Favorite films you watched last year

[Stavrogyn]

For a few years now I've been making brief lists of my favorite films that I've seen each year. They don't have to be released during that specific year, and they're still eligible if I already watched them before. The only thing that I take into consideration is the following: what were the 5 best film-related experiences that I had during a certain year?

Here are my lists.

2020:

1. Mulholland Drive (2001.), David Lynch
2. Breaking the Waves (1996.), Lars von Trier
3. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020.), Charlie Kaufman
4. Idioterne (1998.), Lars von Trier
5. Call Me By Your Name (2017.), Luca Guadagnino

2021:

1. In the Mood for Love (2000.), Wong Kar-wai
2. Chungking Express (1994.), Wong Kar-wai
3. Nymphomaniac: director's cut (2013), Lars von Trier
4. Crash (1996.), David Cronenberg
5. Manderlay (2005.), Lars von Trier

2022:

1. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991.), Leos Carax
2. Trois couleurs : Bleu (1993.), Krzysztof Kieślowski
3. Trois couleurs : Blanc (1994.), Krzysztof Kieślowski
4. Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle (1967.), Jean-Luc Godard
5. Pola X (1999.), Leos Carax

What are your favorites? (Feel free to modify the rules if you'd like to.)

 

[Jordan Cole]

Keeping it at 5 is very difficult as lately I've been watching over 100 movies a year. So my thing is I keep a list of EVERY movie I watch in the year (since about 2015 or 2016) because otherwise I forget everything.

So since I already post stuff like this on my social media, I'll just copy and paste but narrow it down. It's too much work for me to put all the years/directors (though I DO do that night-of on my Instagram as I'm watching) though I put the year if there's multiple films with the title.

And I don't know if we want to be negative, but I also make worst of the year list, which I think is fun.

Some of my favorite movies I watched in 2022 with a 4.5 or 5 star score:

Blood Diner
Blow-Up
Tremors
Fantastic Planet
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Raw Force
Shock
The Astrologer (1976)
A Bucket of Blood
First Blood
Tenebre
Trancers
Top Gun: Maverick
Slumber Party Massacre II
Deathdream
Fortress
The Funhouse
Ænigma
Amityville II: The Possession
Trick ’r Treat
Demolition Man
The Fabelmans
------

Same thing, 2021:

Deathtrap
Chef
It Should Happen To You
Prince of Darkness
Femme Fatale
Blue Ruin
Charade
The Kid Detective
The Smiling Lieutenant
From Noon Till Three
Crimes of Passion
Straight Time
Doppelganger
Xtro
Notorious
Point Blank
The Amusement Park
Deep Red
The Witch Who Came From The Sea
Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell
Dragged Across Concrete
The Little Shop Of Horrors (1960)
Cemetery Man
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Fear and Desire
All That Jazz
White Heat
Persona
The Perfume of the Lady Black
The French Dispatch
Cure
The Exorcist 3
Little Fugitive
Oculus
Licorice Pizza
Belle De Jour
-----------------

2020 (so this is by memory, I didn't make the 4.5/5 list)

Uncut Gems
Castle Freak
Body Double (1984)
Horse Girl
Written on the Wind (1956)
Hatchet For The Honeymoon (1970)
Darkman (1990)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Spider Baby (1968)
The Beyond (1981)
Stuck (2007)
The Window (1949)
Strangers On A Train (1951) (rewatch)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
The Living Dead Girl (1982)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) (rewatch)
Phantasm (1979)
Laura (1944)
Bone Tomahawk
Alice (1988) (rewatch)
Messiah Of Evil (1973) (rewatch)
The Tenant (1976)
Girlfriends (1978)
Dressed To Kill (1980)
The Age Of Innocence (1993)
The Ambulance (1990)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sisters (1972)
The Silver Cord (1933)
Trees Lounge (1996) (rewatch)
Shattered Glass (2003)
Omega Man (1971)
Breakdown (1997)
Victim (1961)
Final Destination 2 (2003)
The Swimmer (1968)
Hardcore (1979)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933º
What Price Hollywood? (1932)
The Servant (1963)
Candyman (1992)
Cat People (1942)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Dial M For Murder (1954)
Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
The Awful Truth (1937)
The King of New York (1990)
The Juniper Tree (1990)
The Stepfather (1987)
The Others (2001)
Masque of the Red Death (1964)
The Baby (1973)
Kwaidan (1964)
Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971)
Onibaba (1964)
In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
Near Dark (1987)
Motel Hell (1980) (rewatch)
Puppet Master (1989)
The Wicker Man (1973) (rewatch)
Vertigo (1958) (rewatch)
Dead Ringer (1964)
Final Destination 3 (2006)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Frenzy (1972)
eXistenZ (1999)
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Unhinged (2020)
Black Christmas (1974)
Christmas Evil (1980) (rewatch)
High and Low (1963)
Metropolis (1927)
New York, New York (1977)
Good Time (2017)
----------------------


2019:

Cold War
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
The Irishman
Wild Strawberries (1957)
The Love Witch
Dolls (1987)
Personal Shopper
The Stranger (1946)
Q, The Winged Serpent (1982)
The Bicycle Thieves
The Clovehitch Killer
Sudden Fear (1952)
The Shiver of the Vampires (1971)
Seconds (1966)
Requiem For A Vampire (1971)
The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
The Third Man (1949)
Cape Fear (1962)
The Innocent (1961)
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
The Gate (1987)
The Dark Old House (1932)
Only Lovers Left Alive
Blow Out (1981)
Marriage Story
One Cut Of The Dead
In Fabric
Ad Astra
I Married A Witch (1942)
Duel (1971)
Heat (1995)
King Kong (1933)
---------------------

2018:
I, Tonya
Isle of Dogs
First Reformed
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Ingrid Goes West
The Video Dead
The Grapes of Wrath
Munich
The Beguiled
Manhunter
Freddy Got Fingered
Scarecrow
A Taste of Honey
John Wick 2
Cult of Chucky
From Beyond
The Zero Theorem
Don't Breathe
M
High Noon
Possession
Mean Streets
-----------------

2017:

Mother!
Phantom Thread
Manchester By The Sea
War for the Planet of the Apes
A Ghost Story
Logan Lucky
The Deer Hunter
Catch Me If You Can
Funny Games
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Badlands (1973)
Something Wild
Forbidden World (1982)
Curse of Chucky
Paterson
Nocturnal Animals
Demons (1985)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
While We're Young
Welcome To Me
Brawl in Cell Block 99
Killers Kiss (1955)
Dune (1984)
A Woman Under The Influence (1974)
------------------

2016:
Anomalisa
10 Cloverfield Lane
Green Room
Captain America: Civil War
The Handmaiden
Arrival
Zombi
TerrorVision
The Witch
The Fits
Room
Clear History
Unfriended
Broadcast News
Dope
Frank
Bowfinger
Bringing Out The Dead
Intruder (1989)
Child's Play 2
Bride of Chucky
The House On Sorority Row (1982)
Dirty Harry
--------------------

2015:
The Hateful Eight
It Follows
Big Eyes
Whiplash
Lucy
Nightcrawler
Boxcar Bertha
House (1977)
Marty (1955)
Attack the Block
Final Destination
Nightmare On Elm Street 1-4
White House Down
The Imposter
The Thin Blue Line
Mirage Men
--------------------

2014 is when I started writing stuff down, and before I got obsessed with watching tons of movies all year, so very incomplete and a very blockbuster-heavy list:

The Lego Movie
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Gone Girl
The One I Love
They Came Together
The Babadook

 

[Jackwithoneeye]

2022

some films i watched , or rewatched, and really liked, and felt like the experience
of watching it really left an impression on me.

The Trial (1962)- restoration reissue as DCP. I'd seen this on VHS back in the day, but it's a different experience watching this in theater.
The Searchers (1956) - saw a 35mm print of it for the first time
My Love Affair with Marriage (2022)
The Ordinaries (2022)
Beau Travail (1998)
Como Miramos (2021)
Nuts in May (1976)
Suspiria (1977)
Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Too Old to Die Young (2019, debatable whether a film or TV, but whatever, really quite an experience)
Watership Down (1978)
Crossroads (1976)
Hide and Seek (1996)
Constant (2022)
Outer Space (1999)

 

[Stavrogyn]

Thank you for your input! @Jordan Cole, I also keep track of everything I watch in a year, which includes feature and short films, TV series, televised plays and concerts, etc. I enter the date I've seen it, the original title, the year it was released, the version and its runtime (if there are multiple), and the name of the director.

I've been doing that since 2006, and the first film I ever entered was Terry Gilliam's Brazil, on January 3rd. The funny thing is that, since I'm 32 and the list is now 17 years old, I've been keeping it for more than half my life.

I keep it in a notebook, not on my computer. But I take a photo of every page after it's full just to have a copy.

Here's an example of what it looks like:

 

[MasterMastermnd]

2022:
Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul
Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
Jammin' the Blues
Midsommar
Stille Nacht IV: Are We Still Married?
Honorable mention for the series Revolutionary Girl Utena

2021:
Dune, Part 1
The House That Jack Built
To Live and Die in LA
Paris is Burning
Zack Snyder's Justice League
Honorable mention to the series Watchmen

Don't have anything recorded in this regard prior to that.

 

[Stavrogyn]

@MasterMastermnd I've seen The House That Jack Built, Watchmen, and Dune, Part 1, but haven't even heard of most of the titles you mention

Von Trier is always good. Watchmen I did enjoy, but I find the original comic book much better (although I haven't read it in its entirety). Dune I didn't like very much.

 

[Stavrogyn]

Too Old to Die Young (2019, debatable whether a film or TV, but whatever, really quite an experience)

I'm glad to hear this because I already looked forward to watching it.

Have you seen his newest series, on Netflix?

 

[Jordan Cole]

Watchmen I did enjoy, but I find the original comic book much better (although I haven't read it in its entirety).

?!?!?

Read the whole thing...It's not even long! Check out some of Moore's other work while you're at it. Not that Watchmen isn't an achievement, but much of his stuff that's as good or better is often ignored.

To Live and Die in LA is awesome. Incredible 80s sleaze. Just a miserable, scummy, filthy movie. Loved it.

 

[MasterMastermnd]

Need to get caught up on Refn. Haven't seen anything since Only God Forgives, which I did like.

Jammin' the Blues is an old short film showcasing jazz. Great composition and music. I think you can find it on YouTube. Stille Nacht IV is the fourth in a series of stop-motio shorts from the Brothers Quay. It's also on YouTube and they're all highly recommended.

I'd recommend Evangelion to any fan of Twin Peaks. It's an anime available on Netflix. It has an original 26 episode series and a concluding movie, then decades later they retold the story in a series of four films. Joel Bocko has likened these later films, the so-called Rebuild of Evangelion, to Twin Peaks: The Return in how it riffs on and interacts with the original work.

Paris is Burning is a hilarious documentary about the New York drag scene of the late 80s. I was privileged enough to get to see it in a theatrical screening with a Q and A from some of the members of the House of LaBeija featured in the film.

 

[Jordan Cole]

I'd recommend Evangelion to any fan of Twin Peaks. It's an anime available on Netflix. It has an original 26 episode series and a concluding movie, then decades later they retold the story in a series of four films. Joel Bocko has likened these later films, the so-called Rebuild of Evangelion, to Twin Peaks: The Return in how it riffs on and interacts with the original work.

My fiance showed me Evangelion a few years ago but I just couldn't get into it. I particularly disliked the last several episodes which had no animation or story, it seemed like, and was just kind of philosophizing nonstop. I just couldn't keep watching them. We may have stopped before the very end. Never checked out the movies. I'd be willing to give it another chance if they have more of a narrative.

 

[Stavrogyn]

Read the whole thing...It's not even long!

I stopped at the moment when I was invested in the story the most, but it happened because I was still a student back then and I had to write a paper about Jacques Derrida, so I thought yeah, let's focus on my duties first.

But I bought a big and beautiful edition in the meantime, so I'll read it from the beginning to the end at some point.

 

[MasterMastermnd]

My fiance showed me Evangelion a few years ago but I just couldn't get into it. I particularly disliked the last several episodes which had no animation or story, it seemed like, and was just kind of philosophizing nonstop. I just couldn't keep watching them. We may have stopped before the very end. Never checked out the movies. I'd be willing to give it another chance if they have more of a narrative.

To me this final stretch of the series is its peak. As the characters' lives fall apart, as the situation grows dangerously out of control and they find themselves wrapped up in this Eldritch conspiracy of broken men, the way their desperate search for answers leads to the complete deconstruction of the narrative and genre contrivances which separate audience from artist is rapturous for me. The way it all snaps back into place in the most brutal way imaginable in the concluding film End of Evangelion is the surrealist cherry on top.

The newer films carry a lot of these same threads and themes and work them into something indeed a bit more narrative-driven.

 

[Jordan Cole]

I stopped at the moment when I was invested in the story the most, but it happened because I was still a student back then and I had to write a paper about Jacques Derrida, so I thought yeah, let's focus on my duties first.

But I bought a big and beautiful edition in the meantime, so I'll read it from the beginning to the end at some point.

Then read From Hell...It's my number 1 favorite book of all time.

 

[MasterMastermnd]

Also pick almost any edition of From Hell and it has some of the very best cover art in comic history.

 

[Jordan Cole]

Also pick almost any edition of From Hell and it has some of the very best cover art in comic history.

Errr well hold on, do not pick the horrible colorized edition. Pick the original black and white one. Please. The colorized one was sacrilege. Like if someone colored The Elephant Man or something. I was completely shocked the artist did this. I'm always baffled when an artist doesn't seem to understand the value or meaning of their own work. Missed the whole point of the stark black and white imagery.

And if you're interested, my preferred way of reading the book is to read a chapter, then Moore's annotations for that chapter, then the next one, then annotations, etc, etc. It was incredibly rewarding, haunting, fascinating. Or perhaps reading the whole thing and then the annotations works too. But you do need two bookmarks really. This and Providence are incredible books but are kind of "work" to really get the full picture.

 

[Stavrogyn]

I don't think I ever read a full comic besides many entries from this series:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/308060-introducing-graphic-guides

Watchmen was a completely new thing for me.

 

[Jordan Cole]

Watchmen as many people's first comic book is a very fascinating thing. It makes total sense, but at the same time, so much of Watchmen is about subverting comics history and playing with the form of sequential storytelling in bold, groundbreaking and poetic ways to those familiar with the medium, that I do wonder if a lot of that stuff is sinking in to new readers. It's also a book that really benefits from multiple reads. I'd almost say it has to be read more than once...and flipped through back and forth again and again, the reader in command of time and space just as Dr. Manhattan is, which is what that character is kind of reflecting in a metaphorical and/or structural sense...From Hell and Providence explores similar cosmic territory. And Promethea. Or actually almost everything Moore has written...hmm.

I basically read hundreds of comics every year (and a handful of not comic books as well.) I'm always happy to recommend some. I also have a Goodreads but lately I've been reading kinda crappy ones so you'd just see a bunch of bad reviews!