List: Top Ten Films of the Decade (2010-14)

1. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)

2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

3. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonca Filho)

4. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)

5. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zurcher)

6. The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet)

7. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

8. Senna (Asif Kapadia)

9. Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)

10. Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier)
Honorable mention: The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Pictures: Top 20 Films of 2012

Honorable Mention: The Grey

20. Rust & Bone (dir. Audiard) (review)

"Did you hear what happened to me?"

19. Anna Karenina (dir. Wright) (review)

"Romantic love will be the last illusion of the old world order."

18. The Gatekeepers (dir. Moreh) (review)

"You can't make peace using military means."

17. Moonrise Kingdom (dir. Anderson)

"What kind of bird are you?"

16. Queen of Versailles (dir. Greenfield)

"Do you get strength from your marriage?"

Visionaries: 2012's Best in Writing and Directing

Screenwriters
Runners-up: Michael Haneke (Amour), Alex Ross Perry (The Color Wheel), Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

5. Reid Carolin (Magic Mike)

Incredibly layered and attentive to even the smallest characters, Carolin's script digs beneath the surface to transform the specificities of this particular group of men into a universal story about love, ambition and the 'American dream.'

4. Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)

Comparisons with the quirky humor and incisive look at young, middle-class New Yorkers in HBO's Girls will be inevitable, but the similarly tailored Frances ups that show's game with whip-smart banter and a personality all Gerwig's own.

3. Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)

Mark Boal's screenplay is an astounding achievement of journalism on screen. Structured to maximize the intensity in a mundane affair, Boal builds momentum toward the final climax but allows the film to breathe. It's a comprehensive text, as a character study and a propulsive action film.

2. Miguel Gomes (Tabu)

In lesser hands, the major tonal shift would create an imbalance between the comic absurdity of the first half and the swoony romanticism of the second, but Gomes makes them work beautifully in tandem. Its richness is in the simplicity.

1. Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

Erudite and exhaustively researched, the respected playwright's new cinematic work is an engaging and layered work; one that portrays Lincoln as an accessible everyman while maintaining his larger than life character, an antihero clothed in immense power.

Motifs in Cinema: The Dichotomy Between Fantasy And Reality

"Motifs in Cinema is a discourse across several film blogs, assessing the way in which various thematic elements have been used in the 2012 cinematic landscape. How does a common theme vary in use from a comedy to a drama? Are filmmakers working from a similar canvas when they assess the issue of death or the dynamics of revenge? Like most things, a film begins with an idea - Motifs in Cinema assesses how the use of a common theme across various films changes when utilized by different artists." 

- Andrew K.

Andrew has a knack for providing us with great motifs to explore for this series, but for the second year running, nothing piqued my interest as much as the dichotomy between fantasy and reality. At the risk of coming off as incredibly conceited, let me quote myself from last year's article to illustrate why I remain so interested in this topic: "Fantasy, in the strictest sense of the word, is inseparable from the cinema. What are fictional films if not the fantasy of those who imagine them, write them and act them? What is fantasy if not the imaginary world we immerse ourselves in for a few hours in the dark?"

All cinema can essentially be boiled down to that word: fantasy. It's all unreal and imagined. Take a film like Argo, for example, that tells the true story of a landmark political event, and yet, remains so infused with the glorification of the proceedings that it becomes difficult to suspend disbelief when the Iranian forces are chasing the airplane on the airport tarmac. On the other end of the spectrum is Holy Motors, so unhinged from reality that all presumptions about the real world are destabilized and fantasy becomes the default mode of thought. Monsieur Oscar permanently lives in purgatory between fantasy and an alternate reality.

Magicians: 2012's Best in Crafts

In my review of the year's best in acting I mentioned how difficult it was to narrow the performances down to a list of 20. In a foolish attempt to put myself through even more struggle, I've decided to limit my choices in the crafts categories to just ten. Most people seem to think that the below-the-line elements are apples and oranges. How can one compare the work of the sound engineer who mixed the final tape of Les Misérables with the costume designer who designed the hats in Moonrise Kingdom? Where is the common ground between the artistry of Alexandre Desplat and the wizardry of the team who worked tirelessly to create Richard Parker?

The reality is that the work they do shares little but their purpose is the same. They all want the film to succeed. For me, the quality of crafts work in a film comes down to the answer to one question: how does it serve the whole picture? The below-the-line elements have to be at the film's service. They should all gel. They should enhance each other and the performances. And often times, it's a sign of their strength if they don't call attention to themselves individually. With that in mind, I decided to group them all together here and try to judge them on that basis. Naturally, a list this short doesn't allow me to include everything I like. The sound design and music in Tabu, the cinematography in Amour, the sound design and cinematography in Killing Them Softly, the editing in Zero Dark Thirty, the sound work in Looper, and the musical score in Beasts of the Southern Wild were the biggest among the exclusions. In the end, here are the ten I simply could not do without:

10. Production Design and Costume Design in Moonrise Kingdom

Filled to the brim with memorable individual frames, but also coherent as a fully realized universe of its own and a visualization of the youthful energy of the film's leads, the design team bring to the screen Wes Anderson's unique vision with remarkable artistry and colorful pizzazz.

