starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville and Jaimie Alexander
screenplay: Andrew Knauer
directed by: Jee-Woon Kim
MPAA: Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, and language
Film Review: The Last Stand
Category: Films
Film Review: Gangster Squad
starring: Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Mireille Enos, Giovanni Ribisi
screenplay: Will Beall
directed by: Ruben Fleischer
MPAA: Rated R for strong violence and language
The Spinning Platters Guide to the Best Films of 2012
It’s list time! 2012 marked my second full year serving as Spinning Platters’ movie editor, and I once again had the kinda-privilege of seeing nearly every theatrical release. But I have to say, and maybe it’s just because I’m already jaded and embittered after only two years of full-fledged film criticism: I was rather disappointed by the 2012 crop. Last year I had a bitch of a time narrowing my favorites down to just ten, while this year I had to talk myself into believing a few of them were even worthy of top-ten canonization. And unlike 2011, this year left me without a clear favorite. I still use a ranked list below, but my top four are fairly interchangeable. Still, some things have remained the same: as with last year, there is at least one optimistic critical favorite I’ve aligned myself squarely against (last year it was The Artist, this year it’s Silver Linings Playbook), as well as one blockbuster comedy that somehow made it into my top five. So without any further ado, let’s dive into my begrudging top ten, some honorable mentions, my bitchiest moments of the year, and the movie I’m most embarrassed about praising.
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Film Review: Django Unchained
starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
written and directed by: Quentin Tarantino
MPAA: Rated R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language and some nudity
Film Review: Les Misérables
starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Aaron Tveit
screenplay by: William Nicholson
directed by: Tom Hooper
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements
Film Review: This Is 40
starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel, Annie Mumulo, Robert Smigel, Megan Fox, Charlyne Yi, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Chris O’Dowd, Melissa McCarthy, Lena Dunham
written and directed by: Judd Apatow
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, crude humor, pervasive language and some drug material
Spinning Platters Interview: Ang Lee on “Life of Pi”
They said it couldn’t be done: a movie version of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel Life of Pi, an intensely visual parable that consists almost entirely of a teenaged Indian boy named Pi lost at sea on a tiny rowboat with a wild tiger as his only companion? Bah, said some. Blergh, exclaimed others. Bloop, said NeNe Leakes. But clearly the naysayers hadn’t considered the possibility that Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning 58-year-old director of such contemporary classics as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, would consider taking the helm. But take it he did, choosing the spiritual allegory as his follow-up to the modestly received Taking Woodstock.
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Spinning Platters Interview: Joe Wright on “Anna Karenina”
“I cannot believe that I am less important than Tyra Banks!” Joe Wright exclaims with mock-indignation. He has every reason to be nonplussed. Through a bizarre chain of last-minute developments, I have found myself with a direct conflict to our scheduled interview time: the opportunity to ask Tyra Banks a question over the phone for a rare pre-taped episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live. The call had originally been scheduled over an hour prior to my interview with Wright, but TyTy took her sweet-ass time arriving to the taping; so now here I am, sitting at the Ritz-Carlton with my iPhone flattened against my ear, waiting anxiously for my Tyra cue while Wright, the British director of such Oscar-nominated dramas as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, paces in front of me with an unlit cigarette. I am fully aware that I am showing questionable judgment and hope that Wright’s next interviewer will show up so that we might reshuffle our schedule, but the next interviewer is nowhere to be found, and I am now personally responsible for keeping Joe Wright waiting.
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Spinning Platters Interview: Robert Zemeckis on “Flight”
François Truffaut once said that a great movie is the perfect blend of truth and spectacle. This is one of Robert Zemeckis’ favorite quotes, and as evidenced by his staggering filmography, a guiding principle in his work. From his 1984 action-comedy Romancing the Stone onward, he has displayed an virtuosic ability to craft culture-defining megahits that use cutting-edge technology to tell unforgettable stories. Comedic VFX-driven comedies like the Back to the Future films, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Death Becomes Her led to such powerfully soul-searching dramas as Forrest Gump (which won him the Oscar for Best Director), Contact, and Cast Away (which came out a few months after his deliciously sinister suspense flick, What Lies Beneath). Zemeckis’ interest in new filmmaking technology then led him on a decade-long detour into animation, and for a time, it seemed like we may have lost the visionary who so radically broadened the horizons of live-action film. But now, twelve years after his last non-animated movie, he is back with Flight.
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Film Review: “Silver Linings Playbook”
starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver, Chris Tucker, John Ortiz, Julia Stiles
written by: David O. Russell (screenplay), Matthew Quick (novel)
directed by: David O. Russell
MPAA: Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity