By We’ve gone through a lot of awards over the past week honoring some of the best films in pretty much every way we can, but now we come to it. No more genres or categories, simply put, what follows is the best movie of the year.
What’s great about giving out awards each year is it gives us a chance to honor films that might have flown past other awards’ radar. We’ve got a diverse staff who love all sorts of movies, and it makes our awards far more varied. Of course, much like last year’s winner, this year’s was an underdog for best film everywhere else, but it won here.
There’s something special about a movie that can create controversy, stir discussion and still be frickin awesome to watch. Django Unchained did all that and it did it really, incredibly well. From our introduction to to Christoph Walt’z Dr. King Schultz to the glorious, bloody shootout at the conclusion of the film Django is both a love letter to westerns, a pastiche of that same genre and one of the best written film of the year. But it’s not really all that that made it the best movie of the year. It’s the fact that Quentin Tarantino is so obviously a movie nerd in everything he does with his films. Yes, this is a great movie, but the reason we really love it is because it was made by someone who is pretty much exactly like us.
Then again we love this year’s other nominees as well, and we’re all pretty sure that Amour was made by someone nothing like us. Still, a powerful story like that so masterfully handled on screen can’t be ignored. Neither can the likes of The Master, which delivered not only the best performance of the year, but one of the most stunningly crafted character pieces ever put to film. Of course we’d be remiss if we didn’t include Argo on the list, and though we found it flawed, it’s thrilling story and impeccable pacing make it a movie worthy of being noted in the top lists of every film lover. Finally, we have Skyfall, which you wouldn’t believe was a Bond film if I described it to you simply by its qualifications: well written, crisply directed, brilliantly acted and stunningly shot.
Truly, 2012 was a good year to watch movies.
