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?

The Perks of Being Infinitely Awesome.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) / US / Currently undated in NZ / Written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, adapted from his novel of the same name / Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman, Nina Dobrev, Paul Rudd, Dylan McDermott, Kate Walsh, Johnny Simmons, Melanie Lynskey, Erin Wilhelmi / 102 mins.

Let me tell you something: when I first read Stephen Chbosky's book The Perks of Being a Wallflower last October, it literally changed my life. And there are probably thousands of teenagers out there who can vouch for the novel in the same way I can. The thing about Perks is that it just seems to capture teen life, without alienating the reader. While it doesn't paint those teenage years to be the most wonderful, even in the darkest stages it doesn't make you feel like this is trivialised account of being a teenager from someone who has forgotten what it's like. I'd be damned if I could find a teenager who didn't connect with even the smallest detail of that beautiful book. Considering it is written through the protagonist Charlie's (played here by Logan Lerman) letters, it was always gonna be a hard deal to try and translate those letters to the screen. Luckily, none other than Stephen Chbosky did it. And here we have it: in 2012 (well, 2013 for me), teenagers could be reminded that everything is going to be okay, one way or another. Thank goodness for Stephen Chbosky.

The story follows Charlie, a wallflower: the kind of person who sees everything but doesn't want to participate. He's a 15 year old who is beginning his freshman year at high school, and is slow to make friends - or even approach the idea of making friends. However, two seniors, the openly gay Patrick (Ezra Miller) and his step sister Sam (Emma Watson) take him in and welcome him to 'the island of misfit toys'. While Charlie's wallflower blossoms in the group, as the film goes on we find out more about Charlie and why he is the way he is, which I dare say makes for some of the most devastating stuff I've ever witnessed.

My 15 Top Obsessions of 2012

You know me...I get obsessed with things rather easily. Like seriously, I have obsessive issues that sometimes need to be dialled back before people think I'm crazy (case in point: I get asked to put Christmas decorations up. The first thing I think of is to put up tinsel Batmans in honour of The Dark Knight Rises which came out four weeks before Christmas). However, here's some which I haven't been able to control over the year. The fact that I've made a list of 15 and still missed out a whole lot of them is rather disturbing.

15. Independent cinema
I've always loved independent cinema, but moreso this year, because it has become increasingly easier to get my hands on. Luckily, a lot of the stuff is going through Madman (a supplier here in NZ), meaning I get to catch up on them a bit earlier on the preview discs. While I may not have seen bigger films like Argo or The Hobbit just yet (nor will I until they come out on DVD), I have seen wonderful films like Your Sister's Sister and Bernie already thanks to that wonderful preview drawer. Just keep 'em coming, Madman.

14. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
I've always loved JGL, too, but the guy has been really flying this year. Sure, there was Premium Rush, which must have been quite a big flop since it has been delayed until March next year here (meaning it will go straight-to-DVD), but he was also in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, and in The Dark Knight Rises - in a performance which I thought had its own wonderfulness about it. By far the best thing of his year, though, was Looper, which was a freakin' awesome film itself, but JGL, weird eyebrows and nose and all, was so badass it almost hurt. I also saw 50/50 for the first time this year, where I completely fell for him. He's also doing awesome stuff with his HitRecord project and he's just finished shooting his writing/directorial feature debut. Do the wonders ever cease? It would appear not - he also did some Magic Mike moves on SNL. Lawd.

13. The Great Gatsby
I finally read this whole book this year and it is safe to say, it is probably my favourite book of all time. F. Scott Fitzgerald really had a way with words. Also falling under this umbrella is Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming adaptation, which was my most anticipated movie for the year after The Dark Knight Rises. Why? Because a) haters gon' hate but I love Baz Luhrmann's films, b) the trailers were just effing divine and they literally inspired a 1920's phase I had going on for a little while, c) Leonardo DiCaprio looks fiiiiiiiiiiine and d) that poster with Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker also looks fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. I'm honestly so excited for this film I combust everytime I think about it.

12. Michael Fassbender
I loved him last year but seeing Shame and Prometheus this year just reaffirmed my love. Shame was by far the best performance I've seen all year, and one of my favourites ever. And even though David had a few issues in Prometheus, I couldn't believe I was watching my darling Fassy up there. Seriously, he is one of the best actors out there right now.

My Movie Biography: Where It's At Now in 2012

(2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) Well, we're heading into the home stretch now. Tomorrow is the big day. Just to let you know, you will probably have trouble visiting the site for a while. Don't worry, (fingers crossed) everything goes fine and I'll be back up and running this time tomorrow. Hope to see you there!  Anyway, 2012 in my movie biography...

