Best of 2012. Number 1

Dum dum dum dum dum! (music loses some of its appeal when it is just written onomatopaeic words)

So here it is. The smartest, most tense, most shocking and (in my opinion) the best film I saw last year. Rian Johnson's time travel character drama, Looper.

Part of the great triumph of the film is watching Joseph Gordon Jevitt acting as Bruce Willis, not Bruce Willis in any of his roles but of the man himself. Add to this convincing prothetics that take a while to notice and you have an extremely convincing way to show off an intelligent idea.

And it is a clever idea. The initial scenes show off the world and the premise exceptionally well and both primary actors perform admirably. However, the secondary characters are also fantastic, starting with a incredibly menacing Jeff Daniels. Emily Blunt is on top form here and provides a strong female character to the generally male-centric world on display.

I think what I found most fascinating is that for all the good ideas that are well formed in this film, it is , in the end, an intense and intricate character driven film based around the idea of meeting your future self. The film was reviewed as being similar to the Matrix and that delivers the film a disservice, whilst there is some action in the film, it is certainly not an action film. It is instead a slow paced, deliberate drama/thriller with convincing sci-fi tones and excellent dialogue and performances.

A well deserved first place.

Tomorrow we shall run through all the 'honourable mentions'. Films that almost made it into the top 5 but just missed out.