Super Late 2012 Retrospective: Top 10 Male Performances

2012 was very much an 'actors' year. Before I begin, I didn't want to put Daniel Day-Lewis in this list because yes, his performance is beyond the call of duty of anything but we all know he can act - and act well. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of those 'imitation' performances. It's okay, Daniel has his Oscar and is off researching Jesus or something for his next Oscar winning role. My list was quite easy to make, even though it was really hard to rank actors who were in the same films. Damn, there were some great ensembles last year.

Honourable mentions: Eddie Redmayne - Les Miserables, Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables, Ewan McGregor - The Impossible, Tom Holland - The Impossible, Sam Riley - On the Road, Jean-Louis Trignant - Amour, Jason Clarke - Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Strong - Zero Dark Thirty, Suraj Sharma - Life of Pi, Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln, Ben Whishaw - Cloud Atlas, John Hawkes - The Sessions, Pierce Gagnon - Looper, Joaquin Phoenix - The Master, Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master, Tom Hardy - Lawless, Guy Pearce - Lawless, Matt Whelan - The Most Fun You Can Have Dying, Dane DeHaan - Chronicle, Liam Neeson - The Grey, Ralph Fiennes - Coriolanus

10. Bradley Cooper as Pat Solitano Jr. in Silver Linings Playbook
Just for the record, I thought that Bradley Cooper gave the best performance in this film - a film which I've come to appreciate a lot more over time. I've long been a fan of Cooper, even to the point of putting myself through All About Steve for him, so I was pleased that he got a prominent role like this one that could easily show off his talents. In this film, he has such energy and confusion - and he's just the kind of guy that you want everything to work out perfectly for. Much like the rest of the film, he's able to find that perfect balance between having great comic timing and also presenting a realistic portrayal of a man who has lost his mind. I hope this kickstarts a career for Cooper where he can leave behind The Hangover franchise and focus on these smaller projects, because that's where he works best.

9. Denzel Washington as William 'Whip' Whitaker in Flight
I felt a little bit sad when I couldn't fit Liam Neeson into this list for his brilliant work in The Grey, but my fondness for his performance largely stems from the fact that it was his first great performance in a long time. After all of the Taken movies and their copiers (ahem Unknown ahem), it was good to have him in a character study. Such is the same case with Denzel Washington's work in Flight. After Safe House and the rest of the films that were pretty much exactly like that, Denzel proves that he is still a formidable actor and not just a formidable movie star. His work in Flight is extraordinary, anchoring the sometimes meandering script and performing a very precise portrait of addiction. It's hard to say exactly what Denzel does to elevate his character's story above your average addiction affair, but I'm sure glad that he's back in the game.

8. Michael Fassbender as David 8 in Prometheus
Surely it would be easy to play an android - no real emotions to convey, none of those layers that make a performance like, say, Denzel Washington's work. However, Fassy makes David 8 quite a layered android, even if basically all he does is touch things which just stuff everything up. There's quite a lot of beauty in simplicity and restraint, two things which helped his masterful performance in Shame immensely, and here he displays a masterclass of those two things. Sure, it is a fine line between being a boring human and an android, but Fassy works wonders and makes David 8 anything but boring. He's been the source of many of my jokes about Prometheus, but he was the best thing about it.

7. Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained
I suddenly remembered as I was putting this list together the reaction I had when Christoph Waltz won his second Oscar for this performance. I was in class, trying to hook up the Oscars so we could watch it for last period, and this by the time I'd hooked it up his name was called as the winner. I cried a little bit. No, his performance is not my favourite of the year, or even my favourite from the film, but I was quite excited because a) I don't think I even bothered to put him as a nominee in my final Oscar predictions and b) because Christoph Waltz is probably the most awesome person on the planet and c) this is a performance based on charisma. I don't see anything particularly special about it - there's no real tense moment - but this whole performance is so charismatic it just hurts a little bit. And if there's anything that Hollywood lacks a bit of, it is charisma.

6. Jack Black as Bernie Tiede in Bernie
Just a wee side note: I'm having a huge phase of loving Richard Linklater. Before Midnight is absolute perfection. Okay. I find it a little bit strange that Jack Black, an actor who I generally can't stand, is on this list. However, his work in Bernie is absolutely amazingly fantastic. I genuinely felt so sorry for the poor guy, who only ever wanted to do good until somebody broke that all up for him. My heart ached for him. And this is Jack Black we're talking about.

5. Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty in On the Road
It is a bit hard to judge if Hedlund does his character justice, since On the Road is still sitting on my dresser waiting to be read (doubt I'll get around to it this year though - too into Fitzgerald), but I'll judge it on it's own merits. Out of the mostly dull, meandering film, I found that Hedlund always had this magnetic energy about him. He was constantly moving at a frenetic pace when the rest of the movie seemed to be at a stand still. His story was the only one that really moved me. While Sam Riley did a good enough job in the lead role, Hedlund kept me interested the entire time. Such a shame that most people would only watch this because of Kristen Stewart trying to break out of the Twilight zone.

4. Ezra Miller as Patrick in The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Remember that huge phase I had with Ezra Miller this time last year? Well, I'm a little prouder to say that I love him because of his work in The Perks of Being a Wallflower than I was with We Need to Talk About Kevin (which is still a totally amazing film, by the way). There's really not many ways I can put how much I love Ezra in this film, other than to say that he's the perfect Patrick. The perfect Patrick. The perfect Patrick. And that's all I really have to say about that.

3. Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie in Django Unchained
Even though I was over the moon that Christoph Waltz won the Oscar, it is still so far beyond me as to how Leonardo DiCaprio didn't get nominated. He's playing against type, isn't he? He did it well, didn't he? In fact, it is a little terrifying that, after so many thrillers, biopics, movies about dead wives etc, Leo could play such a narcissistic, evil human being so well. Just look at that scene where he cuts his hand. I don't even know how he held that for so long. If this performance couldn't win him an Oscar, then I'm not sure what could. Probably a real life version of 127 Hours.

2. Logan Lerman as Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower
I just so much as have to look at him and I'll want to cry. Which made for some very emotional times during May when the trailer for this movie rolled around every 45 minutes at work. Charlie is such a difficult character to understand, even moreso as the book follows an epistolary format which is always a little hard to translate to the screen, but Lerman nails everything. Just from a desperate or confused or even a happy look, my heart just breaks for the guy. Sure, Lerman is not that far out of his teens, but he plays a 15 year old so convincingly, and that's one of the biggest reasons as to why this film is probably the best teen film I've ever seen.

1. Matthew McConaughey as Killer Joe Cooper in Killer Joe
No surprises here - my number one performance is still what it has been since early November. I've never been so dumbfounded and thrown by a performance - up until watching this, I had been under the impression that Matty M was only ever destined to take his shirt off and make movies with Kate Hudson and the like. But this is the kind of career turnaround that doesn't often happen. Sure, an actor will have that one great performance but then they'll return to the way they were. This performance may be great, but this is just the start of something. Considering he also hit the bullseye with two brilliant performances in Bernie and Magic Mike (which I love almost equally to this performance), and is following it up with the likes of Mud and Dallas Buyers Club and Interstellar (!), Matty M is just getting started. Thank goodness for that.

What do you think of these choices? Who were your favourite male performers of 2012?

AAN: Where the Awards Stand After the Guilds and BAFTAs

I haven't really covered this year's awards season as much as I would have liked - hell, I just haven't found the time to review Silver Linings Playbook even though I saw it over a week ago - but I've found it a little hard to keep up to the minute with this stuff. So I've waited until after the BAFTAs to throw in my two cents on how the season is going as we head into the final straight. Here's my simple guide to what has been happening...

Best Picture - Well Argo pretty much has this one in the bag. With the Golden Globe, SAG, PGA, DGA and BAFTA under it's belt, there's pretty much no stopping it. I do think there is a little leeway for a spoiler from Lincoln or Zero Dark Thirty or even Amour. I mean, I won't be surprised if it doesn't win.

Best Actor - Yeah, Daniel Day-Lewis has pretty much got this as well. I haven't seen Lincoln but I still get so angry about the fact that he is winning over Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper who were both brilliant. Ah well. There's literally no room for anyone else to win in this category.

Best Actress - As has been said, this is pretty much a race between Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. I mean, the media is now making up rumours that they hate each other but let's be honest - it isn't a big deal if neither of them win it, and I'm sure they're beyond catty behaviour. I like Jessica Chastain's performance 1000x more than Jennifer Lawrence's (that's not because I love J-Chas more than life itself), but they both have a million more chances to win in the future. However, Emmanuelle Riva won the BAFTA tonight and I think this could happen again come Oscar night. Like really. But I still hope that J-Chas wins.

Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz has won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA, with Tommy Lee Jones winning the SAG, probably because Waltz wasn't nominated. Another Oscar for Waltz? Bet on it.

Best Supporting Actress - Biggest plot twist ever: Anne Hathaway doesn't win.
Not in this lifetime.

Best Director - This whole category makes me LOL so hard. "Oh look, Ben Affleck just won another award - oh wait, he's not even nominated for the Oscar". Neither is Kathryn Bigelow, who would be my other guess. So really, this race is going to be down to the wire. I'm thinking Michael Haneke will win (I have this thing that Amour is going to win literally everything, like including Best Animated Film). None of the directors who have been nominated for the rest - Ang Lee, Steven Spielberg or David O. Russell - seem to stand out, though Ang Lee seems to be the sensible bet. This is mind boggling stuff, which makes it all the more exciting.

Other little notes:
-Django Unchained's screenplay is getting lots of love. The WGA's can't provide much more clarity on that but I think QT has it in the bag.
-Skyfall seems to be all the rage. Even though it isn't nominated for much that isn't on the technical side, I'd see it taking a few of those awards. Specifically Best Score, which it seems to be doing rather well with.
-Brave is the front runner for the Animated section? Who knows. I hope it is.
-On a BAFTA related note, so happy that Juno Temple got the Rising Star award. She's amazing.
-I actually can't wait for the Indie Spirits this year. Matthew McConaughey as a double nominee? That's how it should be done!

What are you thinking now? Got any front-runners/favourites sorted?

Life. Liberty. Vengeance.

Django Unchained (2012) / US / Out in cinemas now / Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino / Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Johnson, Walter Goggins / 165 mins.

Quentin Tarantino was my first big director 'obsession', even though when I first saw Pulp Fiction at age 12 - a movie which I'm still not legally allowed to see - I didn't understand it but I was more than happy to proclaim my love for the guy. Since then, I've seen the large majority of his films and pretty much loved every single one, for they don't really have a set genre where they can easily fit in and there's pretty much no way you can really describe how a Tarantino film works. Much like it has been with Christopher Nolan, each new Tarantino film has become an event for me, but particularly in the case of Django Unchained. This film was the first of his I've ever legally been allowed to see in cinemas, and also the first first-time viewing of a Tarantino film I've ever legally done age-wise. I feel like I've been missing out on something for such a long time, since seeing Django Unchained, in all it's bloody Tarantino glory, was the most fun I'd had in a cinema in a long time. Which makes me sad, because considering how much I love Inglourious Basterds, I can only imagine how I'd probably just about pass out from all the fun and excitement.

Django Unchained follows slave Django (Jamie Foxx) in the South of America in 1858, who is acquired by German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to help him find the Brittle brothers. Since Schultz has made Django a free man, Django sees this as an opportunity to go and rescue his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who is currently working for the rather evil Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) at his plantation. And that's basically it, but it sure does fill up 165 minutes.

War of the Words.

Film: Carnage
Year: 2011
Director: Roman Polanski
Written by: Yasmina Reza and Roman Polanski, based on the play "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza.
Starring: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly.
Running time: 76 min.

Words. Sometimes we underestimate how brilliant they are. Sure, you can build a story with words written down on a page, but a story built around words that are spoken is way more exciting. Carnage is a perfect example of that. Instead of the script saying that someone is going to pull out a gun to create a bit of tension, the actors get to throw insulting words at each other. Okay, so words can't kill you, but I've always thought that cinematic words create more tension than having another gun pop up. Guns are so old-school. They don't mean that much in the movies any more, apart from an easy road out for a character or a pointless accessory used to up the badassery points. Words can mean anything you want them to. Especially if you have all the right words in all the right places.

Carnage takes place almost entirely in the apartment of Penelope and Michael Longstreet (played by Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly respectively). The story is relatively simple: they invite fellow parents Nancy and Alan Cowan (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) into their home to sort out a dispute between their children. In the first few minutes, the matter is seemingly resolved, and the Cowan's go to leave the apartment with the matter behind them. However, they're reeled back into the apartment due to a range of various circumstances, before having a drink and letting all of their inhibitions go, starting a verbal war.

49 Things I Love About Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's birthday is drawing to a close as we speak, and I imagine he's partying hard (and also working hard on my #2 most anticipated film for this year, Django Unchained). I have a lot to thank Quentin Tarantino for: he was the first director who I ever got obsessed with, he opened up a world of movies for me, he made me want to become a director. I love all of his work (that I've seen, anyway - I'm only missing Jackie Brown), but none more so than Inglourious Basterds. So how about I pick the 49 things I love about the film, one for each year that Tarantino has been spreading awesomeness around the world. **SPOILERS IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, SOMEHOW**

1. How it is divided into chapters - and they're all like five short films stringed together into one big film.


2. Christoph frickin' Waltz.

3. Michael Fassbender's sexiness while speaking German.

4. Or Michael Fassbender's sexiness in general.

5. "Wait for the crème!"

