Critic's 10 best of 2012: 'Argo' tops the list
By BILL GOODYKOONTZGannett Chief Film Critic
It seems like every year works out the same.
You start by wondering whether there will be 10 movies worth including in a top 10 list, but by the end of the year, you realize you'll have trouble limiting it to 10.
But rules are rules. Although my picks change constantly in my head, and the order gets jumbled a bit, these were, in my mind, the 10 best movies of 2012.
1. "Argo" — There's bound to be a backlash, a feeling that Ben Affleck's film, about six Americans who hid in the Canadian ambassador's home in 1979 after Iranian protesters occupied the American embassy in Tehran, treats its subject merely as entertainment. So what? They were rescued by pretending to be a film crew. That's entertaining from the get-go. Even though we know the outcome, the movie is thrilling, important and, yes, entertaining. It's also the best movie of the year.
2. "Moonrise Kingdom" — Wes Anderson's films are threatening to give "quirky" a good name. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are outstanding as two kids living on an island in the 1960s who run away together. Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and Bruce Willis are the adults who go looking for them; Edward Norton may be the best of all as an especially conscientious scout leader who helps. This movie does what the best ones do: Creates a new world and invites us into it.
3. "Zero Dark Thirty" — Kathryn Bigelow's movie, about the pursuit of Osama bin Laden, is both painstakingly detailed and incredibly intense. Jessica Chastain is outstanding as a CIA operative who becomes convinced that finding the terrorist's couriers is the key to finding the man behind the 9/11 attacks, then becomes obsessed with the idea. Good thing. The rest of the cast, including Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle and James Gandolfini, is uniformly good. This is tough art, a cathartic walk-through of what took us so long, and how one woman's work paid off.
4. "Lincoln" — Steven Spielberg's film about the 16th president (and, even more so, about the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery) has suffered some of the predictable backlash all his movies receive. Don't believe it. This is a thrilling (yes, thrilling) movie about an important man and an important topic. Daniel Day-Lewis is brilliant as Lincoln; not even the naysayers debate that. Tommy Lee Jones is really good as Thaddeus Stevens, the congressman who helped (and bedeviled) Lincoln. The best kind of history lesson: one that entertains.
5. "Silver Linings Playbook" — For a movie that seems as if it doesn't know what it wants to be about, David O. Russell's film sure is good. Bradley Cooper plays a mentally ill man determined to win back his wife (who has taken out a restraining order against him); Jennifer Lawrence is the damaged woman who agrees to help him, if he'll enter a dance contest with her. It's funny, it's moving and, thanks to Robert De Niro as Cooper's gambling-addicted father, it gets the obsessiveness of Philadelphia Eagles fans just right. Somehow Russell brings it all together.
6. "This Is Not a Film" — The word "courageous" gets thrown around too often in Hollywood. In the case of Iranian director Jafar Panahi's movie, it fits. The director of such films as "White Balloon" supported the opposition party in Iran's 2009 election and subsequently was arrested and sentenced to six years of house arrest; he also was banned from making movies for 20 years or doing interviews. So he makes ... this. It's a chronicle of his day, which includes acting out a film he's not allowed to make, talking with the trash collector and more. A chat with his lawyer isn't encouraging. The finished footage was put on a USB drive and smuggled out, baked in a cake. It's a poignant statement about art, and the lengths some will go to to create it.
7. "The Master" — OK, Paul Thomas Anderson's film, a fictional account about the beginnings of Scientology (sort of), isn't for everyone. Agreed. But detractors will say it's a long, boring slog about nothing in particular. In fact it's an intriguing look at post-War World II America, bolstered by fantastic performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Amy Adams sneaky great in the kind of role we rarely see her in: the manipulative power behind the throne. Seriously, what's not to like?
8. "The Cabin in the Woods" — Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon came up with a story (Goddard also directed) that is your standard kids-stranded-in-the-woods horror plot, except that it's really, really not. And yes, it came out months ago, but to say more would ruin one of the more fun films of the year. An absolute must-see if you're a horror fan; worth it if you're not just to see Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford have so much fun. Along with the rest of us.
9. "Skyfall" — Everybody gets old, even James Bond. Playing 007 as a wounded warrior fighting to find his place in the modern world, Daniel Craig is outstanding. So is Javier Bardem as one of the most interesting (and funniest) of all Bond villains. His plot for destruction is a bit convoluted, but he's so entertaining it takes a while to notice. Plenty of nods to old Bond pictures, and Judi Dench is even tougher than usual as M, who also is adrift in the new, laptop-centric world of spying. One of the best Bonds ever.
10. "Wreck-It Ralph" — A kids movie that anyone old enough to put a quarter in a video game in the 1980s also will adore. Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) is a bad guy in a game who wants to go good, which threatens to throw the whole universe of the arcade out of balance. Sarah Silverman is great as a glitch in a girlie race-car game, who gives Ralph a greater sense of purpose. Funny, sweet and above all smart. You'll leave smiling, and what's a better reward than that?
Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic is the chief film critic for Gannett. Read his blog at goodyblog.azcentral.com. For movie stories, trailers and more go to movies.azcentral.com. Twitter: @goodyk.