Telly troubles
Christmas movies on TV were all so... how shall I put it? Computer-generated. It seems now that when the major channels look for a family movie they turn rather ploddingly to Pixar. This year felt like wall-to-Wall-E cartoons. Any movie pre-watershed and it's a Toy Story, an Incredibles or, for this New Year's Day treat, for example, an Up that plugs the gap. Although Up may indeed have managed to cram all the power of Michael Haneke's Amour into one six-minute cartoon montage, my gripes are more with the texture and rhythms of seeing all these animations in close array. The hand-drawn charm of Lady and the Tramp on Christmas Eve stood out like a beacon.
The failure of TV programmers to consider that families might want something different has been really worrying. Surely the ideal Christmas movie would bring generations together, with the older ones pointing out their favourite stars or sequences to the younger ones, thus passing on the baton of popular entertainment. Only BBC2 approached Christmas with anything like programming zeal, loosely stringing an Alfred Hitchcock season around the TV film of The Girl.
Jones keeping up with the Joneses
Watching The Girl it struck me that Toby Jones, while being one of Britain's most skilful and amiable character actors, does have a habit of coming second. He was a wonderful Truman Capote, but his film had to play second fiddle to Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance as the same character in a similar movie around the same time. And now here he is, delivering a distinctive take on Alfred Hitchcock but finding himself in the shadow of Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of Hitch in Sacha Gervasi's playful film, Hitchcock, already out in the States and due for release here in early February.
Trash's tops
Here are my favourite films of 2012. I don't insist they're the best films, just the ones I most enjoyed watching and talking about.
10. Shadow Dancer James Marsh's taut IRA thriller is great on period atmosphere, with superb work by Andrea Riseborough, Domhnall Gleeson and Clive Owen.
9. The Queen of Versailles A documentary of subtle power and broad humour.
8. Rust and Bone Jacques Audiard's mastery of all modern cinematic elements was finally appreciated at the London film festival, where it won best film. Marion Cotillard excels as a whale trainer recovering from an accident.
7. Skyfall The 50th anniversary of the Bond franchise was a pleasure to celebrate — props, too, to Stevan Riley's enjoyable Everything or Nothing doc. Not sure Skyfall is a classic Bond film — where's the cool swagger? — but it was easily the year's best blockbuster.
6. Argo Ben Affleck's 70s stylings offered up one of the year's best surprises, a mix of caper and thriller, both parts done with real panache. Can it really win best pic at the Oscars? I think so.
5. Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap Basically a flick through Ice-T's personal address book, this doc was funny and refreshingly free of self-importance.
4. The Imposter A film so unbelievable it had to be made as a doc – director Bart Layton tells it like a film noir, complete with real-life private eye Charlie Parker.
3. The Hunter Willem Dafoe was superb in Daniel Nettheim's criminally underrated existential thriller.
2. Amour Michael Haneke's faultless film was a triumph at Cannes and set him several notches above the rest. Perfection.
1. London: The Modern Babylon A film made for 2012, about 2012, Julien Temple's marvellous montage of history, language and popular sentiment told the history and hopeful character of my city better than I've ever seen it done, through film, music and archive. I think it should be shown in every school for years to come.
Party of the year Variety's low-key but charming Venice sunset reception atop the Danieli, with negronis, an endless buffet of five top chefs competing for deliciousness in canape form, glamorous "Bond" girls serving cocktails, and members of the jury all milling about.
Overheard of the year At Cannes, as men's heads turned when a beautiful French star sashayed into the opening night party, displaying deep cleavage, another (older, very established) French actress told her entourage: "Yes, but you know they're not real – nobody's are these days."
