Best Movies of 2012 by Jim Crose

Posted on by Eric

Here’s another “Best of 2012” list that is a part of the Great Movie Challenge of 2012.  For all of the “Best of” lists, please see the post: All the Best Movies of 2012 Lists.

Woah, Cloud Atlas at #1?  And a dissertation on Magic Mike?  This IS an interesting list. Thanks Jim!  -Eric

Best Movies of 2012
by Jim Crose
@BearDrivingCar 

1. Cloud Atlas – One of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Editing was ridiculous, acting good. I felt the time switching was done perfectly. Anyone having trouble following wasn’t paying attention.

2. Les Miserable – Holy Shitballs. It’s overdone, melodramatic, over-the-top. There are many many legitimate criticisms, but my theatrical experience was amazing. More than once it broke me down into little bitty pieces and as a film going experience – cathartic and beautiful.

3. Magic Mike – I think this may be Soderbergh’s most naturalistic mainstream film. He forgoes the formalist framing of his more arty pieces as well as the self-conscious stylization of hits like Oceans 11 and Traffic. The flowing but seemingly unrehearsed framing made for an easy loose feel without overtly drawing attention to the camera itself. He cared more about the performances then occasional lens flare or washed out shots that others might spend hours trying to eliminate, possibly hurting the performances. The story was not what I expected – I figured we would see Magic Mike as a semi-successful stripper with a dream who goes through some trials and then ends up making his dreams come true. Instead we see a man who’s been working himself to death, supposedly to save up for his big business dream, but keeps getting shut down and never seems to get any closer. He trusts his mentor and club owner (McCaunaghy in a role that to me felt like Wooderson from Dazed and Confused moved to Tampa and opened a strip club) and gets burned for it. He takes a new lost kid under his wing, trying to lift him up and make him a success, and gets screwed for it. He tries to turn a casual hookup relationship into something more – and misses that as well. Structurally we start out traditionally, but later learn that the story we thought we started on isn’t the one we’re watching. What starts our as Buddy Love with Mike and the New Kid turns into a man realizing he’s been treading water for half his adult life and realizing the only way to move out of that rut is by completely cutting bait and taking a new, unknown direction.

I thought it was particularly interesting that a potentially movie shifting subplot involving some missing drugs and money was dealt with extremely quickly – because that wasn’t Mike’s story. A lesser movie would have made that the big third act action / salvation plot. Instead, we barely got a third act at all. After All is Lost, Mike basically realizes that he can’t possibly achieve success using his existing life plan and tries something else – which we never see because the movie ends at that decision point. It was risky, and people in the audience seemed surprised and upset at the ending, but I think they enjoyed the very well done dancing and eye candy enough to not be too disappointed. I was a little surprised that none of the strippers were openly gay, as my understanding is that many in that industry are. It was a deeply heterosexual film – it just showcased the extremely well built male form instead of the usual half-naked females. Although he did toss in some Olivia Munn boobs, for which I am grateful.

4. Looper – I can’t remember the last time I had less of an idea what was going to happen next throughout the film. I knew it was going to be good, and it surpassed that.

5. Argo – Great adult drama. Please make more.

6. Avengers – Best super hero movie ever. Best action movie I’ve seen in years. The Aircraft carrier was silly, and the set piece surrounding it defied logic, but it was still a hell of a movie. Black Widow stole the fucking movie. There was an absolutely genius beat in the final battle where the camera flows to each team members across a war-torn NY that I want to watch over and over.

7. Hunger Games – I’ve read the books and it was still way better than expected. I liked the way they used the omniscient POV to further explain the games and other events going on – stuff that was in Katniss’ head in the book. Extremely powerful without hitting you over the head with it. All actors, especially Lawrence, were great.

8. Moonrise Kingdom – Holy shit, I almost OD’d on Wes Anderson, but it was pretty fucking amazing. For something stylized within in inch of its life it was crazy good.

