Here's my disclaimer: I didn't see all the movies I wanted to see this year. I missed Safety Not Guaranteed, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty. Would one of these movies made its way onto my list? Maybe! I don't know! I haven't seen them yet! But the movies below are movies I definitely did see and liked a whole lot.
Let me know what you're favorites were at the bottom.
10) The Dark Knight Rises
This one almost didn't make it. I think it fits in perfectly with the trilogy they made, but it's not as solid of a stand alone movie as the other two. But, it is still a pretty damn good movie. Opposed to pointing out logical jumps in the plot, I'm going to focus more on how this movie didn't collapse under the weight of itself.
The expectations were set so high, and it still was able to handle the pressure. They were coming off of Ledger pushing The Dark Knight to the high rankings of super hero movies. One of my complaints about the first two movies was that Bruce Wayne seemed to take a backseat to the villains and plot. Christian Bale was finally able to have a Batman movie to himself. There wasn't as much Batman as one would hope in a two and half hour movie, but watching Bruce Wayne try to pull himself back together was fascinating.
Then we have the baddies! Tom Hardy was a perfect follow-up to Heath Ledger. Bane was so calm and calculated, bringing a steely terror to the franchise. Anne Hathaway proved everyone wrong--with a sexy and cool turn--when she owned the role of Selina Kyle.
I've always been a sucker for Batman, and even while I tried to think of a movie I liked more than The Dark Knight Rises, I failed to come up with anything that could knock Nolan's final chapter in the series off this list.
9) Flight
My only complaint about Flight? It is a little long, pushing close to two and a half hours. This year seemed like it was the year of long movies, though. We've got Jack Reacher, This is Forty, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Lincoln, and The Hobbit: An Extremely Long Journey all pushing two and a half hours. But whereas some of those felt too long, Flight was only kind of long.
Denzel Washington is enough reason to watch this flick. He is one of the great actors I have had the privileged of growing up watching. He is always good and entertaining, but not necessarily always captivating. I haven't seen his last few movies, not because they didn't look good, but because they looked too safe and generic. This one, on the other hand, isn't about the plot, but rather the character. And they got the man to play the part.
The movie follows a pilot that was able to safe over a hundred people on a plane that crashed due to mechanical failure. The problem is that the pilot was super hammered while he was supposed to be flying the plane. The bulk of the movie deals not with the plane crash (they get that out of the way right at the beginning), but with the alcohol addiction that possesses this one individual. If it weren't for Daniel Day-Lewis and Joaquin Phoenix, I would put all my money on Washington winning an Oscar for this performance.
8) Killing Them Softly
It's a mob movie with not a lot of mob. There is a lot of talking, but it's mostly the state of finance and hookers. The dialogue in this movie doesn't really deal with the plot of the movie, but the problems that are present in the lives of a lot of Americans.
The fact that the movie is brave enough to crawl along at a snail's pace, and still keep me on the edge shows the subtleties of Killing Them Softly. Now, there is violence. I mean, killing is in the title. And much like Drive, the violence is amplified on two levels. First they've enhanced it so it is often realistic. They drop the music out, and we get the sound of every punch, or shot, or bit of broken bone. Secondly, they sandwiched the violence around an otherwise boring movie. Not a lot happens. The plot is simple and could have been told in twenty minutes if a fast-paced director like Michael Bay directed the movie. But the slowness of the movie helps push those violent bits to the core of our minds. We are completely focused on Ray Liotta's cries while he begs for his life. And it impacts us all the more.
An added bonus to this flick: Brad Pitt. He's the man, and he gives one of the coolest speeches at the end of movie. This is his movie, but generally takes the back seat during scenes, letting Richard Jenkins or James Gandolfini really shine.
7) Django Unchained
Tarantino makes cool movies. That's the best way to describe what he does. Take a look at Inglorious Basterds and you can see that even when making a war movie, he has this hip edge that makes his movies just cool. The soundtrack has a lot to do with Tarantino hitting that threshold, but a lot of it is in the dialogue.
So from the standard Tarantino elements, let's take a look at the movie itself. We've got Jamie Foxx in one of his best roles. Will Smith was originally offered the title role, but in the end, I think Foxx was the better choice. He's got the swagger that is so important to the character. Leonardo DiCaprio plays one of his first bad guys, and while it wasn't as diabolical as I was lead to believe, he does pull of the despicable. It's almost how good natured he seems to be about everything that makes it even worse.
This might also be the bloodiest movies Tarantino has made. The only other flick to rival would be Kill Bill vol 1, but still, even if they're comparable you can imagine how much corn syrup went into making this thing. It might be the most fun I had at the movies all year. Good Christmas!
6) The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson knows how to make movies. He is our modern day Scorsese or Coppola. For The Master he's taken a pretty heavy subject--and controversial for some--and really pumped an intriguing, surprisingly objective story behind it.
