Dynamic Top Tens of 2020

[swo17]

01 I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
02 Les Choses qu'on dit, les choses qu'on fait (Emmanuel Mouret)
03 Careless Crime (Shahram Mokri)
04 Gunda (Viktor Kossakovsky)
05 Si yo fuera el invierno mismo (Jazmín López)
06 Last and First Men (Jóhann Jóhannsson)
07 World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (Don Hertzfeldt)
08 Soul (Pete Docter)
09 Movie That Invites Pausing (Ken Jacobs)
10 The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)

11 Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
12 First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
13 Charter (Amanda Kernell)
14 Kala azar (Janis Rafailidou)
15 Maat Means Land (Fox Maxy)
16 The Midnight Gospel (Pendleton Ward)
17 Sin señas particulares (Fernanda Valadez)
18 Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
19 Haim: Man from the Magazine (P.T. Anderson)
20 Time (Garrett Bradley)
21 Point and Line to Plane (Sofia Bohdanowicz)
22 Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (Jia Zhangke)
23 The Oculus Opens (Peter Rose)
24 Softcore (Kristoffer Borgli)
25 Former Cult Member Hears Music for the First Time (Kristoffer Borgli)

Last edited Jul 24, 2023

[DarkImbecile]

Top Ten:
1. Beanpole (Balagov) 90/100
2. First Cow (Reichardt) 82/100
3. Sound of Metal (Marder) 78/100
4. Bad Education (Finley) 76/100
5. The Assistant (Green) 74/100
6. Emma. (de Wilde) 73/100
7. Bacurau (Dornelles, Mendonça Filho) 73/100
8. Gretel and Hansel (Perkins) 72/100
9. The Invisible Man (Whannell) 70/100
10. Apples (Nikou) 70/100

Also Seen (in order of quality):
Minari (Chung) 70/100
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman) 70/100
Promising Young Woman 69/100
Nomadland (Zhao) 69/100
The Lodge (Fiala; Franz) 67/100
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao) 63/100
The Gentlemen (Ritchie) 62/100
Yes, God, Yes (Maine) 62/100
Tenet (Nolan) 61/100
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Sorkin) 58/100
Da 5 Bloods (Lee) 57/100
The Last Vermeer (Friedkin) 55/100
Lovebirds (Showalter) 54/100
Bad Boys For Life (El Arbi; Fallah) 35/100
Ava (Taylor) 29/100

Watchlist :
Must See: Mank (Fincher);

Should See: Ammonite (Lee); The Devil All the Time (Campos); The Last Thing He Wanted (Rees); The Nest (Durkin); News of the World (Greengrass); Nomadland (Zhao); On the Rocks (Coppola); Rebecca (Wheatley);

Maybe: Greyhound (Schneider); Kajillionaire (July); Let Them All Talk (Soderbergh); The Rhythm Section (Morano); Shirley (Decker);

Previously: 2019.2018.2017.2016.2015.2014.2013.2012.2011.2010.2009

UPDATED: 7/23/2021

[domino harvey]

01 Tout le monde a raison (Emmanuel Mouret)
02 First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
03 La Belle Époque (Nicolas Bedos)
04 Roubaix, une lumière (Arnaud Desplechin)
05 La Pièce rapportée (Antonin Peretjatko)
06 Le discours d'acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin (Benjamin Crotty)
07 Chambre 212 (Christophe Honoré)

PAST LISTS 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 - 2000

LAST UPDATED 02/20/2024

[mfunk9786]

01. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman)
02. Da 5 Bloods (Lee)
03. First Cow (Reichardt)
04. The Lodge (Fiala/Franz)
05. The Queen's Gambit (Frank)
06. She Dies Tomorrow (Seimetz)
07. Tenet (Nolan)
08. Swallow (Mirabella-Davis)
09. Another Round (Vinterberg)
10. The Invisible Man (Whannell)

LAST UPDATED: 10/28/2021

Past lists: 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007

[LQ]

