My Unofficial 15 Favourite Performances of 2012

So I'm continuing on my year-end yadda yadda, but this time, I'm restricting my list to just 2012 things and 2012 alone - my favourite performances of the year. Now just to clear things up: when I do "Best of" lists, they do not go by NZ release dates. Because to be honest, I don't think it is right to be talking about films like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or War Horse now because they feel so old, and I cleared 2011 up in July. However, there are a few 2011 films that came out after I did that, like Margaret and Carnage, but neither of them will be included here. As for 2012 films, I haven't seen a hell of a lot so this is a very unofficial list. I mean, there's no Jessica Chastain, and that's because Lawless still hasn't been released at all in NZ and barely anyone has seen Zero Dark Thirty. I couldn't add Ezra Miller, either. So what we have here is a colourful list, but one bursting with some great talent.

15. Dane DeHaan as Andrew Detmer in Chronicle
Dane DeHaan is a rather bright young actor who burst onto the scene earlier this year with the surprisingly good found footage film Chronicle. He was kind of like the male version of Carrie White, given special powers and using them against all of his detractors. It was a stunningly real portrayal of a teenager, which was something I definitely wasn't expecting from one of the earlier blockbusters of the year. I can't wait to see what the guy does next, he has a great future ahead of him.

14. Emily Blunt as Sara in Looper
Looper is a film that is filled with great performances, from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis playing two different sides of the same coin, and then some other little gems from Jeff Daniels and Paul Dano. Emily Blunt is a bit of a stand-out in the film, though. She's an actress of many talents, but she's been getting the wrong films lately and it has been stalling the fantastic career she was supposed to have after The Devil Wears Prada. In this film, however, she dons a perfect American accent and plays a character who is struggling to keep a handle on her son and her life in near poverty. She's just so wonderful, I hope she gets some more films of this quality.

13. Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games
To be honest, I keep forgetting that this film happened this year, but one thing has stuck with me: Jennifer Lawrence's extraordinary ability to carry one of the biggest phenomenons of the year. I'd say that a good 50% of the film's success rides on her and even though I was rather distracted by the amount of shaky-cam in the film, she never really missed a beat. Let's just say, she's a talented enough actress to not resent such a role, and also talented enough to make sure that she isn't just known for being Katniss.

Making the Case for The Dark Knight Rises + Blogathon Links!

So this blogathon went rather well, considering it was my first real crack at one. Lots of great entries, I'm seriously impressed with the variety among them. Super huge thank you to everyone who participated! And while I have everyone's attention (hopefully), I have exciting news that deserves a line of its own:

I was announced Head Girl of my school last night!

Very exciting times. Alas, now I shall add my own case to the pile: the case for The Dark Knight Rises to win all of the awards. And I've got a few honourable mentions because I couldn't bear to leave them out. Here we go!

So I really don't need to say any more about it: I love The Dark Knight Rises. I love that movie so much I'd shout it from the rooftops but I can't be bothered doing that so I just made a whole Christmas window based around it. The Dark Knight Rises is just amazing to me, and it is a shame that people can't see it in the same light. I'm not going to get into the whole "ah everyone sucks because all they did was pick at the plot holes (which I contest didn't really exist)" thing. I just want to say that this was a movie that has played a huge part in my life. I've never been more excited to see a film, nor have I ever experienced the intense emotion I had when I first saw it. The only thing I was really sad about was something that was beyond anyone's control. However, this movie is something of a cinematic marvel: it shows a pretty brave and gritty social commentary through the eyes of a superhero movie. No, I didn't think it was better than The Dark Knight, but I still thought that Bane was an extremely good villain, looking like a human Hulk and getting on people's wrong sides in an extremely smart way. And don't even get me started on those final moments. I still cry every time I so much as think about it. The look on Gordon's face when the Batman statue gets unveiled - it gets me every time. In an ideal world, this is what I'd love for The Dark Knight Rises to be nominated for:

