The Top 10 Films of 2012

4. Attenberg. When I try to imagine which 2012 release I'd show the 16-year-old version of me, it would be Athina Rachel Tsangari's spunkily touching tale of a young woman coming of age in a Greece that's falling apart.

3. Moonrise Kingdom. The most beautiful film of the year.

Mastering 'The Master'

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2. Holy Motors. The most film of the year.

1. The Master. In a year teeming with auteurist takes on historical moments, it was Paul Thomas Anderson who created the most convincing, compelling, piercingly cinematic map of what it felt like to be alive at an incredibly specific point in time. An unshakable nightmare counterpoint to the postwar American Dream.