best Supporting Actor

• Alan Arkin in Argo
• Robert De Niro in The Silver Linings Playbook
• Tommy-Lee Jones in Lincoln
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
• Javier Bardem in Skyfall

But Don't Count Out: Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained
Dark Horses: Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike and/or Eddie Redmayne in Les Miz

I would say the top four are locks, though Hoffman may be only a semi-lock, since his film is getting a bit bamboozled this awards season.  As for the fifth spot, DiCaprio is probably the safe bet here (and a bet that I have been saying for months now - even as far back as my June early bird predix), but there is so much love for Skyfall (really, it isn't that great people) that I think the first ever acting nod from a Bond film will actually happen.  The thing I would love to see happen is McConaughey sneaking in, which, I suppose, could happen.  Yeah, right, but a guy can hope.  I suppose I should mention that, if the voters have really taken to Django, we could see not just DiCaprio, but possibly Christoph Waltz in there as well, but that scenario is highly unlikely.  Still wanted to mention it though.  One final thought on this category.  If Eddie Redmayne is nominated tomorrow morning, that means the love for Les Miz is through the proverbial roof, and it will take home BP.  There ya go.

Best Supporting Actress

• Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables
• Helen Hunt in The Sessions
• Sally Field in Lincoln
• Amy Adams in The Master
• Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

But Don't Count Out: Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy
Dark Horse: Ann Dowd in Compliance

Hathaway is the lockiest of locks (this and Actor seem to be the two big locks for actual Oscar night), and Hunt and Field are in there for sure as well.  Adams, like Hoffman above, should still get in, even without the love for The Master.  Then, like with most categories, we have that fifth spot.  Some are saying Kidman, some are saying Dame Maggie.  It really could go either way, but I think Smith will get the nod tomorrow morning.  I would love, love, love to hear Dowd's name announced tomorrow, and this tends to be the category most rife with surprises over the years, so who knows.  We probably shouldn't count out Hathaway's costar, Samantha Barks, or another dame, Judi Dench for Skyfall, but both still quite unlikely.

Best Original Screenplay

• Zero Dark Thirty
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Django Unchained
• Amour
• The Master

But Don't Count Out: Flight and/or Brave
Dark Horse: Looper

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Silver Linings Playbook
• Lincoln
• Argo
• The Sessions
• Beasts of the Southern Wild

But Don't Count Out: Les Misérables and/or Life of Pi and/or Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Dark Horse: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I think this is Paul Thomas Anderson's best, and probably only, chance at a nomination this year.  I think both of these sets are relatively strong bets.  I probably should include Les Miz, but I already kicked Hooper to the curb in the Director category, so why not here as well. Of course Les Miz could easily pick up 12 or 13 nominations tomorrow morning, and, and like its musical contemporary, Chicago back in aught two, blow this all out of the water.

Anyway, that is it for me this year.  I suppose I could go on and add predictions for the rest of the categories, but I have other things to do.  Oh hell, I don't have that much to do, here they are in quick succession.  Cinematography (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Django, Skyfall); Art Direction (Lincoln, Les Miz, Life of Pi, Anna Karenina, Django); Film Editing (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Skyfall, Argo, Django); Costumes (Les Miz, Lincoln, Anna Karenina, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman); Make-up (Lincoln, The Hobbit, Looper); Sound Mixing (Les Miz, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Avengers, Skyfall); Sound Editing (Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, Looper, Zero Dark Thirty); Visual Effects (Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Life of Pi, Prometheus); Score (Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Anna Karenina, Beasts of the Southern Wild); Song ("Suddenly" in Les Miz, "For You" in Act of Valor, "Skyfall" in Skyfall, "Everybody Needs a Friend" in Ted, "Touch of Sky" in Brave); Animated (Brave, Frankenweenie, Paranorman, Le Tableau, Rise of the Guardians); Doc (The Gatekeepers, How to Survive a Plague, This is Not a Film, Sugar Man, Chasing Ice); Foreign (Amour, The Intouchables, Royal Affair, No, Beyond the Hills).  So there.

I'll be back tomorrow, and let everyone know how well (or poorly) I did in my predictions.  I know you are all waiting with giddy anticipation.  See ya then kiddies.

