Best of 2012: Film

This was a strange year for movies. Over forty times I went to the movie theater and although I only saw a few terrible movies (Savages, The Campaign, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax) it wasn't a very impressive year overall. I can't remember ever having so many action films make my top ten list but they were some of the best films of the year. Without further ado, here are my ten favorite films released this year.

10) Sleepwalk With Me

A stand-up comedy routine turned one man show turned movie might sound like an odd choice for one of the best films of the year. However, Mike Birbiglia is very likable playing himself even if at times he's not doing likable things. It's a very keen self-examination and probably the most accurate portrayal of making it as a stand-up comedian that's been put to film.

9) Prometheus

With rare exception I'm not excited about a remake, sequel, prequel or anything that has been done before being revisited because it's usually just a cash grab. When Ridley Scott is involved it's a pretty good bet that it wasn't just a cash grab. More than thirty years after introducing the world to his vision of the future in Alien, Ridley Scott has revisited that world for Prometheus.

8) Skyfall

With Javier Bardem cast as the Bond villain  Roger Deakins behind the camera and Sam Mendes at the helm, it was going to be hard to screw this one up. That being said, all they did was make what in my opinion is the best James Bond film of all time. Skyfall was a critical and financial success that many people, including myself, thought was overlooked for a Best Picture nomination.

7) Jeff, Who Lives At Home

It's hard to recommend Jeff, Who Lives At Home on a general basis because I've never felt before like a movie was specifically tailored for me. The family dynamic is so close to mine in terms of members and age that it's frightening. Ed Helms and Jason Segel are great as brothers Pat and Jeff even if they physically don't like anything alike. Written and directed by brothers Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass, they do an excellent job of capturing a dynamic between two brothers who are jealous of each other's lot in life without seeing the turmoil beneath the surface.

6) Argo

Ben Affleck had a few swing and miss movies as an actor but so far as a director he's been three for three which each film getting better than the last. To show how far he has come as a director, Affleck not getting a nomination for Best Director at this year's Academy Awards was regarded as the biggest snub of the whole ceremony. In Argo, he seamlessly goes from edge of your seat tension to laugh out loud moments while continuing to move the story along. Not to mention staring in the film based on the real life events of CIA Agent Tony Mendez.

5) Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson's interpretation of young love is exactly what you would expect it to be but that's not in the least bit disappointing. I was a huge fan of Fantastic Mr. Fox but felt that Wes Anderson's last two live action films left something to be desired following on the heels of Rushmore and The Royal Tenebaums. Moonrise Kingdom is a terrific return to form and the terrific ensemble cast including the two unknowns he cast in the lead roles were uniformly great.

4) The Raid: Redemption

I'd be hard pressed to think of a movie with more action per minute than The Raid: Redemption. That's exactly the movie that Gareth Evans has made. The story is very simple, which isn't to say it's bad, and explained in the first ten minutes of exposition which leads to 90 minutes of the most amazing fight choreography you'll ever see.

3) Zero Dark Thirty

The title Zero Dark Thirty is fitting for more than the obvious reason that it was the time when the mission that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden was carried out. It's fitting because from the opening scene of the film, it's a dark and unsettling subject. The controversy surrounding the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty have seemed strange to me because the director Kathryn Bigelow clearly doesn't endorse it and the central character Maya played brilliantly by Jessica Chastain is ambivalent about what is taking place. Even though it's a long film, there are no wasted moments and every scene helps make the payoff at the end that much more meaningful.

2) Looper

Looper is my favorite science fiction film since Gattaca and has cemented writer-director Rian Johnson as a filmmaker to watch for the foreseeable future. Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to streak of picking great projects (I'm willing to overlook Premium Rush) as he re-teams with his close friend Johnson who cast him in his first film Brick. Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are both excellent as the same character at different points in his life who happen to meet.

1) Django Unchained

There is no mistaking a Quentin Tarantino film. It probably only takes a page of his script being read by a computer before you'd recognize that dialogue that isn't heard anywhere else. The experience of a Quentin Tarantino film is unlike anything else in modern film. I would make the argument that Christoph Waltz has now joined with Tarantion alum Samuel L. Jackson as the two actors who were born to read his dialogue. Jamie Foxx is the title character and is terrific but it is Waltz who again steals the show after winning an Academy Award for his last Tarantino role as Col Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds. Django Unchained is possibly too long and overindulgent but it is so well written and acted that it was still my favorite film of the year.

