Our staff at Way Too Indie compiled a list of the Best 50 Movies that came out between 2010 and 2014. These films mess with our heads, expand our imagination, push the art form forward, fill up our hearts, and then rip them out for good measure. And for all this, we’ll love and cherish them for years to come. Here’s to an amazing first half of the decade, and to an even better next five years.

Every day this week we are releasing ten films from our list, here is #30 through #21.

Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far
(#30 – #21)

Drive

I remember walking out of the theater one hot and muggy September night in Toronto after experiencing Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. I really didn’t care for it. Maybe it was the hype. I saw it again. And again. And again. It’s now one of my favorite films (when we made our individual lists that this list was culled from, I had it at number one). Refn’s film is colorfully bold. It’s loud. It’s vibrant. It’s violent. And it’s just so much goddamn fun. Ryan Gosling had a breakout year in 2011 and one of the reasons was this pseudo-Euro-pop-western set in the modern day metropolitan jungle of Los Angeles. Gosling plays a man with no name (wink-wink) who works at a body shop by day, but at night masquerades as a driver for hire whom criminals pay good money to extract their cohorts from robberies and other odd jobs. When one of these jobs goes wrong and a woman he is smitten with is put in danger, he reacts swiftly and violently. Refn won the Best Director prize at Cannes where the film premiered, and now four years later I’m sad it’s not universally loved. Drive is a pulsating work. Everyone involved is at the top of their game, especially Gosling, who here announced himself as one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars. [Blake]

Inception

Still a staple in film critics’ conversations since it’s inception into celluloid (I had to), Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi heist thriller won over our hearts and minds with it’s wig-out-worthy concept of dream hacking. Winning Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects, this epic sensory roller coaster garnered acclaim among critics and the box office, grossing over $800 million internationally. With incredible performances by an indomitable cast including Leonardo Dicaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, and Tom Hardy, it’s no wonder this film is likely to go down as one of the best in the century, let alone the decade. Personally, I think any movie that gives us an opportunity to experience that which is Lukas Haas is a winner. And who wasn’t holding onto their butts for the funhouse-like fight scene as they tumbled through the spinning hallway? It is rare that we see something that is not a recreation, adaptation, revision, or remake in Hollywood and it is always refreshing when a new concept is able to reawaken that ever sleeping giant that is our imagination. [Scarlet]

Silver Linings Playbook

One of the most charming, lovable and painfully honest depictions of mental illness I have ever seen in cinema, Silver Linings Playbook is a bona fide gem and a modern classic of the genre. Pat and Tiffany, our main characters, embark upon a journey that, for most others, would be a Hollywood cliché. But it has to be acknowledged from the beginning that these two are not most other characters. They do not act the way we expect them to; they live the way they expect themselves to. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence provide stunning performances, demanding to be taken seriously whilst at the same time being entirely aware of the comedy they inspire. Perhaps this is key to understanding the characters themselves though—just a few scenes into the film we can tell that they are walking contradictions. Pat could genuinely be described as an optimistic pessimist. Tiffany seems to be both intrusive and elusive. In much the same way, Silver Linings Playbook couldn’t possibly be described as an ordinary romcom—not because it subverts the genre, but because it so thoroughly surmounts it. [Pavi]

Holy Motors

After his 1999 film, Pola X, ended up a disastrous financial failure, the peculiar French director Leos Carax recoiled into seclusion to lick his wounds. Aside from his contribution to the Tokyo! triptych of films in 2008, he hadn’t filmed anything for the public for over a decade, which turned the Holy Motors premiere at Cannes, in 2012, into an arthouse event and a triumphant return of a beloved film lover and emphatic romantic at heart. Working with his most trusted collaborator, Denis Lavant (who turns in an Oscar-worthy performance), Carax sets Holy Motors in a cinephile’s wet dream fantasy land, where a man pops in and out of various characters, various stages of film history, and multiple storylines revolving around love, loss, family, and coming home. It plays out concurrently as a love letter to everything that has inspired Carax as a filmmaker, and an elegy to the current state of an art dominated by technology and profit. Some have called it pretentious, some WTI staffers didn’t care for it, but the majority of us beg to differ (personally, it’s my second favorite film of the decade so far). By delving into the personal, Carax has made something enchantingly universal, where even the space between the frames captivates and celebrates cinema as poetry. At times hilarious, at times frightening, always passionate, Holy Motors is watching magic conjured on screen by a magician in love with creation itself. [Nik]

Before Midnight

Before Midnight, Richard Linklater’s third entry in his widely adored Before romance series, trades in Before Sunrise’s twenty-something charm and Before Sunrise’s lost-lover flirtation for mid-life fatigue and melancholy. As the loquacious Jesse and Celine, now together for several years and with children, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are as verbally adept and compatible on screen as ever, but here they’re given decidedly heavier material than the previous entries in the series (a nine-year gap in between each), tasked with telling a story not about finding love, but about not letting it slip through your fingers. Shot on the stunning Greek isles, the film keeps in tradition with its predecessors, following Jesse and Celine as they flirt and chat and bicker (mostly bicker) walking down country lanes and driving down winding roads. The sense of dread that this may be the end for the once lovestruck couple, especially for those who’ve come to love the characters over the years, hangs over the movie like a dark cloud. Do they have it in them to stick together for another nine years? Before Midnight is so damn good you can’t help but want to see how it’ll all pan out come 2022. [Bernard]

The Grand Budapest Hotel

We’ve only yet had a year to appreciate this one (though we’re not the only ones as it took home four of the Academy’s Oscars this year), but it seems safe to say that The Grand Budapest Hotel will live on to see Best of the Decade lists five years from now. Indeed, Wes Anderson is likely to have this one attached to his name as one of the greatest of all his works, no matter what he goes on to achieve. Bombastic? Perhaps, but let’s just remember Anderson had another film out in the past five years (Moonrise Kingdom) and it didn’t make this list at all. The endearing story of a revered concierge at a mountaintop hotel and his growing friendship with devoted lobby boy, Zero, is told through Anderson’s unique and fantastical lens. Together they gallivant through diorama-like settings, each frame of the film a meticulously crafted scene out of Anderson’s colorful mind. While Anderson has a great many films under his belt, The Grand Budapest Hotel gleams as his best yet to pair his idiosyncratic imagination with likable and intricate characters. He hit new depth with this film, even with all its witty diversions. In fact I’d say it’s every wacky puzzle piece that makes the overall picture that much more splendid. [Ananda]

Birdman

Winner of the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography as well as Golden Globes for Best Screenplay and Best Actor in 2014, Birdman will sit solidly on our list making it strongly probable that it will remain in the Top 50 for the rest of the decade. Made to look like it was filmed in one continuous shot, there were actually at least 16 (visible) cuts. The actors had to memorize up to 15 pages of lines at a time while also landing on all of the choreographed marks set for the scenes. With this in mind, the performances of Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts, were brilliant. The anticipation of seeing how Michael Keaton would play this out was almost more than I could bear, however. Four years since his last movie role and playing a part that seemed like it could truly be a glimpse into his real life, being an ex-superhero, one couldn’t help but await witnessing his artistry. And he did not disappoint. I think there has never been a doubt that Keaton has some mad acting skills, it’s just so nice to be able to experience it any time we can. We want more. [Scarlet]

The Lego Movie

Directed and co-written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Warner Animation Group hadn’t produced a film since 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Released to critical and commercial acclaim, The Lego Movie was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Animated feature and an Oscar and Grammy for Best Original Song, “Everything is Awesome.” While it didn’t win any of those, it did win 48 other awards including the BAFTA award for Best Animated Film, as well as the Critic’s Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature. Its popularity was so great, actually, that there was a shortage of LEGO products in September. The animators paid such close attention to detail that only bricks from the official LEGO Brick Library were used to construct everything—with the exception of President Business’ hair and evil helmet—in the Lego universe. Amazingly, not once does the film mention the word “LEGO.” Characters were voiced by some of the industry’s biggest comics, most notably Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, and Nick Offerman, among many others. In fact, this was the first time Morgan Freeman had voiced an animated character. It was so successful that two spin-off films are already in the works as well as a sequel planned for a 2018 release. Which is just plain awesome. [Scarlet]

