Super Late 2012 Retrospective: Top 10 Female Performances

I must admit that 2012 wasn't my favourite year for female performances. In fact, I had a lot of trouble compiling this list, since there was only one person who really really impressed me (as you'll see later in this list). Alas, at least there was no Meryl Streep breaking another Oscar record or that many towering biopics to contend with, and we were left with actresses in indie films getting some great notices. This may be a strange little list, but it was a strange little year for ladies in film.

Honourable mentions: Vanessa Redgrave - Coriolanus, Andrea Riseborough - W.E., Rosemarie DeWitt - Your Sister's Sister, Rashida Jones - Celeste and Jesse Forever, Melanie Lynskey - Hello I Must Be Going, Emily Blunt - Looper, Kelly Reilly - Flight, Alicia Vikander - Anna Karenina, Samantha Barks - Les Miserables

10. Dreama Walker as Becky in Compliance
I remember that there was all this buzz surrounding Ann Dowd's performance in Craig Zobel's uncomfortable Compliance. To be honest, I never understood that buzz. I found that the best in show was actually Dreama Walker, who was the one at the centre of all of the film's controversy. She was the one that had to go through all of the horribly uncomfortable stuff. This was really her film. And she carries it without being alienated by the source material, and instead with a certain sort of maturity in confronting it. I hold a lot of hope for this young actress - it is certainly different from the more mainstream image she's created for herself in Don't Trust the B---- from Apartment 23.

9. Naomi Watts as Maria in The Impossible
One thing that I really admire (as you will see later on in this list) is when somebody actually uses their body in a performance. This can work in one or two ways: have it trained to do glorious things like Natalie Portman's rigorous work in Black Swan, or when the actors have to take their body's ability away. Such is the case with Naomi Watts in The Impossible, who spends much of the film on the brink of exhaustive death. It's a great paradox, but I find that when the body's ability is limited, this is where the acting really shines through. Naomi is a classic example of this, and her utterance of the words "thank you so much" is one of the most devastating, heart-wrenching yet relieving thing that happened in 2012 cinema.

8. Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook
Again, Bradley Cooper is my favourite performer in Silver Linings Playbook, and even though I'm still a little annoyed with Jennifer's extremely premature Oscar win, there's no denying that she had a special sort of energy in this film. She was this strange blend of kinetic and magnetic energy, happy one minute and boiling with anger the next. Jennifer plays the part with wisdom and charisma far beyond her years, which makes me realise that this is just another stepping stone in what is shaping up to be a brilliant career.

7. Rachel Weisz at Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea
I didn't really like this movie all that much, but if there was one thing I took away from it, it was how scarily similar Rachel Weisz was to Vivien Leigh. Not just in looks, or poise, but in the tragic way she carries her character. I guess that's testimony to Vivien Leigh being the originator of this role, but Weisz embodies this film and her character in a way that few actresses in period pieces can. She doesn't get lost in the time, she just belongs in it. Such a strange beauty to this performance, but if anyone is brave enough to make a Vivien Leigh biopic, I'll be campaigning for her.

6. Amy Adams as Peggy Dodd in The Master
Joaquin Phoenix is best in show in this film (I couldn't fit him into my unbelievably strong actor's list unfortunately), but Amy Adams was brilliant in every scene she was in. Yes, she's in very few scenes, but she's just so...different. I wouldn't say that she plays all the same kind of role - there was plenty of difference between her roles in Trouble with the Curve and On the Road last year - but this role was pretty special. I felt a little bit frightened by her. And to be frightened by Amy Adams, the sweetest woman in the world...I think that kinda deserves an Oscar.

5. Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild
I wasn't the hugest fan of this film (I really should watch it again when I'm not so saddened by the fact that I had to leave Japan), but there's no denying little Quvenzhane Wallis' immense talent. She commands the screen like people five times her age can't even manage. And I can't even begin to process how she does it with such panache, like she's been acting for more years than she's even been alive. Which is a little bit intimidating.

4. Emmanuelle Riva as Anne in Amour
This is just the same as Naomi Watts - this is a performance that requires the actress to limit her body, and that counteracts into an amazing performance. I felt absolutely paralysed by Riva's performance, mainly because she can command so many emotions through a single look. This isn't Riva "acting her age", because what I've seen she's still full of vitality, and I find it so brave that she confronted her age in such a brutally honest way. She was robbed of that Oscar, pure and simple.

3. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises
I'm one of the few people who was cheering with delight when Anne Hathaway won her Oscar for Les Miserables, and have stuck by her through all of this strange Anne hate. She deserved that Oscar, because she literally ripped my soul out and made me cry every time she was on screen. However, this wasn't my favourite performance from Annie in 2012. There's her ferocious, smooth, unyielding performance as Selina Kyle (or Catwoman, as she isn't called in this movie) in The Dark Knight Rises, who steals every single scene she's in. Her voice literally purrs, she moves around so smoothly, and the best thing is that we're never really aware of what her agenda is. This is barely the energetic, beaming Anne Hathaway that we've seen grow up over the past decade. She embodies Selina Kyle, with such athleticism in both the way she moves and the way she acts. And she certainly runs rings around poor old Marion Cotillard, who definitely disappointed in a role that could've been so much more.

2. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Kate Hannah in Smashed
I always find a certain sense of pride when an actress I've admired for a while - even if they haven't had the most amazing roles in the most amazing films - suddenly breaks through with this amazing performance in an amazing indie film. Such is the case with Mary Elizabeth Winstead's incredible breakthrough in James Ponsdolt's brilliant Smashed. She's had some mildly good supporting roles, but here we see something completely different: an actress playing a normal human being as natural as possible. Which is quite an impressive feat considering this is a film about alcoholism, which gives anyone the assumption that they can just go crazy. Winstead keeps it frighteningly real, and this is a raw, heart-wrenching performance. One that certainly deserved a whole lot more recognition than it got, that's for sure.

1. Jessica Chastain as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty
This will come as little surprise to anyone, but in fact I was surprised to find out why this performance resonated with me so much when I watched it a second time a few weeks back. Maya is probably the closest thing I'll ever get to a character who is like me. Sure, I'm not off trying to find Bin Laden, but her scary determination is something that I connected with all too well. You can say that Maya isn't a character with a huge backstory - she just turns up, is determined and finds Bin Laden - but it doesn't really matter than she doesn't have an emotional monologue detailing every single reason she has behind her determination. The most amazing thing is that Jessica doesn't need that emotional monologue to convince us of anything. She yells sometimes, but her overall presence just commands conviction. My favourite part is when she looks up from identifying Bin Laden and just nods every so slightly to confirm that it is him. Her face is so exhausted and wounded. And then there's the tears at the end. Which really devastated me. I just felt everything in this performance. I can see why it polarises, but from one Maya to another, this is probably the best female performance I've seen in a long while.

What do you think of my choices? Who were your favourite female performances?

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?

Super Late 2012 Retrospective: Top 10 Directors

So ever since Stage Challenge finished, I've been getting very nostalgic and retrospective and stuff, but mainly only about things that have happened this year. Mind you, the other day I was reading some of my reviews of films like We Need to Talk About Kevin and Shame - which I now saw over a year ago, where the hell did time go?! - and through that little nostalgic blog trip I stumbled across my 2011 retrospective. Which I did in July 2012. Because...yeah, I'm not up with the times. At the moment, I'm having a very chill holidays (which I hate - I would probably go and build a set or something just for fun), so I thought I may as well do a 2012 retrospective. However, I do have to say one thing: 2012 was such a shit year for movies. Like, I remember 2011 a hell of a lot better than I do 2012. Alas, I did my best to whittle everything down into some lists, so over the next week or two (depends on what crops up), I'll explore my favourite directors, performances and films from last year.

As for the directors - well, I can say that there weren't many huge standouts this year for me, unlike McQueen, Alfredson, Refn and Ramsay who took out my top spots last year. And yes, I decided to take Christopher Nolan out of the running for this one because I would literally give him all the awards for being wonderful and perfect and everything I need in my life etc etc etc. It is really only fair. But yeah, he's number one in my eyes.

