2012 was a massive year for film, with the likes of The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall dominating at the global box office, making billions in the process. But what of the movies that might have been lost in the mix? Those films that, in spite of great reviews, failed to find an audience. We’ve decided to collect 20 of our favourites together – the only criteria being that they had to have been released in the US, the UK, or Australia in 2012. So read on for a glimpse at this year’s hidden gems.
Directed by the masterful Ken Loach, The Angels’ Share tells the tale of a young Glaswegian father who, while serving community service for a crime, is taken to a whisky distillery as a reward for good behaviour. While there he discovers that he has a remarkable ability to identify different malts by their smell, and soon comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. Combining brutal social commentary with a wicked sense of humour, The Angel’s Share is cut from the same cloth as The Commitments, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot, and deserves to be seen by as big an audience as those films.
They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and in the case of the Cronenberg family, it appears to have dropped directly underneath. With Antiviral, writer-director Brandon Cronenberg has crafted a challenging drama that would not look out of place on his father David’s CV. X-Men: First Class star Caleb Landry Jones plays salesman Syd March, who works for a company that harvests infections and diseases from celebrities and injects into paying customers, thereby creating a viral bond between celebrity and fan. It’s an intriguing concept, affording Cronenberg junior the opportunity to fire both barrels into society’s obsession with fame and celebrity culture.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is being tipped for Oscar glory and yet it failed to make much of a dent at the box office. Poetic, challenging and heartbreaking all at once, the film revolves around a defiant bayou community which is plunged into danger when a huge storm hits and their levee breaks. Six-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis delivers a remarkable performance as Hushpuppy, and in shooting the film from her remarkable point-of-view, director Behn Zeitlin has crafted a beautiful, unique and utterly original feature.
A surprise nominee in the Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards this year, Bullhead is a tough and uncompromising drama, with director Michael R. Roksam helming what may well be cinema’s first ‘farm-noir.’ Matthias Schoenaerts delivers a powerhouse performance as a cattle farmer who starts dealing in black market animal-growth hormones and is soon drawn into a dark world of violence and murder. Not for the faint-hearted, Bullhead is gripping from start-to-finish, and marks Roksam and Schoenaerts as ones to watch.
Inspired by a real-life incident, IGN called Citadel “a cross between Straw Dogs and The Brood” when we reviewed it back in October. Aneurin Barnard plays Tommy, a single father who suffers from agoraphobia. But when a gang of feral children try to kidnap his daughter, Tommy is forced to face up to his fears, teaming up with a crazed and foul-mouthed priest to save his girl and once-and-for-all put his demons to rest. Terrifying from start-to-finish, Citadel is indie horror that demands to be seen.
While Cockneys vs. Zombies is unlikely to make any literal ‘Best of 2012’ lists, it’s nevertheless a fun movie that lives up to the silly promise of its title. Written by Severance scribe James Moran, the film kicks off with the dead rising from their graves in East London, and follows the efforts of a gang of bank robbers and a group of old-aged pensioners to survive the zombie apocalypse. The youngsters in the cast are passable, but it’s the golden oldies – most notably Richard Briers and Alan Ford – who steal the movie, with the zombie/zimmer-frame chase one of the comic highlights of the year.
Coriolanus was a brave choice for Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, being as it's one of Shakespeare’s most inaccessible plays. But against the odds Fiennes’ adaptation is a triumph, transposing the story to an alternate version of modern-day Rome, and shooting the action sequences in a brutal documentary-style that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bourne film. Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Gerard Butler and Fiennes himself have rarely been better, while the play’s comments on politics and war have never seemed more timely.
Sometimes, there’s simply no justice at the box office. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland made $334m in the United States and just over 1bn worldwide. Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie has thus far grossed $34m in the States and $66m globally. And yet the latter is a far superior film. Based on a short that Burton made for Disney way back in 1984, this stop-motion masterpiece tells the tale of a little boy and the bond that he has with his beloved dog Sparky, even after the pet pooch dies. Dark, inventive and consistently hilarious, it’s Burton’s best since Ed Wood; a genuine stop-motion masterpiece.
So the dude with the funny voice from the Police Academy flicks has made yet another movie to enrage ‘Middle America’ and delight the rest of us. Following in the twisted footsteps of Sleeping Dogs and World’s Greatest Dad, God Bless America documents the efforts of a terminally ill man and unbalanced 16-year-old girl to rid society of its ills one bullet at a time. Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwaite’s dark brand of humour isn’t for everyone, but if you like your comedy both cruel and offensive, you’d need look no further.
This one shouldn’t work, but it does. Seann William Scott plays Doug Glatt, an overgrown child with one very special talent – he can fight. And not just like some back-street pugilist, but rather as effectively as a heavyweight boxer. Doug starts the film bouncing at a dive bar, but before long the coach of the local ice-hockey team spots his talent for busting skulls, and in no time at all he’s rising through the ranks of the hockey league as the ultimate enforcer. Rude, crude and consistently immature, Goon nevertheless has some of the funniest lines of the year, and Scott delivers an unexpectedly touching performance as the brawler with a heart of gold.
