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Best movies of 2012: My top 10
Published: 12/28/2012 1:06 PM
Last Modified: 12/28/2012 1:24 PM

No. 1: Argo

No. 2: The Sessions

No. 3: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

No. 4: End of Watch

No. 5: The Master

No. 6: Zero Dark Thirty

No. 7: Moonrise Kingdom

No. 8: The Intouchables

No. 9: Django Unchained

No. 10: The Avengers

The movie year of 2012 produced some very good films. Did it produce a classic? “Argo,” the dramatization of a rescue plan during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, comes closest.

Event pictures have become such an important part of Hollywood’s calendar, and those earlier in the year — “The Hunger Games,” “The Avengers” and a new “Spider-Man” movie — satisfied more than those arriving late in the year, like the misguided new James Bond flick “Skyfall” or “The Hobbit,” which felt like been-there, done-that cinema.

The following is a 10-best list for 2012 that is, as always, something more like my 10 favorites for the year.

1. Argo
Based on the amazing true story of how the CIA used a fake science-fiction movie as a ruse to sneak out Americans during the Iranian hostage situation, director Ben Affleck cemented his status as one of our most compelling filmmakers. Superb acting from an ensemble cast was topped by Alan Arkin and John Goodman. Incredibly suspenseful and entertaining, as Affleck creates a great Iran story., a great Hollywood story and a great government story to make this the best picture of 2012.

2. The Sessions
This little indie film is one of the most beautiful, personal and intimate pictures I’ve seen in a long time — a remarkable achievement for a film based on the true story of a man living in an iron lung, determined to lose his virginity. In a world based purely on achievement, John Hawkes would be a contender for best actor against Daniel Day-Lewis, whose past “My Left Foot” performance is a favorable comparison to what Hawkes achieves. As the sex therapist, Helen Hunt bares all — clothing, her soul — and has never been better.

3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The best movie about teens in years. Now I know why author Stephen Chbosky held out allowing a movie to be made until he could be the director: He pulls no punches when it comes to the harsh realities confronted by Charlie, his introverted protagonist (Logan Lerman) and his two friends (Ezra Miller and Emma Watson in unforgettable, award-worthy efforts). Seriously teen-smart and intimately aware of the melodrama that is the teen experience: Every event, in their eyes, is either the end of the world or the defining moment of a lifetime.

4. End of Watch
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña deliver performances that rarely reach such depth of character as a pair of Los Angeles police partners. They make an audience care about their lives, and their ultra-dangerous jobs, and all that they stand to lose if they don’t come home from work alive one night. Writer-director David Ayer (“Training Day”) leaves behind stories of rogue lawmen and focuses on two good cops for a remarkable look at street justice.

5. The Master
You can’t boil it down as “the movie about Scientology’s beginnings,” because it’s neither that simple nor that accurate. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson makes another complex picture about how we see ourselves, and those who inspire us, and it is as fascinating as it is confounding. Amazing performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix; turn in amazing performances as two men drawn to one anothereach other in forwarding a movement,; they show us that a spiritual guide, as well as a scoundrel, can appear in many forms — and they may even be one and the same.

6. Zero Dark Thirty
The team behind the Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker” (director Kathryn Bigelow and scripter Mark Boal) makes their hunt-for-bin Laden picture feel like history on the run. Boal tells the story in a kind of journalistic reality manner, making no judgments on subjects like interrogations involving torture. Jessica Chastain creates a complex character as the dogged pursuer who essentially represents the American people, years later still chasing the top card in the deck when other officials have moved on. Opens Jan. 11 in Tulsa.

7. Moonrise Kingdom
Set in an “only in the movies” time of innocence on a placid New England island, filmmaker Wes Anderson tells an idealized 1965 story of two runaway young people who want nothing more than the freedom to be happy with each other, balanced against adults who appear resigned to the fact that they will never feel that way again. Anderson’s film is surprisingly romantic, melancholy and filled with his storytelling devices that, as utilized in this picture, remind of his occasional genius.

8. The Intouchables
In this French feel-good film, a deep bond forms between a quadriplegic and his street-wise caregiver, creating a dependent relationship in which each man comes to know the other’s joys, pains, desires and secrets. It’s a foreign-film bromance that becomes a story of warm humanity amid all the politically incorrect chuckles. The worldwide box-office hit came to Tulsa and became the No. 1 ticket-seller at Circle Cinema. This is the only movie I paid to see a second time this year, so I could share it with someone I love.

9. Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino turns the “spaghetti Western” on its head with this “Southern” set in pre-Civil War Mississippi, with a slave-turned-bounty hunter seeking revenge against a slave owner. The picture is unapologetically hilarious, violent and verbally coarse like the era in which it is set. Tarantino makes a sinfully entertaining film that isn’t afraid to confront the reality of slavery in the U.S. by looking at an ugly past with a modern viewpoint.

10. The Avengers
The most satisfying summer-movie joyride in years accomplished the near-impossible by exceeding expectations created by the Marvel movie franchises. It could have been a mess bringing together in one film the super-sized stories and egos of these heroes, but director Joss Whedon adopted its members’ best qualities: The movie had the brains of “Iron Man” Tony Stark, the bravado of Thor, the heart of Captain America and the power of the Hulk. Cheers go out to executive producer and Union High graduate Jeremy Latcham.

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I See Movies for Free

“I was born a poor, black child” … not me, actually, but Steve Martin’s character in the “The Jerk.” That absurd opening line is just one of the absurd number of film facts, quotes and minutiae contained in movie critic Michael Smith’s brain, at his disposal to toss out on a moment’s notice. It’s a key requirement as Tulsa World film critic to know these things. Michael learned a few other life facts along the way (seven years as a Crystal’s Pizza & Spaghetti manager) before attempting journalism and joining the Tulsa World in 1996, where he’s covered everything from a school shooting in Fort Gibson to a tornado in Stroud to witnessing an execution. A little community theater coverage was sprinkled in there, too. Movies engender many of his happiest memories, from standing in line for “Star Wars” and “Grease” at the Southroads Cinema to the James Bond and Pink Panther movies that always premiered at the enormous Continental Theater.

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