• By some small coincidence, all of the movies I got at one time from Fatso were by Roman Polanski. So I started off the year with Chinatown, Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. That was...fun.
• I saw The Muppets and The Adventures of Tintin on the same day. I felt so awkward being this 16 year old all alone in cinemas filled with children. Funnily enough, I preferred Tintin a lot more, but now The Muppets is pretty much my go-to movie when I want to feel better about life.
• I finally got out of NZ! My father and I went to Melbourne, Australia for a week and that was exciting. I was pretty excited for the plane trip, because Drive was playing on the plane and I hadn't seen it because it was an R18. I did really like it when I saw it, but I completely forgot about the fact that it was censored, so I was left wondering what was so R18 about it. Then I looked it up on the internet and apparently there were 70 swearwords in it, but I hadn't heard any of them. When I got the film on DVD, I finally embraced it and it became my second favourite movie of 2011. While I was in Melbourne I bought a crapload of movies because they had everything that I'd been looking for. And there's like, five JB Hi-Fi's in the city, so I was in heaven. Also heavenly was the Pancake Parlour, but that's another story. I also went to the cinemas a fair bit because I wanted to escape the heat. I only really wanted to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, because I thought it was going to be an R18 in NZ and it was only an MA15+ in Australia. I was so excited to be all rebellious. Then I got back to NZ and I found out that it was only an R16. Which was somewhat disappointing. I also saw The Descendants and Hugo just because I could. I really miss Melbourne. It was such a nice place. One day I hope to go back.
• While I wasn't as excited for the Oscars as much as I was last year (I blame the fact that I hadn't watched many of the movies), I still thought it was a good idea to wake up at 3am and watch the Oscar nominations for fun. It wasn't all that fun until I saw that Rooney Mara got nominated, in which case I let out this weird squeal that woke up everyone in the house. I stayed up until at least 4.30am ranting with people on Facebook about them. Which probably wasn't the best idea, because once the morning hit we were going to Palmerston North to watch War Horse. It didn't affect the experience. I still spent the entire film crying my eyes out. And when I say the "entire film", I mean the entire bloody thing. As soon as I saw that horse I was in tears.

The "I Love Ezra Miller" List.

Forgive me, I didn't know how I could title this post. Because I don't really have any particular reason to post this post, apart from the fact that I do indeed love Ezra Miller. Okay, so I'm doing this to 'celebrate' the long-awaited release of his debut film Afterschool, which first came out at Cannes in 2008, but has only just come out on DVD here four years later. Heck, I was in primary school when this movie originally came out. Which makes me feel kinda old. Oh well. The film itself didn't really warrant a full-length review from me, but it was worth a few words. So, I guess I can thinly veil what is basically an excuse to write about Ezra with promoting a little seen film. Along with a whole lot of his other little seen films that I think deserve a few words. What we have here is just a random list of all of the films I've seen him in - let's just say that it is a 'timeline' of his rising star status. Because I'm hoping that this guy becomes the next big thing.

Afterschool (2008) - Robert

Afterschool is a strange little film, heralding the feature debut of director Antonio Campos and of course Ezra Miller. Shot on a shoestring budget with a grainy camera, the film takes place in a boarding school, where Robert captures on camera the death of some twin sisters that go to his school. Throughout the film, we see the way everyone reacts to the deaths, before eventually finding out the truth to what really went on. This is a film which has a lot to say, mainly about children and their gadgets, but also the decisions that children make. However, while it has an interesting enough story, the movie wasn't very exciting. It was very much a 'beginners film': endlessly experimental but often losing focus. Which is kind of a shame, because I would have liked to see this film go much further than it did. Ezra's performance was brilliant, though, considering how young he was and how demanding the role was.

I Am 16, Going on 17...

In a few hours, it’ll be my 17th birthday. To be honest, I don’t see 17 as a very special birthday, apart from the fact that if I lived in America I’d be able to legally watch Shame, when in an actual fact I have to wait another year to see it legally in NZ (ironically, I am getting it for my birthday). Other than that, all I can say about this birthday is that it brings to a close what has probably been the best year of my life thus far. This time last year, I did my 16 Days of Birthday marathon (it was really a year ago?), building up the excitement to the birthday that would let me get R16 movies out myself. The year didn’t disappoint. It has been filled with some great achievements and memories, of which I am proud to have lived through in one way or another. Instead of boring you all with my usual “life is great!” speech that is so blatantly throwing heavy-handed inspiration at people who probably don’t need it, I’m going to share the 16 most memorable things that have happened to me in my 16th year of living. I feel like I should be apologising for yet another personal post, but I’ve built a blog based around my strange personality – another achievement which being 16 has lead me to. So, in no particular order, here’s my year:

-Getting a LAMMY for Best Rating System, along with being Runner Up for Best Blog, and then three other nominations on top of that.

-That Paramount call. Waiting for that call was pretty much the longest week of my life, and I could probably tell you everything I did that week even though it happened nine months ago. Anyway, it was awesome to get praise for a school essay from Hollywood.

-Finally seeing The Dark Knight Rises after four years of waiting, and crying my eyes out like I’ve never cried before.

Enough to Warn Me Off Becoming a Parent.

Film: We Need to Talk About Kevin
Year: 2011
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Written by: Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear, based on the novel 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver
Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell, Rock Duer, Ashley Gerasimovich, Alex Manette, Kenneth Franklin.
Running time: 107 min. 

As a teenager, I'll be the first to admit that we are scary little creatures. I mean, really scary. Okay, so I'm not a parent, but it must be so disappointing when you spend all of that time being excited over having a tiny bundle of innocent youth...that turns into a huge bundle of angst. Yeah, that's probably an underestimation of teens (because I don't like being underestimated).

Or maybe I'm taking that idea straight from We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Eva (Tilda Swinton) and Franklin (John C. Reilly) fall in love. At that point, Eva is a successful travel writer who has been places, and wishes to keep going places. However, she and Franklin get married, and have a son called Kevin, which puts her plans on an indefinite hold. While Franklin instantly warms to his son, Eva feels doesn't feel any connection to him, partly because of the fact that she'd much rather be pursuing other interests. She can't control his constant crying - even standing by a jackhammer and revelling in the relief that that annoying sound makes, or control her son, as a matter of fact. And this is only when he's young.