Cloud Atlas

Produced independently for over $100 million (one of the highest-budgeted indies of all-time), Cloud Atlas was doomed to fail from the beginning. With Lana & Andy Wachowski (whose previous film, Speed Racer, flopped hard) co-directing alongside Tom Tykwer to adapt a dense, structurally ambitious novel, all signs pointed to a bust. When Cloud Atlas finally came out, audiences rejected it wholeheartedly, but some people (including more than a few of us here) saw something amazing. Sure, Cloud Atlas has its flaws (no one’s going to defend those make-up effects), but it more than makes up for them with sheer ambition. Comprising of six stories ranging from the 1800’s to centuries in the future, Cloud Atlas shows how one act of defiance against oppression can inspire a revolution centuries later. And despite being an adaptation within the world of Hollywood tentpoles, Cloud Atlas is wholly original, the sort of film that should be championed rather than disparaged. The Wachowskis–whose follow-up Jupiter Ascending suffered a similar fate as this film–are some of the most earnest, daring and original filmmakers working on a large scale today, their films teeming with more ideas than an entire phase of Marvel films. Give Cloud Atlas a chance, and it may surprise you. [CJ]

Upstream Color

Eight years after he left audiences stunned and stumped with the sci-fi mind-fuck Primer, Shane Carruth returned out of nowhere with an ambitious and equally confusing film called Upstream Color. Perhaps he kept such a low-profile because he was so busy; he directed, produced, acted, shot, edited, scored, and even distributed Upstream Color. Trying to decipher the logic behind the film is challenging by design. As the story unfolds, two strangers develop an unexplainable connection when they begin to see each other’s memories, and eventually their memories mesh together, making it difficult to distinguish which memories came from who. Carruth creates this disorienting dream-like state by combining frequent narrative jumps and fragmented dialog. Adding to the film’s strangeness, the two characters also experience a bizarre physical and spiritual connection to nature through organisms such as blue orchids, worms, and pigs. Like a surrealist painting, Upstream Color is open for interpretation and practically dares you to only look at it once. [Dustin]

See the rest of our Best Movies Of The Decade lists!

View Other Lists of this Feature:
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#50 – #41)
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#40 – #31)
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#20 – #11)
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#10 – #1)

In the world of filmmaking, every movie is a gamble, you never know which ‘may flower’, or which will burn to a crisp at the box office. There’s a cornucopia of bad films out there, but for every bad film is a sucker who loves it anyway. We are those suckers.

In this season of thankfulness, we show our gratitude for the under-appreciated (or straight-up hated) films of this world. Yes, we’re being corn-y, but this is one feast of ‘turkeys’ that won’t leave you five pounds heavier.

Way Too Indie’s Favorite ‘Turkey’ Movies

Man of Steel

At the risk of alienating all of my colleagues here at WTI, I’m standing up for a movie that’s everything under the sun, except indie. I walked into Man of Steel as someone who has very little admiration for Zack Snyder and his slow-mo-action antics. Not even talk of Christopher Nolan’s involvement gave me much hope. Superman is a boring know-it-all superhero, Snyder is a showboating director of music videos in disguise, and this is going to suck. That I walked out feeling none of the above was surprising, most of all to me. Critics beat on Man of Steel harder than Clark beats on General Zod, but for me; this movie was a helluva lot of fun.

This is as dark and gritty as a Superman story can get, and we do have Nolan to thank for paving the way with his supreme Dark Knight Trilogy. For the first time ever, the story of an alien with superhuman strength landing on earth and not knowing who or what he is, was directed and acted in way that made plausible sense. Henry Cavill acts like a confused, emotionless, alien. Good. That’s what Superman is. He’s plagued by flashbacks of his adoptive father (Kevin Costner, nailing this part in ways he had no right to), and inquisitive with his biological dad (another perfect casting choice in Russell Crowe). Good. That’s exactly the kind of thought-process I’d expect Clark to go through before realizing what he is. And it goes on and on; the background on Krypton, the exhilarating action scenes with Zod (Michael Shannon, effortlessly watchable as always), the realistic destruction of a city, one of Hans Zimmer’s greatest scores, etc. etc. I’ve got plenty of reasons to love, and very little reason to hate. [Nik]

Crank

Is it insane to say Crank is a masterpiece of action cinema? Not as insane as Crank actually is. It starts off with a simple premise: Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) wakes up to find he’s been poisoned, but as long as his adrenaline is high enough the poison won’t take effect. The concept is really just an excuse to hurl as much action and carnage at the screen as possible, and Crank more than delivers on that front. Statham is the ideal leading man for this sort of film, embracing every piece of insanity thrown his way. And by tying the need for action to the protagonist’s health (if there’s no action he will die), Crank is one of the most fast-paced action films ever made as well as one of the closest things to a live-action video game.

Directors Neveldine/Taylor also know how to shoot great, kinetic action on a low-budget. Crank certainly was divisive when it came out, but the concept paid off: it made over three times its budget at the box office, and despite the very conclusive ending a sequel came out years later (fun fact: Crank: High Voltage is even more maligned than Crank, but is also a good movie). Crank is one of the few movies that says it has “non-stop action” and means it. Other action movies only wish they could be this frenetic or creative. [CJ]

Batman Forever

For all the praise Christopher Nolan enjoyed for telling some of the best Batman stories ever, in any medium, Joel Schumacher has drawn just as much hatred for his two zanier contributions to the Dark Knight mythos, Batman Forever and its sequel, Batman & Robin. I share most people’s disgust for the latter, with its hideous puns and George Clooney mis-casting, but I actually have a lot of fun with the former to this day. It’s playful popcorn entertainment, built on spectacle and gags; but if I come across it on a lazy day of channel-surfing, I’ll watch the hell out of it, happily.

Aside from the splashy art design, with its elaborate laser light shows and sets that look like gothic-themed nightclubs, what I enjoy most about Batman Forever are its performances, particularly Jim Carrey’s as The Riddler/Edward Nigma. Val Kilmer plays a fine Bruce Wayne, but Carrey stuns with one of the most unencumbered, yet refined performances of his career. His androgynous, flamboyant take on the classic Bat-villain fits the movie’s fetishistic tone perfectly, and his double-team comedy schtick with Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face/Harvey Dent is a lot of fun, though both characters still maintain an air of danger. It’s as easy to dismiss silly superhero movies as it is to embrace gritty, reality-based ones. Batman Forever doesn’t want to make you think or depress you; it just wants to have a good time and zoom in on Batsuit nipples. Is that so wrong? [Bernard]

The Family Man

Sitting next to my growing library of Criterion Collection titles is a DVD which always gets the reaction, “Really? You have that movie?” when spotted by friends. That film is Brett Ratner’s 2000 rom-com The Family Man. Maybe it’s because the film stars Nicolas Cage, an actor a lot of people criticize for agreeing to star in just about any movie that asks him. Or perhaps people just thought the film was a little too cheesy, predictable, or feel-good at times (it’s guilty of all of them). But nevertheless, I don’t have any troubles defending this film as a charming heartfelt holiday film the whole family can enjoy.

The Family Man borrows the same basic premise of another Christmas movie It’s A Wonderful Life. Nicolas Cage plays a single wealthy businessman who gets a glimpse into what his life could have been when he wakes up one morning as a middle class husband and a father of two. Nicolas Cage haters might just be surprised by how good he is here, showing his range by playing two completely opposite characters with firm conviction. The universal message of the film is learning to love your own life, which might just inspire you to do the same. Though at the very least, The Family Man is a holiday movie worth watching despite what others might say. [Dustin]

Red Sonja

Before Rocky IV and before Cobra; before Beverly Hills Cop II, Brigitte Nielson debuted her tremendous Nordic height in Red Sonja. Originally planned to be a spin-off or sequel to Conan the Destroyer, Director Richard Fleischer failed to obtain the rights thus moving forward with what everyone just assumed was the sequel, even including a co-lead identical to Conan. As much as Arnold Schwarzenegger declared THIS to be the worst movie he ever made (that’s telling more than anything) it was MY favorite as a child. Bad parenting aside, Red Sonja was my first awakening towards female empowerment.

With a particularly confusing plot (though no more so than either of the Conan films) and pretty memorable special effects, this won Brigitte Neilson a Razzie Award for Worst Actress in 1985. But don’t tell that to my seven year old self. It spent more than double what it made in theaters, but it’s not enough of a failure to completely shut down talks of a potential remake in the near future. Rumor has it they might already be thinking of who might fill those high Barbarian boots. Though I’m not sure I can see Zoe Saldana pulling off those red tresses in near the same way. [Scarlet]

Southland Tales

Richard Kelly followed up his hit film Donnie Darko with this ambitious, but deeply flawed film. Southland Tales was ripped apart by critics upon initial release and still it goes unnoticed to this day. Set in 2008 during the few days leading up the 4th of July in Los Angeles, Tales tells the story of a few individuals (a porn star, a movie star, a war veteran and a police officer) whose stories start to intertwine as they all seem to be a part of a vast conspiracy. Trying to describe what happens throughout the film is nearly impossible; the film is a complete mess. Kelly pulls influences from multiple genres and most of the time nothing works.

Beat-master Moby scores the film and Kelly sprinkles in hits from Jane’s Addiction, Elbow, The Killers, Blur and Black Rebel Motorcycle Society to boot. The film is a pulsating and vibrant black comedy that I’d liken to watching the Hindenburg crash down from the sky. You just can’t look away. Having said all these negative things about the film, I can’t hide my love for it. It’s weird, illogical, baffling and sometimes stupid. And yet, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. [Blake]

Sleepaway Camp

Though Sleepaway Camp has fully achieved cult status, I still feel that there are too many of its supporters that would glibly throw away that it is nothing more than “so bad it’s good.” I would like to challenge that claim. That’s right, you should take the 1983 teen slasher seriously. If you want to sit back with your friends and a few adult beverages and laugh your way through all of its sillier traits, that’s fine, I don’t want to take away that experience from you. But I would like you to consider Sleepaway Camp’s genre innovation and way ahead-of-its-time sexual politics.

As a slasher, Sleepaway Camp is a particularly good one. The kills are incredibly inventive and appropriately gruesome. Whenever people aren’t being viciously killed, the tone is sweeter than the genre’s norm, with realistically-aged actors dealing with the relatable problems of growing up. What the film does really well, though, is center the kills around a mystery. In later years, slashers became less interested in keeping an audience engaged through a mystery and instead plopped the killer’s persona as the main attraction (the similar Friday the 13th series is a good representation of this). As for the transgender issues around the film, this is a touchy topic that deserves a much bigger platform. I will say, however, that no other film at the time looked at this issue with any sort of substance, and few have since. It’s potentially harmful to make a transgendered person the killer, as if Angela is some sort of monster because of her identity, but it makes me feel more sympathetic to the character. Sleepaway Camp’s famous final frame is shocking and horrific, but its perspective on Angela makes me consider the character and the film to be more than your typical twisted horror. [Aaron]

Unbreakable

I remember the first time someone told me that Unbreakable was generally considered a “weak” film. I was in film school and contemplating using a scene from Unbreakable for a project. My partner scoffed, he thought referring to this film would get us laughed out of class. A debate ensued. We used the clip. I think we got an ‘A’. I’ve been unabashedly supporting this film ever since.

As his immediate follow-up to the film that catapulted him into cult status, The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan’s shunning after Unbreakable’s release was swift and harsh. He had been pigeonholed, and when he ventured to move on to another admirable hero tale, this time drawing on comic-book themes, audiences held up the rubric they created just for him and immediately dismissed it as mediocre. What’s ironic about the public’s disdain for Unbreakable is that it incorporates many of the exact elements that made The Sixth Sense great. Once again we have Bruce Willis in the lead as a man desiring to do good amidst a failing marriage, and there’s a kid—his child Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark)—who helps him uncover a secret about himself that makes for an unexpected twist at the end. The action is slow but deliberate, the imagery bright and intriguing, and the character revelations satisfying. It was criticized as unconvincing and overdone, but perhaps with only a year between The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, the buzz was still too fresh in stubborn audience’s minds. To me it’s another example of all that Shyamalan is capable of. [Ananda]

Law Abiding Citizen

F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen was maligned almost universally by critics and audiences, for lots of stuff: unnecessary, excessive violence; a plot with a stupid amount of logic holes; characters with far-fetched motivations. Why did I love it? Well, I just happen to enjoy tasteless violence in movies quite a bit from time to time. “Plot holes” and “low plausibility” almost never bother me (if they bother you, you’re a bore), and I find single-minded characters to be quite enjoyable if used correctly.

Gerard Butler plays a man hell-bent on avenging the deaths of his wife and daughter (whose murderer is set free) by killing law enforcement officials… while locked in a high-security prison cell himself. How he’s able to lead the hapless cops to their gruesome demises (via mechanized death machines he’s crafted himself) while trapped in prison is the film’s central mystery, which D.A. Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) intends to unravel before more innocent blood is spilled. The dialogue between Butler and Foxx is overblown, as are all other aspects of Gray’s explosive mystery-thriller, but that’s what I love about it. It’s an unbridled, gory vision of revenge that’s filthy as hell for a reason: when people are stripped of everything, there’s no limit to the ugliness they’re capable of. Many call Law Abiding Citizen tasteless; I call it honest. [Bernard]

Airborne

The 90’s were littered with teen sports flicks. Rudy, Little Big League, The Sandlot and The Mighty Ducks series are prime examples. Lost amid all of these popular and instantly quotable movies was Airborne; one of the few movies tough enough to tackle the cool it-sport of the moment, rollerblading. Cool Californian, Mitchell Goosen (helluva name) is sent to live with his cousin and his parents in cold and frosty Cincinnati after his parents have to leave the country for work. This wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that Mitchell lives for surfing. No waves in Cincy, bro.

Airborne is devoid of any kind of originality at pretty much any point in its 91 minute running time. Its plot is culled from many other sports films of the era. The film was largely ignored during its original release due to the market being saturated with similar releases, and yet, the film works in its own way. The actors, including early roles from Seth Green and Jack Black, bring a great energy to the material and Rob Bowman’s direction puts you right into the thick of the action. Airborne, might have never taken off during its premiere run, but for me it soars. [Blake]

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

It’s easy to see why critics love to hate Jim Carrey movies, most of the time they’re idiotic, outlandish, and even insulting to its audiences. But they can also be downright entertaining. Fitting into all of those descriptions is the 1994 film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a slapstick comedy full of laughs, if you’re willing to turn your brain off first. Clearly Roger Ebert wasn’t able to (along with most other critics at the time) as he gave the movie a lousy one star rating and called it a “long, unfunny slog through an impenetrable plot.”

Hardly anyone will argue against Ace Ventura’s weak plot—a wacky detective who specializes in finding lost pets gets hired to find a football team’s mascot—but it’s hard to fault a film that only aims as high as lowbrow humor. Instead, Jim Carrey defines the meaning of physical comedy in every scene, contorting his body and his words in ways only he could express. His comedy knew no limits and he was willing to do just about anything for a laugh, including bending over to talk through his butt. While Ace Ventura was considered a flop at the time, the film made Jim Carrey a household name, and remains one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Just don’t feel obligated to watch the sequel. [Dustin]

What Lies Beneath

It may be that I find it incredibly difficult to dislike films that Harrison Ford is in (Crystal Skull excluded), or that I find the best psychological thrillers take place in the most ordinary of settings, but to me What Lies Beneath is a well-crafted and twisty tale. Michelle Pfeiffer is the star despite Ford’s presence, playing a mom with slight empty-nest syndrome and a Rear Window-style bad habit of peeking in on her neighbors. Robert Zemeckis’s sappy style is accused of weighing down the film’s thrills and its pacing regarded as glacier, but to me these are the sugar-coating on a poisoned apple. When the film’s finale hits and the plot’s mysteries mostly revealed, it becomes a true cat and mouse game, and I’m reduced to uncomfortable squirming every single time. I’ll admit the teasing of a ghost story seems distracting, but I just see it as the sort of diversion that tries to throw off the scent of real danger.

Perhaps films that hint at both psychological and supernatural thrills require too much to chew on for most viewers, but for me it’s just two elements I love. Pfeiffer makes the film. Her good nature and sweet demeanor as Claire Spencer just egging on my apprehension. It’s not the horror film anyone else will recommend to you for a Friday night fright, but it makes my Halloween playlist every year. [Ananda]

Cloud Atlas

With critics bemoaning the lack of originality in mainstream films today, you’d think Cloud Atlas would have been welcomed with open arms. Independently produced for $100 million, this ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel was (and still is) unlike anything released by a major studio. Spanning thousands of years through 6 storylines, using the same actors in multiple roles to highlight themes of reincarnation and redemption, Cloud Atlas is bold, daring and exhilarating filmmaking, earnestly exploring ideas and concepts other films wouldn’t touch. That earnestness sometimes worked against the film: the make-up, used to change actors into different races and genders, ranged from impressive to disastrous. The filmmakers understandably came under fire when they dressed up white actors to look Asian.

But the film still works in spite of its flaws because of how much its three directors (Lana & Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer) have the guts to go all-in with the kind of sincerity others would bristle at. And plenty of people bristled; Time and Village Voice declared it the worst film of 2013, and a poor marketing and release strategy by Warner Brothers guaranteed a poor box office performance. Hopefully time will prove Cloud Atlas’ naysayers wrong. It’s the kind of cinematic experience that deserves to be lauded, not laughed off. [CJ]

North

Having Bruce Willis as a guardian angel would satisfy a number of wishes on my list. And seeing him in a full size pink bunny costume would satisfy the others. So just imagine my surprise to find out North is pretty much considered one of the worst movies of all time. It couldn’t have been the completely flat and stereotypical portrayal of nearly every culture in the U.S., or the star-studded cast, each actor providing perhaps the cheesiest performance of their careers. This movie might have flopped with adults, but only because their children were all most likely demanding to see it so many times it gave them the chance to notice every little flaw. That hardly seems fair.

While Rob Reiner does seem to be the captain of corny, mostly his films do pretty well in theaters and among all of us romantics. And who wouldn’t melt at little Elijah Woods innocent dimples? But somehow, with all of its arsenal (Reba AND Dan Akroyd), it truly failed to deliver. In fact, Roger Ebert stood by his unequivocal hatred of the film naming it the worst film of 1994 and making his list of worst films of all time. It swept the Razzies that year, at least for nominations, being nominated for Worst Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, and Screenplay. Unfortunately it couldn’t even manage a win there. In spite of all of this, it will always have a special place in my heart. [Scarlet]

The Three Stooges

OK, confession time. I actually like Bobby and Peter Farrelly’s take on the classic comedic trio. I’m not going to try and convince you that The Three Stooges is among the great cinematic treasures, but am a little baffled by the masses completely writing it off. I can understand the cultural perception, considering the long and heavily publicized production, initially stacked with incredible actors in the title roles. What we got, though, is far from bad and worth a look for those seeking a silly comedy. The film is a 90-minute live-action cartoon, overstuffed with gags and slapstick. The Farrelly brothers built their careers on goofy comedies, and The Three Stooges is certainly that, but this film has more kinetic energy than they’ve ever had previously.

The film works almost entirely because of the three leads: Sean Hayes as Larry, Chris Diamantopoulas as Moe and Will Sasso as Curly. Their performances are so dedicated to the cultural memory of the original Three Stooges that it could certainly feel like mere impressions, but they are able to rise above this through sheer effort. Diamantopoulos is especially good, perhaps with the benefit that I don’t recognize the performer as much as the other two. More importantly, they work incredibly well as a team, which is important with the madcap timing of the action. They always feel in control of a purposefully out-of-control film. [Aaron]

To the Wonder

Terrence Malick is not for everyone, and since Badlands, his movies seem to go further and further out of their way to prove just that. His last film, To the Wonder, pretty much drove everybody away (except for us). Even people who loved The Tree of Life have a tendency to say “To the Wonder? Way too weird, not for me.” It has a small number of supporters, and I – a zealous Malick fan – count myself among them. I think people who expected more plot, narrative structure, and character development than Tree of Life were the most bitterly disappointed ones because To the Wonder gives less in that respect. It’s not a story, really. It’s a visual essay attempting to capture concepts and fleeting emotions, and it plays out like Malick’s most personal film to date because of how utterly unhinged it is, without a speck of exposition. (It’s also said that the thin plot involving a man stuck between two women, one from Paris, and one from his hometown in the States, is an autobiographical account of Malick’s own personal life).

Though I’m no student of Heidegger, I appreciate Malick’s devoted attempt to grasp ethereal concepts like “being” and “experience,” trying to capture them on film like some kind of half-crazed lepidopterist chasing a reclusive butterfly, connecting them with the human emotion of love, and figuring out where faith stands in all of that. Lubezki’s luminous cinematography and Kurylenko’s graceful beauty complement each other wonderfully, and though it’s not my personal favorite Malick film, I still love it in more ways than one. To those who say “it’s way too weird,” I say, “no. It’s just way too indie.” [Nik]

Cloud Atlas is a big film by all definitions; it contains an inordinate amount of characters spread out across hundreds of years, making the shear scope of the production epic. Not to mention the estimated budget of 100 million dollars (though it was independently financed outside the studio). To pull off such an ambitious feat, the film split the directorial duties among a trio of film visionaries, Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and the Wachowskis siblings (Andy and Lana, The Matrix trilogy). However, Cloud Atlas’ biggest accomplishment may also be its biggest flaw; the overloaded plotlines are never boring, but at times they can be too much to follow.

When characters are first introduced in the opening sequence, one of them in particular seems to be speaking directly to the audience. That character is an older man (Jim Broadbent) on a typewriter who describes his time spent as an editor has made him dislike gimmicky storytelling involving flashbacks and flashforwards. But he goes on to say that if you have some patience you can then see that there is a method to its madness. That whole scene only lasts a few moments before going on to the next introduction, but it almost seemed to be begging the viewer to embrace what is about to unfold.

The plea to be patient between the back and forth storytelling proved to be necessary as Cloud Atlas contains six different time periods, each with their own plotline and characters. While everything happens in linear fashion in each time period, the film does jump between the six different time periods at will. Even though there are six different storylines, similar themes and characters are shared across them all, making everything connected to each other. The film brilliantly shifts from one period to another by using cleaver scene transitions. One example of this is when the thundering sound of horses galloping from one era leads into the next with a similar sound of a train racing on its tracks.

Cloud Atlas spans across several hundreds of years, ranging from the 1800s to the 2300s and several years in between as well. In the earliest setting of 1850, Adam (Jim Sturgess) is a wealthy pro-slavery American Lawyer who is poisoned by a corrupt doctor (Tom Hanks) for his fortune. He eventually switches his stance on slavery when a slave saves his life. In 1931, an upcoming composer (Ben Whisaw) works closely under one of the best known composers of the time (Jim Broadbent), but fears that his original masterpiece will be wrongfully claimed by his famous superior. Set in the 1970s, the daughter of a famous reporter, Luisa Rey (Halle Berry), is an investigative journalist who is looking to prove herself by uncovering a corrupt business leader (Hugh Grant). In the year 2012, a publisher named Timothy (Jim Broadbent) finally makes it big when an author’s (Tom Hanks) book flies off shelves after he murders a book critic. A few men go after Timothy for his money, which he does not have, forcing him to ask his deceitful brother for a loan who instead offers him a safe house. But Timothy’s finds himself captive in a nursing home instead. A hundred years in the future, a slave restaurant waitress manages to escape from her captivity to start a revolution. The last storyline is set far into the future, a member of an advanced civilization (Halle Berry) teams up with an island tribesman (Tom Hanks) to help solve each other’s dilemmas.

The common theme that stiches the six tales together is the desire of freedom. No matter what age the character lives in, there is someone there that wants to restrict the amount of power and freedom you possess. During each stretch of time, characters are morally challenged to stand up for what they believe in.

Because most cast in the film got to play both the hero and the villain, Cloud Atlas must have been an actor’s fantasy. Take the numerous roles that Tom Hanks had in the film for an example. He wonderfully portrayed the crooked doctor back in the 1800s but got a chance to redeem himself later as a good scientist in a different time period. Hanks, like other fellow cast members, is sometimes unrecognizable at first because of the amazing makeup job that serves as a disguise to their age, ethnicity and even gender.

Cloud Atlas is an entertaining yet dense film that contains many wonderfully told stories which link together seamlessly. All the stories brilliantly peak at the same time, making for one epic climax, once you first let all the stories develop independently. It is easy to get caught up in the web of trying to make all the connections between the characters – making a repeat viewing seemingly necessary. However, the major themes and messages are apparent enough in the film without the requirement of multiple viewings; but you must accept that some of the finer details will likely get lost in the shuffle.

Now look, I don’t have to tread familiar ground here (but I will for fun). Anyone who knows about awards season knows how much of a joke the Golden Globes are. The awards, which are selected by 90 or so people who make up the ‘Hollywood Foreign Press Association’ or HFPA, have very little significance. The studios pour out money shoving their stars around to HFPA parties, wining and dining the members in order to get some sort of recognition. This isn’t much of a secret since it’s so blatant. A quick Google search can show you how messed up the awards are, and it seems that with every year they’ve stopped bothering with trying to make themselves look somewhat prestigious.

There are definitely some shocking nominations here, but most of them are of the ‘Huh?!’ variety. Expectantly this comes from the Musical or Comedy category, where Salmon Fishing in the Yemen scored three nominations! Other odd surprises include Maggie Smith getting nominated for Quartet instead of Comedy/Musical Picture nominee The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Hobbit getting completely shut out.

As for the serious contenders, Lincoln and Les Misérables continue their race at the top with Zero Dark Thirty closing in fast. Lincoln scored the most nominations with 7 while Argo and Django Unchained got 5 a piece. Les Misérables, which was the presumed front-runner for the Musical/Comedy category, only got nods for Picture, Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway). It could be a sign of that movie losing steam, but treating the Globes as a predictor of anything would be a grave mistake.

As for the pleasant surprises: Moonrise Kingdom scores a Best Picture nod, Life of Pi got some love (while it isn’t the best movie of the year it’s definitely one of the more unique films in the awards race), Django Unchained and Argo proving that they have staying power, Rachel Weisz, Richard Gere and Jack Black all getting acting nods and Cloud Atlas picking up a nomination for its excellent score. Read (or weep at) the nominations below. The awards show, which is more about watching celebs get drunk and hoping tabloid fodder happens, air on January 13th. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host.

The full list of 2013 Golden Globes nominations:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Argo
Django Unchained
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Picture – Comedy/Musical
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Ben Affleck – Argo
Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained
Ang Lee – Life Of Pi
Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actress – Drama
Rachel Weisz – The Deep Blue Sea
Helen Mirren – Hitchcock
Naomi Watts – The Impossible
Marion Cotillard – Rust And Bone
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor – Drama
Richard Gere – Arbitrage
Denzel Washington – Flight
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
John Hawkes – The Sessions

Best Actress – Comedy/Musical
Judi Dench – Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Meryl Streep – Hope Springs
Maggie Smith – Quartet
Emily Blunt – Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor – Comedy/Musical
Jack Black – Bernie
Bill Murray – Hyde Park On Hudson
Hugh Jackman – Les Miserables
Ewan McGregor – Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
Sally Field – Lincoln
Amy Adams – The Master
Nicole Kidman – The Paperboy
Helen Hunt – The Sessions

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin – Argo
Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained
Leonardo DiCaprio – Django Unchained
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master

Best Screenplay
Chris Terrio – Argo
Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained
Tony Kushner – Lincoln
David O Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat – Argo
Dario Marianeli – Anna Karenina
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil – Cloud Atlas
Mychael Danna – Life Of Pi
John Williams – Lincoln

Best Original Song
Keith Urban – For You (Act Of Valor)
Taylor Swift – Safe & Sound (The Hunger Games)
Hugh Jackman – Suddenly (Les Miserables)
Adele – Skyfall (Skyfall)
Jon Bon Jovi – Not Running Anymore – (Stand Up Guys)

Best Animated Feature Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transylvania
Rise Of The Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Foreign Film
Amour
The Intouchables
Kon-Tiki
A Royal Affair
Rust & Bone

Best Television Series – Drama
Breaking Bad
Boardwalk Empire
Downton Abbey
Homeland
The Newsroom

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Connie Britton, Nashville
Glenn Close, Damages
Claire Danes, Homeland
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Damian Lewis, Homeland
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad

Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical
The Big Bang Theory
Episodes
Girls
Modern Family
Smash

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Lena Dunham, Girls
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Louis CK, Louie
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television
Game Change
The Girl
Hatfields & McCoys
The Hour
Political Animals

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Nicole Kidman, Hemingway and Gelhorn
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
Sienna Miller, The Girl
Julianne Moore, Game Change
Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Woody Harrelson, Game Change
Toby Jones, The Girl
Clive Owen, Hemingway and Gelhorn

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Hayden Panettiere, Nashville
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sarah Paulson, Game Change
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Max Greenfield, New Girl
Ed Harris, Game Change
Danny Huston, Magic City
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

After the cinematic high that was 2011, 2012 naturally looked weaker. My top 5 consists of leftovers from 2011 (they only got a US release this year and therefore qualify) but 2012 was filled with plenty of highlights. Only a few films really felt like masterpieces to me but for the most part this year was consistently strong. At this time I’ve seen 94 films from this year, and while there’s still a large amount that I wish I could have seen before submitting this list, here are my 10 favourite films of 2012. (Special note: While I can’t include it since it comes out in 2013, Leviathan literally blows these films out of the water. Do yourself a favour and see it when it comes out.)

C.J. Prince’s Top 10 Films of 2012

Honorable Mentions

The Comedy
Detention
In Another Country
Starlet
Cloud Atlas

Nearly a month ago the first wave of 22 tiles were announced that would play at the 2012 Chicago International Film Festival and today the rest of the lineup has been revealed. Some of the notable additions to the lineup were; Paradise: Love which played at Cannes, Carlos Reygades’ baffling Post Tenebras Lux, the obsessive The Shining documentary Room 237, Brandon Cronenberg’s debut Antiviral and SXSW winner Gimme The Loot.

CIFF is shaping up to be a festival that is worth attending as the lineup is certainly stacked with some reputable films including the controversial Holy Motors and other Cannes film festival titles such as Beyond the Hills and Like Someone in Love. Other anticipated films that will play at the festival are; The Sessions, Leviathan (which was CJ’s favorite film at TIFF) and The Impossible.

Also a special presentation of Cloud Atlas will play at the festival and serve as the Centerpiece Film. Scheduled to attend that screening are the directors of the film; Tom Tykwer and the Chicago natives Lana and Andy Wachowski.

The 48th Chicago International Film Festival will be held on October 11th through October 25th 2012 at AMC River East 21 in downtown Chicago. This year I will be attending the festival and reporting back with capsule reviews and tweets for Way Too Indie so stay tuned.

