In past years for my "Best of" list, I've been able to provide fun categories like "Best Kill" and "Best Quotes", but sadly, that won't be happening this year. I keep notes throughout the year, but in July, my hard drive crashed, and because I am a foolish person, I didn't back up the notes to a separate drive. However, I do have enough information to do the traditional categories as well as Breakthrough Performance, "A Very Good Year", Best Villain, Best Surprises, Biggest Disappointments, and a new category, "Best Movie You Probably Missed This Year." One final note: unlike previous years, the film had to come out in 2012; festival-only flicks don't count, so that's why there's no love for The Place Beyond the Pines on this year's list.
Hit the jump to check out my miscellaneous “Best of 2012″ picks. Be sure to keep checking back this week as we'll be running Top 10 lists from Adam, Dave, and me.
[Note: Runners-Up are listed in alphabetical order]
BEST ACTOR:
Daniel Day-Lewis as "Abraham Lincoln" in Lincoln
Runners-Up:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as "Joe" in Looper
John Hawkes as "Mark O'Brien" in The Sessions
Denis Lavant as "M. Oscar / Le banquier / La mendiante / L'OS de Motion-Capture / M. Merde / Le père / L'accordéoniste / Le tueur / Le tué / Le mourant / L'homme au foyer" in Holy Motors
Joaquin Phoenix as "Freddie Quell" in The Master
BEST ACTRESS:
Jessica Chastain as "Maya" in Zero Dark Thirty
Runners-Up:
Zoe Kazan as "Ruby Sparks" in Ruby Sparks
Jennifer Lawrence as "Tiffany" in Silver Linings Playbook
Leslie Mann as "Debbie" in This Is 40
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as "Kate Hannah" in Smashed
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Philip Seymour Hoffman as "Lancaster Dodd" in The Master
Runners-Up:
Javier Bardem as "Silva" in Skyfall
Scoot McNairy as "Frankie" in Killing Them Softly
Christopher Walken as "Hans" in Seven Psychopaths
Christoph Waltz as "Dr. King Schultz" in Django Unchained
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Anne Hathaway as "Fantine" in Les Miserables
Runners-Up:
Amy Adams as "Peggy Dodd" in The Master
Ann Dowd as "Sandra" in Compliance
Helen Hunt as "Cheryl" in The Sessions
Kristin Scott Thomas as "Patricia Maxwell" in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE:
Dane DeHaan as "Andrew Detmer" in Chronicle
A VERY GOOD YEAR:
Channing Tatum: Haywire, 21 Jump Street, Magic Mike
[I never thought I could like Channing Tatum, and this year he proved me wrong on a consistent basis. I didn't see The Vow, but he did terrific work in these three films]
BEST DIRECTOR:
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Runners-Up:
Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty
Leos Carax – Holy Motors
Joe Carnahan – The Grey
Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski & Tom Tykwer – Cloud Atlas
BEST VILLAIN:
Javier Bardem as "Silva" in Skyfall
Runners-Up:
Pat Healy as "Officer Daniels" in Compliance
Werner Herzog as "The Zec" in Jack Reacher
Tom Hiddleston as "Loki" in The Avengers
Samuel L. Jackson as "Stephen" in Django Unchained
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Roger Deakins – Skyfall
Runner-Up: Masanobu Takayanagi – The Grey
BEST SCORE:
Dan Romer and Behn Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Runner-Up: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil – Cloud Atlas
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
ParaNorman
Runner-Up: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
The Imposter
Runner-Up: Room 237
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT:
Prometheus
What hurt about Prometheus is that it didn't even disappoint me when I was watching it. It was only after I started talking about the film that I realized it didn't hold up at all. To Ridley Scott's credit, Prometheus drew me in to the point where I didn't think about how feeble the story was during the picture. However, it has only become more of a let down as time has gone on. It was made even worse when you consider the killer marketing Fox put together for the flick.
Runners-Up:
The Amazing Spider-Man
Anna Karenina
The Dark Knight Rises
Snow White and the Huntsman
BEST SURPRISE:
Magic Mike
People tend to be surprised when I tell them I liked Magic Mike. Maybe it's because they think a straight guy couldn't like a movie featuring male strippers, but it's just a damn fine story. I can remember how averse I was to seeing the picture as the casting news was announced. At that point, I had never liked Channing Tatum, I wanted Alex Pettyfer to disappear, and the premise didn't appeal to me. But the stripping—which is really well done and damn entertaining—is just the cover for an honest, thoughtful story about chasing the American Dream. It just happens to also have a shot of a guy using a cock-pump.
Runners-Up:
Chronicle
Mirror Mirror
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Pitch Perfect
BEST FILM YOU PROBABLY MISSED THIS YEAR:
Detention
