Honorable Mentions: Seven Psychopaths, Life of Pi, Wreck-it Ralph, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Flight, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Cabin in the Woods, End of Watch
Note: I didn't see every movie to come out this year, so there may be a couple that could be on there that I missed. These are just the 10 best movies I saw this year in no particular order. And remember, this is just my personal opinion.
If there is one thing I can say about Lincoln, it's that it is the best movie Steven Spielberg has done in years. Following the former president the last couple months of his life, Lincoln gives us a superbly written and directed film that is one of the heavy hitters in this years award season. What impressed me the most was that they didn't really make this about the civil war. That was part of the movie but that wasn't the big thing. This was a war of words not of violence. It's hard to make a two and a half hour history piece interesting like that. And I'm calling it now, Daniel Day-Lewis will win an Oscar. No one deserves it more than he does.
Ben Affleck hit a rough patch a couple of years ago, he just did a bunch of sub par movies (if you've never seen Daredevil I'll let you know right now, it f*cking sucks). But everything changed when he made his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone. And everything changed after that. But his new movie Argo is undoubtedly the best movie he's ever done and has officially made him one of the best active directors in the film industry. Set during the Iranian hostage situation, Argo takes us back to a time of fear and doubt in American history with one of the years best and most intense movies.
It is hard to make a documentary entertaining. They should be factual and realistic. Other movies are meant to tell a story and act as an escape from reality, so they have some leeway and can take it in any direction. But The Imposter isn't just an entertaining documentary, it's one of the most gripping movies of the year. Like something out of a nightmare, The Imposter tells us an unbelievable story on the same level as some psychological thrillers. And if I had to guess, I'd say this is one of the front runners for best documentary.
Going into 2012, this may have been my most anticipated film of the year. With the previous Bond film being less than satisfactory, we need something good. And what we got was one of the best movies in this legendary franchise. Director Sam Mendez put together one of the top blockbusters of the year in the form of revenge, redemption, and resurrection. Combining the grit of the newer films with classic James Bond references, we're given a Bond movie that will survive the ages. And I'm thrilled to see this movie be as successful as it was, it became the 14th movie to gross 1 billion dollars.
I'll be the first to admit I'm one of those people that think Wes Anderson is an absolute genius. I just love his style, every time I watch one of his movies I feel like I'm watching a play. And this may be his best movie yet. Moonrise Kingdom took the film industry by storm, it first premiered at the prestigious Cannes film festival and was given the honor as being the opening movie. And what we saw was a quirky yet heart warming love story between these two young children. In an industry where most movies are filled with violence, vulgarity, and sexual innuendo, it's nice to see movies like this become successful.
The last really great sci-fi movie was Moon back in 2009, and we needed a new one. Fortunately we got Looper which is one of the best and most unique sci-fi/time travel movies made in years. Starring Joseph Gorden-Levitt and Bruce Willis, this movie is straight up bad ass. I went into this thinking it was just going to be sci-fi, what I got was a well written, mature, action movie. I loved every thing about this movie. And what makes me most happy about this movie was that it was successful. It's dangerous to make a new and unique movie like this because so often they don't make a lot of money. But on a 30 million dollar budget, it went on to make over 160 million dollars.
I am so glad I waited to make this list, because if I didn't I would have missed this incredible movie. Zero Dark Thirty is about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. A CIA operative named Maya comes upon a lead in an interrogation. She believes that she knows the identity of one of the closest people to Osama and spends years to find him. They ultimately discover the man's home and it is even believed that Osama himself is hiding there. If so Maya just found the most wanted man on the planet. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty is an expertly crafted war thriller like nothing we've seen since her last movie The Hurt Locker. And if I had to choose, I would say Zero Dark thirty is the best movie of 2012.
I'm saying it right now, Django Unchained isn't just Tarantino's best film since Pulp Fiction. It's also one of the years best. The movie follows a slave named Django and a bounty hunter named Schultz as they travel the country in an attempt to obtain a bounty on three criminals and rescue Django's wife from a plantation owner. This movie has my vote for best original screenplay and best supporting actor for Christoph Waltz. Django is hilarious, over the top, and brilliant with some of the best writing seen in a movie this year. Django Unchained is not only one of the best movies to come out this year, it's also my favorite.
This may actually have been the biggest surprise of 2012 for me. Usually I'm not a big fan of romantic comedies because most of them are so bland. There are a couple I like such as Midnight in Paris, which was one of my top movies of 2011. But going into Silver Linings Playbook I was expecting a generic Romantic comedy. But what I got was a deep love story between these two damaged people just trying to get there lives together. With career defining performances from Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, this is one of the years most underrated films.
I fell in love with this movie the moment I watched it. Taking place on an island off the coast of Louisiana, the movie follows the story of a young girl named Hushpuppy and her dead beat dad. Her father loves her, he truly does, the problem is since he doesn't know how to be a real dad. After a devastating hurricane wrecks the island, the people are desperate to save their homes and put together a foolish plan that puts everyone in danger. This was the directors first film and what a directorial debut this movie was. A passionate and deep film that speaks to you on a personal level. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a beautiful and soulful movie like few others, and one of the most emotional pictures of the year.
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