Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

This could be my favourite of the 9 films nominated for 2012 best picture. The visuals, the grittiness, the supreme performance of the little girl lead, the presence of the fantastical, the music... it's all so good. A fractured family living in The Bathtube - an anarchic society outside New Orleans who live on little islands unprotected by a levee - face flooding and the little girl gets to experience survival in a community of poverty, but also very alone. Just a gorgeous film - watch it if you haven't already.

Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986)

Ever since I watched my first anime flick (Howl's Moving Castle), I have had a special place in my heart for the genre, particularly the unrestrained creativity that comes from Studio Ghibli. Castle in the Sky brings a great adventure out of ordinary happenings. The boy & girl team end up foiling secret agents, flying all over the world, facing magical foes and of course discovering courage and strength along the way. The best part of these stories is the unpredictable turns, which may also be what people don't like about them - the magical elements are simply boundless making it easy to conjure a story that no one else could make up.

The Muppets (2011)

With hilarious self-awareness, the Muppets work to retain their legacy by trying to save their old theatre which is under threat from a caricatured villain real estate developer.

All the great characters make appearances and some new ones join in on the romp. A couple humans lead the crew and we get to watch their awkward romance flourish.

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The Avengers (2012)

Some fun one-liners, entertaining inter relational dynamics, and of course great visual effects. But it's still an action movie primarily and you'll find little else.

Thor: You have no idea what you're dealing with.
Tony Stark (Iron Man): Shakespeare in the Park?

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Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Wes Anderson's latest fable is set in the 1960s on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. The hero is a foster boy at a summer camp for boys who has fallen in love and has planned an elaborate escape for him and his melancholic girl. The police (Bruce Willis), campers (Edward Norton, parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), and social services (Tilda Swinton - who they always call Social Services) chase them down.

There is tons of humour, vulnerability and style. One of Anderson's best.

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Deep Water (2006)

Deep Water is such a compassionate account of a cornered man who disgraces himself. This documentary follows a competitor in a solo yacht circumnavigation of the globe back in 1968. It is a gripping story told with passion and balance. Highly recommended.

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

In anticipation of the film which I got advance tickets for about 3 weeks before the opening night, I reread The Hobbit. This is the first time I reread it since the first time back in 1987. I thoroughly enjoyed the book though I wish Tolkien had been encouraged to write an adult version of events following the publication of The Lord of the Rings. I was deeply moved by Bilbo's goodness.

To the film now. I was worried about the high frame rate (48 frames per second is twice as many as traditional film) and there was some trepidation in regards to 3D - would it be gimmicky? I fretted without reason - neither was a hindrance, in fact the film was so crisp, engaging, warm, and real feeling that I was immediately sucked in. As an aside, if you don't like 3D or high frame rate, then see it in 2D at 24 fps.

The jovial nature of the children's tale was maintained with plenty of slapstick and one-liners. I laughed out loud on numerous occasions. The character flaws were front and centre in every scene except when they became heroic - then it was a little over the top. It would be unkind to highlight any single character, hero or villain, as they were all magnificent.

Another worry I had was the caricaturization of the 13 dwarves with their wild hair, tattoos, beards and bling. The looks suite the characters and I was very pleased with their onscreen personas.

I plan on seeing the film in theatre at least 2 more times. It's candy.

[I'm 64 films behind in my reviews, so I thought I'd offer my 2 cents on this ahead of when I would reach it in April]

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Hugo (2011)

When evaluating a film, I do my best to consider the intent of the filmmaker and their intended audience. I wouldn't hold the characters of this film to the same kind of standards I would in The Thin Red Line for instance. I believe the intent of Martin Scorsese was to tell Hugo's story of loss, imagination, and salvation in children's terms, much as how the book did so. So, the people in the story are more austere or more fat or more tender than they would be in a typical drama. It's also a classic happy ending which is rare these days among the film elite.

Hugo is a beautiful film with outrageous camerawork and flamboyant characters. These drew me into the title character's tragic circumstances and into the era of discovery that was Paris in the 1930s. The despair throughout the film made the ending all the sweeter.

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Tangled (2010)

I enjoyed this modern, musical, Disney-fied take on the Rapunzel story. With such high returns on animated features these days, they typically gather a stellar crew of writers, animators, and producers.

As is typical, the side characters are the funniest and most interesting (the horse, the chameleon, the tavern crew, etc.). Some of the songs are fun, but a lot of them are sentimental crooning which, you know, get stuck in your head and will likely be memorized by young girls.

My pastor preached a sermon on this movie, likening it to a modern parable about identity and going home.

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The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

What sheer pleasure this film was. Adventure in one of its purest forms. Tintin proves that he is as much a super hero as the American variations by his unwavering tenacity.