Honorable mention for the following films that almost made my list:

21 Jump Street
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dark Knight Rises
Friends With Kids
The Grey

Perks of Being a Wallflower
Searching for Sugar Man

Silver Linings Playbook

Ted

This is 40

Best of 2012: Television

There are a few glaring omissions this year on my best of television list. The truth is that I got behind on Mad Men and still haven't caught up. It's a great show and I'm sure would land in the middle of this list but I don't want to include it without having seen the full season. I know some of you are fans of Louie, Son of Anarchy and Downton Abbey but those are shows I've yet to really delve into.



10) Modern Family

Modern Family has managed to increase viewership in each of the first three seasons. After I felt the show had been resting on its laurels over the last year or so, it's been as good as ever in its fourth season.

9) The Walking Dead

Another show that's seen a dramatic rise in viewers each season is The Walking Dead. Although still not the same quality drama series it was in the first season with Frank Darabont at the helm, it has been highly entertaining over the last year since they freed the audience of the Sophia storyline. Even if the show is flawed, we still tune in every week to see how Rick and his group of survivors get out of one predicament after another.

8) Girls

Writer, creator and star Lena Dunham has been at the center of controversy since the first episode of Girls hit the air- whether it was people upset that the cast of a show about four white girls in New York wasn't diverse enough or the amount of nudity by Dunham herself. The show has silenced most critics and recently won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series. As Reggie Jackson famously said "They don't boo nobodies."

7) Community

While it seemed like NBC was actively trying to kill Community by delaying the second half of the third season then burning the last three episodes of the season on the same night, it still managed to air some of the best comedy on network television. While I concerned about the show moving forward after NBC fired its creator Dan Harmon, I'm optimistic the goal of six seasons and movie remain a possibility.

6) Veep

While Girls garnered all of the attention and awards, for my money, Veep was the best new comedy of 2012. The show's creator Armando Iannucci, the man behind the very biting political satire In The Loop, segued nicely into HBO's Veep which battles 30 Rock as the two shows with the most jokes per minute on television. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the cast that surround her as uniformly excellent.


5) Homeland

I was worried at the end of Homeland's first season that it would be impossible for the show to keep moving at such a frenetic pace. Halfway through this season it looked like there were going to be able to pull it off but then the plot became convoluted and they stretched the audience's ability to suspend disbelief. It's still highly entertaining but if it hasn't jumped the proverbial shark already, it's getting damn close.


4) Justified

Justified is the best show on television that you're not watching. Plain and simple. It was hard to top the second season which had a spectacular performance and character from Margo Martindale and Mags Bennett respectively. While the third season wasn't quite on par with that season, it did introduce another great villain and contained another 12 episodes of Raylan Givens as perhaps the coolest character on television.

3) Parks and Recreation

What makes a great series more than anything else is the characters. You can have great writing and terrific actors but without interesting characters to inhabit the fictional world, you've got nothing. Parks and Recreation is so strong each year because the characters are so well defined. It doesn't hurt that they have a terrific ensemble cast and an all star lineup of great comedy writers. What makes Parks and Recreation eclipse what has been done by so many other comedies is that you actually care what happens to these ridiculous people and they can play awkward for a laugh and not just for the sake of making their audience uncomfortable.

2) Breaking Bad

Since I watched the first three seasons of Breaking Bad in span of just over two weeks immediately before the start of the fourth season, it's hard for me to differentiate between the seasons. When a few friends told me they thought season five was the weakest of the series (which is in no way to say it was bad), it was hard for me to agree or disagree. I wish AMC had allowed the series to end with two full 13-episode seasons instead of two mini-seasons of 8 episodes each but it's so well done that I'll clearly take anything they will give me and can't wait for the final episodes starting this summer.

1) Boardwalk Empire

Placing Boardwalk Empire above Breaking Bad was the toughest decision on the list. That being said, I believe that Boardwalk Empire was the best television series of 2012. After killing off one of the show's major characters at the end of the second season, the future seemed unclear for Boardwalk Empire. However, the writers delivered a new indelible character that made the third season the best so far.


Other shows I've watched in the past year that I've enjoyed (at least somewhat):

30 Rock
Dexter
Game of Thrones
Key & Peele
The League
The Life and Times of Tim
Life's Too Short
The Office
Workaholics