Palooza's Top 125 Films of 2012

[Palooza]

43 . Compliance

Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger, James McCaffrey, Ashlie Atkinson​

Director(s) - Craig Zobel
Writer(s) - Craig Zobel
Source Material/Connections - based on a true story
MPAA Rating - R
Release Date - August 17 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 30 minutes
RT Score - 89%
Metacritic - 68/100
Views - 1
Viewed - torrent
Quote - "I'll do... everything that you need."
Review - This movie is fucked up. That's all there is to it. The worst part is that it is based on a true story and it barely needs to dramatize any parts of the real story, which is a huge plus. If you've never heard of the story, I will explain it in a bit and you must keep in mind that it is REAL. This really happened. I need to keep repeating that because it seems so ridiculously implausible that people can be so stupid. But that's the point. People who work and manage in the food service industry are as stupid as you'd think. The film follows the events of a group of McDonald's workers who are manipulated into thinking a prank caller is a detective who accuses one of the workers (Dreama Walker) of stealing. Mayhem ensues. One by one, the caller manipulates and uses each of the workers to humiliate the poor girl in many ways, mostly sexually. It's absolutely scary and pathetic that they are human beings who are so fucked up they get off on doing extreme things like this. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton of fun prank calling people, but this is just another level of sick. And again, it seems ridiculous that these people would go along with this and it's unrealistic, but it's not. This really fucking happened. As the story progresses, the humiliation for Walker's character gets worse and worse as the not-so-bright manager of the McDonald's gets more and more wrapped up in the caller's lies. Although the motives are questioned throughout, nobody ever comes to the conclusion that maybe they are being tricked. The stoner burger flipper is the only one who seems to think what they are doing is fucked up, but he is too stupid to fight anyone. The assistant manager is just as dumb as the manager (Ann Dowd), but she at least has a conscious about the whole ordeal. Throughout the movie you can watch Walker's character as the humiliation just slowly destroys her to a point where her participating in the CLIMAX (pun intended) of the film makes total sense, but only in the world of these dumb (and now broken down/emotionally destroyed) fast food workers. I won't get into the manipulation of the manager's fiancee and Walker, but I think you have some idea. Finally after this, the handy man comes back to collect an ice cream cone and is thrown into this ridiculous situation. He's the only one who gets on the phone with the caller and is like uhhh you're a sick fuck you are a lying sack of shit come at me bro do you even lift? And that's where everyone is like ohhhh maybe we're being schemed. Wait, fiancee what did you just do with this girl?! And things start to fall apart for everyone, but it's already too late for Walker's character as she is absolutely traumatized. The dude who did this actually did it to a whole fuck ton of dumbass fast food employees and got caught some time after this movie takes place. He was an extremely sick fuck, but they portray him as one of those crazy of the white variety. Someone with a family and a normal job who is just a sick fuck on the inside. Yikes. Overall, it's a really brilliant, hard to watch, but also hard to look away, cringe worthy examination of the Milgram experiment and American stupidity/gullibility in general. At points this movie is extremely hard to watch and I wish I could have seen Dreama Walker naked under better circumstances. A really fucked up true story that will have you lose all faith in humanity. Highly recommended.
Rating - B-

 

[Palooza]

42 . Robot & Frank

Frank Langella, Peter Sarsgaard, Susan Surandon, James Mardsen, Liv Tyler, Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Sisto, Rachael Ma​

Director(s) - Jake Schreier
Writer(s) - Christopher D. Ford
Source Material/Connections - n/a
MPAA Rating - PG-13
Release Date - August 17 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 30 minutes
RT Score - 86%
Metacritic - 67/100
Views - 1
Viewed - redbox
Quote - "Some things take time, Frank."
Review - We have not seen much from Frank Langella since his brilliant, Oscar nominated role as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Sure he was Shia LeBeouf's mentor in the piece of trash that is Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps and he also played the creepy guy in another piece of trash, The Box, but there hasn't been anything to commend him for since being Nixon. Now we have something to pat him on the back for. A unique twist on the tired tale of two people (one's a robot here) who are reluctantly thrown together. Set in the near future where technological advances have given us robotic helpers (if you can afford them), we have Frank, an old man who is slowly losing his mind and his kids who are sick of taking care of him (James Marsden, Liv Tyler). Well, actually just Marsden's character is sick of taking care of him as Liv Tyler is some environmentalist who is anti-robot and off in Africa or something. So Marsden buys him this robot so he doesn't have to drive up to his dad's place and take care of his miserable ass anymore. As I said, the movie is based in a world where technology is more advanced than us. Here, books have become artifacts worth plenty of money and Frank spends a lot of time at the library, hitting on the librarian (Susan Surandon) and causing trouble. Oh and we come to find out that Frank is a former jewel thief. A very good one, too. After a good bit of reluctance between Robot and Frank, Frank realizes that his new robot is a valuable asset to him and they band together to rob the library so he can get a copy of an actual book. Which book slips my mind, but I'm sure it's pretty famous. Dante's Inferno maybe? Something like that. Either way, they steal the book and he saves it to give to the librarian as a way to impress her. From here, the relationship between Robot and Frank builds, extremely organically and soon enough, Frank is accused of his crimes and the only evidence against him is the robot's memory and here we come to an extremely heartbreaking dilemma and conclusion. The themes of reluctant friendship are blatant and a lot of the movie can be attributed to movie tropes like buddy movies, angry old man who is losing his mind, etc etc etc. It's a heartwarming movie with an upsetting conclusion (and a pretty obnoxious twist) that relies a little too heavily on what's been established in films to tell its story. Still, it does all these little conventions nicely, even if we've seen them all before. It's what you can describe as a crowd-pleaser. It's easy to get behind Frank, even if he is a crusty old man. We root for him and we're heartbroken at the end of the film too. Peter Sarsgaard's voice work is perfect here as is Langella as Frank. They make a great team, even if it isn't exactly a great movie.
Rating - B-

 

[dell71]

You're ahead of me, here. Haven't seen either yet.

 

[Palooza]

You're ahead of me, here. Haven't seen either yet.

I look forward to your reviews of them when/if you ever do.

 

[Palooza]

41 . Goon

Seann William Scott, Alison Pill, Liev Schreiber, Jay Baruchel, Marc-André Grondin, Eugene Levy, David Paetkau, Kim Coates, Jonathan Cherry, Ricky Mabe, David Lawrence, Ellen David, Geoff Banjavich, Nicholas Campbell​

Director(s) - Michael Dowse
Writer(s) - Jay Baruchel, Evan Goldberg
Source Material/Connections - n/a
MPAA Rating - R
Release Date - March 30 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 30 minutes
RT Score - 82%
Metacritic - 64/100
Views - 3
Viewed - netflix/showtime
Quote - “THIS IS NOT FUCKIN BASEBALL!”
Quote (FOR LEFTY) - "Two rules, man: Stay away from my fuckin' percocets and do you have any fucking percocets?"
Review - This is a perfect example of a bad movie using a perfect mixture of charm, violence and heart to make an enjoyable movie. This movie actually has no right being any good at all and that's why it's so high up this list. It is filled with humor, likable characters and it has great re-watchability. The story is simple as it's essentially Happy Gilmore meets Rudy meets The Mighty Ducks with R-rated humor. Seann William Scott plays the Goon named Doug who is an embarrassment to his family because all he does is drink and fight. You'd think "okay, Seann William Scott, drinking and fighting, yeah some movie." Except, he has HEART and is truly just a sad, lonely dude who is reluctantly content with not being good at anything and expresses some great acting in containing hissarcastic asshole nature and in turns becomes a damaged loser who is sad about not being good at anything. He finally finds his calling as a Goon (someone who is there just to fight) on a Canadian hockey team, but there, he's still an outcast. The hockey players don't consider him to be a hockey player, because he's simply there to fight, so he's still struggling to find acceptance somewhere. This is where bonding with the young hotshot who was rocked and now subsequently shook by the best Goon in the game (Liev Schreiber), who sports one of the most awesomely hockey mustaches ever, comes into play. Schreiber is an underrated, eclectic actor. Here he pulls off the bad guy role with enough charisma that you don't hate him, but you understand him. He's made a niche for himself and he is willing to pass the reigns over to Doug, but not without a fight. It's shit like this that makes the movie so entertaining. Everything, no matter how ridiculous, feels genuine. It has all the obvious inspirational sports tropes, but the heart and soul that was put into this movie, mixed with the raunchy humor and cool fight scenes and you have yourself one of the better and most unexpectedly good sports movies of recent. Alison Pill (who we will ignore is in the most atrocious show on TV not named Girls, The Newsroom and only acknowledge as Kim Pine from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is absolutely fucking adorable as the curse-spouting, boyfriend cheating love interest to Doug. She's as damaged as Doug and it's refreshing to see 3-dimensional characters in a raunchy sports comedy, which is where Jay Baruchel comes in. He gives himself some of the most obnoxious and ridiculous lines as Doug's best friend and #1 fan, but where he is the most important is as the film's writer (with Seth Rogen's writing partner, Evan Goldberg). This film has the heart, raunchy humor and likability of Superbad but with sports instead of high school. I'm extremely impressed with this movie, especially with my low expectations. I look forward to what they do with a sequel even without Goldberg helping Baruchel out.
Rating - B-

 

[MVPete]

Robot & Frank was awesome, ending put it over the top for me. Watched it again a few days later :fap:.

 

[Palooza]

Robot & Frank was awesome, ending put it over the top for me. Watched it again a few days later :fap:.