We follow an ex-sailor drifter across the United States. He has a substance abuse problem with drink, and I say drink opposed to alcohol because he is consistently making his own potions throughout the movie. He encounters a charismatic man who has some similarities to L. Ron Hubbard, the mastermind behind Scientology. The two men find a kindred spirit in the other, and we're shown what happens with the primitive mind comes into contact with the evolved. This isn't to say one is better than the other, but we see each of the strengths and weaknesses work against one another.
Joaquin Phoenix, playing the ex-sailor, gives the best performance of his career. He has taken not only the lines, but the body language and took in all the qualities of this character. The facial expressions he silently presents shows the insanity before he even has to mutter any one of his lines. And then there is Philip Seymour Hoffman. The man who never disappoints. An original score from Johnny Greenwood doesn't hurt, either.
5) Cloud Atlas
I still feel like I need to see this movie again and again. Within the first twenty minutes I knew I wasn't going to keep up, and decided to just let the movie flow over me. The visuals are spectacular and it proves the Waschowskis haven't lost their zeal for pushing the limits of technology (this was also co-directed by Tom Tykwer, of Run Lola Run fame).
Upon first exiting the theatre I told people that this movie was going to be one that people looked back on as a game changer. I stand by that notion, but at this point I'm not really confident in what game it is changing. I just know that it is upping the game for sci-fi flicks and epics. The way it is able to weave so many different stories together, while not giving equal weight to each one, they definitely make you feel for all the characters. I hadn't felt this overwhelmed in a movie since Inception.
The cast is delightful across the board, and I'm a little in love with Ben Whishaw.
4) Holy Motors
Foreign movie alert. Dumbo French movie a lot. Another crazy confusing blending of genres alert!
If Denis Lavant wins an Oscar for acting I will be a happy man. I don't expect him to win, but I think from everything I've seen this year he deserves it. I would like to try to explain the flick to you, but in the end, I'm still not so sure what I watched.
The movie is built on vignettes, that don't necessarily have anything in common except they're all tied to the main character's job. What is his job? I have no idea. But it's great!
The movie feels like David Lynch and David Cronenberg got together, hashed out an idea, had someone write the whole thing in French, and then filmed in with the perfect blend of their signature styles.
3) Cabin in the Woods
Another movie that was just too much fun. Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon knew exactly what they were doing when they made this movie. The first half is so over the top cheese ball that you're not expecting to see the second half as it amps up the action.
They've infused such a sick amount of humor into watching people die, but in through all the laughs, there is a lot at stake. The gore and violence is over the top enough to laugh at, but still based enough in reality that the horror fans will rejoice. It's not meant to be scary, so while you're twidling your thumbs don't be tempted to turn it off. You've got to give it a chance, and if you're a normal person, it'll pay off.
And Richard Jenkins is the best.
2) Looper
I've yammered on enough about how much I love Rian Johnson. He has the rare ability to take genre movies that we think we've seen before and transcend them above a regular popcorn flick. That's precisely what he does here.
Time travel is a sticky subject to get into. So what does Johnson do? He makes it pretty damn vague, and essentially doesn't spend the time to try to justify his choices. This is the way it is, and that's all there is about it. I like that tactic, and it seems to spill over throughout the whole movie. There are hints at parallel universes intertwined with a linear timeline, but to make the story work he lets the audience think about some of it by themselves. You want to figure it out? Have fun. You want to just enjoy the movie? Even better.
The action is fantastic. Watching a man fall apart because the mob is dismembering you're past self was incredible. I never thought about that and how it would work, and it turns out that I loved it. Also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a perfect Bruce Willis. He should win the Oscar for Best Being Bruce Willis. Not one of his movements seemed to be out of place. He even got the dry laugh down to a T. Like Tarantino, Rian Johnson knows how to make cool movies.
1) Seven Psychopaths
This isn't the best movie I saw this whole year. If I'm being completely honest, I would have to crown Flight or Argo as the best movie I watched. But this list isn't about what I thought the best made movies were, but rather my favorite movies of the year. What movie made me the happiest while I watched it? Seven Psychopaths.
Basically, within the first five minutes of the flick Reid look over at me and told me I was being really loud with my laughter. He slouched in his seat, in what seemed to be massive embarrassment. Alas, I did not stop laughing throughout the entire movie.
The cast was spot on, each showcasing a specific brand of humor. My favorite character had to have been Sam Rockwell, being overly ridiculous for the majority of the movie, and then explaining how he would end the movie was priceless (by the way, this is a meta-movie, so be prepared). The dialogue was quick and witty. Some of it was unnecessary, but all of it was enjoyable.
And then on top of the humor, there were some touching moments throughout the flick. Christopher Walken and his wife made me feel lucky to have a significant other. The story of the Viet Nam vet was the tying thread that brought the movie to the number one spot of my list. It took the movie past a few laughs and gave it a living pulse. To have a #1 movie, you need to put some heart and thought behind it and that's exactly what they did here.
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