The Year in Film

(Clockwise from top left; Amour, The Dark Knight Rises, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Lincoln. Inset; ParaNorman.)

I look back on the films of 2012 with a bit of shock. How in hell did these movies get made? And I don’t mean that in a disgusted way. Cloud Atlas? The Dark Knight Rises? Lincoln?! For once, it was Hollywood that took risks this year and, in most cases, it paid off (Sorry, John Carter). The intensely political, largely historical, highly conceptual work of the last year marked the return of the studio-funded auteur and, we hope, the start of an exciting new chapter in our film-going culture.

1. Amour

In a year packed with rewardable big-budget spectacles, the one film that knocked me on the floor was Michael Haneke’s scarily sparse depiction of old age and illness. Harder to watch than the year’s bloodiest slasher flick, Amour’s frankness destroys your faith in happy endings. Actors Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant will break your heart.

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Possibly the greatest depiction of adolescent awkwardness on screen, Perks sees Stephen Chbosky faithfully adapt his novel for film with laser-like insight into the messy confusion that is high school. Logan Lerman gives one of the year’s most overlooked performances.

3. Beasts of the Southern Wild

A-list actors should be scared of nine-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, the untrained non-actor whose honest and raw work has been rightly celebrated in Benh Zeitlin’s dazzling Katrina-set fairytale based on Lucy Alibar’s play Juicy and Delicious.

4. Zero Dark Thirty

Director Kathryn Bigelow didn’t just recreate history on screen but challenged the viewer to accept the contradictions and hypocrisies of terrorism, torture and military force in the obsessive quest to find Osama Bin Laden.

5. How to Survive a Plague

One of several recent films to revisit the AIDS epidemic, David France’s harrowing look at ACT UP and the struggle to find adequate medical support for a disease that was swallowing a generation of gay men is a glorious statement to forgotten heroes.

6. Lincoln

That one of the biggest films of the year is a dense, talky, historical account of Abraham Lincoln’s work in passing the 13th Amendment is a credit to screenwriter Tony Kushner’s intelligent script, Daniel Day-Lewis’s engrossing performance and Steven Spielberg’s legendary vision.

7. ParaNorman

Laika’s highly imaginative stop-motion horror movie for kids treats its youthful audience like adults for once, rewarding all with a stunning batch of old-school filmmaking that’s as fun to watch as it is beautiful. Pixar: watch your back!

8. The Dark Knight Rises

I’ll be the first one to admit it: The Dark Knight Rises is not nearly the masterpiece its predecessor was. But Rises is even more overtly political, as Christopher Nolan dared to turn a summer popcorn flick into a commentary on contemporary class warfare using a language most Americans could speak.

9. Keep the Lights On

Ira Sachs charts the ups and downs of a love that shouldn’t be. Pulling from real-life experience, he demonstrates the destructive powers of what we call love—and brazenly does so without apologizing for the sexual orientation of its couple.

10. Boy

New Zealand director Taika Waititi’s Michael Jackson-infused coming-of-age story has so much down-to-earth imagination, it makes Wes Anderson look stale.

Not seen in time to review: Les Misérables, The Impossible, Django Unchained, This Is 40, Jack Reacher, Guilt Trip, Not Fade Away, Promised Land, West of Memphis.