Cinema Scope Top Tens (Approximations by Release Year)

2005

1. Caché (Michael Haneke, 3)
2. Land of the Dead (George A. Romero, 4)
3. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 7)
4. The New World (Terrence Malick, 9)

2006

1. L’Enfant (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2005, 1)
2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005, 2)
3. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 4)
4. Borat (Larry Charles, 5)
5. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 7)
6. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005, 9)
7. Inland Empire (David Lynch, 9)
8. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt, 10)

2007

1. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006, 1)
2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1)
3. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven (2006, 2)
4. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2)
5. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, 2006, 3)
6. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel, 2005, 5)
7. The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006, 8)

2008

1. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 3)
2. In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, 2007, 5)
3. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant, 2007, 5)
4. Profit motive and the whispering wind (John Gianvito, 2007, 6)
5. Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho, 2006, 6)
6. My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007, 7)
7. Ballast (Lance Hammer, 7)
8. La France (Serge Bozon, 2007, 9)
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007, 10)

2009

1. Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, 2008, 1)
2. Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu, 1)
3. Birdsong (Albert Serra, 2008, 2)
4. 24 City (Jia Zhangke, 2008, 4)
5. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 4)
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 6)
7. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2008, 9)
8. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008, 10)

2010

1. Everyone Else (Maren Ade, 2009, 2)
2. Sweetgrass (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Ilisa Barbash, 2009, 5)
3. Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes, 2008, 6)
4. The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira, 6)
5. Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine, 2009, 7)
6. Alamar (Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio, 2009, 8)
7. Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009, 9)
8. Mother (Bong Joon-ho, 2009, 10)
9. The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 10)

Special Mentions: Carlos (Olivier Assayas), The Social Network (David Fincher), Unstoppable (Tony Scott)

2011

1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010, 1)
2. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu (Andrei Ujica, 2010, 2)
3. Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz, 2010, 3)
4. House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello, 3)
5. To Die Like a Man (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2009, 3)
6. Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, 4)
7. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 6)
8. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010, 8)

Special Mentions: [2010] Aurora (Cristi Puiu), Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami), Cold Weather (Aaron Katz), Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois), Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino), El Sicario Room 164 (Gianfranco Rosi) [2011] Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn), Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols), Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)

2012

1. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 2011, 1)
2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2)
3. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr, 2011, 2)
4. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 3)
5. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 4)
6. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 5)
7. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011, 5)
8. Kill List (Ben Wheatley, 2011, 7)
9. It's the Earth Not the Moon (Gonçalo Tocha, 2011, 8)
10. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 9)
11. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010, 9)
12. The Kid With a Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2011, 10)
13. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 10)

Special Mentions: [2011] 4:44 Last Day on Earth (Abel Ferrara), The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry), Two Years at Sea (Ben Rivers) [2012] Barbara (Christian Petzold), Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg), In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo), Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)

2013

1. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, 2012, 1)
2. A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke, 3)
3. Viola (Matías Piñeiro, 2012, 6)
4. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata, 2012, 7)
5. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 7)
6. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 9)
7. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 10)

Special Mentions: [2011] Hors Satan (Bruno Dumont)

2014

1. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, 2013, 1)
2. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, 2013, 2)
3. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2)
4. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto, 2013, 4)
5. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Rürcher, 2013, 5)
6. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 6)
7. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, 2013, 6)
8. Story of My Death (Albert Serra, 2013, 8)
9. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 8)

Special Mentions: [2013] Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez), The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh), Jealousy (Philippe Garrel) [2014] Boyhood (Richard Linklater), Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund), Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)

2015

1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa, 2014, 1)
2. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes, 2)
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 3)
4. Li'l Quinquin (Bruno Dumont, 2014, 3)
5. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014, 4)
6. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson, 4)
7. Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014, 5)
8. The Kindergarten Teacher (Nadav Lapid, 2014, 7)

Special Mentions: [2014] Amour fou (Jessica Hausner) [2015] Carol (Todd Haynes)

