Ten to See

School is back in session, and as such, my movie viewing has intensified.  In addition to watching movies for three of my classes, I'm also working hard to see all the 2012 releases I missed so I can get cranking on my too-elaborate-for-a-blog-run-by-one-person end-of-the-year celebrations, brought to you by the punctuation mark hyphen.  Luckily, services like Netflix and Hulu Plus make catching up pretty easy - not to mention somewhat overwhelming - by hosting many of the best movies of the year that rarely come to a theater near you.  So, this edition of Ten to See will be divvied up even more specifically, directing you to the outlets that host these great films.

In Theaters
The Impossible - In my review of Les Miserables, I opened with an admission that I'm a huge movie crier, and that point was thoroughly proven by Juan Anotnio Bayona's brutal, inspiration story of one family's quest for survival and reunion set against the horror of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.  Bayona previously directed The Orphanage, and his knack for horror serves him well in this true story, heightening the sense of danger through visceral cinematography, effective sound design, and appropriate scoring.  There's even a nod to The Ring - which also starred Naomi Watts - thrown in for good measure.

What most impresses about The Impossible, though, is the performances.  Watts has won widespread acclaim, and an Oscar nomination, for her work, and it's well-deserved.  She is the devoted mother and the most battered member of the scattered family, and Watts tackles the role's physicality and emotional desperation powerfully.  The real star, though, is young Tom Holland as Lucas, the family's eldest son, who takes it upon himself to protect his mother, search for his father and brothers, and work to reunite other survivors with their loved ones.  Holland is stunning in the part, as Lucas is forced to grow up in a matter of days, shouldering more responsibility than any young boy should have to face, and handling the pressure with youthful grace and sweeping compassion.  It's one of the year's most impressive performances.

The Impossible has been bombarded with claims of racism and with constructing a false happy ending, but both are far from the truth.  The film doesn't even offer a happy ending, as the devastation is still overwhelming, and the relief of reunion is all but nonexistent in the face of the circumstances, the friends left behind without answers, and the questions about what happens next.  The tears will flow by credits' roll, but they stem from the bittersweet emptiness of one moment of joy echoing in a chasm of grief.

Promised Land - If ever a movie sounded like a drag on paper, Promised Land must be it.  Gus Van Sant (Milk) brings a story of an energy company attempting to purchase drilling rights in a small town using whatever means necessary.  Matt Damon and John Krasinski wrote and star in the film, and both give performances that rival their best work, while also delivering a screenplay that delves into the murky morality of the subject while offering some genuinely surprising twists along the way.

Van Sant ably establishes the small town atmosphere, where everyone knows everyone, and outsiders are greeted warmly until they give a reason to turn cold.  Damon and Frances McDormand play the corporate salespersons who try to blend right into the town, donning flannel shirts picked up from a local shop.  The two share fine chemistry, but things really get going when Krasinski shows up as a man with a sob story about how a similar situation led to the destruction of his family farm.  Krasinski's acting often comes across as too artificial, in my eyes, so it's great to see him fit so comfortably into a non-Jim role.  It's his best big-screen performance, topping even his beard-y turn in Away We Go.

If there's a knock against Promised Land, it's simply that the film isn't particularly memorable.  It's a consistently engaging, entertaining, funny, and sweet film, but there isn't much of a punch, nothing that stands out to make it particularly noteworthy.  But perhaps it wasn't meant to be.

Online
Girl Walk // All Day - Whatever you're doing (I assume you're reading a movie blog), stop doing it, turn your phone off, block off the next 75 minutes, and dive into the joyous, uncategorizable Girl Walk // All Day, one of my absolute favorite movies of 2012.  Part traveling flash mob, part mix tape music video, part romantic comedy, part urban odyssey, part multi-cultural celebration, Girl Walk // All Day jumps off the screen, pumping with energy and making it incredibly difficult to remain seated.

Set to Girl Talk's album "All Day," Girl Walk // All Day follows the Girl (Anne Marsen), a dancer who is fed up with the strict rules of ballet and decides to go off on a freestyle dance journey across New York City, finding inspiration in the city and the other dancers who populate it, and trying to get others to join her in her musical exploration.  Along the way, she encounters the Gentleman(Dai Omiya) and the Creep (John Doyle), who form a flimsy love triangle and provide plenty of impressive dancing on their own.  The music is incredibly mixed, drawing from favorites both old and new, and Marsen is a star, absolutely commanding the screen with both her talent and her personality.

Best of all: Girl Walk // All Day is available to watch in its entirety, for free, online.  Just click here and start the journey.

On Blu-ray/DVD
The Odd Life of Timothy Green - I was dubious of Disney's treacly family flick, but after winning a copy of the movie through Facebook, I figured I might as well give it a chance.  I'm glad I did, as it's a sweet, tragic little flick.

Tragic?  Indeed, The Odd Life of Timothy Green is one of the biggest tearjerkers I've seen, perhaps ever.  I got pretty deep into ugly-cry territory during the film's final minutes, and despite the saccharine manipulation that got me there, I give the film credit for being genuine in its sometimes too-well-trodden emotional stops.  Much of the film's success rests on the able shoulders of CJ Adams, who manages to be cute - and, in titular fashion, odd - without being cloying.  He makes Timothy an easy kid to love, and he navigates the film's sometimes goofy turns with sincere joy.