Honourable mentions: Andrew Dominik - Killing Them Softly, Ang Lee - Life of Pi, David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook, Sam Mendes - Skyfall, David Ayer - End of Watch, Steven Soderbergh - Magic Mike, Joss Whedon - The Avengers, Michael Haneke - Amour, Richard Linklater - Bernie, Kristin Marcon - The Most Fun You Can Have Dying

10. Paul Thomas Anderson - The Master
Five years after There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson turned up with his much anticipated The Master. The one thing that I admire most about PTA's work is that they feel like they exist in another planet, away from the 'normal' films that we're getting nowadays. There Will Be Blood is a film that you can't easily put away in a big box with hundreds of other films. Same with The Master. While most of the film ended up confusing me a little bit, there's no denying that what PTA did with this film was extremely different, complex and daring. Plus, the guy has one of the most thrilling filmographies of any director in Hollywood - and he's only 42.

9. Ben Affleck - Argo
While he wasn't my favourite director of 2012, Affleck deserved to win that Oscar. To this day, it confuses me as to why he wasn't even nominated, because the directors who were nominated weren't exactly the most stunning crop. Affleck is one of the most stunningly talented directors in Hollywood right now, with a filmography that just keeps getting better and better with each film. While I can't say that Argo is the absolute pinnacle of what Affleck is capable of, the way he made this movie was just stunning - from the immaculate production design to what he did to produce the graininess of the film (I don't know why, I just find that extremely fascinating). Plus, Argo is a super intense film without even really trying to be.

8. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, Tom Twyker - Cloud Atlas
This movie pretty much only has a placement on here because it is the biggest showing of ambition that I've ever seen. And if there's one thing I absolutely hold onto more than anything else in this world, it is ambition. Yes, Cloud Atlas has a little more ambition than it needs to make a truly great film, but there's just so much to admire about the efforts of these three directors. Cloud Atlas is such a complex beast to even think about attacking, and it is amazing that these guys could translate some of it onto film. It may not have all been completely successful, but I can guarantee you that this is more of a contribution to the world of film than 80% of the films that came out last year.

7. William Friedkin - Killer Joe
I'm a self confessed theatre-on-film fan - any play that gets adapted to the screen is usually a hit with me. Killer Joe is one of the most confusing films to enter that fray, as I could barely even begin to imagine how any of Tracy Letts' play could play out on a stage. This film is kinda like a huge "fuck you" to censorship and morals and everything else, which after all the controversy that Shame got in 2011, was kind of interesting and thrilling to watch. It is difficult material - especially being the darkest of comedies - but William Friedkin handles it all with this weird blend of satirical and noirish panache. And then there's that scene with the chicken. Yeah.

6. J.A. Bayona - The Impossible
While it can be accused of a few of Hollywood's biggest problems: white-washing and the good old "let's make you cry, a lot" kind of thing, The Impossible is a very well made movie. Maybe I'm just very close minded, but I couldn't even imagine how you'd possibly make a tsunami happen on screen. It is in those large scale moments when the film is at its best, especially with all of the underwater sequences, but it doesn't skimp on the human element when it isn't doused in melodrama. One of my favourite things about this film, however, is that final shot where the plane is flying over that beautiful, calm, blue Indian Ocean. That gave me a few nightmares.

5. Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained
Even though this film is a little on the long and self-indulgent (cough QT trying to be Australian for no obvious reason) side, it is still awesome. And it is strangely beautiful, for a Tarantino movie. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about this one without going into full fangirl mode.

4. Gareth Evans - The Raid: Redemption
For some reason, whenever I think about 2012 movies, I always forget that The Raid: Redemption was one of them. But once I remember it, I remember what a totally thrilling adrenaline-rush it was: and unlike most action films, it was a thrilling adrenaline-rush for the entire film. In my review (probably why I keep forgetting about it - it feels like I was reviewing films an age ago), I called it a "ballet of violence", and said that "while cinema should be predominantly used to tell a story, it is always nice to see a story so well shown on screen." And that's exactly what Gareth Evans did best with this film: he showed his story instead of telling it.

3. Rian Johnson - Looper
Rian Johnson is a filmmaker I admire a lot - not just because his films seem like they exist in a different planet (much like PTA's, but to a differing degree), but because he's a man with true ambition. Looper is another ambitious piece from him. Yes, it is a complex time-travelling film with it's fair share of action sequences, but the one thing that strikes me the most about Looper is that it plays out like a realistic vision of the future, and not a dream. Also, with all the action-genre trappings and the futuristic gadgets, it remains pretty much like an independent film with a tiny budget. It is such a bizarre mix, but it works so damn well.

2. Kathryn Bigelow - Zero Dark Thirty
Maybe it is a little unfair of me to put Kathryn Bigelow in contention for this list as well, since with her being my absolute idol at the moment it's obvious that she'd be so high up. However, I just watched Zero Dark Thirty again last week, and in between being freaked out by how similar I am to Maya and loving it even more the second time around, I realised that no one else could have made this film better than Bigelow. In all honesty, I find her directorial work here a lot better than it was in The Hurt Locker - mainly because she's not so obsessed with her hand-held camera movements - because she has such a knack for making films that don't feel like films. This is stuck somewhere in the middle-ground between being a documentary and being a film, but it can't be accused of being either. Just excuse me while I'm over here worshipping Kathryn, but damn, Zero Dark Thirty is still one of the most inspiring films I've ever seen because of her.

1. Joe Wright - Anna Karenina
Okay, I'm going to cop a lot of flack for this one. While Anna Karenina wasn't perfect, or even all that great, I fell completely and utterly in love with the way it was made. It was just so...achingly beautiful and perfectly choreographed. I think when I was explaining this film to a teacher a while back I said it was "like a musical without people singing". Because some of the pieces just acted like they were a musical waiting to happen, and I adored that. The stage setting was beautiful. Every single thing about the production design was beautiful. I just have a lot of love for the beauty of this movie. Please someone tell me that I'm not the only one.

If you can remember that far back, who were your favourite directors of 2012?

Incoherent Thoughts on Silver Linings Playbook

I'm fairly sure that Silver Linings Playbook is one of the hardest movies to write coherently about because it is so crazy and messy. Suffice to say, I've starting writing a review about it approximately 498530 times and I have literally nothing. So I thought I may as well just jot down the thoughts I have about this film in no particular order with no coherence, because that's a whole lot easier. And I'm sure the world doesn't need another review of the movie:

-It was totally predictable. That doesn't work against it, though. It is one of those rare occasions where everything turns out just fine at the end and it really does make you feel great inside, because that's what you've wanted all along. It would have been a little bit better had I not been eagerly anticipating the credits since I desperately needed to use the facilities, but still, it made me feel good.

-The acting is phenomenal. It is what makes this film a cut above other romantic comedies - if you choose to class this film as one of those.

How Zero Dark Thirty was the Most Oddly Inspiring Movie of the Year

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) / US / Out in cinemas now / Directed by Kathryn Bigelow / Written by Mark Boal / Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Joel Edgerton, Mark Duplass, Chris Pratt, James Gandolfini, Edgar Ramirez / 157 mins.

Zero Dark Thirty is not a movie I went into expecting to feel uplifted. But uplifted was exactly how I felt as I made my way out of the cinema, slightly shaken by what I had just seen. It may sound silly to the Oscar haters or Avatar lovers, but when Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman in history to win an Oscar for Best Director, my life pretty much changed right there and then. I decided I wanted to become a director too, but that aspiration has had some fine tuning over the years and now I realise that it was because of that moment I have learned two very valuable things about myself: I always have wanted to be a leader and do things that not everyone else can do (in this case, Kathryn is a female director who makes 'male films'). In a way, I guess you could say that a very large reason behind the fact that I'm Head Girl at my school comes down to Kathryn Bigelow being a badass woman. While I didn't absolutely love The Hurt Locker (but I sure as hell love it more than most) - but I do quite love her 1995 cult hit Strange Days - Zero Dark Thirty presented something that was rather inspiring to me. It tracks the biggest manhunt of the century, and there was a woman at the centre of it all.

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.

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.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

Les Miserables (2012) / UK / Out in cinemas now / Directed by Tom Hooper / Written by William Nicholson, based on the musical by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil and the novel by Victor Hugo / Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter / 157 mins

Les Miserables is a tough egg to crack. For any newbies, going along for a quiet Tuesday matinee of Tom Hooper's film adaptation might find themselves a little disconnected, jaded by the amount of topics it burns through and wondering how people got to be where they are. I am one of those people who are a Les Miserables 'veteran'. A couple of years back, I did the make-up for the stage production that was in town. This was a huge deal for Dannevirke, since the cast could probably be made up of our entire population, the budget was high and we were putting on one of the most professional productions this town has ever seen. While I never actually got to see the production on stage as I spent most of my time backstage, I'd seen enough rehearsals and heard enough of the songs to have them etched into my memory. Going into Les Mis, I was in the mindset that I'd love it - to be honest, this was another one of those War Horse cases but since the end of my blogging is nigh I won't be defending it quite as vociferously - and I did. That's because I knew what the story involved. People must bear in mind that the book is over 1000 pages long, and then the musical is over 3 hours long. So condensing this enormous story with lots going on into a cinematic spectacle for a modern audience was always going to be difficult, and it succeeds, for the most part - probably just for us Les Mis fans.

