Golden Stans 2012

70 cinematic performances from The Artist through to Life Of Pi; 65 films in total; 63 in contention for the Golden Stans. As with 2011, it seemed there would be no heavy favourite for the Golden Stans, but, as I began my review, I realised how many great films and performances there were in 2012.

But more of those in a second; let me dispense with the Cone of Shame. Unlike 2011, when seven different films competed for the badge of dishonour, 2012 provided one outstandingly poor candidate: A Fish. Scripted and directed by Korean student Park Hongmin and shot on homemade 3D, this meditation on fishing, redemption and the after life is one long mistake. It was showcased at the London Film Festival, and Dunkini and I were attracted by the preview’s description of it as Twin Peaks-esque. That preview was wrong: David Lynch’s work can be maddening but it is significantly more watchable than this tiresome, torpid nonsense.

OK, on to the good stuff. The Golden Stan for Best Score is a pitched battle between Ludovic Bource for The Artist and Hans Zimmer for The Dark Knight Rises. Zimmer continued his outstanding work for Nolan’s Bat adaptation and it remains one of the highlights of the film, but Bource takes the award for The Artist.

The Best Cinematography award features a shortlist of five:

• Sean Bobbit/Shame
• Roger Deakins /Skyfall
• Rodrigo Prieto/Argo
• Guillaume Schiffman/The Artist
• Darius Wolski/Prometheus

Bobbit’s arresting long takes on Shame are worthy of note, Deakins produced quite simply the best-looking Bond ever, Schiffman worked lovingly in black and white, and Darius Wolski (no doubt with some clear direction from Ridley Scott) shot the most visually sumptuous movie of the year. But the gong goes to Schiffman.

The Best Original and Adapted Screenplay awards feature stand-out winners: Martin McDonagh for Seven Psychopaths, and Chris Terrio for Argo respectively.

McDonagh seems to effortlessly write perfectly for his ensemble cast and handles the storytelling for storytelling’s sake and the film-about-a-film elements with ease. Terrio’s adaptation of the magazine article features memorable lines, gripping scenarios and copes admirably with the cross-cutting between drama (and potential tragedy) in Tehran and the comedy in Hollywood.

Now on to the acting performances, and the first category features no shortlist: the Golden Stan for Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast goes with no hesitation to the team on Compliance. The cast are uniformly excellent, no matter how long or short their screentime, all believably small town nobodies.

So, now it’s Best Supporting Actress and the shortlist looks like this:

• Gemma Arterton/Song For Marion
• Scarlett Johansson/We Bought A Zoo and The Avengers
• Roxanne Mesquida/Kiss Of The Damned
• Carey Mulligan/Shame
• Vanessa Redgrave/Song For Marion
• Penelope Wilton/The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Let’s start with the British actresses: Arterton is all heart in Song For Marion, Mulligan holds her own against Michael Fassbender in Shame, Redgrave reminds us all of her class once again in Marion, and Wilton succeeds in the least likeable role in Marigold Hotel. Scarlett Johansson lent solid support to Matt Damon in We Bought A Zoo and then emerged as the real star of The Avengers. Finally Roxanne Mesquida is a commendably loopy succubus in Kiss Of The Damned. However, the winner is Carey Mulligan for her turn as Fassbender’s equally broken sister in Shame: one of the memories of 2012 will be her performance of New York, New York.

The shortlist for Best Supporting Actor is:

• Alan Arkin/Argo
• Stephen Graham/Blood
• John Hawkes/Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Tom Hiddleston/War Horse and The Avengers
• Jeremy Irons/Margin Call
• Bill Nighy/The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

These are all great performances but all of them find the actors perhaps too confined within their comfort zones. Arkin chews his comedy lines with gusto in Argo; Nighy effortlessly combines the comedy and drama of his character’s trip to India in Marigold Hotel; Graham goes through the wringer with Paul Bettany in Blood; Hawkes is a haunting presence in MMMM; Hiddleston sinks his teeth once again into Loki in The Avengers and emerged with my man of the match trophy for War Horse; and Irons staged something of a comeback with his handful of scenes in Margin Call. It’s a tough call, but the award goes to Irons for his calm authority as the positively satanic (but with no sign of ham) chief exec at the heart of the Stock Market swindle in Margin Call.

And now the Golden Stans judging gets really tough with Best Actress; the shortlist is not very short, due to the sheer number of performances worthy of recognition

• Berenice Bejo/The Artist
• Emily Blunt/ The Five-Year Engagement, Your Sister’s Sister and Looper
• Marion Cotillard/Rust and Bone
• Judi Dench/The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Skyfall
• Martina Gusman/Carancho
• Anne Hathaway/The Dark Knight Rises
• Jennifer Lawrence/Hunger Games and The Silver Linings Playbook
• Charlotte Rampling/I, Anna
• Andrea Risborough/Shadow Dancer
• Charlize Theron/Young Adult, Prometheus and Snow White & The Huntsman

A number of actresses lit up the screen this year, notably Bejo in The Artist, Blunt (the romcom queen of 2012 with no doubt, she grounded every movie she was in), and Hathaway (her confident but lost Selina Kyle was the undoubted highlight of Dark Knight Rises). Cotillard and Dench were their usual excellent selves, although the latter seemed well within her comfort zone. Lawrence emerged as a new force within Hollywood, playing her two defining roles of the year with considerable but sympathetic conviction. Gusman and Risborough both suffered gallantly in their roles, although the latter was ultimately less of a victim in Shadow Dancer. Rampling delivered a timely reminder of her quality as the anguished, lonely mother in I, Anna, while Theron across a brace of different roles proved yet again that she’s not just a pretty face. When I started compiling this shortlist, I was convinced that Bejo would get the nod, but in the end, it’s Theron. The sheer breadth of her performances makes her a worthy winner: like Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married, Charlize is cast viciously against type in Young Adult and yet succeeds; she emerges from Prometheus alongside Fassbender as the only member of the cast to really impress; and she’s a delicious but believable wicked witch in Snow White.

And now, it’s Best Actor:

• Paul Bettany/Blood and Margin Call
• Bradley Cooper/The Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Craig/Skyfall
• Ricardo Darin/Carancho
• Jean Dujardin/The Artist
• Michael Fassbender/Shame and Prometheus
• Jake Gyllenhaal/End Of Watch
• Frank Langella/Robot & Frank
• Matthew McConaughey/Killer Joe
• Terence Stamp/Song For Marion

Like the Best Actress category, there were many notable performances in 2012, including from two old-timers who make increasingly rare forays into film: Langella carries Robot & Frank on his shoulders, mixing comedy and pathos brilliantly; while Stamp presides over Song For Marion like a minor deity, his insular pensioner all-too-horribly familiar. The most unhinged performance of the year comes from McConaughey in Killer Joe, his sadistic, bent cop all-too-realistic. Bettany was great in both Blood and Margin Call (although he’s docked points for the accent in the latter), while both Craig and Gyllenhaal were muscular in their roles. Darin excelled as usual as the bent lawyer on the edge in Carancho, and Cooper stretched himself commendably with Silver Linings. But the big two here are Jean Dujardin for The Artist and Michael Fassbender for Shame and Prometheus. The battle is between them and it’s hard to split them for authority, conviction and use of their bodies. Dujardin absolutely nails his character’s screen charm, but I’m afraid he’s not going to win because Fassbender’s sheer unwavering conviction in Shame and his scene-stealing in Prometheus are truly something to behold.

Before jumping into Best Director, I need to announce the Debut of the Year and that goes to Xan Cassavetes (the daughter of John). Her script, direction and vision for brooding vampire drama Kiss Of The Damned could herald a major new talent and a distinctly female one at that.

She also appears on the Best Director shortlist, which comprises:

• Ben Affleck/Argo
• David Ayers/End Of Watch
• Xan Cassavetes/Kiss Of The Damned
• Michael Hazanavicius/The Artist
• Ang Lee/Life Of Pi
• Steve McQueen/Shame
• Morten Tyldum/Headhunters
• Ben Wheatley/Sightseers
• Joss Whedon/The Avengers
• Craig Zobel/Compliance

There are plenty of visions here all realised with absolute commitment, notably David Ayers and his POV approach to End Of Watch, Cassavetes’ attempt to surround the audience in the heightened senses of a vampire, and McQueen’s stark observation of darker sexual impulses. Affleck and Zobel ran tight ships, showing controlled approaches, while Wheatley and Tyldum gloried in gore and shock. Whedon just about pulled off the impossible by delivering The Avengers, while Lee created the art house 3D movie in Pi. But in the end, Hazanavicius snatches the award for his outstanding work on the lovingly and intelligently crafted Artist.

Finally, it’s the big one, it’s the Golden Stan for Best Film. Here are the films that entertained me the most and made me glad to be in a cinema:

• Argo: great combination of drama and comedy; good sense of time and place.
• The Artist: the multiple Oscar winner deserved every accolade it received.
• The Avengers: the fanboy favourite of the year. It almost made complete sense, and reinvented the Hulk and launched the Black Widow into the firmament. Hulk, smash! Nuff said!
• Compliance: gripping, incendiary cinema. The only way to form an opinion of its subject matter is to see it.
• The Dark Knight Rises: flawed but compelling conclusion to Nolan’s Bat trilogy. Nearly collapses under its own weight and bleakness and the script is over-wrought, but Hathaway’s Selina Kyle is worth the price of admission.
• End Of Watch: my palm prints were gouged into the seat once this LA cop thriller finished. Outstanding work all round, even if David Ayers doesn’t quite stick to his own POV set-up.
• The Five-Year Engagement: one of the great comedies of 2012, buoyed by unflinchingly knowing humour of the shared experience and the luminous Emily Blunt.
• Headhunters: like of End Of Watch, this Hitchcockian thriller had me squirming excitedly in my seat.
• Kiss Of The Damned: Xan Cassavetes rides the wave of Twilight and True Blood and delivers a very artistic take of the vampire ménage a trios, complete with sensory overload.
• Life of Pi: deeply satisfying survival story with strong spiritual bent, aided by the joint-best 3D of the year.
• Margin Call: a little movie with a great cast and a top notch script that deserves a far wider audience.
• Prometheus: like The Dark Knight Rises, this is flawed (possibly more so), but the technical credits are off the chart. Joint-best 3D of the year.
• Robot & Frank: funny and touching take on old age boosted by a tremendous central performance from Frank Langella.
• Room 237: compelling and hilarious documentary about the conspiracy theories that surround Kubrick’s Shining.
• Seven Psychopaths: great script and great performances as Martin McDonagh begins to stretch himself after In Bruges.
• Shadow Dancer: this edge of the seat IRA drama kept you guessing (and left me guessing) thanks to Andrea Risborough’s outstanding turn as the informant.
• Shame: Steve McQueen’s compelling take on sex addiction lives long in the memory.
• Sightseers: serial-killing caravanners… It doesn’t get much better than this!
• Song For Marion: an unashamed three-hankie crowd-pleaser, full of great British talent, not least of course Terence Stamp.
• Ted: laugh-out loud funny. Gotta love a movie where the central characters lionise Flash.

In the end, there were no 10/10 movies in 2012, but dozens that scored 8/10 or higher. One film scored 9.5/10, and in a year of excellence, it just rises above the rest. The Golden Stan for Best Film goes to the beautiful, the moving, the entertaining, The Artist.

That’s it for 2012. 2013 kicks off here!