Forums: My Best of 2012

Good news!

Finally my Best of 2012 has arrived!

At first, I did not think anyone would get to see it due to the world ending. Yet, here we are in 2013 still kicking. The year that was known as 2012 was an interesting year with a lot of great films (more than usual I think) that displayed creative, stylish, complex, and entertaining storytelling. There were quite a few surprises along with some major disappointments so I made some room on here to share those with you as well.

Like every year, there are some movies that were only in limited release last year and do not come out on my side of town (Nashville, TN) until this year. The four major ones that will not show up on this list but could very well have a spot on my Best of 2013 are Promised Land (the film that re-teams Matt Damon and Gus Van Santa), Amour, The Impossible starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor about the devastating South Asian tsunami in 2004, and Zero Dark Thirty which is the highly anticipated film about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and comes from the same Oscar winning duo of The Hurt Locker.

But don't you worry because I still managed to see 175 films in theatres and what follows is what made a lasting impression on me for better or worse.

Here is the only list you should give a damn about...

Best Comedy Film
This Is 40

Runners-Up: Wanderlust, 21 Jump Street, The Watch

Best Horror Film
Sinister

Runners-Up: V/H/S

Best Animated Film
ParaNorman

Runners-Up: Wreck-It Ralph, Rise of the Guardians

Best Foreign Film
Headhunters

Runners-Up: A Royal Affair, In the Land of Blood and Honey, The Intouchables, The Raid: Redemption

Best Doc*mentary Film
Undefeated and Bully (tie)

Runners-Up: Searching for Sugar Man

Most Surprisingly Good/Great Film
Headhunters

Runners-Up (in no particular order)

- The Odd Life of Timothy Green

- The Perks of Being a Wallflower

- John Carter

- People Like Us

- Dredd

- The Vow

- A Royal Affair

- Hit and Run

- The Watch

-Wanderlust

Most Disappointing Film
The Master

Runners Up (in no particular order)

- This Means War

- Anna Karenina

- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

- The Dictator

- Red Tails

- Silent House

- Les Miserables

- The Lorax

- The Devil Inside

- Taken 2

Top 10 Worst Films (no particular order)
- Empire Builder

- Anna Karenina

- The Devil Inside

- The Lucky One

- That's My Boy

- Alex Cross

- Hell or High Water: The Story of the Nashville Rollergirls

- Resident Evil: Retribution

- He Ain't Heavy

- This Means War

Best Actress
Runners-Up:

- Jessica Chastain (Lawless)

- Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

- Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks)

- Helen Mirren (Hitchc*ck)

- Amy Adams (Trouble With The Curve, The Master)

- Michelle Williams (Take This Waltz)

- Emma Watson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

- Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs)

- Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy)

- Susan Sarandon (Robot & Frank, Arbitrage)

- Juno Temple (Killer Joe)

- Maggie Gyllenhaal (Won't Back Down)

- Halle Berry (Cloud Atlas)

- Keira Knightley (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Anna Karenina)

- Elizabeth Banks (People Like Us)

- Viola Davis (Won't Back Down)

- Zana Marjanovic (In the Land of Blood and Honey)

- Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair)

- Leslie Mann (This Is 40)

- Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises, Les Miserables)

Top 5 Actresses of 2012
5) Judi Dench (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Skyfall)

4) Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady, Hope Springs)

3) Emily Blunt (The Five-Year Engagement, Your Sister's Sister, Looper)

2) Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook)

1) Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin)

Best Actor
Runners-Up:

- Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

- Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, Premium Rush, Looper)

- Richard Gere (Arbitrage)

- Christopher Walken (Seven Psychopaths, A Late Quartet)

- Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)

- Tommy Lee Jones (Hope Springs, Lincoln)

- Michael Fassbender (Shame, Prometheus)

- Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained)

- Sam Rockwell (Seven Psychopaths)

- Javier Bardem (Skyfall)

- Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

- Denzel Washington (Flight)

- Guy Pearce (Lawless)

- Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master, A Late Quartet)

- John Hawkes (The Sessions)

- Liam Neeson (The Grey)

- Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Dark Knight Rises)

- Tom Cruise (Rock of Ages, Jack Reacher)

- Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch)

- Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi)

- Bruce Willis (Moonrise Kingdom, Looper)

- Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

- Brad Pitt (Killing Them Softly)

- Mads Mikkelsen (A Royal Affair)

- Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

- Michael Pena (End of Watch)

- John Goodman (Argo, Trouble With The Curve, Flight)

Top 5 Actors of 2012
5) Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe, The Paperboy)

4) Aksel Hennie (Headhunters)

3) Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

2) Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

1) Tom Hardy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Dark Knight Rises, Lawless)

Best Director
Runners-Up:

- Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises)

- Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas)

- David Ayer (End of Watch)

- Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

- Angelina Jolie (In the Land of Blood and Honey)

- Robert Zemeckis (Flight)

- John Hillcoat (Lawless)

- David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

- Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

- Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths)

- Andrew Dominick (Killing Them Softly)

- Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

- Chris Butler and Sam Fell (ParaNorman)

- Joss Whedon (The Avengers)

- Joe Carnahan (The Grey)

Top 5 Directors of 2012
5) Sam Mendes (Skyfall)

4) Morten Tyldum(Headhunters)

3) Ben Affleck (Argo)

2) Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

1) Rian Johnson (Looper)

Best Films
Runners-Up:

- Silver Linings Playbook

- Life of Pi

- Jack Reacher

- Flight

- Argo

- Seven Psychopaths

- ParaNorman

- The Grey

- End of Watch

- The Dark Knight Rises

- Undefeated

- Django Unchained

- The Avengers

- Bully

- Killing Them Softly

Top 5 Films of 2012
5) Lawless

4) The Perks of Being a Wallflower

3) Skyfall

2) Headhunters

The Best Film of 2012 is....

LOOPER

@SirBrandon Hell yeah, dude. Great list. I watched Looper again the other day. Didn't like it as much as I did when I first saw it, but I still really liked it. It's definitely in my top 10 for the year, but I'm torn between The Master or Les Mis for the #1 spot -- two of your most disappointing, lol.

@thedude-abides lol yeah I noticed your top 2. But I also saw where you talked trash about Lawless and Killing Them Softly. So we are even I guess ha but thanks for checking out my Best Of. I'll be looking for yours soon.

@SirBrandon Lol. Yeah, I guess so. Mine will be complete after I see Zero Dark Thirty this weekend. I'm still trying to shuffle some things around in terms of the order.