Movies, 2012

One of the resolutions I made at the beginning of 2012 was that I would document every single film I watched. I actually stuck to this resolution.

Here are ten of the best I saw this year:

Lawrence of Arabia, 1962

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Are you fucking kidding me? I spent my entire life avoiding this film, thinking it would be a big, bloated mess, only good for background noise during your post-Christmas dinner nap. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was mesmerized by this film.

Silver Linings Playbook, 2012

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If you’d have told me that David O. Russell would give us us one of sweetest, most tender depictions of depression and mental illness I can remember seeing, I would have called you a fucking jackass. But that’s exactly what he did.

The Master, 2012

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I’m still not sure exactly what I saw or what it’s saying, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I saw it.

Moonrise Kingdom, 2012

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My favourite Wes Anderson film since Rushmore.

Magic Mike, 2012

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Balls to the haters, this was fun. When I went to see it, I was one of only three men in a crowded screening. That was one of the most hilarious cinema experiences I’ve ever had and I thank Magic Mike for giving me that.

Dredd, 2012 / The Raid, 2011

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This is my blog and I’ll lump these two in together if I want to. They had similar setups, but as action films go, they both did great jobs of scratching totally different itches. And they were the two best action movies I saw all year.

The Cabin in the Woods, 2011

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Why do they even have that button?

50/50, 2011

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A great little film that could have been lost underneath the egos of the actors involved. Fortunately, it wasn’t.

Argo, 2012

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Even if the film wasn’t any good (it was), this would be on here for Ben Affleck’s beard alone.

Indie Game: The Movie, 2012

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A lot of documentaries this year didn’t seem to have anything to say and were content to just be a collection of unconnected vignettes (Queen of Versailles, for example, has no through-line, the makers just happened to be in the right place at the right time). Indie Game: The Movie did a great job of shining a light on the vast wealth of human emotions that go into something as apparently frivolous as an independent video game.