Best of 2012's MVP: Joseph Gorden-Levitt

If you've been to a multiplex this year, chances are, you probably saw a Joseph Gorden-Levitt film. That's what the MVP is all about, someone who has made a huge contribution to the year in film. I couldn't think of anyone other than Gorden-Levitt who showed up in starring vehicles for himself, as well as supporting roles in a couple of substantial roles. But what's he's shown, and what I like about seeing actors such as him, is his very solid good work. Joseph Gorden-Levitt has been on the radar for a number of years, growing up on television with "3rd Rock from the Sun", then making a name for himself in indies such as "Brick" and "The Lookout", it was only a matter of time before this guy was going to be star.

His name grew more substantially as the films he was in became more high profile such as the anti-romantic comedy "500 (Days) of Summer", and the dramedy "50/50" where he played a young man diagnosed with cancer. He was also in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster "Inception", and by that time, he was difficult to ignore.

This year I'd like to think of this as Joseph Gorden-Levitt's coming out party, this is where he has finally been accepted as not just a rising star, but a full fledged one. His first appearance this year came with one of the biggest blockbusters of the year in Christophe Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises", playing a rookie cop in Gotham City under siege. The film proved to be a worthy finale to the Batman trilogy, and Gorden-Levitt's character became pivotal in the arc of Bruce Wayne.

His next film the same summer was a starring vehicle but was probably his least publicized. "Premium Rush", the story about a bicycle delivery boy who must deliver a package to its destination all the while evading a crooked cop (Michael Shannon), was a pure chase movie. It ran just a little over a lean ninety minutes, with hardly any computer generated special effects, and real intense stunt work throughout, yet it passed a lot of people by. What they missed was a completely charismatic performance by Gorden-Levitt who shows off his charm, and sense of humour which is very often hidden in his character work. This to me was his most relaxed performance of the year, and perhaps his best.

But he wasn't done yet, next he teamed up with his "Brick" director Rian Johnson and came out with one of the most inventive science fiction film in years. In Looper, he plays a hitman who kills people for the mob, when they send people from the future back to his time. Things get complicated when his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back but escapes being assassinated.

Time travel can often get muddled up, but in "Looper", it's handled the right way. It's a dark noirish tale with a theme about breaking the cycle of evil. Again Gorden-Levitt is the star and he shows that he's able to carry such an inventive film, add to that "Preminum Rush", and you got two very clever and unique starring vehicles.

But that wasn't enough, he was finally seen playing Daniel Day Lewis' son in "Lincoln", where he was part of a huge ensemble. He seems perfectly satisfied just to be part of the large cast in a role which truthfully could've been given to a no name. Usually when an actor or star is seen this many times in one year, they may be in danger of over exposure, but with Joseph Gorden-Levitt, you just can't wait to see what he has in store next.

Best of 2012 Male Performance of the Year Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

"The Master" is probably the most challenging and polarizing film of the year, some people went away scratching their heads, I was extremely mystified by it. A lot of that had to do with the lead performance by Joaquin Phoenix who plays the troubled World War II naval officer Freddie Quells. At the beginning of the film, we notice something is not right with Freddie, the war is over and he seems to be suffering from some kind of shell shock. After Freddie accidentally poisons a farm worker with his own brand of alcohol, he escapes custody and finds himself on the boat of a cult leader by the name of Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymore Hoffman). Dodd forms a special bond with Freddie, not so much a son, or a brother, but more of a pet. Dodd teaches Freddie the ways of The Cause which is the name of the religion he is the teacher of. Freddie soon becomes the churches greatest disciple and becomes Dodd's right hand man. Despite protests from Dodd's own family including his wife (Amy Adams) that Freddie is a drifter, Dodd decides to keep him.

"The Master" is a difficult world to enter into, but Freddie is our way in. Many people criticized the character of Freddie to be unlikable, I didn't understand this. To me Freddie represents a lost soul sent adrift in society, only to finally have something to believe in with Dodd and The Cause but to have that taken away. There is a touching flashback where we see Freddie with the girl that he was in love with and planned to marry, until he joined the navy. Later he revisits the house of the girl and we are told by her mother that she has moved on. By this time, he realizes that everything he has learned as the truth has been a lie, all he has left is Dodd.

