#30 The Grey (2012) Dir. Joe Carnahan

The first great film of 2012 is here. This isn’t just another “The World vs. Liam Neeson” movie despite what the wolf-punching trailers would have you believe, it’s an amazing survival movie that never, stops, fucking, moving. Edge of your seat entertainment at it’s finest and it contains Liam Neeson’s best performance since Schindler’s List. This is the same Joe Carnahan that made Narc, not the silly A-Team incarnation. It’s the work of a filmmaker with something to prove, to prove he can still excite, thrill, chill and entertain the crowd on a big scale. All the cliche genre scenes are there but they are handled with such surprising honesty and refreshing restraint. Carnahan never goes for the cheap tricks to get your emotion, the music doesn’t well up as a character dies and slow motion is saved until the final scene. It has a really gritty, grainy desaturated visual style and it looks like nothing else out in the cinemas right now. This could have been very silly, but it’s likely to be one of the most surprising movies of the year. It’s not often January gives us a film this good. If this is the example 2012 has set itself, it’s going to one hell of a year. 

#29 Shame (2011) Dir. Steve McQueen

This is the kind of movie that comes along all too rarely. As much as I adored McQueen’s Hunger (it was my favourite movie of 2008) I’ve tried to stay clear of the buzz surrounding Shame because that’s how I experienced Hunger and I think a lot of that went into why that film knocked me on my ass so hard. Fassbender wasn’t a household name, McQueen was completely new to me and with that came a real sense of discovery and wonder. I’ve been excited for Shame but not desperate for it. The less I know the less chance there is of disappointment. It’s been out here in the UK for about two weeks now but I’ve put off watching it until the screenings died down. Anyway I took the plunge a few hours ago and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen for a second. I hate writing shit like that, especially about this kind of movie because that’s what everyone is saying but it deserves it.

McQueen has a style that’s completely cinematic, his stories are visual but rely so heavily on sound. He can create an intensely realistic atmosphere in seconds. Shame creates a world of it’s own, a world of nightlife New York but one seen purely through the eyes of an artist. This film isn’t better than Hunger but it’s an equal and a perfect companion piece. I expected something extreme from Shame, something shocking and taboo like the subject but it’s far from that. I remember is stirring up some controversy a few months back because of explicit content but fuck, are people scared to see some tits and a cock these days? The fact I went in expecting some shocking sex movie just shows how harmful that kind of stupid hooplah can be to movies. This is about as tasteful and as classy as movies come. You could put this thing in an exhibition. It’s visceral and it makes you feel, makes you think, it really fucking sucks you in from frame one.

I’m a fan of both Fassbender and Mulligan but it’s these two performances that they have both being building towards. They both deliver their finest work to date, without a doubt. I see people bitching a moaning that Ryan Gosling didn’t get an Oscar nomination for Drive, and yeah I adore Drive and Gosling is great but that aint an Oscar-worthy performance. All the dude had to do was clench his teeth, look cool and bulge his eyes every now and again (I’m not saying thats easy, but for someone like Gosling, Drive wasn’t exactly a daring and intense challenge to his acting skills, did people moan about Arnie not getting a nomination for Terminator? No. Same thing) People should really be screaming to the hills that Fassbender hasn’t been nominated. I take the Academy with a pinch of salt most of the time but in this instance it’s something I really think they’ve fucked up with. It’s pretty disgusting. He’s incredible in this movie. He owns the role and it’s hard to watch him perform it. It’s such a daring piece of work in that sense and he fearlessly takes it to the brink. 

I loved Shame. Through and through. It simultaneously reminds you of the power of a still image as well as the exhilaration of a moving one, McQueen executes them both with a painters eye who’s primary paint is celluloid. He knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing in every scene. It’s only his second film but he has made his second masterpiece. Going overboard with the praise? Don’t care. This one really deserves it.

thesuperserious:

Paul Thomas Anderson By Patrick Hoelck

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#28 Lucky Number Slevin (2006) Dir. Paul McGuigan

This movie seems to have become a bit of a cult classic during the past few years and it’s easy to see why. It’s an enjoyable and violent little caper that plays like a pulpy B-Movie with an A-list cast but while the dialogue is sharp and witty (Hartnett and Lucy Liu bonding over Bond movies is an especially nice moment) for the most part it just seems a bit too clever for it’s own good. The twists aren’t as brilliant as they think they are and it reminded me a lot more of a Guy Ritchie film rather than Tarantino. It has a lot in common with Ritchie’s Revolver but succeeds in all the ways that that movie failed. Fun and never boring but not the masterpiece some claim it to be. Very well directed though!

The reason I haven’t watched that many new films lately: I’ve watched The Descendants three times.

Trailer for SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS: An LCD Soundsystem movie.

I remember watching this as it streamed live and still have the whole 3 and a half hour bootleg on my iPod. This is going to be great, and sad, but mainly great.

#27 Troll Hunter (2010) Dir. André Øvredal

This movie has a tasty concept and I see why they went down the found-footage route but I think it would have been much better if they shot it conventionally. There’s so many opportunities missed with this idea and it just feels very hollow and plain. A lot of great shit goes down in Troll Hunter but I felt I was just watching it all from a distance (quite literally, handheld style) and I wanted more. It’s a shame. I know America are planning on remaking this and they could actually do a better job of it (did I really just say that?) if they alter the approach by making the characters and set-up jucier. There’s definite potential for a franchise here, and a really good franchise at that, they just need to rethink their strategy.

#26 Full Frontal (2002) Dir. Steven Soderbergh

For every Traffic or Ocean’s Eleven in Soderbergh’s filmography there’s a Limey or Bubble. He can crank out the mainstream hits (and crank them out well) but it’s almost like he can’t do them without making the smaller, more experimental movies at the same time. The tagline “everybody needs a release” is perfect because I imagine it’s these movies that act as Soderbergh’s release. Full Frontal is about as experimental as they come, featuring narrative hula-hoops, varying film formats, seemingly random scenes and characters who show up for the sake of being characters. But there’s a sly sense of humour to the whole thing that makes it fun to sit through. The impressive cast seem to be having a whale of a time in Camp Soderbergh, clearly enjoying the looseness and creativity that comes with no trailers and almost non-existent paychecks. People like Brad Pitt and David Fincher (!!!) crop up as themselves for no apparent reason other than having a laugh with their A-list pals. It is an odd and confrontational movie that plays like Soderbergh writing an angry letter to all the Hollywood big-wigs who piss him off, but not really in a bad way. It’s not a movie made in anger or revenge but a casual and cheeky fuck you to the mainstream. It’s definitely not the type of Soderbergh I’m likely to watch over and over again, but it’s one I’m likely to talk about for a while.

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