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Top 15 Films of the Year, No. 10 – Looper

Looper is a film written and directed by Rian Johnson.  The movie is set in Kansas City during the year 2044, thirty years before time travel is invented.  Time travel is illegal in the future, and it is only used by the mob on the black market.  When the mafia wants someone killed, they send that person back thirty years where trained assassins, called “loopers,” kill them.  The story follows Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a looper who encounters his own self when the older version of himself (Bruce Willis) is sent back from the future to be assassinated.  When a looper comes across their older self, an event known as “closing the loop,” they must kill the older version of themselves or face death by the mob.  When Joe’s older self gets away, a series of wild, electrifying events take place.  Ultimately, the deeper reason for the elder Joe’s return is revealed and the fate of human existence consequently hangs in the balance.

Looper is clearly one of the year’s most confusing films; however, in this case, confusing does not necessarily equal an immediate dislike for the movie.  In fact, Looper was one of my personal favorites released in 2012, and I rushed to buy it on Blu-ray the day it came out.  Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) creates a landscape in both the past and future that resembles the darkest of dystopian societies, and his use of short, expeditious scenes plays perfectly along with this theme.  If you are a fan of sci-fi thrillers, you will definitely want to check this one out—it is essentially a mix between The Terminator (1984) and Minority Report (2002).

Since Looper was released in September, it has garnered significant critical acclaim, and it was featured on a variety of important lists of top films of the year.  With that being said, it has not been nominated for any major movie awards.  The only noteworthy nomination is for Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards.  Even without any momentous award nominations, I still view Looper as one of the best movies of 2012.

One strong point of the film that critics across the nation have praised is the cast.  Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Premium Rush) plays young Joe and Bruce Willis (Pulp Fiction, Die Hard) plays the elder Joe, and the two bear a striking resemblance in the film—this is because makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji created various prosthetics for Gordon-Levitt to wear to resemble Willis’ facial features.  In the diner scene when both versions of Joe are sitting across a table from each other, it is blatantly visible how alike they truly look.  Not only does Gordon-Levitt mimic Willis’ physical features, he also engages in the action scenes of the film in the same nature as Willis has been doing for his entire career in movies like the Die Hard and The Expendables franchises.

Solid supporting performances are given by Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria) as Sara, the farmhouse owner that young Joe seeks refuge at while hiding from the mafia, and Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, The Newsroom) as Abe, the guy the mob sent back to the past to manage the loopers.  The breakout performance, however, is from Pierce Gagnon as he portrays Sara’s son Cid, a young, innocent-looking boy who ends up being more than meets the eye.  Looper is rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality/nudity, and drug content.

Academy Award nominations for Looper:

NONE

Previous movies on the countdown of the Top 15 Films of the Year:

11. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

12. The Dark Knight Rises

13. Flight

14. The Master

15. Argo

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Top 15 Films of the Year, No. 11 – The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a film directed and written by Stephen Chbosky.  The movie follows Charlie Kelmeckis, a young teenager entering his freshman year in high school in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA.  Charlie enters high school as a troubled and introverted kid, struggling to find anyone to become friends with.  He ultimately meets two seniors, Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller), and they quickly bond into an inseparable trio of best friends.  Throughout the rest of the school year, Charlie engages in many of the common events associated with adolescent years, such as partying and finding his first love, but deep, dark secrets of Charlie’s past continue pulsating through his veins and attempt to lead him down a disastrous path.

This movie, as stated above, was directed and written by Stephen Chbosky.  The novel of the same name that Chbosky adapted for this screenplay was actually a book that he himself wrote in 1999.  Even though Chbosky has written screenplays before, most notably the 2005 film Rent, this was his first attempt at directing a feature film.

After viewing the film, I was impressed with so many aspects of the production.  For starters, I thought it was a near-flawless screenplay with the perfect combination of drama and comedy, mixed with some quirky, witty dialogue.  Considering Chbosky adapted his own book, which had already been described as a modern cult classic, I was expecting his screenplay to receive some award considerations.  His screenplay has been nominated for a few different awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards, but I believe his work is most definitely worthy of higher praise.

Chbosky also brought together a very young, but seasoned cast to portray the roles of his multifarious characters.  Logan Lerman (3:10 to Yuma, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) plays the role of Charlie, and on the screen, an unmistakably shaken teenager is illustrated, and this is almost entirely due to the skillful performance of Lerman.  Emma Watson takes on her biggest role since the Harry Potter franchise officially ended in 2011, and it is easy to determine from her performance in this film that she is not a one-dimensional actress—she indubitably has a bright career ahead of her in the film industry outside of Hogwarts.  Lastly, Ezra Miller (City Island, We Need to Talk About Kevin) gives an invigorating performance as Patrick.  Aside from Charlie, Patrick is one of the most complex characters of the entire film, and Miller delineates the character consummately as a kid trying to suppress the emotional, melodramatic issues in his life by providing humor to everyone around him.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, drug and alcohol use, sexual content including references, and a fight – all involving teens.

Academy Award nominated for The Perks of Being a Wallflower:

NONE

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Top 15 Films of the Year, No. 12 – The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises is a film directed by Christopher Nolan, with a screenplay by Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan. The movie takes place about eight years after the conclusion of The Dark Knight (2008), as Bruce Wayne hangs up his Batman mask and goes into a self-imposed banishment from crime fighting after he assumes blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. Batman and Commissioner Gordon believed making the caped crusader disappear might be the only way to restore sanity to Gotham City for good. However, with the emergence of the disastrous terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy), Wayne realizes he must end his exile in an attempt to save Gotham from the dangerous attacks that await at the hands of this masked killer.

Ever since The Dark Knight was released in 2008, fans of this superhero franchise have been anxiously awaiting the epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece. In my opinion, Nolan’s productions have been much more groundbreaking than any other set of Batman movies ever created. The older Batman films seemed over-the-top and cheesy with horrible special effects and beyond terrible acting; conversely, Nolan’s movies are much darker and made more in the mold of a full-fledged drama rather than an action film, not to mention the stellar casts he employs. He has made world-class movies like The Prestige and Inception, and his Batman series has never disappointed to impress both theatergoers and critics.

The biggest surprise to me about this movie is the fact that it is not nominated for any Academy Awards. The Dark Knight was up for eight Oscars and won two, and even though the newest film did not have an acting performance like Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker in 2008, I felt that The Dark Knight Rises was almost just as good of a movie as its predecessor. It features unbelievable visual effects and other aesthetics, but for some reason, the Academy chose not to recognize any of these features of The Dark Knight Rises this year. I think people went into the movie expecting way too much considering how great of a film The Dark Knight was, and in my opinion, this hype is what led to many people not enjoying the movie.

Christian Bale turned in another solid performance as Bruce Wayne, and once again, the supporting performances lent to an overall illustrious ensemble of acting skill. Anne Hathaway plays the physically demanding role of Selina Kyle, or Catwoman, and Tom Hardy joins forces with Nolan again (Inception, 2010) to play the cataclysmic terrorist Bane. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman reprise their roles as Lucius Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner James Gordan, respectively. If that list of actors is not enough to prove the major-league level Christopher Nolan is at as a filmmaker, he also enlists Joseph Gordon-Levitt (John Blake) and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard (Miranda Tate) to round out the long list of performers.

I believe Nolan ended his Batman trilogy on a firm, conclusive note, and I believe this film ranks second among the three. It provides much more drama and astounding visual effects than Batman Begins (2006), but without a performance similar to that of Ledger, it simply cannot meet the astonishing standards that The Dark Knight has set for the trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality, and language.

Academy Award nominations for The Dark Knight Rises:

NONE

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Top 15 Films of the Year, No. 13 – Flight

Flight is a film directed by Robert Zemeckis, with a screenplay written by John Gatins.  The film follows veteran airline pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) as he courageously rescues an aircraft after an unknown calamity causes the plane to descend into a devastating crash.  Following the crash, Whitaker is hunted down by the media and hailed as a hero for his uncanny ability to act in a time of distress and land his plane.  However, as the movie progresses, questions begin to arise about the true events that took place before, during, and after the crash.  More and more is revealed and everyone learns that the situations surrounding the crash prove much more convoluted and disturbing than was first thought.

From the outside, this movie has all of the necessary parts to make it look like a fascinating piece of film work.  For starters, the director is Robert Zemeckis, renowned for directing critical and commercial movie successes like the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away.  The film also features a screenplay by John Gatins, the writer of Summer Catch, Hardball, Coach Carter, and Real Steel.  Lastly, the lead actor is Denzel Washington—that alone will make film fans flock to the theaters in droves.

The obvious thing to discuss next is the crash scene.  I do not want to give anything away for those that have not seen the movie, but it is the scene that begins the movie and sets the stage for the rest of the plot to transpire.  There have been some scary, stressful plane-crash scenes in film—the hijacking scene from United 93 and the plane crash at the beginning of Zemeckis’ own Cast Away—but the crash in Flight is a version of those scenes but on steroids.  The scene is done in a manner that only Robert Zemeckis could dictate, and for the duration of the entire scene, you will be glued to your seat in sheer terror.  After the crash scene, however, the film seems to drag on for the next couple of hours.  Although some other interesting events do take place, the majority of the movie cannot live up to the first 20 minutes or so.

John Goodman, Don Cheadle, and Kelly Reilly turn in solid supporting performances, but like in most movies, Denzel steals the show.  The man has become one of the premier actors of this generation in the film industry, and I truly cannot think of a Denzel movie that I disliked him in—he’s just that good.  Washington is nominated for Best Actor for his performance, marking his sixth Academy Award nomination.  In Flight, he portrays a man that has not only lost his grip on reality, but he has lost a sense of his own inner identity.  Washington releases himself into the character, and his immersion on the screen is everything you could want in a performance.  If it was not for an incredibly competitive Best Actor field this year, Washington might very well find himself holding another golden statue.  Flight is rated R for drug and alcohol abuse, language, sexuality/nudity, and an intense action sequence.

Academy Award nominations for Flight:

Actor in a Leading Role (Denzel Washington)

Writing – Original Screenplay (John Gatins)

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Top 15 Films of the Year, No. 14 – The Master

The Master is a film written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.  The movie follows Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a World War II veteran that returns home and struggles to establish a steady life outside of the military.  He eventually meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the leader of a philosophical movement, and Dodd, along with his wife Peggy (Amy Adams), accept Freddie into their group to help spread the word of “The Cause.”  Over time, however, the issues Freddie has with alcohol dependency and adapting to a post-war society create significant difficulties for the Dodd family’s advancement of “The Cause,” and Lancaster and Peggy attempt to use the ways of their teachings to help Freddie fix himself to become a disciple for their movement.

I have been a huge fan of P.T. Anderson’s films over the years, specifically Boogie Nights (1997) and There Will Be Blood (2007), so it was a given that I was going to go see this film in theaters shortly after its release during the summer.  Considering it took five years for Anderson to release his follow-up to There Will Be Blood, one of the most amazing movies of our time, I knew it was sure to be well thought out and intricately fascinating.  After the viewing the film, I instantly thought that Anderson had created a movie that was sure to receive some assortment of award nominations, but the over-complication of the plot made it something I, along with most viewers leaving the theater that day, was utterly confused by.

Given that the plot centers on the teachings of a post-war cult, it is no wonder that the film seemed rather disconnected and uninviting.  The beginning of the film started out strong—it truly seemed like P.T. Anderson’s latest film was going to be gloriously masterful, pun intended.  However, as the storyline fully came into focus, it only proceeded to drag on with exaggerated repetition.  Anderson created some downright complex characters, but by the end of the film, I did not feel like they had grown very much—it was like they all ended up right back where they began.

