TREASURE HUNT

10 gems worth seeking out from the 2012 movie year

After the bounty of 2011, 2012 was a relatively disappointing movie year; I didn't give one single film a 4-star rating. Still, here are a few (in some cases, undiscovered) gems from the year worth putting in your Netflix queue:

THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD The best film of 2012 that never actually opened (at least not in Santa Cruz), this is a moving coming-of-age drama, a cogent look at Old World values in a changing new world, and an elegant and scathing allegory about warfare and justice, directed by American filmmaker Joshua Marston and set in modern-day Albania. As complacent old men convene to dictate the archaic "rules" of a neighborhood blood feud, the frustration of modern young people watching their futures die is devastating.


CHICKEN WITH PLUMS  
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD  
FIRST POSITION  
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL  

PINA (Okay, this was technically released in 2011, but we didn't see it in Santa Cruz until this year.) 
LINCOLN  
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
CHICO & RITA  
SKYFALL

GUILTY PLEASURE:
THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS

HONORABLE MENTION:.)
Brave, Looper, Argo, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi

OVERRATED and UNDERPERFORMING:
THE MASTER

(Read the whole story in this week's Good Times, or watch this space for a link.)