While some find list-making an arbitrary exercise, I’ve always enjoyed it — not only as a sort of cinematic yearbook but also as a means of drawing attention to overlooked movies that deserve more attention than they might have received. This includes everything from 14-hour Argentinian films and documentaries about the fishing industry to glorious blockbusters and Ukrainian dramas that take place entirely in un-subtitled sign language.
Many of these have been published elsewhere, like the Village Voice Film Poll (RIP), but I’ve never gathered them all in one place before. Now, submitted for your approval, are 140 movies worth watching:
2023
Past Lives
Talk to Me
Oppenheimer
The Holdovers
Fallen Leaves
Eileen
The Iron Claw
About Dry Grasses
R.M.N.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica
2022
Sundown
TÁR
Women Talking
Aftersun
The Quiet Girl
Watcher
Triangle of Sadness
Decision to Leave
In Front of Your Face
Earwig
2021
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
The Power of the Dog
The Card Counter
Memoria
Dune
Petite Maman
The Killing of Two Lovers
Passing
Benedetta
Candyman
2020
Beanpole
Da 5 Bloods
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Kajillionaire
A Sun
Sound of Metal
Driveways
To the Ends of the Earth
La Llorona
House of Hummingbird
2019
Sunset
High Life
Parasite
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Monos
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Shadow
A Hidden Life
The Nightingale
La Flor
2018
Burning
First Reformed
The Favourite
At Eternity’s Gate
You Were Never Really Here
Roma
The Sisters Brothers
Annihilation
Vox Lux
Hereditary
2017
The Future Perfect
Kill Me Please
Mister Universo
Wind River
The Untamed
In the Fade
Personal Shopper
The Beguiled
Indivisible
Donald Cried
2016
The Lobster
The Handmaiden
Manchester by the Sea
The Childhood of a Leader
Arrival
Kaili Blues
The Witch
Certain Women
Valley of Love
Jackie
2015
Jauja
Clouds of Sils Maria
Blackhat
It Follows
The Wonders
Mad Max: Fury Road
Metalhead
Brooklyn
Mistress America
The Tribe
2014
The Immigrant
Only Lovers Left Alive
The Grand Budapest Hotel
It Felt Like Love
Thursday Till Sunday
Enemy
Ilo Ilo
Boyhood
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
Manakamana
2013
Leviathan
Before Midnight
Her
Museum Hours
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Hunt
Simon Killer
Reality
Beyond the Hills
Ginger and Rosa
2012
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Zero Dark Thirty
Oslo, August 31st
The Deep Blue Sea
Moonrise Kingdom
This Is Not a Film
The Turin Horse
4:44 Last Day on Earth
Kill List
2011
The Tree of Life
Drive
Meek’s Cutoff
Of Gods and Men
Jane Eyre
House of Pleasures
A Separation
Certified Copy
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Redland
2010
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Winter’s Bone
Dogtooth
The Social Network
The American
Lourdes
Mother
True Grit
Carlos
Toy Story 3