Since I started writing for Sound on Sight during Fantasia 2011, 2012 was my first full year of writing for the site. I started the year by joining Josh on the Mousterpiece Cinema Podcast. During the year I attended Fantasia for the 15th time in 16 festivals and I attended RIDM (Québec’s only Documentary Film …
Josh brought his Mousterpiece Cinema podcast to Sound on Sight this time last year, starting by reposting his older podcasts beginning with his very first podcast about Cars 2. One of Ricky D‘s constructive criticisms for Josh on joining the site was that his best podcasts were the ones where he was joined by a …
2012 will probably go down as one of the best years in cinema of this current decade. This was the hardest year for me to make a top ten list because there were too many great films that came out, especially in the fall. In fact every film on my top ten list was a …
#10: The Cabin in the Woods (107 points) Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard Directed by Drew Goddard USA, 2012 Like Scream, it’s a self-aware slasher film, but where Scream was happy simply to turn the genre’s bloody glove inside out and examine the stitching, The Cabin in the Woods has more complicated ambitions. If Scream is …
#20: Cosmopolis (50 points) Directed by David Cronenberg Written by David Cronenberg Canada / France, 2012 Every time Cronenberg answers the prayers of his fans with a new movie, it seems that the first reflex is to attempt to categorize it. Is this new film more like the old Cronenberg, in which very strange, very …
#30: Cloud Atlas Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski Written by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski Cloud Atlas is essentially a patchwork of narratives thematically linked with minor coincidences and recurring symbolism. With six stories spanning several centuries, Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact …
To say that none of the 40 + films on our staff-voted list is universally beloved is putting it mildly; but then, that’s the nature of polls like these. Every year we’ve run this poll, there’s been a runaway winner; this year, the top film crossed the three-hundred-point threshold, a first here at Sound On …
25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …
2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …
What makes some film soundtracks transcend from mere background music to helping a director tell a story and help invoke an emotional response? Is it a clever mix of well chosen tunes that capture the zeitgeist or an eclectic mix of older material that either captures a time and place or sets a tone of …
Django Unchained Traditionally, Quentin Tarantino’s films recycle older pop tunes and soundtrack snippets, helping to build up his image as a sort of “cultural DJ” as opposed to a traditonal filmmaker. Django Unchained might signal a change in approach Favoring a style-hopping mixtape feel that careens from country to gangsta rap, the Django soundtrack also …
I have to say that it’s been a particularly great year for film scores. Not only did we see the return of established staples such as John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Thomas Newman, but we were treated to some strong new talent like Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin and Heather McIntosh. I had a difficult time …
Once again the SOS staff have voted on their favorite TV shows of the last 12 months. As per usual, the results reflect our staff’s geographical spread over North America and the UK, with severa key British series sneaking into reasonably prominent positions. Two one-season wonders made it in as well, along with at least …
10: Skyfall – Prison Sequence In Skyfall, Javier Bordem plays Raoul Silva, a cyber-brainiac, who isn’t so much interested in world domination as his goals are more personal. He isn’t your typical 007 megalomaniac but Silva provides many of the film’s highlights. Bardem goes big, and for most of the film he persuades us that …
20: The Raid: Redemption – The entire film How does one choose their favourite scene from this high-speed, virtually nonstop adrenaline-packed martial arts pic? Could it be the sequence in which a refrigerator is used to destroy an entire floor of an apartment complex; or perhaps the final showdown between two brothers and the the …
30: Moonrise Kingdom – Beach Scene Director Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom has had mixed reviews here at Sound On Sight. But just about every one of us agrees that the goofy dance sequence to Francoise Hardy’s “Le Temps De L’amour” – which leads to an uncomfortable first kiss/first arousal, is by far the highlight of …
I don’t’ share the popular opinion that 2012 has been a terrible year in film. It hasn’t been as strong as previous years but 2012 gave us such gems as Holy Motors, The Master, Berberian Sound Studio, Tabu, Skyfall and Moonrise Kingdom, to name a few. As with every year, I thought it appropriate to …
It’s no big secret I love horror films, but 2012 hasn’t been a great year. In my top ten, three films carry over from 2011, two won’t be released until 2013, two are animated and another isn’t much of a horror film. With that said, 2012 gave us Berberian Sound Studio and Cabin In The …
Once considered by many as either high art, propaganda or educational videos, documentary film has developed into a popular and visible form of entertainment, sometimes breaking into the mainstream, and often having a greater effect on society. Every year it seems more and more docs are produced and thus not even our hard working staff …
I remember when I was younger, I used to head to the video store and rent movies I’d never heard of based solely on the movie poster art. In doing so, I discovered many hidden gems, such as Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. Movie poster artists are without a doubt some …