Best Picture - We used to be so sure it would get in. What happened? It was bad enough that The Dark Knight got snubbed all those years ago. Of course, this one can't stand as a consolation prize, but The Dark Knight Rises truly does deserve it. It is a modern epic that we'll remember for years to come.
Best Actress: Anne Hathaway - Sure, she'll be getting her fair share of awards for Les Miserables. But her performance as Selina Kyle was nothing short of amazing. Just her walk and her talk - wow. And people thought she couldn't pull it off.
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Caine - He made me cry. A lot.
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy - I once saw a picture of him in his Bane costume and it said, "Still has more facial expressions than Kristen Stewart". And that's the outright truth. Even with a huge piece of machinery on his face, he managed to be wonderfully chilling. Not to mention that last scene with Marion Cotillard. Who on the flipside I've come to realise gave a truly terrible performance.
Best Director: Christopher Nolan - One day the Academy needs to get over the fact that he's better than the large majority of them.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan - Because that would be cool. Some of the lines in this film are so amazing I try and use them in day to day life, but people look at me strangely when I put on my Bane voice.
Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister - It would be cool to see Pfister to have an Oscar nomination in this field once more before he turns his hand to directing. His cinematography is wonderful - the movie is actually darn pretty.
Best Original Score: Hans Zimmer - There's not a day that goes by when I don't wish that I could casually use 'Why Do We Fall?' and 'Rise' in a film of my own. The rest of the score is wonderful.
Anything else - I imagine that the film will at least get a whole lot of nominations in the technical categories. And I'll still be waving my little one-man fan club flag down here!

Other honourable mentions:

Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe and Magic Mike - I never used to like old Matty M. But no-one can deny that this has been the year of Matthew McConaughey being bloody awesome at acting. His performance in Killer Joe is by far my favourite of the year. It is so blood-curdlingly great that every time I see so much as a picture of him in the film I cover my eyes. Which made watching Magic Mike very hard, but he was easily the best thing about that film. That SAG nomination snub hurt, but I just know that he'll make it to the Oscars. If he doesn't, I'll be very angry.

Michael Fassbender in Prometheus - One I reasons why I liked Prometheus was because of Michael Fassbender's stunning performance as David the android. Even though the character annoyed the hell out of me, Fassy's transformation into an android was actually terrifying. He was so...wow.

Rosemarie DeWitt in Your Sister's Sister - Because Rosemarie DeWitt is just awesome and Your Sister's Sister so clearly shows that. She's so wonderful, as is the movie.

Jack Black in Bernie - Jack Black is another actor who I generally don't like but he was great in Bernie. He managed not to annoy me for once. And was I the only one who was absolutely shocked when I found out that this story was true at the end?

Rian Johnson's screenplay for Looper - Because Looper was utter awesomeness and it happened to be a great time travel film. As I said in my review, he created "a vision of the future, not a dream".

Matt Whelan in The Most Fun You Can Have Dying - A really huge longshot, but I thought I'd throw this one out there. The Most Fun You Can Have Dying is a NZ film, and a surprisingly good one (your move, The Hobbit). Matt Whelan gives a stunning performance as a man out to destroy himself on his last days of life. I've never actually seen a Kiwi perform so well as an average Kiwi. He was great.

Jessica Chastain for the newly incepted award called 'Most Awesome Person Alive' - I really need to appeal to the Academy for this award, just so Jess can win it every year.

Everyone else's entries, in no particular order:
-Sati @ Cinematic Corner makes her case for the awesome score by Hans Zimmer for The Dark Knight Rises.

-Anna @ Defiant Success makes her case for the three performances in The Deep Blue Sea from Simon Russell Beale, Tom Hiddleston and of course Rachel Weisz.

-Nikhat @ Being Norma Jeane made a case for The Avengers to get a Best Ensemble nod at today's SAG nominations, but unfortunately, her case went unnoticed. So she decided to make a case for The Perks of Being a Wallflower's Adapted Screenplay, adapted by Stephen Chbosky himself, and the performances by Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller. Even though I haven't seen the film, these choices are infinitely awesome!

