The movies are finally back in theaters in a big way! While streaming services do continue to contribute some much-needed variety to the film ecosystem, I was able to catch a ton of my favorites in theaters in 2022. There have been a lot of big swings in film this year, some of which paid off, and others… not so much. More than most years, I feel there are even more diamonds in the the rough that I haven’t been able to catch yet. Here are my favorites of the 60 new films I saw in 2022.
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While the movie-going status quo has changed significantly, 2021 welcomed us back to movie theaters and saw the return of blockbusters in a big way. Many of the larger films were holdovers unreleased in 2020, while indie films from the festival circuit continued to get major platforms on streaming services. Of the record 85 films I saw this year, I’d say around 2/3rds of them were from home, but most of my favorite experiences of the year were still in theaters. Here are my picks for favorite movies of 2021:
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What a year. There are about a thousand things from 2020 that are more important to talk about than the state of movies, but that’s what I’m going to write about. I saw a record 81 movies from the 2020 season, thanks to a combination of accessibility, length of the Oscar season (it’s April….), and too much dang time spent at home. Of course, the downside from a movie-going perspective is that all of those movies were seen at home. Of the 13 movies in this article, I saw literally all of them from my couch. So what movies had an emotional impact on me from the comfort of my living room? Here is my [spoiler-free] take on 2020.
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2019 was one of the best years for film of the decade thanks to a late surge in quality towards the end of the year. I saw a personal record of 78 movies this year, and had an incredibly difficult time putting together this list. As always, this will be a [spoiler-free] take on the films in question. Without further ado: (more…)
2018 was an extremely rich year for very good movies, even while perhaps lacking in true masterpieces. Somehow when making this list, I went from not having enough films to fill it in November to making extremely difficult cuts in February. Out of the 61 movies I saw this year, it was very difficult to narrow the list to only 10 (plus four extras), and there are probably another dozen that could easily be swapped in. Here are my favorites of the year.
Even as the general box office continues to decline, the overall quality of films continued to impress in 2017. It was a great year for genre filmmaking in particular, with several comedies and horror films surfacing as a cut above the rest. This will be mostly [spoiler-free], with a few spoilers marked appropriately. Of the 53 films I saw in 2017, here were my favorites:
2016 was a movie year with interesting dichotomies. On the one hand, many studio films and sequels fell flat (particularly over the summer). On the other hand, it was a fantastic year for independent cinema, surprise original genre hits, and social/political documentaries. For me personally, it was the first year I attended the Sundance Film Festival, and managed to see a personal best 75 films released this year. Of those films, here were my favorites (presented here as [spoiler-free] unless otherwise noted).
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We’re two months into 2016, and I finally feel that I’ve seen enough 2015 films to put together a top 10 list (just in time for the Oscars). More than ever, last year had a ton of variety in its excellent films, and the lists that I have seen do not have a strong overlap with one another. I’ve watched 62 new releases from 2015 (by far a personal record), and yet there are still several high-profile films that I’ve missed and thus couldn’t include. Without further ado, here is my list:
Backseat Directing 