TOP 10 SPECIAL: Year 2012 highlights – part 4

Here it is, the final official post of 2012 that will take this blog into 2013 with a bang. Or, hopefully without an actual bang but you know what I mean. Whilst this post is being prepared, basically a week before this will be read by the eyes of you, I’m already quite thrilled of how 2012 turned out.

Since the ranking system changed a lot this year, I had some difficulties putting this TOP 10 together but also the reason why the order of them is so unclear. 5 star movies are in a definite order, the 4.5 ones might vary in some ways but currently, this is the actual TOP 10 from the good to the best movies I watched and reviewed this year (two 2011 movies made the list as well because I saw them this year). Oh, how amazing this year truly was. Thinking back, out of 60 movies I reviewed these ten stood out because they had something extra. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who sees that in these following movies.

4 star movies worth the mention: Young Adult, The Intouchables, Hanna

Special mentions: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Tomboy

I had almost forgot about Moneyball because most of the great movies in this list are from my latest reviews. It was a good movie, it wasn’t the best of the best but it had its moments and Brad Pitt deserves to be in a list of the TOP 10 for sure. The fact that I was surprised it made it to the list, was because I had a hard time remembering it. I can’t recall why I loved it so much which is interesting. This movie shows that when the first impressions are amazing, the effects can wear off and this is what happened to Moneyball. Not that it’s a bad movie or anything, it’s just, others in this list are more memorable for me.

And here is a movie that I remember like it happened yesterday because of its great story build up and smart wit. George Clooney is amazing in his role and proves to me once and for all that he is one of my favorites. But no matter what, every time I see Clooney I get the need to watch Ocean’s trilogy and to be honest, I’m even getting that same feeling even now. The Descendants is a movie for certain taste, it is black humor – looking for laughs in places usually not funny. And the fact that it doesn’t have any vulgar scenes is a definite plus for me.

One of my funnier favorites this year was Moonrise Kingdom for its iconic feel and softness. It again is a matter of taste, some might not enjoy the quirkiness as much as others, but for me, watching it outdoors added some special memories. Previous, and the fact that it was a movie I saw right before I came to Sweden created a certain bubble of love around Moonrise Kingdom in terms of personal experiences. The dance sequence and the reference to Shawshank Redemption, in addition to the brilliant Bruce Willis and Edward Norton, all made Moonrise Kingdom a favorite.

I watched this about three times, each of those times quite close to each other and have now kind of stayed away from it for a while. The Hunger Games has that subtle feel to it, it doesn’t have much and it stays away from violence that is actually taking place in the books and the plot itself. While the acting of the other tributes might not be as high end as Lawrence and the older cast, the idea of it is still relevantly amazing to me. I stay away of the love triangle plot and focus on the symbolism of society – the inhumane way of punishment and entertainment. For me, that made The Hunger Games great, that, and the fact that the actual production behind it was very intelligent.

As far as animations go, Brave is definitely one of this year’s best for me but that being said, I haven’t seen many from 2012. Though I have my doubts about this staying in my mind for a longer time, I feel like Brave might be another Moneyball, great at being memorable for a period of time but then easily faded into the vast amount of animations coming after it. I do think though, that the quality of her hair is still remarkable so I’m not ashamed to add this here as my this years TOP 10.

Finishing off the 4.5 movies is The Dark Knight Rises, the final movie that tied together Nolan’s Batman trilogy and a good one at that. To be fair, it isn’t my favorite, The Dark Knight is winning all the awards for me, but for this year, it was definitely one of the best ones out of the action bunch. Seeing it in the cinema and getting the final taste of it all was thrilling yet a bit sad as well. I put it in the highest place in terms of 4.5 because it has a lot of context behind it in terms of what came before it and what The Dark Knight Rises represents – that Nolan is a genius!

And while the superheroes are my thing, Shame is definitely another side of me that I need to explore more often. I liked the way it was created, I liked the tones and that everything was for a certain purpose. The scenes of the brother and the sister together, their conversations and viewers as listeners were built with an artistic esthetic – Shame is a movie where every element has an extensive meaning! What made the movie even more of a stand out, was its cast. Fassbender of course, leading and taking the brave step of showing all of him – why Clooney took the Globe from him is a mystery to me but at least George was humble enough to mention him so nicely.

Oh, Marvel, you did it again. For a person who likes to see superheroes and action in a form of super-skills, The Avengers brought everything together for me this year. What made the movie amazing for me was the fact that I had seen no trailers, no teasers, no nothing about The Avengers except the stories that had led up to it such as Thor, Iron Man 1 and 2, Captain America, the Hulk movies and let me tell you, it was so nice to see them all come together. Plus, it brought me Tom Hiddleston who I hope to see more next year in order to actually put him in one of these lists because I really wanted to put him somewhere but I just didn’t find any room.

There is no surprise that Looper makes it to the high list and to be honest, I had a difficult time to pick the first and the second with the last movies I had. Reason why Looper lost the fight, and just by an inch, is that I see it less of an every day entertainment and more of a certain mood movie. Yet, it is my favorite and it has two of my favorites plus a sci-fi plot all in one. Does the time travel have holes and might seem unreal, of course, but honestly, who expects time travel to be 100% logical when the whole idea of it is based on science fiction? I recon that when time travel is actually invented, even then people wouldn’t get the whole meaning behind it because it is not true and it will never happen! That aside, Looper happened to be my favorite action movie of the year – period!

And taking the lead is the best book adaption from this year and that is saying a lot. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a timeless movie, as I said in my review, it is meant to last forever and it should create emotions from the whole spectrum of human feelings. It is funny, it is sad, it is tragic and it is triumphant – everything a teen movie should be! Especially great because it takes away Facebook and technology, gets to the core of people and makes me miss the times when Christmas wishes arrived in the actual mail rather than on the infinite wall of Facebook. Perks shows that there is meaning between relationships and it should be there even when we could communicate via technology. For instance, people should remember birthdays and not blame their bad memory of dates to why they use Facebook to remind them of those important days. But that is not the point: the fact of the matter is, that I love Perks and I love every single bit of it, the book, the movie, the quotes, the music and the whole meaning behind it.

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And with the words of Charlie from Perks, I will take this blog to 2013 when the final part of this year’s highlights will see the light:

“And in this moment I swear, we are infinite.”