My 25 (or so) Most Anticipated Films of 2013

My best of 2012 list is up and running, so that means it is time to stop looking back, and begin looking forward to the most anticipated of 2013.  Most of the following films will hit US cinemas sometime in this calendar year.  Some of them will end up being held until 2014 (or even later) and therefore will pass onto my most anticipated list for next year (as in turn some of the films here have done after not arriving last year - one film is making its third annual visit to this list).  All of these films are (obviously) ones I am excited about for one reason or another.  Some of them will inevitably not live up to my expectations - hopefully not too many - but judging from last year's list, where five of the films made my eventual top ten list, and several others were in close proximity, it should be a pretty good year - at least as far as these twenty-five or so films go.  So, without further ado, I give you my 25 most anticipated films of 2013.

1.  Nymphomaniac - An unsurprisingly (look at the source), and probably appropriately, considering the prudish world we live in, controversial, and very likely pornographic, Lars von Trier film, that will supposedly have a hardcore (rumours claim actual penetration) and a softcore version released for more of a choice for cinema owners, that stars the dangerously provocative Charlotte Gainsbourg as the titular sex addict, and also features Stellan Skarsgård, Uma Thurman, Willem Defoe, Christian Slater, Udo Kier, and even, in an attempt to change his image, Shia LeBeouf?  How can this not be the number one film on anyone's list this year? 

2. The Grandmaster - Making this list is getting to be a regular gig for this long-awaited Wong Kar-wai film.  In it's third annual appearance on my list, it may finally be making its screen debut later this year.  No, really, I mean it this time.  The film opens in its native China this very week and will make its international debut at Berlin in February, followed by an international rollout throughout the Spring.  It could actually get here by the Fall.  Seriously.  I know I have promised this before, but I really believe it this time.

3. To the Wonder - This Terrence Malick project was on last year's list, but this year we really mean it.  Just two years since the director's last film - a quick turnaround that is soooo not a Malick trait - and a few months after making a splash in Venice, this film will see a US release in April.  Obviously, I am rather excited about the whole thing.  Of course, as with The Tree of Life, and every other film Malick has made, there are sure to be a lot of moviegoers scratching their heads.  Ah well, screw them.

4. The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese once again teams up with Leo DiCaprio, in this look at mob infiltration on Wall Street.  Shot digitally instead of on film, as Scorsese has always done (Hugo was shot digitally, but that is because it was done in 3D), it is the start of a new era for the director that has championed film until its last dying breath.  Long time editor Thelma Schoonmaker expressed her disappointment with the decision, saying, "It would appear that we've lost the battle. I think Marty just feels it's unfortunately over, and there's been no bigger champion of film than him." Still though, whether we like it or not, we are in the digital age, so we might as well embrace it, and see what masters like Scorsese will do with the new medium.

5. The World's End - The third in Edgar Wright's "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy," and (of course) starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, this is a film that starts out as a group of old pals recreating a pub crawl from their youth, and eventually turns into an end-of-the-world disaster film.  Considering the crew involved, it should be quite fun indeed.

6. Star Trek Into Darkness - The true Trek purists probably did not like me call J.J. Abrams 2009 reboot, the best Star Trek film ever made, but who the hell cares.  It was dammit.  Whether the director can recreate that greatness - that boldly going - in this follow-up is still to be determined, but since I think of Abrams as the bast mainstream director working today, my hopes are rather high.

7. Only God Forgives - This is another one of those films that had erroneously been included in last year's list - but this time it looks like we will have ourselves an actual release date.  From Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling, the director and star of 2011's brilliantly subversive psychological actioner, Drive, comes what looks to be another balls-out action/thriller, mindfuck of a movie.  Every damn thing about this film excites me.

8. I'm So Excited - Spanish auteur Pedro Almadóvar has described his nineteenth film as a very light comedy, so we may not get the depth of things like Talk to Her or The Skin I Live In, but it is still Almadóvar, so it should be muy hermosa.  See what I did there.  I threw in some Spanish, so I would appear international and sophisticated.  I'm cool like dat.  Seriously though, the film should be quite fun indeed.

9. Before Midnight - Shot in secret, this follow-up to Before Sunset, picks up the story of Jesse and Celine nine years after we last saw them in the aforementioned film, which in turned was a look at our intrepid wouldbe couple nine years after Before Sunrise.  Once again directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (all three also once again share screenwriting credit) the film will debut at Sundance before an eventual US release later in the year.

10. Side Effects - Director Steven Soderbergh has announced he will retire after this year, so this could very well be the versatile auteur's final theatrical release (he has an HBO movie out later this year, which will be discussed later).  Looking to be in the same vein as 2010's Contagion, a film I was only lukewarm about, this ensemble film still looks to be an intriguing work - and if it truly is the director's last (which I honestly doubt), then it is most definitely a must see.

11. Night Moves - The new film from Kelly Reichardt, one of the best indie filmmakers out there today (and the director of Wendy and Lucy, one of my favourite films of the last decade), features former moppet star Dakota Fanning, in what amounts to her first real adult role, and Jesse Eisenberg, still looking for his first adult role (oh, I kid, Jesse, I kid), as radical environmentalists, determined to blow up a dam.  Should be fun stuff indeed.

12. The Great Gatsby - This long-germinating Baz Luhrmann adaptation (in 3D and probable "Baz" style) was supposed to come out this past Christmas Day, but was postponed until May of this year.  Some say, this says something about what the studio thinks of the final product, but I am still looking forward to it anyway.  Hey, it has Carey Mulligan as Daisy, so why wouldn't I be excited.

13. Her - This is the story of a lonely writer who falls in love with a computer operating system that he purchases, and which promises to fulfill all his desires.  Sounds good so far, right?  Right.  Well, add to that writing and directing by Spike Jonze and a central performance from Joaquin Phoenix, and you have yourself one hell of a possible good time.  In fact, toss out that possible part - this is almost assured to be a blast.

14. Pacific Rim - Sure, from the shots we've seen so far, the film could easily pass for Transformers IV, but considering that Guillermo del Tor is at the helm, such a terrible thing is unlikely to happen.  It is the story of the military, encased in giant robots, doing battle against giant monsters from beneath the ocean waves.  Del Toro has described his film as "a beautiful poem to giant monsters."  I know, I can't wait.

15. Elysium - Directed by Neill "District 9" Blomkamp, and starring Jodie Foster as a megalomaniacal government official who will do anything to keep the peasants of a destroyed future Earth from tainting the super-rich space station upon which live the elite of the species, and Matt Damon as an ex-con, determined to take her down and save not only his own wretched life, but his fellow Earth bound rabble as well, should be a fun time had by all.

16. Oldboy - Originally a pretty killer 2003 Korean film from Park Chan-wook, this American remake, now helmed by Spike Lee, of all people, has been percolating for quite some time now.  I don't know if this new version will be any good or not (it has a strong cast in Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen and Samuel L. Jackson), but I am fascinated to see what Lee does make of the whole thing.

17. Machete Kills - He's back baby!  Following up the surprisingly entertaining 2010 Robert Rodriguez Mexploitation film, simply title Machete (in turn, an elongated version of one of the fake trailers from Grindhouse), Danny Trejo is back as the ex-Federali-turned-vigilante.  Also coming back are Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez and Lindsay Lohan, now being joined by Antonio Banderas, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson and Lady Gaga in her film debut.  How can this not be the most fun?

18. Twelve Years a Slave - The new film from director Steve McQueen (no, not that one, the other one) and his macho muse, Michael Fassbender (still kinda my current man crush), set between 1841 and 1853, is the story of a New York man, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana.  This time, the director is aided by big fan, and producer Brad Pitt, who also has a role in the film.  Shades of Django?  Probably not really.  Should be a quite different kind of film.

19. The Place Beyond the Pines - Another holdover from last year's list, this film reunites director Derek Cianfrance with his Blue Valentine star, Ryan Gosling.  The movie, taking its name apparently, from the descriptive Mohawk name of Schenectady, NY, is about a motorcycle stunt driver, who turns to a life of crime in order to provide for his newborn son.  The film also stars Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes.  Should have some fun humph to it.

20. Inside Llewyn Davis - Originally set for a late, Oscar qualifying 2012 release (and, yes, this did appear on my most anticipated films list last year at this time), the seventeenth film from the brothers' Coen, will finally take a bow in February.  The film takes place in and around the New York City folk music scene of the 1960's, and stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham and Justin Timberlake. 

21. Stoker - Above we saw a Spike Lee remake of a Park Chan-wook film.  Now we have the English-language debut of Park himself.  Again, a leftover from last year's list, this is the story of a stepfather from hell, in a battle with a stepdaughter from hell.  Oh yeah, and we also get Nicole Kidman.  Anyway, the trailer makes it look rather a fun Hitchcockian like film, but I am sure Park will bring his own warped sensibilities to the endeavor.

