Overstreet’s Favorite Films: 2012

Here is the current list of my favorite films from 2012. Notice, I didn’t say “the best films of 2012.” Nobody, not even the most experienced and devoted cinephile, can claim to report that. We experience, interpret, and remember art as individuals with particular strengths, weaknesses, memories, loves, and fears. When we share what moves, inspires, challenges, discomforts, and offends us, we reveal a lot about ourselves. I share this list so you know what meant the most to me in 2012, and if you want to understand why… that’s why I write reviews. After you peruse this list-in-progress, feel free to share your own list in the Comments. There are a lot of important films I have yet to see, films that might even end up in my top 10. This year, for the first time, I am publishing two versions of the list. Yes… two. The first is the World Premieres Edition: My favorite films that played anywhere in the world for the first time in 2012. The second list is the American Release Edition: This is more like lists published by other American film critics, because it’s excludes new films that haven’t been commercially released yet in the U.S. … and it includes films (titles marked with asterisks) that premiered more than a year ago, in 2011, but didn’t arrive in the U.S. for a commercial release until 2012. Now, one more thing: If you want to understand the color-coding of the titles, as well as what this list really represents, read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists. So, here they are: The films that inspired, moved, challenged, and intrigued me in 2012.

Red = Treasures, Purple = Favorites, Blue = Achievements, Gray = Decent/Noteworthy, Green = Unseen or Undecided * = This film was released in America in 2012, but it played before that elsewhere in the world.

2012

TOP 30 FAVORITE FILMS: WORLD PREMIERES EDITION (Movies that played for audiences for the first time in 2012, festivals and foreign countries included, according to IMDB.)

  1. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson) – review
  2. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)
  3. The Kid With a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
  4. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson) – review #1, review #2, and “On Difficult Films“
  5. Lucky Life* (review)
  6. Holy Motors (Leos Carax) – review
  7. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
  8. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg) – review
  9. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
  10. Margaret – The Extended Cut (Kenneth Lonergan) – review
  11. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel) – capsule review
  12. Amour (Michael Haneke) – review
  13. Brave (Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman) – review
  14. Barbara (Christian Petzold) – review
  15. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
  16. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)
  17. A Hijacking
  18. The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield)
  19. Planet of Snail (Yi Seung-jun)
  20. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino) – review
  21. Anna Karenina (Joe Wright)
  22. Marvel’s The Avengers (Joss Whedon) – review
  23. Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda)
  24. Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow)
  25. Skyfall (Sam Mendes) – review
  26. Sinister (Scott Derrickson) – review
  27. Fill the Void (Rama Burshtein)
  28. Mud (Jeff Nichols)
  29. Lore (Cate Shortland)
  30. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
  31. To the Wonder (Terrence Malick)
  32. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
  33. The Secret World of Arrietty*
  34. Wreck-It Ralph (Rich Moore)
  35. Argo (Ben Affleck) – review
  36. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson) – reviews #1 & #2 
  37. Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard)
  38. Arbitrage (Nicholas Jarecki)
  39. Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
  40. Blue Like Jazz (Steve Taylor) – review
  41. A Royal Affair (Nikolaj Arcel)
  42. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin) – review
  43. Chronicle (Josh Trank)
  44. Lawless (John Hillcoat)
  45. Looper (Rian Johnson)
  46. John Carter (Andrew Stanton) – review
  47. ParaNorman (Sam Fell and Chris Butler)

FAVORITE FILMS: AMERICAN RELEASE EDITION (My favorite movies that opened commercially in the U.S. in 2012. Asterisks mark titles that are not technically 2012 movies, as they played for audiences before 2012, sometimes in festivals, sometimes in other countries.)

  1. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson) – review
  2. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson) – review #1, review #2, and “On Difficult Films“
  3. Holy Motors (Leos Carax) – review
  4. The Loneliest Planet* (Julia Loktev) – review
  5. The Kid With a Bike* (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne) – review
  6. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
  7. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg) – review
  8. Margaret – The Extended Cut (Kenneth Lonergan)  – review
  9. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia* (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
  10. Amour (Michael Haneke) – review
  11. Brave (Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman) – review
  12. This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi)*
  13. Barbara (Christian Petzold) – review
  14. Let the Bullets Fly* (Wen Jiang)
  15. The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield)
  16. Planet of Snail (Yi Seung-jun)
  17. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino) – review
  18. Anna Karenina (Joe Wright)
  19. Haywire* (Steven Soderbergh)
  20. Bernie* (Richard Linklater)
  21. The Cabin in the Woods* (Drew Goddard) – review
  22. The Deep Blue Sea* (Terence Davies)
  23. Marvel’s The Avengers (Joss Whedon) – review
  24. Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow)
  25. Skyfall (Sam Mendes) – review
  26. Jiro Dreams of Sushi* (David Gelb)
  27. The Secret World of Arrietty* (Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
  28. Sinister (Scott Derrickson) – review
  29. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
  30. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
  31. Wreck-It Ralph (Rich Moore)
  32. Argo (Ben Affleck) – review
  33. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson) – reviews #1 & #2
  34. Elena* (Andrei Zvyagintsev)
  35. Take This Waltz* (Sarah Polley)
  36. Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard)
  37. Alps* (Yorgos Lanthimos)
  38. Miss Bala* (Gerardo Naranjo)
  39. Arbitrage (Nicholas Jarecki)
  40. Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
  41. Blue Like Jazz (Steve Taylor) – review
  42. A Royal Affair (Nikolaj Arcel)
  43. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin) – review
  44. Chronicle (Josh Trank)
  45. Lawless (John Hillcoat)
  46. Looper (Rian Johnson)
  47. Your Sister’s Sister* (Lynn Shelton)
  48. John Carter (Andrew Stanton) – review
  49. Damsels in Distress* (Whit Stillman)
  50. ParaNorman (Sam Fell & Chris Butler)