Best DVDs of 2012!

Here's my list of best DVDs for 2012. All of these are films from the library, since that's where I tend to get my newer DVDs. I do watch plenty of Netflix as well but they tend to be older, more obscure crap that I am not including here. Due to an accident of birth - my child - I very seldom get to the theaters for anything other than kid and superhero movies. There's one big exception to that this year (Killer Joe) that I included below. I had to drive through Cubs traffic to the one theater in the city that was playing it so dammit, I'm including it!

Margaret

I had been under the impression that 2012 had been a crappy year for DVDs and was surprised to see how many films I ended up giving 4 to 5 stars. I've also included a couple of the worst films of the year, including one overhyped Oscar nominee. Finally, there are some notable older ones that I discovered this year for the first time and fell in love with. Enjoy!

The Skin I Live In

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

The breakdown: 13 documentary and 11 subtitled out of the 53 that are listed below

Comedies: I'm surprised by how many comedies made the list below considering that it's probably the hardest type of film to do well. In particular there were many stupid comedies (21 Jump Street, Wanderlust, God Bless America, Goon, The Dictator) that were really entertaining.

Remakes: I usually dread seeing remakes but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Fright Night and Straw Dogs were all surprisingly done well.

Quiet and Contemplative: A type of film that I love when it's well directed and I'm in the right mood, I hate it when someone complains that a films is "slow, but...". Slow but NOTHING. Good is good. Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Le Quattro Volte, The Mill and Cross, Bombay Beach and Nostalgia for the Light are all nice quiet films with real moments of beauty.

A Welcome Return: Only 13 years after The Last Days of Disco, Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress was a lot of fun and definitely Stillmanesque.

Small Films You Might Have Missed: The Hunter, with Willem Dafoe, set in Australia. A Lonely Place to Die, a Scottish action flick with great scenery. The Last Rites of Joe May, set in Chicago and starring Dennis Farina. Carnage, a wicked, funny little gem from Polanski.

The Big Mess That Everyone Should See: Margaret was fantastic in so many ways. Hoping that Kenneth Lonergan gets his act together since he is clearly a director with big ideas and talent.

Letdown of the Year: Hugo was everything that The Artist wasn't. It was heavy handed while The Artist was light on its feet. It felt like a lecture while The Artist was a lighthearted tribute. Really just atrocious in every aspect.

S is subtitled. D is Documentary.

Killer Joe

5 Stars:
The Artist
Drive
The Hunter
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (S)
Killer Joe
Margaret
My Perestroika (D)
Senna (D)
The Skin I Live In (S)
Take Shelter
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Le Quattro Volte

4.5 Stars:
Bernie
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dictator
50/50
Garbo the Spy (D)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (D)
Headhunters (S)
The Ides of March

Let the Bullets Fly

The Interrupters (D)
Klown (S)
Let the Bullets Fly (S)
Marley (D)
Moneyball
Moonrise Kingdom
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (S)
Post Mortem (S)
Project Nim (D)
Le Quattro Volte (S)
21 Jump Street

Bombay Beach

4 Stars:
Better This World (D)
Bombay Beach (D)
Bullhead (S)
Carnage
City of Life and Death (S)
Contagion
Cowboys and Aliens
Damsels in Distress
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (S)
Fright Night
God Bless America
Goon
Into the Abyss (D)

The Mill and the Cross

The Last Rites of Joe May
A Lonely Place to Die
The Mill and the Cross
Nostalgia for the Light (D)
Sleepless Night (S)
Straw Dogs (remake)
Urbanized (D)
Wanderlust
Warrior
Woody Allen: A Documentary (D)

1 Star Stinkers:
Battleship
Hugo
The Innkeepers
Putty Hill

The Ruling Class

Criterion Gems from this year:
Black Narcissus
Design for Living
Downhill Racer
The Ruling Class
Vanya on 42nd Street

Library Schools Getting Sirius

I was meeting with some younger colleagues today and I attempted to make an Alan Parsons Project joke based around Sirius and Games People Play. None of them had any idea what I was talking about. After rolling this around in my brain for some time today I came to two conclusions. First, the things that I take for granted as cultural knowledge between my friends and I do not necessarily translate to the rest of the world. Second, it is essential that library schools bring Alan Parsons Project into whatever curriculum they're currently offering. I will outline the reasons in a minute.

Alan Parsons got his start engineering a number of classic rock bands, notably The Beatles (on Abbey Road) and Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon). He launched his own band with Eric Woolfson, who apparently was not important enough to name the band after, since they went with Alan Parsons Project. Clearly, as you can tell, this was much more than a band.

I wonder what this knob does...

The Alan Parsons Project had a pretty good run on the US charts, hitting #3 with Eye in the Sky, #15 with both Time and Don't Answer Me and #16 with Games People Play. The Eye in the Sky album made it to #7 and I Robot hit #9 on the US album charts. From 1976 to 1986 they had 9 albums in the top 50, despite having a rotating lineup of singers and never touring.

They can't walk down the street without being mobbed

The APP's sound comes off a slightly antiseptic now but for a while they were the type of band that you could show off your sound system with. Of course, they achieved later success after the Chicago Bulls adopted their song Sirius as the song that plays when the announcer says "And now the lineup for YOUR Chicago Bulls..."

Still waiting to hear the lyrics of that damn song!

So why is it essential that librarians have at least some basic knowledge of Alan Parsons Project?

Reason #1: They are literary.
Their first album (Tales of Mystery and Imagination) is based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe (and the album Stereotomy is named after an element of The Murders in the Rue Morgue). The second album I Robot was originally intended to be about Isaac Asimov's book, and the band even consulted with him, though they eventually moved it away from being specifically about Asimov.

Reason #2: They wrote an album based on female empowerment.
As a female heavy field, we should acknowledge the album Eve which was "...originally intended to be an album inspired by great women in history. It evolved into an appreciation of the strengths and characteristics of women in general and the problems they faced in the world of men" according to their website.

Reason #3: They wrote an album based around risk.
The Turn of a Friendly Card uses the concept of gambling, which we need to tackle as a profession.

Reason #4: They are concerned with technology.
Not only does the Alan Parsons Project have at least two albums concerned with technology and its relationship to humans (I Robot and Ammonia Avenue) their studio based sound was also using the most cutting edge technology available at the time.

Reason #5: They are cultured.
They wrote an album about Antonio Gaudi called Gaudi while Eye in the Sky deals with ancient belief systems.

Reason #6: They have a bunch of great songs
I've assembled a playlist of songs that I particularly enjoy by Alan Parsons Project. They were an important band to me in high school and while I don't listen to them a whole lot anymore they certainly can reel me back in with the right tunes. Eye in the Sky is probably their best album overall and their Ammonia Avenue album had some really enjoyable early videos. Here's the Spotify playlist.


So, library schools get your butts in gear and add Alan Parsons to your curriculum. The future of the profession depends upon it.