22. Gravity - Yet another holdover from lat year's list, this Alfonso Cuarón film about a pair of stranded astronauts in a broken-down space station, played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, has been in some sort of production stage for nearly three years now.  Pretty much every actor in Hollywood has been attached to one of the leads at one point or another, and the film was originally set to be released last November.  Whether it gets a release in 2013 is still kind of up in the air, but here's hopin'.

23. Mood Indigo - This new film from French madman Michel Gondry, is the story of a woman who has a flower growing inside her lung.  Yup, that's right.  Starring Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris, and named after, I gather, the Duke Ellington song, the film should be a rather madcappy kind of creature, much like the auteur's Science of Sleep.  Sounds good to this guy.

24. A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III - A movie about a vain, womanizing asshole in the 1970's, played by - and here is the kicker - one Mr. Charlie Sheen.  Fantastic.  Directed by Roman Coppola (Sofia's brother, Francis' son) and also starring Coppola's cuz, Jason Schwarztman, and Bill Murray.   The film was originally due out last year (we seem to be saying that a lot on this list) but will finally make an appearance this February.  Cannot wait baby.  Cannot wait.

25. Carrie - Remaking one of my all-time favourite horror flicks, by one of my all-time favourite directors, could end up being a disaster once it is all said and done, but the idea of doing just that, intrigues me enough to include the film here.  Also, the casting of Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore, in the roles originally played by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, is equally intriguing.  Let's hope it holds up - though I have a feeling it will not.

There ya have it folks.  To add a few other films into the fold, let's go with Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad; Jarmusch's Only Lover's Left Alive; Alex Payne's Nebraska; Ridley Scott's The Counselor; Bennet Miller's Foxcatcher; Johnathan Glazer's Under the Skin; James Gray's Lowlife; Sally Potter's Ginger and Rosa; Marc Forster's World War Z; as well as the annual comicbook adaptations, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, The Wolverine and Man of Steel; and both Mad Max: Fury Road and Oz: The Great and Powerful.  I am also looking forward to seeing Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, again.  I saw this film, written by and starring Baumbach's significant other, the lovely and talented Greta Gerwig, at the NYFF last year, and it is always a pretty sure bet for my eventual Best of 2013.  It will be released sometime in early Spring.  Oh yeah, and there are also two final films I would like to mention before I shuffle off.

After Earth - With each successive film, M. Night Shamalamadingdong falls deeper and deeper into the abyss that is godawful cinema.  From The Village to The Lady in the Water to The Happening to The Last Airbender, his films just keep getting worse and worse and worse.  With each one, it seems near impossible that he could do worse, but then he makes another movie and bazinga!  I must admit that I would be very upset if the Shamalammeister made a good film again.  Very upset.  Statistically speaking, they can't all get worse, so one day he will break this streak, and I will be very unhappy.  Here's to hopin' the ole bastard has at least one more cellar dweller in him.

Behind the Candelabra - Technically, this Steven Soderbergh film was made for HBO, but I still wanted to include it.  Michael Douglas as Liberace?  How could I not?  And, it could be the last thing the old dog ever makes.  Okay, the director's supposed early retirement is probably going to end up more a sabbatical, but still, this film needs to be included here.

Film Review: Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer

Remember when Spike Lee used to make good movies, even great ones on occasion?  Yeah, me neither.  Okay, okay, I do remember, but hey, it has been awhile.  I would say it has been at least a decade, since 25th Hour, that I have been generally thrilled with one of Spike's joints - and even longer if you try to reach back to his early days of great prospect.  The man that once gave us such revolutionary work as Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever, now gives us the pandering Miracle at St. Anna, and the dreadfully boring, and the dreadfully cliché, She Hate Me.  Granted, the man's docs are still interesting, and I am looking forward - with quite a bit of anticipation, mind you - to his remake of Park Chan-wook's Oldboy, but I must say that the guy just doesn't seem to have it anymore.  The spark, so to speak, has gone out of his fireworks.  This becomes achingly evident during the first two acts of his latest film, Red Hook Summer.  

The story of a teenage boy from Hotlanta, Atlanta, who is sent by his single mother, to spend the summer with his estranged preacher grandfather in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, is a film that tries to take on the ideas of spirituality and the absurdities of religion.  As we see this iPad-toting, vegan, effeminate thirteen year old, making his way through this newly dangerous world of Brooklyn (are we to believe he had no previous problems in the crime-riddled Atlanta?), befriending a neighbour girl, who at first berates him for "talking white" (is his explanation of having gone to a private school, meant as an apology for having dared to not fall into the linguistic wasteland that is inner city youth culture?), and getting threatened by the most generic of drug dealing neighbourhood hooligans (see, even Spike Lee, a man who blindly berates other filmmakers for supposedly mocking his culture, can jump on the stereotype bandwagon), we are left quite unmoved.  Having to sit through the quite ridiculous dialogue written by Lee and co-writer/producer James McBride, we become painfully aware that Lee's black youth culture sounds just as silly as Diablo Cody's white counterparts.  But, these kids, with such affectatious monikers as Flick Royal and Chazz Morningstar (we are not suppose to take this seriously so much as fantastically), are first timers, so we should at least give them a break.

The performance of The Wire star Clarke Peters, as Flick's obsessively preachy grandpa, Da Good Bishop Enoch Rouse, manages to hold the film together quite well - even when everyone around him seems either a joke or a stereotype, or both.  But as this film moves on, this insular world we see them living in (replete with multiple walk-ons by Lee himself, reprising his role of Do the Right Thing's Mookie - still delivering pizzas nearly twenty-five years later), begins to grow on you.  When we finally get to the obvious and inevitable third act, even though it is seen coming the proverbial mile away, it comes as almost a redemption of the rest of the film.  Much like the souls that Da Good Bishop wants to save, Lee saves his own cinematic soul by having it be reborn in the final act - an final act that is an emotionally brazen half hour or so, and makes us remember why we fell in love with Lee's early films in the first place.  Granted, the film already looked quite spectacular (Lee has always been one to use the entire colour palette to its fullest advantage - sort of like a Brooklyn-based Nick Ray or Stanley Kubrick, or even Godard), and even though its script is less than desirable, this final act brings it all home again.  I suppose, I must admit to having enjoyed the damn thing after all.  So there.

Battle Royale #10: Battle of the Japanese Masters

Happy New Year to all my faithful readers and true believers.  Welcome to the tenth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

For our first Battle Royale of 2013, we are traveling to the Far East.  To the Land of the Rising Sun.  To Japan, and to the great masters of their long and vast cinematic tradition.  It is a battle between the man considered the most Japanese of all Japanese directors and the man known as the most Western.   Of course, it is Akira Kurosawa going up against Yasujiro Ozu.  It is the great samurai versus the great family man. Granted, Kurosawa was never a samurai, or even a swordsman, and Ozu was never a family man, having stayed single and living with his mother until her death, just two years prior to his own, but these are the films the two directors are most known for making.  Sure, Ozu made some social commentary films, and even a gangster film, and Kurosawa made many films that did not involve samurai or ronin, but their signature pieces are family dramas and comedies, or Gendai-geki if you prefer, and samurai, or Jidai-geki if you will, respectively.  Yes, there were other great Japanese masters, from Mizoguchi to Naruse to the oft-forgotten Keisuke Kinoshita, but when one thinks Japanese cinema, one surely, fairly or not, thinks of Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa first and foremost.  And so, this is the battle we respectfully offer up to you now.

Ozu would come first, making his debut in 1927 (many of the director's early films are now, sadly lost), and hitting it big with his first great film, I Was Born, But..., in 1932.  Ozu's career was filled with many great films, mostly centering around traditional Japanese family life and marriage, and he is noted for influencing many a future filmmaker, most notably, his Battle Royale opponent.  Kurosawa made his first film in 1943, and through the help and encouragement of Ozu (he championed the younger director's first film, and helped to get it a wide audience), and came to great prominence, both inside Japan, and, in a real first for a Japanese director, across the globe, in the early 1950's, as films such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai made their way around the then-budding festival circuit.  To this day - fifty years after Ozu's death and final film, and almost twenty after Kurosawa's - these are still the two Japanese directors with which most western cinephiles identify.  Ozu is still considered the great master of classic Japanese cinema.  While everyone was making a big deal over Vertigo topping Citizen Kane in the most recent Sight & Sound critic's poll, Ozu's subtle masterpiece, Tokyo Story, was quietly voted the greatest film of all-time in that same organization's director's poll.  Meanwhile, Kurosawa is the more well-known name here in the west, and his Seven Samurai is pretty much a lock for any self-respecting greatest films list.  I know it is on mine.

