Top 10 Movies of 2012

1. The Kid with a Bike
   The only masterpiece this year is the best movie by the most consistently great filmmakers of the century. A movie that makes all other Dardenne movies better in retrospect, and inherits Bresson's title of secular scripture. Stages the best miracle in film that I can think of offhand.
2. The Master
   After trying to make the Western perverse with There Will Be Blood (hint: it already was), Anderson takes on the other great American genre: the Romance. Still doesn't quite earn the relationship that the actors give it (is that a genre convention?), but the motorcycle scene is special, as is the “Slow Boat to China” scene, if unearned.
3. Damsels in Distress
   Stillman once again manages to show compassion for his characters while decidedly not identifying with them; in other words, the opposite of the alt-American comedic tradition of Woody Allen and Wes Anderson (closer to Altman). Realism is not the point in a movie that is about frivolity.

4. 5 Broken Cameras
   The best documentary I saw all year also tells one of the best narratives. An incredibly explicit political film also tells an incredibly personal story. A better film about filmmaking than “This is Not a Film.” I can't believe that Sugar Man bullshit won the Academy Award.
5. Zero Dark Thirty
   The antithesis of Zodiac does a better job telling us just what someone would do for certainty, and it is more terrible than I could imagine. The “100%” scene is so dark and politically disturbing, and the final shots are among the most haunting of the year. People who criticize this film's politics don't seem to appreciate how open it is to letting them articulate their problems with it. You can't make a politically “correct” film about counter-terrorism and have it be any good.

6. The Deep Blue Sea
7. Prometheus
   The inverse of Alien. Whereas Alien was excellent for its claustrophobia, Prometheus makes us afraid of openness. Alien was tight and focused; Prometheus is convoluted and all over the place. But the movie's pessimism is profoundly affecting, beautiful and uncompromisimg. Shaw's faith is appropriately underexplained and unflinching. Appropriate quote from Melancholia (which would be a good double-feature partner): “The earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it.”

8. Django Unchained
   Not a great film, but its cruelty and brutality confirms that Inglourious Basterds was. Tarantino's interview with Gates is worth a read. Worthy of all the debate it has created.
9. Bernie
   Jack Black gives the best acting performance in several years. A darkly hilarious movie that gets explores religiosity and sexuality without getting preachy or reductive.
10. Ruby Sparks
    I have no defense for liking this rom-com that most people I respect will despise. I think it does a great job of deconstructing the Manic-Pixie-Dreamgirl fetish, though, even while engaging with it (wouldn't it have to?). And towards the end it contains a perverse scene of cruelty the likes of which every Romantic Comedy should aspire to.