Max Berger

I am a huge fan of Basketball. Growing up during the 90′s I got to watch a very special golden era of the sport. I still remember watching the Knicks lose against the Houston Rockets in the finals, I remember going to the Basketball show at the Javits Center and putting my tiny 8 year old foot in the imprint of Shaq’s feet, and most of all I remember year in and year out the complete and total domination of the Chicago Bulls. Every year I would root for some team to stand in their way, and always watched 3 teams in the east fall, before an epic showdown in the west where The Bulls always stood on top. Utah Jazz almost did it, but they kept running into moments like this:

I was thinking about writing this post since last week, but now that Miami has toppled Indiana for its 18th win I want to chime in on the every daunting conversation of how unstoppable the Miami Heat truly are. Since I am not a sports writer, and don’t need to be chastised by over the top comments, I am not afraid to compare this Miami Heat team to another basketball team that once won 18 games in a row, the infamous non-stop locomotive 1995-1996 72 win season Chicago Bulls. Granted the Miami Heat are not going to win 72 games this season, but as Marc Stein mentions in his weekly power rankings of the last 8 teams to hit 18 game winning streaks only 3 have gone on to lose the finals.

Now I am going to avoid making this post about LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan. I have a nostalgia factor that comes into play that puts Michael Jordan as the best player in the universe. I also watched Michael Jordan act like the complete and total god of the basketball universe more times then I have seen James do that. Now with that said, Michael Jordan won MVP for 1995-1996 season and averaged slightly better points per game than LeBron James (30.2 vs. 26.7) however LeBron James has been putting up numbers overall that go above and beyond anyone who played professional basketball in the 1990′s. He is averaging 8.1 rebounds and 7.1 Assists per game (both higher than MJ on the bulls) and puts LeBron James at being a constant Triple-Double threat (he already has 35 in his career and MJ only has 28 in his entire career!)

I do stand behind the ring debate to a certain extent I don’t think LeBron has to win 6 to be on the list of Greatest Players of All Time, and I think it is fair for LeBron to feel that wining championships is more circumstance based. Although I still think winning an NBA championship was just as hard in the 90′s as it is now, so there is no reason that Miami can’t continue on its current war path.

Taking the playoffs out of the conversation for a moment, I think a big way that we think about players is based on the dominance level of their teams. Earlier this season I thought Miami was kind of phoning this season in. They didn’t seem particularly aggressive in their games and for the most part it looked as if they were going to put in the least effort possible to try to finish first in the East. However, the last 2 months have quickly erased that mindset, and now Miami are on a mission that I think any great sports team (regardless of the sport) should strive for, complete and total domination! Teams in the west should be fearing the Heat, watching video tapes now, preparing now, setting defensive schemes now (I am looking at you Gregg Popovich!), because they are a force to be reckon with. When a team starts to showcase themselves in the way Miami has been playing it creates a sense of fear, turmoil, and dread for whoever has to face them, regardless if it is a regular season game or a playoff series.

Today Boston’s Paul Pierce said he wants to play the Heat in the playoffs and called the Celtics “that team nobody wants to play” http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2013/03/paul_pierce_boston_celtics_are.html. Yet, this is almost an ironic statement about Celtics (currently poised to finish 6th in the East), since the Miami Heat are definitively the team nobody wants to play. I was watching the New York Knicks come close to shutting down Miami only a couple weeks ago, and all it took was one quarter of the Heat turning the notch up for the game to quickly turn in their favor. Last night, the Indiana Pacers who had also won 2 previous match-ups against Miami were sent to the slaughter house. And so it goes.

In the 1990′s the Eastern Conference endured a 6 year storm created by the Chicago Bulls (could of possibly been 8 if it was not for MJ playing baseball) and I am saying now, that storm is officially back. LeBron James is playing the season of his career, shooting almost 60% from the field in the last couple months.

Not only that but he has a supporting cast that on paper is both comparable and possibly more dangerous than Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, and Toni Kukoč. Dwayne Wade (on my fantasy basketball team this year) and Chris Bosh are both having excellent shooting seasons. You also have a bunch of dangerous 3 point shooters (that’s not including the big three) who they can constantly kick the ball out to (Ray Allen, Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, Rashard Lewis) all of whom are shooting 40% from the 3 point line (Mike Miller not far behind shooting 37% from 3 point range).

