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My favourite films of the year

Top films of 2012



It’s that time of year again. The Academy Awards are just around the corner and a host of other awards have been given out in the past few weeks. It’s time to list the best things of the past year. I won’t go that route. Instead I will list my favourite films of the past year.
1. STORIES WE TELL has to be my favourite film of this past year. Directed by Sarah Polley, this is a different kind of documentary and Polley opens up her life to the public. It is charming, fascinating and one of the most absorbing films I have ever seen. It may still be running in one or two theatres in the Toronto area, and if so, it is certainly worth going out of your way to catch it before it disappears. It recently won the Toronto critics award for best Canadian film of the year, but is not eligible for the Academy Awards because it hasn’t been released in the United States yet. 2. LES MISERABLES has not been everyone’s choice, but I love a good musical, and this one has the best music I have heard in many years. It has its flaws, but for me, everything negative is washed away by its many positive features and by the glorious music it features.

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3. REBELLE (also called WAR WITCH) is a marvelous film. It is a nominee for the Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, because it is mainly in French, and it tells the harrowing story of a young preadolescent African girl who is kidnapped and forced to enroll in the rebel army that is battling the government in her country. She is forced to live in fear with sudden death always imminent—if not from enemy soldiers then from the people who kidnapped her. 4. AMOUR is a gentle story about two elderly people who have lived together for many years and are now entering the twilight years of their lives. The wife is suffering from Alzheimers or Dimentia and then suffers a series of strokes. Her husband takes care of her himself. It is an amazing film about true love with some incredible performances by Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. 5. LINCOLN was a masterful film directed by Stephen Spielberg about Abraham Lincoln’s last few months and his battle to get the Emancipation Amendment through Congress. The Civil War is still raging although the writing is on the wall. The end is near, but before it is finished Lincoln wishes to abolish slavery once and for all. The film features brilliant performances by Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field and is a very dense film. By that I mean that it contains a great deal of dialogue in order to explain Lincoln’s thinking on the matter and to give the viewers a better understanding of the political manipulation necessary to get the amendment passed. 6. FOOTNOTE was a particular outstanding film from Israel. It tells about a father and son, both of whom are philologists at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The older scholar has laboured long and hard but has not received the recognition and accolades he believes he has earned. The son is a brilliant scholar and highly regarded in the academic community. The father receives a telephone call telling him he has been awarded one of the highest awards available to Israeli citizen, the Israel Prize. Shortly thereafter, the prize committee realizes that the wrong person was called and that the son should have received the telephone call. It makes for an interesting dilemma, especially after the committee asks the son to break the news to his father. 7. THE IMPOSSIBLE tells the true story of how a family survived the horrors of a Tsunami that struck a tourist resort in Thailand in 2004. A monstrous wave struck the resort, flattening everything that was standing there, including the people. Thousands of people died. One family was separated by the catastrophe and the film tells how they fought for their survival and to be reunited. Terribly moving and haunting story with outstanding performances by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. 8. THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is a completely unassuming film with an outstanding veteran British cast that features Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith. It tells the story of a group of British retirees who travel to India in search of an inexpensive place to spend their “golden” years and quickly discover that things are not quite the way they were advertised. Despite the difficulties, the retirees soon succumb to the charms of the hotel and of their new country. 9. THE SESSIONS is an absorbing and charming film about Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes), a man who has spent most of his life in an iron lung and who has never experienced physical love. He hires a sex surrogate, played by Helen Hunt, to help him overcome this dilemma. Hunt gives an outstanding and courageous performance, much of it completely naked, as the surrogate who deals with O’Brien’s psychological and emotional problems as well as his physical disabilities. 10. ARGO is an entertaining, if not completely accurate film about the rescue of a group of American diplomats in Iran when revolutionaries take over the country. A small number of Americans made it to the Canadian ambassador’s home and were hidden there until they could be extracted from the country. Ben Affleck directed and stars in the film that has been winning most of the major awards this year.


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Larry Anklewicz -- Bio and Archives

Larry Anklewicz. B.A., LL.B., is a lawyer, writer and film and video reviewer.  Mr. Anklewicz is author of “A Guide To Jewish Films On Videos” and has been a columnist for Canada Free Press, the Canadian Jewish News, and other local newspapers.  Mr. Anklewicz worked with the Toronto Jewish Film Festival for thirteen years, the last eight years of which he served as Program Coordinator and Program Director.


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