6. The first chapter. All that talking (and beautiful talking, too), and then BAM. Such a finish.

7. The way the languages keep changing. Keeps it interesting...and beautiful to listen to.

8. That Quentin Tarantino decided to rewrite history.

9. The way the German soldier's scar is revealed to Hitler.

10. "Oooooh, that's a bingo!"

"I'm not running away, I'm coming home."

Film: Water for Elephants
Year: 2011
Director: Francis Lawrence
Written by: Richard LaGravenese
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, Christoph Waltz, Paul Schneider, Jim Norton, Hal Holbrook, Mark Povinelli, Richard Brake.
Running time: 120 min.

To be honest, the movie world has been a little unfair towards Robert Pattinson. Okay, so his big claim to fame is being the object of many teenage girls (and, you know, those Twi-mums) desire by playing an 108 year old grumpy virgin vampire in the most annoying series of movies and books ever to see the light of day (or not, since they're all about vampires). And, let's be fair, these teenage girls and their mums only like him for one thing: his apparent good looks, not his acting skills. So we've all just written him off, thinking that every movie we see him appear in will be just as terrible as the angsty vampire ones. He was quite good in some of the little indie flicks he did before he appeared on 'I Love Edward' t-shirts hidden beneath sweaters. He wasn't so good in Remember Me (that ending still pisses me off a whole 15 months after I saw the damn thing). But along comes Water for Elephants, an adaption of Sara Gruen's best seller that is very Hollywood and comes when R-Pattz is still kinda in vogue, and it's not all that bad. Well, judging by the way we treat old Robert Pattinson, it could have been a lot worse.

16 Days of Birthday, Day 12: Quentin Tarantino's Awesomeness

We all know that there are too many war movies being made. Yes, that World War II was a very interesting period of time. And seven times out of ten the movies are actually really good. But you know what's better than having history happen before your eyes???

Having that guy, Quentin Tarantino, change history before your eyes.

Having history changed is a pretty risky move. But when it is done by Quentin Tarantino, the king of all things cool, it is pretty amazing. People may have doubted Inglourious Basterds because there was an e where there was supposed to be an a and there was an extra u creeping it's way into the title. But who cares? I am one of those firm believers that Inglourious Basterds is a masterpiece. Seriously, I could watch Aldo Raine and his basterds scalping Nazis, Hans Landa laughing at Bridget von Hammersmark's 'misfortunes' and The Bear Jew smacking the shit out of a guy every day. If only there were more hours in the day...

Quentin's reimagining of what happened to Adolf Hitler and his Jew-hating followers is one which isn't believable, in the slightest. But does that really matter? No. I had a lot of fun watching this. I must admit, when I first watched this film, I was a bit dubious of the first chapter. But this was because, back in the day, I was a bit ADD and had to have things jumping out of the screen to grab my attention. Thankfully, that's changed. Any time I watch this film now, I am still completely engrossed in what is happening on the screen.

50% of the time I am waiting around for Hans Landa to grace the screen again. I'm sure I'm not the first person who has said it, but Christoph Waltz is simply genius in this movie. Every time the guy falls silent, I am scared shitless. Every time he smiles, I am scared shitless. But most of the time I just feel like laughing at him...he's a bit lost in his little world, which I find quite funny.

That's not to say that I forget about the other stars, though. Everyone looks like they are having a lot of fun. My other favourite performances in the film are the ones from Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent. These two blonde and beautiful actresses have their parts down to a tee - Kruger playing the glamazon actress who uses her charm and fame to become a spy; Laurent playing a Jewish girl in disguise who has a cinema and a plan (a plan which is awesome, by the way).

I particularly like Kruger in the chapter "A German Night in Paris". This chapter is probably my favourite out of all of them (followed closely by the final chapter, of course). Every thing is perfect in this chapter. From Kruger's introduction, being both smart and still living up to her actress reputation, to Michael Fassbender being ultra-sexy through speaking German. Things seem to skate pretty level in this scene until Fassy accidentally blows his cover by holding the wrong three fingers up. Then what happens? Just a casual shoot-up, leaving the actress and the new father to be the only ones alive. The Tarantino-favourite Mexican stand-off and a new master plan follows. How is this chapter not genius? Better question: how is Quentin Tarantino not a genius?

