Quarter for your thoughts: The best movies of the year
RALPH (voice of John C. Reilly, center) among other video game bad guys at a support group "Bad-Anon," in "Wreck-It Ralph." Ph: Disney
Jared Gilman is shown in a scene from "Moonrise Kingdom." (AP Photo/Focus Features, Niko Tavernis, File)
Writer/actress Brit Marling as "Maggie" on the set of SOUND OF MY VOICE. Ph: Fox Searchlight
Pat (BRADLEY COOPER) in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. Ph: Jojo Whilden/The Weinstein Company
It was 19th-century wordsmith John Greenleaf Whittier who wrote that “of all the sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, Michael Bay is making another ‘Transformers’ movie?! What’s that all about?”
It was probably only poetic license, since everyone knows that making another “Transformers” movie (coming in 2014), or another any kind of name-brand movie, is about money in the bank. Disney didn’t plunk down $4 billion to purchase Lucasfilm — signed, sealed and delivered on Dec. 21 — just to get occasional royalty checks from Volkswagen and Lego.
On the other hand, even when art is commerce, it can still entertain, inform, uplift and more. And since you have to fork over some cabbage almost every time you see a movie, whether it’s full ticket price-plus-popcorn or $1.25 per one-night stand from Redbox, there’s immediate and personal investment (so to speak) in every transaction.
Hollywood rebounded a bit in 2012 from years of diminishing returns at the box-office, selling nearly $11 billion worth of tickets. So did moviegoers get greater satisfaction from spending more money than ever before to purchase movie tickets?
I can’t answer that question, but I do know that some of the year’s movies delivered much more bang for the buck than others did. It’s the same price every time you swipe your credit card at the ticket kiosk, but sometimes you’re walking on air when you pass back through the lobby and other times your feet couldn’t be more nailed to the floor.
As 2012 winds to its non-apocalyptic conclusion, the Daily Herald looks back at the movies that lifted our spirits — even while lightening our wallets — the ones that plunged us to the bottom of a cinematic fiscal cliff, and everything else in between.
THE 10 BEST FILMS OF 2012
1. “Wreck-It Ralph” Even the ancient Mayans wouldn’t have dared to predict this — video games have (generally) been a deuce in the punch bowl of cinematic culture since forever. Disney’s delightful and epic arcade adventure obliterates the stereotype with wit, warmth and wisdom, plus a cast of animated characters for the ages. (PG)
2. “Lincoln” Riddle me this, riddle me that: Who’s afraid of the stovepipe hat? That would be Abraham Lincoln’s distinctive lid, and as Steven Spieberg’s engaging, engrossing and enlightening historical drama makes clear, the 16th president needed help from every corner to secure congressional approval of the 13th amendment. (PG-13)
3. “Sound of My Voice” There’s no place like greater Los Angeles for a rabbit hole (or is it a serpent’s nest?) of true believers. The spirit of “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits” is alive and well in this brilliantly minimalist film about a shadowy messiah figure and the documentary filmmakers bent on exposing her. (R)
4. “Anna Karenina” Keira Knightley is the outcast Russian contessa who buys a ticket for a runaway train. (Remember how in the song by Soul Asylum, the train thing is “just easier than dealing with the pain”? That’s plain eerie.) Director Joe Wright’s approach is visually extravagant, conceptually daring and narratively magnetic. (R)
5. “Argo” A “Gigli” guy no longer, Ben Affleck continues his metamorphosis from B-list beefcake to first-rate filmmaker with this gripping retelling of a little-remembered side story from the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Uncle Sam gets more credit here than is strictly warranted, but a brilliant combination of thrills and humor masks the historical fudges. (R)
6. “Silver Linings Playbook” There are two (almost) equally important love stories in this superb and offbeat romantic comedy. One unfolds between a substitute high school teacher distraught over the breakup of his marriage and a vulnerable young widow. But what about the bond between the teacher’s die-hard sports fan dad and his beloved Philadelphia Eagles? Now that’s amore. (R)
7. “Moonrise Kingdom” Speaking of passion, society and Michael Bolton have widely known rules for when a man loves a woman, but what do you do when you and the love of your life are barely old enough for junior high school? A good Khaki Scout (Boy Scout) is prepared in filmmaker Wes Anderson’s tender and funny tale of young romance. (PG-13)
8. “Life of Pi” Eenie, meenie, miney, moe: Life hangs by a thread for a God- and gods-fearing teen from India after he catches a Bengal tiger by the toe, so to speak. Boy and beast must survive together while sharing a lifeboat for more than 10 months in director Ang Lee’s moving, transportingly gorgeous adaptation of the best-selling novel. (PG)
9. “Zero Dark Thirty” The hunt for Osama bin Laden is on in this intensely gripping CIA procedural from writer Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow. Three years after the draining realism of “The Hurt Locker,” Boal forged a new, equally harrowing tale out of his own firsthand research and interviews. (R)
10. “Redemption” Tom Russell’s deeply moral Western tells a Mormon historical story without any avowal (or even acknowledgement) of Mormonism, but needs no apologies for its exceptional craftsmanship, rock-solid storytelling and gentle, moving performances. (PG)
OTHER OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE YEAR IN MOVIES
Name that line (1): “I’m drawing a line in the (frickin’) sand here, do not read the Latin!”
Duelin’ poison apples: Because sometimes everybody has the same good idea at the same time, blockbuster movies about the same character or similar events occasionally show up in theaters almost on top of each other.
We’ve been there in the past with volcanic eruptions, Wyatt Earp, and asteroids endangering Earth, to name just a few examples. In 2012, “Mirror Mirror” brought Snow White and the seven dwarfs to theaters just a few months before “Snow White and the Huntsman,” er, did the same.
“Snow White and the Huntsman” rather decisively won the battle of the box office, but “Mirror Mirror” has a better love story and a more entertaining wicked queen. So there.
Name that line (2): “An impure love is not love to me. To admire another man’s wife is a pleasant thing, but sexual desire indulged for its own sake is greed. A kind of gluttony, and a misuse of something sacred, which is given to us so that we may choose the one person with whom to fulfill our humanness. Otherwise we might as well be cattle.”
Saints and Soldiering on: After the anomalous theatrical durability of “17 Miracles” in 2011, it was back to the near-flatline norm for Mormon cinema this year. “Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed” tried to cross the box-office battle lines by ditching the Mormon-ness of its predecessor, but didn’t sell many tickets even in Utah.
Locally-made comedies “Unicorn City” (a tabletop gaming lark) and “Unitards” (boys do drill team) eschewed religious content altogether, but still couldn’t crack the theatrical release code at more than a handful of local theaters.
The best effort was put forth by “Redemption” (as noted above), though LDS Film Festival founder Christian Vuissa made a strong contribution with “Silent Night,” a lovely and stirring feature film (released on BYUtv before going to DVD) about the origin of the beloved Christmas hymn.
Name that line (3): “Uh, raise the mizzenmast. Ship the topsails. That man is playing ‘Galaga.’ Thought we wouldn’t notice. But we did.”
Super is as super does: It was a very good year for Men in Tights, so to speak, with movies about costumed superheroes occupying the No. 1, 2 and 6 spots on the final tally of the year’s top-grossing films.
“Marvel’s The Avengers” blew everything else away with a mighty $623 million haul (including a $207 million opening weekend), while director Christopher Nolan bid a fond farewell to Batman with $448 million for “The Dark Knight Rises.” Marvel reboot “The Amazing Spider-Man” was the (comparatively) weak sister with just $262 million.
Meanwhile, “The Hunger Games” signaled itself the clear heir apparent to the “bookbuster” legacy of the “Twilight” films by outgrossing the vampire series’ final entry, “Breaking Dawn, Part 2,” $408 million to $283 million.
Name that line (4): “They’ll approve it. God will see to it.” “I don’t envy him his task. I wish he’d chosen an instrument for his purpose more wieldy than the House of Representatives.”
Is this a paparazzi which I see before me?: Edward and Bella may love each other forever, but romancing co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart struggled to make it just to the end of 2012. The real-life lovebirds had been romantically linked since meeting on the set of “Twilight” in 2008, but the first public confirmation of an actual relationship came out of Stewart’s mouth in July.
The only problem with that is that “K-Stew” was driven to profess her deathless devotion to “R-Patz” after celebrity-chasing photographers snapped shots of the Once and Future Bella playing kiss-n-cuddle with her married “Snow White and the Huntsman” director, Rupert Sanders. Oops.
The kissing co-stars purportedly patched things up — just in time to publicize the release of “Breaking Dawn, Part 2” — but don’t be surprised if 2013 finds them leading (sing it, Phil Collins!) separate lives.
Name that line (5): “I don’t want to get married. I want to stay single and let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen firing arrows into the sunset.”
”Unchained” Melody: It’s hard to imagine a better performance of any song in any 2012 movie than Anne Hathaway’s wrenching rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables.” Hathaway’s despondent reading of the Broadway classic is a showstopper for the ages.
The most distinctive movie soundtrack of the year, however, is the one-of-a-kind compilation pulled together for Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.” With original songs by the likes of John Legend and Rick Ross, selections from the library of legendary film composer Ennio Morricone, and an all-new rendition by Rocky Roberts of “Django” — the title song from the Tarantino film’s 1966 forerunner — the newfangled spaghetti Western has a sound as original as its screenplay.
Name that line (6): “You need somebody who’s a somebody to put their name on it. Somebody respectable. With credits. Who you can trust with classified information. Who will produce a fake movie. For free.”
