My review of Brave is published at Seattle Pacific University’s Response magazine.

My review of First Position is published at Good Letters, the blog hosted by Image.

This is a work in progress: a running list of my favorite films by year.

2012  2011 2010

2009  2008  2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  2000

1999  1998  1997  1996  1995  1994  1993  1992  1991  1990

1989  1988  1987  1986  1985  1984  1983  1982  1981  1980

1970s  1960s 1950s  1940s  1930s  1920s

AN INTRODUCTION:

Organizing any film list is a challenge. Should I catalog films by year, like most people? If so, how do I  determine the release date? By its first screening anywhere in the world? By the first film festival screening? By the American commercial release date? What if it’s made available online before it reaches theatres?

For simplicity’s sake, I now list 1980-2012 movies by the year of the film’s first showings as reported by IMDB (the Internet Movie Database).

This puts my lists at odds with most other American film critics, who treat a film as if it is “real” when it reaches New York or L.A.

It means that my favorite moviegoing experience of 2011 — Certified Copy — is now listed as my #1 film of 2010 because the completed film was first presented to audiences in 2010.

No doubt I still have some corrections to make, so if you see that I’ve mistakenly repeated a title or categorized in the wrong place, please let me know.

Films released before 1980 are grouped by decade. That’s because I have only recently started making concerted efforts to catch up on movies that I missed during childhood or that were released before I was born.

Before you peruse the lists, permit me to explain a little bit about what it actually represents.

WHAT THE LIST MEANS: Q&A

What makes you think you’re an expert, Overstreet?

I don’t! I explore movies and I study them, but I’m not a scholar.

Then why write reviews? Why make long lists like these?

For 20 years I’ve been writing reviews. Writing reviews helps think through what I’ve seen.

Seeing a film for the first time is like meeting a stranger for the first time. I don’t want to just meet works of art. I want to get to know them. Sometimes they have little to say to me, or they’re mean, or they’re superficial, or they want to sell me something. Sometimes they turn out to be marvelous company, and I end up learning from them and revisiting them often. I make lists as a way of keeping track of which movies have been most rewarding for me, and which I’d most like to spend time revisiting.

You know the word “ruminate”? If so, you probably know where that word comes from. When animals “ruminate,” they’re chewing their meal again. I write about movies and discuss them in order to get more out of the experience, to glean rewards, to savor. I started LookingCloser.org not so I would have a platform or a pulpit, but because I wanted to find others who were interested in discussing cinema as “incarnation” — the embodying of truth through the imagination. I’m still learning a lot from that discussion, and I’ve only scratched the surface of it.

Do these lists represent what you would call “the best movies”?

No.

When film critics announce that they’ve decided “the best films of the year,” I’m immediately distrustful. I’ve never met an individual who has that kind of authority. It’s better to be humble about it. Why not call them “favorites”?

Lists are personal things. Our cinematic preferences say as much about our personalities, interests, aversions, and questions as they do about the films themselves. We’re all distinct individuals and, to complicate matters further, we’re all changing. So what we value, appreciate, and understand is going to change and grow as we do.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a critic say, “Well, it wasn’t a perfect movie.” Of course it wasn’t! There are no perfect movies. Movies are imperfect because they’re made by imperfect people. It’s not very worthwhile to declare whether a film is imperfect or not. It is worthwhile, however, to talk about what impressed us, what confused us, what intrigued us. Still, our relationship with any work of art will always be incomplete, unique, and subject to change.

Thus, whether we’re rating movies with stars or points or thumbs, there is no strict unit of measure that can tell us the value of a work of art. We can talk about the virtues and faults of Schindler’s List or The Blair Witch Project, but any kind of “grade” or “point system” is severely insufficient and misleading.

Rating movies is like rating food: Is a ham better than a strawberry? How can you compare the two?

A movie, like any work of art, is — as my high school English teacher used to say — both a Thing and a Way. As a Thing, its craftsmanship can be examined, and we can discuss the quality of acting, soundtrack, editing, cinematography, composition, etc. As a Way, it is an invitation to an experience, and each traveler will find that movie inspiring different kinds of memories, challenges, questions, ideas, and lessons.

So in these lists, I have no authority to say which films are the “best.” Nor do I judge movies based on whether I “liked” them. I’m taking into account whether the Thing is excellent and worthy of praise, and I’m also taking into account what I have experienced on the Way of the movie.

But isn’t it all subjective, this business of assessing what is excellent?

No.

Some questions about movies are somewhat subjective:

- Was a director’s decision to shoot in black and white a good one?
- Should the voice-over narration have been eliminated?
- Was a performance too understated, or too flamboyant?
- Is the movie boring, or is it asking us to pay close attention?
- Was the non-chronological storytelling confusing or revealing?
- Must a movie have a clear and compelling narrative, or can movies work in other ways like impressionist paintings or poetry?

These are matters of opinion.

Because of that subjectivity, we should listen to each other’s opinions and preferences with respect, and offer our own with some humility.

But it would be wrong to say that there is no such thing as excellence.

Some aspects of film reviewing are far less subjective. For example, if the sound is poorly mixed, if the editing is sloppy… if there is evidence of laziness or thoughtlessness… or if we observe unethical treatment of actors, animals, or audiences… these are not very subjective matters. Most people know the difference between an actor and somebody who just speaks lines into a camera.

If somebody thinks that excellence is always just a matter of opinion, I’d like to give them some choices: Would they like their open-heart surgery performed by an accomplished surgeon or a 12-year-old who knows how to play the game of Operation? Would they like to hear a piano concerto performed by a famous pianist or by someone who’s had one piano lesson? I suspect that person’s choice would demonstrate that they do believe in objective measures of excellence.

Your lists, like a lot of critics’ lists, don’t look anything like the box office reports. Are you saying you know better than the moviegoing public?

I’ll say this:

Most people will agree that the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are “great” national parks, but a lot of people would rather go to an amusement park than a National Park. The most popular restaurants are obviously not the establishments that serve the greatest meals. People tend to choose donuts over spinach salad. Appreciating great art is a matter of growing up. When we’re children, we dislike a lot of the food and drink that we learn to appreciate and favor later. I hated both coffee and asparagus when I was a kid. But I learned, gradually, that the adults weren’t just trying to trick me. Coffee and asparagus are wonderful things. When I look at what’s popular at the box office, I think it shows us that we are a people of childish interests. Growing up a little would be good for us.

Most people think critics are crazy when they talk about “the great films.” That’s because most people don’t have the patience to discover the greatest rewards that movies have to offer. They want instant, familiar gratification. Americans tend to treat movies like junk food, and that’s why we’re now getting our movies out of Redbox vending machines instead of renting them from a neighborhood store, like the one where I used to work and have long conversations with neighbors and introduce them to challenging new filmmakers.

Recognizing greatness takes time, even for the most thoughtful moviegoers. Most critics will agree that Citizen Kane, Tokyo Story, and Andrei Rublev are essential works of cinema, but the greatness of those masterpieces has been recognized over time, through countless viewings and discussions, through examinations under many different critical lenses. Blade Runner was not well-regarded when it first opened; now it’s often called a science fiction masterpiece. 2001: A Space Odyssey was not even nominated for Best Picture, but now it’s viewed as one of the crowning achievements of cinema. A movie’s greatness may go unrecognized by a casual moviegoer who goes to the movies on Friday night with certain expectations, desiring something easy and familiar, and equating “greatness” with “fun” or positive emotions.

Most people wouldn’t sit through Tokyo Story, or Yi-Yi, or Certified Copy, or Into Great Silence, or many of the films that have become my favorites over time. But then, when I was younger, I wouldn’t have appreciated those films either.

Having said all of that, I do like a good candy bar now and then. Sometimes I get cravings for an Almond Joy or M&Ms with pretzels. I’m also fond of Die Hard, Fletch, and Spider-man 2. These movies aren’t bad. But we can turn them into damaging influences if we make a steady diet of them, or fail to think about what they and how they are made.

Okay, enough about subjectivity and excellence. How does your rating system work?

I offer these lists and classifications as tentative summaries of personal experience. Nothing more. They’re expressions of enthusiasm and gratitude to some artists, and expressions of respectful acknowledgement (but not enthusiasm) for others. They reflect a combination of the excellence I see in each Thing, and the experience I had on the path of each Way. Thus, my choices say as much or more about me as they do about the films in question.

I don’t attach “ratings” to reviews, though, because I’d rather have people read my review to get a sense of my experience. Think about it: If I served you a delicious strawberry on Monday, and a Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday, and then asked you to rate them on a scale of 1-5, what would you do if they were both excellent? Five stars for both of them? Are you saying a good strawberry is equal to a good Thanksgiving dinner? It doesn’t make sense.

So, these aren’t ratings. They’re recommendations! Right?

No. I might love a movie for how it changed my life, and still be careful to avoid recommending it to certain people based on what’s in it. And here I go with another food metaphor: I may enjoy a well-made peanut butter sandwich, but I have friends who will get sick if I serve them peanut butter.

Recommendations are for individuals. Recommending a movie to a crowd is like a pair of shoes to a crowd of people. What is useful and comfortable for some people could be harmful for others.

Are the lists finished?

No. I’m changing, so the lists will change too. I revise them often.

I just noticed that you listed one movie twice. And you overlooked one of my favorites. What do I do?

Email me. Feel free to point out errors or omissions. If you notice that a film is not listed among my favorites or among the titles I have not seen, that means I’ve overlooked it or I saw it and didn’t care for it.

COLOR-CODED GUIDE TO THE LISTS

The lists are numbered and color-coded.

The numbers list my Top 25 of each year, in an approximate order of my gratitude for the experience.

The colors are a general expression of how grateful I am, how much I appreciate and value them. (If I were to offer a list of my all-time favorite movies, I’d be drawing from the red-letter “treasures.” Some years didn’t produce anything I’d consider “treasure.”)

• TREASURES:
  Films that have profoundly inspired, influenced, and affected me. I want all of them in my personal collection for future reference. Why are they red? They’re like Moses’ burning bush, always blazing, never consumed, and they’ve given me close encounters with something sacred.
• FAVORITES:
  Films I will probably never tire of revisiting, studying, sharing, and discussing. Why are they purple? Among films, I consider them royalty.
• ACHIEVEMENTS:
  Films worth seeing more than once, studying, sharing, and discussing. Why are they blue? To a rain-soaked Seattle-dweller like myself, blue is a reason to celebrate.
• DECENT / NOTEWORTHY:
  Films worth seeing once, maybe twice, due to their strong points. Why are they grey? They may be enjoyable while they’re playing, but they didn’t make a strong, lasting impression.
• UNSEEN or UNRATABLE:
  Films I haven’t seen, or else I can’t remember what I thought of them… but they’ve been recommended to me by friends or reputable critics. If the right opportunity comes along, I’ll check them out. Why are they green? I look at them as “the grass on the other side of the fence.” Or, perhaps, an undiscovered pasture where I can graze in future days.
• * MOVIES MARKED WITH ASTERISKS:
  Those are those that received either a festival-only release or an extremely limited release during their year. Many of these films I didn’t see until after the year of their release, and I had to go back and revise that year’s list.

2012

(This list is under construction, and won’t be rated in numerical order until January 2013.)