2012 Chicago International Film Festival Lineup
Here is a link to .PDF with schedule and descriptions of the films.

The ABCs of Death (various directors)
After Christmas (Benjamin Kegan)
After Lucia (Michel Franco)
Ken Nordine Presents Agenbite of Inwit
Agon (Robert Budina)
Alaskaland (Chinonye Chukwu)
Another Bullet Dodged (Landon Zakheim)
Antiviral (Brandon Cronenberg)
Any Day Now (Travis Fine)
Art of Conflict (Valeri Vaughn)
As Goes Janesville (Brad Lichtenstein)
Astrid (Fijona Jonuzi)
Bad Seeds (Safy Nebbou)
The Believers (Clayton Brown Monica Long Ross)
The Bella Vista (Alicia Cano)
Benji (Coodie and Chike)
Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
Bite of the Tail
Black Pond (Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe)
Black’s Game (Axelsson)
Body Memory (Ülo Pikkov)
Boys Are Us (Peter Luisi)
Cadaver (Joseph Ansell)
Caesar Must Die (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani)
Café Regular, Cairo (Ritech Batra)
A Caretaker’s Tale (Katrine Wiedemann)
CatCam (Seth Keal)
The Central Park Five (David McMahon, Ken Burns and Sarah Burns)
The Chair (Grainger David)
Chill (Hana Jušić)
Citadel (Ciaran Foy)
The Cleaner (Adrian Saba)
Clip (Maja Milos)
Cloud Atlas (Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer)
Color of Sky (Dr. Biju)
Come to Harm (Bokur Sigthorsson)
Coming of Age (Gerhart Ertl and Sabine Hiebler)
The Conquerors (Sarolta Szabó and Tibor Bánóczki)
Consuming Spirits (Chris Sullivan)
Dad, Lenin and Freddy (Rinio Dragasaki)
Day of the Crows (Jean-Christophe Dessaint)
Dear Hunters (Zack Bornstein)
The Delay (Rodrigo Plá)
Diaz: Don’t Clean up this Blood (Daniele Vicari)
Dinosaur Eggs in the Living Room (Rafael Urban)
Don’t Click (Tae-kyeong Kim)
Dragon (Peter Chan)
Dreams for Sale (Miwa Nishikawa)
Drought (Everardo González)
The Drudgery Train (Nobuhiro Yamashita)
Edmond Was A Donkey (Franck Dion)
Ellen is Leaving (Michelle Savill)
Empire Builder (Kris Swanberg)
Everybody’s Got Somebody…Not Me (Raúl Fuentes)
The Exam (Peter Bergendy)
F*ckload of Scotchtape (Julian Grant)
Fable (Lester Hamlet)
Faces (Said Najmi)
The Final Member (Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math)
Flight (Robert Zemeckis)
Flowerbuds (Zdenek Jirasky)
Footnote (Joseph Cedar)
Friend Request Pending (Chris Foggin)
Full Circle (Zhang Yang)
Germania (Maximiliano Schonfeld)
Gimme the Loot (Adam Leon)
Hemel (Sacha Polak)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
Hometown Boy (Hung-I Yao)
The Impossible (Juan Antonio Bayona)
In Hanford (Chris Mars)
In Their Skin (Jeremy Power Regimbal)
Jai Bhim Comrade (Anand Patwardhan)
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (Chris James Thompson)
John Dies at the End (Don Coscarelli)
Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)
Kern (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala)
King Curling (Ole Endresen)
Kuma (Umut Dag)
La Demora (Rodrigo Plá)
The Land of Eb (Andrew Williamson)
The Land of Hope (Sion Sono)
Land of the Heroes (Sahim Omar Kalifa)
The Last Friday (Yahya Al Abdallah)
The Last Ice Merchant (Sandy Patch)
The Last Sentence (Jan Troell)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
Maniac (Franck Khalfoun)
Marie Kroyer (Bille August)
Marla (Nick King)
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Alex Gibney)
Meeting Leila (Adel Yaraghi)
Mekong Hotel (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Modest Reception (Mani Haghighi)
A Monkey on My Shoulder (Marion Laine)
Mr. Christmas (Nick Palmer)
Mr. Sophistication (Danny Green)
Murderer Alias X (Lynn Devillaz & Antonio Veiras)
My Bow Breathing (Enrico Maria Artale)
Next Door Letters (Sascha Fülscher)
Night Across the Street (Raoul Ruiz)
Not Fade Away (David Chase)
Numbered (Dana Doron and Uriel Sinai)
Of Snails and Men (Tudor Giurgiu)
Off White Lies (Maya Kenig)
Oh Willy… (Emma de Swaef)
Old Man (Leah Shore)
Once Upon a Time Was I, Veronica (Marcelo Gomes)
Otelo Burning (Sara Blecher)
Our Children (Joachim Lafosse)
Out in the Dark (Michael Mayer)
An Oversimplification of her Beauty (Terence Nance)
Paradise (Nadav Kurtz)
Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl)
The Patsy (King Vidor)
Paul (Adam Bizanski)
The Perfect Fit (Tali Yankelevich)
Pitch Black Heist (John Maclean)
La Playa DC (Juan Andres Arango Garcia)
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
Postcards from the Zoo (Edwin)
The Pub (Joseph Pierce)
Quartet (Dustin Hoffman)
The Queen of My Dreams (Fawzia Mirza)
Rat Fever (Cláudio Assis)
Reality (Matteo Garrone)
The Repentant (Merzak Allouache)
Return (Shay Levi)
Rhino Season (Bahman Ghobadi)
Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)
Room 69 (Claude Barras)
A Royal Affair (Nikolaj Arcel)
The Runner (Ana Lazarevic)
The Sapphires (Wayne Blair)
The Scapegoat (Charles Sturridge)
Sea Shadow (Nawaf Al-Janahi)
A Secret World (Gabriel Mariño)
The Sessions (Ben Lewin)
Shadow Dancer (James Marsh)
Shameless (Filip Marczewski)
Sharqiya (Ami Livne)
Shun Li and the Poet (Andrea Segre)
Simon Killer (Antonio Campos)
Sister (Ursula Meier)
Sleep Tight (Jaume Balagueró)
Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)
Stand Up Guys (Fisher Stevens)
Starlet (Sean Baker)
StringCaesar (Paul Schoolman)
Tastes Like Chicken? (Quico Meirelles)
Tchoupitoulas (Bill Ross and Turner Ross)
Tey (Alain Gomis)
This is London (Mohammed Rashed Buali)
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (Rania Stephan)
TSTL/ King Lost His Tooth (Gheith Al-Amine)
Under the Colors (Esmaeel Monsef)
Valley of Saints (Musa Syeed)
Voice Over (Martin Rosete)
Waiting for P.O. Box (Bassam Chekhes)
War Witch (Kim Nguyen)
The Weekend (Nina Grosse)
Westerland (Tim Staffel)
Where the Buffalo Roam (Brad Bischoff)
Winter of Discontent (Ibrahim El-Batout)
The World Is Funny (Shemi Zarhin)
Written in Ink (Martin Rath)
Xingu (Cao Hamburger)
Yardbird (Michael Spiccia)
Yuma (Piotr Mularuk)
38-39°C (Kangmin Kim)
43,000 Feet (Campbell Hooper)

2012 Toronto International Film Festival came to close on Sunday when officials announced the Audience Award went to Silver Linings Playbook, a film that now has some serious Oscar potential. We did not attend a showing of that crowd-pleaser film but below is a recap of the films that Way Too Indie writer CJ Prince did see at this year’s festival.

Recap of Way Too Indie coverage of 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

Day #1: An Introduction to the festival

An informative article about Toronto International Film Festival along with helpful film festival pointers.

Day #2: Spring Breakers and The Master

The first actual day at the festival was full of delays which resulted in leaving early from Spring Breakers to catch P.T. Anderson’s highly anticipated The Master.

Day #3: Tabu, Amour, 90 Minutes, No One Lives

This was the busiest day at the festival as it consisted of four different films including Amour which many believe to be a front runner at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language.

Day #4: Cloud Atlas and The Land of Hope

Easily the largest budgeted film we cover, Cloud Atlas, ended up being one of our favorites that we saw.

Day #6: Berberian Sound Studio and Here Comes The Devil

Back from taking one day off from the festival we cover a film that was on Way Too Indie’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Films at TIFF 2012.

Day #7: The Hunt and Leviathan

This day would end up be to the best overall day, Leviathan which ended up being the best film we saw by far and The Hunt which was a crackling drama.

Day #8: Post Tenebras Lux and When Night Falls

Two films from TIFF’s Wavelengths programme which are films that straddle the line between conventional and experimental.

Day #11: Penance

Finally we close out the festival with an epically long 5 hour film that ended the festival on a mediocre level.

Way Too Indie on Twitter

Follow @WayTooIndie on Twitter to see all of our festival coverage as well as daily reviews and news. Below is a recap of some our TIFF ’12 coverage.

Front of the spring breakers line is almost entirely young girls who are here for the cast. Poor souls have no clue what they’re in for.

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 7, 2012

Screening delayed already, dammit. Gotta catch the master no matter what even if it means skipping on this movies ending #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 7, 2012

From what I saw SPRING BREAKERS was a typical Korine movie for me. Hit and miss, with incredible highs and dull lows. #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 8, 2012

THE MASTER: going to take another watch before I get a better idea of what to think. Plenty of amazing stuff but it doesn’t come together

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 8, 2012

Filling in for AMOUR #TIFF12 twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 8, 2012

Say hello to the directors of CLOUD ATLAS #TIFF12 twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

CLOUD ATLAS: Welp, they did it. Huge epic, it’s faults are overshadowed by its huge ambitions. #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO: Some fantastic moments but it gets too bogged down in its insanity to be truly great #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 11, 2012

Thomas Vinterberg at a Q&A for THE HUNT which got a standing ovation twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 12, 2012

Overheard someone say they thought Morgan Freeman died a week ago, so anyone who thinks that #TIFF12 is for intellectuals can rest easy

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 12, 2012

LEVIATHAN: holy shit. Holy shit. Holy Shit. Holy. Shit. HOLY SHIT #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

In my 5 years of attending #TIFF12 I have yet to meet a nice person with a lanyard.

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

POST TENEBRAS LUX: Uh… #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

Well guys it has been a fun #TIFF12. Thanks for the follows, RTs and support. I now hand the reins back over to Dustin, see you next year

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 16, 2012

A shorter day compared to yesterday’s 4 films, but just as fulfilling. Starting off I was afraid that Cloud Atlas would be a terrible film to watch after getting 4 hours of sleep. Before I start hearing cries from people about how this site is about indie films, let me clear something up. Cloud Atlas was independently financed with a $100 million budget, with Warner Brothers only offering distribution. Once you see Cloud Atlas you’ll understand why the thing had to be made outside of the studio system. Using six different storylines with each one taking place at different time periods (the 1800s, 1930s, 1970s, 2012, 2144 and thousands of years in the future), the movie uses its ensemble cast throughout each segment to emphasize its themes of reincarnation and the cycle of life. It’s a massive undertaking from directors Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis (Andy and Lana) which they amazingly pull off for the most part. Cloud Atlas is a massive, sprawling piece of work that puts the spectacle back into big budget films. The radical structure of the book is dropped for the film, with all six stories cross cutting each other. There have been complaints of the movie being too messy or confusing, but the structure is no worse than an episode of Game of Thrones. And while Cloud Atlas has its flaws, there are plenty of moments where I found myself seeing the big picture and fully realizing the weight of every storyline linking to one another throughout time. That alone makes Cloud Atlas a success, and worthy of exposure to the largest audience possible.

RATING: 7.5/10

Cloud Atlas

I followed Cloud Atlas with Sion Sono’s The Land of Hope. As a longtime fan of Sono’s work I came away from this film disappointed. Last year Sono was one of the first filmmakers to address Japan’s disastrous tsunami with Himizu, which used a teenage boy’s coming of age story as a symbol for Japan’s identity crisis after enduring another massive tragedy. While Himizu‘s immediacy made the film feel like an open wound as characters tried to understand what happened to them, The Land of Hope goes into the opposite direction. Using a more restrained style, Sono observes a family who get separated after another earthquake and tsunami hit the country. The family lives near a nuclear power plant, and we follow the parents as they stubbornly fight to stay while their son and daughter-in-law become paranoid of radiation exposure after re-locating. Sono, who is usually a master of pacing, takes his time here. The result is a mostly boring film, with melodramatic scenes that feel too staged and mawkish to earn any emotional response. Eventually The Land of Hope feels like it’s simply trudging along its bloated 140 minute length, with another subplot involving a neighbor going nowhere and the main family’s struggles creating a feeling of total indifference. The ending is a big eye roller too, as one of the characters states the movie’s message which could basically be summed up as “All you need is love.” Sion Sono is a total workhorse (he couldn’t make it to my screening because he was in the middle of shooting another film), and it’s a given that his work is hit and miss. Unfortunately, The Land of Hope is a total miss despite its heavy subject matter.

RATING: 5/10

The Land of Hope

NEXT UP: Nothing! Well, just for one day as I take a break before diving back in with Berberian Sound Studio.

Recap of some of my Tweets from today:

Follow @WayTooIndie for full coverage of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival!

Say hello to the directors of CLOUD ATLAS #TIFF12 twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

CLOUD ATLAS: Welp, they did it. Huge epic, it’s faults are overshadowed by its huge ambitions. #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

THE LAND OF HOPE: Sion Sono tries his hand at a ‘serious’ film and suffers for it. Probably the first film of his I’d call boring. #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

The staff at Way Too Indie narrows down the Top 10 films that we are most excited for at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. The task of narrowing a list down to only 10 is not an easy one considering that there will be over 300 films playing at the festival. Way Too Indie’s CJ Prince will be there to cover the festival and plans to review some of those that are listed below Listed below are Way Too Indie’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Films playing at Toronto International Film Festival 2012.

The Master (director Paul Thomas Anderson)

I think it is fair to say, even setting aside my complete biased opinion, that P.T. Anderson ranks up there among one of the most prominent American directors of today. That being said, it is easy to see why The Master, his follow up to 2007’s There Will Be Blood, is a highly anticipated film. At the helm as one of the lead characters is an Anderson veteran Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman plays a charismatic intellectual who starts up a faith organization and recruits drifter Joaquin Phoenix. Just from the trailer one can see how berserk Phoenix’s character goes and if anyone is fit to play that role it is Joaquin Phoenix. The other reason The Master is getting a lot of attention is that it is being shown in 70mm widescreen format that is suppose to look drop-dead gorgeous. [Dustin]

Spring Breakers (director Harmony Korine)

No one ever thought that they’d hear the words ‘Selena Gomez in a Harmony Korine film’ in their life, but here we are. The director of films like Trash Humpers, Mister Lonely and this disturbing Black Keys music video, Korine would seem like the last person in the world to team up with stars from Disney and Glee (Vanessa Hudgens, Dianna Agron and Korine’s wife Rachel round out the rest of the female cast). The casting may sound like it came straight out of Hollywood but the plot, about a drug dealer (James Franco aping the look of rapper Riff Raff) who hires the four bikini-clad girls to be his hitmen after they rob a fast food restaurant, sounds bizarre enough to fit in with the rest of Korine’s films. Now, with all of the crazy set photos and news of Skrillex getting involved with the score, Spring Breakers sounds like Korine has managed to capture the zeitgeist. [CJ]

Cloud Atlas (directors Tom Tykwer & Wachowski brothers)

The Wachowskis, directors of the Matrix Trilogy and the underrated Speed Racer, team with Tom Tykwer, director of Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior, team to make this centuries spanning film involving actors playing different roles over the course of those centuries. As soon as the film was announced for TIFF a stunning trailer set to M83’s ‘Outro’ was released. The film looks to be a shoo in for technical awards at next year’s Oscars. It is not known whether or not the film will be a mess, though we’ll have a clearer picture in a couple of weeks. [Blake]

To The Wonder (director Terrence Malick)

It has been rumored that To The Wonder is even more experimental than Terrence Malick’s last film, The Tree Of Life, which seems hard to believe but if true we could be in store for another Malick masterpiece. The film is being billed as a romantic drama about a man who is reconnected with a woman after his marriage falls apart. It will star Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck and Javier Bardem. The only thing that has me a little worried is this will be the first time that Malick has ever released films in consecutive years. [Dustin]

Argo (director Ben Affleck)

The last time Ben Affleck came to TIFF it was for The Town, which went on to snag an Oscar nomination along with a surprisingly big haul of $92 million at the box office. Two years later, Affleck is hoping to repeat his success with Argo. Based on a true story, Argo follows a group of CIA operatives who go to Iran posing as documentary filmmakers in order to free six Americans trapped in the country. Unlike The Town, Affleck only takes on directing and acting duties this time (he doesn’t have a writing credit) but he’s assembled an impressive cast with names like John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Victor Garber and Alan Arkin to name a few. It’s hard to tell if audiences will be interested enough in the story and 70s period setting, but Affleck has proven himself to be a strong enough director that Oscar buzz is building around the film. With a theatrical release right around the corner after its TIFF premiere, it won’t take long before we find out if Argo will be a serious contender in the awards race. [CJ]

