5 Razors

Zero Dark Thirty

  • Title: Zero Dark Thirty
  • IMDB: link

zero-dark-thirty-poster
The Best Movie of 2012
Three years ago director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Marc Boal collaborated on The Hurt Locker which won them both individual Academy Awards as well as taking home the coveted Oscar for Best Picture. With Zero Dark Thirty the pair reunite to examine the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden.

The project was not with pitfalls or controversy. Bigelow and Boal were about to start filming an entirely different script when news hit that American forces had found and killed the man responsible for the attacks on 9/11. Scrapping their initial project, Bigelow and Boal refocused to examine the work that went in to finding America’s most wanted.

The film’s detractors (almost none of whom have seen the film) attack it for what some believe is a pro-torture stance, the filmmakers access to classified information surrounding the search for bin Laden, and some have even argued against what they (wrongfully) believe is a pro-Obama propaganda piece. None of these allegations are true. What is true, however, is Zero Dark Thirty is the best movie of 2012.

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Anna Karenina

  • Title: Anna Karenina
  • IMDB: link

“Sin has a price, you can be sure of that.”

anna-karenina-posterAttempting another historical adaptation of classic literature, while re-teaming with leading lady Keira Knightley (with whom he collaborated on both Pride & Prejudice and Atonement), director Joe Wright delivers the unexpected with an evocative and dazzling adaptation of Leo Tolstoy‘s legendary novel Anna Karenina.

Limited by budgetary considerations and an unwillingness to repurpose locations other adaptations of Tolstoy’s work, or those used by various recent historical dramas, Wright hit upon an extraordinary idea to breathe new life in the staid genre by staging a setting that transforms around its characters. The result is a game changer in how movies like Anna Karenina are told and a serious contender for the best film of 2012.

Set in Russia during the late 19th Century our story concerns rich socialite Anna Karenina (Knightley), her marriage to an honorable but bland government official (Jude Law), and her temptation and eventual affair with the far more dashing Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

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The Descendants

  • Title: The Decendants
  • IMDB: link

the-descendants-posterOn the beautiful islands of Hawaii, Matt King’s (George Clooney) world crashes down when the real estate lawyer is hit with two bombshells at once. First, he learns that his wife (Patricia Hastie), who suffered a boating accident and has languished in a coma for weeks, isn’t going to get better. Her living will makes it obvious what will happen next, even if Matt and his two daughters aren’t ready for inevitable.

Things only get more complicated when breaking the news to his oldest daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) Matt learns his wife has been having an affair and it’s this, not the daughter’s recently troubling behavior, which was the cause of the friction between mother and daughter in recent months.

Through his anger and grief Matt tries to keep his dysfunctional family together, deal with the outbursts of his younger daughter (Amara Miller) in school, and put up with Alexandra’s moron of a boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause), all while managing a complicated land sale that means millions of dollars for his extended family.

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I Don’t Know; It’s a Mystery

  • Title: Shakespeare in Love
  • IMDB: link

shakespeare-in-love-dvdJohn Madden gives us a new film version of Shakespeare by looking at the struggling playwright who has yet to become the great William Shakespeare.  The movie is centered around the love story between Will and Viola which will be his muse for writing “Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter” er… I mean “Romeo and Juliet.”

Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is a struggling playwright banished by his wife and child to London and tired of the constant attention and devotion garnered by renowned playwright Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett) which provides one of the films best running jokes.  With a little help from Marlowe and a the sight of his new muse the lady Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow who won the Oscar for Best Actress) Will begins to write what will become his great love story “Romeo and Juliet.”

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Up, WAY UP, In the Air

  • Title: Up in the Air
  • IMDB: link

Every couple of years it seems director Jason Reitman is putting out a movie that ends up on my best of the year list. Oh wait, that’s exactly what he’s been doing.

Starting in 2005 with Thank You for Smoking followed by 2007’s Juno, Reitman has quickly made a name for himself creating smart, funny, off-beat, award-winning films with heart, wit, and a little bit of sass.

Another two years have gone by, and Reitman returns once again with tale of a salesman. In Thank You for Smoking Aaron Eckhart made smoking not only palatable, but patriotic.

Here Reitman casts George Clooney as a termination specialist, a man who is selling unemployment – with a smile. And as he did with Eckhart, Reitman allows the man’s natural charm and the wit of the script to soften the hard edges of what it is he’s selling. If you’ve never believed a movie about firing people could be this entertaining, you’re about to be proven very wrong.

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