#1 Skyfall
Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan
Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem
Synopsis: Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her, bringing MI6 under attack.
My Thought: [Show spoiler]Bond is one of the main reasons I love films, when I was a kid I used to watch them all when they were on TV, a few years ago I lost all interest in the James Bond films. Sure, I watched Casino and Quantum but the care wasn't there. Skyfall reminded me of why James Bond captivated me so much, while also catering towards what I like to see in films nowadays, playing with ideas about the need for intelligence agencies and struggling to keep up with the spinning world of technology, while delivering a classy action thriller fixed with great practical work, stunning cinematography by Roger Deakins and fantastic acting. Only downside are the few lousy moments of green screen and CGI work.
#2 The Master
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams
Synopsis: A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]The Master, like its main characters alcoholic mixtures, is richly dense in mystery and enigma. While this might be annoying to some, I think The Master could be looked at in the future as a film in front of it's time. It's definitely a film that demands re-watching, and a film I'd be happy to revisit time after time as the film seems like it'll shape very differently every time I'll view it. The acting is superb, from the pitiful Phoenix and the charismatic Seymour Hoffman, both playing characters that are worlds apart yet connected by curiosity and loss. A truly hypnotic film
#3 The Cabin in the Woods
Directed by Drew Goddard
Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard
Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth and Anna Hutchison
Synopsis: Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]A hell of a good ride, I know all too many people who dislike this film because it's too weird, which is strange considering all the horror film-lore going around, the one that is poking fun at horror films is considered to be too much. I think a better word for Cabin in the Woods is unique and utterly fun, the most fun I've had at the multiplex all year in fact!
#4 Looper
Directed by Rian Johnson
Written by Rian Johnson
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt
Synopsis: In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future self.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Looper is a film that has a hurricane of great ideas, styles and themes spinning around, often unpredictable, fast paced and well written, Looper is a science-fiction classic waiting in the isles, if only its ending was strong enough.
#5 Amour
Directed by Michael Haneke
Written by Michael Haneke
Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert
Synopsis: Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested.
My Thought: [Show spoiler]Slice of grim and crushing filmmaking. The opening shot of the film reflects a mirror image of a cinema auditorium homing in on the fact that this is an important film to you, you need to take notice. The acting is spot on, the direction is soothing and the film sweeps you up with ease without being over the top flashy. And it really allows you to make up your own opinions.
#6 Seven Psychopaths
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Written by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell
Synopsis: A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]My guiltiest pleasure of the year, not at all subtle, not really all that clever. It's really just a mismatch of imaginative ideas spun into an overly self-reflective script, but yet it all works and end up being really rather quite funny in the end. Never so stupid it's insulting but never so impactful it's considered art, Seven Psychopaths just gets a nice entertaining balance.
#7 Argo
Directed by Ben Affleck
Written by Chris Terrio
Starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman
Synopsis: A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Complete intense, almost so perfect it's too perfect film, hits every beat correctly, tells a phenomenal story along with having great writing and direction that completely sucks you in. Probably the big crowd pleasing film is the most likely to deserve the Best Picture in the end.
#8 Beasts of the Southern Wild
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Written by Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar
Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry and Levy Easterly
Synopsis: Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Such a wonderful film, I'm so gutted I'm unable to find it anywhere on blu-ray to watch. Quvenzhané Wallis is completely brilliant and conducts the screen so well, worked on my emotions like no other film has this year.
#9 Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Written by Quentin Tarantio
Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio
Synopsis: With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
My Opinion: [Show spoiler]The obligatory Tarantino entry, like Inglorious Basterds before it, I left a little underwhelmed (although obviously really enjoying it in the end of course) but the more it lingered the more it wormed itself into my mind and now I find myself gagging for a rewatch. Many great scenes in this one and in some parts Tarantio's best work, but it's just too long and unfocused to reach the top of the list.
#10 Moonrise Kingdom
Directed by Wes Anderson
Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward and Bruce Willis
Synopsis: A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Again, another film that left me underwhelmed on first watch, but unlike Django, I have gotten around to rewatching this one quite a few times now and it really does work completely on me now. Moonrise has such an whimsical atmosphere around it that it's too hard not to fall in love with its charm, it also helps that the film is funny as hell as well.
#11 Wreck It-Ralph
Directed by Rich Moore
Written by Rich Moore, Phil Johnston, Jim Reardon and Jennifer Lee
Starring John C. Reiley, Sarah Silverman and Jack McBrayer
Synopsis: A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.
My Opinion: [Show spoiler]Wreck-It Ralph was a film I was expecting to like, but not love. And it's a film that not original and takes a lot of ideas from other great animation classics. But I was shocked by all the right notes that Wreck-It was hitting, it made me laugh (a lot), it got me very attached to the characters and to the dilemmas they were stuck in and had a little bit of maturity lying underneath as well a a lot of sweetness. It simply just clicked.
#12 The Avengers
Directed by Joss Wedon
Written by Joss Wedon and Zak Penn
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson
Synopsis: Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]The first big big Blockbuster on the list, some people hate it, a lot really love it, I just like it. It shows how escapist, mindless fun doesn't need to be nonsensical, and shows that work does need to be put into these sorts of film. The dynamic characters, the set pieces, the unpredictable gags. It's not a classic like many proclaim, but it is a rejuvination into the new era of production line special effect driven films with no soul.
#13 The Raid: Redemption
Directed by Gareth Evans
Written by Gareth Evans
Starring Iko Uwais, Ananda George and Ray Sahetapy
Synopsis: A SWAT team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Abosolutly brutally in every way. Simply put The Raid has to be seen to be believed.
#14 Zero Dark Thirty
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Written by Mark Boal
Starring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt
Synopsis: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May 2011.
My Opinion: [Show spoiler]When I walked into this film, I was thinking I was going to be bored by it really. But I was compelled beyond belief, what's real? what's fake? who cares, this is great filmmaking in note book form, efficient, gripping and all too relatable.
#15 Killing Them Softly
Directed by Andrew Dominik
Written by Andrew Dominik
Starring Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins
Synopsis: Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]You know, I'm shocked about the negativity going around this flick, ok it's not very subtle and not very focused, but the film is very gritty and often daily satirical, and it usually works in a very unnerving fashion.
#16 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
Written by Stephen Chbosky
Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller
Synopsis: An introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Another crowd pleaser, Perks of Being a Wallflower really connected to me, it's sweet, charming and quite emotionally charged, and again, another one I'm struggling to find on sale in stores on blu-ray.
#17 The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer
Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway
Synopsis: Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Came out of The Dark Knight Rises (and my first IMAX experience) quite disappointed, you do have to admire the sense of scope and scale Nolan was going for in his final film in the trilogy but in the end the story struggles with the weight, but once you've gotten over those plot issues, the film works in such a thematical sense that the final Batman film really does work next to the previous two, despite it's initial flaws.
#18 Silver Linings Playbook
Directed by David O' Russell
Written by David O' Russell
Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro
Synopsis: After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]David O Russell's play on the typical rom-com is an easy one to dismiss because of its conventional setting, but in the end, the film has a lot more going on than just that, it often has a slightly grizzlier sense of humour and has some darker tones to play, along with some great acting. Although I'm with a lot of others and don't see this as Best Picture material.
#19 Kill List
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Written by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump
Starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Harry Simpson
Synopsis: Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.
My Thoughts: [Show spoiler]Probably the most underseen film on my list, Kill List is as grizzly as they come, twisting genre as its twisted nature implies, every second of Kill List builds your nerves up into a crescendo of shivers none stop until the final second, truly uncomfortable viewing.
#20 Chronicle
Directed by Josh Trank
Written by Max Landis and Josh Trank
Starring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan
Synopsis: Whilst attending a party, three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery underground. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.
My Opinion:[Show spoiler]Finally, Chronicle is simply a very efficient blockbuster, both on budget and storytelling, keeping it quite low scale and never out staying its welcome. Chronicle sits you down for a lean mean 90 mins and leaving you completely satisfied and yet wanting more. If The Avengers is the way to do the big budget production line films, then Chronicle is the way we should do normal risky films.