 

Whenever Robot was like "you have to erase my memory, Frank." and Frank refused I was like awwwwwwwwwwwww!!! They like each other! I like them! Nooo, wait, Waaahhh I was seriously heartbroken for a good while after that movie. You just knew no other Robot or the same Robot with a new memory would make Frank happy. Absolutely heartbreaking.

 

[dell71]

I did see Goon, though. Very entertaining.

 

[Palooza]

Our final B- is coming up next and then a little more than a handful of B's and then we'll get into the movies I really, really liked. No time table for when we'll get to what since I always turn out to be a liar because I get lazy or start rearranging the order. I'll just keep typing them up today until I get sick of it.

 

[MVPete]

Really enjoyed goon, had a smile on my face for basically the entire movie. For a sports/humor movie the story line was solid, and the cast filled the roles perfectly.

 

[Palooza]

Really enjoyed goon, had a smile on my face for basically the entire movie. For a sports/humor movie the story line was solid, and the cast filled the roles perfectly.

Bingo. It was exactly what it needed to be. It could have been a total piece of shit, but it was a lot of fun. I always catch bits and pieces on TV, it's hard to turn it off once you start watching.

 

[Palooza]

40 . Chronicle

Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw, Anna Wood, Bo Peterson​

Director(s) - Josh Trank
Writer(s) - Max Landis, John Trank
Source Material/Connections - n/a
MPAA Rating - PG-13
Release Date - February 3
Runtime - 1 hour, 23 minutes
RT Score - 85%
Metacritic - 65/100
Views - 2
Viewed - torrent
Quote - "It's like wanting to make things better for everyone."
Review - It's impressive when a movie can be based around two of the most obnoxious and over done things in Hollywood today and still be both successful critically, commercially and by me. That's what Chronicle winds up being. Those two overused gimmicks include SUPER POWERS and HANDY CAM! Sidenote - "Handy Cam" is also the name of the Adult Film starring Warner2BruceTD and that Chili's waitress. It's actually called a "found footage" movie, but I liked that W2B joke. Fucking sue me. Anywho, so yeah, those are two of the most obnoxious gimmicks in Hollywood today, but here the super powers thing feels realistic (thanks due to the handycam, shockingly enough) and somewhat refreshing. What helps the handycam work is that it's not a low budget horror movie but a sci-fi action adventure drama with some pretty awesome effects that feel like a spectacle with the style used. What keeps this from being one of the serious sleepers of 2012 is the inconsistent use of the handycam, the "wow that escalated quickly" 3rd act and the killing of one of my favorite people on Earth. Outside of that, I have a hard time understanding people's dislike for this movie. Dane DeHaan plays the slow decline into villainy very well and his home life, while a bit overdramatic, humanizes him. His abusive firefighter father is played by the always fantastic Michael Kelly (Doug in "House of Cards") and serves as a logical reasoning behind DeHaan's downfall. He's a Carrie-esque character who has been pushed to his limit and people pushing him have no idea what he is capable of. This puts us in a 3-act film starting off as a high school drama then once the kids get their powers it turns into an action adventure movie, showcasing the fun kids would have if given these powers. They don't go out immediately fighting crime or anything, they teach themselves how to use these powers and have a shit ton of fun in the process. The same fun they are having the audience latches on to and has a lot of fun of their own. However when one of the three boys is killed, the movie turns into an all out good vs. evil action film, which as I said escalates pretty quickly, but is a lot of fun to watch. It's not perfect and like most of these first person shot films, certain things make no sense to be recorded and other things are done off screen with no explanation. It's frustrating at times, but mostly fun. Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan and Alex Russell all give really good performances of a bunch of regular kids who all of a sudden become more powerful than they could ever imagine. Unfortunately, the results are tragic.
Rating - B-

 

[Leftwich]

Palooza your quote for Goon should have been. "I've got two rules, Stay the fuck away from my percocets and do you have any percocets."

 

[dell71]

Chronicle was much much better than I expected it to be.

 

[Palooza]

Palooza your quote for Goon should have been. "I've got two rules, Stay the fuck away from my percocets and do you have any percocets."

Ahhhhhhhhh! Yes, you're right, but I wanted to disrespect all the baseball dudes we have at this place.

edited accordingly for my homeboy, Gabe Leftwich

 

[NAHSTE]

Chronicle was good.

 

The whole 3rd act I was like "WHERE'S WALLACE tho?"


:crying:

 

[Palooza]

Chronicle was good.

 

The whole 3rd act I was like "WHERE'S WALLACE tho?"


:crying:

 

 

[wingsfan77]

Haven't seen 'Compliance' yet but I know you get to see Dreama Walker's boobies so I definitely wanna see it eventually haha (yes I've googled the pics.)

 

[MvP]

Never heard of Compliance or Goon until now. Interested in both.

 

[Palooza]

I drank a lot of wine with dinner. Perhaps I will babble about some movies tonight.