9. 21 Jump Street – Absolutely hilarious. Structurally it was impeccable. They did an enormous amount of work in the first ten minutes that set the stage for the entire rest of the film. Many setups and payoffs. Tatum and Hill had terrific chemistry. Extremely clever dialogue. Almost fell over laughing when they actually called out “And that’s the end of Act II.”

10. Project X – Best Found Footage movie I’ve even seen. I can’t defend it from any serious film criticism standpoint, but goddamn I enjoyed watching it.

11. Premium Rush – Way better than I expected. It was nice to see a film obviously shot on site. The courier world is one I don’t think I’ve ever seen. The plot moved nicely, the time floating ended up working well and this movie deserves way more interest than it received.

12. Safety not guaranteed – Cute story well told. Aubrey was adorable.

13. Bachelorette – Leads did a good job. It felt very close to the spec I read. Enjoyed it. Raunchy and funny.

14. Chronicle – I fucking loved it. I totally bought into the arc of the villain. The hoops necessary for the found footage conceit did get a bit tedious, but overall I thought they did it well – and once they went with the remote controlled camera they war able to actually use nicely framed shots. Final sequence was badass.

15. Bernie – Awesome. Linklater’s semi-doc style worked perfectly. My only complaint was what seemed like a lack of Bernie in the third act.

16. For a Good Time…Call – Very funny. This movie should get much wider attention.

17. Pitch perfect – Super funny – love that kind of story. Entertaining as hell.

18. Anna Karenina – I loved the theatrical conceit and was impressed it didn’t get too precious or overwhelming. The story drug some, but the actors were good, the look was great and it did a great job distilling a huge novel into two hours.

19. Haywire – The 70’s style was fantastic, the main character was very good for a novice, and her action was terrific. Marketing was terrible – it’s not a Bourne movie, it’s a Steve McQueen film. Good slow pacing, jumping around in time worked, all the actors were good. Liked it big time.

20. MiBIII – Way better than I expected – and Brolin killed it as young Agent K. Nice sappy ending and fun set pieces. Going back in time gave a needed jolt to the universe.

21. Lockout – Despite the fact that it felt like an Escape From … movie, I liked it. It knew what it was, and it had fun.

22. Deadfall – Nice and tense – a good story. It was obvious that they would all end up together in the end, but the progress as they got there was very good. Good, not great.

23. The Grey – Very good movie that I’m unlikely to watch again. A wonderful meditation on life and death. Man v Nature. What do you live for? The man who chooses to sit and die by the river was the best scene in the film. Again, not good marketing.

24. Man on a Ledge – Liked it a lot. Not great, but straight forward, good momentum. No major twists but fun. But I’m a sucker for a heist film…

25. Snow White – I liked it, it was a good take on the story, but I felt like it was too slow. And that chick still can’t act.

26. Dredd – I’d heard it was better than I thought, and everyone was right. A good contained story set in that universe.

27. Bourne legacy – Well done but I’m just not sure we need more stories in that world.

28. This Means War – not bad by any means, just purely by the book. It was slick and fun and the acting was decent, and McG did one of his better jobs showing us the action and telling the story.

29. Joyful Noise – I suppose that it’s intended audience would like it a lot.

30. One for the Money – Eh, it was ok. Enjoyable but predictable – I had no real problems with it.

31. Wanderlust – OK, but I felt the obvious improvised stuff wasn’t that great and it was too loosely edited. Several minutes of Rudd in a mirror being not very funny? Lame.

32. Safe House – Boring.  I like both the leads and just didn’t give a shit at all for anyone during the story.

33. Skyfall – lots of silly plot holes. It looked beautiful but didn’t make much sense. Upon further thought, ranks in the lower end of enjoyable Bond movies just because it tried so hard to be modern but made no sense.

34. John Carter – It wasn’t just poor marketing – it was also a generic, decent looking fantasy epic. I like Taylor Kitsch from FNL, but he was too young and too subdued for this. Didn’t buy him. Actors were hard to tell apart, costumes were boring. And the worst of all – his “abilities.” Sure, Mars is like 2/5 Earth gravity, so he’s stronger and can jump and run better. But he jumped, swear to God, 100s of feet. And swung around man sized boulders like a whip. It just totally lost me. I’d give you fifty, but some looked like jumps of a thousand feet, or literally flying back and forth hopping off columns. Stupid

35. Total Recall – boring, future-generic dystopia. I almost fell asleep. Two super hot chicks in catsuits can’t save a generic dystopian setting and ludicrous plot.

36. Taken 2 – TERRIBLE. A complete hack job paycheck movie.

—

Thanks Jim!  I will avoid Taken 2 and if I ever get to Mars, will not expect to jump 1000 feet.. 🙂  -Eric

Best Films of 2012 by Carman Tse

Posted on by Eric

This is one of the “Best of 2012” lists that is a part of the Great Movie Challenge of 2012.  For all of the “Best of” lists, please see the post: All the Best Movies of 2012 Lists.

Carman and I go back years.  I have many fond memories of sitting around the  UCLA Radio station (where we both were DJs), arguing about music while eating Panda Express.  Seriously.  -Eric

The Best Films of 2012
by Carman Tse 

Big ups to Script Doctor Eric for holding this contest and personally inviting me to participate in it after I berated him last year for not having a single film in a foreign language on his Best of 2011 list.

Alas I won’t be listing everything I’ve seen here because I doubt the 37 films I saw that came out last year would be enough to win the contest anyways (not that I particularly care to win the contest), nor do I feel the need to share that I saw The Avengers like everyone else in the world or any particular thoughts I had on movies that hardly moved me. Instead, I’ll be sharing the ones that affected me the most with a few stray thoughts.

This list isn’t quite complete yet, as there are still a handful on my mental queue that need to be gotten to. Unfortunately, Eric’s deadline looms so I gotta get this over with. It should be final by the time the Oscars roll around. A few of these I saw in 2011 and in 2013, but I’m going by official US release date so don’t argue with me over that shit.

Directors are named in the brackets.

19. Holy Motors [Leos Carax]

Holy Motors probably doesn’t deserve to be on my list, but I’ll admit that it has an irresistible charm in between being absolutely aggravating. I just couldn’t do a Best of 2012 list without mentioning Kylie Minogue’s performance as a 21st century meta-update on Jean Seberg’s Patricia from Godard’s Breathless. Perhaps no other singular movie scene moved me as much as hers in 2012.

18. Django Unchained [Quentin Tarantino]

My favorite scene in this overlong movie comes quite early on when Dr. King Schultz tells Django the tale of Wagner’s Brünnhilde and Siegfriend by the campfire. As he gesticulates before the fire, his shadows are projected onto a bare rock face, thus providing the most obvious metaphor for cinema. That Django sits there, wide-eyed, taking in this violent hero’s tale pretty much sums up what Django Unchained is really all about.

17. Haywire [Steven Soderbergh]

Speaking of violence, what I appreciated most about the underappreciated Haywire is that it pretty much was a no-nonsense action movie that made absolutely no pretentions beyond just that. It’s a movie of performance, not one of actors but of Gina Carano’s neck-crushing thighs.

16. Silver Linings Playbook [David O. Russell]

While I can’t speak to how accurate its portrayal of diagnosed mental illnesses is, Silver Linings Playbook is probably the best film depiction of the mass hysteria that is sports fandom. Despite the rather conventional romantic comedy trappings it falls into, the film ends with a heavy dose of melancholy as a) you realize that, despite finding each other, these are two still severely damaged people and b) the 2008 Philadelphia Eagles that Robert de Niro’s character devoutly follows through the movie lose in the NFC Championship.

15. In Another Country [Hong Sang-soo]

Hong Sang-soo often gets criticized for making the same movie over and over again. And while it may be a fair assessment of his work, it completely misses the point as each of his films (and the vignettes within the films) act as a different take on the rhythms life and the interactions we go through on a daily basis with the people that surround us, like John Coltrane reinventing “My Favorite Things” through his career.