The fact thatPhoenix creates Freddie out of thin air which is another aspect I admired from the performance. His character is full of many tics and mannerisms, but Phoenix never overdoes it, he doesn't rely on it, and occasionally he's able to burst through the screen with impromptu anger and turmoil that remind you of that great generation of actors that were lead by Brando, Dean, and Clift.

But sometimes it just comes down to one scene to show you what an actor has in him. The processing scene between Freddie and Dodd is a sequence of pure acting bravado by the two men, but Phoenix especially shines, it was here that the film grabbed a hold of me and afterwards I couldn't let go. It was hard to ignore Phoenix or "The Master" after that scene which I would say may be the best single scene of the year, it was hard to look anywhere else for such a performance.

But just to name a few of the males who I strongly considered, certainly Daniel Day Lewis deserves mention for his quiet understated performance in "Lincoln", a performance I appreciated even more than his recent bravura showcases in "There Will be Blood", and "Gangs of New York". Denzel Washington was his usual solid self giving a quiet effective performance in "Flight" and perhaps no one surprised me more this year than Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook", for what is indeed his best performance ever.

There were two comic performances I need to mention, for comic actors are so often forgotten, but Jack Black has never been better than he was as the lovable convicted murderer in "Bernie", and the same could be said for Sean William Scott as the tough guy with a soft spot for his team mates in the hilarious "Goon". Joseph Gorden Levitt showed off his leading man charisma in "Looper" and I just wanted to mention Colin Farrell who plays the straight man to all the psychopaths in "Seven Psychopaths" God I love that move!

Best of 2012 Performance by an Actress: Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty"

"Who are you?" Asks C.I.A. Director James Gandolfini. "I'm the motherfucker that found this place sir", answers Maya played by Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty." This little piece of dialogue came out of nowhere in a film that plays more like a sombre bit of hard boiled investigation. "Zero Dark Thirty" is fascinating in the way it pulls out the layers in the true life account of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. It sounds more like it's coming from an action movie than in a film which is probably the most controversial film of the year based on its depiction of torture. I'm not meant to debate the topic of torture in the film, perhaps I will keep that for another entry, this is to focus on the anchor of this film, and that is Jessica Chastain.

As with most procedural dramas of this nature, we are given the person who lets us follow the action and pick up clues where ever they see it. Think of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in "All the Presidents Men", or Jake Gyllanhaal in "Zodiac". These people are the ones who are obsessed with a mystery that engulfs their whole lives, and so it is with Chastain's C.I.A. analyst Maya.

We don't learn much of who Maya is, she isn't given a backstory really, other than a brief dinner sequence where she spares time out of her hunt to indulge in some small talk with one of her colleagues, but even that is interrupted by a bomb that goes off in the restaurant. Maya is defined by her job, her pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, it becomes her life, so much so that after she experiences a few setbacks and deaths of friends and colleagues, it becomes more of a personal vendetta.

There is a moment late in the movie, where Maya seems to be the only one still hell bent on finding Bin Laden, while the rest of the world seems to have moved on. She becomes more and more isolated but still being a pain in the ass to her higher bosses.

We watch Maya all the way through finally finding Bin Laden and when they have actually found him, the film takes an unexpected turn and focuses on the team who actually bring him down. Maya is left at the sidelines as a spectator, but she is given her moment of satisfaction when she gets to see the body.

"Zero Dark Thirty" was a film I had to ease into when I saw it. At first, I felt the torture scenes at the beginning were obligatory and not even offensive. I dared it to show me something I hadn't see before, and I think it eventually did with the help of Maya, she's the rock of the film, the emotional connection we get. It's difficult, at least for me to feel any emotional connection with a film that is more or less procedural, I like a good investigation as much as the next person, but it's the special ones that make you feel you've been through something with someone else, that's what Chastain does in "Zero Dark Thirty", and that's why I think it's the best female performance of the year.

