Pulling Rank is a column in which Kelly Stitzel ranks a variety of pop culture-related things with little to no commentary, but sometimes with audio or visual accompaniment. There’s no scientific method to the rankings; these are just Kelly’s opinions. You’ll probably disagree with her — just don’t be a dick about it.

At this point, I’m sure you’ve probably read plenty of Best Films of 2012 lists. And most of them were probably published in 2012. Well, I wasn’t ready to share my list until now. Deal with it.

I’m not going to bother you with explanations of why I love these films because I would rather you just watch them and come to your own conclusions. Just know that these were the 20 films I saw that were released theatrically in the U.S. last year that affected me the most, that made me the happiest for one reason or another, and that I recommend most highly to anyone who will listen (or read).

(Two films that I haven’t yet seen that I have a feeling would be on this list if they had opened in my city by now are Amour and Holy Motors.)

1. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present

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2. Beasts of the Southern Wild

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3. Natural Selection

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4. Safety Not Guaranteed

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5. Beauty Is Embarrassing

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6. The Master

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7. The Invisible War

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8. Argo

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9. The Deep Blue Sea

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10. Killer Joe

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About the Author

Kelly Stitzel

After shutting down her own blog, Looking at Them, in mid-2008, Kelly migrated over to Popdose, bringing with her Soundtrack Saturday, the most popular column from her old site. Kelly makes a living as a fashion and marketing copywriter, which takes up a lot of her time. However, when she is able to write about things that have nothing to do with her day job, she contributes reviews and musings on music, film and a variety of other topics. In addition to Soundtrack Saturday, columns she's written include Filminism and Pulling Rank.

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