Bill Kuchman's Top 10 Movies of 2012

While the lucky critics who get to watch movies for a living have already released their top ten lists for 2012, some of us have other things on our plates. Full-time jobs, lack of sneak previews, movies that are technically 2012 releases but don't hit theaters until 2013 ... stuff like that. I would have loved to ring in the new year with my top ten list, but my viewing work wasn't done at that point. Instead, I'm going to ring in the Oscars with this list.

This will be the fourth year in a row that I've officially released a top movies list, but unlike previous years, I've expanded the list from five films to ten. Why ten instead of five? A couple factors led to that decision. First off, I saw more 2012 movies in theaters than I've ever seen from any other previous year. Not counting repeats, I saw 50 movies that had 2012 release dates in an actual movie theater, so I have a pretty deep bench of movies to choose from for this list. Secondly, last year was probably one of the best years for movies in a long time. For some years, all you can do is get to five movies and then you feel like No. 6 is kind of there just to fill a slot. That's not a problem for 2012.

In case you were wondering the top movies of the past few years were District 9 (2009), The Social Network (2010) and The Ides of March (2011). I've also posted top five lists going back to 2001, but most of the lists were done retroactively.

While my top movie of 2012 has already been revealed, but there are still nine more films to unveil. Head past the jump to see which films join Lincoln as the best of 2012.

10. The Avengers
I can only imagine what it's like to be a kid growing up in the golden age of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Warner Bros. has no clue how to get the Justice League on the big screen, Marvel has cranked out hit after hit, all culminating in one of the biggest box office smashes ever: The Avengers. Assembling the heroes from the Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor franchises with a few new heroes thrown in, The Avengers was probably the most fun I had at a movie this year. Joss Whedon was the perfect man to helm this film, bringing a bunch of A-list talent together, creating characters with actual personalities and pleasing the fanboys at the same time. Was there any better line than the Hulk's "Puny god" in 2012?

9. Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a gorgeous film, and director Ang Lee should be applauded for continuing to find ways to make 3D a storytelling tool instead of just a way to inflate box office grosses. This entire film flows through star Suraj Sharma, as he is often the only actor on screen, alone in a boat with a CGI tiger. Of course, Richard Parker, the tiger, was also a fantastic character in Life of Pi, beautifully rendered and infused with a personality of his own.

8. The Impossible
I wish more people saw this one. Naomi Watts completely deserves the Best Actress Oscar nomination that she got for portraying an injured mother fighting for survival and her family in the face of a catastrophic disaster. Normally, I'm not a fan of child actors, but Tom Holland, who plays the oldest son in this movie, was a natural. I would put The Impossible among Best Picture nominees over a few of the Academy's choices.

7. Looper
The best science-fiction film in a long time, Looper continued the Summer of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, reminded us why Bruce Willis is an action star, earned Emily Blunt some Oscar talk and introduced the wider movie world to director Rian Johnson. I love this film. Absolutely love it. It's so smart and so creative. We seem to get a lot of generic-feeling movies these days, pictures that are pumped out by studio systems with interchangeable directors and stars, but Looper thankfully reminded us what a film feels like when a director and his cast are able to put their distinct impression on it.

6. Skyfall
Yeah, Skyfall will probably win a few minor Oscars, but the latest installment in the James Bond franchise deserved bigger, a Best Director nomination for Sam Mendes and a Best Picture nomination for the movie itself, at the very least. Unfortunately, the Academy has never seen Bond in those terms, which is a shame because Skyfall by any other name but Bond would have waltzed into the Best Picture field. Hopefully Mendes returns for the next Bond film.

5. Silver Linings Playbook
When I think of Silver Linings Playbook, the first thing to come to mind is the film's stellar cast. It's a rare occasion for a movie to earn nominations in all four acting categories at the Oscars, but Silver Linings Playbook did just that, with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver all up for an Oscar this Sunday. Lawrence is a marvel to watch, especially when you realize that she was younger than 22 when the film was shot. Silver Linings Playbook was also the moment when Cooper went from being that guy in the Hangover movies to being a serious actor.

4. The Dark Knight Rises
The Academy tends to do some stupid things, but of all the stupid things they do, the dismissal of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy just might be the worst thing over the past ten year. After The Dark Knight didn't earn the Best Picture nomination it deserved in 2009, the Academy retooled how many Best Picture nominees there would be. Three years later, The Dark Knight Rises — the sequel to the film that forced a huge Oscar rule change — receives zero Oscar nominations, a baffling move. Was The Dark Knight Rises as good as The Dark Knight? No, but The Dark Knight set the bar impossibly high. The Dark Knight Rises still closes out a trilogy that made superhero films serious business, that grosses billions of dollars and that told a sprawling story that deeply echoed our post-Sept. 11 world. The Academy should be ashamed of how it's treated Nolan and his Batman franchise.

3. Argo
Thanks to the Academy snubbing Ben Affleck for a Best Director nomination, Argo will most likely win Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards. The film deserves the praise that it's been receiving, but I'm among those who believe that 2012 offered even better films than Argo, but we're sadly seeing the Best Picture race shift in as Hollywood rallied to show support for Affleck. With Argo, Affleck has completed his transformation from acting punchline to top-notch director. It seems like he's going to stick with films in the vein of The Town and Argo for awhile, but I'd love to see someone give Affleck a tentpole movie to what the director would do with it.

2. Zero Dark Thirty
Zero Dark Thirty is a masterpiece. Kathryn Bigelow deserved a Best Director Oscar nomination. It seems that the backlash against Zero Dark Thirty's morally ambiguous stance on torture may have hurt the film's chances among the Hollywood elite, which is hugely disappointing. We shouldn't require movies that spoonfeed us meanings and tell us exactly how to feel. Like Jessica Chastain's character at the end of Zero Dark Thirty, sometimes we need a film to leave us sitting in our theater seats quietly contemplating what we just saw.

1. Lincoln
Has there ever been a performance like Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln? From the moment he replaced Liam Neeson as the sixteenth president, the world collectively decided that he would win Best Actor when the time would eventually come. Day-Lewis didn't disappoint, delivering a cinematic performance for the ages, carrying Lincoln to greater heights while doing so. Steven Spielberg sometimes sets out to make epic films but can often fall short. That didn't happen with Lincoln. I love this movie, and I love Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln.