The 21 Best Movies of 2012
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- DirectorCristian MungiuStarsCosmina StratanCristina FluturValeriu AndriutaThe friendship between two young women who grew up in the same orphanage; one has found refuge at a convent in Romania and refuses to leave with her friend, who now lives in Germany.
- DirectorThomas VinterbergStarsMads MikkelsenThomas Bo LarsenAnnika WedderkoppA teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
- DirectorJacques AudiardStarsMarion CotillardMatthias SchoenaertsArmand VerdurePut in charge of his young son, Alain leaves Belgium for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Alain's bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
- DirectorRadu JudeStarsSerban PavluSofia NicolaescuGabriel SpahiuMarius is a divorced man in his late thirties. His five year-old daughter Sofia lives with her mother, which causes Marius a deep frustration. On the day Marius arrives to take his daughter on their annual holiday, he is told that she is ill but he doesn't believe it and insists to take her with him. The situation soon gets out of control with all the family taking part in a web of humor, violence, childish songs, police interventions and love statements.
- DirectorMichael HanekeStarsJean-Louis TrintignantEmmanuelle RivaIsabelle HuppertGeorges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Britain with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJoaquin PhoenixPhilip Seymour HoffmanAmy AdamsA Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by the Cause and its charismatic leader.
- DirectorEva NeymannStarsNikolas AdamidisValeriy BasselVitalina BiblivA 8-year-old boy is travelling with his mother towards his grandfather, but their journey is stopped when the young woman dies of typhus in an unknown town, just as poor and in ruins as any other on the way. However, the boy is determined to go on. Eva Neymann's film is a visual journey into a country covered in snow and left poor by war. This is a place of beautiful, deserted landscapes and people overcome by both need and greed. The tranquil black-and-white images created by Lithuanian cameraman Rimmvydas Leipus masterfully evoke the atmosphere of the Second World War's penultimate year in the Soviet Union. The picture was based on motifs drawn from the autobiographical story of the same name by writer and screenwriter Friedrich Gorenstein, who also penned the script for Tarkovsky's Solaris.
- DirectorMiguel GomesStarsTelmo ChurroMiguel GomesHortêncílio AquinaA restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa.
- DirectorFrançois OzonStarsFabrice LuchiniVincent SchmittErnst UmhauerA high school French teacher is drawn into a precocious student's increasingly transgressive story about his relationship with a friend's family.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsGreta GerwigMickey SumnerAdam DriverA New York woman apprentices for a dance company and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as the possibility of realizing them dwindles.
- DirectorPaolo TavianiVittorio TavianiStarsCosimo RegaSalvatore StrianoGiovanni ArcuriInmates at a high-security prison in Rome prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."
- DirectorKen LoachStarsPaul BranniganJohn HenshawRoger AllamNarrowly avoiding jail, new dad Robbie vows to turn over a new leaf. A visit to a whisky distillery inspires him and his mates to seek a way out of their hopeless lives.
- DirectorKim Ki-dukStarsJo Min-sooLee Jung-JinWoo Ki-hongA loan shark is forced to reconsider his violent lifestyle after the arrival of a mysterious woman claiming to be his long-lost mother.
- DirectorJan-Ole GersterStarsTom SchillingKatharina SchüttlerJustus von DohnányiAn aimless university dropout attempts to make sense of life as he spends one fateful day wandering the streets of Berlin.
- DirectorKleber Mendonça FilhoStarsAna Rita GurgelCaio AlmeidaMaeve JinkingsThe lives of the residents of a Brazilian apartment building and the security guards who get the job guarding the surrounding streets.
- DirectorXavier DolanStarsMelvil PoupaudEmmanuel SchwartzSuzanne ClémentA drama that charts ten years in a transgender woman's relationship with her lover.
- DirectorMaja MilosStarsIsidora SimijonovicVukasin JasnicSanja MikitisinIn the face of her family life falling to pieces, a social-media-obsessed teenage girl falls into a hedonistic world of sex, drugs, and abuse.
- DirectorChristian PetzoldStarsNina HossRonald ZehrfeldRainer BockA doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.
- DirectorAida BegicStarsMarija PikicIsmir GagulaBojan NavojecSiblings Rahima and Nedim are the Bosnian war orphans. She works as a restaurant chef and earns just enough money to survive.
- DirectorDerek CianfranceStarsRyan GoslingBradley CooperEva MendesTwo men and their sons must deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions.