ArgoIt’s the end of the year, which means it’s time for movie critics to compile their favorites for 2012. Here are the Top 5 choices of three critics for The Associated Press.
Christy Lemire
1″Argo” – Directing just his third feature, Ben Affleck has come up with a seamless blend of detailed international drama and breathtaking suspense, with just the right amount of dry humor to provide context and levity. He shows a deft handling of tone. The story of a rescue during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis sounds like eat-your-vegetables cinema, and mixing it with an inside-Hollywood comedy sounds impossible, but Affleck and screenwriter Chris Terrio pull it all off.
2″Beasts of the Southern Wild” – This is sheer poetry on screen: An explosion of joy in the midst of startling squalor and one of the most visceral, original films to come along in a while. The story of a little girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) living with her daddy on a remote, primal strip of eroding land in the southernmost reaches of the Louisiana bayou is at once dreamlike and brutal, ethereal yet powerfully emotional.
3″Skyfall” – One of the best James Bond films ever starring the best Bond yet in Daniel Craig. It’s also the most gorgeous installment in the 23-film franchise, with Sam Mendes directing and Roger Deakins as cinematographer. It’s full of the requisite thrills but also complicated and meaty.