2016

1. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015, 1)
2. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 1)
3. Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 4)
4. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo, 2015, 5)
5. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 6)
6. Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello, 2015, 7)
7. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015, 8)
8. The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2015, 9)
9. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 9)
10. Silence (Martin Scorsese, 10)
11. Kaili Blues (Bi Gan, 2015, 10)

Special Mentions: [2015] Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari), In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel) [2016] Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson), Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

2017

1. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016, 3)
2. On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo, 4)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 5)
4. The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra, 2016, 5)
5. Good Time (Josh & Benny Safdie, 6)
6. The Human Surge (Eduardo Williams, 2016, 8)

Special Mentions: [2016] Hermia and Helena (Matías Piñeiro), The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues) [2017] Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman), Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)

2018

1. Western (Valeska Grisebach, 2017, 2)
2. Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017, 3)
3. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont, 2017, 8)
4. First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2017, 9)
5. PROTOTYPE (Blake Williams, 2017, 10)

Special Mentions: [2016] All the Cities of the North (Dane Komljen) [2017] The Day After (Hong Sang-soo), Good Luck (Ben Russell), Araby (Affonso Uchoa & Joao Dumans)

Ineligible:
The Sun (2005, Alexander Sokurov)
Homecoming (2005, Joe Dante)
Secret Sunshine (2007, Lee Chang-dong)
Go Go Tales (2007, Abel Ferrara)
RR (2008, James Benning)
Itineraire de Jean Bricard (2008, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
Winter Vacation (2010, Li Hongqi)
I Wish I Knew (2010, Jia Zhangke)
Curling (2010, Denis Côté)*
Dreileben (2011, Christian Petzold and Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler)
Sleeping Sickness (2011, Ulrich Köhler)
Policeman (2011, Nadav Lapid)*
Target (2011, Alexander Zeldovich)*
autrement, la Molussie (2012, Nicolas Rey)
Les trois désastres (2013, Jean-Luc Godard)*
Redemption (2013, Miguel Gomes)*
Journey to the West (2014, Tsai Ming-liang)
From What Is Before (2014, Lav Diaz)
Episode of the Sea (2014, Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Hann)*
Visit, or Memories and Confessions (2015, Manoel de Oliveira)
88:88 (2015, Isiah Medina)*
Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (2015, Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson)*
Sieranevada (2016, Cristi Puiu)
The Dreamed Path (2016, Angela Schanelec)
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch)
Streetscapes [Dialogue] (2017, Heinz Emigholz)?

The 15:17 to Paris Review Fragment

Finding a way of representing military heroism on film is a tricky, if not wholly dubious task, because it has the potential to fall into so many different traps. Chief among these is the problem of balancing responsibilities, of ensuring that no single perspective, not even that of the main protagonist, is emphasized to the point of insensitivity. Unless a film aims for blind jingoism,

Cinema and Its Contexts Essay Fragment

The cinema, in terms of both its thematic and stylistic tendencies and its place within culture and society, has often shifted over its first hundred and twenty years of existence, but its fundamental properties, at least in terms of so-called image making, have stayed constant within the Hollywood tradition. In this system, a feature film is formed from shots edited together that themselves are formed from frames photographed at twenty-four frames per second on a camera. It almost always involves actors reading from a script, and relies on sundry production roles, including but not limited to the director, the producer, and the cinematographer. From this programmatic description, it is made clear that the cinema is a fundamentally technological enterprise, one as governed by the apparatus of the motion picture camera as the people running it. Cinema must be regarded, as per Walter Benjamin’s article “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproducibility,” within the context of the technologies and societies that surround it due to its intrinsically populist and industrial qualities.

Slant Best Films of the Nineties (2017)

1990

1. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
2. Dekalog (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
3. Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
4. Miller's Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen)
5. White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood)
6. Central Park (Frederick Wiseman)
7. To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett)
8. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
9. Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)

Honorable Mentions: Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton), The Garden (Derek Jarman), Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne), The Killer (John Woo), King of New York (Abel Ferrara), Miami Blues (George Armitage), Pump Up the Volume (Allan Moyle), Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky), Trust (Hal Hartley), Wild at Heart (David Lynch)

1991

1. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
2. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)
3. My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant)
4. The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax)
5. Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
6. Barton Fink (Joel & Ethan Coen)
7. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)
8. La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
9. Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow)
10. Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg)

