Saturday, 12 January 2013

The Alice and Monkey Awards 

Everyone's got BAFTA, Golden Globes, Oscar and Kermode nominations in the air right now. As you know, we're pretty keen on movies here, be they Arthouse unusuals, foreign language, blockbusters in English, or just the straight well-made and interesting. Alice went through her diary and counted up she'd seen 52 films (at least) during the year. Most of which were at concession price afternoon showings, or her budget would never have stretched that far. But now and again we did do the full Multiplex experience, over-priced sweeties and all.

Internet Movie Database
We've mentioned some in passing already, but thought you might like to have our Best of 2012 list. They're in more or less chronological order, as we found it almost impossible to choose a really outstanding "has to be the top" one. We're keeping comments to a minimum - yes, honest.

You can look any of these up for yourself on either IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. Some will also have websites all of their own. For forthcoming films, you can try Film3sixty. We like to watch the BBC's Film 2013, STV's Moviejuice and The Review Show on BBC2 as well.

 
* Martha Marcy May Marlene
Creepy, compelling, and rather puzzling film about a Mansonesque cult, with Rising Star Elizabeth Olsen. 
* A Dangerous Method 
Cronenberg's intelligent drama about Freud, Jung and the early feminist analyst, Sabina Spielrein.
* Into the Abyss
Herzog's inspired documentary about inmates of Death Row, and State sanctioned killing.
* Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
Amazing night-time cinematography and interesting characters in this mysteious Turkish offering.
 * Even the Rain
Powerful film-within-a-film set in Bolivia, with real political parallels. Both worthy and enjoyable.
 
* Shadow Dancer 
Young Irish woman caught between MI5 and the IRA. Tense, well acted, with a great plot-twist!
* Beasts of the Southern Wild
Brilliant! Starring youngest ever Oscar contender, Quvenzhané Wallis. See our post here.
* Skyfall
A great block-buster which deserves more award nominations than it's got. See the same post.
* The Hunt
Superbly chilling Danish film: Mads Mikkelsen is terrific as a teacher wrongly accused of child abuse.
* Argo
Our favourite block-buster of 2012. Funny, very exciting, and beautifully shot. See this post for our views.
* The Hobbit
We both loved it. The dwarves had astonishing beards (right click the image for greater detail) and Gollum was true to his LOTR form.

AND we can't leave this out, though maybe it's a kind of cheating, but we did see it last year.

* Lawrence of Arabia - 2012 restoration
David Lean's masterpiece has been painstakingly restored for the fiftieth anniversary of its original release. Utterly breath-taking: Peter O'Toole's piercing blue eyes, Omar Sharif, the camels, the music, and the most compelling character of all - the desert. We scarcely dare to mention the light it throws on the betrayal of the Arabs ...

This photo goes with the famous line:  
The trick ... is not minding that it hurts. Quoted by David in Pometheus.

But that's for another discussion, after we've watched the DVD and the extras on Alice's sons's BueRay. Beware of spoilers (or boldly go for them!) on Den Of Geek! Yes, that second exclamation mark is part of the site's name. Alice is always most particular about punctuation.
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