1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky + Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Pennsylvania Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year
2. Mad Men - season 5 - Matthew Weiner (creator)
3. Flight - Robert Zemeckis + Best Drama of the Year
4. Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin + Best Louisiana Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year
5. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, documentary - Alison Klayman
6. Life of Pi - Ang Lee + Best Animal Movie of the Year
7. Love Is All You Need/Den Skaldede Frisør - Susanne Bier + Best Danish Movie of the Year
8. Hope Springs - David Frankel
9. The Sessions - Ben Lewin
10. The Impossible/Lo Imposible - J.A. Bayona + Best Spanish Movie of the Year + Best Disaster Movie of the Year
Other great movies of 2012 (in alphabetical order)
A Hijacking/Kapringen - Tobias Lindholm
A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære - Nikolaj Arcel + Best Period Movie of the Year
A World Not Ours - Mahdi Fleifel
The Act of Killing/Jagal - Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous
Amour - Michael Haneke + Best French Movie of the Year
Argo - Ben Affleck
Brave - Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell and Brenda Chapman + Best Family Movie of the Year
Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino + Best Western of the Year
Frances Ha - Noah Baumbach + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year
Hyde Park on Hudson - Roger Michell
Keep the Lights On - Ira Sachs + Best LGBT Movie of the Year
Kon-Tiki - Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning + Best Norwegian Movie of the Year + Best Adventure Movie of the Year
Looper - Rian Johnson
Men in Black 3 - Barry Sonnenfeld + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year
Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson
Mud - Jeff Nichols + Best Mississippi Movie of the Year
The Place Beyond the Pines - Derek Cianfrance + Best Crime Movie of the Year
Skyfall - Sam Mendes + Best Action Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year
Wadjda - Haifaa Al-Mansour + First Saudi-Arabian Film in History
Zero Dark Thirty - Kathryn Bigelow + Best War Movie of the Year
Recommendable, good movies of 2012 (in alphabetical order)
21 Jump Street - Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
The Avengers/Avengers Assemble - Joss Whedon
Casa de Mi Padre - Matt Piedmont + Silliest Movie of the Year
The Dark Knight Rises - Christopher Nolan + Best Superhero Movie of the Year
Dark Shadows - Tim Burton
The Devil Inside - William Brent Bell + Best Horror Film of the Year
Get the Gringo/How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Adrian Grünberg + Best Comeback of the Year (Mel Gibson)
Here Comes the Boom - Frank Coraci
The Hunger Games - Gary Ross
The Hunt/Jagten - Thomas Vinterberg
The Imposter - Bart Layton
Iron Sky - Timo Vuorensola + Craziest Movie of the Year
Jack Reacher - Christopher McQuarrie
Magic Mike - Steven Soderbergh + Best Dance Film of the Year
Maniac - Franck Khalfoun + Wildest Movie of the Year
No - Pablo Larraín + Best Chilean Movie of the Year
On the Road - Walter Salles + Best Road Movie of the Year
The Paperboy - Lee Daniels + Strangest Movie of the Year
Prometheus - Ridley Scott
Red Flag - Alex Karpovsky + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Worst Distribution of the Year
Rust and Bone/De Rouille et d'Os - Jacques Audiard
Searching for Sugar Man, documentary - Malik Bendjelloul
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Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell
Sinister - Scott Derrickson + Best Mega-Hit of the Year
Spring Breakers - Harmony Korine + Best Miami Movie of the Year
Ted - Seth MacFarlane
Teddy Bear/10 Timer til Paradis - Mads Matthiesen
Wanderlust - David Wain + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Satire of the Year
The 10 Worst Movies of 2012
1. Wrath of the Titans - Jonathan Liebesman
2. Bachelorette - Leslye Headland
3. John Carter - Andrew Stanton + Most Expensive Flop of the Year
4. Aftershock - Nicholás Lopez + Most Tasteless Movie of the Year
5. To Rome With Love - Woody Allen
6. Cosmopolis - David Cronenberg
7. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Timur Bekmambetov + Stupidest Movie of the Year
8. The Bourne Legacy - Tony Gilroy
9. Battleship - Peter Berg
10. Painless/Insensibles - Juan Carlos Medina
Other failed, mediocre or poor movies of 2012 (in alphabetical order):
The Amazing Spiderman
American Reunion/American Pie: Reunion
Antiviral - Brandon Cronenberg
Big Miracle
The Cabin in the Woods
Chernobyl Diaries - Bradley Parker
The Expendables 2
Girl Most Likely/Imogene + Worst Poster of the Year:
Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation/Hamilton: I Nationens Intresse - Katrine Windfeld
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Iceman
John Dies at the End
Laurence Anyways
My Brother the Devil
Piranha 3DD
The Possession
Promised Land
Revenge for Jolly!
