Dennis Lim Top Tens

These lists are sourced as follows: Village Voice 1998-2005, Indiewire 2006-2010, Film at Lincoln Center onwards, and by release year until 2012, and by premiere year onwards.

1998

1. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai)
   
2. Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes)
3. Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano)
4. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
5. The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan)
6. Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh)
7. Affliction (Paul Schrader)
8. There's Something About Mary (Peter & Bobby Farrelly)
9. Love Is the Devil (John Maybury)
10. The Hanging Garden (Thom Fitzgerald)

1999

1. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang)
4. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
5. eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)
6. Rosetta (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
7. Leila (Dariush Mehrjui)
8. Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (Patrice Chéreau)
9. Last Night (Don McKellar)
10. Fight Club (David Fincher)

2000

1. Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
2. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)
3. L'Humanité (Bruno Dumont)
4. Pola X (Leos Carax)
5. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)
6. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
7. Lies (Jang Sun-woo)
8. Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay)
9. Criminal Lovers/Water Drops on Burning Rocks (François Ozon)
10. Rapture/Fervor (Shirin Neshat)

2001

1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
3. In the Bedroom (Todd Field)
4. Intimacy (Patrice Chéreau)
5. The Low Down (Jamie Thraves)
6. Under the Sand (François Ozon)
7. The River (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
9. Little Otik (Jan Švankmajer)
10. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann)

2002

1. Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)
2. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes)
4. Time Out (Laurent Cantet)
5. Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
6. The Sleepy Time Gal (Christopher Munch)
7. I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira)
8. 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom)
9. Adaptation. (Spike Jonze)
10. What Time Is It There? (Tsai Ming-liang)

2003

1. Platform (Jia Zhangke)
2. Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke)
3. demonlover (Olivier Assayas)
4. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. In My Skin (Marina de Van)
6. Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
7. School of Rock (Richard Linklater)
8. Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin)
9. The Son (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
10. The Slaughter Rule (Alex & Andrew J. Smith)

2004

1. I ♥ Huckabees (David O. Russell)
2. Primer (Shane Carruth)
3. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
4. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
5. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
6. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Infernal Affairs (Andrew Lau & Alan Mak)
8. Son frère (Patrice Chéreau)
9. A Talking Picture (Manoel de Oliveira)
10. Code 46 (Michael Winterbottom)
    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)

2005

1. Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. The Power of Nightmares (Adam Curtis)
3. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
4. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5. Caché (Michael Haneke)
6. The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis)
7. Last Days (Gus Van Sant)
8. Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin)
9. L'Intrus (Claire Denis)
10. Darwin's Nightmare (Hubert Sauper)
    Mondovino (Jonathan Nossiter)
    Chain (Jem Cohen)
    The World (Jia Zhangke)

2006

1. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
2. L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
3. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)
4. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
5. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu)
6. Borat (Larry Charles)
7. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
8. 4 (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)
9. Mutual Appreciation (Andrew Bujalski)
10. The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry)

2007

1. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)
3. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. Zodiac (David Fincher)
5. Offside (Jafar Panahi)
6. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
8. Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran)
9. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)
10. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)

2008

1. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Before I Forget (Jacques Nolot)
3. Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
4. In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín)
5. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
6. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
7. The Duchess of Langeais (Jacques Rivette)
8. Hunger (Steve McQueen)
9. My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
10. Milk (Gus Van Sant)

2009

1. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
3. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
4. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
5. 24 City (Jia Zhangke)
6. Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu)
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
8. Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo)
9. Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso)
10. Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski)

Decade [Film Comment]

1. Platform (2000, Jia Zhangke)
2. Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
3. Esther Kahn (2000, Arnaud Desplechin)
4. Café Lumière (2003, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. Punch-Drunk Love (2002, Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. Inland Empire (2006, David Lynch)
7. There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson)
8. Colossal Youth (2006, Pedro Costa)
9. Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
10. The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007, Adam Curtis)

2010

1. The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira)
2. World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
3. Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong)
4. Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio)
5. Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
6. Around a Small Mountain (Jacques Rivette)
7. Everyone Else (Maren Ade)
8. Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine)
9. Ghost Town (Zhao Dayong)
10. Sweetgrass (Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)

2012 [Senses of Cinema]

1. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
2. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
3. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
4. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. differently, Molussia (Nicolas Rey)
6. Morning of Saint Anthony's Day (João Pedro Rodrigues)
7. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
8. Barbara (Christian Petzold)
9. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata)
10. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

2013

1. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
2. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
3. Redemption (Miguel Gomes)
4. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto)
5. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
6. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez)
7. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke)
9. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski)
10. Mouton (Gilles Deroo & Marianne Pistone)

2014

1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
4. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
5. Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello)
6. The Kindergarten Teacher (Nadav Lapid)
7. P'tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont)
8. The Princess of France (Matías Piñeiro)
9. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa)
10. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)

2015

1. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
4. Visit, or Memories and Confessions (Manoel de Oliveira)
5. Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello)
6. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
7. Kaili Blues (Bi Gan)
8. In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel)
9. Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro)
10. Poet on a Business Trip (Ju Anqi)

2016 [direct message]

1. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)
2. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
3. The Human Surge (Eduardo Williams)
4. The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra)
5. Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
6. Staying Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)
7. By the Time It Gets Dark (Anocha Suwichakornpong)
8. Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)
9. Hermia & Helena (Matías Piñeiro)
10. The Dreamed Path (Angela Schanelec)

2017

1. Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch)
2. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Western (Valeska Grisebach)
5. Streetscapes [Dialogue] (Heinz Emigholz)
6. The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)
   On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo)
   Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo)
7. Downsizing (Alexander Payne)
8. Araby (João Dumans & Affonso Uchôa)
9. Tonsler Park (Kevin Jerome Everson)
10. Electro-Pythagoras: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett (Luke Fowler)

2018

1. Transit (Christian Petzold)
2. La Flor (Mariano Llinás)
3. An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo)
4. Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
5. Classical Period (Ted Fendt)
6. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Bi Gan)
7. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
8. High Life (Claire Denis)
9. Dead Souls (Wang Bing)
10. What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (Roberto Minervini)

2019

1. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)
2. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
3. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
4. Liberté (Albert Serra)
5. Heimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)
6. I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)
7. Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello)
8. Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)
9. Present.Perfect. (Zhu Shengze)
10. The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)

2020

1. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)
2. The Year of the Discovery (Luis López Carrasco)
3. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
4. The Last City (Heinz Emigholz)
5. Los conductos (Camilo Restrepo)
6. The Calming (Song Fang)
7. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)
8. The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) (C. W. Winter & Anders Edström)
9. Undine (Christian Petzold)
10. The Metamorphosis of Birds (Catarina Vasconcelos)

2021

1. Drive My Car (Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
2. Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Annette (Leos Carax)
4. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude)
5. In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo)
6. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
7. The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg)
8. Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
9. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (Alexandre Koberidze)
10. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)

2022

1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
2. The Novelist's Film (Hong Sang-soo)
3. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
4. The Plains (David Easteal)
5. Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)
6. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
8. Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo)
9. The United States of America (James Benning)
10. Saint Omer (Alice Diop)

2023

• The Beast (Bertrand Bonello)
• Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude)
• Evil Does Not Exist (Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
• Here (Bas Devos)
• The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)