The films I saw in 2012

In January I decided it would be a great idea to keep a list of the films I saw, for the first time, in 2012. And while I was at it, why not continuously rank them in the list? I don't remember the exact moment I came up with this idea, but I know it certainly wasn't New Year's Day, when I was watching Music & Lyrics.


Why Music & Lyrics? I was brutally hungover and figured it was just the sort of film I needed: a fairly light Hugh Grant affair that won't reach the heights of Four Weddings And A Funeral, but that will surely be superior to Did You Hear About The Morgans? And, with its recreations of '80s pop videos, examinations of modern pop phenomena and a by-the-numbers romance, I'd say I was spot on in my estimations.

I don't think that that was the spark for my list of new-to-me films. Maybe the idea had been knocking about for a while; I've always liked lists about films, from the esoteric 10 Bad Dates With de Niro to the more well-known 1001 Movies To See Before You Die. On the subject of that last one, by the end of 2012 I have seen ninety-five and a half films from the 1001 listed in the 2007 edition of the book. (The half is Manhunter, which I started watching and feel asleep during.)

Film lists are also the sort of thing I take more seriously than might be healthy (or perhaps it's just lists, judging by how I went ballistic at a TV countdown of Christmas songs in the pub). A few years ago I devoted a whole weekend to whittling down every film I'd ever seen into a Top 10, a frantic couple of days spent examining DVD shelves, the IMDb Top 250, film magazines, TV listings and so on. Saturday evening was fraught with an internal debate about whether there was space for any Star Wars (there wasn't).

But the Films Of 2012 was quite different because it was continually developing and led to very specific judgments on films: "US Marshals? Well it's not as good as Chronicle, but it is better than The Bourne Legacy." Plus, it's difficult to rank wildly different subject matter in the same list: harrowing documentaries (The Bridge) rubbing shoulders with geeky comedy (Paul), for example.

It's hard to say even what the criteria are for the list, and I'm the one who made it. It's not necessarily about how technically good a film is by any measure. It's not even about how much I enjoyed them - sure, the films that I didn't enjoy are down the arse-end of the list, but I didn't enjoy The Bridge because it's a thoroughly depressing look at suicide - and it happens to be a great film anyway. So I've settled on "how good they are" as part of the title, even though that makes it sound much less subjective than it is.

That's about enough waffle. How about taking a look at the list?

This took about three hours in Paint.NET. God, I wish I had Photoshop. And a laptop that wouldn't have a fit at the thought of opening Photoshop.

You know where the comments are if you would like to inquire or argue. And why wouldn't you? Even calling it The Bicycle Thieves (rather than The Bicycle Thief) could lead to a bloody and bitter argument amongst film aficionados, let alone the fact that I was so bored by it that it became the second-worst film I'd seen all year.

And yes, the 2013 list is already under way, despite fears for my mental health. Here's a sneak preview:

Catfish
Trainspotting

See you for more film list shenanigans in January 2014.