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I plan to get all joyously positive from Christmas Eve through January 9th as I share my take on the Best of the Film Year That Was. But I make no promise about my mood come January 10th... That's the fateful morning when 6,000 Academy voters play puppet master and yank my fragile psyche about with abandon. But until then... And before the Year End Best of hits, we purge.
MOST "OVERRATED" ANYTHING
I know that people quibble with this word and wish it dead and buried. But that's only because they take it far too seriously. It's a silly adjective but silly is fun. One should always take things for what they're worth. No matter who is using the word "overrated" it only ever means:
Other people are under the mistaken impression that this thing I think is merely okay is really great! They are quite wrong."
Unsatisfying performances, miscasting, bad moves in good films and more after the jump...
YEAR IN REVIEW BEGINS NOW! Many Best ofs and Film Bitch Awards to follow...
Did you know that today marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of the controversial "Die Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales)" by the Brothers Grimm? (Google is celebrating) The book, a collection of fairy tales both pre-existing in oral form and original, has a complicated legacy in Germany and outside of it. But modern pop culture would be unthinkable without its existence. I mean without Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and the rest you'd have no "Into the Woods", no Grimm or Once Upon a Time, no gingerbread houses, and no global Disney Empire as we know it!
But today, when it comes to the legacy of the Brothers Grimm, I'm thinking about Snow White. If you're reading any list on "Entertainers of the Year" for 2012 and Snow White isn't present, there is a problem. Or if not Snow White (who has, on occassion, defined The Bland Protagonist), than the Evil Queen Stepmother. The Former Fairest of Them All nearly always pulls focus and ends up the defacto star of each iteration.
Earlier this year we celebrated the 75th anniversary of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) with an animated edition of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and the cinema gave us not one not two but three new movie versions of the classic tale... [more]
The Hollywood Reporter A former sitcom writer "kvells and kvetches" about The Guilt Trip and Parental Guidance starring Babs and Bette PopWatch Mark Harris on Hollywood's love of gun violence. I highly recommend reading this but I highly caution NOT reading the comments because as per usual the gun crazies come out. They'd have us all packing and I so don't want to live in their preferred world. Cinema Blend Katey & Eric on 12 Unfairly Overlooked Movies of 2012 from Hello I Must Be Going (Yay, Melanie!) through Cosmopolis
Awards Daily Whoa. Ann Dowd is footing the bill for her own Oscar campaign. The Hollywood Reporter talks to Emayatzy Corinealdi on her breakthrough in Middle of Nowhere. You know. I've been trying not to talk about this because I can't figure out a way to say it that doesn't sound indelicate but in some ways I really hate falling in love with new black actresses in the same way that falling hard for new theater actors can be nerve-wracking. Chances are (unforgivably) strong that no one will give these gifted performers another plum opportunity after their breakthrough and that truly sucks. So I'm crossing my fingers for Corinealdi but I'm still waiting for something real to happen for Pariah star Adepero Oduye, last year's breakthrough actress of color. And I'm still trying to wrap my head around the non-career of the brilliant Kimberly Elise so...
The Carpetbagger on screenwriter Lucy Alibar's (Beasts of the Southern Wild) crash course in cinema The Onion "Top Movies of 2012" David Poland gives himself a new nickname. Or adopts one given. Vanity Fair Barbra Streisand talks about her legendary duet with Judy Garland in the 60s. Really interesting comment from Babs I think. MNPP joins the Zero Dark Thirty fan club
Oooh, look Quentin Tarantino pays tribute to Pedro Almodóvar saying that his filmography is "the one to beat" -damn straight! Nobody else in the modern era compares.
Finally, I want to extend my annual congratulations to the 25 films that are newly announced for preservation by the National Film Registry. They are:
"3:10 to Yuma" (1957)
"Anatomy of a Murder" (1959)
"The Augustas" (1930s-1950s)
"Born Yesterday" (1950)
"Breakfast at Tiffany’s" (1961)
"A Christmas Story" (1983)
"The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight" (1897)
"Dirty Harry" (1971)
"Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2" (1980-82)
"The Kidnappers Foil" (1930s-1950s)
"Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests" (1922)
"A League of Their Own" (1992)
"The Matrix" (1999)
"The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair" (1939)
"One Survivor Remembers" (1995)
"Parable" (1964)
"Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia" (1990)
"Slacker" (1991)
"Sons of the Desert" (1933)
"The Spook Who Sat by the Door" (1973)
"They Call It Pro Football" (1967)
"The Times of Harvey Milk" (1984)
"Two-Lane Blacktop" (1971)
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1914)
"The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England" (1914)
As per usual that's a lot of titles that I know nothing about but I'm most thrilled by The Times of Harvey Milk which is one of the most moving and important documentaries ever made. And on a sillier note, can we talk about how ever-watchable the female baseball comedy A League of Their Own is? Sometimes I pine for the 1990s. It's tough to imagine that movie breaking $100 million now but the 90s were a good time for girlpower narratives.
