The Best Films of 2022

Having wrapped up the year and taken a few extra weeks to catch up, the time has come to gather and once again share my favorite movies of the past twelve months. 2022 was generally a good year for movies, if perhaps not as stacked as some previous years. But between some returning masters and some new filmmakers making strong impressions, the films that did stand out more than earned the praise.

I once again have not had the chance to elaborate further on the movies below, but associated thoughts on them can be found here. Without further ado, here are the 25 best movies of the year, with some bonus mentions that just missed out.

2022 Dream Oscar Ballot.

Once again, in addition to my best films of the year list, here is my 2022 dream Oscar ballot with my picks in most of their categories and some of my own. As ever, I guarantee the actual Academy's list won't resemble this, and their's sure won't be an improvement!

Winners are in bold and runners-up are italicized. Enjoy!

The Best Films of 2021

As the year (+ one extra month) comes to an end, it's time to once again continue my storied tradition of counting down my favorite films of the year. After a quiet and sparse 2020, 2021 more than lived up to the tall task of providing a memorable slate of movies.

I haven't written up any of the films below yet; hoping to do so when I have more time. But rest assured in this very tough year each of them earned a place here and has my highest recommendation. Here are the 25 best and some extra ones to commemorate the year that was.

2021 Dream Oscar Ballot.

In companion to my best films of the year list, here is my 2021 mock Oscar ballot with my picks in each of the major categories and some additional self-created ones. Most of these picks will not be mirrored by this year's actual nominations, at least not as far as I'm expecting, and that's their loss.

Winners are in bold and runners-up are italicized. Enjoy!

The Best Films of 2020.

Among other terrible things, 2020 was a year that made watching movies harder than ever. But while it was a rough year to see movies, it was not a rough year for the movies themselves. 

While most of the below were viewed at home, out of necessity, this year was not nearly as lacking in contenders as it might have been. And whether or not the viewing experience was as fulfilling as sitting in a dark theater might have been, the movies were no less impactful.

Below are the 25 movies (and various runners-up) that defined this complicated year for me. They kept me distracted, entertained and provoked in a time when it was needed most. Here's to a satisfying year of cinema and hopefully for a chance to return to the theaters to see them again some day soon.

2020 Dream Oscar Ballot.

In companion to my year end list, here is my dream Oscar ballot with my picks for most of the major categories (and some other frivolous ones I always create). Even with the decreased number of available films to choose this year, it was still not a stretch to fill out most of these categories. The categories this year also naturally leant themselves to a wide variety of types, with documentaries, animated films and a diverse selections of genres represented more than previous years I've done this.

Below are my nominees and winners (with runners-up) in each category. Enjoy, but don't disagree until you do the homework!

The Best of the Decade.

Over the last few weeks, with more time on my hands and a desire to take my mind off the state of the world, I figured it was as good a time as ever to go through the ten years I've had this blog and put together a (somewhat) comprehensive guide to the media I enjoyed the most since I began.

I spent much of the last year going back to old movies, albums and TV shows thinking about what I was enjoying ten years ago and what stayed with me since then. It felt like now was the perfect time to put my thoughts into my favorite form of creative deliberation: lists.

It's meant a lot to me over the years to have people ask me for recommendations of what I was enjoying recently, and with so many of us at home I've been heartened by how frequently I've been asked lately. What better way to make use of our time and commemorate the works that stuck out to me during the time I've logging my viewing and listening habits.

At the end of the day, it would probably be more fitting to call these favorites than bests. I don't claim to be a scholar of every artistic form, nor do I get paid to write them so my choices are geared to my tastes and nostalgia.

Below are the four lists that made most sense to me to categorize the art that impacted me the most from 2010-2019. In another ten years, I hope to do the same with another library of art, and I'm sure I'll look back at these lists with qualms and different opinions. But for now, if you need any ideas for something new to dive into, I hope this will give you a good place to start:

The Best Films of the Decade.

Ten years ago I created this blog as a way to keep track of my film musings. That didn't last long - only about two years or so due to school and eventually work - but since then I've returned every year to post my reflections on each year of film. Now, as the decade I began it in has come to a close, I've had a chance to look back and come up with my list of the best films I saw in the last decade.

