2012 Movie Round-Up!!

Guys!!

I'm so excited to write my third(!!) annual movie round-up!  Movie round-up time is my favorite blog time!  This is awesome.

No, not just awesome.

Emphasis on the expletive.

Woo!

Without further delay or ado...

WRONG pelican.  WRONG.

May I present to you...

The PsychoCinematic Year in Movies

(2012 Edition)

1. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (4)

2. Meek's Cutoff (4)

3. Marwencol (3)

4. The Great Muppet Caper (4)

5. Albert Nobbs (2)

6. My Week with Marilyn (3)

7. Chronicle (2)

8. Trollhunter (3)

9. Exit Through the Gift Shop (??)

10. Kings of Pastry (3)

11. Footnote (5)

12. 21 Jump Street (4)

13. Waiting for "Superman" (5)

14. Winter's Bone (3)

15. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (4.5)

16. Sun Don't Shine (3)

17. The Patron Saints (2)

18. Porfirio (4)

19. God Bless America (2)

20. The Avengers (2)

21. Into the Abyss (3)

22. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (3.5)

23. Moonrise Kingdom (5)

24. The Dictator (2)

25. Prometheus (3)

26. Alien vs. Predator (3)

27. My Neighbor Totoro (4)

28. Age of Innocence (4)

29. Between the Folds (2)

30. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2)

31. Deliver Us From Evil (4)

32. King of Devil's Island (4.5)

33. The Amazing Spider-Man (3)

34. Submarine (4)

35. Inglourious Basterds (5)

36. The Dark Knight Rises (5)

37. Following Sean (3)

38. I Am (4)

39. Easy A (4)

40. Brick (3??)

41. Sleepwalk With Me (3.5)

42. In the Loop (3)

43. My Left Foot (4)

44. Grizzly Man (4)

45. Heavenly Creatures (2)

46. Glengarry Glen Ross (3.5)

47. The September Issue (3)

48. Freakonomics (4)

49. Mansome (3.5)

50. Kimjongilia (5)

51. 7 Psychopaths (4)

52. Noise (Australian) (3)

53. Serpico (3)

54. Death at a Funeral (3.5)

55. Adventureland (2)

56. Argo (4.5)

57. Paper Moon (5!)

58. Fatal Attraction (2)

59. Skyfall (4)

60. Flight (2)

61. Indie Game: The Movie (4)

62. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (4)

63. Paris 36 (4)

64. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (3)

65. Bonjour Tristesse (3)

In case you were wondering: You are correct--I did in fact rock the shit out of this year's movies resolution, with 13 movies in excess of my 52 movies goal--a PsychoCinematic record!

Consistent with last year, I am either getting softer in my ratings or have just learned to steer clear of movies I know I will utterly and unequivocally hate.  As such, no movies were punished with a dreaded "1" rating this year.  Nevertheless, I still find it somewhat enjoyable, in a vengeful and spiteful way, to kick a little dirt on the movie I'm most annoyed I saw.  

...I will take this opportunity to state the fact that I'm still pissed about "Remember Me" (2010).  Good God that movie was terrible.  Add to my list of posts that need to get written: a post on way I hate that stupid movie so much.

I know this is him in a different movie
but the sentiment still stands: grrrrrr
Editor's/Author's Note: Please forgive the typo, as I did not make this sparkle vamp gif. 

ANYWAY.  Among my least favorites from this year were: 

For generally unsatisfying storyline and poor development of a main character:

Albert Nobbs (2011)

For failure to make a compelling documentary in spite of immensely compelling primary material:

The Patron Saints (2011)

For being OH MY GOD SO BORING:

The Avengers (2012)

For butchering an goddamn amazing book:

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

For feeling low-rent and overall wonky in spite of being based on a creepy true story:

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

For perpetuating any number of horrific gender stereotypes:

Fatal Attraction (1987)

This year, the dubious honor of least favorite film of 2012 goes perhaps unsurprisingly to "We Need to Talk About Kevin" for earning my unending ire by failing so miserably to live up to what is a truly spectacular book.

Please, please just read this.

Moving right along! 

The contenders for best movie watched in 2012 year are: 

Footnote (2011)

Waiting for "Superman" (2010)

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

King of Devil's Island (2010)

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Kimjongilia (2009)

Argo (2012)

Paper Moon (1973)

As you can see, 2012 offered a smaller pool of candidates compared to previous years.  Don't let the shortness of the above list fool you, however.  This is by no means an easy decision.

...........................

..................................

Gah.

Okay, so top three:

For overall spectacular cinematic craftsmanship:

Footnote (2011)

For being a visually and emotionally beautiful testament to auteurship:

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

For being an utter (and unexpected) delight of storytelling and performance:

Paper Moon (1973)

Okay.

