Look here, man: we’re old. Too old for the usual New Year’s Eve shit…long lines, drunk people, bad menus, no taxis, all the rest. So we decided to finally put this big new kitchen to use, dip into the special corner of the wine rack, and get caught up on some 2012 movies.

That’s flank steak marinated in olive oil, balsamic, and rosemary with potatoes (roasted with sea salt and pink peppercorns) and sweet potatoes (roasted with chardonnay salt and white peppercorns). We had it with a Suckfizzle 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon that we brought back from Australia’s Margaret River region. Earlier we’d had shrimp and scallops and roasted corn with a Norman Hardie 2008 Cuvee L Chardonnay; later we had lemon and apple tarts with a Tawse 2009 Spark.

We also watched two movies I’d never heard of, but both of which were amongst the top-rated films of 2012.

The Angels’ Share (imdb | rotten tomatoes) followed the pattern of other Ken Loach movies, in that I could barely understand what the characters said half the time. Even so, it was a surprisingly enjoyable film…funny, feel-good but not overly precious.

Turns out The Loved Ones (imdb | rotten tomatoes) actually debuted at TIFF in 2009 — almost certainly in the Midnight Madness programme — but it didn’t come out in North America until 2012. It was good — maybe not 97% on Rotten Tomatoes good — but an entertaining little torture porn homage to Carrie and Pretty In Pink.

And thus did our 2012 end: with a crazy Australian chick trying to drill people to death.