Films of 2012

It’s been a strange year in film for me, with various commitments causing me to miss major releases like The Master and Rust & Bone – as well as smaller titles like Berberian Sound Studio which I know I will love. My series of reviews on the IMDB’s top fifty films was a roaring success with readers but sadly ground to a halt as work consumed my time and a press pass for Leeds International Film Festival went largely unused.

Thankfully, as the year progressed I managed more cinema trips, the IMDB series creaked back into life and the estimable subtitledonline.com recovered from some financial difficulties, re-opened its reviewing arm and starting commissioning more of my writing.

Of course, there were major disappointments in 2012. Ridley Scott’s re-visiting of the Alien franchise was a damp squib, Great Expectations was woeful and The Hobbit was the bloated behemoth we (sadly) expected. There is much to look forward to in 2013 – not least Tarantino’s apparent return to form in Django Unchained and adaptations of two truly great novels: Cloud Atlas and The Great Gatsby.

But as the year draws to its end, here’s my pick of the films of 2012 (click the hyperlinks for my full reviews).

The Angel’s Share
A delightful film which blends Ken Loach’s trademark gritty realism with a streak of warmth and good humour. The tale of a rag-tag bunch of community-service serving Scottish criminals attempting to steal valuable scotch is a decidedly old-fashioned caper which warms the heart through its wonderful characterisation and the single malt whisky which forms the basis of its plot. Not enough people saw The Angel’s Share at the cinema, but it’s now available at home and you’d be a fool not to fork out a few quid now…

The Dark Knight Rises
The final part of Chris Nolan’s genre-changing trilogy is huge in every sense. Shot using iMax technology, the film was epic in its size and ambition. Perhaps the bravest decision of the director’s career was to marginalise Batman himself, with the Caped Crusader barely appearing on screen at all. There were plot holes a-plenty, too, but to pull a superhero movie apart for being slightly implausible would be churlish. This is the greatest film of its genre, and vastly superior to the cartoonish frippery of 2012’s other big comic book franchise, The Avengers.

Life of Pi
Long considered unfilmable, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi finally made it the silver screen in December 2012 – and it was worth the wait. Until the technology existed which could accurately set a teenage boy adrift in the ocean with a Bengal tiger, the novel remained on the shelf. But Ang Lee’s superb use of computer generated animals and 3D filming techniques breathed life and beauty into a fantastical, poetic story which explores religion and the human spirit without ever beating the audience over the head with ‘a message’.

The Imposter
A true-life story so implausible that it could only be a documentary – it’s too far-fetched to be fiction. The titular imposter is Frederick Bourdin, a French Algerian who inveigles his way into the family of Nicholas Barclay – a blonde, blue-eyed Texan who went missing some years before. That Bourdin bears no resemblance to Barclay is an irrelevance to a family desperate to welcome back their lost son. But why are they so willing to embrace a stranger? Bourdin is a wonderfully charismatic man, but the real interest here is in the dark secrets hidden by the family he infiltrates.

Sightseers
Ben Wheatly’s jet black Kill List was one of last year’s best releases. Here, he takes that streak of violent horror and injects it into a hilariously small-scale comedy about an oddball couple caravanning across the north of England. Their journey to railway museums and campsites is spoiled somewhat by litterers and middle-class snobbery, so they do what any put-upon couple would do – and engage in a murderous rampage of Daily Mail readers. A hilarious film with a truly nasty heart.

Beasts of the Southern Wild
In a partially flooded Louisiana bayou, six year old Hushpuppy lives with her alcoholic father Wink in a pair of collapsing shacks. He is desperately ill and angry at himself and the world. She is simultaneously fiercely independent and vulnerable. When a horrendous storm hits, their community is destroyed, turning their story into one of survival. This is a beautiful, elegiac film of enormous power and lyricism featuring one of the greatest child performances ever given. A wonderful film.

Marley
Despite massive fame and a huge legacy, Bob Marley has managed to remain a rather mysterious figure. Although his voice is one of the world’s most famous, he was rarely heard talking to the media. Here, Kevin McDonald gives Marley and those who knew him centre stage, focusing on the man rather than the music. At times it’s a little easy on a man whose extra-marital affairs and dubious family life could be easily criticised – although even those he wronged show nothing but warmth and love to a man who preached exactly those qualities.

Wavumba
A tiny documentary about a massive character, Wavumba concentrates on Zimbabwean fisherman Masoud as he struggles to reconcile his legendary status with his fading physical prowess. He’s a man who has constructed his own myth, telling tall tales of wrestling sharks and huge catches, but who now relies entirely on his muscular nephew Juma. Their bickering belies a genuine affection and forms the heart of this understated yet powerful character study.

Argo
Ben Affleck is not universally liked, but his directorial career is causing the doubters to reassess their views of his talents. Here, he takes the little known story of six Americans trapped in 1979 Iran and their startling rescue – achieved by posing as a film crew scouting locations for a fictional sci-fi film. Made with verve and skill, Affleck takes a beguiling story and creates a stylish movie which captures the mood of the time perfectly and builds to a buttock-clenchingly tense climax. It’s a real Oscar contender.

Holy Motors
An idiosyncratic and episodic film which beguiles, bewitches and repulses in equal measure. There is no traditional sense of narrative at all. Instead, the camera follows Monsieur Oscar for a full day. He’s some kind of actor or performance artist, fulfilling a series of appointments in which he plays various parts: a motion-capture artist, a dying man, a hitman and many more. It’s worth seeing this film for Dennis Lavant’s performance(s) alone, as he undergoes amazing physical transformations in front of the audience’s eyes; it’s so spectacular that the film’s exasperating strangeness becomes secondary.

The Imposter

The rise of the documentary continues apace, with increasing numbers of factual films securing cinema releases. Outstanding distribution companies like Dogwoof continue to promote excellent films from across the world, British successes like Senna have drawn huge audiences and now, with a truly remarkable piece of work, Bart Layton has presented audiences with a story which truly is stranger than fiction. This true tale of deceit, mistaken identity and trickery could never have been made as traditional narrative cinema for one simple reason: the story is too far-fetched for an audience to buy it.

In 1994, a blue-eyed, blonde-haired boy of thirteen disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. He was Nicholas Barclay, who vanished without a trace on his way home from basketball practice. Astonishingly, more than three years later Spanish police in the small town of Linares reported that he had shown up there after a harrowing ordeal involving child abuse and paedophilia.

The sixteen year old child who returned from Spain was quite transformed from the one who had disappeared. But despite his dark hair, brown eyes and thick French accent, the Barclay family identified him as their own and took him into their home. Eventually, after five months, the mask slipped and ‘Nicholas’ was revealed to be an imposter: a 23 year old French Algerian who had spent his adolescence impersonating abandoned teenagers in order to milk the kindness of strangers – and the benefits system.

The imposter is the charismatic Frederick Bourdin – a man desperately in need of an identity who takes advantage of a series of extraordinary coincidences to dupe his way into the United States. But how could anyone fall for such a story? The simple answer is... they didn’t. Eventually Bourdin’s story begins to collapse under its own weight as he adds layer upon layer of deceit to his already tall tale. Soon he’s being investigated by the FBI – and a dogged Private Investigator named Charlie Parker.

But whilst Bourdin’s motives are understandable, others are more difficult to read. Did the Barclay family really believe that he was there son? Or are they playing an active role in their own deception? The film’s second act is devoted to uncovering the truths behind the lies – and Bourdin plays only a minimal role.

The Imposter can rely on an intriguing and shocking narrative to hold the audience’s attention, but it’s also a brilliantly crafted film. The widescreen vistas of arid Texan landscapes are beautifully shot and the documentary is skilfully edited: match-on-action and reaction shots of Bourdin add startling weight and emotional heft to proceedings. Director Bart Layton could easily have rested on his laurels here, trusting his story to be the star. Instead, he has created a dense and rich documentary and character study which will leave audiences puzzling long after the credits have rolled...