1. First Cow
2. Da 5 Bloods
3. Beanpole
4. She Dies Tomorrow
5. The Lodge
6. Palm Springs
7. The Invisible Man
8. Swallow
9. Nomadland
10. I'm Thinking of Ending Things

[knives]

1. City Hall (Wiseman)
2. O Fabula (Jude)
3. The Father (Zeller)
4. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
5. Borat 2
6. Wolfwalkers
7. The Trial of the Chicago 7
8. Freaky
9. Riders of Justice (Jensen)
10. France Against the Robots (Straub)

[Never Cursed]

1. Trouble Don't Last Always (Sam Levinson)
2. La vérité (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
3. Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux)
4. Perdrix (Erwan Le Duc)
5. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
6. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
7. Le Discours d'acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin (Benjamin Crotty)
8. Roubaix, une Lumière (Arnaud Desplechin)
9. Spree (Eugene Kotlyarenko)
10. Saint Maud (Rose Glass)

ALSO SEEN: After We Collided (Roger Kumble), Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee), Emma. (Autumn de Wilde), The Human Voice (Pedro Almodóvar), I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman), Mank (David Fincher), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe), Minari (Lee Isaac Chung), Nomadland (Chloe Zhao), Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell), Strasbourg 1518 (Jonathan Glazer), The Stunt Double (Damien Chazelle), Taylor Swift: Miss Americana (Lana Wilson)

Other lists: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018

[therewillbeblus]

1. Ema (Pablo Larraín)
2. Trouble Don't Last Always (Sam Levinson)
3. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
4. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
5. World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (Don Hertzfeldt)
6. The Midnight Gospel (Pendleton Ward)
7. Tout le monde a raison (Emmanuel Mouret)
8. Perdrix (Erwan Le Duc)
9. Tommaso (Abel Ferrara)
10. Le daim (Quentin Dupieux)

Past lists: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005-2000

[bjboyer]

1. News of the World (Paul Greengrass)
2. Palm Springs (Max Barbakow)
3. Mank (David Fincher)
4. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
5. Soul (Pete Docter)
6. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
7. David Byrne's American Utopia (Spike Lee)
8. Emma. (Autumn de Wilde)
9. The Personal History of David Copperfield (Armando Iannucci)
10. The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson

[hearthesilence]

1. Vitalina Varela
2. First Cow
3. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
4. Tommaso
5. MLK/FBI
6. Small Axe: Red, White and Blue
7. City Hall
8. Da 5 Bloods
9. Small Axe: Mangrove
10. Minari

[soundchaser]

1. Vitalina Varela (Costa)
2. Le Daim (Dupieux)
3. Chambre 212 (Honoré)
4. Tout le monde a raison (Mouret)
5. Dick Johnson Is Dead (Johnson)
6. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Hittman)
7. What Did Jack Do? (Lynch)
8. The Father (Zeller)
9. Jeanne (Dumont)
10. The Kid Detective (Morgan)

Good: En Liberté! (Salvadori), Yes, God, Yes (Maine), Promising Young Woman (Fennell)

Okay: She Dies Tomorrow (Seimetz)

Bad: Eric Andre: Legalize Everything (Notarnicola), Tiger King (Goode & Chaiklin)

[Glowingwabbit]

1. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)
2. Tommaso (Abel Ferrara)
3. Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)
4. Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho/Juliano Dornelles)
5. Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux)
6. Chambre 212 (Christophe Honoré)
7. She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
8. Perdrix (Erwan Le Duc)
9. Tout le monde a raison (Emmanuel Mouret)
10. Shirley (Josephine Decker)

[Omensetter]

01. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
02. Beginning
03. Quo Vadis, Aida?
04. The Salt of Tears
05. Tesla
06. The Woman Who Ran
07. Kajillionaire
08. Undine
09. Days
10. PVT Chat

Runners-up: The Kid Detective; Tenet; Another Round, New Order, The Trouble with Being Born, Slow Machine, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Minari; Small Axe

Not a Fan: Nomadland, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Shiva Baby, The Human Voice, One Night in Miami...; Palm Springs; She Dies Tomorrow; Sweat; My Salinger Year; American Utopia; Careless Crime; Uppercase Print

Rubbish: Promising Young Woman, On the Rocks, Dick Johnson Is Dead, @zola, Time; Mank; The Father; Rifkin's Festival

2021—2020—2019—2018—2017—2016—2015—2014—2013—2012—2011

[The Narrator Returns]

1. Let Them All Talk (Soderbergh)
2. First Cow (Reichardt)
3. Kajillionaire (July)
4. The History of the Seattle Mariners (Bois)
5. Fourteen (Sallitt)
6. On the Rocks (Coppola)
7. Lovers Rock (McQueen)
8. Mank (Fincher)
9. Tenet (Nolan)
10. Bad Education (Finley)

Also seen (ranked)
She Dies Tomorrow (Seimetz)
Shirley (Decker)
The Invisible Man (Whannell)
The Nest (Durkin)
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Yan)
Hubie Halloween (Brill)
Tesla (Almereyda)
The Glorias (Taymor)
The Way Back (O'Connor)
The Witches (Zemeckis)
The Old Guard (Prince-Bythewood)
The Roads Not Taken (Potter)

Unranked
What Did Jack Do? (Lynch)
Goldman v Silverman (Safdies)

[wattsup32]

1. The Invisible Man

[goblinfootballs]

1. Days
2. Bacurau
3. First Cow
4. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
5. This is not a Burial, It's a Resurrection
6. Vitalina Varela
7. And Then They Danced
8. The Wild Goose Lake
9. Beanpole
10. Martin Eden

[TheDudeAbides]

1) Sound of Metal (Marder)
2) Possessor (Cronenberg)
3) The Lodge (Fiala & Franz)
4) The Empty Man (Prior)
5) I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman)
6) The Invisible Man (Wannell)
7) The Platform (Gaztelu-Urrutia)
8) His House (Weeks)
9) The Gentlemen (Ritchie)
10)Nomadland (Zhao)

Honourable Mentions:
Palm Springs (Barbakow)
Tenet (Nolan)
#Alive (Cho)
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (Cummings)
She Dies Tomorrow (Seimetz)
If Anything Happens I Love You (McCormack)
Relic (James)

Good:
12 Hour Shift (Grant)
Host (Savage)
Borat Subsequent Movie film (Woliner)
Vampires vs. the Bronx (Rodriguez)
Saint Maud (Glass)

Decent:
Greenland (Waugh)
The Hunt (Zobel)
Nocturne (Quirke)
The Wretched (Pierce, Pierce)
The Block Island Sound (McManus, McManus)

Bad:
The Rental (Franco)
Assimilate (Murlowski)
Come Play (Chase)
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (Yan)
The Midnight Sky (Clooney)
Impractical Jokers: The Movie (Henchy) - The show is a 10/10, no need for scripted humour with these guys though.
Hillbilly Elegy (Howard)
Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight (Kowalski)

Garbage:
Death of Me (Bousman)
The Grudge (Pesce)
Fantasy Island (Wadlow)

2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012

[D50]

01 I'm Thinking of Ending Things
02 Le Daim / Deerskin
03 First Cow
04 Beanpole
05 Perdrix / The Bare Necessity
06 The Vast of Night
07 The Whistlers
08 Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind
09 The Assistant
10 Sacred Cow

11 My Octopus Teacher
12 The Trip to Greece
13 The Phenomenon
14 Lights in the Sky
15 Challenger: The Final Flight
16 Wade in the Water
17 Gretel & Hansel
18 The Professor and the Madman
19 Tenet
20 Battle of the Bulge: Winter War

21 André & his Olive Tree
22 The Color Out of Space

2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

[Dr Amicus]

Based on UK release as usual:

1) A Personal History of David Copperfield (Armando Iannucci)
2) The Orphanage (Shahrbanoo Sadat)
3) Days of the Bagnold Summer (Simon Bird)
4) Last and First Men (Jóhann Jóhannsson)
5) JoJo Rabbit (Taika Waititi)
6) One Night in Miami (Regina King)
7) Saint Maud (Rose Glass)
8) Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
9) White Riot (Rubika Shah)
10) Host (Rob Savage)

[Finch]

1. Black Bear
2. Possessor
3. Wolfwalkers
4. The Wolf of Snow Hollow
5. Relic
6. Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes
7. The Invisible Man
8. Freaky
9. Shiva Baby
10. Riders of Justice

11. Nomadland
12. Da 5 Bloods
13. Night of the Kings
14. My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To
14. Violation
16. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
17. His House
18. The Surrogate
19. Shirley
20. Host
21. The Old Guard

Liked: Hunter Hunter, I'm Your Woman, I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, Alone, The Outpost

Disappointed by: Gretel & Hansel, Anything for Jackson, Promising Young Woman

Hated:

Grisliest scene in a movie: Possessor would have easily won this were it not for the final ten minutes of Hunter Hunter

Still to see: Babyteeth, Palm Springs, Shithouse, Fourteen, Time, Dick Johnson Is Dead, The Nest, We Are Little Zombies, House of Hummingbirds, Tommaso, The Amusement Park, Another Round, Martin Eden, Mr. Jones,

[Altair]

1. Tenet
2. Emma.
3. Shiva Baby
4. Da 5 Bloods
5. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
6. Mank
7. The Trial of the Chicago 7
8. Enola Holmes
9. Rebecca
10. Artemis Fowl
...
11. Mulan

[willoneill]

1. Trial of the Chicago 7 (A. Sorkin)
2. Promising Young Woman (E. Fennell)
3. First Cow (K. Reichardt)
4. The Nest (S. Durkin)
5. Da 5 Bloods (S. Lee)
6. Mank (D. Fincher)
7. Tenet (C. Nolan)
8. Another Round (T. Vinterberg)
9. Palm Springs (M. Barbakow)
10. Minari (L.I. Chung)

also good: Ammonite; Bill & Ted Face the Music; Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; The Devil All the Time; The Father; Greyhound; Guest of Honour; Happiest Season; Let Them Al Talk; Lovers Rock; Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Mangrove; Possessor; Sound of Metal; The Way Back

meh: I'm Thinking of Ending Things; On the Rocks; One Night in Miami; Seberg; The Midnight Sky; Totally Under Control; Wonder Woman '84

really bad: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn; Hillbilly Elegy

classics at the cinema: 8 1/2; 2001: A Space Odyssey; And Now For Something Completely Different; The Big Boss; Come and See; Crash (‘96); Danger: Diabolik; Dawn of the Dead ('78 - Cannes cut); Destroy All Monsters; El Topo; The Empire Strikes Back; Enter the Dragon; Fist of Fury; Game of Death; Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster; Godzilla; Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla; Gremlins; Killer Workout (aka Aerobicide); Marnie; Memories of Murder; Prince of Darkness; Robocop ('87); The Shop Around the Corner; Super Fly; Tammy and the T-Rex; They Live; The Thing ('82); The Untouchables; The Way of the Dragon

[junior]

1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
2. On the Rocks
3. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
4. Tenet
5. Happiest Season
6. The Invisible Man
7. Wonder Woman 1984
8. Palm Springs
9. Underwater
10. The Lovebirds

Still need to see: First Cow, Mank, Soul, The Woman Who Ran

Last updated: 12/27/2020

[Grand Wazoo]

1. Lingua Franca
2. Another Round
3. Notturno
4. Taipei Suicide Story
5. I'm Thinking of Ending Things

[phred2321]

1. Palm Springs
2. First Cow
3. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
4. Soul
5. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
6. Mank
7. News of the World
8. Mangrove
9. The Trial of the Chicago 7
10. Da 5 Bloods