It was a great year for women in film this year, I could've easily added Chastain's main Oscar competition Jennifer Lawrence who has shown just what a great actress she is by giving great performances in both "Silver Linings Playbook" and "The Hunger Games". I would also mention Michelle Williams as an unconventional modern women who is tempted to cheat on her husband in "Take this Waltz", Rachel Weiz giving perhaps what is her best performance as a woman who attempts suicide after leaving her husband for a young man in the army in the dreamy "The Deep Blue Sea", and I'll give props to young Quevanzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy, a ten year old girl who acts and looks as if she has seen it all in "The Beasts of the Southern Wild". I regret to inform readers, I have not seen the films of Oscar nominees Naomi Watts( The Impossible) and Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) so I can't give my opinion of their performances, but despite missing them, I would say not a bad year for women in film.

Best of 2012 Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths

It had to be Christopher Walken, it had to be. "Seven Psychopaths" is a brilliant film, and the heart of it lies in the performance of Christopher Walken. As Hans, the partner of Billy (Sam Rockwell) who's cockeyed plan of stealing people's dogs and returning them for the reward money gets them into trouble with a local mob man (Woody Harrelson), Walken brings his usual quirky sense of humour to the role, but also a certain melancholy. Also like my pick for best supporting actress Sarah Silverman, Walken's character gets the final word on what the movie is all about. In one of the most poignant scenes I've seen all year, you don't have to look further than Hans' speech into Marty's (Colin Farrell) tape recorder. That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to spoil it, but it was that moment where to me the film went from good to great.

"Seven Psychopaths" has been somewhat written off as some meta-joke about a screenwriter (Farrell) suffering from writer's block when he's writing a movie entitled "Seven Psychopaths". Yet the film goes much further than the meta-joke trappings it sets itself up for.

I believe the movie has much to say about violence both in movies and in life in general and how we are affected by it. "Seven Psychopaths" is looking for a silver lining about violence and it comes from Hans. We learn about Hans' past and it is as tragic as one can get, but he does get his moment of grace, which is the moment of grace for the film. The film is darkly comic, yet I came out of it with a life affirming attitude and it's because of Walken's performance.

The very, very, very close runner up would be Walken's co-star Sam Rockwell who gave probably the funniest performance of the year, and who wouldn't give anything to see him finally get a nomination for something. In fact I will say it is a shame neither Walken or Rockwell were nominated for this film.

But let's move on, there were a lot of great supporting performances this year, I would say all of the best supporting actor nominees are worthy of their nominations even if they couldn't make room for Walken and Rockwell. Christoph Waltz completely stole the show in "Django Unchained", and most of my favorite scenes in "Lincoln" usually included Tommy Lee Jones. Robert De Niro was brilliantly understated in "Silver Linings Playbook" and reminds us why he is such a great actor. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the second half of the greatest acting scene of the year in "The Master", and even though I don't think Alan Arkin has much to do in "Argo" other than give the movie it's few humorous moments, he's the perfect man for the job.

Other supporting actors that gave memorable performances this year would be Bruce Willis both in "Moonrise Kingdom", and "Looper" showing that he's one of the few action heroes who have depth, Also from "Moonrise Kingdom", I would add Edward Norton's loyal scout leader, and Bill Murray's concerned parent. Plus I would add Matthew McConaughey's prosecuting attorney in "Bernie" was a pleasant surprise, and it's just a delight to see John Goodman show up in both "Argo" and "Flight" doing his thing, rock on John, rock on.

Best of 2012 Supporting Actress: Sarah Silverman in Take this Waltz

2012 for me was a great year for supporting roles, so much so that I had to add a category to this years Best of...celebration. There were often times supporting performances were highlights of entire movies, but the best ones were the ones that did what they were designed to do: support the film.

As far as supporting actresses go, we got our full of great ones. Just off the top of my head I would name such Oscar nominees as Amy Adams in "The Master", Sally Field in "Lincoln", and Jackie Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook" all of whom had worthy performances. I thought Anne Hathaway was nominated for the wrong film, her Selina Kyle in "The Dark Knight Rises" was highly entertaining and one of the bright spots in that film. Other contenders for me would be Shirley MacLaine as the domineering rich widow in "Bernie" and Nadine Velazquez as the drug addict who turns her life around in "Flight".

