Looking back on my “Best of…” articles for the past five years in putting together this list, it strikes me how strange it is to place a value on a film’s worth before leaving time to measure its effects on both yourself as a viewer and the cultural landscape as a whole.
While I still hold in great esteem all of the films that I named as the pinnacle of their given release cycle on the year of their release, some of them have slipped slightly in my estimation only because I’m not sure what they add to cinema beyond being a great film. Conversely, others have risen in my estimation because they’ve lingered longer in my mind with time revealing facets that I might have missed on first viewing.
Of course, recency bias is an issue for judgments of art of any kind and I myself am not immune: this problem is all the more relevant here as the entry that eventually took the number one spot is also the film on this list that I’ve watched most recently.
Who knows what I’ll make of these positions another five years down the line: Will the films occupying the top spots still hold the same relevance and will others rise in stature? Still, it will make for an interesting time capsule of where cinema stood at the halfway point of the decade.
100. Parallel Mothers
Pedro Almodóvar, 2021
Two mothers strike up a bond after meeting in a maternity ward, but find themselves facing hard truths when tragedy strikes. Penélope Cruz excels in frequent collaborator Pedro Almodóvar’s drama which pairs his trademark study of maternal loss with an analogy of lives lost to Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
99. Priscilla
Sofia Coppola, 2023
Something of a companion piece to Baz Luhrmann’s reverential Elvis, Priscilla presents a slightly different depiction of the King through the eyes of his wife Priscilla Presley. Based on the memoir Elvis and Me, Sofia Coppola’s biopic breaks down the unimpeachable myths culture places on men of power while also continuing the director’s examination of isolated women in circumstances beyond their control.
98. The Forty-Year-Old Version
Radha Blank, 2020
A middle-aged African American playwright (Lena Waithe) begins moonlighting as a rapper as a means of getting her art heard by the world. Radha Blank’s acerbic social commentary takes aim at white perceptions of African American art and the notion that black artists have to fit a certain mould to be taken seriously in culture.
97. Memoria
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s first English language feature finds Tilda Swinton’s displaced academic followed by a mysterious sound of which she cannot find the source. A typically elliptical offering from one of modern arthouse cinema’s most revered auteurs, Memoria examines the rift between the observable and the immaterial.
96. This House
Miryam Charles, 2022
Director Miryam Charles uses the death of her cousin Tessa as the launching pad for this pseudo-documentary feature, one that examines the impact of Tessa’s death and its subsequent investigation on her family through a mixture of interviews and imagined scenes.
95. Dear Comrades!
Andrei Konchalovsky, 2020
Released two years before the start of the war in Ukraine, this Russian-made film examines another shameful moment in its nation’s history – namely the killing of 26 demonstrators in Novocherkassk by the Red Army and KGB in 1962. Julia Vysotskaya is spellbinding as the party member who begins questioning her allegiances as the killings unfold around her.
94. A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg, 2024
Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg (who also directs) star as mismatched Jewish-American cousins who journey to Poland to pay tribute to their recently deceased grandmother. Both Eisenberg and a post-Succession Culkin shine in a film that possesses humour, pathos and charm all in equal measure.
93. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Charlie Kaufman, 2020
Charlie Kaufman’s latest film is a dread-inducing nightmare of fractured memories and space displaced through time as Jessie Buckley endures a surreal and disturbing night in the company of her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) and his family.
92. Godland
Hylnur Pálmason, 2022
Channeling the spirit of Werner Herzog, Hylnur Pálmason’s Godland treads the icy steps of the unknown via a 19th Century Danish priest testing the limits of his prejudice and faith while trying to build a mission in the inhospitable heart of Iceland.
91. Rotting in the Sun
Sebastián Silva, 2023
A depressed filmmaker and a needy influencer meet at a gay resort, but their plans for collaboration are thrown awry when an accident entwines them both in a murder mystery. Sebastián Silva’s gloriously camp farce offers lampoons of artistic pomposity and social media addiction in the guise of a trashy and blackly comic thriller.
90. The Holdovers
Alexander Payne, 2023
A warm tribute to the cinema of the 1970s, The Holdovers sees a trio of misfits learning to get along when they’re stuck together in a preppy private school during the Christmas break. Alexander Payne applies his typical pairing of snappy dialogue and compassionate character studies in this tale of loneliness and acceptance.
89. The Last Year of Darkness
Ben Mullinkosson, 2023
A night club in an area marked for redevelopment in Chengdu and its patrons are the subject of Ben Mullinkosson’s documentary which delves into the youth and LGBTQ+ cultures of modern day China. Though boasting a few staged scenes, The Last Year of Darkness is an honest and revealing portrait of lives often left unseen.