• Undecided:
• 2012 Treasures: n/a
• 2012 Favorites: Moonrise Kingdom, Brave, Miss Bala
• 2012 Achievements: Cabin in the Woods (review), Blue Like Jazz (review), The Avengers, Beasts of the Southern Wild
• 2012 Decent / Noteworthy Films: John Carter (review), The Hunger Games (review), Camilla Dickinson (review)
• 2012 Films I Probably Wouldn’t Bother to See Twice: Casa de Mi Padre, Damsels in Distress
• 2012 Films During Which I Checked My Watch and Glanced at Exit Signs: n/a
• 2012 Films That Earn a Strong Objection: n/a
• DISCOVERIES (films I saw in 2012 that were released in earlier years): The Kid With a Bike, Pina, A Separation, Tuesday After Christmas, Film Socialisme, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2011.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

2011

1. The Tree of Life (reviews)
2. Pina* (review)
3. A Separation*
4. The Mill and the Cross
5. The Kid With a Bike*
6. Buck
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene (review)
8. Nostalgia for the Light
9. Tuesday, After Christmas*
10. War Horse (review)
11. The Muppets (review)
12. Film Socialisme*
13. Hugo
14. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
15. Take Shelter
16. Winnie the Pooh
17. Win Win (review) (interview with Tom McCarthy)
18. Wrestling for Jesus: The Tale of T-Money
19. Drive (review)
20. Le Havre
21. Attack the Block
22. Moneyball
23. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (review)
24. Margaret
25. Tyrannosaur*

• The Trip
• L’Apollonide (House of Tolerance)*
• The Deep Blue Sea*
• A Dangerous Method
• Rango
• Midnight in Paris
• Jane Eyre (review)
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Haywire
• Contagion (review)
• The Descendants
• Super 8
• Higher Ground*
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• X-Men: First Class
• First Position (review)
• Source Code
• Bridesmaids*
• The Adventures of Tintin

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2011:

4:44 Last Day on Earth (Abel Ferrara)
50/50 (Jonathan Levine)
A Better Life
 A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (Todd Strauss-Schulson)
Albert Nobbs
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Adam Curtis)
Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Akerman)
Alpis
Anonymous
Art History (Joe Swanberg)
Autoerotic (Joe Swanberg)
Avalon
Battle: Los Angeles
Bernie
Born to Be Wild
Caitlin Plays Herself (Joe Swanberg)
Carnage (Roman Polanski)
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
Corpo Celeste (Alice Rohrwacher)
Dark Horse
Dolphin Tale
Duo Mingjin
Edwin Parker (Tacita Dean)
Elena (Andrei Zvyagintsev)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Fast Five
Faust (Alexander Sokurov)
Footnote (Joseph Cedar)
Good for Nothing
Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Love)
Green Lantern
Hahithalfut
Hall Pass (Bobby and Peter Farrelly)
Happy Feet Two
Hell and Back Again
Himizu
Horrible Bosses (Seth Gordon)
Hors Satan (Bruno Dumont)
House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello)
How to Die in Oregon
I Will Follow
In Darkness
In the Land of Blood and Honey
Innocent Saturday (Alexander Mindadze)
Into the Abyss
J. Edgar (Clint Eastwood)
Killer Joe
Kinyarwanda
Like Crazy
Love and Bruises (Lou Ye)
Low Life (Nicolas Klotz)
L’ultimo terrestre
Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
Margin Call
Mars Needs Moms
Melancholia (Lars von Trier)
Mildred Pierce
Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo)
Monsieur Lazhar
On the Shoulders of Giants
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Page Eight
Page One: Inside The New York Times
Paul (Greg Mottola)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Policeman (Nadav Lapid)
Polisse
Poulet aux prunes
Project Nim
Prom
Puss in Boots
Quando la notte
Real Steel
Ren Shan Ren Hai
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
Ricky (Janie Geiser)
Rio
River Rites (Ben Russell)
Saideke Balai
Septien (Michael Tully)
Shame (Steve McQueen)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Silver Bullets (Joe Swanberg)
Sleeping Sickness (Ulrich Kohler)
Slow Action (Ben Rivers)
Source Code (Duncan Jones)
Starbuck
Tao jie
Target (Alexander Zeldovich)
Terraferma
Terri (Azazel Jacobs)
Texas Killing Fields
The Beaver
The Big Year
The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry)
The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)
The First Man
The Flowers of War
The Future
The Future (Miranda July)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
The Green Hornet (Michel Gondry)
The Guard
The Hangover Part II
The Ides of March (George Clooney)
The Interrupters
The Kid With a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes)
The Last Mountain
The Last Rites of Joe May
The Lincoln Lawyer (Brad Furman)
The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev)
The Mechanic (Simon West)
The Return (Nathaniel Dorsky)
The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar)
The Smurfs
The Three Musketeers (Paul W.S. Anderson)
The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
This is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi)
This Must Be the Place (Paolo Sorrentino)
Thor
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Michael Bay)
Tyrannosaur
Un été brûlant
Uncle Kent (Joe Swanberg)
Unknown (Jaume Collet-Serra)
Warrior
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
Weekend (Andrew Haigh)
What’s Your Number?
Where Do We Go Now?
Wild and Weird
Wuthering Heights
Young Adult (Jason Reitman)
Zookeeper

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2010.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

2010

1. Certified Copy* (review)
2. Toy Story 3 (review)
3. Of Gods and Men* (review)
4. Lucky Life* (review)
5. True Grit* (review)
6. Winter’s Bone (review)
7. The Social Network (review)
8. Another Year* (some comments)
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives* (review)
10. Meek’s Cutoff* (review)
    
11. Four Lions (a brief review)
12. The Arbor*
13. Mysteries of Lisbon*
14. Please Give
15. Waste Land (review)
16. Somewhere*
17. Le Quattro Volte*
18. Babies (review)
19. Road to Nowhere*
20. Poetry*
21. The King’s Speech (review)
22. Submarine*
23. Beginners* (review)
24. Never Let Me Go (a brief review)
25. The Oath

• Carlos*
• Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky (2-part review)
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams* (review)
• How to Train Your Dragon
• Shutter Island
• L’Illusioniste*
• Inception (2-part review: Pt. 1, Pt. 2)
• Exit Through the Gift Shop*
• Rabbit Hole
• Ondine
• The Way Back*
• The Kids Are All Right
• Blue Valentine
• The Ghost Writer
• Let Me In
• The Town
• Animal Kingdom
• Everything Must Go*
• 127 Hours (review)
• Tangled
• Alice in Wonderland
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Iron Man 2
• Black Swan (review)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader (review)
• The Fighter (review)
• Morning Glory
• The Wolfman (review)
• Incendies*
• Greenberg
• Stone (review)
• The American
• Rubber*

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2010:
13 Assassins (Takashi Miike)
A Letter to Elia (Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones)
A Sad Trumpet Ballad
A Small Act
All Good Things
Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
Audrey the Trainwreck (Frank V. Ross)
Aurora (Cristi Puiu)
Bach & Friends
Bal
Barney’s Version
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Beautiful Boy
Bill Cunningham New York
Biutiful
Black Venus
Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman)
Buried
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
Catfish
Cold Weather (Aaron Katz)
Coyote Falls
Curling (Denis Côté)
Cyrus (Jay and Mark Duplass)
Daddy Longlegs, or Go Get Some Rosemary (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie)
Date Night
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Drei
Easy A
Edge of Darkness
El Sicario Room 164 (Gianfranco Rosi)
Essential Killing
Exporting Raymond
Fair Game
Flipped
Fur of Flying
Get Him to the Greek (Nicholas Stoller)
Green Zone
Happy Few
Happy, Happy
Hereafter (Clint Eastwood)
Holy Rollers
How Do You Know (James L. Brooks)
I Saw the Devil (Kim Jee-woon)
I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhang-Ke)
In a Better World
Inside Job
I’m Still Here
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Kaboom (Gregg Araki)
Knight and Day
L’amour fou
La pecora nera
Life, Above All
Little Fockers
Louder Than a Bomb
Made in Dagenham
Marwencol
Megamind
Mighty Uke
Miral
Monsters
Noi credevamo
Norwegian Wood
Oki’s Movie (Hong Sang-soo)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Open Five (Kentucker Audley)
Outside the Law (Rachid Bouchareb)
Piranha (Alexander Aja)
Post Mortem
Potiche
Predators (Nimród Antal)
Promises Written in Water
Putty Hill (Matthew Porterfield)
Rabid Rider
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Red
Rejoice and Shout
Resident Evil: Afterlife (Paul W.S. Anderson)
Restrepo
Robin Hood
Scrappers
Secretariat
Shrek Forever After
Silent Souls (Aleksei Fedorchenko)
Sons of the Pioneers 75th Anniversary Show, Volume 1
Step Up 3D
Stop-Motion Marvels!
Tamara Drewe
The Company Men (John Wells)Easy A (Will Gluck)
The Conspirator
The Crazies (Breck Eisner)
The Ditch
The Edge
The Extra Man
The First Grader
The Killer Inside Me
The Losers
The Other Guys (Adam McKay)
The Passion
The Princess of Montpensier
The Runaways
The Solitude of Prime Numbers
The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira)
The Tillman Story
The Tourist
Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham)
Trust
Tuesday After Christmas (Radu Muntean)
Un homme qui crie
Unstoppable (Tony Scott)
Waiting for ‘Superman’
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Welcome to the Rileys
Winter Vacation (Li Hongqi)
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Woody Allen)

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2009.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

2009

1. The Secret of Kells* (two-part review: Pt. 1, Pt. 2)
2. Up (review)
3. Where the Wild Things Are (review)
4. A Serious Man (review)
5. Coraline (review)
6. Lourdes*
7. A Town Called Panic*
8. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
9. The Girlfriend Experience
10. Bright Star
    
11. Moon
12. The Maid
13. Mary and Max
14. Duplicity
15. Police, Adjective (review)
16. District 9
17. The Limits of Control (two-part review: Pt.1 , Pt. 2)
18. The Exploding Girl
19. The Secret In Their Eyes*
20. In the Loop
21. Dogtooth
22. The Road
23. Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky (two-part review: Pt. 1, Pt. 2)
24. I Am Love
25. Micmacs

• 500 Days of Summer*
• Invictus
• Get Low
• The White Ribbon*
• Inglourious Basterds (two-part review: Pt. 1, Pt.2)
• Alamar*
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs*
• Red Riding: 1970
• Red Riding: 1984
• The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
• Star Trek
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Public Enemies
• Away We Go
• Invictus
• Sweetgrass
  
• Between the Folds*
• Avatar (review)
• An Education
• Up in the Air
• Tetro
• Fish Tank
• Oceans
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• The Informant!
• Sherlock Holmes
• Watchmen
• Thirst
• Drag Me to Hell
• Zombieland
• The Princess and the Frog
• That Evening Sun

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2009:
A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis)**
A Perfect Getaway (David Twohy)
A Room and a Half (Andrey Khrzhanovskiy)
A Single Man
Adam
Accident (Soi Cheang)
Adventureland (Greg Mottola)
Ajami
Alexander the Last (Joe Swanberg)
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani)
Amreeka
Angels & Demons
Antichrist (Lars Von Trier)
Around a Small Mountain (Jacques Rivette)
Art & Copy
Baarìa
Bakjwi
Bandslam
Barking Water (Sterlin Harjo)
Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski)
Bellamy (Claude Cabrol)
Between Two Worlds (Vimukthi Jayasundara)
Big Fan
Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders)
Blue Beard (Catherine Breillat)
Bran Nue Dae
Bride Wars
Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)
Brothers
Brüno
Butterflies Have No Memories (Lav Diaz)
Cafe Noir (Jung Sung-il)
Cairo Time
Canary (Alejandro Adams)
Capitalism: A Love Story
Cell 211
Cheri
Chloe
City Island
Coco Before Chanel
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Cold Souls
Collapse
Confessions of a Shopaholic (P.J. Hogan)
Crank 2: High Voltage (Neveldine/Taylor)
Crazy Heart
Crude
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture
Dogtooth
Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl (Manoel de Oliveira)
Eighteen (Jang Kun-jae)
Enter the Void
Everybody’s Fine
Everyone Else (Maren Ade)
Extract (Mike Judge)
Face (Tsai Ming-liang)
Farewell
Funny People (Judd Apatow)
Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont)
Halloween II (Rob Zombie)**
Harry Brown
He’s Just Not That Into You
Huacho (Alejandro Fernández Almendras)
Humpday (Lynn Shelton)
I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You, Man
Il grande sogno
Imburnal (Sherad Anthony Sanchez)
In the Electric Mist
Inspector Bellamy
Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s On Me
Julie & Julia
Karaoke (Chris Chong Chan Fui)
Knowing (Alex Proyas)
La bocca del lupo (Pietro Marcello)
La Donation
La doppia ora
La mission
Last Train Home
Le roi de l’évasion (Alain Guiraudie)
Lebanon
Life
Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
Like You Know it All (Hong Sang-soo)
Lo spazio bianco
Lola
Lourdes (Jessica Hausner)
Mao’s Last Dancer
Monsters vs Aliens
Mother (Bong Joon-ho)
Mother and Child
Mr. Nobody
My Dear Enemy (Lee Yoon-ki)
My Dog Tulip
My One and Only
My Sister’s Keeper
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (Werner Herzog)
Ne change rien (Pedro Costa)
Nine
Notorious
Nowhere Boy
Nymph (Pen-ek Ratanaruang)
Orphan
Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin)
Passing Strange
Persécution
Pirate Radio
Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve)
Prince of Tears
Pulling John
Queen to Play
Red Riding: 1983
Samson and Delilah (Warwick Thornton)
She, a Chinese (Xiaolu Guo)
Sin Nombre
Solitary Man
Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin)
Splice (Vincenzo Natali)
Spring Fever (Lou Ye)
State of Play
Still Bill
Surrogates (Jonathan Mostow)
Survival of the Dead (George A. Romero)
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
The Army of Crime (Robert Guédiguian)
The Art of the Steal
The Blind Side
The Box (Richard Kelly)
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story
The Concert
The Cove
The Damned United
The Donation (Bernard Emond)
The Father of my Children (Mia Hansen-Løve)
The Final Destination (David R. Ellis)
The Hangover
The House of the Devil
The International (Tom Tykwer)
The Invention of Lying
The Last Station
The Man Beyond the Bridge
The Messenger
The Milk of Sorrow
The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
The Panic Is On: The Great American Depression as Seen by the Common Man
The Portugeuse Nun (Eugene Green)
The Promotion (Steve Conrad)
The Proposal
The Red Chapel
The Red Machine
The Search (Pema Tseden)
The Soloist (Joe Wright)
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Tony Scott)
The Traveller
The White Meadows (Mohammad Rasoulof)
The Winning Season
The Young Victoria
This Is It
Tony Manero (Pablo Larrain)
Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine)
Under the Sea 3D
Valhalla Rising (Nicolas Winding Refn)
Vengeance (Johnny To)
Vincere (Marco Belloccio)
Waking Sleeping Beauty
What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Whatever Works (Woody Allen)
Whip It (Drew Barrymore)
White Material
White Material (Claire Denis)
Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
Women Without Men
World’s Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwait)
Yellowstone: Battle for Life
Yi ngoi
Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Youth in Revolt

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2008.

In order to understand the color-coding, the purpose, and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

Red = Treasures
Purple = Favorites
Blue = Achievements
Gray = Decent/Noteworthy
Green = Unseen or Undecided
* = This film was discovered after the year in question and added in a list revision.

2008

1. Summer Hours* (review)
2. Séraphine* (review)
3. WALL•E
4. Everlasting Moments*
5. The Class
6. Lorna’s Silence* (review)
7. Heartbeat Detector*
8. Rachel Getting Married
9. Man on Wire (review)
10. Lake Tahoe*
    
11. Up the Yangtze*
12. Let the Right One In (review)
13. The Dark Knight
14. Gomorrah*
15. 35 Shots of Rum*
    
16. Liverpool
17. Ponyo*
18. Departures*
19. Phoebe in Wonderland*
20. A Christmas Tale (review)
21. Synecdoche, New York (interview with Charlie Kaufman)
22. The Beaches of Agnes*
    
23. Doubt (some observations)
24. Two Lovers*
25. The Song of Sparrows*

• Waltz With Bashir
• U23D*
• Sparrow*
• Me and Orson Welles
• Treeless Mountain*
• Of Time and the City*
• Julia*
• Ballast
• Goodbye, Solo*
• Trouble the Water
• In Bruges
• Happy-Go-Lucky
• Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
• Burn After Reading
• Tropic Thunder
• Awake My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp*
• Iron Man
• Still Walking
• The Headless Woman
• Food, Inc.
• Hunger
• Days and Clouds*
• Kung Fu Panda
• The Brothers Bloom
• Redbelt
• Revolutionary Road
• Get Smart
• The Hurt Locker
• Mine (review)
• Be Kind, Rewind (some observations)
• Eldorado*
• The Grocer’s Son*
• Horton Hears aWho
• Frozen River
• Body of Lies
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Troubled Water*
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• The Pineapple Express
• Baghead
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Sunshine Cleaning
• The Wrestler
• Frost/Nixon (some observations)
• Sugar
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Call + Response
• I’ve Loved You So Long
• We Are Together*

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2008:

