Decade Rewind: The Best Movies of 2012

Posted on by Kevin Wozniak

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As the 2010’s have officially come to an end, I will be looking back at each cinematic year to give a personal decade retrospective of the best movies and performances of each year.  I will break down my Top 10 movies of each year, along with my favorite performances from that year.  I will also be listing my favorite’s from each genre, like Best Animated Movie and Best Action Movie, as well as best of the technical aspects, like Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay.  This will all culminate into my picks for the best movies and performances of the decade.  

*Rankings of movies and performances are numbered from 1-5, with 1 being the best movie/performance.

*Gifs for each category are not specifically of the “winners” of each category, just one of the nominees.

 

 

 

 

THE YEAR: 2012

2012 was the year where my journey as a film critic began.  I started doing short, one sentence reviews of movies that I saw in theaters and would post these review on Facebook.  With this new-found passion, it forced me to see a ton of movies, which I did.  I once again attended the Sundance Film Festival, something I would do for the rest of the decade, as well as began to dive more into modern day auteurs, like Wes Anderson and David O. Russell, as well as seek out more foreign films, indie films, and documentaries.  2012 continued to open my eyes to more cinema and more filmmakers.

However, 2012 was one of the weaker years of the decade.  Obviously we got our share of great films, but there weren’t as many as in previous years and the years that follow.  There were a lot of great directors who made movies this year, like Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, Ben Affleck, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Zemeckis, and the Wachowski’s, to name a few, none of them hit heights of what we had seen from them in the past.  But with that, the films and performances listed here are all really good and really special.  Here are my picks for the best movies and performances from 2012.

 

 

BEST OF 2012

 

 

BEST PICTURE

  1. LINCOLN (Steven Spielberg)
  2. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
  3. THE AVENGERS (Joss Whedon)
  4. LOOPER (Rian Johnson)
  5. ZERO DARK THIRTY (Kathryn Bigelow)
  6. DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
  7. ARGO (Ben Affleck)
  8. 21 JUMP STREET (Phil Lord and Chris Miller)
  9. MAGIC MIKE (Steven Soderbergh)
  10. CLOUD ATLAS (Lilly and Lana Wachowski)

 

 

BEST DIRECTOR

  1. Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
  2. David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
  3. Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Cloud Atlas
  4. Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
  5. Rian Johnson, Looper

 

 

BEST ACTOR

  1. Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
  2. Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
  3. Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
  4. Richard Gere, Arbitrage
  5. John Hawkes, The Sessions

 

 

BEST ACTRESS

  1. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
  2. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
  3. Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
  4. Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
  5. Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  1. Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
  2. Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
  3. Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike
  4. Michael Shannon, Premium Rush
  5. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  1. Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
  2. Amy Adams, The Master
  3. Helen Hunt, The Sessions
  4. Sally Field, Lincoln
  5. Judi Dench, Skyfall

 

 

 

OTHER BESTS OF 2012

 

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE – WRECK-IT RALPH

  • Runner Up – ParaNorman 

BEST ACTION MOVIE – SKYFALL 

  • Runner Up – Dredd

BEST COMEDY – 21 JUMP STREET

  • Runner Up – Ted

BEST HORROR MOVIE – CABIN IN THE WOODS

  • Runner Up – V/H/S

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE – THE AVENGERS

  • Runner Up – The Dark Knight Rises

BEST DOCUMENTARY – ROOM 237

  • Runner Up – Queen of Versailles 

BEST MOVIE NOBODY SAW – CLOUD ATLAS

  • Runner Up – Arbitrage

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – SKYFALL

  • Runner Up – Lincoln

BEST EDITING – ZERO DARK THIRTY

  • Runner Up – Lincoln

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS – THE AVENGERS

  • Runner Up – Cloud Atlas

BEST SCORE – CLOUD ATLAS

  • Runner Up – Lincoln

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – LOOPER

  • Runner Up – Django Unchained

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – LINCOLN

  • Runner Up – Silver Linings Playbook

 

 

Stay tuned for 2013!

 

Check out the best of 2010 right HERE.

Check out the best of 2011 right HERE.

 

 

 

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