Pretty slow year for me and movies– I only saw 43 this year (you’ll be shocked to learn that I haven’t yet posted on all of them), not counting what I screened for the film festival that I can’t talk about.
As with last year’s list, this is a list of my ten best that I saw for the first time during the last calendar year. They aren’t necessarily movies that came out in 2012, and there are movies that came out in 2012 that I’ve seen in 2013 that won’t be on this list. So that’s probably good to keep in mind. Also, for the most part the order isn’t that important, so don’t get too worked up about why #7 isn’t higher, or #3 isn’t at #10. SERIOUSLY, CALM DOWN.
Won’t say much about any of them here, you can click through to see what I originally posted on each. Enjoy, feel free to argue, calmly.
10) Attack the Block
Like the best science fiction, it’s about a lot more than what it’s about. And they don’t make it easy.
9) Life of Pi
The most purely beautiful movie I saw all year.
8) Argo
Solid filmmaking about a totally fascinating piece of history.
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
6) The Artist
To quote myself:
It turns out there are some people who hate things that are delightful. I guess I don’t really find those people interesting.
Probably the most technically excellent movie of the year. The craft is just astonishing.
4) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Curious and fascinating. It just comes from a different place and moves at a different pace. If you’ve seen a movie like this before, I probably don’t know you.
3) A Separation
So many layers. I’ll bet I wrote more words about that movie than any that I saw later in the year, and if you click through, you’ll see that I felt like I still hadn’t even started to talk about it.
2) Beasts of the Southern Wild
It’s some kind of testament to the glory of the universe that this movie exists. Quvenzhané Wallis deserves the Oscar.
Devastating.
Attack the Block is a stellar inclusion.