Top 5 Movies of the Year so far

In no way copying the idea of Kermode to announce a top 5 films of the year so far as we are now done with the first half of 2012. Here goes:

5. Carnage

A film that polarized critics upon release and when researching people's best and worst 5 movies of the year so far it seemed to be the film that featured most in both lists. I am big fan of this film which presents all the comedy, drama and intrigue from inside one suburban flat in New York (although filmed in Paris) as a fight between two children brings two dysfunctional couples together.

4. The Hunger Games

I was quite reserved going into this film feeling that it would pander too much to the younger audience and end up being Battle Royale Lite but it surprised me in a good way. Jennifer Lawrence is superb as Katniss Everdeen and Woody Harrelson naturally excels as an alcoholic. The deaths of the contestants were toned down significantly compared to the book to achieve the 12A rating to open the film to wider audience but the films does not suffer as a result.

3. Polisse

Another French product but in stark contrast to The Artist as follow the CPU (Child Protection Unit) in Paris who deal with all manner of people who abuse children in the city for all different reasons. We see a mother hooked on drugs drop her 6 month old baby in a bid to get free food, crime gangs who use children as pick-pockets and parents who love their children just too much. It's sickening and heart-breaking to watch.

2. Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Olsen steps out of the shadow of her twin sisters starring in this deeply unsettling film about a woman who runs away from a cult. As she struggles to adjust to normal life and embarrasses herself in front of her sister and her husband, she also believes the cult has tracked her down to bring her back. This storyline is intercut with flashbacks to what happened whilst she was in the cult. The ending is a big favourite of mine and spine chilling.

1. Margin Call

Regular readers of the blog will be used to me harping on about why this is such a good film leaving two groups, the people who have seen it so now agree with me and the people who still haven't seen it. The film follows a junior risk analyst who finds a huge flaw in the risk model that the company uses and realises that a drop in the market would bring the entire company down and many others round it. We see crisis meetings go on through the night involving top level executives who are all just out to save themselves rather than looking at the big picture. A claustrophobic look at the greed and deviousness behind the banking crisis.

Unlike Kermode I will not be publishing a bottom 5 list as I have successfully avoided much of the utter crap that is released over the past 6 months. Films that would have been considered include A Dangerous Method for making BDSM boring, American Pie Reunion for making the same jokes as 15 years ago and The Iron Lady for solely existing to get Meryl Streep an Academy Award and nothing else.