Immersed in an outstanding
ensemble of committed and believable performances, Ben Affleck shone both in
front of, and behind, the camera and delivered a terrifically taut political
thriller about self-belief in the face of life-threatening and increasingly
unpredictable hostility. With Chris Terrio’s terrific screenplay and buoyed by
two fine performances from John Goodman and Alan Arkin, the outlandish idea of
setting up a fake Hollywood film project provided Argo with a generous amount
of unexpected humour that helped balance the main game – a life-and-death
flight from possible execution – beautifully.
Boasting a truly
fascinating time-travel premise, a top-notch cast and a wicked (if not entirely
unexpected) sting in its tale, Looper was marvellously involving cinema. The threads of a heightened moral
responsibility for the integrity of the lives we lead (and those of the people
who rely on us for their very survival) that are woven through this film, were
never less than utterly compelling. With Bruce Willis offering fine support,
Joseph Gordon-Levitt continued his break-out year (he also starred in The
Dark Knight Rises) with another
outstanding, un-showy, understated performance of great emotional intelligence.
Ruby Sparks, from debut
writer Zoe Kazan (who also stars as Ruby), was a wonderfully inventive and
deceptively complex little gem of a film that successfully turned the romantic
comedy genre on its head.
Kazan and Paul Dano were
simply perfect in the lead roles, and their marvellously engaging performances
are among the finest this year. The fact that we cared about these wonderfully
idiosyncratic characters as much as we did was a great testament to the
outstanding quality of the two lead performances – especially when the film
took an unexpected turn into a finely wrought dramatic realm.
Director Guy Ritchie
kicked off the 2012 cinematic year in commanding form with this sequel to his
high-octane Sherlock Holmes (2009). With his grand directorial vision, a
virtuoso performance from Robert Downey Jnr, a dark, intricately layered
screenplay from Michele and Kieran Mulroney, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of
Shadows continually rose above its
momentary and fleeting flaws to become an enthralling adventure. Like Skyfall, the theme of shadows and what hides within them
was richly imagined and realised in Sarah Greenwood’s perfectly atmospheric
production design and Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography.
It was Neal Purvis, Robert
Wade and John Logan’s mighty three-act screenplay that guaranteed director Sam
Mendes (Revolutionary Road, Jarhead, American Beauty) something he could really sink his teeth into.
Boasting an exceptional cast at the top of their respective games – lead by
Daniel Craig’s brilliant, damaged Bond – Skyfall was never less than a deeply unsettling, sensory
experience. Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the venerable
James Bond films that began with Dr No in 1962, Skyfall was
an undeniable triumph on a vast scale, superbly captured in every minute detail
by cinematographer Roger Deakins.
With Andrew Garfield’s
bravura performance in the title role, the key to the success of this take on
the much-loved Spider-Man was a deeply engaging heart and soul. James
Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves delivered a beautifully structured
screenplay that neatly divided the story into two parts: the keenly-observed
origins of Peter Parker’s Spider-man superpowers and the ultimate battle for
control of New York. Director Marc Webb cut loose in spectacular fashion for
the film’s monumental slap-down, while John Schwartzman’s superb cinematography
beautifully accounted for the film’s many changes in mood and tone – especially
the stunning night-time sequences high above the city.
In precisely the same way
as an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord would be likely to satisfy every appetite, so
too did Joss Whedon’s Marvel superhero mash-up that gleefully ticked every
‘superhero action movie’ box on its way to a dazzling final confrontation
between the invading alien Chitauri forces and our team of superheroes. It was
an unmitigated delight to watch this outstanding ensemble at play, especially
in the big, action set-pieces that, in the breadth of their vision and the pace
at which they unfurled before us, were often astonishing.
This year Christopher
Nolan (Inception) delivered the
final film in his Batman
trilogy that began in 2005 with Batman Begins, followed by Heath Ledger’s unforgettable turn as
‘The Joker’ in The Dark Knight
(2008). Nolan, and his team of frequent collaborators including cinematographer
Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith and composer Hans Zimmer, immersed us
faultlessly into an overwhelming experience of the perfect fusion between
creative vision and cinematic storytelling. At almost three hours long, The
Dark Knight Rises not only managed
to feel like it was over in half the time, but also included the best final
five minutes of any movie this year.
Moral dilemmas aplenty
bubbled to the surface as a result of this engrossing, complex, and richly-layered
piece of cinematic story-telling. Exploiting the grotesque flourishes of
‘reality television’ and our greed and celebrity-obsessed age with ruthless
precision, and boasting Jennifer Lawrence’s fearless performance as a
startlingly original heroine Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games was responsible for a deeply-affecting and
profound cultural impact that challenged the rules of cinematic engagement
around the world.
Based on Tony Briggs’s
award-winning play, this incandescent little jewel of a film not only
entertained, but also provided moments of powerful contemplation focussed on
the true nature of soul, matriarchy, race and the comparatively threadbare
connotations of privilege. In a fearless feature film debut, Wayne Blair and his
never-less-than outstanding cast, delivered a film that celebrated our many
differences and our many similarities. The hope that, one day, we might know
how it feels to truly belong, was the powerful theme that held it all together
in magical style.
This list of the top ten films of 2012 was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.
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