Poster Trends of 2012

If there's one thing I know more about than I know about movies, it would be movie marketing. Working at a DVD store and being totally surrounded by a trailer disc and 6000 DVD covers, there's no escaping it. So as people start rolling out their top movies of 2012 and such (how, I do not know), I'll look at the things that sometimes determine whether we want to watch a movie or not: the movie posters. However, how can they determine our preferences when most of them end up looking the same? I break down some of the poster trends we've seen in 2012:

Alternative/foreign posters that were better than the ones they used for the majority of the advertising.

It seems as if the next big thing is to create totally rote, or sometimes very boring posters to advertise the movie, but then someone will create all of these alternate designs which are ten times better. The Dark Knight Rises and Killing Them Softly both had a lot of alternative designs. Killing Them Softly has a whole lot of American-themed, mostly minimalist or overly artistic designs. The Dark Knight Rises used a whole lot of propaganda posters featuring Bane. I like it when the posters reflect the universes in which the movies have created, instead of just advertising the movie itself. The Bourne Legacy's alternative design was actually quite beautiful, compared to Jeremy Renner holding a gun - how many times have we seen that before? Prometheus had an awesome IMAX poster (which actually didn't spoil the film unlike one of the other designs) and Brave got a very Studio Ghibli looking Japanese poster. It is a pity that they don't use these designs over the more 'safe' choices.

Live Or Die On This Day

The Grey (2011) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed by Joe Carnahan / Written by Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers / Starring Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, James Badge Dale, Ben Bray / 117 mins.

Of late, Liam Neeson has made a name for himself as a go-to action guy who has you sorted with his special skills. Taken seemed to have Neeson in a career path that would lead him straight up to being in The Expendables 3. However, we mustn't forget that Neeson made his name with an Oscar nominated performance in Schindler's List, and since then, he's shown a remarkable range of versatility that has been whittled down to action fodder. The Grey may not be a drama set up for Oscars, but it shows Neeson doing what he does best - not just ass-kicking, but carrying a film from start to end with dedicated conviction instead of using supposed invincibility as a mask. And through this, we get an utterly terrifying man vs. wild film that doesn't ramp up anyone's skills when faced with a challenge, instead examining how they deal with it.

I Watched Magic Mike For the Plot...

Magic Mike (2012) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed by Steven Soderbergh / Written by Reid Carolin / Starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn, Cody Horn, Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer / 110 mins.

Magic Mike is probably the most curiously handled (or mishandled, as I'd put it) movie of the year. I really wish I could have seen this film from the 'other side', and really understand what all of the non-movie-devouring expected from this movie. When it first came out on DVD, the most popular status adorning my Facebook newsfeed was "OMG I can't wait to see Magic Mike!" A little while later, there were statuses scattered around saying "Magic Mike was pretty disappointing." I am actually yet to meet someone face-to-face who has a positive spin on the film. However, I've always known it to be a Steven Soderbergh film, and while he's made plenty of mainstream films, judging by his most recent films like Haywire, The Informant! and The Girlfriend Experience, I couldn't see how Magic Mike would be a really nice comedy about male strippers. So I was actually surprised by how much male stripping there was in this movie. I've heard it said that the marketing for this movie was genius - pushing that male stripper thing out there and making this look like a fun, wild ride through stripper-dom, complete with a trailer yielding a feel-good Rihanna song to make sure every woman on Earth buys a ticket. No doubt, this indie film managed to become a mega-hit, but there's no matter when the people who buy the ticket don't like the film. They didn't get what they expected, but I ended up getting more than I expected. It is curious, isn't it?

