SAVAGE SCORECARD 2012-PART 1: THE HONOR ROLL

In all of my years as a film enthusiast, I am so pleased to say that 2012 was an especially fine year to go to the movies! In fact, as I look back, I think 2012 was one of the very best in recent memory. It was a year of creative highs, where filmmakers, new and veterans, consistently worked to the peak of their artistic powers surprising, entertaining, enchanting and enthralling me over and again, making my trips to the cinema so very treasured throughout the year.

One thing to know about me and my exploits on Savage Cinema and something I feel that I must convey to you is that I DO NOT receive one solitary cent for my writings. I do not have any connections to any filmmakers or studios or entertainment news outlets or sources. And therefore, every movie I see is one that I pay for with my hard earned wages, exactly like all of you! Savage Cinema exists completely as a labor of love.

Deciding to venture out to new films comes down to a variety of criteria for me. I will always see a new film from a favorite filmmakers. For me, it is like reading a cherished author's latest novel or purchasing a favorite musical artist's new album. Beyond that, there may have been films I have heard scant details about that have piqued my interests enough where I will seek them out once they are released. Sometimes, the tenor of critical responses will sway me either way as well. And then, there is just my general interest to consider. There have been many years since 2000 where I have not attended first run feature films simply due to my complete lack of interest with what has been released. I can easily remember summer months where I have chosen to not go to the movies for five or six weeks as I could not imagine plunking down my wages for what was being offered to me.

2012, by contrast, was a year where I went out to the movies nearly every single week!! The selection was bountiful and the quality was uncommonly high. So now, I present my annual tradition of my four part series commemorating the cinematic highs and lows of the year, my Savage Scorecard. I am so happy to begin with THE HONOR ROLL, films I awarded a rating of three and a half stars, albeit with a couple of notable exceptions as I do not want those films to be overlooked or forgotten.

And here they are.....and as always, you can find FULL reviews of all of the following films housed right here if you wish to read them.

"2 DAYS IN NEW YORK" Directed by Julie Delpy
Actress Julie Delpy proved to me that there is so much, much more to her creatively than the very little I knew about her from Director Richard Linklater's wondrous "Before Sunrise" (1995) and "Before Sunset" (2004) features. Delpy so confidently directed, wrote, produced, starred and even scored this highly perceptive and hilarious romantic and family comedy about the social and near irrational yet lifelong emotional strains that occur when Delpy's boisterous French family arrives in New York for a visit, whose presence threatens to upend her blossoming relationship with new boyfriend Chris Rock.
Originally reviewed November 2012

"ARGO" Directed by Ben Affleck
The cinematic resurrection of Ben Affleck continued to ascend even higher this year as he delivered a terrifically taut and enormously entertaining political thriller/caper picture and Hollywood satire about the true story of the secretive U.S. government plot to free six hidden U.S. Embassy staffers at the dawn if the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 by posing as a film crew of a fake science fiction exploitation picture. Affleck handled all of the varying material and his largest cinematic canvas to date like a champion while also delivering what I felt to be a sly and provocative re-examination of our foreign policy during the Carter administration when brain power and creative thinking were placed bravely ahead of bullets and bombs. With an increased sense of Hitchcock-ian intensity and suspense to the action sequences, sharply placed insider Hollywood knowledge for the comedy and a glorious attention to period detail, so much so that the film looks like it was from the 1970's, "Argo" confirms wholeheartedly that Ben Affleck is a creative force to be reckoned with.
Originally reviewed October 2012

"THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN" Directed by Marc Webb
It was a film that truly did not need to be made. Or at least one that felt to be so cynically driven as this series re-boot arrived a mere five years after Director Sam Raimi's blockbuster, yet deeply flawed, trilogy. But somehow, someway, Director Marc Webb created an experience that was fiercely committed to carving its own artistic path by making the story of Peter Parker's emergence as our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man a darker, gritter, moodier affair and the opening act of a new trilogy. For me, my enthusiasm for this film arrived through the terrific leading performance from Andrew Garfield, the seamless special effects and a much more grounded and intensely emotional center that pulsated with urgency and melancholy. With "The Amazing Spider-Man," Webb masterfully achieved in one film what Raimi struggled with over three films. While this film did not quite scale the heights set by Raimi with his superlative "Spider-Man 2" (2004), Webb's dark and more humane new vision came pretty damn close. But I do have one note to pass along to Webb and his writers for the second installment: Please, please, please give Emma Stone more to do than to stand around and be pretty and/or frightened. She is too talented of an actress to just be utilized as window dressing.
Originally reviewed July 2012

"CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER" Directed by Lee Toland Krieger
Love stories and romantic comedies in particular, were graced with a creative resurgence in 2012 as one film after another triumphantly explored the matters of the heart with freshness, vitality, emotional urgency, sharp humor and a perceptive attention to the details of how real people would really behave in certain romantic situations. "Celeste And Jesse Forever" was one of the year's very best and it is a career calling card for the strong talents of Rashida Jones who co-wrote, produced and stars in the film as Celeste, who at the beginning of the film is divorcing her husband Jesse (a surprisingly solid Andy Samberg), her lifelong best friend. While Celeste and Jesse are determined to make their romantic separation "the perfect breakup" by promising to remain best friends, they both discover just how difficult such a well-intentioned and heartfelt plan actually turns out to be. Filled with warmth, honest romance, exquisite pain and accompanied to a terrifically soulful soundtrack, "Celeste And Jesse Forever" lovingly presents the deeply layered and multi-faceted emotions that are recognizable to all of us when we fall in and out of love.
Originally reviewed September 2012

"CHRONICLE" Directed by Josh Trank
One of the very best directorial debuts of the year arrived with this latest entry in the "found video footage" genre which details the dark story of three high schoolers (terrifically played by Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan and the grippingly excellent Dane DeHaan) who all gain superhuman powers after coming in contact with a sinister and giant glowing blue object underground. With "Chronicle," Trank merges the science fiction thriller, an intimate family drama, a teen comedy, a superhero origin story and a grim tale of uncontrolled hubris beautifully. Employing some of the most photo realistic CGI effects of the year (even more surprising considering the film's tiny budget) "Chronicle" arrives with a high level of such well conceived awe and heft that well worn cinematic images of flight and epic cataclysm felt fresh all over again.
Originally reviewed June 2012

"THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT" Directed by Nicholas Stoller
While this feature from the triumvirate of Producer Judd Apatow and Actor/Co-Writer Jason Segel and Co-Writer/Director Nicholas Stoller failed to ignite the box office this past Spring, I found this droll, dry and deeply perceptive romantic comedy to be the very type of film that is rarely made: a love story that extends itself beyond the act of falling in love and tells the story of the precarious act of staying in love. Segel and Emily Blunt star as Tom and Violet, who "meet cute" at a costume party, begin to date, fall in love and plan to marry. But the road to their wedding day is consistently interrupted by the ever shifting presence of life obstacles which arrive in the form of career desires and failures, selfless decisions that end up as deep and unspoken regrets and resentments that threaten to explode and derail an entire relationship regardless of how much they love each other. While this is a funny film, Stoller has helmed a sadder, more painful and therefore more truthful account of what it means to be helplessly in love and compromise proves to be a difficult process, especially when it just may upend the plans for your own life at the expense of the other's happiness. Please do not allow the melancholy nature of this film to scare you away. Segel and Blunt make Tom and Violet a couple to root for, to hope for and to fully recognize in your own relationships. Much as it did for me.
Originally reviewed April 2012

"THE GREY" Directed by Joe Carnahan
What could have existed as yet another increasingly brain dead entry in the action film sub-genre I like to call "Liam Neeson Gets Mad," I was profoundly affected by this visceral thriller about the members of an oil drilling team who survive a horrific plane crash and try to also survive the brutally frigid Alaskian wilderness as well as a pack of hungry wolves. What made "The Grey" so provocative for me, aside from Neeson's brooding, lion-esque performance was how Carnahan ultimately made the film serve as a nearly philosophical and existential mediation upon death as we all make our way in a bleak, cold and possibly meaningless universe. While you do receive the thrills and excitement, "The Grey" made for an experience that was as disturbing as it was humane.
Originally reviewed July 2012

"THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY" Directed by Peter Jackson
Arriving nine years after the superlative, definitive cinematic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's wondrous trilogy, Peter Jackson brought us all back to Middle Earth with a flawed but ultimately terrific first installment in a new prequel trilogy. While the film's bloated mid-section had its share of problems due to Jackson's too reverential treatment of and attention to Tolkien's universe, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" did indeed conjure up a more innocent, whimsical tone and beauteous glow that was reminiscent of a child's dream world while also delivering the intoxicating landscapes of New Zealand and epic battles as well. And once our reluctant hero Bilbo Baggins (the wonderful Martin Freemon) meets the wrenching, conflicted Gollum (the brilliant Andy Serkis), the film locks into place and begins to rise and soar towards the previous magnificent heights of Jackson's past work. Here's hoping 2013's second installment is even better.
Originally reviewed December 2012

"THE INTOUCHABLES" Directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
The French import and international box office smash, critical darling and award winning story of a wealthy white quadriplegic (Francois Cluzet) and his black caretaker/physical therapist (a hugely charismatic Omar Sy) who hails from the Parisian projects is an enormously entertaining, congenial, agreeable, unsentimental experience that is copiously sprinkled with razor sharp humor. "The Intouchables" represents a type and style of film I thoroughly enjoy. This is a film that is not about plot yet is entirely about character and the characters portrayed by Cluzet and Sy are so well constructed and beautifully performed that the three dimensional on-screen relationship they create is one that will reward you handsomely.
Originally reviewed August 2012.

"JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME" Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass
This completely charming film was one of many cinematic surprises I received in 2012. Jason Segel stars as   the titular Jeff, an unemployed, perpetually stoned layabout whose sincere belief in life's inter-connectivity leads him on a day long odyssey involving his uptight brother (Ed Helms), his lonely Mother (Susan Sarandon), a fractured marriage, a secret admirer, a vending machine truck, the continuous presence of the name "Kevin," an obsession with the movie "Signs," and other seemingly disparate elements. How these parts, plus a variety of others, all fit together is for you to discover and what results is a lovely, unassuming little film that is indeed a huge treasure.
Originally reviewed July 2012

"LINCOLN" Directed by Steven Spielberg
In some ways, I am considerably softer on this film in comparison to others. But, I can wholeheartedly admit that there is an enormity to admire as Steven Spielberg has crafted a decidedly (and refreshingly) adult experience that is a meditative, cerebral, and wholly unsentimental exploration of the process of governing as well as providing parallels between the past and the present, illustrating just how much our political process has and has not changed. While Daniel Day-Lewis will certainly continue to receive the lion's share of the attention for his completely immersive performance as President Abraham Lincoln, I am hoping that the awards season lights will shine brightly for Tony Kushner's outstanding, luxurious screenplay and for Tommy Lee Jones' impassioned performance as Republican congressional leader and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens gave the film a real sense of the blood and fire that existed alongside the politics of that history altering period.
Originally reviewed December 2012

"THE MASTER" Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
This may have been the year's most polarizing film as critics immediately touted "The Master" as the best film of the year as well as a classic of unprecedented greatness while audiences may have found this to be an impenetrable head scratcher. As for me, I feel that Paul Thomas Anderson is the one young-ish American filmmaker who can even claim space in the cinematic neighborhood where Robert Altman and Stanley Kubrick reside. With this film, Anderson takes a more Kubrick-ian "bird's eye" view of religious fundamentalism which houses a tumultuous battle of wills between a psychologically damaged World War II veteran and drifter (played by Joaquin Phoenix) and the leader of a new spiritual movement called "The Cause" (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). For those of you who may have expected or even have wanted a film that would be a scorching expose about Scientology, "The Master" is not that film. Besides, Paul Thomas Anderson is a filmmaker with much more on his mind than some prurient  simplistic take down. While Anderson has created a film that is executed to the highest order and featuring strong performances from Hoffman, Amy Adams and a searing, career best performance from Phoenix, this is a difficult, demanding and defiantly ambiguous film that requires you to perform some heavy lifting. "The Master" is a philosophical and psychological showdown between two seeming immovable forces. It is a film that is so thematically and conceptually packed to the brim that I truly believe that this film's full greatness is yet to arrive.
Originally reviewed September 2012