Ruby Sparks
Taken 2
This Life/Hvidsten Gruppen
V/H/S
The Woman in Black
Wreck-It Ralph
[91 titles in total]
Notes
This fourth update of the 2012 film lists increases the amount of reviewed, listed films from 87 to 91.
2012 was a great year in movies. The top 10 includes no less than 9 masterpieces, - which is sensational for any year. And the best film of the year, Stephen Chobosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a youth romance dramedy keeper that should live on for decades to come.
The 5th season of Matthew Weiner's spectacular New York-set period drama Mad Men follows it; Robert Zemeckis' Flight is the resounding character study of the year and the best film about alcoholism for a long while; Benh Zeitlin's girl-centered Hurricane Katrina drama Beasts of the Southern Wild conquers one's heart; Alison Klayman's spectacular Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry documentary is the 5th best of the year, Ang Lee's Life of Pi raises the spirit and wows you continuously with its wild, oceanic adventure; Susanne Bier's Love Is All You Need is a charming, funny, moving romcom; Dave Frankel's Hope Springs brought us some favorite actors in an extremely delicate marriage counseling dramedy; Ben Lewin's The Sessions was a surprise sex dramedy smash; and finally, J. A. Bayona's The Impossible is technically stunning, as well as stunning due to its actors' performances; the 2004 tsunami couldn't have gotten a 'better' film.
On the worst of 2012 list, three new entries force Scandinavian actioner Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation, tourist horror The Chernobyl Diaries and Brandon Cronenberg's off-putting sci-fi horror Antiviral out. John Carter loses the placement as the year's worst to Jonathan Liebesman's wholly uninspired, mechanical Wrath of the Titans. Leslye Headland's unfunny crude comedy Bachelorette flies in to #2, and Andrew Stanton's John Carter takes bronze in 'turkeystry'. It is followed by Nicholás Lopez's tasteless earthquake horror Aftershock, Woody Allen's awful To Rome With Love, David Cronenberg's dull, talky Cosmopolis, Timur Bekmambetov's preposterous Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, third new entry, Tony Gilroy's nonsensical chase sequel actioner The Bourne Legacy, Peter Berg's flop Battleship (the second on the list starring Taylor Kitsch), and lastly Juan Carlos Medina's uncompelling child torture movie Insensibles.
In other news, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy came to a thrilling if somewhat cluttered end, Daniel Craig continued his Bond-emplyment with the great Skyfall; Spiderman got an unnecessary reboot, and America went nuts over Silver Linings Playbook and their new best friend, actress Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar for her work in the film before four other, way more deserving actresses. - She also launched the popular, good Hunger Games franchise in '12. Marvel and Joss Whedon struck box office gold with their first Avengers movie. The second Expendables movie was a big disappointment, and Peter Jackson's first Hobbit movie was also something of an exercise to sit through.
Noah Baumbach made a true gem with B/W dramedy Frances Ha, Ira Sachs' brought forth a commendably difficult and deep-felt film of love and drug addiction, Keep the Lights On, and Saudi-Arabia fostered its first feature ever (!), Haifaa Al-Mansour's terrific Wadjda.
Master filmmakers who made some lesser-quality films in 2012 include Xavier Dolan with Laurence Anyways and Gus Van Sant with Promised Land.