88. The Iron Claw
Sean Durkin, 2023
Zac Efron puts in a career best as real-life pro-wrestler Kevin Von Erich who watches helplessly as his brothers succumb to the physical and emotional demands of the profession as well as those of their exacting father Fritz (Holt McCallany). A sport biopic in the same league as Raging Bull, The Iron Claw wrestles triumph from the tragedy of a dynasty’s downfall.
87. Return to Seoul
Davy Chou, 2022
Newcomer Ji-Min Park is sensational as an impulsive French woman seeking her birth parents in South Korea in Davy Chou’s emotional and acclaimed drama.
86. Wolfwalkers
Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart, 2020
Another exquisite animation from Tomm Moore, Wolfwalkers (co-directed by Ross Stewart) delves into Irish folklore with its tale of an English girl drawn into a society of lycanthropes in 17th Century Kilkenny.
85. Limbo
Ben Sharrock, 2020
A disparate group of refugees placed in a remote Scottish town spend their time waiting for a permanent home in Ben Sharrock’s tragicomedy which tips its hat to Aki Kaurismäki’s blend of ironic humour and social commentary.
84. The Plains
David Easteal, 2022
Two co-workers swap stories about their lives and personal relationships during daily carpools through Melbourne’s outer suburbs in David Easteal’s subtle and minimalist experimental docudrama.
83. Fallen Leaves
Aki Kaurismäki, 2023
After a decade of films exploring themes of diaspora and migration, Aki Kaurismäki returned in the 2020s with this tale of disenfranchised working class lovers that recalled classic works like Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past.
82. Joyland
Saim Sadiq, 2022
Spellbinding romance from Saim Sadiq in which a man from a conservative Pakistani family (Ali Junejo) falls in love with a trans performer (Alina Khan) while his wife (Rasti Farooq) grapples with the loss of her job and freedoms after she falls pregnant with his son.
81. Armageddon Time
James Gray, 2022
A Jewish boy from a wealthy background befriends a poorer African-American classmate, but learns a harsh lesson in privilege as their circumstances evolve over time. James Gray’s semi-autobiographical coming of age film pulls no punches in its depiction of class and U.S. race relations while also refusing to idealise the past.
80. All That Breathes
Shaunak Sen, 2022
As violence erupts around them on the streets of New Delhi, two Muslim brothers attempt to continue their life’s work of nursing injured kites back to health. Shaunak Sen’s film is an arresting documentary about perseverance in the face of conflict and maintaining one’s passion even as the world around you falls apart.
79. Rye Lane
Raine Allen-Miller, 2023
A uniquely joyous and colourful depiction of London, Raine Allen-Miller’s impressive debut feature uses the tale of broken-hearted lonely souls meeting by chance in Peckham to poke fun at British romantic comedies. A parody so warm that even Colin Firth was game for a laugh!
78. Godzilla Minus One
Takashi Yamazaki, 2023
The 37th entry in the Godzilla franchise, Minus One may also be its best. Mixing city destroying spectacle with unexpected emotional gravitas, Takashi Yamazaki’s kaiju blockbuster was as much about deconstructing Japanese attitudes to honour and sacrifice as it was about demolishing Tokyo’s skyline.
77. The Nest
Sean Durkin, 2020
A critique of capitalist manifest destiny, Sean Durkin’s drama (his first since 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene) sees Jude Law’s wheeler dealer trader move his American family to Thatcher’s Britain in order to start a new life of wealth and prosperity only to find the facade slipping at every turn.
76. Rimini
Ulrich Seidl, 2022
A faded crooner spends his time whiling away the hours in the off-season of the titular Italian resort in Ulrich Seidl’s uncomfortably funny black comedy. Faced with unpaid bills and the arrival of a long lost daughter, Michael Thomas’ Richie Bravo resorts to less then savoury means to milk his doting OAP fanbase for all their worth.
75. Pacifiction
Albert Serra, 2022
As hazy and ethereal as a South Pacific sunset, Albert Serra’s colonial allegory and nuclear conspiracy set in modern day Polynesia feels like a comforting dream, but packs serious polemic under its woozily trancelike surface.
74. Kajillionaire
Miranda July, 2020
A family of con artists face difficult questions about their relationship and their approach to intimacy when an outsider joins their ranks. Miranda July’s unorthodox family comedy took a quirky yet compassionate look at familial bonds.
73. Occupied City
Steve McQueen, 2023
A disquietingly clinical study on the victims of the Holocaust, Occupied City combines text from Bianca Stigter’s book on the German occupation of Amsterdam with footage of the Dutch capital during lockdown to tell a story of a city separated by time, but united by crises and the ghosts that remain trapped within the memory of inhumanity.
72. Spencer
Pablo Larraín, 2021
Kristen Stewart brings life to the People’s Princess in Pablo Larraín’s depiction of the final days of Diana Spencer and Charles III’s marriage. Spencer, with its surprisingly anti-monarchy stance, is a breath of fresh air in a cinematic landscape often too eager to please the Windsors.
71. The Killing of Two Lovers
Robert Machoian, 2020
A father struggles with containing his impulses towards violence and revenge following a separation from his wife in Robert Machoian’s absorbing psychological thriller, one that examines toxic masculinity in a coldly critical light.
70. Mr. Bachmann and His Class
Maria Speth, 2021
A free-spirited music teacher and his unconventional methods of education are the subject of this near-four hour documentary from Maria Speth which delves into the lives of a class of kids from diverse backgrounds in central Germany.
69. Emma.
Autumn de Wilde, 2020
Injecting a 21st Century energy into Jane Austen’s classic novel, Autumn de Wilde’s period comedy plays out at a dazzling pace and features a never better Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular meddling matchmaker.
68. Censor
Prano Bailey-Bond, 2021
A fastidious BBFC worker gets sucked into the world of video nasties when she begins to believe that the secret to her sister’s disappearance can be found in their contents. Prano Bailey-Bond’s film debut recreates the look and feel of 80s underground horror while simultaneously satirising the pious nature of film censorship.
67. Pig
Michael Sarnoski, 2021
Nicolas Cage turns in the most nuanced and multi-faceted performance of his career as a reclusive truffle farmer who returns to his former home and life in search of his stolen pig in Michael Sarnsoki’s standout drama.
66. Quo Vadis, Aida?
Jasmila Žbanić, 2020
A quarter of a century on from the Bosnian War, Jasmila Žbanić examines the scars that haven’t been allowed to heal in this harrowing depiction of the events leading up to the Srebenica massacre. Told through the eyes of a translator (Jasna Đuričić) seeking safe passage for her son and husband, Quo Vadis, Aida? shocks with its depictions of cruelty gone unpunished.
65. All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia, 2024
Two women in modern day Mumbai experience differing versions of love that respectively conform to and kick against their Malayali customs. Payal Kapadia’s superbly done romance explores the complexities of intimacy and relationships presenting a fresh perspective on Desi cultures and the impact their traditions have on its members.
64. Nope
Jordan Peele, 2022
Jordan Peele looks to the skies in this monster movie that packs a surprising animal rights message under the surface. Focusing on the efforts of two horse rearing siblings to capture footage of a dangerous cryptid hovering above their ranch, Nope questions the lengths and harm to which humans go in order to tame the untamable.
63. Queer
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Luca Guadagnino’s ambitious adaptation of the controversial novel by the historically unfilmable Beat author William S. Burroughs finds a transformative Daniel Craig as an American ex-pat on the hunt for sex, companionship and chemical enlightenment in 1950s Central America.
62. No Bears
Jafar Panahi, 2022
Jafar Panahi’s meta drama sees the director playing a fictionalised version of himself shooting a film about two Iranian dissidents seeking safe passage over the Turkish border. As the cast and crew becomes increasingly frustrated, Panahi finds himself drawn into a conflict between the conservative inhabitants of the village in which he is staying one where only cinema itself can provide any certain resolution.
61. Swan Song
Todd Stephens, 2021
Q. What happens to drag queens when they retire? A. They slay! Udo Kier (taking on his first ever leading role at the age of 75) puts in a surprisingly touching performance as a former-hairdresser and club performer breaking out of his retirement home for one last job.
60. The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021
A middle-aged academic (Olivia Colman) meets a young mother (Dakota Johnson) while on holiday and must come to terms with her own past failures as a parent in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s gripping directorial debut.
59. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Radu Jude, 2023
An overworked production assistant (Ilinca Manolache) spends a day driving the streets of Bucharest searching for suitable candidates for a workplace safety video in this ribald satire of social media, corporate exploitation and late capitalist society from the reliably irreverent Radu Jude.
58. Trenque Lauquen
Laura Citarella, 2022
Laura Citarella’s engimatic sci-fi mystery weaves stories about a missing woman, love letters left in library books and a mysterious entity secretly being cared for by a misanthropic scientist into a loose and charmingly picaresque four-hour feature.
57. The Invisible Man
Leigh Whannell, 2020
Following an aborted start to Universal’s Dark Universe project, Leigh Whannell takes one of the studio’s most famous horror properties and retells it from the point of view of the victim in this chilling story of abuse, gaslighting and control.
56. Moonage Daydream
Brett Morgen, 2022
Dissecting the life and work of one of the 21st Century’s most influential musicians, Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream used David Bowie’s reflections on his own life to create a suitably awe-inspiring study of one man’s artistic process and philosophy.
55. Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet, 2023
Justine Triet won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for this enigmatic courtroom thriller, one that sees Sandra Hüller on form as a German émigré in France who is accused of pushing her husband to his death. Keeping the mystery hidden even to its audience, Anatomy of a Fall keeps you guessing.
54. Bottoms
Emma Seligman, 2023
Hot on the heels of the success of 2021’s cringefest Shiva Baby, Emma Seligman plumbs the depths of awkwardness even further with this absurdist tale of horny gay teenagers setting up a Fight Club-style self-defense class with the aim of hooking up with the most popular girls in school.
53. A Different Man
Aaron Schimberg, 2024
An altogether different take on disability than what Hollywood typically offers, A Different Man sees Sebastian Stan playing a socially awkward man with neurofibromatosis who takes on an experimental medical procedure to start his life afresh only to be met by a carefree doppelganger of his former self (Adam Pearson) who challenges his belief that beauty only runs skin deep.
52. The Delinquents
Rodrigo Moreno, 2023
A bored bank worker ropes his co-worker into the perfect heist, but as their plan progresses the pair discover themselves entwined by more than just stolen money. Rodrigo Moreno’s quietly comic film put a new spin on the heist film, one that suggests the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of money aren’t always the same thing.
51. Enys Men
Mark Jenkin, 2022
Memories and apparitions pervade a lone botanist’s waking world during a season spent on a remote Cornish island. Mark Jenkin’s follow-up to 2019’s Bait is an even more daring experiment trading social commentary for eerie atmospherics and enigmatic storytelling.
50. The Taste of Things
Trần Anh Hùng, 2023
Trần Anh Hùng’s sublime romance is a love letter to gastronomy. The tale of a romance between a gourmet (Benoît Magimel) and his chef (Juliette Binoche), The Taste of Things depicts their love affair through their shared passion for cuisine with its elongated scenes of cooking eloquently filling in for the words the two leave unsaid.
49. Hit the Road
Panah Panahi, 2021
Panah Panahi (son of Jafar) makes his feature film debut with this road movie about a family ferrying their eldest son to a new life past the Iranian border. While some critics have called it an Iranian Little Miss Sunshine, Hit the Road bristles with a righteous anger about families separated by political turmoil.
48. She Dies Tomorrow
Amy Seimetz, 2020
A woman gripped by paranoid fears about her own impending death begins spreading her delusion onto her friends in this pitch black horror comedy that was inspired by writer and director Amy Seimetz’s own experiences with mental illness and the way in which her struggles with anxiety began influencing her nearest and dearest.
47. The Boy and the Heron
Hayao Miyazaki, 2023
Ten years on from announcing his retirement from filmmaking, Hayao Miyazaki makes a surprising return with a film brimming with his trademark imagination, compassion and creativity. Set during the final years of World War 2, The Boy and the Heron examines grief and adulthood via a young boy’s journey through a magical other world.
46. The Eternal Daughter
Joanna Hogg, 2022
Tilda Swinton plays a mother and daughter on a weekend break in a country manor in this entrancing gothic mystery from Joanna Hogg. Using tropes from classic ghost stories like The Innocents, The Eternal Daughter uses its haunted setting to explore themes of memory and grief.
45. Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, 2023
A wordless wonder from Pablo Berger, Robot Dreams follows the at turns heartwarming and heartbreaking tale of a lonely dog who builds his own robot friend and their mutual attempts to move on when an unexpected breakdown drives them apart.
44. How to Have Sex
Molly Manning Walker, 2023
A vital debut from Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex explores tough but essential themes of consent and sexual violence in this story about a British teen (Mia McKenna-Bruce) hoping to lose her virginity on a holiday to Crete.
43. Barbie
Greta Gerwig, 2023
The big screen event of 2023, Barbie snuck a surprisingly blunt message about womanhood, self-acceptance and railing against the patriarchy into a film full of colour and joyfully silly humour which also became the first female-directed film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
42. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
Alexandre Koberidze, 2021
Two strangers meet by chance and fall in love only to find themselves waking up the next day unrecognisable to their friends and family. Alexandre Koberidze’s absorbing slice of magical realism presents its ethereal subject in a refreshingly down to earth manner, a fact that only adds to its wondrous appeal.
41. Possessor
Brandon Cronenberg, 2020
Brandon Cronenberg makes his family name proud with this bloody and brutal body horror about an assassin (Andrea Riseborough) who infiltrates her targets’ lives by taking over the body of their confidantes and the one unwilling host (Christopher Abbott) strong enough to resist her will.
40. The Green Knight
David Lowery, 2021
A coming-of-age story in the form of Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the tale of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) who sets out on a journey of discovery through a mythic medieval England in order to prove his courage and bravery in the face of the imposing eponymous axe-wielder (Ralph Ineson).
39. Minari
Lee Oscar Chung, 2020
A family of South Korean immigrants try to start their own farm in the heartlands of rural Arkansas in Lee Oscar Chung’s loving ode to his upbringing which features sterling performances from Steven Yeun and Han Ye-ri.
38. Passages
Ira Sachs, 2023
A love triangle is depicted in starkly realistic terms in Ira Sachs’ unflinching drama. Focussing on a bisexual filmmaker (Franz Rogowski) and his relationship with his husband (Ben Wishaw) and lover (Adele Exarchopoulos), Passages is an honest examination of the messiness of human desire.
37. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross, 2020
Part staged, part cinéma vérité, the Ross brothers’ documentary paints a charming portrait of a Las Vegas dive bar (actually shot in Louisiana) on its last night and the misfit patrons spilling their guts (and beer) over the loss of their favourite watering hole.
36. Drive My Car
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, 2021
The start of a trio of outstanding features from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi in the 2020s, Drive My Car is the bittersweet story of a grieving director (Hidetoshi Nishijima) mounting a theatre production following the death of his wife and the friendship he forms with the stoic woman tasked with driving him to and from work.
35. Funny Pages
Owen Kline, 2022
Owen Kline’s scabrous debut subverts worn-out tropes of coming-of-age movies in this tale of a privileged high-school student throwing everything away to become the next Robert Crumb (complete with all the egotism and assholery that comes with it).
34. The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg, 2022
Steven Spielberg turns the camera on himself in this semi-autobiographical tale of a young filmmaker’s coming of age both of as an adult and an artist and the events of his life that would have a profound impact on his storytelling.
33. Corsage
Marie Kreutzer, 2022
Marie Kreutzer’s delightfully anachronistic biopic sees Vicky Krieps don the corset of Empress Elizabeth of Austria whose rule was marked by a period of political upheaval. Like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette before it, Corsage reclaims the reality of the individual’s life away from her public narrative and rewrites history to show this figure fulfilling life on her own terms.
32. Beginning
Dea Kulumbegashvili, 2020
With shades of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Dea Kulumbeagashvili’s enigmatic drama sits at the forefront of a new wave of exciting films from Georgia. Focusing on a woman from a Jehovah’s Witness community (Ia Sukhitashvili) battling with the confines of her faith, Beginning is an aptly titled introduction to a new era of world cinema.
31. The Beast
Bertrand Bonello, 2023
A love affair spans the ages from turn of the century France to a dystopian AI-driven future in Bertrand Bonello’s sinister sci-fi romance. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play the two leads who are constantly kept apart by the fear of where giving into their desires will lead them.
30. Petite Maman
Céline Sciamma, 2021
A beautifully brief study of maternal bonds, Céline Sciamma’s touching fantasy film sees a young girl (Joséphine Sanz) form a time-hopping friendship with her mother’s younger self (Gabrielle Sanz) as her older counterpart (Nina Meurisse) grieves the loss of her own parent.
29. Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook, 2022
Park Chan-wook’s beautifully constructed thriller pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock through the story of an insomniac police officer (Park Hae-il) falling in love with a Chinese immigrant (Tang Wei) suspected of killing her husband and the duplicity that erupts in the wake of his investigation.
28. Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan, 2023
In terms of actors involved, Oppenheimer packed more star power than a million hydrogen bombs. But it’s Cillian Murphy’s nuanced portrayal of father of the atom bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer that makes Christopher Nolan’s biopic such an effective study of a man with such a complicated legacy.
27. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Eliza Hitmann, 2020
Released two years after the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, Eliza Hitmann’s unflinching drama showed the dire cracks in America’s attitude to reproductive rights in the story of a teenage girl’s (Sidney Flanigan) attempts to get an abortion and the levels of abuse that led her to such a desperate position.
26. Aftersun
Charlotte Wells, 2022
A woman tries to piece together an image of her father (Paul Mescal) via memories of a childhood holiday together in Charlotte Wells’ heartfelt debut, one that finds a rising star in the form of 12-year-old Frankie Corio.
