Under Seen in 2012 – Movies Spotlight – March 2013

Every year there are a number of great films that seem to be overlooked due to their small budgets, bad marketing, and/or limited theatrical releases. Here are a few of the best neglected films of 2012 (that you have probably not seen, but should).

Film: Dredd

Director: Pete Travis

Cast: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, and Lena Headey

Plot Summary: This action film takes place in a dystopian futuristic city overridden by crime in which police officers are judge, jury, and executioner. On a routine call to investigate a murder, a seasoned veteran Judge Dredd and his rookie trainee Anderson find themselves in the middle of tenement controlled by a vicious gang. They have no choice but to fight their way out (and for Dredd that means bring every criminal to justice).

Why You Need to See It: What is most incredible about this film is that the mere idea of a new Judge Dredd project is completely laughable (which is probably why no one saw this film), because the 1995 Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd is so utterly terrible (and a huge disappointment to the fans of the 2000AD comics), and yet Pete Travis, writer Alex Garland, and company have made one of the year’s best action films.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Streaming

Film: Goon

Director: Michael Dowse

Cast: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill, Marc-Andre Grondin, and Liev Schreiber

Plot Summary: This sports comedy is about Doug Glatt a club bouncer who finds that he has a real talent for fighting. Exploiting his toughness and team loyalty, he earns a place on a small town minor league hockey team as its enforcer.

Why You Need to See It: Goon is very funny – graphically violent and vulgar, but very funny. It is one of the best sports comedies in some time, and is most akin to genre favorite Slap Shot (as they both deal with minor league hockey goons). What also works fantastically well about the film is how it captures the spirit of playing and travelling as part of a team (the shenanigans and joking).

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Streaming

Film: The Innkeepers

Director: Ti West

Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis

Plot Summary: The Yankee Pedlar Inn in New England is famous for being haunted, but it has fallen on hard times and is closing. During its last weekend open, two employees Claire and Luke are determined to find evidence of supernatural activity in the hotel.

Why You Need to See It: The Innkeepers is thrilling and scary, but this throwback horror film does not rely on cheap tricks to insight its moments of terror. Rather, it slowly builds tension and develops its characters (which gives the viewer more of a stake in the outcome) taking its time to optimize the impact of the third act. It feels like a classic ghost story.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Streaming

Film: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Director: Stephen Chbosky

Cast: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller

Plot Summary: This drama is about Charlie a high school freshman who is having a hard time. However, everything changes for him when he is taken under the wings of two seniors Sam and Patrick.

Why You Need to See It: On top of the excellent performances from the film’s three main actors, The Perks of Being a Wallflower succeeds because it earnestly addresses the high school experience through drama, comedy, romance, and its wonderful characters. It feels in many ways like a film made by John Hughes at his best.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Streaming

Film: Safety Not Guaranteed

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, and Jake Johnson

Plot Summary: This dramedy is about Darius a magazine intern who has felt lost since the death of her mother when she was a child. However, when she is dragged along with another intern by one of the magazine’s writers to work on a story about a man seeking a companion for time travel, she unexpectedly finds something that inspires her again.

Why You Need to See It: Safety Not Guaranteed is a time travel narrative that plays better than most of its big budget contemporaries. It has a wondrous genuine tone that draws the viewer in, to go along with its great characters. Also, it is quite funny.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Streaming

Film: Sound of My Voice

Director: Zal Batmanglij

Cast: Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius, and Brit Marling

Plot Summary: This mystery drama is about Peter a journalist who is investigating a cult leader, Maggie, claiming to be from the future with the intension of exposing her as a fraud. To get a firsthand look at Maggie, Peter and his girlfriend go undercover and are initiated into the cult, only to be pulled in deeper.

Why You Need to See It: Sound of My Voice is a mystery built on very well-crafted suspense and a fantastic payoff (which leaves the viewer questioning all the details that the film has shown them). Despite its micro-budget (i.e. lacking big action set pieces or other such spectacles that populate Hollywood mysteries and thrillers), the film is thoroughly compelling on the strength of its script and performances.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Streaming

The Innkeepers (2012) – Review

Review: The Innkeepers is a good horror film made in the classic style, favoring slow building tension over gore, loud noises and impact cuts. The film is about two employees, Claire and Luke, working the last weekend of the Yankee Pedlar Inn before it closes for good (a real life place that is supposedly haunted; most of the filming was done onsite). The inn has a history of hauntings related to a suicide by a grief stricken bride years ago. Luke and Claire set out to find evidence of the hauntings, while killing time in the almost empty inn. Writer-director Ti West is not interested in making the typical gore centric or cheap thrill style horror film with this, as the film builds very slowly with almost no sign of the spirits (or ghosts) for most of the first half of the film. Rather, West relies on the classic tension building devices of a great creepy score, darkly lit corridors in which the camera lingers behind following the characters around each corner (the audience, influenced by the score, expecting something to jump out at any moment) and characters that the audience relates to who believe in the spirits (i.e. Claire). What is fantastic about this film is that West piles on the tension and suspense for almost the whole film before anything scary happens, but the tension gets to the point where it is almost too much for the audience to bare, completely captivating them emotionally – to varying degrees of release (I myself wanted to yell at the screen to tell Claire to get out of there). The expectation that West creates is where the fear comes from, not so much what the audience actually sees onscreen – and this is very rare in modern horror (which is too bad), be it due to shoddy filmmaking or audience demand (it is probably a little of each). Taken at face value, the spirits are not very scary. It is the buildup of tension that frightens us ultimately. West also makes the film have a mystery aspect to it (something that is easy to miss if you are not paying attention), which is often the case of the genre but West twists it enough to make it feel fresh (and well-written; though it seems that many viewers missed the reveal). However due to West building the tension slowly and the lack of thrills through most of the runtime (as it is not that kind of horror film), this is not going to work for everyone, especially those looking for the typical genre fare of late (Saw, Paranormal Activity, something gory in 3D). Also, and this is really an issue with the genre as a whole,  horror films are often predicated on their characters being overly curious, stupid and having an overall terrible decision-making ability, and this is no different almost to a frustrating degree. Claire just cannot get out of her own way (it is inevitable, I guess). The Innkeepers overall is one of the better horror films in recent years capitalizing on good storytelling, characters and directing instead of cheap thrills.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Ti West has created a good niche for himself making low-budget indie horror films (and I think this is his best to date, though The House of the Devil is good too). Though, I would like to see what he could do with a bigger budget and more established actors (not that it is completely up to him). Composer Jeff Grace’s score is one of the highlights of the film. It is spooky and sells the audience completely on the emotions they should be feeling at a given moment (here is a portion of it). It has the feel of the great classic horror scores. Eliot Rockett’s cinematography and Jade Healy’s production design plays into the realism that West wants to create for the film. Both the actors’ performances and the atmosphere are anchored in realism which allows West to so effectively build tension as the audience relates to the characters (and to some degree their choices; I however would have been gone at the first sign of ghosts, but I probably never would have gone looking for them in the first place). The Innkeepers’s success is reliant on the quality of its cast, and for the most part they are good. Kelly McGillis is okay in the film, but a strong performance in her role would have been better. Pat Healy is good as the nerdy guy who just wants to seem cool for the girl he likes (and I think one of the great things that West did with the film in making good characters was have a fun chemistry between his leads; two bored underachievers goofing off). Sara Paxton is very good in the film, carrying it well. She is willful yet pulls off being terrified superbly so that the audience is also nervous watching (I hope to see her get more starring roles in quality projects in the future).

Summary & score: The Innkeepers is a well-written, well-acted take on the classic horror thrillers of the 1970s. 7/10