The one thing I really like about QT is the fact that he basically writes and directs his movies with himself in mind. His scripts always drip with pop-culture references and homages to his favourite films (that is the main reason as to why I love Inglourious Basterds so much). You see, if I were to ever become a film-maker like I want to be, I'd probably be writing scripts similar to his. Mainly because 99% of what I say is usually from a movie, and usually the people I know haven't seen any of the movies which I quote, so they think I'm a bloody genius every time I say something. I'm like a walking homage...

Anyway, what I'm meaning to say is that whether it be Inglourious Basterds (probably my favourite film of his) or Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino has always been - and will always be - a favourite of mine. His films always lift me up if I'm in a bad mood, even with all their violence and blood. He's a guy who doesn't make films for money or status. He make movies because he can, and he can do it really well. And through all of that, he seems to be teaching his audience something. Which he doesn't do through pounds of metaphors or hidden messages.

He just is awesomeness, all the way through to his core.

What's your favourite Quentin Tarantino movie?

"That's a bingo!"... and other things I love about Inglourious Basterds

As promised in my last post, here is a post devoted to my rewatch of Inglourious Basterds. This won't bore you out of your tree like my The Dark Knight one probably did.

Every time I watch this movie again, it's all I think about for days. And then once I am over my short Inglourious Basterds phase, I forget about it and stick it back on my DVD shelf. It's a funny routine I have gotten into with movies I absolutely love. But hey, it's the good movies we should be watching, yes?

Here's another list on another movie I really like:

I like...Christoph Waltz. Who doesn't after seeing this movie? I had never even heard of him up until seeing this movie, and probably never would have if he had turned Hans Landa down. But Hans Landa is the role of a lifetime. Waltz made it completely his, to the extent that even though Leonardo DiCaprio was considered for the role, I couldn't see anyone else actually playing him.

I like...all the multilingual-ness of it. I wouldn't have really pictured this film to be mostly subtitles, especially considering that Brad Pitt was it's headline star and Quentin Tarantino was the writer/director. I guess that that would have put most people off (the subtitles, I mean). But the fact that over 2/3's of the movie is subtitled didn't distract me, or the audiences from watching this movie. With English, French, German and a little bit of Italian, this film pulls off the incomparable task of bringing languages together but not losing the viewers attention.

I like...the girls being as tough as the boys, but still looking like ladies. One of the biggest reasons as to why I love Quentin Tarantino: he creates female characters that totally kick butt instead of being pretty little accessories with serious anger issues. Shoshanna Dreyfus/Emanuelle Mimieux (Melanie Laurent) acts and dresses like a guy for most of the movie, but when she comes up with the plan to burn her cinema down, it makes you wonder-is she the femme fatale or the girl who is doing what a guy should have done ages ago? Also, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger, the should have been Oscar nominee), was once a German actress, but then turned into a spy. Because she is a woman, no one would have believed that she could be such a traitor. But that doesn't exactly stop Hans Landa from unleashing his man power on her towards the end.

I like...the fact that this isn't historically correct. If we wanted to know what really happened, we would go down to the library and get a book out about it, right? Or just go and rent one of the 50,000 other historically correct war movies that have already been made. But when you take a historic period of time and give it a fictional outlook, the result can be a hell of a lot of fun...

I like...it's like five short films in one long film. Over long? Maybe just a tad. But that is Quentin Tarantino, and if you don't like it, then don't watch any more of his movies. Each of the chapters is filled with his trademark meaty dialogue, complete with lots of guns and death (in a good way, unlike Green Zone). Hell, you could watch one chapter and think you just watched an episode of a funny version of Band of Brothers.

I like...that Quentin Tarantino unleashes his astounding knowledge of cinema in this film. If I were I like any film writer, I think I would be like Quentin Tarantino. Because my characters could be falling off a cliff or something and they would be talking about the ending of Inception. In this film, we find out lots about the film industry back in the war days, because Tarantino will subtly put in there a conversation about Leni Riefenstahl or something of the like. Who needs film school? We have Quentin Tarantino movies.

I like...the end. Bloody. Awesome. Ending. That fire? So reminded me of Carrie on so many levels (that happens to be one of QT's favourite movies of all time). And then the final line..."You know what? This just might be my masterpiece." Totally. Awesome.

Consesus: I like Inglourious Basterds.