2012 has been widely hailed as an exceptional year for film, but I’m at a loss as to where all these great films are supposed to be. (But then, if we’ve lowered our standards of “greatness” to the point that something like “Silver Linings Playbook” is being proclaimed as a masterwork ... .)

After an extended hiatus, it feels good to be back. I hope everyone had a festive and joyous holiday season, and may the new year bring good fortune and glad tidings to all.

It’s September, so as far as I’m concerned we are now in the midst of the holiday season. (Yes, I start celebrating a tad earlier than most, and I’m having to resist the urge to bust out the Christmas music before November.) For me, the first leg of this four-month celebration involves the viewing of as many horror movies as humanly possible — a valid goal year-round, to be sure, but particularly pertinent as we approach Halloween.

I’m not even sure what to say at this point, besides thank God summer’s over. It has been quite an ordeal, and I suppose it’s only fitting that that the season goes out on a grossly disappointing note involving a sub-par sequel. Now we’ve just got to contend with that uneasy transitional period between the summer and fall movie seasons, and we may actually have some good movies to talk about. I’m waiting with breath that is bated.

As “The Expendables 2” rolls into theaters across the globe (look for the review next week), the 2012 summer movie comes to a close — and I honestly can’t remember ever being more depressed as a moviegoer.

You may have noted that last week’s review of “The Dark Knight Rises” lacked any mention of the tragedy in Aurora, Colo. This was not meant as a show of disrespect to the victims, but as recognition that regardless of its now-infamous status, Christopher Nolan’s concluding Batman film deserved to be discussed on its own merits, as a movie — not as the alleged trigger that set off a madman’s rampage.

This week’s review of “The Dark Knight Rises” comes a little later than I had initially hoped, but oh well — it’s never too late to spread good news. And I advise you to enjoy the good times while they last, because the rest of the summer looks pretty dicey.

I typically preface reviews of Pixar films with a disclaimer stating that, while I admire their consistently engaging and often groundbreaking work, I do not share the majority opinion that they are the end-all and be-all of contemporary animated entertainment.

It has occurred to me that I discuss my personal goings-on a bit less than my fellow News-Sentinel columnists do, but in the interest of partial disclosure, I must confess that life has gotten significantly more difficult for me in the past few months. I’ve started a new job that requires many long, grueling, thankless hours in an undesirable environment. The possibility of complete physical and mental collapse is now very real.

So far, this has been the year of Every Bad Thing. International strife is intensified with each passing day. The world’s economies are teetering on the verge of collapse. No matter who U.S. voters elect as president, we all are completely screwed in one way or another. The list of horrible things that are occurring or await us is too ponderous to even attempt to enumerate, and that’s without even getting into the personal burdens that have been weighing on my mind, rendering me an insomniac. Yet the thing still troubling me most out of all this turmoil is the fact that it’s getting harder and harder to find a decent movie.

You ever get to the point where you’re tempted to swear off Hollywood studio pictures forever? I get there sometimes, but then I remember that, although it sounds terribly crass to say, the studio system is capable of producing great work — the best work, even, and I say that as an avid admirer of arthouse/foreign cinema.

We’re still stuck in a bit of a rut, it seems, with the local multiplexes offering very few reasonable choices for discriminating moviegoers — unless, of course, your plan is to see “The Avengers” for the fifth or sixth time, which seems perfectly sensible given the options. “Men in Black 3,” opening this weekend and set for review next, may break the monotony, but I’m trying to further temper my already modest expectations.

It seems that the light of summer has already begun to dim. The very worthwhile “The Avengers” continues to dominate the global box office, and will for some time, but the release schedule for the coming month or so is a tad worrisome.

This week, we venture even further into “The Cabin in the Woods” with an in-depth examination of the film’s deft deconstruction of gender-based archetypes. I kid, I kid ... as much as it would please me to spend the next many weeks harping on (thus far) the year’s best film, surely it is time to move on.

We’ve hit the two-week pre-summer doldrums I’ve been lamenting about lately, and frankly I think we both have better things to do with our time and efforts than read and write about “Think Like a Man” or “The Lucky One” or “The Three Stooges” or whatever other nonsense that opened last week. (However, in the interest of keeping reviews current and filling my quota of family titles, I will bow to pressure and take a look at “Pirates! Band of Misfits” next time. “The Avengers,” of course, will follow.)

So … Turns out I was wrong about “The Cabin in the Woods.” How wrong? Put it this way: If I see a more entertaining and creative movie in the entirety of 2012, I will be very pleasantly surprised.

“American Reunion” this week. “The Cabin in the Woods” next week. Some manner of nonsense for a couple weeks after that. Summer can’t come soon enough.

I humbly apologize for my absence last week. An unfortunate occurrence in my personal life prevented me from making a trip to the theater, but things have calmed down and it’s back to the grind.

We’re finally out of the post-winter doldrums and in the midst of the buildup to the summer movie season, and I must admit I’m pretty psyched. With any luck we have a handful of high-quality event movies to look forward to (on that note, check back next time for a look at “The Hunger Games”), and perhaps some of the “lesser” titles will provide some pleasant surprises. Take this week’s pick, which I was initially not even going to see until early reviews swayed my opinion just enough to give it a shot. Turns out it’s the best time I’ve had at the movies so far this year, and easily the most flat-out funny flick I’ve seen since last year’s “Horrible Bosses.” Go figure, huh?

With awards season now well behind us, it is time to start looking ahead to the pre-summer releases (admittedly there aren’t many, since according to the Hollywood calendar summer starts in about six weeks).

So … how ‘bout them Oscars? I was originally planning to do my usual Academy Awards response column this week, but really, what’s the point? I told you that the show would be awful and insulting, and lo and behold I was right — kinda.

As evidenced by this week‘s review, the quality of new wide releases appears to be dipping again — a definite disappointment, considering how strong the year started off.

Net leggings, shiny top hats, men in corsets — this isn’t some circus convention but a collection of dedicated fans, young and old, that is cult-like in nature. Sitting between these lively characters could make anyone feel like an outcast, so don’t just sit around, join the celebration doing the Time Warp to meld into this gathering of madness — the madness that is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

February typically serves as a dumping ground for weak studio films that offer an easy alternative to “mainstream” audiences who don’t see Oscar bait, but this year has brought some welcome surprises.

Technical complications at the “Haywire” screening I attempted to attend have left me without a film to review this week (we’ll catch up with that one next time, along with the Liam Neeson survival thriller “The Grey”). But this is just as well, I suppose, considering that the recent Oscar nominations have inspired more controversy than I’ve ever seen associated with the Academy Awards, and of course I have some choice thoughts about that.