At the end of the year, I like to go through everything I've watched and try to assemble a list of the 25 movies I loved the most.

This year it was pretty hard, since most of the movies I watched were on screeners or at home, thanks to a very busy end of the year. It's taken me a while to assemble my thoughts and feelings, and I may have a few spicy takes in here as well.

One of the reasons I love making these rankings is that they force me to really think about what I feel about them and how I engage with the art.

Now, these lists are all subjective, so don't get mad if you didn't love what I loved.

Let's dive in.

1. Marty Supreme

  • Director: Josh Safdie
  • Writer: Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
  • Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary
  • Studio: A24
We haven't had a great sports movie in so long. This has all those tropes and is also just a drama about a guy who is coming of age in his talent and trying to figure out what to do with all of it. I think it's a strong metaphor for who Chalamet is right now.

2. Eddington

  • Director: Ari Aster
  • Writer: Ari Aster
  • Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler
  • Studio: A24

Just like John Waters, I think this is the movie of the year - or at least in the top 2. It's timely, cynical, and I found it to be such a poetic and interesting look at modern society and the pitfalls that have pulled us all in and never let us go. We are a country divided, blind to the real people pulling the strings.

3. One Battle After Another

  • Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson (Loosely based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon)
  • Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall
  • Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
A deeply personal movie for PTA that theorizes that the kids will be alright if we let them change the world. I loved the performances in this story, and the cinematography was epic. It felt like a movie with scale, scope, and a lot of vision.

4. No Other Choice

  • Director: Park Chan-wook
  • Writer: Park Chan-wook, Don McKellar (Based on the novel The Ax by Donald E. Westlake)
  • Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jinPark Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won
  • Studio: NEON
This is a sadistic look at late-stage capitalism that feels so poignant and so darkly funny. I love how it uses a thriller plot to unpack the world's problems and how it gets you to root for murder.

5. Train Dreams

  • Director: Clint Bentley
  • Writer: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar (Based on the novella by Denis Johnson)
  • Cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon
  • Studio: Netflix
This lyrical movie takes us through time and shows us that, like a train, it keeps moving forward no matter which stop you get off at. I loved the imagery in this and also its willingness to be weird and solemn.

6. Weapons

  • Director: Zach Cregger
  • Writer: Zach Cregger
  • Cast: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Amy Madigan
  • Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
A ripping horror movie that takes us through what it's like to be in the suburbs and have an idyllic life that gets torn apart. There are so many different perspectives and a real peeling back of the layers of society here.

7. Sentimental Value

  • Director: Joachim Trier
  • Writer: Joachim Trier
  • Cast: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning
  • Studio: Mubi
There are a lot of movies out this year that force us to deal with how we see the world. And this is one that forces us to talk about how we see our family and how we reconcile their perceptions of us as well.

8. Eephus

  • Director: Carson Lund
  • Writer: Michael Basta, Nate Fisher, Carson Lund
  • Cast: Keith William Richards, Frederick Wiseman, Cliff Blake, Bill "Spaceman" Lee
  • Studio: Music Box Films
Man, this movie hits so hard. It's ostensibly about baseball, but there's so much more to unpack as well. It's about friendship and time, and it will stick with you after watching it.

9. Splitsville

  • Director: Michael Angelo Covino
  • Writer: Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin
  • Cast: Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin
  • Studio: NEON / Topic Studios
This is easily the funniest movie of the year. From what could be the best opening scene in over a decade to a fight scene that feels like an all-timer, and a montage that is an elegant oner, this deconstruction of modern relationships and people has so many inventive and beautiful moments.

10. Hamnet

  • Director: Chloé Zhao
  • Writer: Chloé Zhao (Based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell)
  • Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal
  • Studio: Focus Features
As a parent, this one was hard to sit through. It's about grief and mourning, but also about marriage. It's a beautiful portrait of art and life.

11. The Ballad of Wallis Island

  • Director: James Griffiths
  • Writer: Tom Basden, Tim Key (Based on their short film)
  • Cast: Tom Basden, Tim Key, Carey Mulligan
  • Studio: Focus Features / Universal Pictures
I feel like this is one of the most overlooked movies of the year. Everyone should be talking about these wonderful and emotionally deep movies. There's a stunning amount of heart in its runtime.

12. Sinners

  • Director: Ryan Coogler
  • Writer: Ryan Coogler
  • Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jack O'Connell
  • Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Ryan Coogler gave us what many consider the scene of the year, when we swirl around the dance floor and take in music from many different eras. The center of the movie is genre, but there's so much more going on.

13. Twinless

  • Director: James Sweeney
  • Writer: James Sweeney
  • Cast: Dylan O'Brien, James Sweeney, Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi
  • Studio: Lionsgate
Another movie I think was criminally underseen. I thought this was a fun look at siblings, grief, and all the thrilling parts of what it means to be at the center of a mystery that unravels around you.

14. Bugonia

  • Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
  • Writer: Will Tracy (Based on the film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan)
  • Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone
  • Studio: Focus Features
How far are you willing to go for what you believe? In this movie, we see two guys attack a woman they believe is an alien, and peel back the layers of what it means to be a human. Absolutely crazy movie.

15. Warfare

  • Director: Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
  • Writer: Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
  • Cast: Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Will Poulter
  • Studio: A24
In America, we have a whole series of people, veterans, who have committed to risking their lives for us. We may not always agree with the wars, but these are the human beings who put it all out there to ensure our freedoms. This is an unflinching look at those sacrifices and what it's like to be a part of a team where you know not everyone is going to make it home. Powerful.

16. Black Bag

  • Director: Steven Soderbergh
  • Writer: David Koepp
  • Cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page
  • Studio: Focus Features
I absolutely love spy movies, and this one sizzles. It's such a tight little yarn about government secrets being sold and how you may not be able to trust the people around you.

17. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

  • Director: Mary Bronstein
  • Writer: Mary Bronstein
  • Cast: Rose Byrne, Christian Slater, Conan O'Brien
  • Studio: A24
I found this chaotic and stressful movie to be a whirlwind deconstruction of parenting. We see a whole world falling apart as a woman struggles to make everything happen for her kid and herself.

18. Eleanor the Great

  • Director: Scarlett Johansson
  • Writer: Tory Kamen
  • Cast: June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, Erin Kellyman
  • Studio: Sony Pictures Classics / TriStar Pictures
This movie snuck up on me. I thought it was going to be boring, but it was a great look at death and life, and how we keep on living for the people we left behind.

19. Sorry Baby

  • Director: Eva Victor
  • Writer: Eva Victor
  • Cast: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch
  • Studio: A24
This movie is so funny, and then it can jump to being so sad as we follow a woman trying to get over a sexual assault that rocked her world. It's one of those messy stories where we see people deal with issues in real time.

20. The Secret Agent

  • Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
  • Writer: Kleber Mendonça Filho
  • Cast: Wagner Moura, Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria, Udo Kier
  • Studio: Vitrine Filmes (Brazil) / Port au Prince Films (Germany)
One of the best movies of the year, it's a harrowing and thrilling story of a dictatorship falling and the people caught around it. Especially one man who wants to leave the violence behind.

21. Blue Moon

  • Director: Richard Linklater
  • Writer: Robert Kaplow
  • Cast: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott
  • Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
This is a movie about making a play. The characters here bounce off the screen and have so much heart and interesting things to say that you can't help but sink into the world and root for them.

22. Zootopia 2

  • Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
  • Writer: Jared Bush
  • Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman
  • Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
This sequel is great and might even be better than the original. It takes us into a world that's been established and is so funny and so imaginative, it captures the hearts and minds of everyone watching.

23. Avatar: Fire and Ash

  • Director: James Cameron
  • Writer: James Cameron
  • Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
  • Studio: 20th Century Studios
James Cameron making the most visually stunning movie of the year feels like old hat. The guy takes us back to Pandora for another installment of a movie about family and the environment, which happens to contain some of the best action scenes of the decade.

24. 28 Years Later

  • Director: Danny Boyle
  • Writer: Alex Garland
  • Cast: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes
  • Studio: Sony Pictures
There's a lot of life in this movie that is about dealing with grief. It's a film that has to be about letting go, but I feel like it's also about living for those of us we lose.

25. Naked Gun

  • Director: Akiva Schaffer
  • Writer: Akiva Schaffer, Dan Gregor, Doug Mand
  • Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson
  • Studio: Paramount Pictures
The return of the spoof movie was heard around Hollywood and the world with The Naked Gun. It added a lot of jokes to every scene and allowed itself to be goofy. We need more of this.

Summing It All Up 

This was a pretty interesting year for movies. I love how many diverse genres and ideas we got and how many new voices I was able to discover.

Do you have titles you think should be on this list?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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