LeapBackBlog 2012 Film Awards – Part 1: Technical Achievements

Film in 2012 may not have been quite as strong overall as 2011, but right at the top there were a lot of good and very entertaining films. 2012 also featured many wonderful performances, particularly among men (many great performances that would have made my lists in past years were sadly left off). The LeapBackBlog Film Awards are comprised of what I think were the best and most interesting films, the strongest performances (taking into consideration who the actor is and what else they have done), the narrative style that drew me in (best directing), and exquisite craftsmanship (best technical achievements). But really, these are lists of my favorites from the year.

Part 2: Supporting Performances

Part 3: Directors

Part 4: Leading Performances

Part 5: Films

Hugh Bateup & Uli Hanisch – Production Design – Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is insanely ambitious. Most production designers have a difficult enough task creating one narrative world – Hugh Bateup (working with the Wachowskis) and Uli Hanisch (working with Tom Tykwer) each created three (to make up the film’s six different stories). The worlds range from the mid nineteenth century South Pacific to modern day London to far into the future in Seoul to the post-apocalyptic (almost like the rebirth of society) tribesman on the Hawaiian Islands. And yet, even with such a grand undertaking of scale and scope, plus two different crews filming different stories, the film still has a unified feel and look, and a lot of that goes to the absolutely amazing work of Bateup and Hanisch.

Roger Deakins – Cinematography – Skyfall

2012 saw a lot of very good cinematography work, but Roger Deakins’s photography in Skyfall is simply the best of the year. Working with director Sam Mendes (their third collaboration), Deakins delivers aesthetically stunning work – from the gloomy fog covered moors to the crisp sheen of red lights against the night in Macau, or the almost sci-fi feel of Bond’s fight with an assassin in Shanghai. Visually, the film is never content to just be a straight forward action film, or just another entry in the Bond franchise. It completely blew me away.

Alexandre Desplat – Score – Moonrise Kingdom

I often joke about composer Alexandre Desplat being the hardest working man in Hollywood – well, in 2012 he scored eight films, including Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Rust and Bone, and Moonrise Kingdom. Working with director Wes Anderson, Desplat has created a fun, playful, and charming score for Sam and Suzy’s adventure (in their second collaboration). Like the best pieces of film music, it matches the tone for the film and sets the mood for the audience. Desplat is one of the great composers working in cinema today (or at the very least the most prolific). His work is always brilliant.

Greig Fraser – Cinematography – Killing Them Softly

Director of photography Greig Fraser had three films hit theatres in 2012 – Snow White and the Huntsman, Zero Dark Thirty, and Killing Them Softly. Now while Zero Dark Thirty will likely get more accolades and coverage, it is Killing Them Softy that is far more aesthetically interesting and artistically ambitious. Working with director Andrew Dominik, Fraser’s photography gives the film a sort of a post-apocalyptic feel, with lots of stormy skies, broken down landscapes, and  exaggeration of violence (along with morally corrupt characters populating the narrative). Dominik and Fraser use extreme slow motion to drag out the violence or drug use, making it feel more impactful and poetic (reminding me of the moving stills in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia). It is brilliant and absorbing work.

Jonny Greenwood – Score – The Master

After their fantastic collaboration on There Will Be Blood (creating 2007’s best score along with Dario Marianelli’s score for Atonement), composer Jonny Greenwood and director Paul Thomas Anderson worked together again on The Master. Greenwood’s score both fits the period in places and provides an uneasy and wondrous experience for the viewer, emotionally and psychologically matching the character of Freddie Quell perfectly. The music is unlike anything else in cinematic scores right now, pushing the boundaries artistically.

Sarah Greenwood – Production Design – Anna Karenina

Joe Wright threw everyone involved in the production of Anna Karenina a curveball when for budgetary reasons he decided to shoot most of the film inside a theatre. Production designer Sarah Greenwood rose to the challenge creating the year’s best design work (in her fifth feature collaboration with Wright). Every set is perfectly fitted to match the tone and style of the scene and characters, be it the high society parties (which are marvelously decorated) or the slum back ally-like stage rafters. Visually, the film is unparalleled, and that is thanks to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, director Joe Wright, and especially production designer Sarah Greenwood.

Claudio Miranda – Cinematography – Life of Pi

Life of Pi is an absolutely beautiful film to watch. The visuals capture the imagination and dazzle with a stunning array of colors and pristine composition. More so than any other of this year’s top films, Life of Pi is very much an emotional and visual experience, and Claudio Miranda’s work is magnificent, to say the least. In my opinion, he is one of the ten best directors of photography working in Hollywood today (along with Wally Pfister and Roger Deakins, both making this Awards list as well). It is impossible to watch this film and not be completely enamored with the photography and use of color.

Wally Pfister – Cinematography – The Dark Knight Rises

The most impressive aspect of Wally Pfister’s cinematography in The Dark Knight Rises is that everything lighting-wise the viewer sees in the final film is done in camera – which means that Pfister and director Christopher Nolan did not color correct in post-production (a very common practice these days, even among the best D.P.s). Pfister’s work with IMAX cameras is also very impressive, as the film has a massive sense of scale – it truly is a phenomenal experience to see in IMAX. Pfister is directing his first film in 2014 with Transcendence, but hopefully his collaboration with Nolan will continue as well – they are one of the best teams working today (if not the best period).

Ed Verreaux – Production Design – Looper

Working with director Rian Johnson, Ed Verreaux creates a wonderful look for Looper. The film mixes genres, feeling like a sci-fi film, a crime drama, and a western in different parts. Verreaux’s production design gives the film a taste of each of these genres. The city is a mix of futuristic technology and sort of a collapsed society feel (most of the vehicles are junk-cars from today adapted to run on a new fuel source). The design work is also very artistically interesting, with aesthetically pleasing patterns and lights. Verreaux’s work may be overlooked given the great action, psychic abilities, and a time-travel plot, but it really grounds everything in a world that feels real and thus is a crucial part of what makes the overall film brilliant.

Hans Zimmer – Score – The Dark Knight Rises

Hans Zimmer’s collaborations with Christopher Nolan have yielded fantastic scores (notably for Inception), including the first two films in The Dark Knight Trilogy. With The Dark Knight Rises, Zimmer gives the film such a brutal and hard hitting accompaniment perfectly matching the film’s main villain Bane. For Selina Kyle his score is sleek, slinky, and refined, but with a touch of immediacy – again matching the character wonderfully. The music grips the audience from the start and matches the tone throughout. Like the film itself, the score is big and masterful.

Looper (2012) – Review

Review: Looper is an inventive genre blending sci-fi film that relies more on its great characters than its impressive stylized action. It is about Joe, a contract killer for the mob – only he works for them thirty years in the past, as they send targets back in time for him to kill. When Joe’s future self is sent back, he is startled and lets him escape. Now, to get his life back, he must hunt down and kill his future self.

Writer-director Rian Johnson is known for his genre blending (especially with his first film Brick). With Looper, it is a lot more nuanced. On the surface the film has very much a sci-fi style, reminiscent of Blade Runner and Akira, taking place in a future dystopian society in which the disparity between the classes is so profound that there are roaming hordes of homeless (known as ‘vagrants’), but underneath there are a lot of elements that feel like a western, both story wise and visually – things like: the bad guys wear black (particularly when the gatmen pick up Old Joe, they look like villains in a western with their trench coats and black hats), much of the film takes place on an isolated farm/ranch with characters waiting for the final shootout and one of the characters is a gunslinger of sorts called Kid Blue (named after the 1973 western). From a narrative standpoint, the western elements stem from the showdown between Joe and Old Joe, each representing a fundamental way of life (Old Joe is experienced and fights for what he cares about, while Joe has his life in front of him and is fighting for his time/his future). Westerns often focus on the confrontation of old and new (the changing of the west – the film is also set primarily in Kansas which is one of the gateways to the west; the boundary between the Wild West and the civilized east). There are also a number of standoffs in the film – a visual and narrative staple of westerns. Yet, the film is primarily made up of sci-fi and action beats and touchstones (it is about time travel after all).

Structurally, Johnson has to spend a lot of time explaining how his future works, how time travel works, what a Looper is – yet, the first act is very good, despite all the business and exposition to get through. Johnson achieves this by placing voiceover narration over visuals of a typical day in Joe’s life. By doing this, the audience gets all the story elements they need to know while also getting a sense of who Joe is – economic storytelling at its best, only to be topped by one of the best montage's in film history displaying Joe's transition into Old Joe. However, Johnson also changes the pace of the film, as most of the film is continually moving forward like a typical action film until Joe gets to the farm, and then things slow way down allowing for the characters to be developed and for the audience to really take a deeper stake in Joe, as the tension builds toward a final showdown. This change of pace, however, does leave the middle feeling a little slow, juxtaposed to the quick action beats and economical storytelling that proceeds it.