My favorite movie of 2012 stayed with me for days.  It thrilled me for many reasons, including the thoughtfulness apparent in its every detail, the formidability of its cast, the beauty of its images, and the film's signal that a cherished director of mine has not lost his Midas touch.  I loved the courage and novelty of its story and how still, months after seeing it, the closing music comes to my mind and brings tears to my eyes.  Most of all, however, this movie served as a reminder that the power of wonderful cinema stems from its shining of gorgeous light on our own lives and memories.

My favorite movie of the year was Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom."

Oh my heart!

As always, I am so looking forward to sharing the next year of movies with you, dearest friends and readers.

{Heart}

Killing Two Resolutions with One Stone, or: Museums are Fricking Awesome

Oh hello,

Remember how I made a bold commitment to visit a museum a week as a way of actively coping with the uncertainty, anxiety, and misery of applying to internship?

BAM.

Museum visited.

It was delightful, refreshing, enriching, and so much more therapeutic and calming than I had even imagined when crafting the museum-per-week plan.  I'm so pleased with myself for coming up with this scheme, and so very excited to continue with it.

BUT THERE'S MORE.  I very cleverly took my camera with me, thereby addressing not one BUT TWO of my resolutions for this year (#2 and 4, to be specific).  Since our first museum has a quite strict no photography policy, said camera was deployed on the subsequent post-museum walk around the beautiful city in which I live.

Please enjoy a sampling:

Gorgeous bare trees in front of the museum. 

I love the different roofs on each of these houses.

I love that coffee shop's sign. 

Remnants of demolished building and rando paint as unintentional art.

The steam goes pshhhhh

Madison and 70th

Unexpected colors under gray peeling paint.

My favorite of the day.

Thanks for sneaking a peak.  

Review of 2012 still pending--hopefully before the end of the month.

Have a great week!

{Heart}

Resolutions Update: Museum Edition

Hihi,

I still owe you guys a 2012 round-up--fear not, I have not at all forgotten.

However, before I embark on that somewhat massive enterprise, I thought I'd share an update on one of my not-even-three-weeks-old resolutions.

I'm almost done with the interview phase of applying for internship, which is followed by the ranking phase.  During the ranking phase, I punch the list of sites at which I've interviewed into some form on the internet according to my preference (my "ranks").  All the sites that interviewed me will punch the list of applicants they interviewed into a similar form according to their preferences.  All of this information--all of the wishes and hopes of hundreds of sites and thousands of applicants--gets squished into and processed through some computerized algorithm and after two horrific weeks of waiting, most of those people and sites will have been matched, in a contractually-bound fashion.

This basically means that on February 22nd I might get an email that announces where I'm mandated to go for the next year of my life... hopefully.  I say "hopefully," because in spite of how unpleasant I'm finding the utter lack of power I ultimately have over this process, I'd rather that than having to do this shit all over again.

Anyway.  This perhaps explains why I had to devote an entire New Year's resolution (#4) to the challenge of accepting and embracing this process.  I don't take well to having so little say in my own future, especially when it means I might have to move, get a car, and make any number of other changes to my life.  I like my life, and the prospect of such change is therefore terrifying.

I must remember this.

In an effort to comply with my own aspirations for this (still pretty) new year, I've come up with a scheme.

Rationale for Scheme: Part of the reason I'm feeling really sad and anxious about these possible changes is that I might have to leave my current city, and I hate that.  I deeply, desperately love my city, but much to my chagrin and frustration, the last year and a half has afforded precious little time for enjoying and exploring it.  To be fair, I also deeply and desperately love the city to which I might have to move, so it's not as if I've set myself up to move somewhere I don't at all like.  But still, I fear that once I move from this city, I might not move back.  I'm just not done living here, so it really hurts my heart to think about leaving before I'm ready, against my will no less.

One of the many things I love about my city is that it's drowning in museums.  One of my very favorites is within walking distance of my apartment.  There are so many of them!!  It's amazing, but also one of the things that I'm really, really going to miss if and when I have to go.

Enter my scheme!

For the foreseeable future, I plan to visit a museum a week.

Somewhat ambitious, I know.  But you know what?  I'm going to be really, really sad that I devoted so little time to enjoying this beautiful, awe-inspiring, vibrant city if I have to pack up and leave in six months.  If I get matched here and (dare to dream) have two months of summer and don't have to move or anything, then yahtzee!  I went to a fuckton of museums and it was awesome and I don't even have to pack things.

Yahtzee: Museum Visits as Coping with Uncertainty Edition

Although a lot of my difficult feelings around this process can be resolved through means that don't require subway rides and admissions ticket purchases (resolution #1 comes to mind), I think this could be an important element of making peace with however the internship process concludes.  If all else fails, at least I'll get to see some art, historical houses, and maybe some pretty plants.

And now, as many things are demanding my attention today, I should be off.

{Heart}

TYSG: Happy 2013!! Edition

Welcome to the future!

I thought I'd start the new year with a TYSG supplement: a wonderful synopsis of 2012, courtesy of Google.

This week is very busy, but I'm hoping to tackle the 2012 movie round-up soon.  I'm excited to share it with you!

In the meantime, enjoy the video:

{Heart}