24 City (Jia Zhang-Ke)
A Week Alone (Celina Murga)
Achilles to kame
Adoration
Afterschool (Antonio Campos)
All Around Us (Ryosuke Hashiguchi)
American Teen
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Appaloosa
Around the Bay (Alejandro Adams)
Australia
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
Birdsong (Albert Serra)
BirdWatchers
Bolt
Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Bottle Shock
Bumaznyj soldat
Burma VJ
Cadillac Records (Darnell Martin)
Carmen Miranda: The Girl From Rio
Changeling (Clint Eastwood)
Che (Steven Soderbergh)
Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood
City of Ember (Gil Kenan)
Cloverfield
Dangkou
Dawn of the World (Abbas Fahdel)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Death Race (Paul W.S. Anderson)
Defiance
Disgrace
Every Little Step
Falling (Richard Dutcher)
Fats Waller: This Joint is Jumpin’
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller)
Four Nights With Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel)
Gabbla
Ghost Town
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood)
Hancock
Henry Poole Is Here
Home (Ursula Meier)
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
I.O.U.S.A.
Idiots and Angels
Il Divo
Il papà di Giovanna
Il seme della discordia
I’m Gonna Explode (Gerardo Naranjo)
Inju, la bête dans l’ombre
It Might Get Loud
Jazz Icons: Series 3
JCVD
Jerichow (Christian Petzold)
Kisses
Lakeview Terrace
L’Autre
Leatherheads (George Clooney)
Let’s Talk About the Rain
Lost Song
Love Exposure (Sion Sono)
Lymelife
Mad Money
Management
Medicine for Melancholy
Melancholia (Lav Diaz)
Mesrine: Killer Instinct
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1
Mid-August Lunch (Gianni Di Gregorio)
Milk (Gus Van Sant)
Miracle at St. Anna
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
More Than a Game
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Peter Sollett)
Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo)
Nights and Weekends (Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig)
Nora’s Will
North Face
Nothing But the Truth
Nothing Like the Holidays
Nucingen House (Raul Ruiz)
Nuit de chien
Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes)
Paris
Pirate for the Sea
Pontypool (Bruce McDonald)
Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film
Red Cliff
Religulous
RocknRolla
Role Models (David Wain)
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Rough Aunties
Rudo y Cursi
Shine a Light
Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami)
Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley)
Skin
Speed Racer (Lana and Andy Wachowski)
Standard Operating Procedure
Stella (Sylvia Verheyde)
Stop-Loss
Sunshine Cleaning
Swing Vote
Taken
Teza
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Burning Plain
The Chaser (Na Hong-jin)
The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos
The Deal
The Duchess
The Great Buck Howard
The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan)
The Incredible Hulk
The Meerkats
The Merry Gentleman
The Order of Myths
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Secret Life of Bees
The Sky Crawlers (Mamoru Oshii)
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Square
The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Strangers (Bryan Bertino)
The Wackness
Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Transsiberian
Trucker
Trying to Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon
Tulpan
Tyson
Un Giorno perfetto
Un lac (Philippe Grandrieux)
Vegas: Based on a True Story
Vincent: A Life in Color
W.
Walt & El Grupo
We Live in Public
Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
What Doesn’t Kill You
Years When I Was a Child Outside (John Torres)

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2007.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

2007

1. In the City of Sylvia*
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Shotgun Stories* (review)
4. Munyurangabo* (review)
5. Flight of the Red Balloon*
6. My Kid Could Paint That (review)
7. Ratatouille
8. Hot Fuzz
9. Lars and the Real Girl
10. Times and Winds* (review)
11. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days* (review)
12. The Secret of the Grain* (review)
13. I’m Not There
14. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
15. The Devil Came on Horseback
    
16. No Country for Old Men
17. Ostrov (The Island)*
18. Silent Light*
19. Zodiac
20. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
21. Persepolis*
22. Yella*
23. Juno
24. The Visitor*
25. Son of Rambow*

• Encounters at the End of the World *
• Honeydripper* (some observations)
• Eastern Promises
• Secret Sunshine*
• My Winnipeg*
• Planet Terror
• Heading South*
• The Savages
• No End in Sight
• The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
• La Vie En Rose
• Into the Wild
• The Simpsons Movie
• Paranoid Park
• The Band’s Visit*
• Angel-A*
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Gone Baby Gone
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Jindabyne*
• Enchanted
• Waitress
• The Darjeeling Limited
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• Captain Achab*
• Michael Clayton
• The Orphanage
• 3:10 to Yuma
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Lust, Caution
• Ben X
• Margot at the Wedding
• The Edge of Heaven
• Chop Shop
• Cassandra’s Dream
• Breach
• The Lookout
• Ocean’s Thirteen
• Death Proof
• Knocked Up
• Dan in Real Life
• Atonement
• In the Valley of Elah
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Eagle Vs. Shark

As-yet Unseen or Unratable films of 2007:

