Your favorite films of 2012 (1 Viewer)

[benbess]

I read an article earlier this year by film critic David Denby about how cgi superhero movies are murdering good movies in Hollywood:
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/107212/has-hollywood-murdered-the-movies
He makes some good points. And overall I'm very fond of old movies from the 20s-70s. And yet, 2012 has actually been a pretty good year for movies for me.
Here are some of my favorites so far (in no particular order):
Moonrise Kingdom, Brave, Cloud Atlas, Samsara, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Looper, Argo, Lincoln
I'm looking forward to, but have not year seen:
Skyfall, Life of Pi, Hitchcock, Les Miserables, The Hobbit 1, and the Bollywood film Jab Tak Hai Jaan....
But I'm sure I've missed some good movies.
What are your favorites so far this year? And what are you looking forward to?

 

[Michael Elliott]

I've seen 102 movies from 2012 so far and for the most part I think it's been a good but not great overall. The horror genre continues to suck but I thought the "blockbuster" summer was pretty good. I've only seen five movies that I'd call great (THE INTOUCHABLES, KILLER JOE, ARGO, ARBITRAGE, THE MASTER) but there have been quite a few very good ones.
I'm not really sure what I'm looking forward to most. LINCOLN is high up there and I plan on seeing it this weekend. I'm also excited about THE SESSIONS, SILVER LININGS and the new Tarantino, although I'm a little worried about this one. I'm also dying to see the remake of MANIAC but I doubt it opens anywhere close to here.

 

[mattCR]

So far the best I've seen:
The Master, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, The Sessions.. I am eagerly awaiting Hitchcock, Hobbit, Django Unchained

I enjoyed Perks of Being a Wallflower but wouldn't put it in my top ten.. same could be said for Moonrise Kingdom, which was good but not really in that boat.

 

[benbess]

I'm regretting missing The Master at this point. Some bad reviews kept me away, but I think I might have liked it....And I really like 70mm films.

 

[TravisR]

In alphabetical order, the best movies I've seen this year are:
Argo
Lincoln (it's long and a little slow but Daniel Day-Lewis is as good as everyone is saying)
The Master (I was slightly lukewarm to it on a first viewing but I saw it again and it's a really amazing movie)
Moonrise Kingdom
If someone likes quirky or more offbeat stuff, I thought Safety Not Guaranteed was quite good as well.
Other movies I've enjoyed this year: The Avengers, The Cabin In The Woods, The Dark Knight Rises (considering how boring I found the first two, this movie must have been good to entertain me), Magic Mike, Sinister and 21 Jump Street.
Who knows how they'll work out but I'm looking forward to seeing Silver Linings Playbook, Hitchcock, Zero Dark Thirty, This Is 40 and Django Unchained.

 

[mattCR]

I went back and rescreened some films on my list, and after seeing Django, the last on my list.. here's my list of the year.

I was kind of dissappointed in a few. I had hoped for more from "The Hobbit" which I thought was a trainwreck (I know others strongly disagree), and "Les Mis" was "OK" but not great. Here goes:

The Best film of the Year WAS: The Master. You'll either love it or hate it, but a film that can get people so completely wound up either way is doing something. I thought this was a great film to dive into why the heck cults work, start and get going.

Amour - FANTASTIC look at the impact of illness on a marriage

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - I had said earlier.. just a few weeks ago, as I was waiting to see other films that this would fall outside of my Top10. But it has risen steadily in my mind, and a few days ago I found myself using the key phrase from this to make a point.. and at that moment, I thought: this is not just one of the top ten, it's probably in my Top3 for complete re-watchability. In fact, it's falling into that strange "Shawshank Redemption" hole for me.. the farther I get from it, the more I find myself thinking about how much I enjoyed it.

Beasts of the Southern Wild - The best SciFi film of 2012, bar none. Also the best original score I've heard. It's like watching poetry on the screen, beautiful.

Holy Motors - The first time I saw "Holy Motors" I thought: What the f- is this? It's horrible! But the farther I got, the more I found myself buying the central conceit and the harder I laughed.

Safety Not Guaranteed - The ending wasn't perfect, but the rest of this film is so damn good it has to be on my list.

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - "We have a saying, it's going to be alright in the end. And if it's not alright, it's not the end." This will be a in a lot of people's library, and they will watch it often. Simple but very well told.

Argo - mixes action, humor, suspense so well. This is one of the few films in years that is a legitimate "Suspense" film

Django Unchained - Jamie Foxx is fantastic, and the more time that Kerry Washington gets on the screen, the happier I am.