Honorable Mention: Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris Jr.), Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai), The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski), La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson), Hangin' With the Homeboys (Joseph Vasquez), JFK (Oliver Stone), Life Is Sweet (Mike Leigh), Madonna: Truth or Dare (Alek Keshishian), Poison (Todd Haynes), The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)

1992

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch)
2. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)
3. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
4. Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara)
5. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
6. Life, and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami)
7. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
8. The Player (Robert Altman)
9. Glengarry Glenn Ross (James Foley)
10. The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann)

Honorable Mention: Candyman (Bernard Rose), Dead Alive (Peter Jackson), Europa (Lars von Trier), Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader), The Living End (Gregg Araki), The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki), One False Move (Carl Franklin), Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai Ming-liang), The Stolen Children (Gianni Amelio), Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin)

1993

1. Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
2. Naked (Mike Leigh)
3. Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma)
4. Hard Boiled (John Woo)
5. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis)
6. The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
7. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater)
8. The Last Bolshevik (Chris Marker)
9. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood)
10. D'Est (Chantal Akerman)

Honorable Mention: Abraham's Valley (Manoel de Oliveira), The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese), Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrara), Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar & Peter Wintonick), Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski), Mercedes (Yousry Nasrallah), The Oak (Lucian Pintilie), Orlando (Sally Potter), The Piano (Jane Campion), Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg)

1994

1. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr)
2. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
3. Hoop Dreams (Steve James & Peter Gilbert & Frederick Marx)
4. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai)
5. Bitter Moon (Roman Polanski)
6. Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
7. Calendar (Atom Egoyan)
8. Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
9. Vanya on 42nd Street (Louis Malle)
10. Cronos (Guillermo del Toro)

Honorable Mention: Arizona Dream (Emir Kusturica), Barcelona (Whit Stillman), Bhaji on the Beach (Gurinder Chadha), The Blue Kite (Tian Zhuangzhuang), Casa de Lava (Pedro Costa), A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang), Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson), Latcho Drom (Tony Gatlif), Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone), What Happened Was... (Tom Noonan)

1995

1. Safe (Todd Haynes)
2. Underground (Emir Kusturica)
3. Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven)
4. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
5. Heat (Michael Mann)
6. Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami)
7. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
8. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
9. Seven (David Fincher)
10. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)

Honorable Mention: The Addiction (Abel Ferrara), Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan), Deseret (James Benning), Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai), Guelwaar (Ousmane Sembène), I Can't Sleep (Claire Denis), In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter), Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach), The Neon Bible (Terence Davies), Salaam Cinema (Mohsen Makhmalbaf), Spiritual Voices (Alexander Sokurov), Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow), Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)

1996

1. Crash (David Cronenberg)
2. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
3. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
4. Fargo (Joel & Ethan Coen)
5. Conspirators of Pleasure (Jan Svankmajer)
6. Vive L'Amour (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi)
8. Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
9. La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol)
10. Ashes of Time (Wong Kar-wai)

Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson), Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne), Flirting With Disaster (David O. Russell), From the Journals of Jean Seberg (Mark Rappaport), The Funeral (Abel Ferrara), Mahjong (Edward Yang), The Man on the Shore (Raoul Peck), Rendezvous in Paris (Eric Rohmer), Portrait of a Lady (Jane Campion), The Cable Guy (Ben Stiller)

1997

1. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
2. Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven)
3. Mother and Son (Alexander Sokurov)
4. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)
5. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
7. The River (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. Lost Highway (David Lynch)
9. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)
10. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Honorable Mention: The Delta (Ira Sachs), Face/Off (John Woo), Family Name (Macky Alston), Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (Errol Morris), Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf), The Game (David Fincher), The Ice Storm (Ang Lee), L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson), Nénette et Boni (Claire Denis), La Promesse (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne), Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman)

1998

1. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
2. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
3. The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen)
4. The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman)
5. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
6. Babe: Pig in the City (George Miller)
7. Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano)
8. Drifting Clouds (Aki Kaurismäki)
9. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang)
10. Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux)

Bulworth (Warren Beatty), The Eel (Shohei Imamura), Gadjo Dilo (Tony Gatlif), Genealogies of a Crime (Raúl Ruiz), The General (John Boorman), Henry Fool (Hal Hartley), Happiness (Todd Solondz), Khrustalyov, My Car! (Aleksei German), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog), Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano)

1999

1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
3. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Fight Club (David Fincher)
5. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
6. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)
7. Three Kings (David O. Russell)
8. eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)
9. Rosetta (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
10. The Iron Giant (Brad Bird)

Honorable Mention: Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese), The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca), Genghis Blues (Roko Belic), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch), Late August, Early September (Olivier Assayas), The Limey (Steven Soderbergh), Moloch (Alexander Sokurov), Office Space (Mike Judge), Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)

Reverse Shot Top 10 Films and 11 Offenses

2003

1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
2. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
3. Mystic River (Clint Eastwood)
4. The Son (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
5. Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz)
6. demonlover (Olivier Assayas)
7. Irreversible (Gaspar Noé)
8. Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
10. Raising Victor Vargas (Peter Sollett)

2004

1. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
3. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
4. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino)
5. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang)
6. The Village (M. Night Shyamalan)
7. Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi)
8. Notre musique (Jean-Luc Godard)
9. Time of the Wolf (Michael Haneke)
10. Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)

2004 Offenses

• Closer (Mike Nichols)
• The Passion of Christ (Mel Gibson)
• The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci)
• Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette)
• Birth (Jonathan Glazer)
• Open Water (Chris Kentis)
• Alfie (Charles Shyer)
• King Arthur (Antoine Fuqua)
• The Clearing (Pieter Jan Brugge)
• The Manchurian Candidate (Jonathan Demme)

2005

1. The New World (Terrence Malick)
2. Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin)
3. Caché (Michael Haneke)
4. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
5. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
6. L'intrus (Claire Denis)
7. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
8. The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach)
9. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
10. Junebug (Phil Morrison)

2005 Offenses

• Palindromes (Todd Solondz)
• Crash (Paul Haggis)
• King Kong (Peter Jackson)
• Wedding Crashers (David Dobkin)
• 3-Iron (Kim Ki-duk)
• Walk the Line (James Mangold)
• Rumor Has It... (Rob Reiner)
• The Brothers Grimm (Terry Gilliam)
• Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July)
• Domino (Tony Scott)
• Transamerica (Duncan Tucker)

2006

1. L'enfant (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu)
3. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
4. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
5. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
6. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
7. A Lion in the House (Julia Reichert & Steven Bognar)
8. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
9. Clean (Olivier Assayas)
10. Miami Vice (Michael Mann)

2006 Offenses

• United 93 (Paul Greengrass)
• Dreamgirls (Bill Condon)
• Babel (Alejandro González Iñarritu)
• Little Children (Todd Field)
• Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
• Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick)
• V for Vendetta (James McTeigue)
• Bubble (Steven Soderbergh)
• The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
• Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre)
• Ultraviolet, Apocalypto, Let's Go to Prison, The Illusionist, Unaccompanied Minors, Eragon, Infamous, Mission: Impossible III, The Notorious Bettie Page, Fearless, Running with Scissors, Hoot, Stick It, and assorted other stuff I [Jeff Reichert] saw to pass time

2007

1. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
5. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)
6. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
7. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. Zodiac (David Fincher)
9. Offside (Jafar Panahi)
10. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)

2007 Offenses

• Southland Tales (Richard Kelly)
• 300 (Zack Snyder)
• Juno (Jason Reitman)
• Transformers (Michael Bay)
• Hostel Part Two (Eli Roth)
• The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz)
• Hannah Takes the Stairs (Joe Swanberg)
• 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo)
• The Kingdom (Peter Berg)
• Introducing the Dwights (Cherie Nowlan)
• Across the Universe (Julie Taymor)

2008

1. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
3. A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin)
4. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
5. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
6. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
7. Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
8. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
9. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
10. Ballast (Lance Hammer)