So there ya have it kiddies.  Who will you pick as the greatest of the Japanese Masters?  All you need do is to go on over to the poll, found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same site, and click on who you think is the greater of these cinematic legends.  And remember, you can comment all you wish (and please do comment - we can never have too many of those - and it will make me feel less lonely) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must vote in the actual poll.  After doing that, then you can come back over here and leave all the comments your little hearts desire.  Who knows, maybe we will get some sort of lively cinematic discussion going.  And also please remember to tell everyone you know to get out the vote as well.  I would like to see us reach triple digits in votes.  Voting will go until midnight, EST, the night of Friday, Jan. 11th (just over two weeks from the starting gate).  The results will be announced the following day.  So get out there and vote vote vote.

Best of 2012

It is that time of year again.  That time when all we film critics (and all those who claim to be film critics) churn out our annual best of the year lists.  So, without further ado, here are my choices for the best films of 2012.

1. Django Unchained - I am kinda biased when it comes to Tarantino.  I think they guy is just the living end.  To die for, in a cinematic idol worship kinda way.  Can't get enough of the guy's often quite politically incorrect attitude, or his violence-drenched and self-referential playfulness. Of course, with this said, it should come as no surprise that this blood-splattered, inappropriately heee-larious Spaghetti Southern sits atop my list of the best of 2012.  My review can be read here.

2. The Master - Like QT above, Paul Thomas Anderson is another one of those auteur's that seems to be unable to do any wrong in my book.   Also like Tarantino, PTA has made a film that is easily one of the most divisive of the year.  But then again, I have always been a fan of those films that make everyone else a bit woozy in the head.  Oh yeah, and Joaquin Phoenix gives the performance of a lifetime.  My review can be read here.

3. The Turin Horse - Somber, distressed and morose.  Sorrowful, sick and mournful.  Dreadfully sad.  So sad, that one may not be able to even make it through this black and white, incredibly slow-moving, and even more incredibly sad, Hungarian film.  Yet, Bela Tarr, in what the director claims is his final film, makes even the most despairing of tales, a thing of rapt and terrifying beauty.  My review can be read here.

4. Zero Dark Thirty - There is controversy galore over this film, with a lot of conservatives bitching that too much confidential information was given to the filmmakers and liberals whining about a supposed condoning of torture, but whatever one thinks of such things (and I think such allegations, from either side of the political spectrum, to be bullshit), Kathryn Bigelow's military thriller is an enthralling, brilliant movie.  My review can be read here.

5. Cosmopolis - This makes four out of four in films I adore, yet are hated by just as many as love them.  David Cronenberg's Odyssean take on capitalism and greed, is an abrasively methodical film, that beats with a cadence that forebodes and foretells the very downfall of man, all the while making the viewer uncomfortable in their seats, as they wait around every corner for the ball to drop on the action.  My review can be read here.

6. The Cabin in the Woods - I am kind of a sucker for the writing stylings of Joss Whedon (film, TV, comicbooks - whatever), and this twisted, Escher-esque mindfuck of a horror film - one that takes all the tricks and tropes of the genre, and flips them on their arse - co-written with director Drew Goddard, is one of his most intriguing screenplays.  My review can be read here.

7. Killer Joe - When a film comes with the tagline, "A totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story," ya just know it's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun.  A rip-roaringly hilarious movie about a cool-as-ice hired killer, the idiots that hire him but cannot afford to pay him, the innocent teenage girl they give to him as collateral, and the most interesting thing ever done with fried chicken on the big screen.  Oh yeah, and Matthew McConaughey is, as the kids are saying, off the hook, yo.  My review can be read here.

8. Haywire/Magic Mike - These two intriguing films, from the always versatile Steven Soderbergh, are the best one two punch from any director since Soderbergh did the same thing three years ago with The Girlfriend Experience and The Informant.  These films, a spy thriller-cum-genre experiment, and a good ole boy, male stripper tale, are like the proverbial day and night of cinema, and that just goes to show that Soderbergh can do just about anything he puts his mind to.  My review can be read here and here, respectively.

