Killing Them Softly for me right now. The Master is runner-up. Argo is definite top 5. Still anticipating Django Unchained & Zero Dark Thirty. Still need to see Moonrise Kingdom. And Beasts of the Southern Wild. Have not seen Lincoln yet either. LOVED Looper but didn't LOVE the third act. Lawless was solid. Killer Joe was good, too. Ok, I'm jumbled up on films right now so here is my top 5 (right now, top of my head):
1. Killing Them Softly
2. The Master
3. We Need to Talk About Kevin (I certainly would not watch this again any time soon with recent events)
4. The Snowtown Murders (Aus.)
5. Argo
And for the record, Argo and Skyfall are both as "sophisticated" as the word was used earlier in this thread, as Flight. I quite enjoyed Flight and will his character had many levels and was brilliantly acted, his story arc is pretty simple. Plot wise, Argo and Skyfall both had more layers and subplots (Notice how I don't say better stories as that is subjective to a person's taste) than Flight. So, you can have a preference for sophisticated character or sophisticated story. But I could make an argument for Skyfall as Best Picture against any because it hits all the positives: made a bajillion dollars, critically adored and deemed a very smart actioner, argued as the best in the Bond series on a very large basis (Most still consider TDK better than TDKR if someone where to use the critical acclaim + box office to argue for Bats--and I am a Bats diehard), is wonderfully acted, and is absolutely stunning. Skyfall & The Master should compete for Best Cinematography. Both are excellent examples of what master craftsmen can do. And everything technically is obviously perfect and the score has been widely accepted.
But just because I enjoyed Skyfall more than Flight does not make me less sophisticated. A lot of people use how much one watches indie and art-house fare as a level of sophistication and I simply don't agree. I watch plenty of indie fare but there are some "Hollywood products" that I enjoy more, as I'm sure you do. This shit is just so subjective (and I'm as guilty as anyone).
1. Killing Them Softly
2. The Master
3. We Need to Talk About Kevin (I certainly would not watch this again any time soon with recent events)
4. The Snowtown Murders (Aus.)
5. Argo
And for the record, Argo and Skyfall are both as "sophisticated" as the word was used earlier in this thread, as Flight. I quite enjoyed Flight and will his character had many levels and was brilliantly acted, his story arc is pretty simple. Plot wise, Argo and Skyfall both had more layers and subplots (Notice how I don't say better stories as that is subjective to a person's taste) than Flight. So, you can have a preference for sophisticated character or sophisticated story. But I could make an argument for Skyfall as Best Picture against any because it hits all the positives: made a bajillion dollars, critically adored and deemed a very smart actioner, argued as the best in the Bond series on a very large basis (Most still consider TDK better than TDKR if someone where to use the critical acclaim + box office to argue for Bats--and I am a Bats diehard), is wonderfully acted, and is absolutely stunning. Skyfall & The Master should compete for Best Cinematography. Both are excellent examples of what master craftsmen can do. And everything technically is obviously perfect and the score has been widely accepted.
But just because I enjoyed Skyfall more than Flight does not make me less sophisticated. A lot of people use how much one watches indie and art-house fare as a level of sophistication and I simply don't agree. I watch plenty of indie fare but there are some "Hollywood products" that I enjoy more, as I'm sure you do. This shit is just so subjective (and I'm as guilty as anyone).
Both Lincoln & The Master but for different reasons than what I think you're talking about. Lincoln is, admittedly, Spielberg's most personal work and it took the man 20 years to finally make it. As part of Spielberg's legacy, it is a pivotal film, one of his most important, and will be very important in 20 years. To many, myself included, Paul Thomas Anderson is the closest thing to Kubrick there has ever been and is one of the finest filmmakers working today. His movies are always festival and critically adored, complex, wonderfully acted and usually lauded to the highest cinema degree. And as someone who only releases a film every five or so years, he is only now REALLY coming into his own as a true visionary. The Master is probably his most challenging work, and it's really showing his development. In my humble opinion, There Will Be Blood is the best film of the last 20 years and he's only entering his prime.
