I usually hate it when people talk about “good” and “bad” movie years because it’s all subjective, and somebody’s bad movie year is somebody else’s good year. And there are always good and bad movies; it’s just a stupid thing to say. That written, this was a fucking great movie year. All jokes aside, this top ten wasn’t that hard to come up with, but picking the order of the top five has been in the back of my mind for weeks. Rewatchability is a big deal to me, and there are multiple movies in my top ten that I watched multiple times already. I watched Sinners five times, and I watched Bugonia and Superman four times each. This might be weird to the casual filmgoer, but this means these films created a world I wanted to keep coming back to, and if that doesn’t make it one of the best of the year, then I don’t know what does.
And by “best,” I mean “my favorite.” Once again, all this shit is subjective. These are not the ten best movies of the year; they are my top ten favorite movies of the year. Anyway, I’ll get to it. And this year, I’m adding some randomness after the list to acknowledge the stuff that made an impact on me, but didn’t make the list.
This has been making plenty of top ten lists, and it won the top prize in my own critics group. So I didn’t want to put it at the top of my list because sometimes I can be a stupid contrarian. But after watching it a couple more times in the last two weeks, I couldn’t deny it: this is my favorite film of the year. As with all of my top five, click the title for a full article about the film. To keep things short, this is one of those great films that can be simply enjoyed or deeply analyzed. And it’s one I plan on revisiting many more times in the future.
2. Bugonia
Yorgos Lanthimos is my kind of director. He can make something like Bugonia, which should be a tough watch, extremely rewatchable. There’s nothing about the world of this film that is inviting, yet I never want to leave it. It’s the performances, the tone, the score, the camerawork, and the willingness to go anywhere with the story. Any other year, and this is my top pick.
The funniest and craziest movie of the year. Much like other Safdie films, it never lets up, but it isn’t a constant nerve-wracking experience. Instead, it’s mostly fun even though you’re following a piece of shit. But Chalamet makes Marty a likeable piece of shit. Maybe “likeable” isn’t the word, but he makes it believable that others would do crazy shit for him, and that’s impressive.
As soon as this ended after I watched it in IMAX, I thought this would be my favorite overall. But a few viewings of Sinners and a couple other crazy movies later, this somehow ended up being my fourth favorite. I still love this movie and everything PTA does. I may have liked a few films more than this, but I’ll be okay if this is what finally gets him some Oscars.
5. Eddington
Ari Aster makes films that are tough to watch once, much less multiple times. So when I found out his newest film was going to take place during the heart of the pandemic, I debated ever watching it all (not really, but you know, it doesn’t like a good time at all). He captured the feeling of the moment and also made it entertaining. The dialogue in this film, which often feels like a constant barrage of half arguments drifting into other ideas and back again, is like modern, frustrating poetry. I think that’s a compliment. Anyway, what I assumed would be my least favorite film in his filmography turned out to be the opposite.
6. The Secret Agent
This film is a fantastic slow burn about a point in history that is unfortunately very timely. That alone makes it a great film worth watching. But Wagner Moura elevates it exponentially. He conveys so much with his eyes in this film. It’s a heartbreaking performance that is my favorite of the year.
7. No Other Choice
Last year, I watched every Park Chan-wook film, so I knew this was going to be special. This take on the dehumanizing world of capitalism is so much more than “money makes people do bad stuff.” It’s about the need to be a provider no matter what, and how we see other people when we feel like that is being threatened. In true Park Chan-wook fashion, it’s also still very funny at times.
8. Train Dreams
I love The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, therefore, I also love this movie. It’s beautiful and poetic, and it sucks that I saw this on Netflix instead of a theater, but as the film bittersweetly conveys, things change with time. Also, I want Will Patton to narrate my life.
9. Superman
Comic book movies have left me feeling exhausted the last few years. This one gives me hope. I was considering bumping it from my top ten until I rewatched it one more time. That ending always leaves me smiling. How could I not count it among my favorites?
10. The Tenderness Tour
I watched a lot of documentaries for awards consideration this year, and it bummed me the fuck out. A lot of the “important” docs focused on how shitty things are right now, and I didn’t find much hope in them. The Tenderness Tour addresses medical debt, which is obviously a depressing and maddening subject, but it doesn’t wallow in it. Instead, it shows us people that are working to make things better. It shows people persevering. Most importantly, instead of showing us a terrible situation and saying, “Look how shitty this is,” it tells us there is hope, and everyone can do something.
On Any Other Day, These Might Have Made the List:
Weapons - Equal parts creepy and hilarious. Just a great time if you don’t get too hung up on the mystery and whatnot.
Wake Up Dead Man - Easily my favorite of the series, probably because Blanc takes a bit of a backseat for most of it. I like the character, but the accent gets to me after a while. Amazing supporting cast.
The Naked Gun - Time will tell on this one. I found it consistently funny, but I can’t put it alongside the originals (yes, even the third one; fuck you, I like it). But it has definitely been added to my rotation of silly ass movies to fall asleep to.
Splitsville - This movie had my favorite car stunt and fight scene. It’s also a romantic comedy.
Bring Her Back - The scene with the knife will never leave my memory.
The Life of Chuck - Man, I am hearing all kinds of hate from folks on podcasts and shit about this movie all of a sudden, but I really liked it. Maybe it’s the Stephen King fan in me. Anyway, I meant to watch it again and just didn’t find the time.
Liked, but Didn’t Love, So Here Are My Letterboxd Posts About Them:*
Avatar: Fire and Ash - I kind of loved this? Still too much whale stuff, and a lot of character shit leftover from The Way of Water is still annoying (Jake Sully, just listen to your kids!). But overall, I dug this maybe the most of the entire series. When you stop and think of it, the shit with Spider and Quaritch is absolutely fucking wild. If therapy exists on Pandora, Spider is going to need some.
Ultimately, I came away feeling the same way I did after Water: if Cameron just wants to make these for the rest of his life, I'll keep watching them.
Grand Theft Hamlet - This is the kind of wonderful shit Jim Carrey promised would happen in his speech on the satellite dish in The Cable Guy.
Cloud - This was a wild one. I had no idea where it was going from scene to scene, and every character seemed legitimately insane. It's a nightmare scenario in which everything you've done to be rude or screw people over, no matter how minor or impersonal, is taken deathly seriously. And somehow, it's kind of fun, too? This was a wild one.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - I have to admit that I zoned out every time this got lost in exposition mode explaining a plan or whatever the Entity was doing, but I don't care. There are big set pieces and crazy shit throughout as you'd expect. And it has the most stacked cast of the franchise. It's also nice that they became self aware at the end and admitted these people are simply action heroes and nothing more. They fight to save the whole planet yet they don't have any personal relationships beyond the team. There's nothing wrong with that; I'm just glad they flat out said it.
Jay Kelly - This worked for me because I've seen plenty of movies about characters like this that need a team of handlers to take care of every aspect of their lives, but rarely do they stop and wonder if they even had a life in the end. This film is focused not only on whether or not the star being tended had a life, but if the handlers had a life, either.
As a father, it absolutely floors me when characters like this let down their children over and over again. So I was glad to see some realistic repercussions here.
Predator: Badlands - I'm okay with Trachtenberg just dicking around with Predator for his entire career.
The Plague - Dance like no one's...staring at your blood-stained shirt.
An intentionally tough watch that works so well because all the young actors in this are almost too good. At times, it felt like a fucked up documentary, and that's a compliment.
And I know part of the point of this is the lack of adult supervision or ability to see the bigger issues going on, but I couldn't help but think about this whole film from Joel Edgerton's perspective. Every couple days he must've been thinking, "What the fuck is happening here?"
Sister Midnight - Wasn't expecting to hear perhaps my favorite cinematic insult of the year ("Go fuck a shovel!") in this, but I didn’t know what to expect at all going in to this, and I imagine that's the best way to watch it.
It does seem to spin its wheels a bit in the last half hour, but I was certainly never bored with it.
I like the sound the goats make.
The Shrouds - At first, I was surprised by the ending. Surprised because I thought there must be at least twenty minutes left to wrap up the multiple questions the film posed. Then I remembered this was a film about grief, not a detective story. Grief has no definitive answer, and neither does this movie.
But that doesn’t make for a totally compelling watch. I was interested throughout, but this is a very sleepy movie.
Bonus half star for the bits of dark humor, like the digital assistant becoming a koala, Cassel taking a first date to his wife's grave, etc.
Sentimental Value - Skarsgård's character was pretty unlikeable at first, but he won me over when he gave his grandson copies of Irreversible and The Piano Teacher for his ninth birthday.
The Testament of Ann Lee - I knew Amanda Seyfried was destined for more than just predicting the weather with her breasts.
Also, imagine your wife disliking sex with you so much that she starts a religion in which the first and most important rule is to never have sex again.
Bob Trevino Likes It - This destroyed me.
And French Stewart from out of nowhere as a total shitbag. I like it.
Frankenstein - If some dudes could just admit they're not cut out to be fathers early on it would save people a lot of trouble.
Oh, and in this film's case, if dudes could just accept their syphilis diagnosis, then it would save people a lot of trouble.
The Baltimorons - This put a smile on my face.
Die My Love - I know this is more about post-partum, but if my partner had brought home a mangy, constantly barking nightmare of a dog without talking to me about it while we had a newborn, I would go insane, too.
Friendship - I love you, Toad Boy.
Highest 2 Lowest - Bonus half star for making a "Mayhem" reference in a movie with Dean Winters.
28 Years Later - This could've been six or seven different movies: coming of age realization about a parent, post-apocalyptic secluded community and how it all works, zombies!, giant zombie cock! (just joking, but it's a legal requirement to mention the dicks in this movie), zombie baby!, old doctor's bone farm, the Swedish soldiers getting stuck in the quarantine zone, accepting death of a loved one, Jimmy Savile look-alike zombie-fighting squad, etc.
If it had solely been any of those movies, I probably wouldn't have liked this all that much. But since it's all of them, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I've missed classic Boyle frenetic energy.
The Phoenician Scheme - Some of these really work for me, while others are just okay, and I have no idea why. But everything is always interesting to watch, and I'll watch them all as long as he keeps making them.
Mickey 17 - Not since Upgrayedd from Idiocracy has a character been so determined to get their money.
Sketch - This was the first time my son brought a movie to my attention. As a kid who has been in a little trouble for his artwork at school, the premise spoke to him, I guess.
A bigger budget could have made this a lot more fun, but for a low budget effects-driven family film about dealing with the grief of a dead parent, it was fine. It did a good job of toeing the line between sappy and wacky.
Minus half star for some wonky (I'm assuming AI-assisted) effects (there's a spray can flamethrower moment that looks quite bad) and the shameless mid-credits ad for the film's tie-in app.
Roofman - The surprise of the year for me just because I completely forgot it existed until a few days ago. A lot of fun and perfectly rides the line between drama and comedy.
*I hope the five or six of you who have made it this far appreciate how long it took me to copy and paste all my Letterboxd shit.