Notes on the 2013 Oscars:
At the 2013 Oscars, the Academy threw most of their love onto Ben Affleck's admittedly great Argo and Steven Spielberg's also fine Lincoln, but also admired Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, his biggest hit yet. The night's biggest winner, however, with 4 statuettes, was Ang Lee's Life of Pi. Seth MacFarlane, high on Ted's succes, hosted the awards and was about as devoid of class as could be expected, - not a great choice for hosting the event.
Argo won Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Editing, bringing director-star Affleck back to the top of the Hollywood pinnacle.
Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for Lincoln, and Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for Django Unchained. Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook, and Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables, - a win she has later said she felt she did not deserve.
Ang Lee won Best Director, and Life of Pi also won for Best Cinematography, Visual Effects and Best Score.
Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay for Django; the new Les Mis also took awards for sound mixing, sound editing (shared with Skyfall) and hair and make-up. Anna Karenina won Best Costumes. Best Song became Adele's Bond song Skyfall. Lincoln also won for its production design.
Best Animated Short was Paperman; Live-Action Short was Curfew; Documentary Short was Inocente.
Best Documentary; Searching for Sugarman, and Best Foreign Film; Amour. Best Animated Feature; the great Brave.
Dignitary awards went to D. A. Pennebaker, George Stevens Jr., Hal Needham, Bill Taylor and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
IMDb's user-generated top 10 of most popular 2012 titles:
1. The Hunger Games
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. Django Unchained
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
5. Prometheus
6. Dark Shadows
7. Les Misérables
8. The Avengers
9. The Twilight Sage: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
10. Snow White and the Huntsman
2012 Cannes Film Festival:
Nanni Moretti acted as President of the Jury, and Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom opened the festival. The festival's poster featured Marilyn Monroe as an homage to mark the 50th anniversary of her death.
The main prize, the Palm d'Or, was won by Michael Haneke for his great Amour, his second win of the coveted prize following his tough The White Ribbon (2009). The Jury Grand Prize went to Matteo Garrone's Reality, and Ken Loach's The Angels' Share won the Jury Prize. Michel Franco's After Lucia won the Un Certain Regard section. Taisia Igumentseva's The Road To won the Cinéfoundation award, L. Rezan Yesilbas' Silent won the short film prize. Pablo Larraín's No won the Directors' Fortnight award. Other awards went to Critian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills, Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan in Beyond the Hills and Carlos Reygados for his Post Tenebras Lux, among many others.
The 22 films in the main competition in 2012 were:
After the Battle, The Angels' Share, Beyond the Hills, Cosmopolis, Holy Motors, The Hunt, In Another Country, In the Fog, Killing Them Softly, Lawless, Like Someone in Love, Love, Moonrise Kingdom, Mud, On the Road, The Paperboy, Paradise: Love, Post Tenebras Lux, Reality, Rust and Bone, The Taste of Money, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
2012 movies still on the watch-list (or just waiting for their review here):
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, The Lucky One, Stuck in Love, Les Misérables, Cloud Atlas (seen - bad), The Vow, This Is 40 (seen - very good), Lawless, Chronicle (seen - below average), Seeking a Friend For the End of the World, The Broken Circle Breakdown (seen - good), The Motel Life, The Last Sentence/Dom over Død Mand, Sexual Tension: Volatile, Pitch Perfect, Frankenweenie, In the House/Dans la Maison, Anna Karenina, Beyond Outrage, At Any Prize, ParaNorman, Craigslist Joe, The Gatekeepers, Like Someone in Love, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, War Witch, How to Survive a Plague, Excision, The Invisible War, Simon Killer, Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, Quartet, Holy Motors (seen - great), Ernest & Celestine, A Late Quartet, Middle of Nowhere, Here Comes the Devil, Lincoln (seen - very good), [REC] 3: Genesis, Underworld: Awakening, Rise of the Guardians (seen - bad), End of Watch, Hotel Transylvania (seen - okay), The Five-Year Engagement, Savages, Ill Manors, The Mountain, The Lorax, Safety Not Guaranteed, Me and You, Wolf Children, Dark Blood, It's Such a Beautiful Day, Lore, Hannah Arendt, Paulie
Previous annual lists:
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Do you agree with Film Excess' 2012 lists?
What films would comprise your lists of 2012 movies?
What movies are missing here?
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