The Top 50 Films of 2012

According to a website that as aggregated more than 400 critics top 10 lists. 50. The Color Wheel 49. Damsels in Distress 48. Elena 47. Searching for Sugar Man 46. The Impossible 45. Barbara 44. Neighboring Sounds 43. Queen of Versailles 42. The Imposter 41. Take This Waltz 40. Wuthering Heights 39. Keep the Lights On 38. The Grey 37. Killer Joe 36. Compliance 35. Killing Them Softly 34. How to Survive a Plague 33. Anna Karenina 32. The Raid: Redemption 31. The Loneliest Planet 30. Rust and Bone 29. Cloud Atlas 28. Bernie 27. Magic Mike 26. Les Miserables 25. Cosmopolis 24. The Kid with a Bike 23. The Avengers 22. The Cabin in the Woods 21. Oslo, August 31 20. The Perks of Being a Wallflower 19. Tabu 18. The Dark Knight Rises 17. The Turin Horse 16. The Deep Blue Sea 15. Looper 14. Life of Pi 13. Skyfall 12. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 11. Django Unchained 10. This is Not a Film 9. Silver Linings Playbook 8. Argo 7. Beasts of the Southern Wild 6. Lincoln 5. Amour 4. Holy Motors 3. Moonrise Kingdom 2. The Master 1. Zero Dark Thirty

http://criticstop10.com/



• I've only seen 16 of them so far. But I will say that Damsels in Distress is a better film than Magic Mike.

• [quote]more than 400 critics top 10 lists. Most of those self-proclaimed critics are bloggers who don't know much more about film than the cashier at your local Duane Reade.

• There's a whole lot of crap on this list.

• Are these actually ranked in order?

• I think they are, R4.

• I saw at least 25 films in 2012, and Magic Mike was, by far, the worst. That it gets so much acclaim is a mystery to me. I keep hearing about McBongo's 'great' performance. What is wrong with people? Jeez!

  R.J.

• I've said it before but The Master was pure garbage. Good performances in search of a story. There was no 'there' there. When I saw it in the theater you could feel the energy slowly leave the room. I kept looking at my watch wishing it would fucking end already but it just kept going on and on. And every pretentious critic has named it their number 1 movie. I think there was so much hype around it critics have convinced themselves they have to love it.

• Without Amour this list is completely worthless.

• Amour is number 5.

• Shouldn't Les Miserables be at #1?

• R10, Les Miz and Django Unchained suffered because they came out so late and many critics didnt include them on their lists. Roger Ebert for example posted his Top 10 and hasn't even seen those 2 films yet so they didn't make his list. But to answer your question, HELL NO.

• Rust and Bone should be in the top ten. Cotillard and Schoenaerts both give riveting performances in that one. Dark Knight Rises? Marion Cotillard does the worst death scene of all time. She was so great in one and so terrible in another. Zero Dark Thirty will win oodles of Awards. Trust me on this. Harvey The Blob will stuff all the ballot boxes himself if he has to. Amour's ending is quite the downer. I love Izzy and Jean Louis but I've seen better movies on this topic.

• [quote]Zero Dark Thirty will win oodles of Awards. Trust me on this. Harvey The Blob will stuff all the ballot boxes himself if he has to. It's not a Weinstein movie.

• [quote]Zero Dark Thirty will win oodles of Awards. Trust me on this. Harvey The Blob will stuff all the ballot boxes himself if he has to. Harvey Weinstein didn't produce it, and it's not going to win. Les Miz is winning the awards.

• Nobody watched Amour, except pretentious French gays.

• \treply 15\t Amour hasn't even opened yet in most of US cities. It will in Jan. and on. Don't be so hateful.

• No, Lincoln will win Best Picture: unlike the divisive Les Miz and the controversial Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln is a safe choice and it's also become an unlikely blockbuster hit. Also, a Kathryn Bigelow film won in 2009 and a Tom Hooper film won in 2010, whereas Spielberg hasn't had a winning film since 1993. (Saving Private Ryan infamously lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love, although Spielberg won Best Director.)

• "There's a whole lot of crap on this list." Not surprising given that there were a whole lot of crappy movies this year. I don't have a lot of problems with the list. With one exception. I hated the indulgence and prevention of The Master and I can't relate to a critical establishment that finds it a better film than Argo. The Master has great beauty but a horrible script and an overemoting leading man (Phoenix has given some great performances in the past, but Jesus Christ, here's he's an object lesson is being actory for the sake of showing that he can).

• R6, Magic Mike was okay. Not great, but not bad by any means. It was pretty hilarious actually. Though it works better as a made-for-cable movie than a theatrical release, it was still fun. Thankfully, there's no sign of the abysmal "Prometheus" on that list. THAT was the worst movie I've seen this year. Or this decade. By far.

• I had meant to go see a lot of these movies but never made it out to theaters for many of them. In the end, I only saw five of these in theaters, and will likely catch any of the rest I see on cable.

• Where is FLIGHT? I saw it this week-end. It was outstanding except for John Goodman's hammy performance (but that's more of a personal dislike). The movie and Denzel Washington's acting were riveting. A must-see film! I agree that MAGIC MIKE was a mediocre movie.

• The level of public vitriol aimed at "The Master" makes it feel like people were forced to see it. While I admit it isn't everyone's cup of tea, I thought it was totally mesmerizing and had a lot to say about how humans manipulate each other and themselves in search of some kind of order in the universe that seems chaotic. The idea that there is "no there there" is absolutely ludicrous. It takes a teeny, tiny bit of reflection to get something out of the film. Is that too much to ask? Now "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Beasts...", those movies have absolutely nothing to say to an audience and felt like amateur hour all around.

• The five films nominated for oscars for both best picture and direction: Amour - # 5 Lincoln - # 6 Beasts of the Southern Wild - # 7 Silver Linings Playbook - # 9 Life of Pi - # 14

• You must be kidding. 1, 2, and 3 were all pretentious, tedious crap. Zero Dark Thirty Hours was what it felt like. By the end, you're rooting for Osama's corpse to go on a zombie rampage just to effect some change in that petulant frown on Jessica Chastain's face. Moonrise Kingdom - I have to give it to Wes Anderson, he somehow manages to convince big Hollywood names to appear in his little undergrad film class projects. Maybe his day pays them. And The Master - wow, next time can you just do a documentary on the real L. Ron? Has to be more interesting than the fictional version.

• Looper? Magic Mike? No animated films? This list, FEH!

• I thought "Magic Mike" was one of the most entertaining films of the Year. Matt McBongo should have been nominated for an Oscar.