After a couple of tense meetings, long discussions, and at least one shouting match, we have put together a list of the best flicks of 2012. There were a lot of movies that we wanted on the list that didn't quite make it, from big-budget blockbusters like "Dark Knight Rises" to bizarre art house faves like "Holy Motors." But by the end, we managed to cobble together a pretty good list. Check out the Yahoo! Movies 25 films of 2012: 25. 21 Jump Street
24. The House I Live In
23. Compliance
22. The Beasts of the Southern Wild
21. Marvel's The Avengers
20. Rust and Bone
19. Lincoln
18. Silver Linings Playbook
17. Wreck-It Ralph
16. The Raid: Redemption
15. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
14. End of Watch
13. Magic Mike
12. Lawless
11. The Cabin in the Woods
10. The Hunger GamesAnother director may have exploited the extreme kid-on-kid violence that fills the pages of "The Hunger Games." But Gary Ross adeptly plays it down in his film adaptation, instead focusing on the sheer horror and emotional toll of such barbarism. The film plays out from the point of view of Katniss, an archer and overall skilled survivalist played expertly by Jennifer Lawrence. She owns the role, able to convey with a simple glance extreme stress, deep concentration, and visceral anger. The brilliance of "Games" is truly in what it isn't: a "Rambo"-esque bloodbath of a spectacle, as is the similarly themed 2000 Japanese film "Battle Royale" (also based on a book). When the games start, Ross cuts all dialogue, simply showing shaky flashes of the carnage as a delicate score plays, setting the viewer at the center of the action. It is light, deliberate touches like these throughout the film that give each character their humanity, allowing moviegoers to share in the horror when they are unjustly killed and celebrate when just a few survive. -- Meriah Doty (@meriahonfiah)
9. Moonrise KingdomObserving quirky characters played by some of Hollywood's finest, a sense of throwback that recalls a simpler time, and a yarn that lies somewhere between bizarre and sublime, you definitely know you're watching a Wes Anderson film. But with "Moonrise Kingdom," the writer-director gives us something he hasn't since "Rushmore": A protagonist we can truly root for. In Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman), we get a doe-eyed youngster, untainted by shark attacks or Tennenbaums, whose underlying motivation is love, and young love at that. It's the ingredient that's been missing from Anderson's recent work, and it's the gel that brings all of Anderson's idiosyncrasies together so beautifully in this heartfelt flick. -- Adam Pockross (@AdPoc)
8. The Central Park Five
"The Central Park Five" is a tough and perfect feature documentary by Ken Burns ("The Civil War"), his daughter Sarah, and her husband David McMahon. It's about a tough and imperfect moment in Manhattan history: when a group of boys went "wilding" in Central Park in 1989, a jogger was raped, and the police put two and two together and got five. Like a reverse view of "Law & Order," the movie captures how these dark-skinned boys aged 14 to 16 were rammed through the system, made to fit the crime by a team of detectives, and convicted without physical evidence based on confessions given under duress -- and an entire city fanned on by tabloid newspaper covers allowed a shameful miscarriage of justice to occur. Many know about the convictions -- very few know that a judge freed the accused when a single serial rapist already in the police system confessed to the crime years later.
7. Amour
6. Django Unchained
5. Cloud Atlas
4. Looper
3. Argo
2. Skyfall
1. Zero Dark ThirtyI fell in love with "ZD30" at first sight in a way that was as unequivocal and driven as Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow. In her ninth theatrical feature, Bigelow reunites with "The Hurt Locker" screenwriter Mark Boal for an uncompromising edge-of-your seat drama about the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden. And, in this most male of genres -- a hybrid of espionage thriller and military action-adventure -- the driving force is a pretty, petite CIA agent. Maya (Jessica Chastain) acts tough not because she has a chip on her shoulder or Daddy issues, but because she's the chief crusader on a mission to eradicate bin Laden. It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it. And, as Maya enters one torture chamber after the next, violently extracting intel that could lead to bin Laden's hiding place, she may employ another man's muscle to beat out a confession, but she understands that she is the power behind the fist. She's culpable. "Zero Dark Thirty" explores the theme of retaining humanity while doing inhuman things to prevent future mass casualties. Engrossing, complicated, and urgent, "ZD30" makes no apologies and takes no prisoners -- except the captive audience
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