The characters and their arcs are probably the strongest aspect of the film. Johnson does a wonderful job playing with the audience’s perception of them. Joe and Old Joe seem to take turns being the protagonist and antagonist. In most films, characters are fixed (for the most part) in their roles in the narrative, but here Johnson continually twists the audience’s expectations and anticipations. This works well as the characters feel much more dynamic and interesting – in not knowing quite who to root for, the audience ends up caring about both Joe and Old Joe. The supporting characters are also rich and compelling (especially Sara, Abe and Kid Blue).

Visually, the film is also fantastic and highly stylized. Johnson specifically cares about every camera move, every cut, every piece of mise en scene – essential every frame. Without its hip and flashy style, the film would just not be the same. Johnson’s dystopia is sort of a retro-future, as if the economy failed and manufacturing stopped. There are futuristic visual elements (like the hoover bike) and recognizable products from today (like most of the cars). The change is more sociopolitical than technological. The main sci-fi visual touchstone comes in the form of the massive bleak city that seems to consume and dwarf everything around it (similar to Blade Runner’s Los Angeles). There are also a few gadgets. It is more in the narrative that the more classic sci-fi elements are present.

Despite the slight pacing issue, Looper is very entertaining and cinematically exciting due to its lush characters, striking visuals and overall brilliance of Johnson’s vision and script. To say it simply, it is just a cool and refreshingly different film (it gave me the same feeling as last year’s Drive).

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Rian Johnson, now three films in, is definitely one of the most exciting young filmmakers (and potential auteur). His writing and visual style is completely fresh as he twists, subverts and mixes genres and genre archetypes. I very much look forward to his future work (as I have high aspirations for him and his projects). Looper is his most accessible film (in terms of mass audience appeal) and probably his best to date (though, Brick is great as well).

Nathan Johnson’s score is unique in its sound, providing the film with its sci-fi tone. It is very interesting and avant-garde (listen to it here). Steve Yedlin’s cinematography seems to heighten the reality of each environment with stylized lighting. It is great work. Ed Verreaux’s production design is brilliant, and among the best work I have seen this year. The overall look of the film has a very collapsed society feel to it, but not totally destroyed as if things went bad and then people learned to live within the new world and moved on. The sets are wonderfully dilapidated and adapted.

The performances, much like everything in the film, are stylized and specific. Garret Dillahunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, and especially Noah Segan are very good in small roles. Newcomer Pierce Gagnon is surprisingly good as Cid. Emily Blunt plays the typical desolate female ranch owner (in westerns) who the stranger comes across (only Johnson twists it). She plays Sara to be strong yet very empathetic (she sort of reminded me of Sarah Conner in the first Terminator). Bruce Willis is very good in the film, playing his ‘tough guy’ routine with more of an emotional measure (he really lets the audience in). Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also very good as he essentially has to play a younger version of Willis, capturing the mannerisms and so on. However, their Joes differ in how they view themselves and what they want, and in this their performances feel individual.

Summary & score: Looper is captivating, as it has great action set pieces, compelling characters and a cool style, but it is the film’s inventiveness and originality that makes it special. 8/10 

Movie of the Week – Monster House

This week’s movie is Monster House (2006).

The Halloween movie is about three teens that discover their neighbor’s house is alive. Thus, they set out to release the spirit haunting the house to protect their neighborhood. The film marks the directorial debut of Gil Kenan (who has since also directed City of Ember). He decided to do the film with all the character performances being 3D motion-captured, which (while the animation already is a bit dated compared to recent stuff) gives the character performances on the screen a lot of life, especially in their facial expressions. The whole film was shot with the actors and then the animation was laid over their performances. It was also the second film to feature the Real-D digital 3D format. It was executively produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, which is probably why it has such a great nostalgic feeling to it. It reminds me of the great movies I loved (and still love) as a kid (things like The Goonies). Douglas Pipes also provides a festive score and the visual aesthetic of the film is fantastic as well, thanks to Kenan, production designer Ed Verreaux and cinematographers Paul Babin and Xavier Perez Grobet. The cast is great as well. It stars newcomers Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner and Spencer Locke. Steve Buscemi is also wonderful in support. Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Lee, Kevin James, Nick Cannon, Jon Heder, Ryan Newman, and Kathleen Turner are featured as well, many with fun bit parts. Monster House is a great Halloween family movie – it is both scary enough and funny enough to thrill, while having good characters to engage. Though it was made in 2006, it feels like one of the movies of my childhood from the 80s. Check out the trailer.

Available on Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming