Happy Holidays to you and yours. This season brings forth time-honored traditions of attempting to take it easy at work to spend time with loved ones, and compiling the year-end “Best Of” list and debate online whether or not it’s been a good year for movies.
READ MORE: The 100 Best Films Of The Decade
I’m speaking generally, of course. There are two firmly-held beliefs I have when it comes to making a “Best Of” list that you could tattoo on my forehead, carve on my tombstone, etc. One, every year is a good year for the cinema if you look hard enough, and two, list-making is both an absolute blast, and the most perfunctory thing in covering the film industry. It always works best as a time capsule, and not etched in stone. Not all the films on your list you’ll look back fondly on in five, ten, twenty years down the road. It’s impossible to see everything in a given year, so you’ll likely see something you missed down the line that would maybe be your number one in retrospect.
Anyways, I’m rambling. As I’ve done with the past two years, I’ve made my Top 25 list in video form. There’s no extra credit or brownie points for doing so; I do it because I have a great time putting it together, and those who have followed the ones I’ve done in the last two years (bless you) have generally given positive feedback, so I’ll keep doing it. Without further ado, check out the video below. Watch it, share it, enjoy, and once again, Happy Holidays.
25. “Us”
24. “Everybody’s Everything”
23. “The Peanut Butter Falcon”
22. “Booksmart”
21. “Gloria Bell”
20. “Knives Out”
19. “The Beach Bum”
18. “Dolemite is My Name”
17. “Non-Fiction”
16. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
15. “Honey Boy”
14. “Luce”
13. “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
12. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
11. “High Life”
10. “Queen & Slim”
9. “Black Mother”
8. “Marriage Story”
7. “The Lighthouse”
6. “The Farewell”
5. “Ad Astra”
4. “In Fabric”
3. “Uncut Gems”
2. “Parasite”
1. “The Irishman”