But my choice for the best supporting performance is probably the one that surprised me the most this year, and that came from Sarah Silverman in "Take this Waltz". I'm actually not sure I have seen a film that has featured Silverman before, and if I have, the name of any such film eludes me at the moment. However I have seen some of her stand-up and parts of her television series, "The Sarah Silverman Show". A lot of what she did impressed me, but again, I guess I never really gave her much notice.

But in "Take this Waltz" which is a far more interesting and complicated film than most people gave it credit for, Silverman, for my money gets the most sympathetic role as the recovering alcoholic sister in-law to Michelle Williams' lead character Margot. The film is very much Margot's story as a woman who is happily married and in love with her stable, nice and dependable husband (Seth Rogan) but fantasizes about an extra marital affair with her new neighbour (Luke Kirby) Silverman's character Geraldine is also married to a man we don't really get to know in the film, but by the end of it we get an understanding that he has no doubt seen her at her worst and continues to stick by her even if she relapses.

Geraldine is the perfect counterpoint for a character like Margot, in fact she needs her in a way Margot probably doesn't know. I felt Geraldine was a real person, and Silverman never overplays the idea of being a recovering alcoholic even in the inevitable relapse scene where she could've gone overboard. Silverman gives Geraldine an anger inside of her which she represses for most of the film, and we root for her to make the right choice and hope she does, just as it is with Margot and her somewhat more selfish and shallow choice of either staying with her husband or giving it up for an exciting fling.

The film shows that even with choices that should seem obvious as to which is right and which is wrong, life is never that clean cut.

Silverman's character gets the final word to what the film is all about, that we always feel like there's a piece that is missing in our life, that's just something you have to accept.

Silverman's character is integral in understanding the whole ideas of what "Take this Waltz" is all about, and because she creates such an honest and true character is why I think she was the best female supporting performance from last year. Too bad the Academy didn't take notice.

Best Old Film of 2012: M. Hulot's Holiday

We start off the Best of 2012 celebration with a look back at some of the old films that were new to me of last year. I am a self-proclaimed movie collector, my father who has seen my collection has said on more than one occasion that I could open my own film store, and perhaps I will if it weren't for my some what compulsive desire to keep my films all to my self. I have this paranoia that if I lend out my films to anyone, they will not get returned, and there has been a presidense set, I had to re-purchase two films that were lost by lending them out. But that is neither here nor there, plus this is supposed to be a celebration!

My collection of films has grown tremendously over last year as I continue my search for classics or just simple titles that I have always been curious about and simply needed to own.

There have been a lot of great movies that were new to me from last year, among them were Busby Berkley musicals such as "42nd Street", "Dames" and especially "Footlight Parade", the Joan Crawford classic noir "Possession", Douglas Sirk's 50s melodrama "Imitation of Life", John Carpenter's horror sci-fi "The Thing", Robert Altman's television movie "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial", D.W. Griffith's early silent films "Intolerance", and "Broken Blossoms", Fritz Lang's newly restored silent masterpiece in two parts "Die Nibelungen", and one of the best Hollywood weepies I've ever seen King Vidor's "The Champ" with Wallace Beery's Oscar winning role as a drunk boxer and Jackie Cooper in one of the best child performances ever put on screen as his son who looks out for him.

There was something about these films I loved, and I probably could make an alternate top ten list with all of them, and was difficult trying to figure out which one I would pick as my favorite, but out of all of them, the one that remained the most interesting, and the one I would want to revisit right away would be Jacques Tati's 1953 comedy "M. Hulot's Holiday".

Jacques Tati was a filmmaker who didn't make a lot of films, I believe only six, I have only seen one other of his films, the brilliant "Playtime", which is a comedy labyrinth where Tati created a whole high tech city for himself to play in and make his observations on getting lost in the fast paced technologically advanced modern world. I have seen "Playtime" at least four times now, and I it always surprises me with its comic invention. One thing about it though that remained a mystery to me was the M. Hulot character that Tati played in the film.

Not knowing much about the cultural impact Tati's character had in the context of film, "Playtime" left me curious about who this Hulot fellow was all about. Hulot actually isn't very prominent in the grand scheme of "Playtime", one reason was because by that time, Tati was perhaps not interested in showing off the character as much anymore, and not wanting him to get in the way of his more ambitious ideas.

"M. Hulot's Holiday" however was the first time Tati played the character, and even though he doesn't dominate every scene like other screen comedians might do, he is no doubt the star. The film plays like a bunch of comedic vignettes all strung together through the characters and situations Hulot meets and gets into while on holiday at a seaside resort.

Tati was a student of the silent comedy of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Laurel and Hardy, he makes the film almost completely silent. There is dialogue said, but most of it is entirely inconsequential. Hulot is a comic character, but unlike Keaton and Chaplin, he seems more like an observer who just happens to occasionally get himself into trouble. While Hulot does provide most of the gags, he doesn't instigate all of them. Tati seemed to be more interested in the world itself and the people in it, he seemed to find humour in everyday things.

The film is not as ambitious as "Playtime", but it's just as inventive, this is one of the great comedy films, and Jacques Tati was one of the great comic filmmakers, I will probably get more in depth with "M Hulot's Holiday" as I revisit it, but I would say it's the best old film I saw last year just for the fact that it's so much one of a kind much like its creator.

FEBRUARY: CELEBRATING THE BEST OF 2012 PLUS THE OSCARS

Once again, Jeremy and the Movies will dedicate the month of February as a look back to the best that film had to offer in 2012 according to me. This is the time for me to indulge in what I think are the best films, and performances over the past year. Most movie critics have already done away with their ten best lists last December, but I always feel the need to play catch up with some of the films that haven't hit my humble Red Deer home yet.

For those of you familiar with my Best of formula, I like to break it down in categories, plus I HAVE A FEW NEW CATEGORIES THIS YEAR.

The run-down, or should I say the FUN-DOWN will go as follows, BEST MALE PERFORMANCE, BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE, BEST MALE SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, BEST FEMALE SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, 2012's MVP, BEST MOVIE MOMENTS OF 2012, and finally THE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NO DOUBT ABOUT IT 10 BEST FILMS OF 2012!.

This will be the first time I'm adding in supporting performances this year, as I was looking into it, I found that some of my favorite performances I had seen were mostly in the supporting category, so why not give them their due.

The other category that is brand new, will be BEST OLD MOVIE WHICH I HAD NOT SEEN BEFORE, this is a movie that was not originally released in 2012, but I had not seen before last year.

All of my categories will be announced prior to the big Oscar night, on February 24th, plus I will also give a run down of the nominees and what I think should take home the big prize!

So I sure hope that you join me in this month of movie celebration! Stay Tuned!

An Open Letter to Marilyn Monroe

Dear Miss Monroe

Basically I'm in love with you, but you've probably heard that before. Granted, I never met you, you died 22 years before I was born, and I know nothing about you other than what I've seen from the movies you were in, and the very public accounts of your rather tragic and short life.

But get this Miss Monroe, I am a lover of movies, I have been for as long as I remember, if I count the times I've been in love in real life over the times I've been in love with the movies, then the movies would win every

time. And personally I don't find anything wrong with that, I have my both of my feet planted firmly in reality, I know of the hardships, the disappointments, the downright cold loneliness the real world can bring, I am fully aware of its imperfections, but then someone like you can come along and show me through the movies that life can be beautiful.

I have seen most of your films Miss Monroe, right from the very beginning where you were George Sanders' guest in "All About Eve", and Louis Calhern's mole in "The Asphalt Jungle". Your appearances were brief, but left us wanting to know more about you. Your small parts became bigger, you were a secretary in "Monkey Business", going for a joyride with scientist Cary Grant who had just stumbled upon a miracle serum to make him more youthful (Perhaps you were the true fountain of youth for him). Looking at that film again, it's a shame you weren't pared again with Grant, I could almost imagine you as Grace Kelly's somewhat less refined and exciting younger sister in "To Catch a Thief".

Your big break was with "Gentleman Prefer Blondes", playing a golddigger along with best gal pal Jane Russel. There are no apologies for your character, largely because she is so upfront about what she wants, and while it's true you may have ushered in a new "Dumb Blonde" movement with your role, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know you were in on the joke, how you could not be, the performance is full of many nuances and perfectly timed moments, all comic actresses should take note.

Your star climbed higher with "How to Marry a Millionaire", a stuffy, and sometimes static comedy that seemed to be getting used to its Cinemascope surroundings. The movie died, when you or William Powell weren't on screen. You were playing the foolish blonde yet again, this one was embarrassed to be seen in public without her glasses, yet when they weren't on, she was blind as a bat, a simple overdone premise, but I must admit, the highlight was of you walking into a wall, but you did it with such poise, I figured this is a girl I could go for.

By the time "The Seven Year Itch" came around, you were Marilyn in full form, of course your character was only known as "The Girl", it was obvious to us who you were supposed to be. In that film, more than any other, you were the ideal Marilyn, everyone wanted you to be, sexy, funny, sweet, kind, and bubbly. The irony of that film is the censors completely cut out the idea that you were supposed to have an affair with a married middle aged man, so you were left as more of a tease for the audience, someone who could not be touched despite your best efforts.

For those early films Marilyn, you exuded sex, it was just natural as can be coming from you, and I think that comes from your awareness of the camera, and your own influence on it. You knew what the camera could do, you were photographed more times than any other movie star, even in news footage, there was no denying the fantasy you embodied. You probably didn't want that type of attention all of the time, and it's probably why your real acting abilities weren't taken seriously, you became a cardboard image for people to ogle, to them you may have just as well have been an empty shell.

After "Seven Year Itch", you had exhausted the Marilyn image enough, you had more to prove, and to express, you studied with Lee Strasberg in the Actor's Studio, and came back to movies two years later with "Bus Stop" which was like night and day. This time, you weren't Marilyn, but a fully formed character, one who was a bit lost, confused, and hurt by the real world, and in comes a naive brute of a cowboy who falls in love with you at first sight. You don't know what to make of it, he harasses you, keeps you, even lassos you into not getting away. You try to get away, but what you don't realize is this is a man, albiet a bit rough around the edges who will treat you like the Angel you deserve to be.

This was a new dawn of Marilyn, the type who's vulnerable, and hasn't been treated right her whole life. The simple act of the cowboy covering you with his jacket at the end of the film seemed like something you have been waiting for all of your life.

"Bus Stop" showed a vulnerability that would last through the rest of your career, even when you were asked to bring that bombshell image back with your greatest success "Some Like it Hot". As Sugar Cane, the unlucky in love ukelele player, you were the straight person to Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis' cross dressing musicians, but in a film full of slapstick, you offered the film's most poignant moments, when you sing "I Wanna be Loved By You", and "I'm Through with Love", you could always sell a musical number, and if "Some Like it Hot" has any kind of heart, you were it baby.

You were perhaps never more alluring than you were in "Let's Make Love, a silly musical comedy which concentrated too much on Yves Montand trying to make you fall in love with him. Like in your earlier films, you were too often moved to the background, but again the film came alive with your musical numbers, but there was a grown maturity with this character, you looked more sophisticated and savvy, there was almost a feeling of you being more relaxed, like you didn't have anything to prove anymore.

Your final word in film was in John Huston's "The Misfits", where you played the film's conscience, someone who didn't understand why people hurt other people, or hurt themselves. Near the end, there is a long wide shot of you in a dessert valley giving off a primal scream, you broke my heart in that film. You shared the film with Clark Gable, who died soon after, also Montgomery Clift who, like you was a damaged star, he would survive longer than you, but not too long.

You would die a year after "The Misfits" was released, it was too soon, it was as if you were just hitting your stride as a serious actress, perhaps someone who could've ranked with the likes of Brando, and to me that's not too hard to believe.

To those who say you were not that strong of an actress, I don't think were paying attention. You gave your all when you were performing for the camera, you created an image which stood as a work of art, and it was no coincidence, you made it all happen, the camera loved you, and we did too.

Miss Monroe, I will always have a crush on you, the way people who love the movies could. I imagine me being that naive cowboy in "Bus Stop" giving you his coat, or even Monty Clift in "The Misfits", who frees all those horses for you, because those actions seemed like they meant the world to you, and perhaps if you had more of those experiences in your life, you could still be with us.