With all that being said, The Master is still a solid film.  In my opinion, the film is wholly carried by three stellar acting performances from the main characters.  In Phoenix’s first feature film since his fake retirement from acting a few years ago, he reminds us all why he has always been heralded as one of the best actors of his generation.  Philip Seymour Hoffman also turns in a fantastic performance in his role as the leader of the cult.  However, the brightest display of sheer acting ability came from Amy Adams as Peggy Dodd.  While she seems like an innocent and docile wife, the film, coupled with Adams’ amazing performance, reveals Peggy to be much more of a woman that pulls the strings from afar—I would argue that her character is the actual “master” that the title of the film implies.  If this film does not sound like it’s for you, at least give it a shot just to take in an astounding representation of acting by a stellar ensemble.  The Master is rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.

Academy Award nominations for The Master:

Actor in a Leading Role (Joaquin Phoenix)

Actor in a Supporting Role (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

Actress in a Supporting Role (Amy Adams)

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Top 15 Films of the Year, No. 15 – Argo

Argo is a film directed by Ben Affleck, with a screenplay written by Chris Terrio.  The movie is based on true events during the Iran Hostage Crisis that were previously unknown to the general public for many decades.  On November 4, 1979, Iranian revolutionaries famously raided the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage.  During the attack, six Americans snuck out of the embassy and made their way into the home of the Canadian ambassador to Iran.  CIA operative Tony Mendez, knowing the agency must act quickly in order to protect the six Americans from being found out and assassinated by the revolutionaries, develops an ingenious, but hazardous plan to retrieve them and return them to the United States safely.  His plan was to create a fictional movie and act, along with the six Americans, as a film crew visiting Iran to find filming locations before heading back to the states.

After this movie was released, it quickly garnered critical acclaim in every category imaginable.  This praise led to the film winning numerous pre-Oscars film awards, including Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Director (Ben Affleck) at the Golden Globes, and being nominated for seven Academy Awards.  Even though I found the movie to be quite interesting and entertaining, in my own opinion it was not as amazing as everyone was making it out to be.

For starters, I was surprised to see this film nominated for Best Picture.  I personally rank this film as the third best out of the three Affleck-directed movies in his filmography.  Gone Baby Gone (2007) and The Town (2010) were both much more complicated, enthralling films and yet neither was nominated for Best Picture.  The general consensus is also that Ben Affleck was robbed this year by the Academy for not being nominated for Best Director.  After hearing all of the universal acclaim his directorial efforts were receiving, I felt bad for him, too, but then I saw the film.  And after sitting in the theater for two hours watching this movie, I left completely and utterly un-blown away.  Do not get me wrong, it was a great movie, which is why it is featured on this countdown of the year’s best films, but it did not do enough for me to show Affleck’s growth as a director.

Also, the film features some great acting performances that carry this story through until the end.  The obvious bright stars were Ben Affleck himself, portraying the real-life Tony Mendez, and Alan Arkin, playing Lester Siegel, a fictitious film producer.  Even though these performances were definitely worth watching, the most impressive performance, in my opinion, was by Bryan Cranston (from Breaking Bad).  He depicts Jack O’Donnell, Affleck’s character’s supervisor at the CIA.  Throughout the nerve-racking covert operation, Cranston illustrates the overwhelming tension involved with the mission, and he does so in a way that makes you feel his real-life anxiety pulsing through your own veins.  Argo is rated R for language and some violent images.

Academy Award nominations for Argo:

Best Picture (Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney, Producers)

Actor in a Supporting Role (Alan Arkin)

Film Editing (William Goldenberg)

Original Score (Alexandre Desplat)

Sound Editing (Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn)

Sound Mixing (John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, and Jose Antonio Garcia)

Best Adapted Screenplay (Chris Terrio)