25. The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh, 2022
Two men go through a nasty friend break up in the shadow of the Irish Civil War in Martin McDonagh’s comedy about loneliness, death and the existential despair of leaving the world without anything to show for it.
24. Infinity Pool
Brandon Cronenberg, 2023
Brandon Cronenberg’s science fiction satire focusses on a group of out-of-control millionaires let loose in a sun-soaked paradise where a legal loophole allows their members, including Mia Goth’s sadistic socialite Gabi, to get away with literal murder.
23. Perfect Days
Wim Wenders, 2023
A love letter to Tokyo, Wim Wenders returns to narrative cinema in typically understated fashion with this tale of a contented toilet cleaner (Kōji Yakusho) and his daily routine of work, chores and meditative observations of life while balancing interactions with family, co-workers and potential love interests.
22. La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Alice Rohrwacher’s feature length follow-up to 2018’s Happy as Lazzaro is a similarly beguiling magical realist parable, this time about a British tomb raider (Josh O’Connor) living in Italy whose looting of ancient Etruscan ruins leads to him encountering ghosts from both history and his own past.
21. Bergman Island
Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021
A filmmaker couple (Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth) experience a relationship crisis during a visit to Ingmar Bergman’s home of Fårö in Mia Hansen-Løve’s sweet, sharp and self-aware take on coupledom, creativity and film fandom.
20. Love Lies Bleeding
Rose Glass, 2024
Guns, girls and gains! Rose Glass’ queer noir-tinged exploitation thriller puts a sapphic spin on a typically male genre through its story of a gym owner (Kristen Stewart) and her bodybuilder lover (Katy M. O’Brian) falling fowl of the former’s gun-running family.
19. Saint Omer
Alice Diop, 2022
A pregnant lecturer struggles with the thought of impending motherhood as she witnesses the trial of a woman accused of leaving her baby on a beach to die. Alice Diop’s gripping courtroom drama explores the anxieties of childbirth and confronts fears that many women face about who or what they will become in its aftermath.
18. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, 2021
Somewhat overshadowed by the success of its director’s previous film Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is an elegant triptych that explores themes of deception and loneliness through a series of characters discovering unexpected emotional connections during duplicitous attempts to trick another person.
17. The Souvenir Part II
Joanna Hogg, 2021
Joanna Hogg once again digs into her own past in this metatextual sequel to 2019’s The Souvenir, one that sees her alter ego Julie (played by Honor Swinton Byrne) overcoming the grief of her boyfriend Anthony’s death by attempting to recreate their brief relationship on film.
16. Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese, 2023
Lily Gladstone anchors Martin Scorsese’s thoughtful and sweeping study of greed in early 20th Century America. Set amidst the Osage Nation oil boom of the 1920s, Killers of the Flower Moon sees two unscrupulous land barons (Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro) using murder and manipulation to steal further form the rightful owners of the land.
15. Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning social realist screwball comedy finds Mikey Madison’s eponymous heroine entering into a marriage of convenience with a Russian nepo baby only to meet the ire of her oligarch in-laws when their union becomes public knowledge.
14. The Power of the Dog
Jane Campion, 2021
A powerful examination of masculinity at the tale end of the Western myth, Jane Campion’s neo-Western sees Benedict Cumberbatch perfectly cast against type as an intimidating farmhand set on tormenting his new sister-in-law (Kirsten Dunst) and Kodi Smit-Mcphee as her son who attempts to turn his toughness against him.
13. Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023
Yorgos Lanthimos’ sex-positive steampunk oddity sees a never better Emma Stone assuming the role of Bella Baxter, a half-child, half-adult Frankenstein’s monster who takes on the mores of Victorian England with her shame free thirst for knowledge and experience.
12. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Laura Poitras, 2022
The life and work of Nan Golding is illuminated in Laura Poitras’ brilliant documentary which focuses as much on her attempts to bring the Oxycontin-peddling Sackler family to justice as it does on her photography and troubled early life.
11. Licorice Pizza
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021
A 20-something slacker and a 15-year-old television actor go on a series of misadventures through early 70s L.A. that include run-ins with macho film stars, unhinged movie producers and enigmatic politicians in Paul Thomas Anderson’s wonderfully picaresque ode to youth and precocity.
10. Everything Everywhere All At Once
Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan, 2022
Few films can claim to be as simultaneously weird and successful as Everything Everywhere All At Once. A gonzo take on the multiverse concept ridden to death by Marvel and DC, Daniels’ sophomore effort (after their genuinely bizarre yet heartfelt debut Swiss Army Man) was the indie antithesis of mainstream respectability (what with its fixation on hot dog-fingered alternate universe doppelgangers and business trophies repurposed as butt plugs), but somehow managed to win over audiences and insiders alike becoming A24’s highest grossing film to date and one of the most award decorated movies of the 21st Century. Beyond its quirky indie aesthetic, complete with offbeat references to Ratatouille and In the Mood for Love, Everything Everywhere All At Once remains a head in front of its blockbuster peers due to the genuine emotional stakes in its universe jumping narrative. Indeed, the existential battle that its characters find themselves locked within (the humanism espoused by Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn and Ke Huy Quan’s Waymond and the nihilism espoused by a timeline-hopping version of their daughter Jobu Tupaki played by Stephanie Hsu) show a compassion for the human condition that their superhero counterparts could only hope to muster.
9. Past Lives
Celine Song, 2023
On only her film debut, Canadian director Celine Song showed decades of experience beyond her years with the stirring Past Lives, a strikingly assured debut rich both thematically and cinematically. Dipping into the filmmaker’s own history as an emigre from South Korea, Past Lives explores the idea of paths not taken and lives unlived through the story of naturalised Canadian citizen Nora (Greta Lee) and her decades long relationship with her Korean childhood crush Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). Exploring the Buddhist concept of inyeon, the film delves into the idea that the paths that one chooses not to follow will inevitably define their existence and as Nora and Hae Sung’s lives continue to diverge (with both finding romantic fulfilment with other people), both find themselves unable to move on from the lives that could have been. Song’s subtle and elegant directorial style, full of minimalist storytelling and scenes which allow both actors to wordlessly express their characters’ bottled-up desires, helps Nora and Hae Sung’s theoretical relationship develop beyond the limitations of the screen and is evocative of the bittersweet yearning one feels for the roads they declined to explore.
8. The Worst Person in the World
Joachim Trier, 2021
In an era where all avenues are open and all information is readily available, it’s all too easy for one to find themselves lost in an ocean of possibilities. Renate Reinsve’s Julie, the protagonist of The Worst Person in the World, is as truthful a representation of the angst brought upon this subsequent generation as cinema has produced in the current decade and while her struggles to find direction in the early part of adulthood can be dismissed as first world problems, her trials and tribulations absolutely ring true for those brought up on a smartphone and high speed internet connection. Bouncing from one opportunity to the next with little thought for her future, Julie occupies a world where her choices lack weight and, flanked by a social circle whose shallow concerns do little to give her purpose, begins searching for meaning in drugs, education and casual relationships never truly finding purpose until a brush with life’s finality brings her existence into sharp focus.
7. I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun, 2024
As with Jane Schoenbrun’s previous film, 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, I Saw the TV Glow uses the language of horror movies to articulate the trans experience. Justice Smith and Brigitte Lundy-Paine star as two high school students who bond over their love of The Pink Opaque, a campy teen fantasy series in the vein of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But as their communal watching sessions continue, it becomes clear that there might be something more to their connection to the show’s two leads than audience identification alone. Through the eyes of the more skeptical Owen (Smith), we see the pain and confusion of gender dysphoria made flesh as his inability to follow his friend Maddy (Lundy-Paine) down the rabbit hole (or, more accurately, down the cathode ray) leads to him falling further into his own lingering unease culminating in a scene so intense it feels ripped from the frames of a slasher film.
6. All of Us Strangers
Andrew Haigh, 2023
An altogether different take on ghost stories, Andrew Haigh’s sublime All of Us Strangers takes a matter-of-fact approach to the spiritual realm in order tell a truly compassionate tale of loneliness and belonging. Holed up in a seemingly deserted East London tower block while working on his latest teleplay, television writer Adam (Andrew Scott) breaks up his bouts of isolation and writer’s block with visits to his childhood home on the suburbs of the city where he spends time with the ghosts of his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) who died in a car accident when he was only a boy. As Adam grows accustomed to their company as well as that of neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal), the transient nature of these relationships becomes apparent and the fleetingness of these moments reveal Adam’s own ability to find a place of permanent acceptance in a city that remains cold to him. As seen from the floor-to-ceiling windows of Adam’s apartment, the London of All of Us Strangers is a uniquely alienated take on a much-filmed location, and yet so familiar to millions who have ever felt lost in the crowd of the modern metropolis.
5. Kinds of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024
After two collaborations with screenwriter Tony McNamara (2018’s The Favourite and 2023’s Poor Things) brought him unexpected mainstream success, Yorgos Lanthimos teamed up once more with Efthimis Fillippou, co-writer of his earlier works like Dogtooth and The Lobster, for the similarly caustic Kinds of Kindness. Perhaps owing to the recentness of his crowd-pleasing last release Poor Things (the production of which overlapped with that of its successor), Kinds of Kindness was met with what could charitably be described as a mixed response, the jarring tonal shift from Poor Things seemingly confusing viewers unaccustomed to Lanthimos’ cynical sensibilities. And yet, Kinds of Kindness is a masterpiece, one that perfectly realises the Greek filmmaker’s gift for unnerving and alienating takes on human relationships, in this case a triptych composed of various characters testing the limits of control and the lengths their subjects would go to please their masters. It may be difficult viewing for the uninitiated, but Kinds of Kindness’ shocking yet strangely hilarious take on subjugation is impossibly absorbing.
4. Tár
Todd Field, 2022
Tackling the subject of abuse from the point of view of one committing it in a post #MeToo world was always a risky gambit, yet Todd Field’s Tár achieved the unthinkable by daring to depict the psychology of an abuser without offering any sympathy for their actions. While Field’s choice to use a queer woman as its subject angered some (particularly conductor Marin Alsop on whom she believed the character of Lydia Tár to based), Tár’s characterisation allows an entryway into a character for whom many an audience would find identification impossible. Cate Blanchett’s portrayal (all posture, self-aggrandisation and ultimately self-pity when her life and career fall off the rails) shows the ways in which those committing abuse seal themselves off from their crimes while Field (who leaves out the more explicit details of her acts) makes sure to depict a psyche that remains resilient against owning up to their own misdeeds even as the long ignored guilt clawing at the door begins manifesting itself onscreen in ways akin to a horror movie.
3. Titane
Julia Ducournau, 2021
Body horror has always been concerned with transformation. At its most basic level this refers to the transformation of the human body, but the genre’s most skilled practitioners have also understood that the human fascination for uncanny metamorphosis extends beyond the corporeal form. Julia Ducournau’s Titane follows the latter example with its story of a young woman’s physical change into a machine after a technophilic sexual encounter being just one part of a film that also examines fluctuations in gender, familial relations and, on a meta level, genre itself. In Agathe Rousselle’s androgynous appearance, Titane finds a heroine who can switch from woman to man and human to machine with utter plausibility while her character’s sudden U-turn from sociopathic femme fatale to doting son (brought upon by the introduction of Vincent London’s grieving father in the film’s second half) underscores the ease with which the film navigates its wild shifts in story, themes and tone.
2. The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer, 2023
Few films have examined so thoroughly the ways in which normal people can participate in heinous deeds as Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Through its artful visual framing and sound design, The Zone of Interest presents two stories running concurrently: the first, a story of the victims of Auschwitz and the violence inflicted upon them; the second, the story of the camp’s commandment and his family as they try to make a home for themselves in the Lebensraum available to them after the Nazi conquest of Eastern Europe. Through combining the contradictory tones of domestic drama and Holocaust horror, the film highlights the cognitive dissonance of its characters: their ability to silo off the reality of their activities and complicity from their day-to-day lives even as the results of their actions can be seen and heard around them. The result is a scarily effective study into the banality of evil, one that sets The Zone of Interest apart from others of its kind.
1. The Brutalist
Brady Corbet, 2024
It seems odd that the film I’ve chosen as most important to cinema in the current decade is one that looks back to the cinema and art of the previous century. Indeed, The Brutalist’s storytelling techniques (its use of the defunct VistaVision format; its advanced runtime; its episodic structure) are reminiscent of those employed by directors of the Hollywood Golden Age while its period setting, Bauhaus design and Objectivist leanings seem to celebrate the ideas and aesthetics of modernism at the behest of contemporary trends. That being said, Brady Corbet’s third feature isn’t concerned with idealising the past any more than it is with rejecting the present. Rather, The Brutalist seeks to uncover the ugly truth behind the beauty that artists from all corners of history life have tried to capture. Through the eyes of architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), we see these truths manifest: the parallels between his treatment as a Jew in Europe during World War 2 and that of his treatment as an immigrant in post-war America; the influence that his suffering in a concentration camp has on the rigid uniformity of his designs; and his fetishization at the hands of his industrialist benefactor (Guy Pearce) who treats him more as a tool than an artist in his own quest for reputational gain. At its core, The Brutalist is concerned with the eternal suffering that humanity endures in its thirst for perfection – a message relevant to any epoch.
Author: Chris Shack
I watch a lot of movies.https://letterboxd.com/filmcraic/View all posts by Chris Shack
