I used to take the creation of Top 10 lists very seriously. I still do, but I no longer try to impress unborn generations with my definitive record of the year’s personal-cultural-critical consensus. That just makes for predictable lists. Instead, now I use them to tell readers about all the awesome, crazy, and amazing movies I saw that year, ones maybe they didn’t know a lot about, or hadn’t considered seriously. You know you should see The Master; you don’t need me to tell you that. (Right?)
As the new editor of The L‘s film section, I hope that ethos somewhat carries into our Fourth Annual Film Poll—that this won’t just be a list of the usual suspects (although you will find The Master and Moonrise Kingdom here; hey, it was a strong year for established auteurs!) but will also include surprises, confounding choices, movies you never heard of, and movies you wish you hadn’t heard of—movies that reflect the particular and often peculiar tastes of our writers.
You should watch more movies. Here’s a bunch of awesome ones. Henry Stewart
Not bad picks for the best of the year. For as many films that excited me this year, though, there were even more that didn’t live up to my expectations. This article does a solid job of lying out a few that couldn’t beat their hype.
Interesting read: http://ahorizontalmyth.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/year-in-letdowns-2012s-disappointing-films/