Keeping things to movies that are Oscar-eligible only (I saw Nashville this year, but it doesn't count), it's time for us all to make Top 10 lists. Of course, though, it's not really time. None of us have seen Zero Dark Thirty yet, I haven't seen Amour or Killer Joe yet, and I don't feel quite comfortable yet making a full Top 10.

So my list isn't ready, as of yet, but it will be soon. Just really hope Zero Dark Thirty is amazing, 'cause I don't have a clear-cut #1 this year. Still, if you're ready, plop your list down.

1. Skyfall
2. Resident Evil
3. Holy Motors
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Moonrise Kingdom
6. Taken 2
7. Chronicle
8. Lincoln
9. Les Mis
10. Ghost Rider

Haven't seen a lot...

1. Chained
2. The Sound of My Voice
3. The Hunger Games
4. Savages
5. Haywire
6. The Grey
7. The Cabin in the Woods
8. The Thing
9. Safe House
10. The Dark Knight Rises

Here's a blog entry I made about the best/worst of the year.

With some unseen, my list for now:

1. The Master
2. End of Watch
3. Killing Them Softly
4. Flight
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild
6. Lincoln
7. Moonrise Kingdom
8. Argo
9. Safety Not Guaranteed
10. Lawless

As I said, some decently major changes will probably come at some point.

I'm sure I'll come back and edit this later, but for now I've seen enough of the most likely suspects to make a list. Most glaring absences from my 2012 viewing, so far: Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables, Bernie, Magic Mike, Amour, The Master, End of Watch, Cloud Atlas.

Probably the order will change the more I think on it, but #1 is pretty solid.

The Top Ten.

1. Lincoln
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. The Avengers
<EDIT> 3.5. Zero Dark Thirty probably goes here. </EDIT>
4. Looper
5. Life of Pi
6. Silver Linings Playbook
7. The Intouchables
8. The Grey
9. The Hobbit
10. Flight

The Rest, in rough order.

Really Good:
Skyfall, Argo, Safety Not Guaranteed

Good:
The Dark Knight Rises, Django Unchained, Robot and Frank, Hope Springs, Moonrise Kingdom

Pretty Good:
Prometheus, Goon, John Carter, Big Miracle, The Hunger Games, Trouble with the Curve, Snow White and the Huntsman

Eh:
Brave, The Cabin in the Woods

Pretty bad:
The Lorax

Top 10 2012 Films Seen In 2012

1. Perfect Sense
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. Skyfall
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Killer Joe
6. Cloud Atlas
7. The Master
8. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia
9. Looper
10. Chico & Rita

Still plenty of films I want to see though before I settle on an official list.

Trying to do something like this always humbles me and makes me realize just how many freaking movies actually exist. I've seen 35-40 2012 releases and went through the list and counted somewhere around 30 more that I'd like to see. Granted, some of that is stuff like Lockout, or Savages, or Ted that would have virtually no shot at making my top 10, but you never know. That said, there are still about 15 movies that do have at least a puncher's chance of making my top 10.

Here's what mine looks like as of the second day of the calendar year 2013:

1. The Master
2. Seven Psychopaths
3. Skyfall
4. Django Unchained
5. Looper
6. Moonrise Kingdom
7. The Grey
8. Brave
9. This is 40
10. Safety Not Guaranteed

I saw very few 2012 films in 2012 -

1. Skyfall
2. Dark Knight Rises
3. Brave
4. Tinkerbell: The Movie
5. Freelancers (featuring Curtis "50 cent" Jackson)

Despite being at the lofty heights of number 5, Freelancers is actually too bad to even be reviewed in any depth

I'm marginally offended that you even bothered posting this list. I know you're across the pond, but man alive, see some more fucking movies!

I see lots. Just rarely the year they're released.

I'm rarely in the habit of making a top 10. Usually I pick one film that stands apart from the others for the year. And for 2012, that film was Cloud Atlas.

I decided to include star ratings next to each film, even though this is not the usual rating system I work with. As a perfectionist, I hated using asterisks to indicate stars, but since that is the norm on these forums, I will do so. I have also included the directors' names next to each film simply because I am a pretentious elitist.

1. Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master - ****
2. Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb's This is Not a Film - ****
3. Michael Haneke's Amour - ****
4. Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild - ****
5. Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st - ***1/2
6. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln - ***1/2
7. Ben Affleck's Argo - ***1/2
8. Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom - ***1/2
9. David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook - ***1/2
10. Leos Carax's Holy Motors - ***1/2

Honorable Mentions: Bart Layton's The Imposter, Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In, Rian Johnson's Looper, Sam Mendes' Skyfall, Craig Zobel's Compliance, Colin Trevorrow's Safety Not Guaranteed, Benoît Jacquot's Farewell, My Queen, Ben Lewin's The Sessions, and Ann Hui's A Simple Life

Certainly an eclectic selection of films this year. Most lists include two guys named Anderson, one way or another. Not a lot of love for Life of Pi, and a surprising amount for Flight and Cloud Atlas. In terms of prestigious ascension though, this year must belong to Wes. He can't be too far now from attaining top tier filmmaker status, and his popularity will only continue to grow.

Well go make your own thread "Name your film that stands apart from the others"

Yeah, the word "Freelancers" made this point quite apparent.



I haven't seen any of the 3 films you singled out here, but I agree on Wes Anderson. He's certainly one of the top contemporary arguments in favor of auteur theory. I don't know about his popularity increasing (although it's certainly possible), as he's carved out such a specific niche for himself already, and doesn't seem to have a whole lot of interest in moving on from it, that I'm not sure his typical audience will see much of an increase. People pretty much know what to expect from a Wes Anderson movie at this point, for better or worse.



Hahahaha!

Final List (top 10)

1) Skyfall
2) The Avengers 3D
3) Argo
4) Les Miserables
5) The Intouchables
6) Looper
7) Life of Pi 3D
8) Moonrise Kingdom
9) Prometheus 3D
10) The Hunger Games

Honourable mentions: the Dark Knight Rises and Dredd 3D

Still to see (when they are shown in Australia)

1) Zero Dark Thirty
2) Lincoln
3) DJango Unchained
4) Silver Linings Playbook
5) The Sessions
6) Amour
7) Cloud Atlas
8) The Impossible

1. TDKR
2. Looper
3. Skyfall
4. Django
5. The Grey
6. Prometheus
7. Seeking a Friend
8. Lawless
9. Argo
10. The Avengers

I tried to slip some comedies in there, but when it comes down to it, comedy never quite does it for me.

As of writing, I have seen 31 movies with a 2012 U.S. release date. Not even 10 of them were good (and only the top two were very good):

1. Skyfall
2. The Avengers
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. The Grey
6. Chronicle
7. Ted
8. Prometheus

Hopefully, some time this year I will manage to watch some good to very good movies, which will push at least #3 to #8 out of the top ten (although a rewatch of The Hobbit without the distracting 3D might make me appreciate it more). Given that I haven't seen Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Cloud Atlas, Django Unchained, End of Watch, Flight, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Looper, The Master, Searching for Sugar Man, Silver Linings Playbook, This is not a Film and Zero Dark Thirty, amongst others, there is a fair chance that my top ten for 2012 will look completely different in, say, december.

I'm greatly looking forward to watching Moonrise Kingdom.

To be honest I'm not actually looking forward to The Master. I can't shake the feeling that it will be bloated in the same way There Will be Blood was.

The process of the latter was - take a subject you have interest in; hire a great actor; and strain damn hard to make it into a kind of self-conscious epic, and hope people will accept it as thus. I feared The Master would recycle this method and some of the reviews I've read validate said fears.

I couldn't possibly disagree with you more about There Will Be Blood, but if you found that bloated you'll certainly find The Master bloated -- though for very different reasons. The Master is much less "epic" upon first look, I believe. And really, it's both more and less accessible... scene-for-scene it is mostly more traditional, but in scope it is much less so. I'd certainly suggest you give it a shot... you may hate it, but I don't think you'll hate it because it's TWBB rehashed.