“It was a lot about a generation that had been over-praised and told that they could do whatever they want at the cost of reality,” explains the director. “I thought it was a funny place to start and had really good satire about the youthful kind of optimism that each generation has thinking that they have the right to the American Dream that doesn’t exist anymore.”

Adult World has Emma Roberts in her most impressive role yet, starring as Amy– a self-indulgent, aspiring poet who aspires to be published, renowned and celebrated her first year after college. Instead, she is met with question marks and limited employment opportunities, forcing her to take a job at a local pornography shop.

The character of Amy is complicated and the role called for a balanced eccentricity that Emma Roberts navigates really well. “I met a lot of good young actresses,” says Coffey. “Nobody seemed to have the kind of self-consciousness, but also the will and humor and vulnerability at the same time. That was a really tough thing to find and when I met Emma I knew right away that she was right.”

The actor and director, who previously directed Ellie Parker in 2005, also has a small role in Adult World and helped put together a wonderful supporting cast, which includes Evan Peters as the shop manager whose charm and earnestness open Amy up to new possibilities, John Cusack as a washed-up writer who reluctantly takes up Amy’s offer to be his protégé/maid and teaches her lessons of the harsher variety, and, Armando Riesco with a standout, crowd-pleasing performance as Rubio, the hilarious and nurturing drag queen that helps Amy come into her own.

“Everyone loves Rubio so much,” affirms Coffey. “Armando’s a wonderful actor. That was a really challenging role because I didn’t want it to be just some silly, parody of a drag queen. Rubio is someone who has a lot of dignity and a lot of strength.”
Adult World made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last week and received an overwhelmingly positive response from the audience on opening night, a sign that the film succeeds as a funny and insightful satire that brings to the surface cold, hard truths about the fickle character of the latest generations of young adulthood, but still inspires some hope and positivity—all of which Scott Coffey explores through Amy.

“There’s enough sadness to the movie,” notes Coffey. “But also it’s a comedy so I liked adding those two elements to it.

It took LaMarque, whose short film Spoonful was a 2012 Sundance selection, several years to compose her first ever screenplay. “I wrote the first draft when I was pregnant with my daughter who’s now five, so it’s been quite a journey,” says LaMarque. “And, in the process of that I went to film school and studied screenwriting.”

In those years the Stanford University and American Film Institute graduate sculpted The Pretty One, making its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. It is about Laurel, an awkward, homely young woman living at home, who upon losing her identical twin Audrey, faces an identity crisis that combines the grief of losing her other half and her desire to assume her sister’s confident, sophisticated, cool personality.

“I see the two characters as two sides of the same coin,” says LaMarque of Laurel and Audrey. “Like the part of us that feels insecure and scared– that you don’t want to take a chance, that maybe you don’t deserve something. And, then there’s the part of you that’s brave and goes out there and takes chances and risks, and maybe decides to put on some make-up. There’s value to both sides. I think that women deal with that sort of duality of like ‘where do I fit on this spectrum of being a woman?’”

Actress, screenwriter and playwright Zoe Kazan was drawn to the screenplay and the idea of playing twins for similar reasons. “There’s that kind of duality to both characters that was intriguing to me,” explains Kazan. “I haven’t been asked to do a lot of really sexy stuff on film and that’s a big part of my life. I’ve always been a very sensual person. And, I was able to bring the parts of me that still feel like a gawky thirteen-year-old whose feet move before the rest of her body.”
“We all go home and put on sweatpants and take our make-up off and put our hair up and look like possums. There’s a part of all of us that doesn’t feel good about ourselves. The movie also deals with how Audrey is a girl who went out and convinced the world that she was a beautiful girl and that she was an adult and sexy—that conundrum exists in all of us.”

The experience of playing twins was just as challenging for Kazan as it was rewarding, especially playing opposite herself.“That stuff is really hard, because you’re trained as an actor to be really generous with your screen partner and vibe off whatever they’re doing,” says Kazan. “I feel like I got so much better at the technical aspects of filmmaking after doing that.”

“It took three times as long to shoot the scenes where she was playing both characters and she was acting off a body double,” adds LaMarque.

LaMarque also really appreciated Kazan’s collaborative spirit. “She brings a lot into the collaboration as a storyteller and as a writer, and I really respect that and value that part of the collaborative process. She brought a lot to it.”

The director also notes that Jake Johnson, who plays Audrey’s neighbor Basel, also brought a lot to the film. “Jake Johnson and Zoe also had great chemistry and improvised off of one another,” says LaMarque of their dynamic. “Those were some of the best moments and the most fun; because I didn’t plan it […] it was so funny and real.”

After focusing on The Pretty One for the last five years, Jenée LaMarque is excited to put it out into the world, while expecting her second child in August and working on new screenplays. Zoe Kazan is also focusing on writing, after having shot four movies last year (including The F Word with Daniel Radcliffe), and is currently work-shopping her new play.

When asked what the play is about, Kazan simply says “An affair.”

For those not familiar with Jeff Buckley’s music—he had a very unique four-octave range tenor voice and his one completed and released album Grace was one of the most acclaimed albums ever, so “balls of steel,” they must be!

Greetings from Tim Buckley is ambitious in that it intertwines the biographies and musical legacies of two distinct individuals, who did not have a shared history, despite the fact that they were father and son. The film focuses on Jeff Buckley’s reluctant involvement in his late father’s tribute concert in Brooklyn’s Saint Anna’s Church in 1991 and Tim Buckley’s life leading up to and right after the birth of his son. Young Jeff Buckley struggles with closure and forgiveness as he is awakened to his inheritances through the people who knew and/or admired the father he never had the chance to know, except through music.

Directed and co-written by Daniel Algrant (Naked in New York, People I Know), Greetings from Tim Buckley isn’t a stereotypical biopic. The film moves between two –periods of time and is really carried by music. We are not given a bunch of pivotal moments strung together or bits and pieces of songs or abridged performances—Tim Buckley’s music really lives and thrives in this film. Even for those of us who never knew Jeff Buckley had a famous, folk-singer father, the music is moving and does so much of the storytelling. The songs don’t lose any of their depth or weight for the sake of plot development.

And, thank goodness Gossip Girl is over, because although it was a great steady gig for Badgley and he probably made life-long friends—now he can do more of what he does in Greetings. His performance is transformative and astute, gentle and raw, and culminates with a moving recreation of Jeff’s legendary rendition of Tim’s “Once I Was.” (There is also an incredibly entertaining scene that has Jeff giving a spastic impromptu performance in a NYC record store that had everyone in the audience clapping and howling with cheers).

Deep in a stark, isolated rural village in Kazakhstan thirteen-year-old Aslan lives with his grandmother. The scientifically-inclined boy is highly intelligent and observant, but also withdrawn and sickly. His grandmother thinks he may be cursed and he silently endures the torment he faces at school, which comes under the orders of Bolat- a henchman who through intimidation and violence collects money from his classmates for the senior gang leaders, who then funnel the cash to those behind bars.

All the while, the gifted and skillful boy is devising a plan for retribution.

Timur Aidarbekov is exceptional as Aslan. With very few words spoken throughout the film, Aidarbekov makes Aslan’s loneliness of mind, spirit and company completely palpable. At the same time, his performance is provocative—we can see his mind at work and we have a sense of his depth of perception and feeling, however internalized. Aslan Anarbayev is also impressive as Bolat, conveying both the false confidence, as well as the fears, anxieties and insecurities that bullies tend to carry, very naturally.

The sophisticated execution of Aidarbekov’s performance correlates with the directing style and cinematography of Harmony Lessons. Emir Baigazin wrote, directed and edited this debut feature, and at 29 years of age, has been able create a picture that is grave and sobering, but in the most expressive and compelling ways.

Baigazin’s cinematic revelations come through slowly and with meticulous attention to detail. The storytelling is visual poetry, and words are used only when needed. The symbolism in the film is a demonstration of more than one teenager’s anguish—it’s a map through the topography of a culture and society in a very complicated part of the world. And, on yet another level it speaks to humanity as a whole.

The French and German production, received a Special Jury Mention in the Best New Director category at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, and a well-deserved one.  With Harmony Lessons, Emir Baigazin proves that he is filmmaker with purpose and with a vision. The subject, the plot, the setting are grim, from start to finish. It is not an easy film to sit through, but once you’ve seen it, there is so much that sits with you.

There are nine years between each one of these films, so there is always an element of mystery and anticipation that is important to the overall experience of the Before films, which is why I chose not to watch the trailer. I didn’t want to know a thing about the last nine years in the lives of these two luckless lovers until I sat down and it revealed itself to me in its entirety. For the sake of other fans, I will refrain from revealing any important details, and because the films are not plot-driven, a lengthy synopsis is not necessary.

We find Jesse and Celine nine years older and in Greece. Unlike its predecessors, Before Midnight introduces us to several new characters, all of whom lend certain insights about who the idealistic-leaning, intellectually-driven writer from Texas and the cynically-leaning, intellectually-driven environmentalist from Paris have become.

For some fans the sequel to Before Sunrise ruined whatever ending they conjured up for the couple in their own minds or the uncertainty they found so promising. Certainly with every additional chapter the mystery and the need for imagination fades, but the wonderful thing is that the characters come alive again. They are awaken, no longer just a memory, and are more alive, colorful and real than ever.

Director Richard Linklater, and stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke seem to have invested whole-heartedly on artistic and personal levels to not only keep these characters and this story breathing, but to do so as honestly and faithfully as possible.

Before Sunset and Before Midnight are true, worthy, nearly perfect companions to the original. Delpy and Hawke have really stepped up to the plate as screenwriters, with progressions that are so unwavering you forget they had no part in writing the first screenplay. The dialogue is immaculate–as rich, thought-provoking, witty and engaging as ever and there is still something remarkable– a natural, seamless alchemy to Delpy and Hawke’s dynamic on-screen that has evolved, but has not dwindled.

When asked about her own relationship with the horror, Bell professed to being a bit of a fangirl when it comes to the genre. “For me, my summers growing up was watching horror movies with my dad and just getting scared to death! I love everything from Suspiria to Pumpkinhead to Alien to, ya know, Poltergeist. Nothing’s more fun of me than going into a movie theater and loving the thrill of getting scared.” With a history like that, Ashley Bell was both excited and honored when given the opportunity to bring such a complex character, like Nell and her sinister counterpart, to life on the big screen. Naturally, it was a no-brainer for Bell when she was asked to return for the sequel. When asked whether or not she was surprised that a sequel was announced, she responded, “I had always hoped that it would happen because I really enjoyed playing the character of Nell. I loved building both her and the devil that possesses her. When I got the call that it [the sequel] was actually happening, it was really surprising and exciting to see where she would now go.”

Ashley Bell was very understanding of my thinly-veiled skepticism about the nature of most horror sequels. “Nobody jumped into it, they really wanted to make sure they had a good story first. That’s something only somebody like Eli Roth could really do because he knows the genre so well and he knows how to play with rules of the genre and innovate and make something that people haven’t seen before. I think audiences will be very surprised.” When asked if The Last Exorcism Part II would deliver more of the same things that audiences loved about the first film, Ashley Bell was very cautious to characterize the film. “Ya know, here is this character who has never left the Swetzer Plantation, she doesn’t even know what an iPod is… and taking it in to Part II, here’s this girl and she’s thrown into Mardi Gras and temptation everywhere and she has to choose between good and evil.” However, fans of Ashley Bell who haven’t seen the first film or haven’t watched it in a while needn’t worry. “It’s a continuation of Nell, but you can enjoy this film and you can get scared by this film as a stand-alone.” However, Nell isn’t the only thing that attracted Bell to reprise her role. When asked if she would return for a third installment in the franchise, if there ever was one, she gladly replied, “Oh, absolutely. I mean, to play the Devil? Evil has no boundaries, it’s the role of a lifetime.”

Luckily for us, Bell is an actress with no boundaries. While she acknowledges that the Last Exorcism was her breakout role, she’s eager to tackle other genres as well. In the upcoming film The Marine: Homecoming, Ashley Bell will be tackling her first action role. “In it, I play Lily, the delinquent younger sister of the Marine, played by Mike Miz, and I like that character because even though she’s taken hostage, she doesn’t collapse. She fights.” While The Last Exorcism series has been pretty physically demanding, Bell has expressed interest in taking that physicality to a new level, something she is tackling with The Marine: Homecoming. With The Last Exorcism Part II out this Friday and The Marine: Homecoming due out March 5, Ashley Bell has a pretty busy month ahead of her. Still, with both action and horror under her belt, with an upcoming romantic comedy, Ashley Bell has proven herself an incredible actress, of both range and talent.

20. Manborg (dir. Steven Kostanski, Canada, 60 minutes):

This was, all things considered, a pretty great year for Canadian comedy collective Astron-6. They released two feature films– Manborg and Father’s Day– which helped raise their profile beyond a tiny, dedicated cult. The reason for their popularity is obvious to anyone who has watched their short films, often as unsettling and bizarre as they are hilarious. Manborg is a tribute to 80s and 90s straight-to-video sci-fi/action films made on a reported budget of about $1,000 by Astron-6 special effects genius Steven Kostanski. Shot almost entirely against green screens, the world of Manborg looks like a cut scene from a Sega CD game. It’s not as funny as Father’s Day, but that’s not the aim of Manborg, which is a gleeful sugar rush of no-budget action: anime fight choreography, claymation monsters, the inexplicably Australian guy, etc. etc. Still, Manborg manages to be one of the funniest films of the year based almost entirely on the strength of a seriously amazing, perfectly-timed punchline near the end of the film.

19. Killer Joe (dir. William Friedkin, USA, 102 minutes):

Hands-down the funniest movie about an idiot redneck trading his brain-damaged sister to a hired assassin as payment for killing his own mother made this year, probably any other year as well. There’s a lot of very unpleasant stuff in Killer Joe, but there’s also a lot of really damned funny stuff, and Matthew McConaughey is brilliant here.

18. The Sword Identity (dir. Haofeng Xu, China, 108 minutes):

The setup is familiar: a roaming martial arts master arrives in a town to defeat the heads of its four schools to establish his art as one worth teaching. After that, The Sword Identity veers off in a completely unexpected direction, playing almost like the Coen Brothers remaking the Shaw Brothers. After the opening fight scenes, there’s not much action in The Sword Identity; the focus here is on the interplay between characters. It’s an odd approach to take to a period “martial arts” film, and it pays off. There’s nothing out there remotely like The Sword Identity, and that alone would make it worth a watch. The fact that it’s also uniquely charming and often very funny seals the deal.

17. Headhunters (dir. Morten Tyldum, Norway, 100 minutes):

Daaaaaamn Norway! A slick, noirish thriller about a rich headhunter for a major corporation who has a side gig of stealing and reselling paintings, until a series of very bad circumstances threatens to bring his whole life down around his ears? Nicely done. There are twists and surprises aplenty throughout Headhunters, but its neatest trick may be making its obscenely rich criminal protagonist a genuinely sympathetic character. Part of that is the fact that he pretty thoroughly gets put through the wringer and keeps coming up with ways to prolong his misery just long enough to maybe find a way out of it. I would not be surprised if a U.S. remake was in the works, but it’s going to be impossible to recapture the particular brand of magic on display here.

16. Cloud Atlas (dir. Tom Tykwer, Andy & Lana Wachowski, Germany/USA/Hong Kong/Singapore, 172 minutes):

You have to give it to the Wachowskis: they never half-ass anything. They committed to three lumbering beasts of Matrix movies, tried their damnedest to drag sci-fi out of its dreary gray rut with the vibrant, goofy Speed Racer, and now they’ve teamed up with another director to make one of the most ridiculously ambitious films in recent memory. They’ve done a pretty fantastic job of condensing David Mitchell’s fantastic novel down to three hours, and the conceit of having different actors playing different characters throughout time was a stroke of genius, suggesting interesting and unexpected ways that the characters’ fates tie in with each other. It’s huge, unwieldy, and kind of a mess, but it’s also beautiful, stirring, and poignant.

15. Rowdy Rathore (dir. Prabhu Deva, India, 140 minutes) / Khiladi 786 (dir. Ashish R. Mohan, India, 141 minutes):

This was a pretty good year for actor Akshay Kumar, who starred in 4 or 5 films, including these two. I’ve lumped them together for a few reasons: first, they’re both really, really fun, but in different ways. Rowdy Rathore is more consistently entertaining through its entire running time, whereas Khiladi 786 starts to drag a little in the middle but then rallies with a seriously hysterical, jaw-dropping final 30 minutes. Secondly, Kumar may as well be playing the same character in both films. In Rowdy Rathore, he pulls double duty as badass ex-cop Vikram Rathore and a slick grifter who looks exactly like Vikram (only without the moustache), while in Khiladi 786 he plays a badass fake cop who has problems finding a wife. Both films feature lengthy scenes of Kumar beating the hell out of tons of goons in Bekmambetov-style slow motion, as well as the requisite song and dance numbers and plenty of comedic relief. Kumar looks like he’s having a great time in both films, willing to look absolutely ridiculous but also putting forth a commanding physical presence when necessary– like Michael Jai White in Black Dynamite, he really seems to be a credible physical threat to anyone who comes his way, although it’s still tough to buy that he could blow up a car just by pointing at it. Regardless, these are hugely entertaining and charming in a way that American blockbusters never are.

14. Paul Williams Still Alive (dir. Stephen Kessler, USA, 87 minutes):

My favorite documentary of the year, not least because it packs in a ton of Paul Williams songs, which is always a good thing. In addition, director Stephen Kessler is willing to put himself forward as an example of a fan who gets a little too close to one of his favorite artists, and Paul Williams deals with it all with surprising grace and hilarious openness.

13. Klown (dir. Mikkel Nørgaard, Denmark, 90 minutes):

Absolutely hilarious. The American remake is going to be so terrible.

12. Berberian Sound Studio (dir. Peter Strickland, UK, 92 minutes):

The best film about making films, recording sound, and going insane because you’re recording sound possibly ever. Obsessed with the minutiae of sound recording and design, Berberian Sound Studio is bound to frustrate and infuriate horror fans waiting for something to happen and anyone not particularly interested in spending a lot of time looking at the inside of a dark recording studio. If these are things that appeal to you, however, Berberian Sound Studio is going to blow your mind.

11. Moonrise Kingdom (dir. Wes Anderson, USA, 94 minutes):

Had the pleasure of seeing an actual film print of this and nearly wept at its shot-on-16mm/blown-up-to-35mm beauty. This is Anderson’s A Serious Man or Inland Empire, a complete summation of the themes and obsessions; in other words, the film he’s been working toward his entire career.

10. Extraterrestrial (dir. Nacho Vigalando, Spain, 95 minutes):

Nacho Vigalando drops a small cast of characters into a romantic comedy situation set against the backdrop of an alien invasion. A lot of people found the film frustrating because there wasn’t enough sci-fi action (read: little to none), but that’s obviously not what Vigalando was aiming for. If romantic comedies rely on people acting insane anyway, where could the limit possibly be in this kind of situation? The tiny cast is excellent across the board, giving the audience real characters to engage with. The ending is heartbreaking perfection.

9. Detention (dir. Joseph Kahn, USA, 93 minutes):

Joseph Kahn has said in interviews about Detention that he believes the internet has put us in a post-genre world, and to prove it he created this insane Frankenstein monster that stitches together slasher movies, Saw-style modern horror, teen comedy, romantic comedy, sci-fi, prom movies, and just about anything else you can think of in one manic, exhausting, glorious package. Detention demands careful attention even while its structure seems to reject the very idea– you’re going to need to see this one at least twice just to start processing everything going on here. Some audiences will doubtlessly be put off by the film’s dialogue and tone before the opening credits even roll, but anyone willing to stick it out will come out the other end with a new (and possibly terrifying) idea of where filmmaking is headed.

8. Sound of Noise (dir. Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson, Sweden, 102 minutes):

Just watch the trailer and realize that the film is a full 102 minutes of that. Seriously. Anyone who loves music or is in any way musically inclined owes it to themselves to track down this film immediately. Despite its dour color scheme, Sound of Noise explodes with the sheer joy of making weird sounds into music and the giddy fun of making art of any kind.

7. The Master (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 144 minutes):

Very possibly the weirdest film released by a major film studio since the 1970s, Paul Thomas Anderson’s astonishing follow-up to There Will Be Blood is this beautiful, confounding beast. Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman both turn in career-best performances, and Amy Adams proves herself every bit their equal. What the hell is going on here is never quite clear in The Master, and its maddening ambiguity is either going to hook you and draw you in or have you heading for the exits before the 30-minute mark. I’m anxious to see the film in 70mm.

6. The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Goddard, USA, 95 minutes):

Dear horror filmmakers: If you’re ever going to use the word “woods” in your titles ever again, you better be doing something spectacular, because if you’re not you’re just embarrassing yourself. The Cabin in the Woods takes the meta-horror of Scream and takes it from simple “horror films are goofy and we totally know it” to “horror films are goofy and we totally know it and here’s why they still scare people and it’s time to stop making the same damn thing over and over again.” It also works as a slasher film and an office comedy, thanks to typically great work by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

5. Holy Motors (dir. Leos Carax, France, 115 minutes):

Seriously, did you see this? You should see this. It’s pretty amazing, and then Kylie Minogue shows up for a musical number and it officially becomes ridiculously amazing. This film would have made my list for the accordion scene alone; the fact that it seems to offer endless avenues of analysis and interpretation cemented its spot as my top “art film” of the year (previous #5s: The Tree of Life, Enter the Void). Unquestionably the best “guy riding around in a white limo” film of the year.

4. Keyhole (dir. Guy Maddin, Canada, 94 minutes):

Maddin finally dives head-first into film noir with Keyhole, which also marks the first time he shot in high definition digital video. Or at least the first time we can tell he shot in high definition digital video. While I was initially skeptical about the switch, Keyhole proves right away there was nothing to be concerned about– the sharp picture quality actually enhances the weirdness on display. Jason Patric is, surprisingly, a perfect fit for Maddin’s surreal noir universe.

3. Looper (dir. Rian Johnson, USA, 119 minutes):

Rian Johnson expands upon Shane Carruth’s concept of time travel being “the last revision is the one that counts” in his brilliant Looper, a film so self-assured that its director has no problem derailing its action-movie momentum halfway through to more or less change the film into something entirely different. As great as Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here (and he is great, no mistake), the real find in this cast is Pierce Gagnon as Cid, a small boy with terrifying powers that he doesn’t fully understand. This kid should have been nominated for an Academy Award, too.

2. Django Unchained (dir. Quentin Tarantino, USA, 165 minutes):

I’m not going to be shy about being a Tarantino fan, and with Django Unchained we finally get the real stuff. Completely unable to rely on any sort of pop cultural references in his dialogue (if not in style and content), Tarantino proves that he still writes insanely compelling characters defined thoroughly by the words that come out of their mouths. Christoph Waltz literally seems as if he was born for the specific purpose of delivering this dialogue, but everyone here has moments to shine. Massively entertaining, Django Unchained serves as a powerful reminder of why we go to the movies in the first place, and why we go to Tarantino movies in particular.

1. Father’s Day (dir. Astron-6, Canada, 99 minutes):

Unquestionably the funniest and most ambitious film of the year, Father’s Day is an exhilarating blast. It’s the only film of this year that I watched seven times, and I’m still excited to see it again. Father’s Day effortlessly runs the gamut from gloriously goofy to seriously creepy, all the while pushing its sex and gore to ludicrous extremes that make even Hobo with a Shotgun look like a Merchant Ivory production by comparison.If Troma specialized in jaw-dropping offense at the height of its VHS-era popularity, Father’s Day represents an updated version of this same sensibility that originally put them on the map, colored by Astron-6’s jet-black, anarchic sense of humor and unpredictability. That sensibility is most pronounced in a surreal third act that goes beyond any “grindhouse” inspirations and is sure to sharply divide audiences looking for a quick and dirty fix of sex & violence and those willing to follow Astron-6 down their hilariously macabre rabbit hole.

10. The Avengers.  Joss Whedon manages to create the ultimate superhero flick with The Avengers, pulling together all the pieces that were set up throughout Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and The Incredible Hulk.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is important when dealing with any film based off of comic books.  From action to humor to fantastic CGI, The Avengers packs quite a punch, and that’s all before mentioning the fact that it is the third highest grossing film of all time.

9. Savages.  Oliver Stone comes back with a gory, twisted, drug-filled thriller that is filled with rich color, deep emotion, and at the heart of it a Shakespearean love story.  Despite Blake Lively’s best efforts to harm the film’s success, it can’t all be blamed on her.  The narration she is given tries too hard to be poetic, but falls flat upon audiences.  That being said, Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson play the brilliant duo of Ben and Chon as they fight a Mexican drug cartel to get back their beloved Ophelia (Lively).  The fun that Savages brings to the table is well worth earning it a spot on the list.

8. This Is 40.  Judd Apatow delivers his best yet with This Is 40.  Taking a page out of Tim Burton’s playbook by continually casting his wife and friends in his films, it finally pays off for Apatow and company.  His latest is the funniest and smartest he’s delivered, and hits close to home for anyone who has ever been in a real family setting.  Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, and Iris Apatow come together to form a family who is all learning how to grow with one another.  It can’t hurt that three out of the four memebers of the family are really related, the only addition being Paul Rudd in place of the real life father Apatow.  This Is 40 dances the line of sweet and heartwarming while not being afraid to be crass and outrageous (See scene where Rudd asks Mann to help him check for hemorrhoids).

7. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Much has been said regarding Peter Jackson’s latest venture to Middle Earth, most of it relating to his choice to shoot the film not only in 3D but also in 48 frames per second, which is different from the standard 24fps.  While the High Frame Rate does take away the traditional movie glow that we are accustomed to, it does make the sweeping landscape shots of New Zealand look truly spectacular.  Cinematically, The Hobbit can do no better and Jackson knew exactly what kind of feel he was going for as he had already shot the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The only thing holding this film back from making it further down the list is that sometimes it feels a bit too length, and it’s hard not to be confused that a short book is being turned into three films well over 2 hours long each.  We’ll have to wait until next December to see how Jackson and Wignut films builds on the momentum that An Unexpected Journey creates and where it goes from here.

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Every now and then we will get a film that builds a strong reputation through word of mouth.  In 2012 that film was The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Stephen Chbosky, who also wrote the book the film is based on, directs a story that leaves audiences not quite sure on how to feel once it is over.  Serving as a true rite-of-passage story, Perks follows Charlie as he navigates the cruel waters of high school and all the tortures that come with being a teenager.  The relationships that Charlie builds are what make the film as great as it is.  Charlie’s new best friends Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller) deliver performances that leave you wanting them as your own best friends, and to do nothing more than reach out and lend a calming hand to the trio.  A beautifully written book comes to life in such a manner that one can’t help but feel touched upon its completion.

5. The Dark Knight Rises.  This could be the year that Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy gets the true recognition it deserves (aside from Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar win)…that’s what people would be saying if it weren’t for films like Lincoln paving the way to those golden statues.  Nolan’s Gotham city is one that will never again be re-created and his iconic Dark Knight in the form of Christian Bale and super villain Bane are meant to be idolized for years to come.  With such a dark and gritty setting, The Dark Knight Rises epitomizes everything that comic book movies should strive for.  Nolan’s film shows the perils a hero must undergo in order to truly protect the city they love.  While a Best Picture is not in its future, a nomination is almost guaranteed.

4. End of Watch.  This may surprise people to see it so close to the coveted number one spot, but David Ayer’s film had such chemistry and heart that it was impossible for it to not make the list.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña create such a team that End of Watch is far more than a traditional buddy cop film.  The streets of Los Angeles don’t ever appear safe as these two partners are able to get a price on their heads after disrupting the LA drug business.  Through simple dialogue scenes in the police cruiser, we are able to see the chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Peña which is what drives the entire film.  Shot all through handheld cameras as if it’s a documentary, most of the film is shot from Gyllenhaal’s own hands making it all the more impressive.

3. Flight.  Denzel Washington dazzles as pilot Whip Whitaker who battles alcoholism at the same time as crash landing a plane and saving numerous lives.  The entire time, Robert Zemeckis makes Whitaker be the antihero despite his saving so many lives (while intoxicated) in the crash.  The audience doesn’t know whether to cheer for Captain Whitaker who keeps letting them down, or to wish for his demise like his own son and ex-wife.  A Best Actor nomination is certainly in line for Washington as well as a Best Picture nod as well.  John Goodman’s moments in the film, almost reminiscent as his role in The Big Lebowski, are well worth the watch if nothing else is, even though that’s far from the case.

2. Django Unchained.  Wow.  This is the first time I’ve said this all year, and boy do I mean it.  In fact, I’ll say it again.  Wow.  Quentin Tarantino delivers such a classic western that dances a fine line of awkward with all the harsh language used, but is truly spectacular both from a visual sense and from that of the work the actor’s provide.  Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, and Samuel L. Jackson bring about some of the best scenes to be put to screen this past year.  The humor that Tarantino brings to such a touchy subject is his way of dealing with an awful subject like slavery, just as he did with the Nazi regime in Inglorious Basterds.  It will be a shock if DiCaprio doesn’t win Best Supporting Actor, let alone be nominated.  It would be sad in a way to see DiCaprio win a golden man now when he lost out for Blood Diamond and The Departed, but his work in Django cannot go unnoticed.  Look for Tarantino to be in the running for Best Director as well.

1. Lincoln.  Here it is, big shocker I know.  Spielberg.  Day-Lewis.  Jones.  Fields.  Gordon-Levitt.  All these names are pieces of a machine that make up one of the greatest, if not the greatest bio-pics to ever be brought to the majestic screens of the cinema.  While it’s no secret that Daniel Day-Lewis is a method actor, no one can surely criticize his methods now after seeing his portrayal of our 16^th President, Abraham Lincoln.  Calm, smooth, collected, smart, and daring, Day-Lewis brings to life an icon that we will never see the likes of again.  Lincoln is entirely dialogue-driven with the exception of a single battle scene that is not long lasting, but it doesn’t always feel that way.  It can get dry at times, but then one remembers the message of what these men on-screen are trying to deliver to their people and the heavy weight that fell on these historical figures years ago.   It’s almost a shame that any other film has to go up against Spielberg’s in this year’s Oscar race, because it just isn’t a fair one.  Never has acting been seen as such a form of art as it is in Lincoln.  Not since the days of Henry Fonda donning the top hat was there such a fantastic representation of Honest Abe, and that’s saying something.  Watch Lincoln blow away the competition.  Also keep an eye out for Tommy Lee Jones to do battle with Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Supporting Actor.  2012 was good to us movie lovers, that’s for sure.

Here, I present my list of my 10 favorite films of the year.

Honorable Mention:  The Impossible
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
This was so close to making my top ten, but given my one big criticism of the film (which I won’t go into here to avoid spoilers), I couldn’t justify putting it above any of the films I’m about to discuss.  I did want to bring it up because it is definitely the most emotionally powerful film of the year.  It takes a lot for a movie to nearly bring me to tears, and The Impossible comes closer to making me cry than any other movie I can think of.  And it’s not the tidal wave or the chaos that does it, but rather the little things that you don’t see coming that threaten to push you off the emotional edge.  I hope that Ewan McGregor earns some awards for his role here because he’s astonishing.

10. Cosmopolis
Directed by David Cronenberg
This could be my favorite Cronenberg film to date.  And I think I like it so much because the film itself is so wonderfully Cronenberg-esque.  He hasn’t made a film like this in a while, but I love when he works with themes of sex, violence, philosophy, and technology and blends them all together in the most captivating ways.  Couple that with fantastic performances from Robert Pattinson and Paul Giamatti, and an episodic structure that works like a series of short plays and this is a real winner.

09. God Bless America
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
I’m a huge fan of dark comedy and 2012 has made some fine contributions to the field.  First on the list is God Bless America, about a guy with a terminal disease who teams up with a teenage girl to assassinate worthless people.  It’s brutal and dry and utterly hilarious, while making a very disturbing (and honest) comment on where we are as a country.

08. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Directed by Peter Jackson
I really wanted to not like the idea of Peter Jackson repeating himself and returning to Middle Earth for this prequel to The Lord of the Rings, but it is an excellent film and so far I’m not at all upset about the choice to break Bilbo Baggins’ tale into three whole movies.  The visuals and the action are just as good as the original trilogy and Martin Freeman’s portrayal of Bilbo is spectacular.

07. Moonrise Kingdom
Directed by Wes Anderson
I can’t say this is my favorite of Wes Anderson’s movies, but I completely disagree with critics who say his style is getting tired.  It’s only annoying to me when others try to imitate his style.  Moonrise Kingdom’s ability to juxtapose childhood and adulthood in a believable and unique way in each character gives the film both an incredible realism and a nice fantastical element.

06. Marvel’s The Avengers
Directed by Joss Whedon
When Jon Favreau’s Iron Man first hinted at the possibility of an Avenger’s movie, I said that there was only one man who could successfully pull it off.  Fortunately, my wildest dreams came true and Joss Whedon delivered one of the best Superhero movies ever made.  Whedon thrives on writing for an ensemble of strong and dynamic characters, and The Avengers plays to that strength perfectly.  I look forward to living in a world where Joss Whedon has enormous commercial success and can basically do whatever he wants.  Maybe now he can keep a TV show on the air for longer than ten minutes.

05. The Cabin in the Woods
Directed by Drew Goddard
This collaboration between director Drew Goddard and screenwriter Joss Whedon, who previously worked together on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Angel is one of the most interesting films of the year. It’s difficult to summarize, so putting together a trailer for it must have been difficult.  Basically, it’s a horror movie parody, but with a genuine horror movie at its center.  It’s wickedly funny, genuinely scary, and every horror movie cliché you know and love wrapped up into one insane ride.

04. Argo
Directed by Ben Affleck
The truly amazing thing about this one isn’t that Ben Affleck was at the helm.  Actually, I’ve grown to really respect him as a director.  In fact, he’s even a much better actor when he’s directing himself.  No, the really amazing thing about Argo is that throughout the entirety of the film, I had absolutely no idea if the mission to extract the Americans in hiding was going to be successful or not.  Either way, it would be a fantastic story, and I loved how impossible to predict this was.  The film is gripping, and intense, but with a lot of great humor that cuts the tension in all the right ways.

03. Looper
Directed by Rian Johnson
I’ve been a huge fan of Rian Johnson’s work thus far, and the idea of him doing a time travel movie is the reason I love movies.  Johnson’s story here is a fresh and horrifying take on the time traveler story we’ve seen repeatedly, and the performances of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the young and old versions of Joe respectively make for a really fun movie that raises a lot of philosophical questions about ourselves and where we see the trajectory of our lives going.

02. Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
This was neck and neck for my #1 spot, but ultimately fell short for reasons I’ll discuss in a minute.  I think this is a phenomenal film.  Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz both deliver amazing performances, and Tarantino’s take on the spaghetti western is both familiar and a refreshing new take on the genre.

01. Seven Psychopaths
Directed by Martin McDonagh
This has the best script of the year.  I’ve read all of Martin McDonagh’s stage plays and his capacity for dark comedy is unparalleled.  Seven Psychopaths is a continuation of that great talent.  The script is brought to life by arguably the best ensemble of actors assembled this year.  Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, and Christopher Walken are all absolutely perfect; embodying everything wonderful about the themes of the film.

Still, I can’t say that I saw 10 films last year I would feel comfortable allowing to populate a top 10 list with my name on. That’s why the list that follows is dedicated instead to my top 25 favorite home video releases of the year. This is a totally subjective list, one that reflects my own personal, geeky and scholarly obsessions, so fair warning, it’s going to look pretty bonkers to anyone who exists outside my head. That said, the releases that made this list are all ones that I have thoroughly explored, whether or not I actually own them myself. I’m not just pulling them out of thin air or off someone else’s list. In choosing the titles for inclusion, I weighed almost equally the following criteria:

-the historical importance of the release to the study and home exhibition of film and television texts,
-the overall quality of the release with regard to the presentation of the visual and audio elements, especially where older film elements were restored for HD presentation,
-the depth and value of any available bonus content,
-and, more subjectively, how much I personally value/enjoy the content of the release.

So without further blathering from yours truly, here are my Top 25 Home Video Releases of 2012:

1. A Trip to the Moon [Flicker Alley, BD/DVD]
2. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day [NIS America, BD/DVD]
3. Fernando di Leo Crime Collection [RaroVideo, BD]
4. Power Rangers: From Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy [Shout! Factory/Time Life, DVD]
5. Casablanca: 70th Anniversary Limited Collector’s Edition [Warner Home Video, BD/DVD]
6. Bond 50 [MGM, BD]
7. Wonder Woman (1974) [Warner Archive, DVD]
8. Gray’s Anatomy [Criterion Collection, BD]
9.  Doctor Who: The Daemons [BBC Video, DVD]
10. The Comic Strip Presents: The Complete Collection [Entertainment One, DVD]
11. And Everything is Going Fine [Criterion Collection, BD]
12. Car 54, Where Are You?: The Complete Second Season [Shanachie, DVD]
13. Level E: The Complete Series [FUNimation, BD/DVD]
14. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol [Classic Media, BD]
15. The Innkeepers [Dark Sky Films, BD]
16. Martian Successor Nadesico: Complete Collection [Right Stuf International, DVD]
17. Tazza: The High Rollers [5 Points Pictures, DVD]
18. Shazam!: The Complete Live Action Series [Warner Archive, DVD]
19. Sherlock: Season Two [BBC Video, BD]
20. The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show [Warner Archive, DVD]
21. Battle Royale: The Complete Collection [Anchor Bay, BD]
22. Hercules, Samson and Ulysses [Warner Archive, DVD]
23. Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol [BBC Video, DVD]
24. The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season [AMC/Anchor Bay, BD]
25. A Dangerous Method [Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, BD]