Top 25 Films of 2012 - Revisited.

Last year I did my top 25 films of 2012. As I usually do. The list can be found here. However, a year on, I thought it was time to revisit my list and adjust it how I feel it should be a year on. Instead going from number one down.

1. Young Adult

Not only am I convinced this was the best film of 2012, it's also managed to creep its way into being one of my favourite films of all time. I've lost count how many times I've watched Young Adult this year. Charlize Theron's performance is astounding - I would not hesitate to say it's right up there as one of my favourite performances ever. 

2. The Cabin in the Woods

Still one of the best horror films of recent years, and still a rewatchable classic no doubt. Just no longer number one.

3. Margaret

If Charlize Theron turned in one of the finest performances of the year in Young Adult, then Anna Paquin wasn't far behind. I stand by what I said about Margaret last year, it's a powerful film. 

4. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Maybe my love for this film is powered by one of the finest scores of recent times. An immensely powerful score for an immensely powerful film. The line 'if Daddy don't come home soon, I'll have to eat my pets' still gets me. 

5. The Master

Joaquin Phoenix is still one of the - if not the - great actors working today. The Master cements that.

6. The Raid

You still haven't watched this yet have you? You have no soul.

7. Hugo

You know that meme that went around where people took a picture of them and a can of Pringles and said, still a better love story than Twilight? Well, apply that to The Artist. Basically, when you're thinking about watching The Artist, pick up Hugo instead. 

8. 50/50

We already knew that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a good actor, but really the revelation here is Seth Rogen. He's always been great to watch, but finally here is a role that is closest to his great work in Freaks & Geeks. 

9. Les Miserables

The film that spawned a year of me getting angry at people in cinemas. Shut up please will be quoted for years. Les Miserables will still be a good movie in years, but it isn't perfect. Anne Hathaway is great though. As always. 

10. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

One of my most desired films to get a Criterion release in 2014. The reason to have a state of the art home cinema. 

11. Prometheus

Yeah, ok, some of the characters actions make no fucking sense whatsoever, but I still don't give a shit. Haters are going to hate this film, and they can all go hop on their own soapbox and shout at the neighbours because dammit, this is still an enjoyable film.

12. Bernie

If it weren't for the Before... series, this would be Richard Linklater's greatest film. It is easily Jack Black's greatest film for sure. 

13. Kill List

The ending of The Wicker Man still gives me chills, but Kill List's ending is the one which makes me think twice about getting a good nights sleep. Where The Cabin in the Woods is a comical horror flick, Kill List doesn't give a shit about your feelings and shits all over your ability to think straight.

14. Skyfall

I have no interest in the Bond films at all. With that said, I've watched Skyfall a fair few too many times. This is not only a damn good film, it's a damn beautiful looking film. Daniel Craig nails it as Bond here and takes the character to a whole new level. I know people complained about Bond turning into Bourne, but if that creates films like Skyfall, then quit your whinging.

15. Killer Joe

Ah, this is still insane fun. I still can't believe the final scene's of this film.

16. Headhunters

Just like The Raid up above, you still haven't seen this have you? Just terrible. 

17. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Still the best coming of age film. 

18. Safety Not Guaranteed

Any worries about Colin Trevorrow directing Jurassic World disappeared after I watched this. It's whimsical and fun, but most importantly, Trevorrow understands what it takes for the viewer to accept and believe in the universe they have created. By the end of the film you'll believe that Mark Duplass has invented a time travel machine. 

19. Woody Allen: A Documentary

Only disappointing thing about this is that it doesn't cover Blue Jasmine a little more. I really shouldn't complain about that, but Blue Jasmine is so damn good.

20. Take This Waltz

Just like 50/50, this cements Seth Rogen as someone to watch. I'm still not sure how to feel about things in this film, but that's the power of a good movie - especially a Sarah Polley film.

21. Margin Call

I still haven't watched House of Cards, but I'm sure that it's not as good as Spacey's performance here.

22. Compliance

After reading more about this case, it's still quite a terrifying little story.

23. Cosmopolis

Still an argument inducing film with Bernadette and myself. Still very good in my eyes.

24. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

After seeing the subpar West of Memphis, it goes to show how perfect this trilogy of films are. 

25. Seven Psychopaths

Good to watch as a double alongside Hugo.

On Sharks.

I should start this little rant with a preface - something a little bit similar to when someone says, look, don't get offended, but... - that whilst I'm more of an animal lover than a people lover, I do appreciate the human race. If I manage to offend you with this post, then that was not my intention, but... y'know... I did say don't get offended. 

The population of sharks in our oceans is rapidly being reduced. Humans on the other hand continue growing - in fact, I remember being in high school and waiting for the world population to tick over to six billion people; it's now just over seven billion people. 

Where the problem occurs - and this is not news, it's just something I feel like getting off my chest because dammit, the guys playing cricket next door are drowning out my yelling from my soap box - is that there is no population control for humans. Emotionally, because we're the superior species, we are attached to numbers of ourselves. We're attached to the idea of family and the idea of having more of ourselves around. It's in our nature and it's completely understandable. 

So when a shark takes a person from the waters where the shark lives, the knee jerk reaction is to destroy that shark. Keep in mind that if a drunk driver smashes into a van carrying a family and kills all of that family, he is able to go to jail, repent for the trouble he has caused and then carries on his way. Sharks are simply doing what they do in the world they live in. Just like humans do what they do in the world we live in. 

Now, I'm not suggesting something as radical as population control for humans - that's a boundary that nobody is ready to cross - but we, as a species, need to have a greater understanding of the other animals that live on our planet. We need to accept that losses like this occur. Yes, it is awfully depressing for the family that has lost a son, a brother, a husband, a father. But, I'm not suggesting they simply move on with their lives, just to accept the loss. When that family is killed by a drunk driver, the remaining members of the family will no doubt say 'I wish he was dead for killing our family' but the law protects him for being lynched. There is no law to protect sharks, or wildlife for that matter. 

We are more than happy to cull corellas, lorikeets or seagulls if there are too many of them and causing a disturbance. Yet, humans themselves are unable to accept any form of loss, no matter how small. Whatever happened to every life being equal? 

I don't have a solution to the problem of people being killed by animals except to say that we as a country need to accept that in the environment we live in these problems will occur. Sharks do not make a habit out of attacking and killing humans - they are not serial killers. The comparison of them being a drunk driver in the sea feels trite, but that's what they are - they don't know that they are killing a human and they show no remorse for their actions. This does not mean we should react to violently against them. 

We as humans need to start accepting our losses caused by nature, as because of us there will be more happening over time. 

Top 10 Albums of 2013.

Without a doubt, 2013 will go down as one of the greatest years in Australian music. Artists have been delivering albums that have been their finest works to date - and if not their finest, then a damn fine album which stands up perfectly fine with their previous works. Internationally, the work was good, but not as strong. 

10. Once I Was an Eagle - Laura Marling

Best Track: Master Hunter

Laura Marling is one of the finest female singers working right now. Consistently perfect in so many ways, Marling sings beyond her years. Her releases between Alas I Cannot Swim and Once I Was an Eagle have been consistent, but Once I Was an Eagle is the first album which matches Alas I Cannot Swim perfectly. Lyrically it's as beautiful and harmonic as Alas I Cannot Swim, but where Eagle soars (sorry) is the fact that it moves and shakes like one whole beast. The album has been designed to be listened to from the first track through til the end and it works best in this mode. It's always exciting to hear Marling's new releases, especially when they're this consistently strong. 

9. Hobo Rocket - Pond

Best Track: Whatever Happened to the Million Head Collide

I couldn't give two shits about Tame Impala. I'll say that right away. I have no patience for their music at all. But, Pond - which kind of swaps out some of Tame Impala at times to be a rotating musical act of goodness - are just too damn good. The lead track, Whatever Happened to the Million Head Collide harks back to the heyday of The Sleepy Jackson and even throws in a little Gomez style horns at the end. Sure, they go a little Wolfmother-y with stupid song titles, but that's ok when the music is this good. 

8. Unfold Yourself - Ian Ball

Best Track: Open Sesame

Just like Ian's first solo effort, Who Goes There, I was not impressed the first time I heard this album. Nor the second, third, fourth and fifth times. I just simply wasn't taken with it. I figured, that's ok, I love Gomez a heck of a lot and I admire Ian, but maybe this just wasn't for me. Then just recently I saw Ian perform live and the album transformed in front of my eyes. The work that Ian's put into this album is phenomenal. Maybe I was stupid for not realising it straight away, who knows. It really is an album which translates perfectly live and is best experienced that way - even if it was just Ian, a guitar and an iMac laptop. There's no desire to stretch away from what Gomez do here, it's just Ian showing what he's best at doing and that's creating beautiful music. Sure, it took me a few listens to crack the code, but dammit, it's a good album. 

7. What Would Christ Do?? - The Growl

Best Track: Clever Leaver

Earlier this year The Growl supported Tame Impala on their international tour. They played to sell out shows and gained a heck of a lot of exposure. From what I understand, Tame Impala were very good on those shows, but even better was The Growl. I've seen them a fair few times in Perth and they consistently knock you over with the wall of sound they create with their dirty guitar licks and yowling bass. As perfectly dirty an album as you can get. If there was any justice in this world, these guys would be much much bigger than Tame Impala.

6. Push the Sky Away - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Best Track: Jubilee Street

Winner of best album cover of the year right here. Nick Cave is a monument in Australian culture. Anybody else this far into their career would be struggling to maintain such perfection, but Cave makes it seem effortless. With Push the Sky Away, alongside his perennial Bad Seeds, he has turned in one of his finest albums - dare I say it's almost (just almost) equal to Henry's Dream and the Murder Ballads. Jubilee Street should go down as one of the great Australian songs. 

5. Ballet in the Badlands - The Chemist

Best Track: Heaven's Got a Dress Code Now

Unfortunately Ballet in the Badlands will go down alongside Ammonia's Eleventh Avenue and Institut Polaire's Make Your Own Mayflower as one of the great one shot albums from a WA band. The quality on this release should have shot these guys to national status, but unfortunately for whatever reasons they couldn't stick around for another album. This release is just bonkers good. The guitar work is addictively insane to listen to. 

4. Harlequin Dream - Boy & Bear

Best Track: Harlequin Dream

Just listen to that saxophone at the end. Goddamit. Really, this album and the next three all could be the best album of the year. Just like Moonfire, Harlequin Dream is one of the most consistently perfect Australian albums. Even though some of the songs feel a little trite, there's something truly heartbreaking when Dave Hosking sings through A Moment's Grace, or when he sings about being a role model for his kids in Old Town Blues. Moonfire is a perfect album without a doubt, but Harlequin Dream is an album which other bands should aspire to match. 

3. All Day Venus - Adalita

Best Track: Trust is Rust

Quite simply put, this is the finest piece of work that Adalita has put her name to. Yes, it tops anything done with Magic Dirt. It's an astounding album full of all the heart break that her first solo album had. The hole that Dean Turner left in Adalita's life is still there, and whilst her self titled album dealt with that perfectly by herself, All Day Venus feels as if she's getting past those demon's with a band behind her. It's a masterpiece of a record that just astounds you on each listen. 

 2. I See Seaweed - The Drones

Best Track: Nine Eyes

To say I was nervous about this release is an understatement. I shouldn't have been nervous at all, but fuck, The Drones previous album Havilah is without a doubt the finest album I've ever heard. I've lost track how many times I've listened to Havilah - I'm on my third copy of it given how many times it's been scratched to shit from being carted around so I can listen to it. Needless to say, I See Seaweed - it doesn't disappoint. Gareth Liddiard is hands down the finest singer songwriter this side of David McComb. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Liddiard made a deal with some shady devil in Bunbury and bought McComb's soul. The Drones always come on like a slap in the face, a kick in the guts and punch in the nuts all at once. Whilst this is no Havilah, it's pretty much right there next to it. There is no finer band working in Australia right now than The Drones. Does it sound like I've got a hard on for them? Well, sure, maybe, but how many other bands have heard write a song about Google Street View and make it one of the finest songs of the year? 

1. Kiss My Apocalypse - Abbe May

Best Track (Also Song of the Year): Sex Tourette's

There must be something in the water down in Bunbury. In the space of a few years, the sleepy little death toll town of Bunbury spawned both Abbe May and The Drones. Whatever is in the water down there, they better keep putting it in. Kiss My Apocalypse is an evolution. A sexual evolution of synth beats and discarded guitars. It's an album of an artist evolving into something phenomenal. Design Desire hinted at this, but Kiss My Apocalypse comes on like napalm. It's thirty four minutes of something crawling in your head and just having their way with you. Unlike Abbe's previous albums, there isn't a track out of place here. It's an aural exercise in being as tantalising as possible. Abbe May is an artist who is on the brink of major things and once she hits it big, people will rediscover her older music and think, how did we miss this? Add the fact that Abbe can turn a cheesy 90's R&B track into one of the sexiest covers ever is a testament to her talent. 

This year as well I feel I can finally manage to throw together a top ten live acts that I saw. So without any explanation, here's the best live acts I saw this year. 

1. Bruce Springsteen - Hanging Rock

2. Paul Simon - Blues & Roots Festival

3. Abbe May - The Astor Theatre

4. The Brothers Grim & the Blue Murders - The Indi Bar 

5. Ian Ball - Mojo's

6. The Drones - The Astor Theatre

7. Something for Kate - The Astor Theatre

8. Rufus Wainwright - Blues & Roots Festival

9. The Graveyard Train - Blues & Roots Festival

10. Ben Ottewell - Mojo's