2012 was a bumper year for films based on true stories. Sure, many may have played fast and loose with the truth to varying degrees but the standouts made for nonetheless gripping and involving viewing.
The science of psychology and sexuality were laid bare in A Dangerous Method and Hysteria, we peeked in on a famous blonde bombshell’s time in Britain in the charming My Week with Marilyn and behind the curtains of the life of J.Edgar Hoover.
We were entertained by the amazing experiences of the Australian Indigenous girl-group The Sapphires during the Vietnam War and touched by the relationship between a disabled aristocrat and the drifter who became his carer in the French hit The Intouchables.
But for their sheer audacity – both in the amazing truth of the stories they’re based on and their execution - it’s a tie between Argo and The Sessions.
The former was a grippingly edge-of-your-seat rendition of the astounding mission carried out by the CIA in 1979 to pluck out six Americans trapped in the Iranian revolution. The ingenious, highly unlikely rescue plan? The six would pose as a film crew for what was essentially a fake, Hollywood production. The film-about-a-fake-film was stunning and proved again what a talent Ben Affleck is behind the camera.
The latter was a deeply touching (pardon the pun) and amusing account of a profoundly disabled man’s quest to lose his virginity based on an essay by poet, journalist and polio sufferer Mark O’Brien. John Hawkes (Winter's Bone,Deadwood) was hugely affecting as O’Brien as was Helen Hunt as his sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene and Australian writer/director Ben Lewin (who also has polio) proved you can indeed make an accessible film about a still taboo topic.
Next up, Part 4: the Most Revelatory of 2012.
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