Best Movies of 2012
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Django UnchainedTarantino's spaghetti-western revenge fantasy, powered by two career-best villains and a bounty hunter for the ages.Read the review
The Dark Knight RisesOperatic, imperfect, and enormous; the trilogy finale earns its size.
The Hunt (2012)Mads Mikkelsen plays a decent man destroyed by one child's lie, and Vinterberg makes the village's certainty scarier than any villain.
LincolnA procedural about counting votes turns out to be the most alive thing anyone has put on screen about Lincoln, right up until it refuses to end.
The AvengersThe crossover nobody was sure could be built, assembled with unfashionable clarity.
21 Jump StreetA reboot of a forgotten television show that opens by admitting it is a reboot of a forgotten television show.
SkyfallThe best photographed Bond film ever made, wrapped around a villain's plan that does not survive a second look.
End of WatchThe camera premise collapses inside twenty minutes, and the friendship underneath it survives anyway.
The Perks of Being a WallflowerA teen movie that takes loneliness seriously, held together by Ezra Miller and one tunnel.
Silver Linings PlaybookFour excellent performances in a film that loses its nerve and turns into a dance contest.