The 25 best films of 2012: 20 through 16

Not Fade Away's John Magaro, Brahm Vaccarella, Jack Huston, and Will Brill. Toppermost of the poppermost not pictured.

This could be considered the "populist" or "mainstream" bracket, it occurs to me. With an exception. Or two. Never mind. 

20: Skyfall, Sam Mendes, reviewed here. 

19: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin, reviewed here. 

18: Not Fade Away, David Chase, reviewed here. 

17: Bernie, Richard Linklater.

For several years I've nursed a bit of a grudge against Linklater, even though I've admired most of his films and thought more than a couple were out-and-out brilliant. The grudge was entirely personal and pointless. It originated at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where it so happened that he met my boss at the publication for which I worked and was, I thought, unduly brusque with him over a profile that had appeared in said publication. In said profile he was depicted eating a cheeseburger. Now the film Linklater had at Cannes that year was Fast Food Nation. So I could see how this could present a problem. And while there is a buck-stops-here doctrine in publishing, my boss, who was and remains a dear friend, was not the person who had made the reportorial error. So I was irked. And here's how I got my payback, as it were. In my apartment, the DVD shelves are arranged in different ways. There's one shelf that houses movies in alphabetical order. And there are three other shelves that are arranged by director, as in Akerman, Aldrich, Allen up to Wyler, Yang, Zetterling, Zulawski. These are referred to as the "Auteur shelves." And Linklater was DENIED a place on these shelves. Until Bernie. It's THAT GOOD, people. 

16: Flight, Robert Zemeckis, reviewed here. Also: Glug glug glug. 

Comments

[Bettencourt]

Glad to see the praise for NOT FADE AWAY, which I saw two nights ago and really enjoyed. And as someone who has spent much of the last decade walking around L.A. at night, the final scene was especially evocative and memorable.

[David Ehrenstein]

16. Zero Dark Thirty
17. Argo
18. On the Road
18. Cloud Atlas
19. United in Anger: A History of ACT-UP
20. Beasts of the Southern Wild,

[bill]

BERNIE really is that good. I have admired far fewer of Linklater's films than you, Glenn (and have also seen far fewer), and didn't give a shit about BERNIE when I first heard of it, but good word-of-mouth and so forth led me to it, and man, what a superbly entertaining movie. Jack Black deserves to have whatever ill will some have attached to him shed completely after his performance here.

[Clayton Sutherland]

Flight was my least favourite theatrical experience of 2012. It just felt too conventional to grab my interest, and I generally respond more to films that have alcoholism/drug addiction as a secondary, as opposed to primary, component. Otherwise, I'm digging this grouping.

Cloud Atlas...I would term as "ambitiously awful". It often felt like it was aping Monty Python accidentally, what with all the cross-dressing and bad makeup. Couldn't really connect emotionally with any of the segments, but Broadbent's nursing home section was probably the most tolerable, because it took itself the least seriously. Might've worked better had it used the book's structure (allowing a little more time for viewers to develop emotional attachments to the characters, rather than constantly jumping around, like a pretentious episode of Robot Chicken), but I guess we'll never know.

[Fernando]

So glad to see some love for BERNIE. When I saw it, I laughed about three times as loudly and three times as often as the rest of the Chicago bums in the theater. but I just attributed that to maybe being the overcompensation of a homesick Texan. I'm happy to find a more non-biased source affirm that movie's good graces.

This scene - from that lovingly long shot of a plate being drowned in barbecue to Sonny Carl Davis (fucking GREAT to see that guy getting work!) so astutely summarizing Texas - was one of my most sublime cinematic pleasures of 2012.

[Bill Sorochan]

To anyone who has seen NOT FADE AWAY, I would be curious to know about the soundtrack. Is it a legitimate regional 60's garage template sound or is it more of a usual suspects greatest hits package. The fact that this subject matter even got made is somewhat of a miracle so I'm hoping that there may be a nugget, pebble, boulder or a chunk of punk somewhere in the vicinity to assist in subverting young impressionable minds.

[Kevyn Knox]

Hey, two of mine match. Yeah, yeah, different numbers, but still...

20. The Avengers (call me a nerd if you must)
19. Bernie
18. Beasts of the Southern Wild
17. Turn Me On Dammit
16. Hit and Run (does anyone remember this?)

I would also like to give - what are the kids calling it these days - a shout out to a film absolutely nobody but me enjoyed. John Carter. Yeah, that's right, John Carter. When I was compiling this list to coincide with Mr.GK's list, I forgot to include it. Now it has no home in my list. Perhaps this is some cosmic way of telling me that I should probably not have enjoyed the damn film as much as I did. Well too bad Mr and/or Mrs cosmos, I am including it. Like Spike Jonze's seven and a hlfth floor, I am inserting JC in at number twenty and a half. So there. My rant is now over, and I look forward to Mr. Kenny's Top Fifteen...

[Oliver_C]

Linklater's 'Slacker' has just been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry.

[JREinATL]

I, too, have Auteur Shelves. Although I also have Criterion shelves by spine number, which makes it a bummer to have (say) Warner Bros. Kubrick in one area, but "Spartacus," "The Killing," and "Paths of Glory" on another.

[Fernando]

And now I see, in the sober light of morning, that like a fucking dope I didn't even include the link to the scene I referred to in my above comment. Feeling sheepish as fuck right now.

Here 'tis. Woof. Apologies for my drunken eagerness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JREkqCvLzSo

[bill]

Kevyn, I don't believe you're as alone as you think in liking JOHN CARTER. I know a whole mess of people who liked it, and I liked it myself. I feel like the worst things written about it were all the stuff about the budget and "this is going to be a flop look it's so expensive" kind of thing. But among those who've bothered to see it, it's pretty well liked.

[DeafEars]

"what a superbly entertaining movie."

You said it. I walked out of BERNIE completely giddy - I think I have to go back to MARRIED TO THE MOB to name a comedy that gave me that kind of oxygen high.

[That Fuzzy Bastard]

I'm pretty much a Linklatter fan, but I did think Bernie was one of his best. So understated, breezy, and perfect, it reminded me of some of Altman's best 90s movies, like Cookie's Fortune without Liv Tyler.

[Chris L.]

Very excited that "Not Fade Away" is making a "comeback" after NYFF notices were a little bleak. It'll be interesting to see if Chase gets cited for "Best First Feature" in some of these polls, since he made his name with basically an eight-year grand epic film.

[Lex]

Not expecting much on this, and way after the fact, but just saw NOT FADE AWAY and thought it was terrific, and, wow, that main kid is really good and holds his own against Gandolfini. And Bella Heathcote is maybe hotter than Kristen Stewart.

But question, and again, nobody has really seen it or cares or remembers, but...

Was Heathcote's "mentally ill" sister SUPPOSED to be Irish, or is it just that the actress (who is Irish) couldn't master an American accent? I mean, there isn't even an ATTEMPT, she speaks in a full brogue, and Heathcote's got a posh accent of sorts... but then their old man is the eminently American Christopher MacDonald.

Anyway, great movie, kinda beguiled by that last scene outside the Cinerama Dome (what on earth was that Burl Ives movie playing there?)

[Chris L.]

Caught it a few nights ago and was swept up even more than anticipated. "Mainstream" critics dropped the ball here, I think; the film was pegged as both captive to coming of age cliches and having a "pretentiously" loose structure/rhythm. (Distributor didn't seem to be of a mind to help much, either.)

Chase assembles familiar story elements and tilts them 45 degrees so that it's not a scene you've already seen, after all. Dialogue was brisk and oddly melodious without straining for wit. (And oh, the soundtrack.)

None of this was apparent to Some Dude by the name Roger Moore whose wire review ran in my local paper. Man, could that guy give Dan Kois a run for his veggies.