Below are the movies released since 2009 that I “loved.” I don’t mean to say I think these are the “best” movies of each year; they’re merely the ones I most enjoyed each year.
* = less sure other people will enjoy this
“unfinished” means I’ve seen <90% of the films that seem, at a glance, like plausible contenders to be one of my favorites for that year.
2022 (unfinished)
- Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)
- Glass Onion (Rian Johnson)
- The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
- The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)
- Tár (Todd Field)
- Avatar 2: The Way of the Water (James Cameron)
- Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski)
2021 (unfinished)
- Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay)
- C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills)
- Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King)
- The Mitchells vs the Machines (Mike Rianda)
- Belfast (Kenneth Branagh)
- The Last Duel (Ridley Scott)
- The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)
- The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)
2020
- The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
- Palm Springs (Max Barbakow)
- Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
- Soul (Pete Docter)
- Let Them All Talk (Steven Soderbergh)
- Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
2019
- Booksmart (Olivia Wilde)
- Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
- The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
- Knives Out (Rian Johnson)
- Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)
- The Farewell (Lulu Wang)
- Joker (Todd Phillips)
- Little Women (Greta Gerwig)
- 1917 (Sam Mendes)
- Waves (Trey Edward Shults)
- Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi)
- Midsommar (Ari Aster)
- Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
- Uncut Gems (Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie)
2018
- Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
- The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti et al.)
- Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird)
- Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)
- The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)
2017
- Get Out (Jordan Peele)
- Mother! (Darren Aronofsky) *
- Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve)
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)
- The Death of Stalin (Armando Iannucci)
- Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
- Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
- The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach)
- Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh)
- The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
- I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)
- Ingrid Goes West (Matt Spicer)
- The Disaster Artist (James Franco)
- War for the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
- You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
- The Big Sick (Michael Showalter)
2016
- La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
- Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
- Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
- Sausage Party (Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon) *
- The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
- Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
- Hail, Caesar! (Coen brothers)
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi)
2015
- Inside Out (Pete Docter)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
- Room (Lenny Abrahamson)
- The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
- Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)
- Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
- Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
- Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman)
- The Big Short (Adam McKay)
- Beasts of No Nation (Cary Joji Fukunaga)
- Victoria (Sebastian Schipper) *
- Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry)
- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
- Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
- Tangerine (Sean Baker)
- Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
- 45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
2014
- Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
- The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
- Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
- Gone Girl (David Fincher)
- The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)
- Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
- Two Days, One Night (Dardenne brothers)
- Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
- Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
- Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
- A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor)
- Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
- Noah (Darren Aronofsky)
- The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky) *
- Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
- Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)
- A Brilliant Young Mind (Morgan Matthews)
- It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
- 22 Jump Street (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller)
2013
- Her (Spike Jonze)
- Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)
- Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)
- Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton)
- American Hustle (David O. Russell)
- 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
- Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) *
- Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
- Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)
- Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve)
- Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh)
- Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass)
- Upstream Color (Shane Carruth) *
- Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
- The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
- Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener)
- Blue is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche) *
- All is Lost (J. C. Chandor)
- Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
- The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt)
- We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson)
2012
- Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
- Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
- The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
- Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
- Looper (Rian Johnson)
- Skyfall (Sam Mendes)
- Mud (Jeff Nichols)
- Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard)
- The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)
- Haywire (Steven Soderbergh)
- Chronicle (Josh Trank)
- 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller)
- All the Light in the Sky (Joe Swanberg)
2011
- A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
- The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
- Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)
- Pariah (Dee Rees)
- The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
- Oslo, August 31 (Joachim Trier)
- Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)
- Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
- Contagion (Steven Soderbergh)
- Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson)
- In the Family (Patrick Wang)
- Hanna (Joe Wright)
2010
- The Social Network (David Fincher)
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
- Somewhere (Sofia Coppola)
- Incendies (Denis Villeneuve)
- Inception (Chris Nolan)
- The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko)
- Another Year (Mike Leigh)
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)
2009
- Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos) *
- The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke) *
- District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
- A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
- Avatar (James Cameron)
- Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé) *
- About Elly (Asghar Farhadi)
- Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
- Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
- Up (Pete Docter, Bob Peterson)
- In the Loop (Armando Iannucci)
- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
- Coraline (Henry Selick)
- 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb)
- Watchmen (Zack Snyder)