Silver Lining to Best of 2012

Ok so my best of movies for 2012 was a little early and I missed out on some of the holiday films that are usually a big deal.  Of course Django was awesome, and probably my favorite Tarantino movie since Pulp, the rest of the holiday movies left a lot to be desired.  This is 40 should have been titled "Leslie Mann Wines for 2.5 hours" as Judd Apatow probably made his worst movie--cast someone else!  Les Miserables from what I hear was a horrible waste of time but I think you would know that based on the title.  Parental Guidance and Guilt Trip are old people telling young people how bad they had it and how easy we have it now, doesn't take a genius to figure that out.  If you thought the first 3 Lord of the Rings were long and boring...wait till you see The Hobbit.  Each of the Lord of the Rings were based on one book, the Hobbit is one book to be divided into three movies! Cash cow for Peter Jackson, but I will not waste my life with that.  There is one Silver Lining to all of these movies and it was one of my personal most anticipated movies of the year as well as a quiet movie that is excellent, finally being recognized with Oscar nominations in every single category.
Silver Linings was made by David O Russell and I have seen everything by him since seeing I Heart Huckabees.  I wrote a blog about his last movie, the Fighter, that was awesome as well.  I knew Linings was set in the fighting city of brotherly love that is Philadelphia and dealt with sports, right there I am sold.  What I  saw was a romantic comedy that wasn't a romantic comedy, it flipped the genre for me in a way that I didn't predict.  I wasn't expecting a romantic comedy or dramedy but I got it without even realizing it.  I wont give much away about the story but I will tell you what I liked.
It felt real.  This was not a Hollywood love story, this was not a "normal" love story, this was real in a different way.  Most of life that I see, maybe due to my job, is very dark and sad.  Not alot of happy endings or silver linings.  Life is tough for most people and you wouldn't know that by going to a restaurant, mall, or turning on the tv or a movie.  This movie dealt with some of that disappointment and how people keep on pushing forward even when they don't know what they are driving for.  The movie dealt with dysfunctional families, grief, addictions, mental health issues, anger, rage, and loss, but managed to not be depressing but uplifting and at parts, funny.  There is a Silver Lining.
The sports references in this movie were awesome and in many ways it hit home.  Maybe its because my family all comes from the Metro Atlantic/Tri-Cities area and this maybe how those people act because it wasn't just me or my family but most people I knew acted as Robert DeNiro's character did.  My parents would watch sports games and you weren't allowed in the room if their team scored when you were out of the room..cant fuck with the "juju" as they call it in the movie.  I grew up thinking that these things had an impact.  The Yankees lost the first two games of the 1996 World Series, absolutely slaughtered, but when me and my friends got a little stoned on the day of Game 3 and we won...I thought I had a part in that and the only way to find out was to do it again.  Three more games later the Yankees won the world series.  It wasn't until I got sober, first in 2001, that the Yankees finally lost the World Series in no small part to my non use of chemicals.  I also believed that in some way it was my fault for fucking with the juju when I moved to NC in the summer/fall of 2004, and we all now what happened to the Yankees in the fall of 2004.  I still have to wear a certain jersey or sit in a certain place or keep weird insignificant superstitions alive to not mess with that weird energy that crazed sports fans like myself live with and I got that from my family that I am sure got that from their family and they weren't the only ones when I was growing up, like I said, that whole region is obsessed.  If you are like me in that sense, this movie will disturb you, but also make you laugh at those moments.
I cannot say enough about the performances in this flick.  DeNiro was DeNiro, easily his best movie since Heat! He acted! Chris Tucker, who wont act for anyone these days, took a serious part and killed it as he kept escaping from the mental ward.  Jennifer Lawrence continues to be the best young female actress out there and probably my favorite right now.  Her second Oscar nomination in her third year of acting! and Bradley fucking Cooper A/K/A Johnny P.  I thought he was kind of a tool and a pretty boy who did fluff movies like the Hangover but what a role.  He had the rare performance where you want to punch him in the face for most of the movie but yet you root for him to succeed.  Amazing job.  Also, just like Johnny P, Bradley Cooper gave an interview on Howard Stern and discussed how he has been sober for 8 years, not drugs no booze.  Alot of respect for him, not just a fluff actor/pretty boy.  One of my favorites right now.
See this movie if you haven't already.  We had to wait so long to see it as it was such a small release but I would watch again right now if I could.