Monday, January 18, 2021

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2012


Three weeks right in a row has got to be some sort of record for our "Siri Says" series -- it's been awhile since I haven't let my attention slip in between. But here we are, for the third time in as many weeks, asking the little woman inside of my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100 and then name my favorite five movies from the corresponding year. Today, on the second try, Siri said the number 12, and so today we will skip ourselves back not too far, just to The Movies of 2012.

This year is of course recent enough that I already did this once -- you can check out our so-called "Golden Trousers" awards for 2012 at this link. Those were some substantial Pantys! 2012 represents the peak of my awards-posting -- I posted a ton that year, more than any before or since. What I remember about that is it blew me the fuck out. There's no need for almost 70 posts! I've learned to condense them, thankfully -- my sanity thanks me anyway. 

I was curious to see if my original list of favorite 2012 movies had shifted at all in the past nine years and lo, it has, although not a ton. What surprised me the most is how few 2012 movies I've re-watched since 2012? Ones that placed rather high at the time I just haven't seen since. So there's some shuffling off my head today, mostly due to my memory being hazy, but truth be told if I haven't had the desire to re-watch the movie in eight years that might say something about my love for the movie, right? Right. Anyway, the list as it stands today...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2012
(dir. Wes Anderson)
-- released on June 29th 2012 --
(dir. Leoz Carax)
-- released on July 4th 2012 --

(dir. Chris Butler & Sam Fell)
-- released on August 17th 2012 --

(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
-- released on September 21st 2012 --

(dir. Jacques Audiard)
-- released on May 17th 2012 --

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Runners-up: Amour (dir. Michael Haneke), The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Goddard), Cosmopolis (dir. David Cronenberg), Lincoln (dir. Steven Spielberg), Magic Mike (dir. Steven Soderbergh), The Paperboy (dir. Lee Daniels), Compliance (dir. Craig Zobel), Take This Waltz (dir. Sarah Polley), The Impossible (dir. JA Bayona)...

... Wuthering Heights (dir. Andrea Arnold), Killing Them Softly (dir. Andrew Dominik), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (dir. Stephen Chbosky), Dark Horse (dir. Todd Solondz), Bullhead (dir. Michael R. Roksam), The Wise Kids (dir. Stehen Cone), The Bay (dir. Barry Levinson), Zero Dark Thirty (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)

Never seen: Hysteria (dir. Tanya Wexler), Goon (dir. Michael Dowse), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (dir. David Gelb), Hyde Park on Hudson (dir. Roger Michell), Quartet (dir. Dustin Hoffman)

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What are your favorite movies of 2012?

8 comments:

Pierce said...

Liked: Joyful Noise; The Woman in Black; Frankenweenie; Argo; Skyfall; Quartet; Lincoln; Hitchcock; Hyde Park on Hudson; The Guilt Trip; Django Unchained; Byzantium; Moonrise Kingdom

Hated: Perks of Being a Wallflower; Bel Ami; Les Miserable; Magic Mike; Life of Pi; This is 40

Unmemorable: The Odd Life of Timothy Green; A Liar’s Autobiography; North Sea Texas

WTF? Cloud Atlas

joel65913 said...

Moonrise Kingdom was okay but I was never as swept away by it as so many were.

Sorry I hated The Master sooooooooooo very much.

I think this year has more documentaries in my top rankings than any other.

My top 10:
1. 56 Up-Every year an entry in this incredible series came out it's my top film of the year. With Michael Apted's recent passing I'm afraid that the last "63 Up" will be the end of the series and it's breaking my heart that I won't be able to check in with those people whose life I've been following since they were 7 years old. :-(

2. Lincoln
3. Argo
4. Hannah Arendt
5. How to Survive a Plague
6. Skyfall
7. Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
8. The Woman in Black
9. The Bourne Legacy
10. Flight

Since I'm sure it's incredibly doubtful that you'll ever do 1912, I'm going to list the five films (I've seen 8 from that year so far) from that year that I thought were pretty good.

1. An Unseen Enemy-The screen debut of both Lillian and Dorothy Gish.
2. A Christmas Accident
3. Cleopatra-For the time this is impressive (if clunky) with star Helen Gardner acting as producer and editor.
4. Falling Leaves
5. Canned Harmony

Jason Adams said...

Joel -- you're very correct, 1912 escapes me; I'd never be able to come up with 5. I don't think I've even seen one from that year. My batting average gets worse and worse the further back into Silents you go. Which I hate. I'd love to be better about them. One day I'll make a project of it, but I've been saying that for ages, so...

Jason Adams said...

Oh and re: The Master I actually didn't love it in 2012 -- it didn't even make my list then -- but I've reassessed it over the past couple of years, especially since losing PSH, who I'd been growing weary of around that time, but now that he's gone I cherish all we did get more. Which has a lot to do with my attitude change.

par3182 said...

according to my notes i loved safety not guaranteed but i barely remember it nowadays

Remy said...

1- Moonrise Kingdom
2- Looper
3- Holy Motors
4- The Master
5- Amour
6- Rust & Bone
7- Tabu
8- Killer Joe
9- Paranorman
10- The Kid With a Bike

I was living in NY at that time. A good year.

verbocity said...

Magic Mike is the worst movie i ever saw.
No plot, cardboard characters, not one memorable line of dialogue. And the ending.... Mike makes up his mind to cerebral and creative rather than purely physical. By doing that he's won the girl and the first thing she wants to do is f***. So he's still just an extra-large serving of beefcake.

Adam said...

I watched Wuthering Heights a while ago and was disappointed to find you hadn't reviewed it when I looked. Definitely a film of two halves but that first half was unlike anything I've seen. Glad to see you liked it.

I also put Holy Motors on my to-watch list just the other day so we're definitely vibing!