14. Declaration of War [Valérie Donzelli]

More often than you’d like Donzelli can’t get out of her own way (that slow-motion ending, sheesh, it’s not like this kid turned out to be Max Fischer), but from nearly the beginning I was all in on the ride. It’s mostly-Truffaut-with-some-Godard but without being pandering, not just in form and style but also in its (sometimes cursory) dabs in Greater Social Context. Narcissistic but not solipsistic, you can’t help but be won over by its sincerity.

13. The Turin Horse [Béla Tarr]

Perhaps the most complete vision of marrying the depiction of the events on the screen with the experience of watching the same film. Thank you for your service, Mr. Tarr.

12. Barbara [Christian Petzold]

Simple in its stakes and construction, but also perfectly understated and executed. Barbara is an elegant political thriller without the muck of politicking or morals.

11. Cosmopolis [David Cronenberg]

Cosmopolis is like an update on Godard’s Week End, except this time the rich is the one doing all the eating while the world falls apart for the rest of us.

10. Crazy Horse [Frederick Wiseman]

In a perfect world, Wim Wenders’ bloated 3-D mess of what could’ve been a nice tribute to Pina Bausch would’ve gone by the wayside and Wiseman’s tribute to the female form would be the dancing documentary that got all the praise. While Wenders can’t get out of his own way to tell of Bausch’s dedication to her craft, Wiseman’s unobtrusive (to the point of voyeuristic) camera lets the figures (in both sense of the word) do the storytelling of the world’s most famous erotic cabaret.

9. Moonrise Kingdom [Wes Anderson]

In Wes Anderson’s worlds, the adults act like children as an expression of the primal, almost infantile id that exists within each of us. In Moonrise Kingdom, he finally has children acting like adults, as an expression of the complexity that lies in the emotional and intellectual desires that are innate, even in pre-adolescence. Moonrise Kingdom might not be his finest, but it is certainly the perfect culmination of Wes Anderson’s career to date.

8. Bernie [Richard Linklater]

Despite the title and the magnetic charm of Jack Black’s performance of the titular character, ultimately Bernie is about the sense and warmth of community in Smalltown, America. An especially powerful message in the wake of the divisive political Red State/Blue State rhetoric that is so prevalent today.

7. ATTENBERG [Athina Rachel Tsangari]

The wonder of ATTENBERG is that despite its cold, clinical look at the ceremonies, motions, and activities that make up our natural life cycle (birth, sex, death), the innate humanity is impossible to be fully exhumed from them. Plus it has a badass Alan Vega soundtrack.

6. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [Nuri Bilge Ceylan]

I mean it’s basically a Malick movie set in the Turkish countryside. I’m all about that.

5. The Master [Paul Thomas Anderson]

Boy if you thought Les Misérables was full of awkward close-ups, you’ll get up close and personal with Joaquin Phoenix’s craggy face like you never thought you would in The Master. In 70mm glory too, if you were so lucky.

4. Zero Dark Thirty [Kathryn Bigelow]

So much has been made of this film that it has practically been dissected to death so I wanted to highlight a small moment that I thought captured it quite nicely. There is a moment where Jessica Chastain’s Maya is sitting at her desk and over her head on a shelf are plain white binders each labeled with some War on Terrorism buzzword, one of them is notably “UBL.” Those letters, frequently recited by every character in the film quite dutifully, serve as the Rosebud of Zero Dark Thirty. Whereas bin Laden himself was an individual, here is he conceptualized into a fragment, a spectre that haunts the characters of Zero Dark Thirty and a post-9/11 America. He is the ultimate goal of Maya, but is nothing more than that achievement, hovering over her until her mission is completed.

3. Tabu [Miguel Gomes]

The Artist was a nice in anachronistic film techniques that did nothing more than trivialize the past of cinema (weren’t silent films just so cute?). Here in Tabu, Gomes utilizes these techniques to create the most otherworldly cinematic experience of 2012 that both romanticizes and critiques our dangerous romance with the past.

