Luke Muehlhauser

Favorite Movies Since 2009

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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)
  • Avatar 2: The Way of the Water (James Cameron)
  • Tár (Todd Field)
  • 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)
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