"MOONRISE KINGDOM" Directed by Wes Anderson
As with Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson (no relation) is one of our most idiosyncratic, original filmmaking voices working today as he has created, in film after film after film, cinematic universes unlike any other. "Moonrise Kingdom," his lovely, nostalgic ode to the pangs of first love between two pre-teens in 1965 at the end of summer is no exception. Meticulously designed and yet so emotionally truthful, Wes Anderson has confidently created another dollhouse movie in which he has joyfully invited all of us to come inside, look around and play. This is truly one dreamy wonderland of a film.
Originally reviewed June 2012

"RED TAILS" Directed by Anthony Hemingway
George Lucas' long gestating passion project inspired by the history and events surrounding the Tuskegee Airmen World War II fighter pilots finally arrived at the beginning of 2012 and as Lucas himself advertised in interviews, it was an old fashioned, corny, flag waving, classically presented WWII film but with an almost entirely African-American cast driving the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this hugely entertaining film, which of course showcased Lucas' glorious special effects work with high-flying dogfight sequences. But moreso, I was truly moved to see Lucas and his director Anthony Hemingway inject a clever subversive streak into the otherwise innocent film. To have the sight of young, strong, attractive African-American men in the lead, driving the story and flying the planes into and out of battle so spectacularly, we are receiving a history lesson without it ever feeling like a dry history lesson. And "Red Tails" is also a rousing antidote to all Hollywood films which tell stories of and about the African-American experience through white characters. Additionally, the broadly designed characters make it easy for absolutely anyone to identify with them, therefore making the issue of race something to transcend while keeping race firmly at the center of the experience. While the film opened very high at the box office, it nose--dived quickly and was ignored critically. Such a shame as this film was so obviously a labor of love and while I was indeed entertained terrifically, it moved me to see these men finally shown, in a big budget film, as patriotic heroes to celebrate and honor.
Originally reviewed January 2012

"TO ROME WITH LOVE" Directed by Woody Allen
No, this film is not in the same creative league as Allen's previous effort the astounding "Midnight In Paris" (2011), but this wonderfully inviting, funny, sexy film (Allen's 42nd!) is indeed the perfect movie to see on a hot, summer night. "To Rome With Love" features a quartet of love stories set in Rome and while not absolutely everything works, do not fret as one moment will glide into another like the best warm bath. This film features Woody Allen at his most playful. It is not a movie meant to move mountains or wrestle with the human spirit. There is not one moment meant to emotionally tax you. Allen is not in any hurry to get anywhere with this film and neither should we be in a hurry either. Just soak up the sights, the language and the luscious spirit of Italy and just enjoy!
Originally reviewed July 2012

"YOUR SISTER'S SISTER" Directed by Lynn Shelton
This unassuming, gentle film struck me as yet another antidote to the glut of pitiful romantic comedies, especially as it took what could have been a contrived, wacky plot and treated it as if it played out realistically. Mark Duplass stars as an unemployed thirtysomething lost in depression and alcohol when his best friend, played by Emily Blunt, suggests that he take some time away from it all at her family isolated cabin. He agrees but upon arrival, he is surprised by the presence of Blunt's sister, played by the lovely and frisky Rosemarie Dewitt, who is also nursing deep emotional wounds. One thing invariably leads to another and soon, all three leading figures are in the cabin, all wrestling with whether to expose their true feelings for each other or keep them buried forever. I loved how this film extended beyond a standard love story as it was also a love story between best friends and siblings. It is an autumnal film. A melancholy film. But also a celebratory one as it tenderly speaks to the familial bonds we are born into as well as the ones we create.
Originally reviewed September 2012

Stay tuned, dear readers for PART TWO where I will spotlight the films that I awarded four stars but did to make the final TOP TEN list. That's why I call this upcoming section, "NUMBER 11."