While a little late to the social media trend, here's a detailed list of my favorite film of each year going back to the year I was born.
2016 — GRADUATION (Bacalaureat); Romania
2015 — STEVE JOBS; USA
Danny Boyle's best film since TRAINSPOTTING covers ambition, selfishness, and innovation in this most American of success (or downfall?) stories. It's messy and emotional, a visual and aural punch to the gut, of one of the most important people of the last century.
2014 — LEVIATHAN (Левиафан); Russia
This Russian film about corrupt bureaucrats trying to eviscerate a man and his family from his house for nothing more than money and a sense of power is one of the most powerful political films in recent memory. It's amazing the Russian government approved its release.
2013 — THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES; USA
What first appears to be a merely competent cops-and-robbers film is really a deeper investigation of the dynamic between fathers and sons, how sins are passed on from generation to generation. Bold in its disregard for audience expectations while at the same time maintaining compelling entertainment, BEYOND THE PINES is the anti-crime crime film.
2012 — SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS; UK/USA
Martin McDonagh's dark comedy is perhaps his goofiest work, a commentary about film and Hollywood that acknowledges its own ridiculousness, and also one of the funniest comedies of the 21st century. The characters are mirages without ever being irritating in their emptiness. In other words, it's pure violent anarchic joy.
2011 — THE TREE OF LIFE; USA
That weird Brad Pitt movie with the dinosaurs is one of those game-changers of cinema. A theatrically released experimental film that isn't boring but life-affirming, the 2001 of my generation. If you can handle a lack of clear, straight narrative (although, unlike Malick's other recent work, it at least has the skeleton of one), this is a rewarding experience that needs to repeat several times.
2010 — THE AMERICAN; USA
Beautifully shot and executed with enormous restraint, the only real flaw of THE AMERICAN is the time in which it exists. Too unrealistic to exist in the post-Nolan milieu of "gritty action" movies — the contrivances of the plot and the beautiful women are more out of a '60s European spy film — and too subdued to exist in the FAST AND FURIOUS/James Bond action genre, it's still a compelling watch and has that same appeal as Nicolas Winding Refn's DRIVE. There are wolves among us, and the most interesting way to explore them is through fantastical fairy tales.
2009 — 500 DAYS OF SUMMER; USA
Perhaps the most structurally brilliant of the screenplays on this list, Marc Webb's film explores the degradation of a relationship, juxtaposing the high highs with the low lows, interspersing these scenes and working their way toward the middle, aka the Big Breakup. It's never too sentimental nor too goofy and is a masterclass in maintaining tone. It's also endlessly rewatchable.
2008 — THE WRESTLER; USA
A movie whose overall depressing mood you forget about it until you rewatch it, THE WRESTLER is an alternate-universe portrait of Mickey Rourke himself. A great talent past his prime who must deal with his own mortality and a world that cares increasingly less about him. It's also about family and the price one pays to maintain their own pride.
2007 — ZODIAC; USA
It's not a movie about a serial killer; rather, it's a movie about obsession. David Fincher's great masterpiece is about achieving the elusive goal, even after the point it stops being relevant. It's long but worth every minute.
2006 — THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU (Moartea domnului Lăzărescu); Romania
The greatest film to ever come out of Romania is a comedy to its citizens and a bleak drama to foreigners. A three-hour documentary-like portrayal of a man trying to get medical attention is a searing indictment into not only Romania's medical system but also an exploration of the bleak humor of people's capacity for evil.
2005 — BROKEN FLOWERS; USA
Jim Jarmusch's film about Bill Murray (because, let's face it, no one else could've played his "fictional" part) looking for the mother of his biological son is the epitome of the Sad Comedy. It's about facing your past and having a chuckle about your regrets along the way.