The Sessions - Funny, brilliant, revealing. Great.

Not in my list but good: Lincoln, Flight, Les Mis.

By the Way: the best original score/soundtrack of the year (full original) IS Beasts of the Southern Wild. That soundtrack is beyond fantastic.

 

[Jose Martinez]

My Top Ten
01. Cloud Atlas
02. Life of Pi
03. The Avengers
04. Les Miserables
05. The Dark Knight Rises
06. Lincoln
07. Silver Linings Playbook
08. Argo
09. Skyfall
10. Flight

Still to see: Zero Dark Thirty

Honorable Mentions
The Raid: Redemption
Chronicle
The Hunger Games
Moonrise Kingdom
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Safety Not Guaranteed
Beasts of the Southern Wild
ParaNorman
Frankenweenie
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Looper
Seven Psychopaths
The Sessions
Django Unchained

Most Disappointing: The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey

Absolutely HATED : The (Not so )Amazing Spider-Man

 

[Michael Elliott]

This was the most I've gone to the theater since at least the mid-90's. I thought I had pretty much gotten over it but this year I really tried to see everything I could and if I did miss it then try and get it on video. I still need to see ZERO, IMPOSSIBLE, SEARCHING FOR THE SUGAR MAN, RUST AND BONE, AMOUR and a couple others but I think I hit most of the "big" pictures. I rated the 4-star and 3 1/2-star films as well as the worst 9 (the tenth spot could have gone to many). The rest are just in alph. order with their star rating. I'll update the rest as I see them over the next few days. Winners: Matthew McConaughey: 4 great performances, two with real balls for someone like him to do. Bobcat: We need more F.U. films. Losers: Horror genre: So many horrible movies this year with most of them taking a slot in the bottom 20. Demi Moore: Worst. Mother. Ever. LOL that. Vincent D'Onofrio: Congrats at being a director but no one wanted GREASE MEETS FRIDAY THE 13TH. Leave the horror genre alone. :star::star::star::star: 01. Django Unchained 02. Argo 03. The Intouchables 04. The Sessions 05. The Master 06. Life of Pi 07. Arbitrage 08. Flight 09. Killer Joe 10. How to Survive a Plague 11. The Invisible War 12. The Queen of Versailles :star::star::star::half: 13. Bernie 14. Promised Land 15. End of Watch 16. God Bless America 17. Sinister 18. Ted 19. Skyfall 20. The Odd Life of Timothy Green 21. The Dark Knight Rises 22. The Avengers 23. To Rome with Love 24. Being Flynn 25. Hitchcock 26. Moonrise Kingdom 27. Neil Young Journeys 28. Beasts of the Southern Wild 29. Prometheus 30. The Grey 31. Silver Linings Playbook 32. Safety Not Guaranteed 33. Side By Side 34. Marley :star::star::star: 2 Days in New York 21 Jump Street Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter The Amazing Spider-Man American Reunion Battleship Bel Ami The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Bully The Campaign Celeste and Jesse Forever Chronicle The Dictator The Expendables 2 The Good Doctor Hope Springs The Hunger Games Jack Reacher Jeff, Who Lives at Home Jiro Dreams of Sushi Lincoln Meeting Evil The Paperboy The Possession Premium Rush The Raid: Redemption Rock of Ages Ruby Sparks Safe House Savages Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Taken 2 The Three Stooges Trouble with the Curve V/H/S :star::star::half: ATM The Cabin in the Woods Dark Shadows Dredd Gone Goon The Hunter Killing Them Softly Les Miserables Men in Black III Roadie Safe Seeking Justice Take This Waltz Total Recall Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning The Woman in Black :star::star: 2016: Obama's America 360 Apartment 143 The Collection Contraband The Devil Inside Haywire Hit and Run House at the End of the Street The Magic of Belle Isle Magic Mike Mirror Mirror Nobody Walks The Raven [REC] 3: Genesis Silent House Snow White and the Huntsman That's My Boy The Wicker Tree :star::half: Bait Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes Chernobyl Diaries Lockout Mother's Day Night of the Living Dead 3D: Reanimation Paranormal Activity 4 Piranha 3DD Silent Night This Means War The Tortured :star: 09. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 08. LOL 07. Act of Valor 06. The Apparition :half: 05. Smiley 04. Project X 03. Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie BOMB 02. Nature Calls 01. Don't Go in the Woods