ESPN released this 5-on-5 article about the state of the Miami Heat. Their 4th question on the list was: Fill-in the blank: The Heat are the best team since ___________. None of the writers went as far as to mention the Chicago Bulls. One writer did mention the Kobe/Shaq era. Trust me, if the Heat win the finals this year, and set themselves up for a possible 3-peat next year, we are going to start hearing this comparison all the time.

However, do not fear! While it was painful for us Basketball fans not living in Chicago to watch the complete and total dominance of the Bulls, it didn’t make it any less fun to root for the underdogs (aka the rest of the teams in the league!) to beat them. If your someone who took any pleasure at all in watching Dallas beat the heat just 2 years ago, then I have good news for you, we have a basket full of opportunities in the next few years to see if this Miami Heat team can be beat. I know that I will be crossing my fingers, hoping that perhaps a Spurs or Thunder will be able to stand in the way, I am just starting to feel like as far this year goes, its looking less and less likely. I will leave you with this annoying picture of Sponge Bob:

I want to punch this face so bad!

Last year my friend Genji met this random book seller on MacDougal Street. Some how I got convinced to go up to this man’s apartment which was loaded with all kinds of books. He was smoking a pipe, drinking a PBR, and kept trying to sell me fancy $40.00 art books but I wasn’t really biting. However I found an awesome set of Japanese Pastels which he sold to me for 2 bucks. Best 2 bucks ever spent!

Oh and for those who were curious I won the Academy Award contest at Mark Bar! Grand Prize: $21.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are my predictions. A lot of tough categories this year, and I flew pretty close to the conservative side. I just hope I win ALMOST free drinks at this bar near my house. Also enjoy these oscar related sketches that I drew in 60-120 seconds.

Best Picture: Argo

Best Director: Ang Lee

Best Actor: Daniel De Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Lining PLaybook)

Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro (Silver Lining Playbook) (really anyones game, just a hunch)

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Argo

Best Original Screenplay: Amour

Best Cinematography: Life of Pi

Best Editing: Argo

Best Animated Film: Wreck-It-Ralph

Best Foreign Film: Amour

Best Documentary: Searching for Sugarman

Best Sound Editing: Life of Pi

Best Sound Mixing: Les Misérables

Best Production Design: Anna Karenina (Although it could be under “too close to call,” won’t be surprised if Life of Pi wins)

Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina

Best Hair/Makeup: The Hobbit

Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Best Score: Life of Pi

Best (Original Song): Skyfall

Best Live Action Short: Curfew

Best Animated Short: Paperman

Best Documentary Short: Inocente

I was recently reading a mediocre article on EW.com about the greatest Oscar snubs of all time, and it got me thinking about how much I have lost interest in the Academy Awards. I used to live for articles like this. **(If you want a really good one for this year check out Grantland’s arbitrarily set up bracket that has been putting all the oscar travesty’s against each other in a competition to see which one takes the cake.) When I was younger I loved watching the Academy Awards. My mom would always cook a special dinner, I would get to stay up late, and I was easily susceptible to the charm that Hollywood put on with good nominations, funny hosts, and a well produced show. A part of me wants to say that what you are about to read stems from me being older and more cynical, but that is false, the truth is that the Academy Awards have failed at a handful of critical moments, and have now lost the interest of my family, most of my friends, and above all yours truly, Max Berger, former #1 fan. When did this all begin? Well that’s simple let me take you back to March 5th, 2006 when one film ruined it all…

1. Crash wins Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain….Crash wins academy awards PERIOD.

“So be honest? Who did you kill to make this happen?”

In the history of the Academy Awards there have only been a handful of huge best picture upsets (and of that handful even less awards were highly critiqued at the time, yes Pulp Fiction should have won, but don’t blame the people of 1994 who fell in love with digital removal of legs and and Tom Hanks sitting on a bench), but Crash might take the cake for the biggest upset of all time. First off Crash is a pretty mediocre movie, the whole film is super on the nose, and the multi-character interchangeable plot lines had been done a number of times before in much better ways. Next, look at the nominations that year: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night Good Luck, Munich, and Crash. Just to get the nomination in the first place it had to beat out Pride & Prejudice, The Constant Gardner, The Squid and The Whale, and Match Point. Then we have to take into account that it beat out a monumental film, Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee (who wins the award for best directing!), and is a film that delicately takes a very critical look on homophobia in this country. I think that few articles really mention that Crash shouldn’t of won any academy awards. The other two golden statues the film brought home that year was Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, both of which were fully undeserved. I think any of the other 4 screenplay nominations could of taken the award: Good Night, Good Luck, The Squid and The Whale, Syriana (a better multi character film…) or Match Point (ok well maybe not Match Point since its a remake of A Place in the Sun…did I mention I am an Oscar nerd!). Editing could of gone to Munich or The Constant Gardner (Both editors has won awards previously, but still, they are better edited films).

I was 18 year old when Crash stunk up the Oscars, and in a lot of ways that gas has not passed, it has just gotten worse…

2. Mediocre films with “stellar” performances

In the last 8 years we have seen a rather unfortunate trend develop in which Actors/Actresses seem to win an easy academy award for easily forgettable films. A lot of the time you will see critics claiming that these performances are what make the film worthwhile, but I usually find myself thinking that I am watching a bad movie, only made watchable by a good performance. So basically I am calling shenanigans on Forrest Whittaker, Kate Winslet, Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, and Meryl Streep (not to mention a bunch of undeserved nominations). To start with The Last King of Scotland/The Iron Lady represent the most egregious examples of bio-pic = Academy Award. The Last King of Scotland only received one academy award nomination, and in terms of critics lists that year it ranked 37 out of 40 for top 10 lists in 2006. The Iron Lady is even worse (53% on Rotten Tomatoes) which gets grouped in with The Reader (61% on Rotten Tomatoes) as truly mediocre films with “great performances,” oh and let the record reflect that Kate Winslet beat Meryl Streep in Doubt (a much better film with a much better Streep performance) and Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married (which I would bet a million dollars if she had won we would not need to see her win this year for Les Miserables, another mediocre, critically panned, academy award nominated film). This cycle of people losing when they deserve to win only to be paid back by a worse performance later is a classic staple of the Academy Awards, but  it gets particularly annoying for acting awards. Why is it particularly annoying…oh I don’t know, lets say your a big Jeff Bridges fan, and so you go see this movie called Crazy Heart (which functions as both a  mediocre country music star film and a bad recovering alcoholic film) to see Jeff Bridges do a super watered down version of his drunk buffoon act, you know the kind of role that made him pretty famous in the first place. Jeff Bridges beat out Colin Firth in A Single Man…who then the next year beat out Jeff Bridges better drunken buffoon in the remake of True Grit…the irony. Oh and last but not least Sandra Bullock wins for the super mediocre Blind Side, which if it had been a year where only 5 films were nominated would have never received a best picture nomination, and she beat out Carrey Mulligan in An Education and Gabourey Sidibe in Precious, 2 of the best films of 2009. Don’t worry I am sure Mulligan and Sidibe.

3. How did that not get nominated!?! Oh right people campaign and spend money towards these things…

I wanted to avoid this subject since for so many categories (Documentary, Foreign, Animated) it seems to be a given that there will be indiscretions every year. Probably because the “voting process” for the nominees has never been a good system, and for each category they have their own set of crazy rules. However, I had to touch upon this subject because of the “outrage” that occurred when the 81st Academy Awards announced their nominations. Crash winning is a black mark, but 2009 marked a year that left the Academy struggling to find a balance with what the “masses” want vs. the industry vs. the majority of old white guys that get to call the shots. In 2009, despite The Reader having mostly mediocre reviews it received a nomination for Best Picture of the year (according to Rotten Tomatoes it was at the time the lowest rated film ever to receive a best picture nomination), while two highly praised films Wall-E (96% Rotten Tomatoes) and The Dark Knight (94% Rotten Tomatoes) were overlooked for Best Picture. Now indie studios could count this as a “score one for the little guys,” but really this was just an example of Oscar expert Harvey Weinstein knowing how to perfectly manipulate the system, and taking advantage of a system that highly favors serious dramas  over any other genre of filmmaking. I don’t want to go into too many details with it, this Fast Co.Create article does a pretty good job breaking it down for this years race, but basically every movie that you see that gets nominated for academy awards has a PR team that is at work day/night for months in an attempt to get their film to win. In general no matter which way you cut it good campaigns often have good results, and it is the first place to look when your scratching your head about a nomination or a victory. Getting back to it, while in 2009 the conversation surrounded Wall-E and The Dark Knight, there were a ton of movies that could have taken The Reader’s place (Doubt (4 acting nominations/screenplay nomination), The Wrestler, In Bruges…anything). Guess they couldn’t compete with the Weinstein nomination express.