12
28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo)
5 Centimeters per Second (Makoto Shinkai)
A Century of Sound
A Girl Cut in Two (Claude Chabrol)
A Mighty Heart
A Secret
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
Across the Universe
Afternoon (Angela Schanelec)
Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov)
Altar (Rico Ilarde)
American Gangster
Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
Beaufort
Becoming Jane
Becoming John Ford
Before I Forget (Jacques Nolot)
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Sidney Lumet)
Beowulf (Robert Zemeckis)
Bernard and Doris
Big Man Japan
Body of War
Boy A
Brick Lane
Chicago 10
Chouga (Darezhan Omirbayev)
City of Men
Cochochi
Control
Crashing (Gary Walkow)
Crazy Love
Death at a Funeral
Death in the Land of Encantos (Lav Diaz)
Duchess of Langeais
Earth
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
En la ciudad de Sylvia
Encarnación
Fados (Carlos Saura)
Freedom Writers
Frownland (Ronald Bronstein)
Fugitive Pieces
Funny Games
George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead
Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara)
Grace Is Gone
Hairspray
Halloween (Rob Zombie)
Happiness (Hur Jin-ho)
Help Me Eros
Heya fawda
Hotel Chevalier (Wes Anderson)
I Am Legend
Il Dolce e l’amaro
Import Export (Ulrich Seidl)
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
In the Shadow of the Moon
It’s a Free World…
Jazz Icons, Volume II
Just Another Love Story
Katyn
King of California
King of Ping Pong
La Antena
La France (Serge Bozon)
Lions for Lambs
L’Ora di punta
Love in the Time of Cholera
Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
Maurice Jarre: A Salute to David Lean
Mogari no mori
Molière
Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan
Must Read After My Death
My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar-wai)
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
Nessuna qualità agli eroi
Nightwatching
O’Horten
Padre Nuestro
Paranormal Activity
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Pure Cinema: Birth of the Hitchcock Style
Quiet City (Aaron Katz)
Rails & Ties
Redacted (Brian De Palma)
Rendition
Rocket Science
Roman de Gare
Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Eric Rohmer)
Shrek the Third
Sicko
Sleuth
Smiley Face (Gregg Araki)
Southland Tales (Richard Kelly)
Spike Jones: The Legend
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
Starting Out in the Evening
Sukiyaki Western Django
Superbad
Tai yang zhao chang sheng qi
Talk to Me
Taxi to the Dark Side
Team Picture (Kentucker Audley)
The Brave One
The Counterfeiters
The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk
The Duchess of Langeais (Jacques Rivette)
The Go-Getter
The Great Debaters
The Heartbreak Kid (Bobby and Peter Farrelly)
The Jane Austen Book Club
The Kite Runner
The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat)
The Man from London (Béla Tarr)
The Mist (Frank Darabont)
The Pool
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon
The Secrets
The Sun Also Rises (Jiang Wen)
The Tracey Fragments (Bruce McDonald)
The Wackness (Jonathan Levine)
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
The Witnesses (André Téchiné)
The Zone
Then She Found Me
Things We Lost in the Fire
Tout est pardonne (Mia Hansen-Løve)
Towelhead
Useless (Jia Zhang-ke)
We Own the Night (James Gray)
Weiss-O-Rama
Wolfsbergen (Nanouk Leopold)
XXY
You Kill Me
You, The Living (Roy Andersson)
Young@Heart

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2006.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

2006

1. Children of Men
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. Little Children
4. Paprika
5. Once
6. Syndromes and a Century
7. Army of Shadows*
8. The Lives of Others
9. Little Miss Sunshine
10. Paris Je T’aime
11. United 93
12. The Queen
13. Babel
14. This is England
15. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
16. Still Life*
17. Casino Royale
18. The Prestige
19. The Science of Sleep
20. The Departed
21. Stranger Than Fiction
22. The Host
23. Cars
24. Miami Vice
25. Marie Antoinette

• The Fall
• Half Nelson
• The Painted Veil
• A Prairie Home Companion (review)
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Marie Antoinette
• Offside
• Away from Her
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
• The Namesake
• Amazing Grace (review)
• Inland Empire
• The Illusionist
• Tell No One*
• The Wind that Shakes the Barley*
• Rescue Dawn*
• The Fountain
• Old Joy
• A Scanner Darkly (review)
• Flags of Our Fathers
• Private Fears in Public Places
• Longford
• Climates
• Inside Man
• Perfume: Story of a Murderer
• Black Snake Moan
• Manufactured Landscapes
• Volver
• Bella
• Monster House
• For Your Consideration
• God Grew Tired of Us
• The Black Dahlia
• Mission: Impossible III
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Wordplay
• Notes on a Scandal
• Penelope (review)
• Fay Grim
• The Second Chance
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• Akeelah and the Bee

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2006

10 Items or Less
12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu)
16 Blocks (Richard Donner)
300
A Comedy of Power (Claude Chabrol)
Adama Meshuga’at
After the Wedding
American Dreamz
Americanese
An Inconvenient Truth
An Unreasonable Man
Art School Confidential
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Been Rich All My Life
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (Takashi Miike)
Billy Wilder Speaks
Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
Blame it on Fidel
Bled Number One (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche)
Bobby
Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin)
Breaking and Entering
Broken Trail (Walter Hill)
Bug (William Friedkin)
Catch a Fire
Click
Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)
Crank (Neveldine/Taylor)
Curious George
Curse of the Golden Flower
Dans Paris
Daratt
Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
Days of Glory
Death of a President
Deep Water
Deja Vu (Tony Scott)
Delirious
Deliver Us from Evil
Distant (Zeki Demirkubuz)
Dreamgirls
Dreamland
Driving Lessons
Ejforija
Enemies of Happiness
Exiled (Johnny To)
Fallen
Fast Food Nation
Find Me Guilty (Sidney Lumet)
First Flight
Flandres
Flandres (Bruno Dumont)
Flicka
Flushed Away
Flyboys
Friends with Money
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
Hamilton (Matthew Porterfield)
Happy Feet
Heremias, Book One: The Legend of the Lizard Princess (Lav Diaz)
Hollywoodland
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)
I Served the King of England
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Idiocracy (Mike Judge)
I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay (Park Chan-wook)
In the Pit
Industrial Strength Keaton
Infamous
Invincible
Keeping Up with the Steins
Klimt (Raul Ruiz)
La Stella che non c’è
Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran)
Lake of Fire
Last Holiday
Lights in the Dusk
Longing (Valeska Grisebach)
Memories of Tomorrow
Millions: A Lottery Story
Miss Potter
Monkey Warfare
Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad)
Mushi-Shi
My Best Friend
My Country My Country
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
Open Season
Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho)
Priceless
Private Property
Puccini for Beginners
Quei loro incontri
Quinceañera
Rain Dogs (Ho Yuhang)
Rang De Basanti
Red Road
Renaissance
Reprise
Roving Mars
RV
Saving Shiloh
Scoop
Shortbus
Shut Up and Sing
Snakes on a Plane
Something New
Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akın)
South Pacific: In Concert from Carnegie Hall
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
Stephanie Daley
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Superman Returns
Svend Asmussen: The Extraordinary Life and Music of a Jazz Legend
The Astronaut Farmer
The Boss of It All (Lars Von Trier)
The Break-Up (Peyton Reed)
The Bridge
The Da Vinci Code
The Dead Girl
The Golden Door
The Good German (Steven Soderbergh)
The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro)
The Ground Truth
The Guardian
The History Boys
The Hoax
The Holiday
The Lake House
The Last Winter
The OH in Ohio
The Omen
The Pink Panther
The Poet Laureate of Radio
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Queen
The Road to Guantanamo
The Teacher (Brillante Mendoza)
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
The Untouchable
The World of Nat King Cole
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Time (Kim Ki-duk)
Todo todo teros (John Torres)
Toots
Vanaja
Venus
Vitus
Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo)
World Trade Center
You Called Me (Sky Hirschkron)