Peter Jackson (prod.) teamed up with Steven Spielberg (dir.) to make this animated feature and they complement each other very well. The camera placement/movement, animation and motion capture are so stunning that any childish aspects of the story are dwarfed (not that the screenplay is lacking, it's just a really simple story).

In one scene we see Captain Haddock and you can see the yarn that makes up the sweater and it looks so real. The advantage to digital animation is that the camera can be placed wherever you wish and so Spielberg kept it moving throughout the film. I don't think it was still for a moment.

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Rango (2011)

A clever and dark, superbly executed animation. The creatures of the desert are brought to life and given such detail just in their appearance that it is almost unnecessary to have a story - but it does, and it's a gooder.

Self named lizard Rango stumbles into the western settlement of Dirt, a town struggling to maintain subsistence levels of water. He decides to reinvent himself as a real tough guy (having to lose the hawaiian shirt along the way) and is soon adulated by the dusty population.

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The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

This is another adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story (Minority Report, Blade Runner, Total Recall) - written as usual to challenge people's ideas about free will.

David Norris has a promising political career that suddenly goes awry, but he manages to fall in love on the night of his election defeat. What happens next though is far more outrageous: agents prevent him from meeting the girl again. What agents? Well from the Adjustment Bureau of course - a sci-fi organization who makes sure everything is staying on track, God's agents, angels with hats if you please.

The film really can't be taken seriously since the story is full of holes and is actually quite ridiculous, but as a parable about free will, it can't be ignored. I was quite disturbed by it's conclusion actually.

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TRON: Legacy (2010)

Oh Tron. So unbelievable, but oh, so luminescent. Disney cashes in on 3D, Jeff Bridges popularity, and a cult classic by releasing this souped up version of a movie based on an arcade game.

Kevin Flynn's son enters the videogame a couple decades after his father disappeared only to find that the dominant microchip force is bad and is looking for a way out of the videogame world and into the real world where they can take over! Yikes!

Not a great film. Probably fun to watch on the big screen with glasses.

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The Secret of Kells (2009)

This is such a lovely, fresh film that I can't help but give it my full endorsement. The animation is themed after the illuminating art in the Book of Kells - Celtic production of the four Gospels circa 800 AD. The story focuses on an Irish monastery where this special book is being guarded and produced under constant threat of invading clans. A young boy left in the care of the monks is so drawn to the book and also to the forbidden woodlands that his loyalty to the abbot is questioned.

I can't wait to see it again.

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Due Date (2010)

Robert Downey Jr. gets stuck driving across the USA with Zach Galifianikis. The antics: simply ridiculous. I'm not sure if this was a more self-conscious version of Planes Trains and Automobiles, but it failed to surpass it's predecessor in comedy and sentiment. It did beat it with crude content.

That said, I did laugh. I didn't cry.

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Finding Farley (2009)

This is a National Film Board produced documentary about a family retracing famed novelist Farley Mowat's journey's through much of Canada. A couple and their toddler leave Canmore Alberta in a canoe and head east switching up their modes of transportation several times to end up at Farley Mowat's home in Nova Scotia. Along the way they visit several remote settings for Mowat's books.

Finding Farley is a lovely and intimate look at Canada.

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9 (2009)

This is a terrific animated tale of heroism and self-sacrifice. It is a further contemplation of how our pursuit of technology and so-called progress can blind us from most virtues.

A collection of special rag dolls seek to redeem the world from a tyrant robot in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The dolls are mostly naïve, childlike giving the film a great tone.

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Super 8 (2011)

Film makers J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg created here is an homage to sci-fi pop films of the 1970s and 80s where children are the stars and magic is in the air (think E.T. meets The Goonies). The movie is appropriately straddles the two decades as it is set in 1979. The young actors are set on making their own movie on super 8 film and inadvertently draw attention to themselves when they are caught shooting at the site of an alien escape. The feds are on their trail as the kids try to solve the mystery.

The film is masterfully shaped and expertly executed making for a really fun movie to watch.

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North by Northwest (1959)

Again, looking at these old crime thrillers is like looking at an era of innocence, and some of the earliest iterations of mystery film mechanics. Hitchcock is emulated so much today that very little that we see in his movies seems original today.

A case of mistaken identity throws Carey Grant into a dangerous spy game. He is on the run from both foreign spies and American police and guided by the CIA. The film begins on the east coast and ends in the northern midwest in a few tense scenes.

Really fun to watch if only for costumes, manners of speech, and to see Alfred Hitchock's master use of the camera.

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American Flyers (1985)

Pure cheddar! And the American patriotism drips off of it like butter on corn. Pretty hilarious to watch. Two brothers attempt a gruelling cycling race in Colorado, one of them hiding a bad illness. They've both got sexy girlfriends and there are 2 villains - a former racing partner and the Russian competitor - scary!

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