The Winners & Losers of the 2012 Summer Movie Season

……With both Labor Day Weekend and the start of school upon us, the 2012 Summer Movie Season is officially over – pretty sad, huh? It really does feel like it was yesterday that I was lining up to see The Avengers kick off the season in rip roaring fashion all the way back in May – seriously, where did the summer go? While it’s impossible to go back and start it all over again, we can reexamine the 4-month-long season in all its lackluster glory. Yup, I said it – with only a handful of stellar movies, the 2012 summer movie season proved to be a big “eh” with films that looked great but were utterly forgettable or flat out disappointing. To recap the season, here are my 2012 Summer Movie Season Winners & Losers :

“ParaNorman” (2012): Stop-Motion Spooks Deliver ★★★

……Typically reserved for leftover studio slop (Premium Rush, anyone?), the month of August is almost always the unofficial demise of the summer movie season. What an incredible surprise it is, then, to find ParaNorman nestled into the late August doldrums. Why a film stuffed with such movie magic has been left to die at the late August box office is beyond me – ParaNorman, a thrilling coming-of-age dramedy/zombie horror hybrid, isn’t just a late summer surprise but it’s also the best animated film of the year thus far, sorry Pixar.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” (2012): Cinematic Poetry ★★★½

……In a summer season stuffed with superhero blockbusters and high-octane reboots, it’s always a complete joy when a small little film comes along with a bigger heart than any of the box office titans combined. Beasts of the Southern Wild, the debut feature from director Benh Zeitlin, is that type of film. Similar to Moonrise Kingdom, Beasts is cinematic poetry – it’s a film bursting with poignancy and passion and one with a performance by Quvenzhané Wallis that’s so enchanting, you’ll do a jaw-dropping double take when you realize she’s only 6-years-old.