by Ken Bakely

Looking back after a year has passed, I’m always tentative when it comes to publishing a top 10 list. There are always more movies to catch up on, and when it comes down to it, even if I had gotten the chance to see everything I was possibly interested in seeing, we’re still dealing with the intrinsically odd and imperfect pursuit of ranking such disparate works. 

But I think there is a reason for doing this: sharing the movies that have stood out and impressed can be a valuable guide in a time when a seemingly endless assembly line of titles cascades across the queues of streaming services, subject to the whims of The Algorithm on whether people will actually find out about them. At the core, this is a chance to discuss movies, person-to-person, with some regularity. We can mark the time that has passed and make recommendations. It’s why I always look forward to participating on the year-end podcast over at Film Pulse, in which we share and compare our top 10 lists in detail; I’ll only include my list below, without further comment. For more discussion, you can listen to this year’s episode here.