9. The Kid With a Bike - Probably the most humanistic, and quite possibly the most humour-filled, of any of the Dardenne Brothers' films, this tale of - you guessed it - a kid and his bike, harkens back to a simpler time in cinema, and to films like the obviously influential The Bicycle Thieves, and, with its no-frills poetic realism, is a simply beautiful film to watch.  My review can be read here.

10. Compliance - A story so unbelievable, so impossible sounding, so implausibly ridiculous, that it just has to be true.  Telling the crazy tale of a fast food manager who is duped by a prank caller pretending to be a cop on the other end of the phone, and the poor young employee who is demoralized, humiliated, and much much worse, this subtly brilliant little film is one of the biggest revelations of the cinematic year.  My review can be read here.

11. Prometheus - Many of my fellow critical compatriots called this film a dismal failure.  I suppose it was a bit of a failure in certain, perhaps a too-high expectations category (in anticipation of its coming release, I had expected it to eventually make my top three), but the film, though not the desired second coming of Blade Runner, is still quite enjoyable to watch.  At least it was for this critic.  My review can be read here.

12. Damsels in Distress - It has been thirteen years since Whit Stillman's last film, the sardonic Last Days of Disco, and the director is finally back with another quite acerbic, yet also quite fun-loving, look at the emotionally messed-up lives of his lovable but distressed characters.  I have talked with many a cinemagoer who did not understand this film, and therefore disliked, or even hated it, but all I can say to those people is, hooey.  My review can be read here.

13. Les Misérables - My love of this film kinda caught me off guard.  I mean, I love the musical genre, but that love is usually reserved for the old Hollywood style of musical, not the splashy, over-the-top Sondheimian kind, but this newer, stagier version pretty much blew me away anyway - and all you haters can go on hatin'.  My review can be read here.

14. Hit & Run - Written and co-directed by Dax Sheppard, and starring the actor-turned-director, his girlfriend (and every nerd's wet dream) Kristen Bell, and several of their clsoest friends (Bradley Cooper, Tom Arnold), this crazy comic chase film may not be your typical high end artistic cinema piece, but damn, it is a hell of a lot of fun.  My review can be read here.

15. Holy Motors - Bizarre and beautiful, this French comedy(?), drama(?), action film(?), thriller(?), satire(?), whatever(!), is another one of those films that the masses will never understand, but that this critic, in all his own bizarre and beautiful tastes, just loves to see.  I am still not able to confidently explain what the damn thing is about, but I still like it.  My review can be read here.

16. John Carter - Yeah, that's right.  I liked this film dammit.  So much hatred, and pure and despicable hatred, formed not by the critically intentioned folk who come down on the films that top this list, but by a bunch of silly pedantic bullies, has been spewed toward this film, but I do not care a wit for them, nor for their priggish criticisms.  The film is fun dammit.  Pure, unadulterated fun.  My review can be read here.

17. Amour - Harrowing.  Terrifying.  Unflinching and quite disturbing indeed.  All the things that make, for better or for worse, a Michael Haneke film, a Michael Haneke film.  But what this film has that no other Haneke film has had, is a streak of humanity, and it is in this quite unexpected humanity, that we are sucked in, and spit out an emotional wreck.  My review can be read here.

18. Little White Lies - It may have taken nearly three years to finally make its way to these shores, but this French dramedy was, as they are prone to saying, well worth the wait.  Written off by many as a mere Gallic Big Chill (and there are blatant similarities, though I doubt if they were necessarily on purpose), this film is actually quite stirring, in the emotional arena of things.  All that, and you get Marion Cotillard too.  My review can be read here.

19. The Avengers - Written and directed by the always able Joss Whedon (haven't we already been here?), this mega billion dollar smash hit (top grossing film of all time, that is not directed by James Cameron), takes this critic back to his long lost youth, when the monthly arrival of Marvel Comics' titular superhero team, was a must read moment in the life of this then ten year old future film critic, and lifelong comicbook reader.  My review can be read here.

20. Beasts of the Southern Wild - Granted, it has its faults, but once one gets past its rather cliché storyline, the remarkable visual beauty of the film, in both its uplifting, awe-inspiring moments and tragic realistic ones, and the surprising powerhouse performance of six year old Quvenzhané Wallis, make for a pretty darn good movie.  My review can be read here.

Ten Runners-Up (in no particular order): Bernie, The Deep Blue Sea, Flight, 21 Jump Street, Attenberg, Moonrise Kingdom, Miss Bala, Turn Me On, Dammit!, Savages, Chico & Rita.