THE LISTS: Best performances of 2012 thus far

At this point I have a tendency of wondering if we're really at the halfway point of this year already. It's true that often times this period of the year is marked by a stunt of intellectual cinematic properties and an abundance of blockbuster diversions. This year, however, it seems like things are just heating up exponentially with a rush of quality cinema. The past two weeks alone have offered not just one, but two films that may qualify the best of the year. But if I'm to be perfectly honest, the last thing I feel like doing at this point is putting the films to task in an effort to rank them. I leave the placing of favorites as a year end routine.

What's more, we're still waiting on plenty of films that seem ever so slightly outside our reach and prove to dramatically change the order of anyone's lists at this time. In just two weeks time we'll finally be able to take in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises", putting an end to suffocating fanboy hype and finally giving us a chance to judge it on its own humble merits. I'm waiting in eager anticipation to see how Yorgos Lanthimos' "Alps" turns out, since that's the real ticket premiere of this month, at least from where I'm looking. And we know that Venice, Telluride, and Toronto are just around the corner with more to bring to the table.

Film Review: "Magic Mike" (****)

Matthew McConaughey takes the stage, back to the camera as he takes his passion to the crowd of screaming girls. As he peruses his own body, gloriously drinking in the glory of himself as the audience is, he repeatedly asks the question, "Can you touch this?" That seems to be the question that Soderbergh and company are faced with in "Magic Mike", as everyone is heading into this with certain preconceptions regarding what they will be seeing. I walked in knowing nothing other than the simple fact of Channing Tatum playing a male stripper, which seems like such a coy play for laughs, and could easily end up as such in another world.

Fascinatingly enough, the thing that puts "Magic Mike" automatically on the right course is the least thing you'd be expecting, that being Channing Tatum. The word that this film takes cues from Tatum's earlier career has not escaped audiences, but that brings a certain honesty to the table that would otherwise not exist. Even more respectable of Tatum is his refusal to put himself at the center of this world, building other elements to the world Mike inhabits. The film is absolutely his story, but everyone involved is working desperately to remove that imposition, not for the loss of personality, but for the sake of the audience it is made for.

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy"

It seems like the competition slate is going rather wonky in the head as of late, doesn't it? "Holy Motors" blew the hinges off this festival in a fantastic and much necessary way, and "Cosmopolis" is still wrapping at the door for a shot at the action. Now Lee Daniels has his moment with "The Paperboy", his follow-up to "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire", and the reception is rather understandably divided. What else can you expect, since the film itself seems divided at first fight between kinky sex-pot and... well, I honestly don't know what. All I know is that I'm interested enough to put this on the radar.

Guy Lodge (In Contention): "Kidman, relishing the chance to allow most of the character to the surface for a change, is more sexually strident and earthily funny than she’s been since “To Die For,” but in her subtly brokered exchanges with Efron, smartly avoids patronizing Charlotte as a gone-to-seed Lolita. Gray, meanwhile, adds another spacily timed, implication-heavy, hazily sad character sketch to her growing gallery of striking miniatures – you’d say it’s a performance in search of a more coolly accommodating movie, but the ballsy, bonkers, sporadically dreadful but obnoxiously alive one Daniels has made thrives on all the conflicting textures it can get."

For Your Anticipation: I Need to Make It Right

I think that Matthew McConaughey has gotten a bit of a bad reputation over the years, but one he's definitely earned. He keeps choosing films and roles that benefit from his falsified good looks and charisma, and usually they fall flat on all other accounts. The only reason I had faith in The Lincoln Lawyer is because it's got such a fantastic supporting cast. You here names like Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, and Bryan Cranston, and you expect something fantastic. You here McConaughey, all that hope goes out the window. I don't quite hate the man's talent, but he hasn't really given us anything worthy of praise. That could change with this film, but it's not going to be a major revelation. Every turn around takes time.