2008 Offenses

• Wanted (Timur Bekmambetov)
• Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
• Australia (Baz Luhrmann)
• The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
• Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes)
• The Counterfeiters (Stefan Ruzowitzky)
• Changeling (Clint Eastwood)
• Mamma Mia! (Phyllida Lloyd)
• The Wackness (Jonathan Levine)
• Transsiberian (Brad Anderson)
• Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green)

2009

1. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
3. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis)
4. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
5. A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)
6. Two Lovers (James Gray)
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
8. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
9. Tulpan (Sergey Dvortsevoy)
10. 24 City (Jia Zhangke)

2009 Offenses

• Nine (Rob Marshall)
• The Hangover (Todd Phillips)
• The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson)
• Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
• An Education (Lone Scherfig)
• Tony Manero (Pablo Larrain)
• (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb)
• District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
• Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (LEe Daniels)
• Cold Souls (Sophia Barthes)
• New York, I Love You (Omnibus)

2010

1. Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio)
2. Mother (Bong Joon-ho)
3. White Material (Claire Denis)
4. Everyone Else (Maren Ade)
5. Another Year (Mike Leigh)
6. Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong)
7. Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes)
8. The Social Network (David Fincher)
9. Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat)
10. Sweetgrass (Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)

2010 Offenses

• Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
• Catfish (Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman)
• Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev)
• Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
• Get Low (Aaron Schneider)
• The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella)
• Eat Pray Love (Ryan Murphy)
• Winter's Bone (Debra Granik)
• Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn)
• Going the Distance (Nanette Burstein) and Love & Other Drugs (Edward Zwick)

2011

1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Nostalgia for the Life (Patricio Guzmán)
5. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
6. Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz)
7. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Andrei Ujica)
8. Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
9. The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
10. Historias extraordinarias (Mariano Llinás)

2011 Offenses

• Shame (Steve McQueen)
• We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)
• Horrible Bosses (Seth Gordon)
• Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
• In a Better World (Susanne Bier)
• Sarah's Key (Gilles Paquet-Brenner)
• My Week With Marilyn (Simon Curtis)
• No Strings Attached (Ivan Reitman) and Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck)
• Sleeping Beauty (Julia Leigh)
• The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd)

2012

1. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)
2. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
3. The Kid With the Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
4. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
5. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
6. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
7. Almayer's Folly (Chantal Akerman)
8. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky)
9. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
10. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)

2012 Offenses

• Ted (Seth McFarlane)
• Prometheus (Ridley Scott)
• Michael (Markus Schleinzer)
• Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
• The Comedy (Rick Alverson)
• Bachlorette (Leslye Headland)
• The Hunger Games (Gary Ross)
• Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
• This Is 40 (Judd Apatow)
• Anna Karenina (Joe Wright)
• Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)

2013

1. To the Wonder (Terrence Malick)
2. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
3. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
4. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)
5. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
6. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
7. Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
8. Viola (Matías Piñeiro)
9. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
10. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer)

2013 Offenses

• Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)
• Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)
• American Hustle (David O. Russell)
• Touchy Feely (Lynn Shelton)
• This Is the End (Evan Goldberg)
• The Counselor (Ridley Scott)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams)
• At Any Price (Ramin Bahrani)
• The Way Way Back (Jim Rash & Nat Faxon)
• The Family (Luc Besson)
• Admission (Paul Weitz)

2014

1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
3. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
4. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
5. The Immigrant (James Gray)
6. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez)
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
8. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto)
9. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)
   Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
10. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa)

2014 Offenses

• The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum)
• St. Vincent (Theodore Melfi)
• The Sacrament (Ti West)
• Jimi: All Is by My Side (John Ridley)
• Gone Girl (David Fincher)
• Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof)
• A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (Francis Lawrence)
• This Is Where I Leave You (Tom Shadyac)
• Neighbors (Nicholas Stoller)
• Cake (Daniel Barnz)

2015

1. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
4. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
5. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
6. Hard to Be a God (Aleksei German)
7. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
8. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
9. Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo)
10. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)

2015 Offenses

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
• Youth (Paolo Sorrentino)
• Son of Saul (László Nemes)
• Kingsman: The Secret Service (Matthew Vaughn)
• Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
• Goodnight Mommy (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala)
• Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
• The Overnight (Patrick Brice)
• The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)
• Legend (Peter Medak)
• Jenny's Wedding (Mary Agnes Donoghue)