Like Someone In Love (director Abbas Kiarostami)

Abbas Kiarostami last wowed audiences with his masterfully crafted Certified Copy starring the lovely French actress Juliette Binoche as a woman walking the Italian country side with a man she may or may not have a past with. Kiarostami’s new film is rumored to be a semi-sequel to Certified Copy. This film takes place in Tokyo and involves a relationship between a young woman and an old man. [Blake]

Room 237 (director Rodney Ascher)

After receiving both high praises and concerns over possible copyright issues, Room 237 made a splash at Sundance Film Festival this year. This documentary aims to explore theories about the hidden meaning in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The three decade old film is still being studied by scholars and hardcore fans as well as debated which is what this documentary shows. Of course, this documentary will only appeal to people who enjoyed The Shinning but you can count me in as it is my all-time favorite horror film. [Dustin]

Leviathan (director George P. Cosmatos)

Directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel focus their cameras on the ocean in Leviathan, a new documentary about a fishing boat. Castaing-Taylor and Paravel spent two months aboard as the ship traveled around catching fish, but their goal wasn’t to do their own version of The Deadliest Catch. Sharing multiple GoPro cameras with the fishermen on board, footage was captured from the bowels of the ship to under the ocean. We talked about the incredible trailer on here earlier, and the film received rave reviews (along with many walkouts due to feelings of nausea) at its premiere in Locarno. Leviathan looks like a truly original experience that will take its toll on viewers mentally and physically, but hopefully it should be something no one will ever forget. [CJ]

Berberian Sound Studio (director Peter Strickland)

I have a soft spot for Italian horror films. This new film by Peter Strickland looks to go behind the scenes of these horror movies to see how they are made. The film looks to be about a British sound engineer (Toby Jones) who is hired by an Italian director to do the sound for his newest film. However, it seems that life soon begins to imitate art as his job starts to get deadly. The film looks to be a great throwback to the 70s filmmaking era, especially the Horror genre. This could be a sleeper hit in the making. [Blake]

Penance (director Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa established himself early in the 2000s with the terrifying horror film Pulse. Since then he spent several years trying to re-capture his success at scaring people with films like Loft and Retribution but his output was uneven. In 2008 Kurosawa (no relation to legendary director Akira Kurosawa) changed gears with Tokyo Sonata, a drama about a family in crisis after the father is laid off. It was another masterpiece from Kurosawa, but he hasn’t made another film since then. Now, four years later, he makes up for his lost time with the 4.5 miniseries Penance. Taking place over 15 years, the miniseries follows a woman who tries to get vengeance for the unsolved murder of her daughter. Kurosawa’s filmography may be uneven, but he’s proven himself capable of making truly great films. Hopefully Penance will be the sign of a terrific comeback. [CJ]

With the announcement earlier this week that the new film by directors The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, Cloud Atlas was going to have its world premiere at this year’s edition of The Toronto International Film Festival, a trailer was almost immediately released. And boy is it a stunner. With a story that looks to be spanning hundreds of years and an international cast to go along with it, Cloud Atlas will either be a gigantic success or complete mess. The cast is led by Tom Hanks and Halle Berry but also includes Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving and Hugh Grant.

The Wachowskis were last seen with the Speed Racer. A film that I felt was one of the most underrated films of the past decade. They of course are famous for directing the uneven Matrix trilogy. Tykwer is the German mastermind behind such ingenious work as Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior. He also directed the mostly unseen The International.

All the talent behind and in front of the camera is here. The only problem is the film’s runtime. Word is that the studio wanted the directors to deliver a film no more than two and a half hours. Judging by this trailer (which itself is 3 times the length of most trailers) this could put a strain on the story of the film. Let’s hope these guys can deliver. But for now, check out the trailer below.

Watch the official trailer for Cloud Atlas:

The lineup for the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival has been released (thanks to Variety) ahead of the official announcement from TIFF (which is suppose to be later this morning). The first set of films for this year’s lineup this morning is a doozy. Leading the pack as the opening film of the festival (which is also its world premiere) is Rian Johnson’s new Sci-Fi thriller Looper. Other films getting world premieres are Argo (Ben Affleck), Cloud Atlas (The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer), The Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell) and A Place Beyond The Pines (Derek Cianfrance).

Perhaps the most welcoming news was that Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder would play although since it is not under the world premiere category we can assume it will play elsewhere first. Other notable films that will be making either an International or North American premiere are; The Company You Keep (Robert Redford), Anna Karenina (Joe Wright), and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mira Nair).

Below is the full list of the films announced so far. Expect plenty of more films announced over the coming weeks as TIFF usually showcases around 300+ annually. The festival runs September 6th through the 16th this year. This year C.J. Prince will be attending the festival and reporting back for Way Too Indie so stay tuned.

World Premieres:
Looper – (Rian Johnson) – (Opening Film)
Cloud Atlas – (The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer)
Argo – (Ben Affleck)
The Silver Linings Playbook – (David O Russell)
Love, Marilyn – (Liz Garbus)
Free Angela And All Political Prisoners – (Shola Lynch)
The Place Beyond The Pines – (Derek Cianfrance)
Midnight’s Children – (Deepa Mehta)
Hyde Park On Hudson – (Roger Michell)
Great Expectations – (Mike Newell)
Inescapable – (Rubba Nadda)
Twice Born – (Sergio Castellitto)
English Vinglish – (Gauri Shinde)
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – (Stephen Chbosky)
Thanks For Sharing – (Stuart Blumberg)
End Of Watch – (David Ayer)
Imogene – (Robert Puccini and Shari Springer Berman)
A Late Quartet – (Yaron Zilberman)
Much Ado About Nothing – (Joss Whedon)
Frances Ha – (Noah Baumbach)
The Time Being – (Nenad Cicin-Sain)
Writers – (Josh Boone)
At Any Price – (Ramin Bahrani)
Venus And Serena – (Maiken Baird)
Byzantium – (Neil Jordan)
Quartet – (Dustin Hoffman)
Ginger And Rosa – (Sally Potter)
A Liar’s Autobiography – (Ben Timlett, Bill JOnes, Jeff Simpson)
Foxfire – (Laurnet Cantet)
In The House – (Francois Ozon)
The Impossible – (JA Bayona)
Hannah Arendt – (Margarethe Von Trotta)
Mr. Pip – (Andrew Adamson)
Capital – (Costa-Gavras)
The Attack – (Ziad Doueriri)
Zaytoun – (Eran Riklis)
The Deep – (Baltasar Kormakur)
Dreams For Sale – (Nishikawa Miwa)
The Last Supper – (Lu Chuan)

International/North American Premieres:
To The Wonder – (Terrence Malick)
Anna Karenina – (Joe Wright)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – (Mira Nair)
The Company You Keep – (Robert Redford)
Jayne Mansfield’s Car – (Billy Bob Thornton)
A Royal Affair – (Nikolai Arcel)
Dangerous Liasons – (Hur Ji-Ho)
Thermae Romae – (Hideki Takeuchi)
Caught IN THe Web – (Chen Kaige)
Dormant Beauty – (Marco Belloccchio)
Everybody Has A Plan – (Ana Piterbarg w/Viggo Mortensen)
Kon-Tiki – (Espen Sandberg
Reality – (Matteo Garrone)
A Few Hours Of Spring – (Stephan Brize)
The Hunt – (Thomas Vintenberg)
The Iceman – (Ariel Vromen)
Lore – (Cate Shortland)
No – (Pablo Larrain)
OUtrage Beyond – (Takeshi Kitano)
Rust And Bone – (Jacques Audiard)
The Sapphires – (Wayne Blair)
Tai Chi O – (Stephen Fung)

Canadian Premiere:
The Sessions – (Ben Lewis)