-Nicole @ The Madlab Post saw Skyfall by chance since she'd missed the screenings for Argo and Lincoln - and lucky she did, because she wrote a beautiful piece about the score by Thomas Newman and the original song by Adele.

-Katy @ The Drama Llama also got on The Perks of Being a Wallflower train and made a case for Ezra Miller's performance. I can only imagine how wonderful he is!

-Courtney @ On the Screen Reviews makes the case for Dwight Henry's supporting performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild. I'd love to see some new talent in the mix!

-Alex @ And So It Begins... makes his case for Edward Burns' screenplay for The Fitzgerald Family Christmas. It would be awesome to see him get nominated!

-Rich @ Wide Screen World makes his case for Frank Langella's performance in Robot & Frank. No amount of Langella love will ever go amiss!

-Drew @ A Fistful of Films made his case for Greta Gerwig's work in Damsels in Distress...and also making Greta Gerwig a thing!

-Nika @ The Running Reel makes a case for Moonrise Kingdom to get a whole slew of nods. I can't wait to finally see it at the end of this month!

-Josh @ The Cinematic Spectacle makes the case for Cloud Atlas, hoping to see its ambition rewarded.

-SDG @ U, Me and Films also shares some love for Rosemarie DeWitt's performance in the brilliant Your Sister's Sister.

-Robert @ The Sketchy Details makes a case for Cosmopolis, a film which still intrigues me to this very day, and this article makes me even more intrigued.

-Brittani @ Rambling Film makes the case for Pierce Gagnon's show-stopping performance in Looper. I definitely thought of including this one - how great was he for someone who is only 5 years old?

If you have a case you want to be made, it isn't too late. Mail me in the next three days and I'll add you to the list! Who's case would you believe out of these wonderful entries?

Kiwi Cinema Showcase: The Most Fun You Can Have Dying

Despite hailing from the green grassy land of New Zealand, I can't say I'm too keen on our output of films. I'm not sure what it is, but it mostly has to do with the fact that we have horrible accents. I know that you all said that I have an "adorable accent", but you try watching Shortland Street for a week and you'll know just how horrible they sound. However, I'm always keen to give things a go, so every now and again, I'll showcase whatever NZ film I've seen lately. And liked, hopefully. First up is the very recent The Most Fun You Can Have Dying, which is out on DVD in NZ at the moment - I'm not sure if it has any distribution anywhere else but it sure as hell deserves to.

Based on the novel Seraphim Blues by Steve Gannaway, The Most Fun You Can Have Dying follows Michael (Matt Whelan), a young man diagnosed with cancer. Instead of staying at home and feeling sorry for himself, Michael sets out on a path of self-destruction by partying, having sex and drinking copiously. His community bands together to raise enough money for treatment that could possibly save his life, but he decides to take the money and escape on an OE to live out the rest of his days. In Europe, he meets up with Frenchwoman Sylvie (Roxane Mesquida), who is an equally self-destructive person. And yeah, we get to see a whole lot of nice locations. Nice locations in which are used to their full potential, because director Kristin Marcon knows how to make a film, as opposed to shooting a film. That's another thing I find slightly annoying about NZ cinema - so few want to push the ballot and try something as small as different angles or filters. But Marcon gives an otherwise extremely dark film such vibrant beauty, with undertones of the French New Wave coming through time and time again. She's one director who we ought to watch...and yeah, I'd just like to point out that this is yet another talented female director to come out of NZ, so there's hope for me yet.

New Zealand Gets Funny: Love Birds and My Wedding and Other Secrets

I must admit, I'm never usually a big fan of New Zealand films. Okay, so we do churn out some good ones, the most recent one being Boy, which just so happens to be one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. But other than that, I find most of NZ's efforts pretty 'meh' (fellow New Zealanders, don't shoot me down...). That's probably because I think whenever us Kiwis use our accents to act, we sound terrible. Our voices have terrible inflection, which makes it hard for us to try and get something dramatic across. But we are getting better, especially if you take Shortland Street out of the equation.