2. The Day He Arrives [Hong Sang-soo]

Hong Sang-soo often gets criticized for making the same movie over and over again. And while it may be a fair assessment of his work, it completely misses the point as each of his films (and the vignettes within the films) act as a different take on the rhythms life and the interactions we go through on a daily basis with the people that surround us, like John Coltrane reinventing “My Favorite Things” through his career.

1. This Is Not a Film [Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb]

Igi the iguana for Best Actor.

—

There ARE films on there I haven’t seen.  Thanks Carman, will check those out!  🙂  -Eric

Best Movies of 2012 by Judy Lee

Posted on by Eric

This “Best of 2012” list is a part of the Great Movie Challenge of 2012.  For all of the lists, see All the Best Movies of 2012 Lists

Judy is a client who has used my screenwriting servies and is a filmmaker in China.  That’s right, China. -Eric


Best Movies of 2012
by Judy Lee

Top 10

1. Argo – A historical politic event mixed with thriller genre, compelling as it to the best.

2. Silver Linings Playbook – A bi-polar character doesn’t need medication, but crazier love. Plausible screenwriting with a novel perspective.

3. Zero Dark Thirty – Tribute to the female director as this film actually is feminism, apart from the torture issue. (Oscar best actress)

4. Life of Pi – A human survivor connects unexpectedly with a fearsome tiger survivor. An epic adventure.

5. Amour – Tedious ordinary aged couple life as neighbors you can see, but shocked and deepened by the powerful ending.

6. Les Miserables – “To love another person is to see the face of god”.

7. The Impossible – A family strength toward the tsunami. Perfect cast performance.

8. The Grey – Courage to surviving. The monotonous snow white turns into hopeless hazy grey.

9. People Like Us – Forgiveness to a deceased father, though the moral related with the extra-marriage affair is not acceptable by everyone. Chris Pine’s remarkable acting made him the Oscar award presenter.

10. Five Broken Camera – A documentary on a Palestinian farmer’s chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.

Don’t Miss or Overrated

11.Lincoln – Great historical story, but for the movie, mostly due to Daniel Day-Lewis’ excellent performance. (Oscar best actor)

12. Skyfall – First time feel emotional bond with the theme, a little sentimental about Bond’s boss change. Bond’s girls weakly functional though

13. Django Unchained – Okay it’s a Tarantino’s film, if you like him, you like it. If not, this is a mean film.

14. Hunger Games – Very entertaining.

15. Looper – Better than expected.

16. The Dark Knight Rises – Overrated.

17. The Land of Blood and Honey – Watchable.

18. Flight  – The main character’s flaw ‘drinking problem’ seems too common, not well rooted to make audience into him no matter how terrific Denzel Washington performed.

19. The Cabin in the Woods – An enjoyable horror film.

Could be Worse

20. The Lucky One  – A tsunami of syrup drama with gap plotting, but visually enjoyable.

21. This Means War – The main character’s emotion subsided due to ‘high concept’, but enjoyed the twists and turns. However the last turn in the ending is a surplus.

22. Cloud Atlas – The story’s spine is weak and vague as six lives’ circle spanned a thousand of years.

23. This Is 40 – The screenplay needs more twists to weave the couple’s conflicts.

24. LOL  – Ahigh school budding love is a cliché, nothing to do with internet style by the term ‘LOL’

25. Beasts of the Southern Wild – Need special understanding. Watch just for it’s an Oscar nominee.

—

Thanks for the list, Judy!  I learned a new phrase: “tsunami of syrup.”  Nice!  -Eric

Best Movies of 2012 by Zac Sanford

Posted on by Eric

This “Best Movies of 2012” is part of The Great Movie Challenge of 2012.  For all of the “Best of” lists, see All the “Best Movies of 2012” Lists 