But have no fear, The Academy worked up a plan! Following the 81st academy award they decided to make the ceremony “less exclusive” and expand the best picture nominations to 10! 10! 10! They counted it as an ode to when the Academy Awards first started, but really it was more the soggy band-aid to the backlash over the 2008 nominations. Now, I don’t really have a problem with there being more then 5 nominations, let movies slap on the nominated for best picture label and get those DVD sales up! My problem lies in the fact that expanding the nominations has only exposed more that there are certain film producers/studios that are just excellent at campaigning, getting nominations, and winning awards. These studios focus on high-end dramas, and the chips are stacked in their favor. So lets do a count. There have been 38 nominations for best picture since the expansion (now its a weighted system so less then 10 can be nominated)  24 have been dramas, 6 comedy/musical (and this is going by Golden Globe standards where DRAMAedies like Silver Lining Playbook and The Kids Are Alright count as straight comedies), 3 science fiction, 2 animated, 2 Quentin Tarantino Movies (have to give them their own category, although this might be as close to “action” as it gets for the Academy Awards, Skyfall/The Avengers did have better reviews/better box office then Django Unchained), and 1 Western. Oh and during that time a movie beat The Reader for worst reviewed best picture nominees, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (47% on Rotten Tomatoes!) So instead of evening out the playing field we see even more of an opportunity for mediocre dramas to get nominated, some of which would never have been nominated if they had just stayed the course with 5 nominees. Last year it was 7 Dramas, and 2 independent high-brow comedies, hence this rage comic…

(Not that I really had a problem with The Artist, last year had pretty terrible nominations anyway… wait how was Rise of the Planet of the Apes not nominated!)

4. Those old white male voters! …and the sub-par films they vote for!

While I do blame the companies that are pouring in immense budget for the campaigning for certain problems, I am also frustrated with the voting demographic still being mostly older white men (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/academy/la-et-unmasking-oscar-academy-project-html,0,7473284.htmlstory). When you see the demographics so heavily leaning in one direction, it can’t be all too surprising when new groundbreaking work gets overlooked for standard fair academy award oriented films. After all, a number of these films are being produced specifically in an attempt to win academy awards and appeal to older audiences in the first place. Now after Crash there have been 2 best picture decisions that have really upset me. The first was Slumdog Millionaire, which a part of me still wants to believe that Danny Boyle was just experimenting with the formula to win an academy award and accidentally came up with one of the greatest examples of  audience manipulation in recent years. Also Milk, would have been a really good opportunity to make up for Brokeback Mountain, and maybe even give the super deserving Gus Van Sant an academy award (after all he has won the Palm D’Or, but lets forget Cannes because they function in a world where ridiculous people get honored like…David Lynch…and Terrance Malick…and Werner Herzog …and Paul Thomas Anderson…and Robert Altman…OK ILL STOP ILL STOP!)

Regardless Slumdog Millionaire had arguably weak competition, however I can’t forgive 2011 where David Fincher’s The Social Network was robbed by The King’s Speech. Speechless. Look at the facts of top 10 lists compiled by critics in 2010, The King’s Speech was featured on 182 lists, and recieved number #1 on 17 of those lists. Impressive right? Not really, The Social Network was featured on 421 lists, and was #1 109 times!!! It was the best reviewed film of the year, it won countless critic awards, oh and lets forget those kind of accolades since it was the “it” film of that year. The Social Network instantly falls into the ranks of worst best picture decisions of all time. It has been 2 years, and to me The King’s Speech seems instantly forgettable (as in people sometimes struggle to remember what even won best picture that year) while I have watched The Social Network a million times. I also think that down the line we might see The Social Network as David Fincher’s magnum opus, and they will ultimately give him an academy award for some watered down lesser version of his previous great films. Oh also letting these young hooligans up on stage just would have been preposterous!

But here is the real truth. At least to me, The Social Network represent the “young” peoples best picture nominee. Here was a drama that younger audiences really liked, it wasn’t animated or action or science fiction, it was a drama produced by someone famous, directed by someone famous, written by someone famous, that in a smart critical way critiqued where we are as a culture right now. Even with it demonizing younger generation in a number of ways audiences really liked the film. Instead the academy ended up voting for yet another film that friends of mine who are not big film people would just sleep through. So The Social Network seems like a good place to point towards a departing moment of younger audiences being interested in the Academy Awards. I was certainly a lot less interested last year, and am pretty ambivalent about this year’s ceremony. What used to be an event for me might boil down to eating take out and watching the awards streaming online.

5. Tired of things not going my way, and ceremonies void of “fun.”

So this Sunday marks the 85th academy awards, and I should be excited because it was really one of the better year for films. I enjoyed a lot of movies this year and a good number of them at least scored nominations at the Academy wards. However, I am going to be a little bitter because the movie that I think should be winning best picture won’t because it was too political, too controversial, and apparently not the sort of challenging film that should be winning the award. I would of at least liked to believe that Zero Dark Thirty was going to put up a fight for best picture, but it is really hard for me to believe given that Kathryn Bigelow got super snubbed for a Best Director nomination. I had this crazy notion that the academy would keep pushing their progressive campaign, and stand behind the only women to ever win best picture/director, but I guess not…also Zero Dark Thirty was the best reviewed film of the year…

But really my main problem with the Academy Awards now is that even if I am to concede that “you can’t always get what you want” out of the actual award segments of the ceremony, it seems that we have been in a downward spiral in terms of hosts and how the ceremony is generally produced. I grew up spoiled watching Billy Crystal, Whoopie Goldberg, and Steve Martin; they hosted almost every ceremony in my lifetime up until 2004. Since then we have seen a lot of mediocre hosts (Chris Rock, John Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres) and then some debacles (James Franco/Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman) and they brought back Billy Crystal and Steve Martin but both times it seemed pretty forced, and it made me a little sad to see them so much older. I have very little confidence that Seth MacFarlane is going to turn this all around. In the mean time the Golden Globe ratings have been on the rise with great hosts such as Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey/Amy Poehler (wouldn’t that have been a good idea! Oh wait, brain flash, 2014 Academy Awards get Lena Dunham to host the awards! Then you can get the young people!) Also, I can only blame the hosts so much, after all a team of people put time and energy intro producing these award shows. They cut out performing Best Song in 2010 and 2012 (also this category could be utilized better in general to get people interested, I was pretty disappointed to not see Beck/Metric/Broken Social Scene get nominated for any of their work on The Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). Also, while I have never been too critical of the Academy Awards being too self congratulatory they clearly had a big misstep in 2009 when every nominee for best actor/actress had  current/former co-star of a film give a monologue about how much they love that said actor/actress (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AAZCNd3Cj4) I felt like Colin Farrell talking about Jeremy Renner was 10% genuine/nice and 90% a pitch that was like “look at this guy, he is amazing, he is such a nice guy, if I was a studio executive I would pay him a lot of money to be in next years big action thing!”

They axed the actor introduction the very next year, and Adele will be performing this year, so the new tradition of watching the Academy Awards trying to get back the good ole standard Oscar fun continues. I wish them luck this year. I would love nothing more then to see MacFarlane knock it out of the park, and maybe a couple flashy James Bond Tributes/possible Beasts of the Southern Wild upsets (Hey can’t stop a guy from dreaming!) will spice this year up and bring the Oscars back to my heart. Oh and as for the take out, I might be axing that plan, because I am going to try to win me a 90% off bar tab at some Oscar hosted party near my house! Perhaps, that will become my new found glory! I will post up my predictions on all categories for all who are interested Saturday night! Till then I will leave you with this:

Ok ridiculous holiday, but I have some heart filled monsters to share with you guys:

I also wanted to share with you some IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY love. We are getting very very very close to picture lock. Can’t wait to get done with the editing process…although I know a big part of me is going to miss it. Anyway, this is the amazing Yainis Ynoa and Billy Conahan locking lips!

Well I hope all of you had an amazing V-Day. I am going to leave you with this Youtube link to the full album of 69 Love Song by the Magnetic Fields, an album which everyone should listen to before they die. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF2O5ylDTw (appropriate for both the single and non-single on Valentine’s day!)

So every year I do a little top ten list for myself, but with this blog I figured I might as well share a couple thoughts on 2012s epic year in film. While there have been a couple years recently where I have sat and pondered that maybe the industry is heading towards complete oblivion (if you follow box office totals you will see that I am not so crazy), 2012 made me really hopeful about the state of cinema. It seemed to be a year marked by large ambitious projects. I think that each one of the films on this list never took the easy route, and this really inspires me as someone trying to get involved in the madness of filmmaking.