C for effort: As with most other things, you have to be in the right place, at the right time, to succeed in showbiz. At the beginning of the year, Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins on “Friday Nights Lights”) seemed poised to explode as the front-and-center star of industrial-strength blockbusters “John Carter” and “Battleship,” with a strong, co-lead presence in the Oliver Stone marijuana trafficking thriller “Savages” to boot.
Twelve months later, Kitsch is probably still most easily identified as the guy who played … Tim Riggins on “Friday Night Lights.” Better luck next time, Timmy Texas. At least we’ll always have the Dillon Panthers.
Among Kitsch’s busy beaver peers with greater fortune were Chris Hemsworth (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Cabin in the Woods,” “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Red Dawn”), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“The Dark Knight Rises,” “Lincoln,” “Looper,” “Premium Rush”) and especially Channing Tatum (“21 Jump Street,” “Magic Mike,” “The Vow,” “Haywire,” “10 Years”).
Name that line (7): “What’s goin’ on in this candy-coated heart of darkness?”
Bigger, longer and uncut: In addition to the hot new trend of taking what would have been one movie 10 or 12 years ago and spreading it out across two or more installments, filmmakers are testing the gluteal fortitude (sitting power, yo) of moviegoers … and reaping the rewards. Five of the six highest-grossing films of the year run at least 15 minutes longer than two hours. (The outlier: “Breaking Dawn, Part 2” at 1 hr., 56 min.)
The trend got super-sized in December, which brought strong debuts — with plenty of tickets still to be sold — for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (2 hrs., 46 min.), “Les Miserables” (2 hrs., 40 min.) and “Django Unchained” (3 hrs.). What’s next? A four-hour summer blockbuster with a 15-minute intermission? (Wait … did Michael Bay just hear that?)
Name that line (8): “Every now and then a trigger has to be pulled. Or not pulled. It’s hard to know which in your pajamas.”
Total domestic gross: The United States and Canada are almost certain to remain the world’s biggest market for theatrical consumption of Hollywood movies in the foreseeable future, but the times, they are a-changing. Two of the more high-priced blockbusters to “bomb” in North America this year, “John Carter” and “Battleship” both topped $200 million in overseas ticket sales.
And while “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” — once presumed by prognosticators as a sure-thing bet to become the highest-grossing film of the year — is in no shape to catch “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” or even “The Hunger Games,” Middle-earth is still a gold mine. Peter Jackson’s new ring thing didn’t even need two full weeks of international release to whip up $344 million worth of tickets sold, and counting.
Name that line (9): “I’m gonna change my answer, in fact. This is my real job: Scoutmaster, Troop 55. Math teacher on the side.”
But what does Tom Cruise think?: The Church of Scientology has an interesting connection to Hollywood that occasionally spills over into actual movies. The Steve Martin showbiz comedy “Bowfinger,” for example, rather mercilessly mocked one character’s involvement with a Scientology-like group called MindHead.
It’s easy to poke fun, but it turns out that Scientology can also be fodder for interesting drama. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” doesn’t address L. Ron Hubbard and his religious legacy directly, but the film’s Hubbard-esque central figure, brilliantly and charismatically portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, will remind just about anyone what Shakespeare said about “that which we call a rose.”
Name that line (10): “You know, I used to think that you were the best thing that ever happened to me. Now I think you might maybe be the worst thing. And I’m sorry that I ever met you.” “Good for you. Come on, let’s dance.”
Rock beats scissors, but not soccer: There’s widespread agreement that the Adam Sandler marriage “comedy” “That’s My Boy” is the worst film of 2012 (or at least one of its worst films). I managed not to see it, however — them’s the breaks — so for me the call is between the family adventure misfire “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” and Gerard Butler’s detestable romantic comedy “Playing for Keeps.”
Only, I actually sort of adore the moment in “Journey 2” where The Rock plays the ukulele and sings “What a Wonderful World.” “Playing for Keeps,” on the other hand, is just an aggressively unfunny mess that thinks we want to see a movie about cute kids playing soccer while their ladies man coach gets shag-attacked by his players’ randy moms behind the scenes.
I’m still a little dizzied by the magnitude of that miscalculation, so congratulations, “Playing for Keeps,” you’re the worst movie I saw in 2012. Chin up, Mr. The Rock: With both “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and the sixth “Fast and the Furious” movie on the way, you’ve already got a leg up on the competition in 2013.
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Name that line: 1) “The Cabin in the Woods,” 2) “Anna Karenina,” 3) “The Avengers,” 4) “Lincoln,” 5) “Brave,” 6) “Argo,” 7) “Wreck-It Ralph,” 8) “Skyfall,” 9) “Moonrise Kingdom,” 10) “Silver Linings Playbook”