Live-action family films are few and far between these days, so when one comes along that wears its heart proudly on its sleeve, and ends up making viewers wipe up their heart-tears with their sleeves, it's something to celebrate.

The Imposter - Looking back at 2012, it's incredible to consider the plethora of fantastic documentaries that hit theaters.  One of the best - perhaps even the best (I'm not quite ready to commit yet) - is The Imposter, which is one of those docs that seems too strange to be true.  It's the most gripping nonfiction film since Catfish, and it barrels along with a thriller's pace as it reaches its cloudy, shocking conclusion.

The Imposter tells the story of a family whose 14 year-old son goes missing in San Antonio, Texas, only to seemingly resurface three years later in Spain.  As the title suggests (and as the film reveals almost immediately, so it's not a spoiler), it's not actually their son.  The questions come fast and the answers almost as speedily, as the film explores who this man is, why the family accepted him so easily, and what became of the missing boy.  The FBI and a private investigator get involved to try to suss out some answers in an ever-more-complicated web of lies, false identities, and questionable motives.  The film is cleverly edited, weaving dialogue from interviews into recreations of the scenes being described, recreations featuring lovely cinematography and believable stand-ins.

The Imposter must be seen to be believed.

On Netflix Instant
Michael - This Austrian drama is a hard sit, but it's a fantastic, well-crafted film that, impressively, is impossible to look away from, despite featuring an abhorrent protagonist.  Michael is an unassuming businessman who, when he returns home each night, ventures into his basement, where he keeps a 10 year-old boy locked in a soundproof room.  The film proceeds with very little dialogue, allowing the viewer to try to piece together the strange relationship between Michael and the boy, which sometimes almost seems like a parental bond, but at most points, takes on a much more sinister tinge.

As the film progresses and the relationship becomes clearer, Michael features some of the most uncomfortable and unforgettable scenes in recent cinema, including a brief but heart-stopping exchange at the dinner table and a last shot that literally left me breathless.  Moment to moment, Michael may be slower than what most viewers are used to (or feel like tolerating), but when considered as a whole, it's difficult to deny how powerful the film is.

Alps - From Dogtooth director Giorgos Lanthimos comes an appropriately odd follow-up.  In Alps, the eponymous organization seeks to provide comfort to grieving family members by having actors come to their homes for appointments in which they play the deceased relatives.  Scripts are written, rehearsed, and delivered with mechanical precision and manufactured emotion, but somehow, a sense of warmth and connection emerges, leading to lasting relationships that become complicated as identities are blurred and lines are crossed.

While not as balls-out strange as Dogtooth, Alps is reminiscent of Holy Motors in its identity swapping, but it plays out its central conceit with more solemnity than Leos Carax's chameleonic masterpiece.  The film is hypnotically paced and builds to a perfect conclusion; perhaps most extraordinary is that, though the characters spend much of their time playing other people, we come to care so deeply about them as them.

Indie Game: The Movie - As a gamer, it's in my DNA to love this great documentary, which delves into three of the most celebrated and successful indie games ever created: Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez.  But I have to imagine that, even for those who have never lifted a controller, Indie Game: The Movie is an engaging, entertaining, and fascinating look at what makes these very different developers tick.

Whether the film is letting Jonathan Blow toot his own horn (and it's a very big horn), documenting Phil Fish's obsession with getting every last pixel of Fez just right, or chronicling Team Meat's journey to meet intense deadlines, Indie Game: The Movie celebrates a passionate movement in an industry that has long been dominated by corporate giants.  Just as the indie market has boomed in the movie industry, so now games created by teams as small as one person (insanity) can now be distributed online and enjoyed by millions of gamers worldwide.

Goon - Goon is some of the things you expect it to be.  It's full of raunchy humor, brutal fistfights on the ice, and generous helping of vulgarity.  But it's also many things you (and I) wouldn't expect: it's got a sweet protagonist who defies the sort of hero who usually shows up in an R-rated sports comedy, it takes the time to invest in its characters and their relationships, and it's really smart.

Sean William Scott plays Doug "the Thug" Glatt, a bouncer who gets drafted onto a minor league hockey team to be a goon, meaning it's his job to fight players on the other team.  Instead of making Doug a tough asshole with a silver lining of some sort, he's actually a sort of loyal puppy dog who's happy to be here.  It's a touching, subtle performance, and Scott has fantastic chemistry with Allison Pill (who's brunette!), but also brings the brawn to his bloody brawls.  Goon makes good use of its supporting characters (the team is populated with memorable one-noters) and its setting.  It's often comedic gold, where I was hoping, at most, for silver.

Oslo, August 31st - One of 2012's very best movies comes from Reprise director Joachim Trier, based on the novel Le Feu Follet by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle.  In Oslo, August 31st, recovering drug addict Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie, who also starred in Reprise) leaves rehab for a day to go into the city, where he plans to interview for a job, see friends, and visit with his sister.  The day doesn't go as planned, and Anders fights to stay away from his old haunts and reconnect with his ex-girlfriend, who lives abroad.

The film is brutal, with Lie giving an incredible performance, capturing Anders' fragility, hostility, and anger as he spirals downward.  There's a gentleness, a tenderness that is always only a moment away from cracking, and the film, as a result, feels like it's always teetering on the brink of tragedy.  Anders is easy to root for but hard to believe in, a tragic hero in a world that no longer has a place for him, a world that has largely turned its back on him, or at least refuses to accept him as he is, warts and all.