Sunday night is Oscar night, and with the big awards
ceremony just a little more than 48 hours away, we thought it would be a good
time to poll some of our lawyers on their favorite movies of 2012. Ken Clayman,
Jeremy Cohen, Lori Kilberg and Benno Rothschild offer up their thoughts on last
year’s best flicks.
Do you agree with their analysis? What was your favorite movie of 2012? Offer your
thoughts in the comments thread!
Ken Clayman: My favorite movie of the year was “Silver
Linings Playbook.” I have to admit, though, that I did not see “Zero Dark
Thirty,” “Django Unchained,” “Argo” or “Lincoln,” so it probably wins by
default.
The acting was
incredible, and although the ending was a bit predictable and arguably a little
silly, I was into the movie from beginning to end. Jennifer Lawrence
should, and probably will, win the Oscar, and Bradley Cooper was also great and
showed he can be more than just the pretty boy from the “Hangover” movies,
although it’s good work if you can get it.
Jeremy Cohen: Unfortunately, my wife and I did not get to the movies as much as we
would have liked in 2012, as going to the movies when you have to pay a sitter
becomes an expensive proposition. Nevertheless, we did just see “Argo” this past weekend on the iPad on
a couple of plane flights; we were really tense even though we knew the
characters would escape. Kudos to the director, Mr. Garner (a.k.a. Ben
Affleck).
Given that I
never like to pick just one favorite movie as comparing different genres is not
something I am able to do, my picks are as follows:
• Favorite drama: “Argo”
• Favorite
action-adventure: “The Avengers” (“The Dark Knight Rises” was a really close
second – talk about a feeling of hopelessness.)
• Favorite quirky comedy: “Moonrise Kingdom”
• Favorite movie
from a book: “Hunger Games”
• Favorite
animated film: “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”
Unfortunately, I
haven’t seen any of the other films nominated for Best Picture, but I
definitely plan to watch “Silver Linings, “Django,” “Les Misérables" and “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Lori Kilberg: My pick will be very surprising to anyone
who knows me: “Django Unchained.” Although I do not like violence in movies,
and admit to closing my eyes through a great deal of this film, I loved the
movie, as I am a huge fan of alternative history and Tarantino’s crazy worldview
(also loved “Inglorious Basterds”).
The humor, sarcasm,
mesmerizing characters, plot development and underlying message of social
revenge had me from the first frames of the movie and resonated throughout. It
is a movie that has stayed with me.
Benno
Rothschild: Although
anyone who has visited my office before might have guessed I would jump on the
comic-book movie “The Avengers,” I am going with another film that strangely
enough has a tangential tie to that film: “Argo.” The ensemble cast was top
notch, and the fact that the story was almost entirely true is almost surreal in retrospect. Could the
Iranians really have been duped by the bogus story of a science-fiction movie
being filmed by a Canadian film company?
I loved the
1970s setting and costumes, as well as the way Ben Affleck was able to build up
so much suspense about whether the plot would be uncovered even though you knew
the outcome in advance. He got robbed on the Best Director nomination, in my
opinion.
So what was that tangential comic connection? In order to
prove to the Iranians that the fake
science-fiction movie they were “filming” was real, the C.I.A. operatives
actually sent over storyboards from a science-fiction film that had been
started, but was never produced, called “Lord of Light,” based on the book by
Roger Zelazny. The storyboards for that film were done by none other than the co-creator of “The Avengers,” comic-book legend Jack
Kirby. They actually give some of the storyboards away to
the guards at the airport to distract them as they rush to get on the plane at the climax of the
film.