My End of Year List: Best of 2012

It's the end of another year, and I thought I'd continue the tradition I started last year with a run down of my favourite new films from the past twelve months. The criteria for inclusion in the list are simple: to qualify, a film must be a new release which I saw in the cinema from 1 January to 31 December 2012. Old films which have been re-released into the cinema, films which I saw on DVD and films which I haven't seen yet (even if they were released in the UK in 2012) are not eligible for my list.

As a general comment, I'd say that this year's crop of movies have been quite an improvement on that of 2011. As well as a few truly outstanding pictures, there were a high number of movies which I'd rate as 'very good' (i.e. 8 out of 10 or above). All in all, it was tough work selecting just 10 for my list - movies which narrowly missed the cut included Avengers Assemble, Young Adult, Moonrise Kingdom, Chronicle, Shadow Dancer, Killing Them Softly, Room 237, End of Watch and The Artist.

Here's my picks for the best of 2012 (in reverse order):

10. Lawless

John Hillcoat's follow up to the similarly uncompromising Australian western The Proposition is a dark, violent, but brilliant look into the lives of bootleggers in 1930s Virginia. Guy Pearce is on fine form as the oily, sadistic villain, Charlie Rakes.

9. Snowtown 

Undoubtedly the most disturbing movie I've seen all year, but absolutely compelling all the same - a story about the power that a charismatic psychopath can wield over vulnerable individuals. The fact that the movie is based on a true life story (the Snowtown murders in South Australia) makes it even more chilling.

8. Headhunters

In comparison with the previous two films on my list, Norwegian thriller Headhunters is a veritable barrel of laughs. It was the most unexpectedly entertaining movie of the year, and certainly the only one in which a character has to hide out in a latrine to escape a relentless pursuer. Based on a novel by Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo, it has a plot which keeps you guessing right until the very end and a brilliant lead performance by Aksel Hennie.

7. The Dark Knight Rises

Though perhaps not quite as impressive as the previous film in the Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan's Batman swansong is still a tremendously exciting spectacle. Nolan has created a living, breathing Gotham City that seems as authentic as any real life American city - and has populated it with some highly memorable characters.  Both Tom Hardy (as Bane) and Anne Hathaway (as Catwoman) were excellent in their respective roles.

6.  Martha Marcy May Marlene

A haunting, beautiful film that stayed with me long after the final credits had rolled, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a brilliant debut from director Sean Durkin. Telling the story from the perspective of a young woman who has recently escaped from a dangerous cult, the viewer is kept on edge throughout - you're never quite sure whether what you're seeing is real, or just a paranoid delusion.  Both Durkin and lead actress Elizabeth Olsen will be well worth looking out for over the next few years.

5. Looper

For my money, this was the best science fiction film of the year, a highly imaginative take on time travel and psychic powers with a stunning ending. Joseph Gordon Levitt is wonderful (as usual) as a morally conflicted assassin, and all in all, it's a spectacular return to form for director Rian Johnson (after the disappointment of his previous movie, The Brothers Bloom).

4. The Raid: Redemption

I'm not normally a huge fan of kung fu pictures, but this effort, from Welshman Gareth Evans, has made me an instant convert. Set in the claustrophobic confines of a crime ridden tower block, the plot is simple: the last good cop in Jakarta has to fight his way through hoardes of bad guys to take out a crime lord situated in the penthouse suite. This straightforward premise is executed flawlessly: the action is spectacularly exciting and brilliantly choreographed.

3. Margaret

The winner of my "halfway through 2012" list, this film was famously left in limbo for a number of years until it was finally released in this country in January. The version which appeared in cinemas was a cut which neither director Kenneth Lonergan nor the studio was completely satisfied with - but I reckon it's a near masterpiece all the same. As I said right back at the start of the year, the movie has some of the best acting and sharpest dialogue I've seen for quite some time. It's a worthy follow up to Lonergan's previous effort, You Can Count On Me, a film which I'd count as one of my all time favourites.

2. Argo

Ben Affleck continues his streak of success as a director with this sensational thriller, set during the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis. It's a picture which combines touches of humour (the scenes in Hollywood where the plot to create a fake sci-fi flick is hatched) with some incredibly gripping and tense set pieces (particularly the final face off at the airport in Tehran). Argo has been tipped for success at next year's Oscars, and in my opinion, it would be a very worthy winner in a number of categories.