If you're a fan of A League of Their Own (who isn't?) I want to know which scene just popped into your mind when you heard that it made the list!
Hugh Jackman was honored at the Museum of the Moving ImageReviews Under the Influence on Pitch Perfect. I LOL'ed. Hence the share Movie|Line talks to Christopher Nolan at the tribute to Hugh Jackman at MoMi ET Amanda Seyfried on Channing Tatum "everybody wants to have sex with him" and her own reputation. Amanda is fun! /Film Clint Mansell will score Noah for Darren Aronofksy - YES Ultra Culture hates on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and its drip-fed storytelling; only nine hours until the protagonists meet the antagonist! Hollywood Reporter Sean Penn is mouthing off again. Not that he isn't partially correct. He just doesn't have enough of a sense of humor about his self-seriousness to always pull it off. Advocate Our beloved Sir Ian McKellen's long battle with prostate cancer. GawkerHunger Games themed reality tv is on its way. Without the death. But still, i don't think we're that far away from a Series 7 world, do you?
Today's Watches Quentin Tarantino's epic introduction to Django Unchained here in NYC. Courtesy of Gothamist.
and Amy Poehler & Tina Fey's first promo for the Golden Globes
List Mania Eric Kohn at IndiewireUniversal Soldier: Day of Reckoning & Amour. Yes, they can co-exist on a list Film Doctor chooses his worst films of the year from Savages to Battlefield (poor Taylor Kitsch!) Stale Popcorn on the best movie posters of the year from The Paperboy to Gayby New Yorker terrific year-in-review via Anthony Lane. Love the shout-out to Eva Green in Dark Shadows
Awards Mania Split Sider The Globes ignore all your favorite comedies again In Contention looks at category fraud. I'd love to believe I coined the term and maybe I did since I've been the loudest voice complaining about it for 11 years but who knows. In Contention Sony still thinking Amour is going to happen. Me too. Oscars the 104 eligible Motion Picture Scores and some composers have multiple chances including Alexandre Desplat (4) and Danny Elfman (4), and James Newton Howard (3)
For a filmmaker whose movies are so instantly recognizably HIS and his alone, John Waters's annual top ten list adventure at Artforum is not what you'd expect... until you've followed it for a few years that is. It's not the crazy comic camp-fest his movies would suggest. There's usually a mix of outre movies, risque movies, documentaries, and the highbrow dramas. He's all over the place. Literally. Though the 66 year old director hasn't made a movie in eight years he recently hitchhiked across the country and is writing a book about it ("Carsick") to be published next year.
1 The Deep Blue Sea 2 Paradise: Faith 3 Paradise: Love 4 Amour
Misery is really in this year. “Hurts! Hurts! Hurts!” yells out the dying elderly wife to her longtime-caretaker husband, and ticket buyers will agree. Makes Saw seem like a romantic comedy.
Hee.
5 Killer Joe 6 Beasts of the Southern Wild 7 Compliance 8 Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present 9 Beloved
Another crackpot Umbrellas of Cherbourg homage by the French director who adores unrequited love, cigarettes, Catherine Deneuve, and especially Louis Garrel. Yes, it’s L-O-N-G, but I wished the characters would have kept on singing in the theater even after the projectionist had gone home for the night.
I include this bit about Beloved because I was so curious as to what he saw in it. I tend to like Christophe Honore's films -- possibly because I share his love of love, cigarettes, musicals, and actresses ... but this film loses its way after a terrific start. Or maybe it finds too many ways after a terrific start. It's all over the place. Very first drafty, every idea included.
Sunday, December 23, 2012 at 1:05PM 
YEAR IN REVIEW