10. Don’t Think

Don’t Think (The Chemical Brothers concert film!!!) didn’t really make a big splash in movie theaters, but as far as concert films go I found it to be incredibly mesmerizing and immersive. I have always been a very big fan of the concert film. The Talking Heads/Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense” is one of my favorite films of all time. Don’t Think takes a very fresh approach at the concert film. Instead of focusing in on the “band” (Tom Rowlands & Ed Simons) it instead focuses in on a few subjects and the crazy lighting/projector displays at the 2011 Fuji Rock Festival. The result is pretty hypnotizing, and similar to Stop Making Sense creates an experience where you really want to just jump our of your seat and start dancing along. Hopefully I can attend some crazy party in the near future where the film can be projected on a big wall (add to life goals).

9. The Master

So apparently Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t know how to make a bad movie. Good for him! I used to have long debates with my roommate Jackie in college about which directors have the “perfect filmography” #filmnerds, but seriously in terms of people working right now it doesn’t get much better then PTA. Now that said I think Boogie Nights is a lot better then There Will Be Blood and The Master, but I really admire that the guy keeps picking bigger/crazier/more experimental projects to sink his teeth into. I don’t know if The Master truly hits that plateau of delivering a message about the “true nature of man” but I do know that I was enthralled by every moment of the film, and that’s good enough for me.

8. Searching for Sugarman

The last few years has seen the investigative documentary go on the big rise. In 2010, Exit Through The Giftshop blew people out of the water with its larger then life (is it fake? Is it real… I think its real!) story. Last year, I had the pleasure of seeing Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles which is a documentary that really puts you on the edge of your seat as you get closer to discovering the true origin of the Toynbee Tiles. Finallym we get to 2012 where it looks as if an investigative documentary has a very significant chance of winning Best Documentary of the year. Like any investigative documentary I feel like I wouldn’t be doing the film a lot of justice to spoil the story, but the documentary is incredibly moving, and the film cleverly builds on the music of Sixto Rodriguez (the illusive main subject) in a pretty brilliant way.

7. Holy Motors

Holy Motors pretty much sums up 2012 in film for me. It is nowheres near a perfect movie, but it is so ambitious and throws so many crazy elements at the screen that some things are bound to stick. I still remember exiting the film with friends and we were all debating about which “segment” we liked the best. Sure there were moments of Holy Motors where it completely lost me, but there were other moments that were some of the best scenes in film this year. Also similar to The Master (and a few more films to come on this list) it is full of very broad stroke questions about the meaning of life. Plus, to me Denis Lavant puts on one of the best performances of the year, especially because his character is constantly changing and yet at the same time is integral to keeping the whole film together. I am going to leave you with this clip as a great piece of evidence on why you should just go see it as quickly as possible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdvBLFI5kIs

6. The Zipper

Ok last of the documentaries! One of my favorite places in the world is Coney Island. I have had so many fun summers chilling on the dirty beach, riding the cyclone, and getting those really tall daiquiri drinks (which are normally a big rip off, but who cares!). The strip has changed a lot over the last few years, and it is especially noticeable with the rides, or rather the lack of rides. What happened to the all the amazing rides? Well Amy Nicholson goes about answering this question, or at least focusing in on the sad journey that led to the removal of The Zipper (one of the most feared, change stealing, ass-kicking rides in Coney Island). In the process she captures a much larger story centered on a war between Joe Sitt, an evil real estate mogul and a number of New York City politicians (Bloomberg!!!) who claim to know what is best for Coney Island’s future, but could not be more out of touch with what is best for the people. The documentary is very clever because it is able to meld these two stories together in a very enticing way. On one side you have a very personal documentary focused on the people who owned/ran The Zipper and on the other side you have a political documentary that gets to the core of the development issues in New York City.

5. Cabin in the Woods

I would say that Cabin in the Woods was hands down the most fun film of the year. I could easily see it rise in the ever exclusive ranks of the stoner comedy. It really built off the Scream concept where you have a horror/parody hybrid, but while Scream maybe leaned more into the horror side, Cabin in the Woods was not afraid to take the parody to new heights. The 3rd act gets really ridiculous with a full out monster extravaganza. The whole movie is really set up as a tease of what audiences expect out of a horror film, do we want them to all die? do we want the goriest zombie death possible? do we want Sigourney Weaver to show up? Well obviously all of the above! Thank you Cabin in the Woods…Thank you for Merman!