9. Production Design in Beasts of the Southern Wild

The bayou-set world of Beasts is so integral to the narrative that it becomes difficult to distinguish the design as a separate entity a few minutes into the film, but that's the greatest triumph of the designers. The low-key, knots-and-bolts quality of the production enhances the authenticity of The Bathtub.

8. Production Design and Costume Design in Anna Karenina

The costumes and settings in Joe Wright's visionary adaptation not only evoke mood and emotions, but very often they become the storyteller. That Wright manages to conceal the financial limitations of his film with such creative energy is in large part thanks to the contributions of his design team.

7. Cinematography in Skyfall

Roger Deakins relishes the opportunity to flex his muscles in several showy sequences - the neon-lit tower in Shanghai, the lantern-clad casino - but his true mastery of lighting and his painterly instincts are also evident in Skyfall's more understated moments.

6. Musical Score in The Master

Building on the same platform that shaped his indelible score for There Will Be Blood, Jonny Greenwood's string arrangements are appropriately dissonant. The compositions are fragile and haunting, like a window into Freddie's soul.

Highlights: 2012's Best Sex Scene...

... is Carloto Cotta and Ana Moreira's passionate affair in Tabu.

Generally speaking, a pregnant woman having torrid sex with a man who's not the father of her child is no one's idea of ideal lovemaking. Then again, alligators aren't anyone's idea of nature's poetry either but Tabu has a magical way of conversion. Miguel Gomes can paint romantic pictures on an unalluring palette and this sequence exhibits his panache more than any other. The story of the forbidden romance between these two lovers reaches its climax here: an unforgettable moment of sheer passion heightened by Gomes's penchant for poetic visual simplicity.


All 'Best of 2012' Entries...

Recent Screening Update

Killing Them Softly (dir. Dominik)
Lacking the poignancy of Dominik's last film, but just as beautifully stylized; lacking the subtlety of that film, too, but compensating with bitter comedy, and an absolutely killer last line. (B+)

Bernie (dir. Linklater)
You wouldn’t know, spending time with these plastic characters, that Bernie is based on a true story. Black tries his best but he can’t wipe the faux sheen from the film's face. (C)

Tabu (dir. Miguel Gomes) (thoughs)
Pure magic incarnate and far and away the best film of 2012. Tabu's enchanting love story and subtle study of post-colonialist aggression puts the audience in a delirious state that's hard to shake off. (A)

Amour (dir. Haneke)
It creeps up on its audience as slowly as death itself. A heartbreaking, disturbingly frank portrayal of everlasting love in the final days of life. (A)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (dir. Jackson)
A thin children's tale stretched over three unbearably bloated and hideous hours. Repetitive and aimless plotting only strengthens the feeling that Jackson's decision to extend the films to a trilogy is motivated by $$. (C-)

Silver Linings Playbook (dir. Russell) (thoughts)
Glaringly flawed, but directed with verve and acted with passion. Russell oversimplifies mental disorder to quirkiness, but exhibits even greater prowess at touching the heart than he did with The Fighter. (A-)

Anna Karenina (dir. Wright)
Enhanced by Wright's vision and the need to creatively overcome financial restrictions, Anna Karenina is vivid, original, luminous and with the exception of Vronsky, superbly performed. Marianelli's score is the best show. (B+)

Magic of Cinema in Tabu

Of all the films I've seen this year, Tabu is the only one I'm willing to throw the coveted M word at. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also the hardest one to write about. I tried at first, but then gave up, even though I'm brimming with thoughts and emotions on this unique, exemplary piece of filmmaking. And in a rare case - in fact, if my memory assists, the only case I can recall - I have had no desire to read anyone else's thoughts on the film either. Not because it isn't worth the time or effort. Au contraire, it's occupied my mind completely since I watched it, its images etched in my memory and its words sweetly whispering in my ears like music. But this is a joyous feeling that I quite like to keep undisturbed from critical scrutiny.

Tabu is separated into two episodes, completely different in tone and narrative form. The first - a look at a curious relationship between the elderly and wealthy Aurora, her African maid, Santa, and their well-meaning neighbor, Pilar - is formally challenging and thematically absurd. The second - a look at a younger Aurora through the memories of an old lover - is poetically narrated and dreamily shot. Between a story of romance and a critique of White colonialism in Africa, between Lisbon and the hills of African mountains, between sequences of sparse, surrealist storytelling and passages of continuously narrated reveals, director Miguel Gomes finds the perfect sweet spot: enough of everything to give the story depth, but not too much of anything to complicate the darkly comic love story.

Scene after semi-silent scene, shot after resplendent shot, Tabu exhibits more and more of everything I love about cinema as it confidently experiments with the fundaments of the medium. But the startling camera work that signifies so much about each character with the games it plays with light and focus, the effective shift to 16 mm in the second episode of the film, the sonic structure that utilizes ambient noise to perfection, and the beautiful performances that blend so well into the atmosphere should all be experienced first hand. It's a niche item, surely, and one that audiences might find puzzling especially during the first episode; but surrender yourself to it and you'll be lost in an enchanting world of longing and passion, with no easy way out.