The Most Beautiful Movie of the Year - Which is Also a Bond Movie

Skyfall (2012) / UK / Out in cinemas now / Directed by Sam Mendes / Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan / Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw / 143 mins

First off, I'll have to admit that I'm no Bond expert. To be honest, the only reason I ever gave Bond a second thought was because I saw a poster of Casino Royale and fell in love with Daniel Craig. I was 11, then, and I thought that Casino Royale was the sexiest film I'd ever seen. Since then I've only bothered to see Quantum of Solace, so really, I don't qualify to be giving Skyfall a review on its James Bond merits. However, this is a different kind of Bond film. It doesn't really live up to the womanizing, slick agent, gadget powered thing that I've pretty much always recognised Bond films as being. This is a film directed by Sam Mendes - who has built a name for himself by directing such drama powerhouses as American Beauty and Revolutionary Road - and most importantly, it is shot by Roger Deakins, who can make anything look beautiful. What we have here is James Bond on the brink of physical collapse, terrorist plots, and mostly an existential drama. However, it still has the familiar tropes of a James Bond films, which makes it one of the more intriguing projects of the year.

Skyfall takes on a whole different branch to the previous blonde Bond outings, instead 'killing off' Bond in the opening scene. However, while Bond manages to survive this 'death' and live off the grid for a while, he is brought back into the spy game when M (Judi Dench) and MI6 begin receiving threats - and the MI6 headquarters get bombed. Bond is launched into trying to find a stolen hard-drive which could break MI6's operations, which leads him to former agent Silva (Javier Bardem), who is bent on taking down M.

Where's the Morality in Liking a Film Like Killer Joe?

Killer Joe (2011) / US / Out on DVD now in NZ - Dec. 21st in US / Directed by William Friedkin / Written by Tracy Letts, adapted from his play of the same name / Starring Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church and Gina Gershon / 98 mins

Many times I've said "oh, I like this (insert weird arthouse movie that is probably rated R18 and has a whole lot of sex and drugs and violence)". I'll get a funny look, and the person I'm talking to will reply, "why do you like that movie?" with a tone of concern. I'll scramble for words as I wonder how in hell I'm going to explain to them why I like the movie without making myself sound perverted or sadistic or whatever. I'm only a 17 year old girl, so this is quite a hard task.

Then again, everyone around my age is supposed to love sadistic horror movies. So I really am not so perverted and sadistic for liking the movies I like.

Killer Joe poses quite a difficult challenge. Today, I had to tell one of my friends why I can no longer eat KFC chicken (ironically, I had some a few hours before I saw the movie) - which obviously meant explaining the infamous scene towards the end. I just trailed off when I tried to justify why it was that I loved this movie, because it is a losing battle. Killer Joe is as sick as you feel if you eat a whole 20 piece bucket of KFC chicken in one sitting - after you've seen that infamous scene. It is as insane as Michael Bay making an independent character study, infused with arthouse technicalities and wins the Palme D'Or at Cannes. It is all out as someone blinded by how much alcohol they've consumed, so all of their morals have left their body with the last time they spewed on the freshly mown grass. And you know what? It is the most fun you can have watching a movie through your fingers.

Straight Out of an Average Cookie Cutter

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed by Marc Webb / Written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves / Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field / 136 min. 

I do love superhero movies. I love the simplicity of them, the unbelievability of them, the taste of popcorn butter that comes with them. Most of them just feel so familiar - particularly the Marvel films leading up to The Avengers - but they've all entertained me in their own little way, because they have a whole lot of components that are unique to them and they work so well. The Amazing Spider-Man, though, is a film that feels all too familiar. And that's not because it is rebooting a franchise that is only freshly in the grave - because I haven't actually seen any of those films - but because it doesn't really feel like anyone was trying with this film. With a title like The Amazing Spider-Man, it is hard not to take advantage of all the puns tied to it. However, I'm not trying to be funny when I say that The Amazing Spider-Man should have been called "The Incredibly Average Spider-Man".

Is It Margaret You Mourn For?

Margaret (2011) / US / Out on DVD now / Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan / Starring Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, Mark Ruffalo, Jeannie Berlin, Jean Reno, Allison Janney, Kieran Culkin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick / 178 mins

Some movies are just damn unlucky. Margaret happens to be one of those. By now, you should all know the story - the film was made around seven years ago, but was stuck in production because the producers wouldn't allow Kenneth Lonergan's passion project exceed 150 minutes. Lonergan insisted that it couldn't be that short, which eventuated in a couple of lawsuits, along with the film being shelved. Martin Scorsese and his trusty editor Thelma Schoonmaker came along and cut the film down to 150 minutes, which Lonergan approved of, and the film was on its way to a limited release in the US at the end of last year. Screeners were sent out to the Academy voters, but to no avail - Margaret passed without too much attention, trickled its way into international distributor's laps, and wound up on DVD, complete with the three hour extended cut. Which is what I watched, so in a way, I was kinda seeing Kenneth Lonergan's passion project just as he intended for it to be. But even then, it felt like this wasn't the masterpiece he wanted it to be - whether that be because his ideas were never fully realised, or three hours just wasn't enough to say everything that he wanted to say.

Prometheus...Stevee's Home Musical Style

Much has already been said about Prometheus, so I didn't know how I could approach letting my opinions on the film be known. I realised that I wanted to talk the film out instead of writing about it, because my thoughts on the film are extremely passionate and wayward. That lead to this idea that I came up with earlier in the day: there are so many songs around that could fit some of the scenes in Prometheus. And then I thought, what if it was a musical? So what we have here is a video where I sing you some of the songs I remixed to the movie. Yes, I am singing, and sorry, my voice is pretty awful. I couldn't just write these done, or simply say them...I had to put them to a tune. My facials are pretty spastic, too, but I'm sure you'll be okay with that. In case you were wondering, this is actually how I am every day. (sorry for the smallness of it...something got stuffed up in the upload and I can't be bothered changing it)

Just for the record, this is the rating I'd give Prometheus:

What do you think of Prometheus being a musical? What songs would you put in it?

The Most Corrupt Cop You've Ever Seen on Screen?

Rampart (2011) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed by Oren Moverman / Written by James Ellroy and Oren Moverman / Starring Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Robin Wright, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, Ice Cube, Brie Larson / 108 minutes

"Woody Harrelson is the most corrupt cop you've ever seen on screen" - the tagline which is plastered across the posters and the trailers for Rampart, Oren Moverman's follow-up to the marvellous 2009 film The Messenger. If a film makes such a bold claim, you can only be sure that it is doing that because it truly means it, right?

Unfortunately, that's not the case with Rampart. I haven't seen too many cop movies, so I wouldn't know how corrupt they can really go, but I'm sure that Rampart's Dave Brown (Harrelson) doesn't really reach the top of the coppo-corrupto-metre. That isn't because the character doesn't have a corrupt soul - because he sure does - it is just that the film never really decides if it wants to show that corruption. In fact, the film never really decides on what it wants to show us at all. What we have instead is a disappointingly incomplete screenplay, which seems like it is more happy contributing ideas to a story instead of building it. Through that, we have multiple characters coming in and out, contributing to dynamics that are never sustained. Those characters happen to be played beautifully by a range of actors who contribute to probably one of the best ensemble acting performances of the past year, and at least make sure that this isn't just one long acting exercise for Harrelson. In the end, Rampart has a lot to contribute, but not a lot of getting up and doing things for itself.

Dear Hollywood: That's My Boy

There is no escaping Adam Sandler movies. Okay, there is, but that's only likely if you don't work at a DVD shop and make it a point to watch everything "big" that comes out. Why do I like torturing myself?! I wish I knew the answer. Because That's My Boy was AWFUL. WORDS CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE HOW AWFUL IT WAS. Which makes it fine material for the Dear Hollywood series. If you need a refresher, here's the previous entries here.

Dear Hollywood,
WAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSUP?!
It is your old mate Adam Sandler here! You remember me! I'm the guy that did you proud by winning all of the Razzies with my masterpiece Jack and Jill!
After that, I've hit a bit of a lull. I don't know how I could possibly make anything worse.
Please help me.
Love from Hollywood's favourite son,
Adam Sandler

Dear Adam Sandler,
Hello, Adam. We were wondering when you were going to start campaigning for those Razzies. But how can you do that when you've already played a man and a woman in the same film? Jack and Jill really took the cake. All of it. Literally.
Why don't you just show off that stellar immaturity in a new, bold way? We're all for rebooting the same old stuff.
Love from your proud father,
Hollywood

Dear Hollywood,
Yes, that immaturity always works well, doesn't it? Once I made a whole film about adults being immature. It  was called Grown Ups. You remember that one? Only Rob Schneider got a Razzie nod for that.
I got chocolate wasted because of that.
I can't let Rob Schneider steal my spotlight!
WHAT CAN I DO?
Love from your favourite son, 
Adam Sandler