1. Sightseers

Top of the pile this year is the wonderful Sightseers, in which Alice Lowe and Steve Oram play a pair of caravan enthusiasts whose holiday to the North of England takes an unexpectedly murderous turn... It's a movie which is funny, strange, and features one of the best soundtracks of the year - combining bloodcurdling violence with a perfectly observed recreation of life in Britain at the beginning of the 21st century. I reckon Ben Wheatley (whose film Kill List was my third favourite film of 2011) is one of the most talented directors working right now. I'm eagerly anticipating his next movie, A Field In England, which will see him team up with The League of Gentlemen's Reece Sheersmith.

The week in brief (5 - 11 November)

A pretty impressive selection of films watched this week, with no fewer than four movies achieving a mark of at least 8/10 and Kirk's Movie Blog official seal of approval (a seal only given out to films which meet the high personal standards of Kirk van Houten). This week's list:

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006): 7/10
Cabin Fever (2002): 6/10
Inside Job (2010): 8/10
Read My Lips (Sue mes levres) (2001): 8/10
Argo (2012): 9/10
The Grey (2011): 8/10

Starting with my pick of the week, a film which came dangerously close to getting an almost unprecedented mark of 10/10, Argo. Set during the Iranian hostage crisis of the late 1970s, the film tells the story of an audacious attempt by the CIA to free six escaped US embassy workers who have been hiding out in the Canadian ambassador's house in Tehran. Affleck (who also directs the picture) stars as CIA operative Tony Mendez, who devises a plan to free his countrymen by having them pose as a Canadian film crew, scouting for Middle Eastern locations for a science fiction movie called 'Argo'. Just about everything to do with the film works wonderfully well - it's excellently scripted (with some very funny Hollywood in-jokes), there's a very strong cast (including the likes of Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Bryan Cranston) and Affleck's direction is assured throughout. For me, the most impressive scene in the entire picture is the recreation of the storming of the US embassy, which is incredibly tense and immersive, putting you in the shoes of the panicked Embassy employees as the swarm of protestors gets ever closer to penetrating the inner walls of the building. With this film, Affleck proves that his earlier success with Gone Baby Gone and The Town was no fluke - and in fact, even though I liked both of those films, I reckon Argo is a big step forward for him as a director. I know it's still early days, but I'd be surprised if Argo isn't a major contender at the 2013 Oscars. As I've mentioned above, I opted to give the film a mark of '9' out of 10, but if I enjoy it just as much on second viewing, I might be prepared to bump it up to a 10.

Also very good was Read My Lips, a film which I saw at the cinema as part of the Watershed's recent programme of Jacques Audiard films. The film has a rather unusual premise - it concerns the relationship between Carla, a deaf woman who works as a downtrodden secretary for an estate agency firm and Paul, the young ex-convict who she hires to be her assistant. As office outcasts, the pair grow close to one another, and ultimately hatch a plot to rob a former criminal associate of Paul's. The director (also responsible for the brilliant The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet) works his magic again, delivering a movie which is both a compelling and gritty crime drama and an unconventional romance. Both of the lead actors (Vincent Cassel and Emanuelle Devos) deliver impressive performances, creating well defined, believable and nuanced characters. My only minor criticism with the film would be that the pacing isn't perfect - there is a bit of a lull in excitement around the halfway point in the film - but it isn't long before the movie picks up steam again, as it reaches a bloody, breathtaking conclusion. Mr Audiard's latest film, Rust and Bone, has recently come out so I'm looking forward to seeing whether it stands up to the rest of his consistently excellent back catalogue.

Moving on, I'd like to give a quick, Roger Ebert style 'thumbs up' to two movies which I saw on DVD this week. Firstly, the excellent documentary Inside Job, which provides some fascinating insights into the causes of the recent banking crisis. What's even more impressive is that it does so in a way which makes all the financial shenanigans easily comprehensible, even to a simpleton like me. Secondly, I (somewhat unexpectedly) thoroughly enjoyed the Liam Neeson wilderness survival thriller, The Grey. The plot of the film follows the survivors of a plane crash in Alaska as they battle the elements and a pack of wolves in an effort to reach civilisation. It's a film as bleak and coldly beautiful as the Alaskan landscape.

Oh, and one final thing: I should also mention that I watched Eli Roth's tongue-in-cheek Deliverance style horror debut, Cabin Fever, this week. The film itself was just about OK, but it is notable for a couple of things: (a) the movie's excellent and highly creepy credits sequence, in which the backdrop to the names of the actors starts off as a white sheet and gets progressively more mouldy as the credits roll by (this is much more effective than it sounds); and (b) this scene, which I'm linking to without any comment or context, other than to say that it's probably one of the most bizarre sequences I've ever seen committed to celulloid.

Kirk's Quote of the Week

25th Hour (2002)

"Monty Brogan: [raising a toast] Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends."