There are still a couple of movies scheduled for release this year, but I don’t hold very high expectations. However, one can’t close his/her mind.
Thus far – these have been my favorite films of 2012:
THE PAPER BOY/Lee Daniels
LOOPER/Rian Johnson
Dark Horse/Todd Solondz
Amour/Michael Haneke
This Must Be The Place/Paolo Sorrentino
Prometheus/Ridley Scott
The Queen of Versailles/Lauren Greenfield

Timur Bekmambetov’s Lincoln: Vampire Hunter so earnestly silly that I loved every over-the-top moment.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter/Timur Bekmambetov*

Colin Trevorrow’s SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED seemed to come out from nowhere and managed to work on all levels.
Safety Not Guaranteed/Colin Trevorrow
*(I know it was incredibly stupid, but the absurdity of it all made me love it!)
Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson almost made my list, but it somehow just felt too slight for me. However, it was worth the price of admission.

Wes Anderson’s MOONRISE KINGDOM almost grabbed me, but all those great cinematic moments just didn’t add up to much more than a trifle.
Thus far, the two performances by actors that totally blew me away were:
Michelle Williams in Take This Waltz
and
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
(tho, I didn’t really care for either of those movie — those two actors wereAMAZING in them!)
Looking back, 2012 was one of the worst years I can recall at the cinema. However, there were a few gems. Thus far, these are the ones that most glowed for me.