Sometimes one or two scenes/sequences can really make a movie. They can even save a mediocre one. Here are 9 that really did both from 2012’s movies, plus a few other notables that I liked. Obviously, a SPOILER ALERT is needed here.
Best Decision to Use Less Dialogue: “Flight”
When the sound of a fridge clicking to life can make an audience gasp, you know you’ve done something special—a scene just as tense as anything in “Argo” or “Zero Dark Thirty,” but a wonderfully wordless one. Late in the film, all Denzel Washington’s Whip Whitaker has to do is not drink for one night. Then we hear the whir of a motor and realize there is a mini fridge beckoning him to destroy himself. We watch in agony as he opens the door and surveys all the glittering liquor bottles, takes one out and, eventually, sets it on the counter. Everything about the scene is elegantly framed and the pacing is so perfect that you can feel everyone in the audience collectively, silently screaming DON’T DO IT!!!!
Creepy but Captivating: “The Master”
I had some problems with “The Master” as a film overall, but there is nothing wrong with the performances. They are incredible, practically on another level than the film itself. Nowhere is this more evident than the first “processing” scene where PSH’s religious leader asks Joaquin Phoenix—a broken and volatile WWII vet—a series of questions. The questions, which are often repeated, start with the simple “what is your name?” and build to the deeper, “are you often consumed by envy,” which slowly but surely enrapture Phoenix’s Freddie. When PSH’s Dodd tells him they are finished for now, Freddie begs him to continue. Then comes the interesting part, the pair start on a series of questions Freddie must answer without blinking or Dodd says they must start over. This series takes place in one long take as we watch Freddie struggle with both keeping his eyes open and telling the truth. It’s a deeply unsettling scene that illustrates, if only for a moment, why Freddie continues on his insane path for the rest of the film.
Best Use of Matthew McConaughey Ever: “Magic Mike”
The scene only last maybe two minutes, but it tells you all you need to know about the kind of movie you are about to watch. The movie opens on McConaughey’s strip club owner, on stage, in leather chaps, going over what the ladies in the audience can and cannot touch. But it’s the way he delivers the line “The law says you cannot touch…but I think I see a lot of lawbreakers up in this house,” that is so brilliant I can’t even pinpoint why exactly. Then he does a little shimmy and the scene cuts to black. I remember seeing the line in the trailer, and it’s what sold me that the movie had the potential to be great. It’s the line modern McConaughey—the one who forgot how talented he could be per “A Time to Kill” and the one who has become more famous for being shirtless than possibly any other actor in history, except perhaps Taylor Lautner—was born to deliver. The rest of the movie is him chewing scenery, reminding us all how good he can be. And it starts with that line and a shimmy, all at the right moment.
Most Upsetting: “Prometheus”
Almost too upsetting to even mention, but something I definitely did not think I’d see in a movie this year: a self-administered alien c-section. Note: I never need to see it again.
Biggest Surprise: “Skyfall”
He enters deep in frame, just a smudge of blond hair and light suit, slowly walking toward camera. He delivers a story about rats eating each other. But I don’t think anyone could have expected what happens next. In Javier Bardem’s quest to make Daniel Craig’s James Bond as uncomfortable as possible, he unbuttons his shirt, strokes his chest and face and touches his leg. It’s both unintentionally hilarious until you realize you are only laughing because of how uncomfortable you feel. About the time Bond makes a crack about it perhaps not being his first time, Bardem and Craig have created one of the best Bond and villain scenes in the series 50-year history.
Oscar that Should Have Been: “Django Unchained”
Leonardo DiCaprio obviously holds a special place in most girls of my age’s hearts. His status as dreamboat has never wavered, but his career choices have been so impeccable as of late that he has overcome that label to be known as just a damn fine actor. He’s flirted with Oscar three times before, but when I saw the trailer for Django I thought for sure this was his year. The Supporting category is where Clooney won, so it makes sense that DiCaprio could find similar respect there. My hope for his Oscar was turned to near certainty with one particular scene in the film—the dinner scene where he explains of the three dimples found in African-American skulls. His Calvin Candie has just discovered that Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx have entered his plantation under false pretense, and instead of confronting them directly; he weaves a tale about his papa’s old slave Ben’s skull. Throughout the monologue he is all courtesy and grandeur on the outside, but it’s his eyes that sell it. You can see the years of hatred in those eyes. When the scene turns and we see him do one of his trademark screams and slam his hand on the table and cut it—which I had read he did on accident and just went with, which, of course, meant Tarantino couldn’t resist that take—I was in complete awe of him. To watch an actor you’ve loved for what feels like your whole life go to a place where you almost can’t watch him means he is doing something very right. And curse Oscar for overlooking it.
Most Emotional from Unexpected Place: “Ruby Sparks”
From the trailer you might expect “Ruby Sparks” to be just a cute little movie, made by a real life couple, but you’d be very wrong. It does have those elements, which hooked me from the beginning, but what it really is is something much darker. Its concern is control. Paul Dano’s Calvin creates Ruby and can make her do whatever he wants with the tap of his typewriter keys. This idea is at its most terrifying toward the end of the film when he tries to make her understand she literally can’t leave him. He sits at the typewriter, bathed in shadows, and writes despicable things for Ruby to do—speak French, act like a dog, tell him over and over how much she loves him and that he is a genius. Each slam of the typewriter with its patented ding is like a dagger to both Calvin and Ruby, cementing that what is to come is going to be even more unpleasant. By the end, both are completely broken that the truth of what can happen when you lose yourself in a relationship or when you crave a certain level of control over someone you love is palpable. The scene is a go-for-broke acting exercise for both Dano and screenwriter Zoe Kazan, and just thinking about it makes me feel sick to my stomach.
Most Emotional (fan girl edition): “The Dark Knight Rises”
I’m a sucker for closing the loop. I love callbacks or anything that can make me feel gratified for paying attention, or at least, being there from the beginning. After suffering a broken back courtesy of Bane, Bruce Wayne recovers in a pit of a prison, where the prisoners are tortured by the possibility that they might be able to climb out. He tries and fails to climb out twice, but once his sage-like prison mate tells him to try it without the rope, the real good stuff begins. We watch him climb up a pit just like we watched him fall down a pit in “Batman Begins”. It is in that pit that a young Bruce Wayne is inspired to become Batman. Then present-day Wayne gets to the platform where he must make the jump without a rope, and a swarm of bats escape from the pit’s walls. Hans Zimmer’s score swells, the chanting of the prisoners escalates and then he jumps… all sound is sucked out of the scene until he lands on the platform safely. It made my heart full of joy with its perfectly calibrated comic book cheese, done in a way that only Nolan’s Batman films could pull off.
Most Emotional (musical obsessed edition): “Les Misérables”
I have a weakness for “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” in the stage version of “Les Misérables”. It’s where I lose whatever composure I had left and become a balling, heaving mess. However, the film version, while still powerful didn’t destroy me in the same way. Probably because Anne Hathaway had already destroyed me with her endlessly discussed performance of “I Dreamed a Dream.” It made me tear up with just the trailer, but the actual scene itself is the one place in the movie where Director Tom Hooper’s annoying obsession with close up actually works for me.
Other Notable Scenes:
“Silver Linings Playbook:” Jennifer Lawrence destroys Robert De Niro’s Eagles theory.
“The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey:” Gollum and Bilbo play riddles in the dark.
“Looper:” Torture victims lose their limbs in past and affect their future selves.
“Zero Dark Thirty:” After a decade of hunting Bin laden, Jessica Chastain has nowhere to go.
“Argo: The hostages get pulled aside at the airport.
