With the Oscars just around the corner about to prove once
again how irrelevant they are by making some strange movie picks, the time has
come to look back on 2012 cinema and choose the ten best films the year had to
offer. It’s important to note that I didn’t have the luxury of seeing
absolutely everything that came out this year, so an omission from this list is
not necessarily an indication that I won’t love it.
I will say that there are several films this year that,
judging by critical consensus, I expected to be head-over-heels for but ended
up only tolerating (Holy Motors, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln). There are also a multitude of others that I enjoyed very
much, but had trouble committing to putting them in my top ten (Bernie, ParaNorman, The Sessions).
Limiting myself to a top ten was no easy task. This really
was one hell of a year for movies, and the completion was stiff. Without
further ado, here are the best motion pictures of 2012: