Before I start the list proper, my 11-20.

Honorable Mentions

20. The Woman King - dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood

Lead actor Viola Davis likened this film to Braveheart and I can certainly see that influence in the final product, I just wish the film stuck to its guns a bit more with regard to its conversations about slavery. The battle sequences, while well staged, are poorly edited as well.

19. Glass Onion - dir. Rian Johnson

I’m of the rare mind that this is decidedly better than the first movie. The characters have more depth (come for Edward Norton’s airheaded innovator, stay for Bautista’s Alex Jones-Andrew Tate crossbreed), the satire swings faster and hits harder, and apart from one major ex-Machina that kinda bugged me, the mystery is more well constructed.

18. Disney Channel’s Theme - A History Mystery - dir. Kevin Perjurer

This is when we get into net positive movies that just didn’t make the list. I love the way Perjurer explores this small blip of television history with deep fascination and dedication to uncovering his subject. An aspirational text for anyone a little too fascinated with a specific piece of media.

17. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande - dir. Sophie Hyde

A play perfectly adapted, a slow drama between two characters who only want the best for each other. A fantastic portrayal of sex work in the modern world and an honest coming of age story.

16. Avatar: The Way of Water - dir. James Cameron

The thing I miss most in blockbuster movies is a sense of genuine desire to wonder the audience, to ask the viewer to meet you halfway on some wild ideas in exchange for truly wonderful spectacle. Cameron is still a master of that compromise.

15. Barbarian - dir. Zach Cregger

My favorite theater experience of the year, a first time viewing feeling I’ll likely never recreate. Helps that the movie is fantastic along with being shocking, perfectly pulling the audience along with Hitchcockian precision.

14. Athena - dir. Romain Gavras

A political thriller disguised as an action movie filled with stunning sequences and a taut sense of pacing. This went under the radar over on Netflix, check it out.

13. The Batman - dir. Matt Reeves

This decade has had great examples of blockbusters returning to form, both in how they’re constructed and how audiences respond to them. Reeves leans into the noir sensibilities of the character while creating an expressionistic portrait of him through Pattinson’s performance. The third act is a bit misguided, but I’m excited to see where Reeves and co. take this idea.

12. Kimi - dir. Steven Soderbergh

Soderbergh hits us with a tight as hell pandemic thriller led by a stunning Zoë Kravitz as an agoraphobe who hears a murder recorded by a smart home device.

11. Babylon - dir. Damien Chazelle

Reaching for the heights of a Great American Novel with its this epic number full of interconnected stories, elongated sequences in between fragmented historical developments, and all of that stuff really works. It is in its final minute that Babylon really lost a part of me, and ultimately lost a spot on this list.

Now, onto the top 10…

10. After Yang - dir. Kogonada

A meditation on artificial intelligence, family, and the truth of human connection filled with breathtaking filmmaking choices that make it even more exciting to see unfold. The way the script explores the depths of knowledge we can have for other people in our lives, and simultaneously how rich their existence can be outside of what we know of them.

9. Everything Everywhere All At Once - dir. Daniels

Look… this is where things get complicated. We’ve had every conversation under the sun about this movie and if it’s good or if it’s bad, if it’s justifying parental abuse or whatever. But the fact is, this is exciting. There’s nothing like Everything Everywhere All At Once out there. Yes, uniqueness is not the only scale by which we should say a movie is good or bad, but the spirit of EEAAO cannot be denied. This is a movie you can only get thanks to decades of Chinese cinema as your influence, from Chan to Wai. Combine that with a uniquely millennial sense of nagging existentialism and you really, truly do have something special. I can’t wait for the day we never talk about this movie on the internet again, though.

8. The Banshees of Inisherin - dir. Martin McDonagh

A perfectly written drama about friends falling apart where you can easily see the perspective of both characters, a gap between them as vast as the ocean and as loud as the rifles booming from the war on the mainland. Farrell and Gleeson give career defining performances, and McDonagh’s subtleties in his direction elevate every moment. A stunner.

7. The African Desperate - dir. Martine Syms

Art house slacker greatness in the vein of Linklater, viewing Black female existence in academia through a drug filled haze. A great personal reminder as to why I left the collegiate art world when I did. Diamond Stingily gives an amazing performance through Martine Syms’s technologically overstimulating editing.

6. RRR - dir. S. S. Rajamouli

The action movie to end all action movies this year, N.T. Rama Rao and Ram Charan put every superhero actor in the states to shame with their displays of grandeur in acting, dancing and fighting. So many stunning sequences to be found here, a sense of wonder I haven’t felt in watching an action movie unfold in a long while.

5. Decision to Leave - dir. Park Chan-wook

A twisting and turning thriller elevated by Park Chan-wook’s insane formalist tricks. In the first half of the film I was dropping my jaw every ten or so shots at what Park is able to accomplish without the visuals overpowering the story and the characters at the heart of it. Best ending of the year.

4. Nope - dir. Jordan Peele

The film that grew on me the most this year, every time I revisited Nope I found something new and genius to latch on to. My favorite film of Peele’s yet, combining the sense of wonder of an early Spielberg film with deep explorations of self-destruction through media that feels unlike anything we’ve seen this year.

3. The Fabelmans - dir. Steven Spielberg

This top three was really hard to parse. Spielberg’s return to form following the disastrous Ready Player One takes him back to his roots. The way the audience is able to see Sammy’s passion for film, and the way Spielberg trains you to see the things he sees, is awe inspiring. Contains maybe my favorite Spielberg ending in his whole filmography.

2. Stars at Noon - dir. Claire Denis

Clare Denis working in the conventions of Italian neorealism to create a doomed romantic thriller is a cinematic melting pot I never knew I needed. The cinematography is realistic and dialed back, but the dialogue is sharp and romantic, accentuating the performances the two central characters are putting on for the people around them. Fantastic score as well.

1. Petite Maman - dir. Celine Sciamma

Sciamma combines the youthful whimsy of Miyazaki and the quiet tenderness that defined Portrait of a Lady on Fire to create a wholly unique fairy tale, one of the unique love between a mother and daughter. Watching this in a theater nearly alone was a moving experience, the soft whispers of the wind amplified by the empty space around me. I was moved by Portrait, but Sciamma has outdone herself here.