1. Zero Dark Thirty
Forget all the uproar about torture. Zero Dark Thirty is a great film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow (inexplicably not nominated for an Oscar), and written by Mark Boal. They are the same team that produced The Hurt Locker, which won Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay three years ago. This film stars the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain as the relentless CIA operative, who figured out where Osama Bin Laden was hiding. This is an exciting, taut, suspenseful thriller, all the more so for being a true story, which, rather than supporting torture, shows it for what it is. Chastain has a great role to play, and does an amazing job with it. The supporting cast is also wonderful, including James Gandolfini, Jason Clarke, Mark Strong and Jennifer Ehle.
2. Silver Linings Playbook
Silver Linings Playbook may be the most enjoyable movie of the year. The screenplay is amazing, and the cast is wonderful. Bradley Cooper, playing a guy suffering from bipolar disorder who has just been released from the hospital, and Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a young woman who recently lost her husband, make an improbable couple. Add to that, Robert De Niro, playing Cooper's father, who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, and you have a wacky plot that works perfectly. Silver Linings Playbook is definitely the feel-good movie of the year.
3. Lincoln
Daniel Day Lewis gives one of the great performances of all time as Abraham Lincoln, and he will definitely take home the Oscar for Best Actor. This movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, is quite un-Spielbergian. Rather than making an epic movie about Lincoln and the Civil War, Spielberg zooms in on the last four months of Lincoln's life as he tries to pass the 13th Amendment. It shows both what a great President Lincoln was, and how politics has not changed at all in the last 150 years.
4. The Avengers
This movie was an eye opener. The Avengers is a superhero epic in 3D, with lots of CGI effects, but it is a wonderful movie even without all of that. The director, Joss Whedon, is beloved in geek-dom as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. In The Avengers, he showed what real characters and a good script can do even for a comic book. The always lovable Robert Downey Jr leads a great cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlet Johansson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo. Only Whedon could end Superhero epic with that final scene with the Chicken Schwarma.
5. Life of Pi
Ang Lee is a great director, responsible for Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc, etc. And Life of Pi is a great book by Yann Martel. But this movie is just amazing to watch. It may be the best use of CGI and green-screen ever. It is unbelievable that the Tiger is 100% CGI. This may be one of the few movies to actually benefit from being in 3D. If you didn't see it on the big screen, then I'm sorry. You really missed something.
6. Hitchcock
Some great movies seem to go by without anyone noticing. Hitchcock was fantastic. I couldn't believe how good it was as I was watching it. But, Hitchcock only grossed $6 million at the box office. This film, about the making of Psycho, is structured like a Hitchcock film, itself, and keeps you in suspense right to the end. Anthony Hopkins, completely unrecognizable in his makeup, and Helen Mirren are fabulous. Mirren, at least, got nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, but Hitchcock is only nominated for Best Makeup at the Oscars. This is a movie you have to see when it comes on Netflix.
7. Moonrise Kingdom
I love Wes Anderson, the director of Moonrise Kingdom, because he is different. He doesn't always produce a great film, but like the Coen Brothers and Woody Allen, you just want to give him some money, and then stand back and see what happens. I have loved him ever since he made Rushmore, and saved Bill Murray's, career. Moonrise Kingdom is funny and quirky, as only Wes Anderson can be. The two kids in love who run away together, are so adorable. And the supporting cast speaks for itself, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, and Tilda Swinton. This is also one of the feel-good movies of the year.
8. The Sessions
In The Sessions, which is based on a true story, a man (John Hawkes) who had polio as a child, must live most of the time in an Iron Lung. He decides that he doesn't want to die a virgin, so he hires a sex therapist (Helen Hunt) to help. This is an unbelievable story, especially since it is true, about how someone, who should just lie down and die, goes to college, becomes a writer, and has a sort of normal life. John Hawkes is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood and he is great here. And it's wonderful to see Helen Hunt in a good role. You have to love a movie that casts William H. Macy as a Catholic priest, who advises Hawkes' character on his sex life.
9. Beasts of the Southern Wild
This was the movie that came out of nowhere and blew everyone away. Beasts of the Southern Wild, set in the bayou of Louisiana, has a cast of non-actors, including the then 5 year old, Quvenzhane Wallis, who is a force of nature. The performances, that the director, Benh Zeitlin, got out his non-actors, like Dwight Henry, who plays Wink, and has now gone back to his day job running a bakery, are incredible. And you have to live down here to know how true Beasts of the Southern Wild really is.
10. Rust and Bone
This is the other movie in French with subtitles this year. Amour is depressing and traumatic, but it has nothing on Rust and Bone. Let's just say that the scene, where the whole audience gives out a collective gasp, is not the one early in the film when Marion Cotillard loses her legs. Cotillard is always great, but she is fantastic here. This is also one of two movies this year, along with The Sessions, which deliver the uplifting message, that serious disabilities do not preclude sex.
Honorable Mentions: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Cloud Atlas, Lawless, Argo, A Late Quartet, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Django Unchained, Skyfall, Amour
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