The Best Movies of 2012: An Evolving List
The best movies with their first major release in 2012. Updated throughout the year!
List activity
2.2K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
25 titles
- DirectorJennifer WestfeldtStarsJennifer WestfeldtAdam ScottMaya RudolphTwo best friends decide to have a child together while keeping their relationship platonic, so they can avoid the toll kids can take on romantic relationships.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJodie FosterKate WinsletChristoph WaltzTwo pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.
- DirectorSarah PolleyStarsMichelle WilliamsSeth RogenSarah SilvermanA happily married woman falls for the artist who lives across the street.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenPenélope CruzJesse EisenbergThe lives of some visitors and residents of Rome and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into.
- DirectorSean AckermanStarsRumer WillisTrevor MorganHelena de CrespoPreston follows a beautiful but troubled young woman to a small island town where he begins to fall for her, but it all threatens to fall apart when he uncovers her family's dark past.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsMatthew McConaugheyEmile HirschJuno TempleWhen a debt puts a young man's life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.
- DirectorEdward BurnsStarsEdward BurnsCaitlin FitzGeraldKerry BishéNewlyweds Buzzy and Katie find their blissful life disrupted by the arrival of his half-sister and news of her sister's marriage troubles.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsMichael FassbenderCarey MulliganJames Badge DaleA sex addict's carefully cultivated private life falls apart after his sister arrives for an indefinite stay.
- DirectorDennis LeeStarsJason SpevackToni ColletteMichael SheenAt the age of ten, Henry James Herman, a boy who was conceived in a petri-dish and raised by his feminist mother, follows a string of Post-It notes in hopes of finding his biological father.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsJared GilmanKara HaywardBruce WillisTwo 12-year-olds, who live on an island, fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsJack BlackShirley MacLaineMatthew McConaugheyIn small-town Texas, an affable mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when she starts to become controlling, he goes to great lengths to separate himself from her grasp.
- DirectorDustin Lance BlackStarsJennifer ConnellyEd HarrisHarrison GilbertsonA sheriff sees his state senate bid slide out onto the ice when his daughter begins to date the son of a charming but psychologically disturbed woman with whom the sheriff has engaged in a two-decade-long affair.
- DirectorLasse HallströmStarsEwan McGregorEmily BluntAmr WakedA fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible.
- DirectorDavid M. RosenthalStarsAbigail BreslinAlessandro NivolaElisabeth ShueA young girl who has been abandoned by her former-groupie mother informs a fading rock star that she is his daughter.
- DirectorBrady KiernanStarsSam RosenZoe Lister-JonesMichael ImperioliFormer high school classmates reunite by chance during a chaotic party-filled evening.
- DirectorBobcat GoldthwaitStarsJoel MurrayTara Lynne BarrMackenzie Brooke SmithOn a mission to rid society of its most repellent citizens, terminally ill Frank makes an unlikely accomplice in 16-year-old Roxy.
- DirectorJames WestbyStarsKatie O'GradyJohn KeyserStorm LargeA scathing black comedy of embarrassment, RID OF ME charts the emotional breakdown and rebirth of a woman ripe for self-discovery.
- DirectorWhit StillmanStarsGreta GerwigAdam BrodyLio TiptonA trio of girls set out to change the male-dominated environment of the Seven Oaks college campus, and to rescue their fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards of every kind.
- DirectorJay DuplassMark DuplassStarsJason SegelEd HelmsJudy GreerDispatched from his basement room on an errand for his widowed mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his unhappily married brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.
- DirectorAbe SylviaStarsJuno TempleJeremy DozierMilla JovovichIt's 1987 and Danielle, the high-school 'Dirty Girl', is running away. With her is chubby, gay Clarke, a bag of flour called Joa and a Walkman full of glorious '80s tunes.
- DirectorJames McTeigueStarsJohn CusackAlice EveLuke EvansWhen a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.
- DirectorTanya WexlerStarsMaggie GyllenhaalHugh DancyJonathan PryceThe truth of how Mortimer Granville devised the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsChanning TatumAlex PettyferOlivia MunnA male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
- DirectorLorene ScafariaStarsSteve CarellKeira KnightleyMelanie LynskeyAs an asteroid nears Earth, a man finds himself alone after his wife leaves in a panic. He decides to take a road trip to reunite with his high school sweetheart. Accompanying him is a neighbor who inadvertently puts a wrench in his plan.
- DirectorLawrence KasdanStarsDiane KeatonKevin KlineDianne WiestThe story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And then her husband loses the dog.