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The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928) I couldn't help but compare the marriage storyline in The Crowd to the one in Murnau's Sunrise, which I also recently watched. There is an impressive realistic approach taken to both. John and Mary in The Crowd run the full gamut from flirtation to tenderness to irritation to alienation, and back again. The first half hour is mostly lighthearted, but later takes some serious turns that are all the more affecting for having been preceded by the comedic touches of some of the early scenes. John shows a lot of arrogance without the ambition to back it up, which of course comes around to bite him eventually. I was not prepared for a certain tragic event, and it stunned me a little. Vidor does a great job depicting the anonymity that can often be found in the workplace, especially when you see rows upon rows of men in suits working at identical desks. Some have said that The Crowd has a downbeat ending, but I would have to disagree: to me it is just about the most positive ending that could follow from the events of the film. If you enjoy silent movies, you must see this wonderful comedy-drama from the days just before the talkie took over for good. 9/10

Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012) An absorbing film with top-notch performances from the main actors, Silver Linings Playbook has much to recommend it. Its structure is a bit predictable, but Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence just about make up for that. It's good to see DeNiro in a serious role that doesn't send up previous roles he's played. Without having read the book, I'm at a loss to examine if the movie is faithful to it or not, but that's not always necessary in assessing an adaptation. I was highly impressed with this film in the early scenes, but as it went on I felt like I sort of knew where it was going, and for the most part I was right.

One plot development that was pleasantly unexpected was how Pat Sr.'s OCD began to tie in with the romantic plot between Pat Jr. and Tiffany; I thought that was very well executed. At one point I wasn't sure which of the Pats I wanted to jump into the screen and hit. That is a testament to the fine acting displayed by both Cooper and DeNiro, that they were completely behind the choices made by their characters and did not downplay them or do a halfassed job with them. Storywise it also showed the similarities between the two characters: Pat Jr. may not have suffered from OCD as such, but he definitely had his obsessions to grapple with. Jacki Weaver should also be singled out for praise, playing her own character as having to deal with the issues of both husband and son, and doing so with warmth, grace, and humor. According to IMDb, Jennifer Lawrence was the most excited to meet Weaver out of all the rest of the cast, due to Weaver's role in Animal Kingdom.

Probably not the best film of 2012 (I still have yet to see a few of the big names, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty among them) but a very good film for all of that. 8/10

The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953) The stellar achievement of The Naked Spur is that it has only five speaking roles in it, which is not an easy thing to accomplish for a 90-minute film. Each of these roles is a solid, well-realized character, strong performances by all the actors. Each character has his/her own goals and ambitions, and is acting according to a separate agenda; all of them, for various reasons, are forced to travel together. This is some of the best acting I've ever seen from James Stewart, rivaling his incredible performance in Vertigo. Mann does some truly great directing work, making many of the scenes into edge-of-your-seat suspense (most notably the river sequence toward the end). Two days after watching it, I'm realizing the film was even better than I acknowledged upon that viewing. A gripping Western. 9/10