4. Moonrise Kingdom

There was that moment about 6 years ago when Darjeeling Limited came out and I thought to myself maybe there is a shelf life for Wes Anderson endless career of off kilter characters and colorful worlds. I was wrong. I think that in many ways Fantastic Mr. Fox was a big step in the right direction, and Moonrise Kingdom instantly becomes one of the premier films of Wes Anderson’s career. I would put it as my number two behind Rushmore. The main reason Moonrise Kingdom works so well is that despite the big cast the film is very scaled back for Wes Anderson. The film easily could of gotten lost among Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, and of course Bill Murray, but instead we spend most of our time with Sam & Suzy, two misfit youngsters in love. I also reserve 50% of my judgement for Wes Anderon movies on how perfectly melancholy the ending sequence can be, so probably the most important thing is that Moonrise Kingdom did not disappoint when it came to its final scene.

3. Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas functions in the same vein as Holy Motors, bringing so many different interesting weird things to the table that it is not necessary to love the whole film to enjoy the experience. I really bought into the whole thing which is probably why its so high on my list. The film is beautiful, and is pretty genius when you look at it strictly from an editing point of view. I really have to say that the Neo-Seoul segment of the film is what won me over. The story of Sonmi-451 functions on its own as one of the best science fiction films from recent years (I would def take it over Looper!). The Wachowski siblings really know how to bring it when it comes to sci-fi, and they manage to get really good performances out of everyone, even if it does come with occasional “yellow faced” white actors. While Tom Hanks and Halle Berry don’t bring in the best performances of the film, the supporting cast, which also functions as main characters in different segments of the film keep the movie going, especially Ben Whishaw and Doona Bae, who own up to multiple heart breaking performances.

2. Beasts of the Southern Wild

“When I die, the scientists of the future, they’re gonna find it all. They gonna know, once there was a Hushpuppy, and she live with her daddy in the Bathtub.” Beasts of the Southern Wild really swept me off my feet. I can’t wait for a future where I go to midnight screenings of Beasts 5,10,15 years down the line, and will still enjoy Hushpuppy’s little journey. For years people have been telling me that New Orleans independent cinema was going to blow up, and now I really can’t wait to see more films that can bring it the way that Beast of The Southern Wild does. I am really disappointed that the film’s score didn’t get nominated for an Academy Award given that I felt it might have been the strongest part of the film among all the great elements. Listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6ESnzuBomk I also really appreciated the world that Benh Zeitlin created; with a lot of films I feel completely like a spectator just watching something interesting pass by, but with Beasts I became very absorbed with the group of bayou misfits and felt as if I could taste their food and drink their liquor right along side them.

1. Zero Dark Thirty

I feel very luck that I got to go see Zero Dark Thirty before the countless articles of criticism and controversies got dumped on it. These articles some of which bring up valid points and some of which seem to be complete bogus have now overshadowed what I really think is the best film of the year. Zero Dark Thirty in my opinion brings a lot to the table, and perhaps ways overshadows Kathryn Bigelow’s past best picture winner, The Hurt Locker. First off, Bigelow is able to capture the true drama of our never ending war on terrorism, a war which lacks one of the war genres most vital elements a big crazy battle! Yet despite that, I really believe that Zero Dark Thirty can instantly be considered a classic American war film, and for me I see a lot of similarities between Apocalypse Now and ZDT. I enjoyed that the film wasn’t afraid to ask very challenging questions while never interrogating its audience. If anything I think its a little too smart for its own good, since it contains a handful of slow subtle powerful moments that could easily get glossed over or misinterpreted. Also, as much as I in general accept that the Academy Awards will never go my way, Jessica Chastain better win an academy award! I think it could be considered one of the best female performance in a long time, and I feel confident that Chastain is an actress we are going to be seeing around for awhile. While the film does run a bit long, the wait is completely worth it for the final 30 minutes, where spoiler alert, we watch Osama Bin Laden’s compound get overtaken by the Seal 6 team. The sequence is so compelling, and frightening, that I think it is bound to keep anyone on the edge of their seat. As a side note I would like to add that I was originally very turned off by the idea of them turning Osama being killed into its own film, but I came out of the film singing a very different tune, and felt as if I had seen something that elevated my understanding of how our world is currently functioning, and the moral dilemmas that come with it.

So that’s my list for 2012! I hope you guys enjoyed!

I wanted to give honorable mentions to Indie Game: The Movie, Wreck-it-Ralph, and Prometheus. My least favorite film of the year was definitely This is 40. Also, I think I am going to do a follow up post on my my main problem with Lincoln, so look for that really soon!