Over the past couple of weeks, I checked out a couple of Kiwi flicks which were successes at the cinema and on DVD: Love Birds and My Wedding and Other Secrets. Their common bond? They are both comedies, with a lot of romance in them. Did they get a like from me? Here are my quick reviews:

Love Birds is pretty much your generic Hollywood rom-com, just done in New Zealand. It has prestige by enlisting the help of a pretty good cast. Heading the lot is Rhys Darby, whom you may or may not know. Here in NZ, he is huge, mainly because he has this very funny, and slightly immature sense of humour. When going into this film, many of the people who know his humour will expect his sarcasm and his immaturity to come through, but no dice. Here is a little more mature, definitely trying out a more dramatic side, which will disappoint some misled people. His love interest is played by Sally Hawkins - you know, the gal who is in just about every British movie at the moment - and she is wonderful, like always. The two together? It's odd to watch, but it works. Rhys plays Doug, who has just been dumped by his girlfriend (Faye Smythe who used to be in Shortland Street - her character really ruined it for me), and then happens to find a rare type of duck who can't fly. Compelled to help this poor creature, he decides to make a home for it, but has to seek help from some people who know stuff about birds, which is how he comes to Holly (played by Hawkins). Love comes after that, and Doug has to try and win the girl by also making friends with her children.

The film isn't too bad, but I just didn't really like it all that much. It's okay, but that's all. I didn't really laugh a lot, as many of the one-liners and jokes came with a dose of awkwardity. In fact, much of it was really awkward, especially some of the sub-plots. Doug and Holly's love story, along with the story about the duck were fine. But as I said, Doug's ex-girlfriend really ruined it. While it's perfectly plausible for a jealous ex-girlfriend to come into the equation, but the way she came back into the movie was just straight out annoying. Oh well, no bother. Love Birds wasn't that great at all, and was everything I expected out of a NZ romantic comedy. But I do have to say, the soundtrack that was pretty much all 'Queen' music was pretty awesome.

What I got:

My Wedding and Other Secrets is another romantic comedy, which is pretty predictable, but it's actually a true story. Director Roseanne Liang decided to share her story of how she came to love a European New Zealander, even though she wasn't supposed to. She first made a documentary about it as an assignment for film school, which eventually made it to the New Zealand Film Festival back in 2005. But now, in 2011, she released a feature film about it, with Outrageous Fortune's Michelle Ang playing Emily (based on Roseanne herself) and Go Girls' Matt Whelan playing her husband, James. Emily is an over-achiever born into an Asian family, with parents who refuse to see her marry anyone who is not successful or Asian. But Emily does the opposite and accidentally falls in love with James, who is, well, not that successful or Asian. Emily, already going against her parents wishes by attending film school instead of medical school, decides that she and James should get married in secret and then continue living life without her parents ever finding out. But it's not long before they find out that their daughter is going out with someone who isn't Asian, and now Emily and James have to beg for their blessing.

I don't know whether I liked this film because it was true or whether it was just so twee. Sure, the story has probably been done before, but the way it is done here is exceptionally cool. It's like watching a movie made out of candy floss...it is so sweet, but not so sweet you start to feel sick after a while. Our heroine Emily is a pretty cool chick as well (she loves flicks by Spielberg and Lucas, and only really wants to make kick-ass actioners), even though I got a bit annoyed that she was so stubborn, apart from when it came to her romance with James. There are some really funny moments, and it slides into sadness a lot easier than most films of it's kind do. To say I was pleasantly surprised with My Wedding and Other Secrets is a bit of an understatement. I just found it easy to watch and easy to relate to, in some ways. It was a really cute movie.

What I got:

So, what about you...do you have any Kiwi movies you particularly like/dislike?