Kam Williams’ Annual Assessment of the Cream of the Cinematic Crop

It’s impossible for me to limit my favorite films of 2012 to just 10 of the year’s 1,000 or so releases After all, it feels unfair even to compare most of them to each other, since they represent so many different genres, countries and cultures, and enjoyed such a range in budgets.

Therefore, as per usual, this critic’s annual list features 100 entries in order to honor as many of the best offerings as possible. And despite the cloud of controversy swirling around Kathryn’s Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty for its depiction of torture and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained for its violence and use of the N-word, both of these movies are nevertheless deserving of high accolades in my humble opinion.

Best Big Budget Films

1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. Django Unchained
4. Looper
5. Argo
6. Life of Pi
7. 21 Jump Street
8. Cabin in the Woods
9. Flight
10. Magic Mike
11. The Hunger Games
12. Skyfall
13. The Amazing Spider-Man
14. Safe House
15. The Sessions
16. Savages
17. The Avengers
18. Think Like a Man
19. Hitchcock
20. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
21. Mirror Mirror
22. Anna Karenina
23. Lincoln
24. Sparkle
25. Promised Land

Best Foreign Films

1. Amour (France)
2. Turn Me on, Dammit! (Norway)
3. Nobody Else but You (France)
4. Let the Bullets Fly (China)
5. The Other Son (Israel)

   

6. Putin’s Kiss (Russia)
7. Sound of Noise (Germany)
8. Attenberg (Greece)
9. I Wish (Japan)
10. The Fairy (Belgium)
11. The Well Digger’s Daughter (France)
12. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Japan)
13. Ikland (Uganda)
14. Elles (France)
15. Simon and the Oaks (Sweden)
16. The Intouchables (France)
17. Unforgivable (Italy)
18. Dolphin Boy (Israel)
19. Oslo, August 31st (Norway)
20. A Royal Affair (Denmark)
21. Busong (Philippines)
22. Gerhard Richter Painting (Germany)
23. Somewhere Between (China)
24. Crazy Horse (France)
25. 360 (Brazil)

Best Independent Films

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. The Deep Blue Sea
3. Quartet
4. Take This Waltz
5. Middle of Nowhere
6. Safety Not Guaranteed
7. Compliance
8. Restless City
9. Goon
10. Changing the Game
11. God Bless America
12. Ginger & Rosa
13. Yelling to the Sky
14. Nobody Walks
15. V/H/S
16. Tim & Eric’s Billion-Dollar Movie
17. Model Minority
18. The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
19. 28 Hotel Rooms
20. Velvet Elvis
21. Deadfall
22. Mosquita & Mari
23. Happy New Year
24. 96 Minutes
25. Jack & Diane

Best Documentaries

1. The Central Park Five
2. Head Games
3. Chasing Ice
4. Bully
5. The Loving Story
6. The Queen of Versailles
7. Hoodwinked
8. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
9. 65_RedRoses
10. Heist
11. Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story
12. The Revisionaires
13. Six Million and One
14. Marley
15. High Ground
16. Bonsai People
17. Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story
18. Soul Food Junkies
19. Brooklyn Castle
20. Chimpanzee
21. Detropia
22. Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment
23. Never Stand Still
24. 5 Broken Cameras
25. Samsara

Also check out our annual Blacktrospective — The Best Black Films of 2012