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2005.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

2005

1. The New World* (2nd review)
2. Into Great Silence*
   
3. Junebug
4. L’Enfant*
5. A History of Violence (review)
6. Mirrormask (review)
7. Three Times*
8. The Sun*
9. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
10. Munich
11. Caché
12. Brick
13. The Proposition*
14. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu*
15. Batman Begins
16. Pride and Prejudice
17. Capote
18. Broken Flowers
19. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
20. Serenity
21. Star Wars, Episode Three – Revenge of the Sith
22. Last Days
23. The White Diamond*
24. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
25. Grizzly Man
26. Match Point

• Joyeux Noël*
• Kingdom of Heaven
• The Ballad of Jack and Rose
• Sweet Land*
• Adam’s Apples
• Good Night and Good Luck
• Don’t Come Knocking
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose 
• The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada*
• Blue in Green*
• March of the Penguins
• Corpse Bride
• The Squid and the Whale
• Thank You for Smoking
• Walk the Line
• Touch the Sound*
• 49 Up
• Everything is Illuminated
• Bubble
• Heading South
• Tsotsi*
• Brokeback Mountain
• Syriana
• Lassie
• Shopgirl
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• The Descent
• The Puffy Chair
• Murderball
• War of the Worlds
• The Constant Gardener
• In Her Shoes
• Duma

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2005

12 and Holding
13 Tzameti
51 Birch Street
A Perfect Day (Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige)
An Unfinished Life
Aurora Borealis
Ballets russes
Battle in Heaven
Be with Me
Because of Winn-Dixie
Bee Season
Block Party (Michel Gondry)
Breakfast on Pluto
Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That
C.R.A.Z.Y. (Jean-Marc Vallée)
Casanova
Caveman: V. T. Hamlin & Alley Oop
Cigarette Burns
Conversations with Other Women
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
Dark Water
Derailed
Domino (Tony Scott)
Don’t Tell
Down in the Valley (David Jacobson)
Dreams in the Witch-House
Duane Hopwood
Edison: The Invention of the Movies
Edmond (Stuart Gordon)
Election (Johnny To)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Espelho Mágico
Factotum
Fatalista
Fateless
Fever Pitch
Flightplan
Forty Shades of Blue (Ira Sachs)
Four Brothers
Gabrielle (Patrice Chéreau)
Game 6
Garpastum
Grain in Ear (Zhang Lü)
Green Street Hooligans
Happy Endings
Hard Candy
House of Sand
Hustle & Flow
I Build the Tower: The Life and Work of Sam Rodia
I Giorni dell’abbandono
I’m the Angel of Death: Pusher III Brick (Rian Johnson)
Indio Nacional (Raya Martin)
Jarhead
Johanna (Kornel Mundruczo)
Keeping Mum
Kontroll
La Seconda notte di nozze
Lady Vengeance
Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)
Last Days (Gus Van Sant)
Le petit lieutenant (Xavier Beauvois)
Les Amants réguliers
Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita)
Live and Become
Loft (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Loggerheads
Lonesome Jim
Look Both Ways
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Lord of War
Lower City
Mad Hot Ballroom
Magic Mirror (Manoel de Oliveira)
Man Push Cart
Mary
Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July)
Memoirs of a Geisha
Monarch of the Moon
Mrs. Henderson Presents
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Mutual Appreciation (Andrew Bujalski)
Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki)
Nine Lives
North Country
North Diversion Road (Dennis Marasigan)
Obreras saliendo de la fábrica (Jose Luis Torres Leiva)
Oliver Twist
On a Clear Day
Oxhide (Liu Jiayin)
Paradise Now
Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie
Persona non grata
Pierrepoint
Prime
Princess Raccoon (Seijun Suzuki)
Proof
Red Eye
Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Romance & Cigarettes
Room (Kyle Henry)
Sahara (Breck Eisner)
Sa-kwa
Sangre (Amat Escalante)
Separate Lies
Shadowboxer
Shanghai Dreams
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Stay
Sweet Tornado: Margo Jones and the American Theater
Takeshis’ (Takeshi Kitano)
Tale of Cinema (Hong Sang-soo)
The Animation Show 2005
The Aristocrats
The Beat that My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard)
The Big White
The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (Auraeus Solito)
The Bondmaid
The Devil & Daniel Johnston
The Devil’s Rejects (Rob Zombie)
The Fall of Fujimori
The Family Stone
The Forsaken Land (Vimukthi Jayasundara)
The Great Raid (John Dahl)
The Greatest Game Ever Played
The Heart of the Game
The Ice Harvest
The Interpreter
The King
The Matador
The Notorious Bettie Page
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
The Producers
The Promise (Chen Kaige)
The Real Dirt on Farmer John
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
The Songwriters Collection
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang)
The Weather Man
The World’s Fastest Indian
Thumbsucker
Transamerica
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
Two for the Money
Unknown White Male
Valiant
Wassup Rockers (Larry Clark)
Water
Who’s Camus Anyway (Mitsuo Yanagimachi)
Why We Fight
Winter Passing
Wolf Creek (Greg McLean)
Zathura