The best Tarantino movie that Tarantino never made, Headhunters is a violent, nasty and hilarious tale of bad people doing bad things to other bad people. Based on the bestseller by Jo Nesbo, the story revolves around Roger Brown, Norway’s most successful headhunter. Roger also happens to be a hugely successful art thief, but early on in proceedings, he steals from the wrong dude, leading to a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Ridiculously entertaining, see Headhunters before the inevitable – and doubtless inferior – American remake.
The less you know about this amazing documentary the better, so we’ll just give you the synopsis and recommend you avoid watching the trailer until after you’ve seen the film: The Imposter begins with an unsettling disappearance – that of Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year-old Texas boy who vanishes without a trace. Three-and-a-half years later, staggering news arrives: the boy has been found, thousands of miles from home in Spain, saying he survived a mind-boggling kidnap ordeal. His family is ecstatic to have him back no matter how strange the circumstances – but things become far stranger once he returns to Texas. Though the family accepts him, suspicion surrounds the person who claims to be Nicholas.
Writer-director Ti West made a splash with the brilliant House of the Devil in 2009, and he returns with the equally slow-burning but no less terrifying The Innkeepers. A deceptively simple haunted house movie, the film follows the efforts of hotel employees Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) to investigate the ghostly goings-on at the Yankee Pedlar Inn. And while it starts off bright and breezy with things going bump in the night, the upbeat atmosphere doesn’t last long, with the tension hitting at the half-way point and unrelenting until the film’s devastating climax.
The most unusual crime caper of the year, Robot and Frank is set in the near future and revolves around the bond that an old man (Frank Langella) forms with his caretaker robot. So far, so pedestrian, but when the titular Frank realises that his mechanical buddy is capable of pulling off the perfect heist, proceedings take an unexpected turn. Langella is as brilliant as ever, while the film is full of warmth and charm.
Inspired by a classified ad that came to the attention of the filmmakers, Safety Not Guaranteed revolves around a newspaper investigation into the following: “Wanted: somebody to travel back in time with me. This is not a joke… You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety Not Guaranteed. I have only done this once before.” And that seemingly insane request triggers a touching tale of madness and love with a grandstanding finale that demands a second watch.
Like The Imposter, the less you know about this remarkable documentary the better, but for the purposes of this feature, we’ll give you a brief overview. Directed by Malik Bendjelloul, the film follows the efforts of two South African music fans to discover the whereabouts of their idol Sixto Rodriguez, a Detroit-based singer-songwriter who disappeared into obscurity. And his story is a truly remarkable one that surprises and astounds at every turn.
Martin McDonagh’s follow-up to In Bruges is inferior to that mini-masterpiece, thanks to the frequent bouts of self-reflection spilling over into self-indulgence, but it’s nevertheless a consistently smart and sophisticated story of Shih Tzus, screenwriting and serial killers. Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken and Woody Harrelson are on top form, but it’s Sam Rockwell who steals the show, delivering an eccentric, hilarious and endlessly surprising performance.
Horror doesn’t get any funnier than this and comedy doesn’t get any blacker. Ben Wheatley’s follow-up to the magnificent Kill List is the tale of a pair of star-crossed lovers who embark on a caravanning holiday across the British Isles. Only trouble is, Chris is a serial killer, bumping off those that litter and spoil the countryside. And Tina quickly becomes his accomplice, egging him on as he murders and maims. Not for the faint-hearted, if you can put up with Wheatley’s trademark bursts of violence, Sightseers is one of the funniest films of the year.
The Master wasn’t the only through-provoking examination of a cult to hit screens this year, with Sound of My Voice receiving plaudits at both Sundance and SXSW. Brit Marlin – who co-wrote the script – plays Maggie, the mysterious leader of a small Californian cult, while Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius play the journalists who join up looking for a story. It’s an intriguing premise, and while Sound of My Voice ultimately fails to live up to the promise its gripping early scenes, the film is nevertheless well worth a watch, if only for Marlin’s spellbinding performance.
This unexpected gem was written and directed by Dexter Fletcher – aka Baby Face in Bugsy Malone, Spike in press Gang and Soap in Lock Stock. And while it’s ostensibly a London gangster flick, Fletcher hasn’t gone down the Guy Ritchie route of larger-than-life caricatures, but rather peopled his film with three-dimensional characters you believe in and genuinely care about. Charlie Creed-Mills is a revelation as the Bill of the title, desperately trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow following a spell inside, while Andy Serkis, Neil Maskell and Will Poulter all lend stellar support.
Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and wants to know what you think of these movies. Bug him on both Twitter and MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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