2016

1. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
2. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
3. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
5. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
6. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
7. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)
   Sunset Song (Terence Davies)
8. Silence (Martin Scorsese)
9. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
   Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick)
10. The Illinois Parables (Deborah Stratman)

2016 Offenses

• Deadpool (Tim Miller)
• Jackie (Pablo Larraín)
• Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
• The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker)
• Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (Werner Herzog)
• The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn)
• Krisha (Trey Edward Shults)
• Bad Moms (Jon Lucas & Scott Moore)
• Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
• Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols)
• Joshy (Jeff Baena)

2017

1. A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies)
2. The Human Surge (Eduardo Williams)
3. Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)
4. Ex Libris - The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)
5. 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
6. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
7. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)
8. Wonderstruck (Todd Haynes)
9. By the Time It Gets Dark (Anocha Suwichakornpong)
10. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)

2017 Offenses

• The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro)
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)
• The Disaster Artist (James Franco)
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• Rat Film (Theo Anthony)
• Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins)
• Victoria & Abdul (Stephen Frears)
• Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon)
• City of Ghosts (Matthew Heineman)
• Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)
• Wind River (Taylor Sheridan)
• Bonus Unreleased: I Love You, Daddy (Louis CK)

An American Film Canon

Taken from this thread of American Masterpieces by Jake Mulligan.

2017-2014

• Twin Peaks (David Lynch)
• Ex Libris – New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)
• Good Time (Josh & Benny Safdie)
• Silence (Martin Scorsese)
• Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
• Horace and Pete (Louis C.K.)
• The Illinois Parables (Deborah Stratman)
• The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
• Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg)
• In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
• Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie)
• Stray Dog (Debra Granik)

1988-1983

• Vampire's Kiss (Robert Bierman)
• Raising Arizona (Joel & Ethan Coen)
• Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi)
• Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow)
• Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
• The Hitcher (Robert Harmon)
• Manhunter (Michael Mann)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader)
• O.C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman)
• Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
• Body Double (Brian De Palma)
• Swing Shift (Jonathan Demme)
• Love Streams (John Cassavetes)
• Risky Business (Paul Brickman)
• The Entity (Sidney Furie)

1956-1955

• The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)
• Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin)
• Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
• The Girl Can't Help It (Frank Tashlin)
• Seven Men From Now (Budd Boetticher)
• The Searchers (John Ford)
• Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin)
• The Big Knife (Robert Aldrich)
• All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
• House of Bamboo (Samuel Fuller)
• Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
• The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
• Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer)
• It's Always Fair Weather (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen)
• The Violent Men (Rudolph Mate)

1955-1951

• Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges)
• Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich)
• Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
• On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
• Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
• "Duck Amuck" (Chuck Jones)
• I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock)
• The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
• Monkey Business (Howard Hawks)
• Park Row (Samuel Fuller)
• Clash by Night (Fritz Lang)
• On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray)
• Rabbit Fire (Chuck Jones)
• The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller)

1946-1940

• The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
• "Let There Be Light" (John Huston)
• The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
• Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl)
• The Clock (Vincente Minnelli)
• Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges)
• The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Preston Sturges)
• The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur)
• The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
• To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
• A Woman's Face (George Cukor)
• Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
• Christmas in July (Preston Sturges)
• His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
• Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen)
• The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh)

1939-1933

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
• Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford)
• Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)
• Stagecoach (John Ford)
• The Women (George Cukor)
• You and Me (Fritz Lang)
• Jezebel (William Wyler)
• You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
• My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava)
• Fury (Fritz Lang)
• The Devil Is a Woman (Josef von Sternberg)
• Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey)
• The Whole Town's Talking (John Ford)
• Design For Living (Ernst Lubitsch)
• Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
• King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernst B. Schoedsack)

Lady Bird Fragment

Autobiography of the nostalgic sort is a tricky topic to manage in film, especially when taking the backward looking, self-obsessed independent scene of modern times. Of course, there have been been numerous successful examples in the past decade – last year's 20th Century Women is a particularly salient point of comparison – but