Time has changed my initial views of some of these. Films from particular years have fallen or dropped completely off my radar, while others that were low or not on my lists at all have climbed to the top as they've stuck with me through the years.

Ultimately, a list like this is personal and subject to time and change. I'm sure it would look different on another day and many of the distinctions amongst the order are arbitrary. But when I think back on the last ten years, these are the films that stood out to me and impacted me the hardest.

These are the top 100, and for good measure, another 100 that I loved only slightly less but would give a full-throated recommendation any day. I saw about ~1200 releases from the last decade, so even with a list as long as the one below, the films included are just the top percent of what I liked the most.

Take a look below and enjoy!

The Best Albums of the Decade.

Here is my list of the best albums of the past decade. I'm hardly a musical expert - more than any other medium, my inclinations gravitate towards certain genres and certain artists I'm already a fan of. But the last decade helped me expand my musical tastes more and the collection below hopefully somewhat reflects that.

The below list has a lot of mainstays from other similar lists, but also quite a few albums you will almost certainly not find on any other list. They are, more than anything, based on what I listened to the most and the music that soundtracked the past ten years of my life. Naturally, some of the older collections rose to the top as my nostalgia for them has powered them through the years, so it's possible this would change after more time with the newer entries.

Here are my picks below. Enjoy!

The Best Songs of the Decade.

In companion to my album post, here are my best songs of the decade.

There's much overlap between the two lists, but with endlessly more individual options for this list it was much harder to narrow down. I tried even moreso with this list to incorporate the wider variety of music that soundtracked the last ten years. And because there by definition more songs than albums, there's 50 more at the end that just missed the cut.

Unlike the other posts, every song is embedded below so take a listen and enjoy!

The Best TV of the Decade.

Here is my list of the best television had to offer in the last decade. The below list encompasses TV as a whole; dramas, comedies, reality shows, variety shows, TV movies, miniseries, documentaries, etc. There is truly a little bit of everything.

This list was a little easier to compile than the others. Certain shows naturally rose to the top, and stretching out to 100 for the sake of consistency was a little tougher than other ones. For the most part, I tried to base a show's rankings on what they aired during this decade (so shows like 30 Rock & Mad Men are here without the aid of some of their earlier seasons). Some shows are also lower or higher based on how many good seasons vs overall seasons they had (certain shows may have been higher had they ended sooner, Homeland basically squeaked on based on it's first season alone).

Take a look at the list below and stream or binge to your heart's content.

2019 Dream Oscar Ballot.

To end this year in film and commemorate another award season, here are my preferred choices on the 2019 Oscar ballot. This year's award season has been grueling and often bad. Among other things, it would be impossible to ignore the films of female filmmakers or the amount of great international films this year, yet both seem likely to happen!

Regardless, the films, performances and crafts that stuck out for me this year are below. My winners in each category are listed in bold and the runners-up in italics. Enjoy!

The Best Films of 2019.

Another year in the history books and it's time to count down my favorite films of the year. 2019 may have had a few less options for this list than the last few years, however the top ten is as strong as ever, with multiple contenders that could have been #1 in another year and some runners-up that it physically hurt not to include higher.

I didn't get a chance to write up as much as I would've liked about each of these selections, however I have much more I could say about any of them and know I will get many chances as time goes on. I would recommend any of the films below and know they'd provide further rich discussion, but in the meantime I'll just go through them here. Enjoy!

2019 Primetime Emmy Ballot

In preparation for Tuesday's impending Emmy nominations, it's time for my yearly ballot of the best TV from the past year. Something that has remained true for a few years now: there are more exceptional comedies than dramas, and the comedy categories are impossible to narrow down while the drama categories have to be seriously stretched. This was also a great year for miniseries and those categories are definitely not afterthoughts as they have been in years past.

Below are my nominee picks in all three genres with each winner in bold. Enjoy!

2018 Dream Oscar Ballot.

And now to wrap up the year and my endless list-making with my 2018 Oscar ballot. The actual Oscar nominations come out next week, and despite what a fantastic year this has been, the chances of their list being truly terrible seem high!

I always have my differences with the Academy, but this year could be worse than ever before as they embrace some real duds and ignore most of the greatest films of the year. But we always hold out hope until the last minute that some of my choices below can make it through. Below are my picks in the major Oscar categories and some extra ones of my own choosing. Enjoy!