Zac Sanford is VP of Development at Suntaur Entertainment, and known in the online screenwriting community as the co-founder of Scriptchat.  He also plays a mean game of Texas Hold’em.  Seriously.  -Eric

The Best Movies of 2012
by
Zac Sanford (@zacsanford)

 

Best
1. Holy Motors
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Amour
4. Bullhead
5. Argo
6. The Cabin in the Woods
7. Silver Linings Playbook
8. The Raid: Redemption
9. Life of Pi
10. Pitch Perfect
11. Compliance
12. Kill List

Good
13. Wreck-It-Ralph
14. Cloud Atlas
15. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
16. Ruby Sparks
17. Safety Not Guaranteed
18. Klown
19. Searching for Sugar Man
20. Sound of my Voice
21. Headhunters
22. The Sessions
23. Sleepwalk with Me
24. Sound of Noise
25. Turn Me on, Dammit!

Okay
21 Jump Street
The Ambassador
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Celeste and Jesse Forever
The Central Park Five
Chronicle
The Dark Knight Rises
Detention
End of Watch
Flight
Footnote
Frankenweenie
Goon
The Grey
The Impossible
In Darkness
The Innkeepers
Jack Reacher
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Juan of the Dead
Kumare
Last Days Here
Lincoln
Marley
Michael
Moonrise Kingdom
ParaNorman
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Pina 3D
Promised Land
The Queen of Versailles
A Royal Affair
Robot & Frank
Save the Date
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Seven Psychopaths
Side by Side
Silent House
Skyfall
Smashed
Teddy Bear
Undefeated
West of Memphis

Worst
1. That’s My Boy
2. The Woman in the Fifth
3. Red Tails
4. Keyhole
5. This Means War
6. Killer Joe
7. Men in Black 3
8. Gayby
9. Prometheus
10. The Comedy
11. Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
12. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Meh
Act of Valor
Albert Nobbs
Alps
The Amazing Spider-Man
American Reunion
ATM
The Avengers
The Babymakers
Battleship
Being Flynn
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Boy
Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
Butter
The Campaign
The Collection
Damsels in Distress
The Dictator
Django Unchained
The Do-Deca-Pentathalon
The Five-Year Engagement
For a Good Time, Call…
Fun Size
God Bless America
Grassroots
Haywire
Hit and Run
The Hunger Games
Hysteria
Jack and Diane
Lawless
Les Miserables
Lola Versus
The Magic of Belle Isle
The Master
Not Fade Away
The Oranges
Paranormal Activity 4
The Possession
Project X
Rampart
Red Lights
Rise of the Guardians
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Sassy Pants
Savages
Shut Up and Play the Hits
Sinister
Ted
This is 40
To Rome with Love
Trouble with the Curve
Wanderlust
The Woman in Black

—

Holy smokes that’s a lot of movies!  Nicely done, Zac.

Agree?  Disagree?  Confused by Zac’s logic?  Contact Zac on Twitter (@zacsanford) or join the conversation on Script Doctor Eric’s Facebook Page

Free Screenplay Notes

Posted on by Eric

Is there a way to get free notes on your screenplay from screenwriting, reader, and script consultant Script Doctor Eric (About Eric)?

The answer is YES!  Well, at least on the first 5-10 pages of your script.

1. Feedback Friday – On the last Friday of every month I am a guest reviewer at Feedback Friday.  Anyone can submit the first 10 pages of their script, and hope that it gets picked!  Check out my latest script review and submit your pages, if you dare… 🙂

2. Logline Friday – In my weekly logline contest the winner gets notes on the first 5 pages of their script!

And I’m a little behind…

So…that’s it for this post.  Join the contests!  I’m off to do some free notes.*

Seriously, and…

Onward!

-Eric

—

* Of course, if you want notes on your entire script, it does take me a bit of time, and I do have to eat (a little), so there is a charge.  See MY SCREENWRITING SERVICES.  As you can see,  I try to keep my rates reasonable, because I know screenwriting doesn’t have the top priority in everyone’s budget.  (But perhaps it should!  Seriously…)