The Year in Film: 2012 Nominees!

So, here we are. Coming up on the end of another year. In keeping with my college traditions, I've decided to try and add a tad more showmanship to my year-end film proceedings, and as such, I'd like to offer the nominees for the film awards I am giving via my annual summation of film and such. Were these an actual event with proper catering and exquisite decor, I've no doubt it would be a smash hit with cineastes, gorehounds, freaks, eggheads, scientists, libertines, and anybody who enjoys getting a diverse group of people together and celebrating art. Feel free to comment as you see fit.

I'll be posting the winners on Tuesday, January 1st.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Roger Deakins (Skyfall)

Andrew Dunn (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

Norm Li (Beyond The Black Rainbow)

Mihai Malamaire, Jr (The Master)

Rui Pocas (Tabu)

Dariusz Wolski (Prometheus)

BEST 3D:

Frankenweenie

Life of Pi

Monsters, Inc.

Prometheus

Step Up: Revolution

BEST EDITING:

Cloud Atlas

Haywire

Zero Dark Thirty

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

Anna Karenina

Beyond the Black Rainbow

Generation P

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Prometheus

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

Broadcast (Berberian Sound Studio)

Reinhold Heil/Johnny Klimek/Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas)

Howard Shore/Metric (Cosmopolis)

Sinoia Caves (Beyond The Black Rainbow)

BEST DIRECTOR:

Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

Leos Carax (Holy Motors)

Panos Cosmatos (Beyond The Black Rainbow)

David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis)

Lee Daniels (The Paperboy)

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

Bad 25

Deceptive Practice

How to Survive a Plague

Leviathan

Pina 3D

Pink Ribbons, Inc.

Room 237

West of Memphis

SPECIAL AWARD for UNDERRATED GEM:

The Awakening

The Bay

Beyond The Black Rainbow

For a Good Time, Call...

Gone

Not Fade Away

The Paperboy

The Possession

The Tall Man

BEST FIRST FILM:

Beyond The Black Rainbow

Chronicle

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Steven Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis)

Lee Daniels/Pete Dexter (The Paperboy)

Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

Tom Tykwer/Andy Wachowski/Lana Wachowski (Cloud Atlas)

BEST ORIGINAL SCRIPT:

Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

Leos Carax (Holy Motors)

Joseph Cedar (Footnote)

Josh Fell (ParaNorman)

Drew Goddard/Joss Whedon (The Cabin in The Woods)

Max Landis (Chronicle)

Seth MacFarlane/Alec Sulkin/Wellesley Wild (Ted)

Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg)

BEST FX:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

John Carter of Mars

Life of Pi

Prometheus

BEST ACTOR:

Lior Ashkenazi (Footnote)

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Dane DeHaan (Chronicle)

Michael Fassbender (Prometheus)

Denis Lavant (Holy Motors)

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Jason Segel (Jeff Who Lives at Home)

Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi)

BEST ACTRESS:

Jessica Biel (The Tall Man)

Gina Carano (Haywire)

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Lola Creton (Goodbye First Love)

Greta Gerwig (Damsels in Distress)

Nina Hoss (Barbara)

Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of The Southern Wild)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Tyler Abrizzi (ParaNorman)

Russell Crowe (The Man with the Iron Fists)

Phillip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Scoot McNairy (Argo/Killing Them Softly)

Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

Bruce Willis (Moonrise Kingdom)

Ronald Zehrfeld (Barbara)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Maude Apatow (This is 40)

Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty)

Sally Field (Lincoln)

Cecile de France (Kid with a Bike)

Gina Gershon (Killer Joe)

Macy Gray (The Paperboy)

Salma Hayek (Savages)

Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy)

Samantha Morton (Cosmopolis)

The Worst Films of 2012.

WORST FILM OF 2012 (in order of ascending craptitude)

10) Silent Hill: Revelation

09) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

08) Our Children

07) American Reunion

06) The Moth Diaries

05) Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out

04) The Lorax

03) The Expendables 2

02) Don't go in the Woods

01) Wrath of the Titans

At the movies: Les Miserables.

One of the things about being a film critic that proves rewarding are the conversations you have with other critics. I'm fortunate to be able to call Jim Ridley both my editor and my friend, and long before this latest incarnation of the classic Victor Hugo story (and first adaptation of the Boublil/Schonberg/Kretzmer musical) surfaced, right after we'd done a dialogue review of The Raid, we said 'we should do this again.' Fortunately, he's as big of a fan of the Les Miz score as I am, so this seemed like a given. Have a read, let me know what you think...

At the movies: The Black Hole.

A 35mm print of The Black Hole in Nashville, and I will not be able to see it. I've seen this film probably seventy or so times, and it still remains dear to me despite its flaws. I get to talk about it briefly online at the Scene, and if you'd like to know more, you can read a review I wrote of the film in 2001.

Famous People Talked to Me: Ang Lee.

Life of Pi 3D was the opening night film of the 2012 New York Film Festival. For its press screening (which happened early that morning), a bunch of us waited in the torrential downpour. At the time, I complained, because I could be funny about it. But the film was transcendent and fairly moving, and some of the best 3D I'd ever seen. So here's the talk with Ang Lee from after it- it was a fun press conference, and Lee (in addition to being an NYU alum, so you know I have his back, he's a solid dude with amazing visual imagination) was a lot of fun.

A side note: if you are at all inclined to see this, do it in 3D. For reals, y'all.

At the movies: Breaking Dawn - Part Two.

Twilight 4.2 happened to me recently. If you'd like my thoughts on the previous films in the series to prepare yourself, you can find them here, here, and here. There's no working link to my New Moon review, so I have reproduced it below for the sake of completism. Regardless, Breaking Dawn Part 2 is kind of amazing. Read along for the goods...

Also, I'd like to point out something that I've noticed about what I've written about the Twilight experience. I've been judgy and a little off-the-cuff with these movies, but I've also had a lot of fun writing about them (even the time I got hit in the face with a New Moon t-shirt from one of those t-shirt guns like what killed Maude Flanders). As far as keeping up a tradition with a franchise I wasn't a huge fan of, these films were way preferable to the Saw movies...

NEW MOON

So free-thinking High School loner Bella and sparkly vampire Edward are together, moping magnificently throughout their Pacific Northwest High School. Then a papercut turns everything upside down, and the Cullens disappear, leaving our girl Bella a depressive adrenaline junkie with a journal full of flowery sadness. Fortunately, lurking in the shadows is another supernatural dreamboat, this time newly-buff werewolf Jacob, who wants to give his all to make sure that Bella is happy and safe.

The only supernatural force, it seems, that isn't devoting itself to protecting Bella: the Volturi. The Volturi are a mysterious clan of vampires who rule from their mini-fortress in Italy. They maintain absolute secrecy as to the existence of their own kind, though they apparently feast on packs of tourists by the busfull. And it's to them Edward has gone, in order to commit a complicated form of ritualized suicide. Because he thinks Bella is dead, and, despite being 109 years old, he's a guy who doesn't really know what it is that he wants.

That old Three's Company paradox of a labyrinthine plot that could be straightened out if people talked directly to one another... Well, New Moon has that by the fistful. And judging by the response of the audience at the pre-opening night screening I attended, New Moon also has puppies and expensive Belgian chocolate and the finest of champagnes, because that's the kind of response it got.

I can't hate: this is certainly more consistent and visually interesting than its predecessor, and its overwrought silliness is infectious, like a Smiths B-side or mononucleisis. Check your brain at the door and enjoy...

At the movies: Holy Motors.

As of right now, the best film of the year.