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1. El Mar La Mar (Joshua Bonnetta & J.P. Sniadecki)
2. Milla (Valérie Massadian)
3. Railway Sleepers (Sompot Chidgasornpongse)
4. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)
5. Minding the Gap (Bing Liu)
6. Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)
7. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
8. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
9. Vazante (Daniela Thomas)
10. Flores (Jorge Jácome)

Very Good
I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni)
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Thoroughbreds (Cory Finley)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan)
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik)

Fairly Good
Ava (Sadaf Foroughi)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross)
Tully (Jason Reitman)
On Body and Soul (Ildikó Enyedi)
Mary Poppins Returns (Rob Marshall)
Zama Lucretia Martel)
Skate Kitchen (Crystal Moselle)
BlackKKlansman (Spike Lee)
Gemini (Aaron Katz)
24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami)
Hereditary (Ari Aster)
Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)
Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)
Annihilation (Alex Garland)
Colette (Wash Westmoreland)

Mixed or Mediocre
The Death of Stalin (Armando Iannucci)
Ant-Man & the Wasp (Peyton Reed)
A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay)
Ocean's 8 (Gary Ross)
The Great Buddha+ (Huang Hsin-yao)
Le fort des fous (Narimane Mari)

Not Good
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard)
You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
Avengers: Infinity War (Russo Bros.)
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont)
Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg)

Going by US release dates. Films with no US distributor, or whose exact release date information is otherwise obscure, are deemed 2018 if that's when they first screened in Portland, OR.

01. First Reformed (Schrader)
02. Vox Lux (Corbet)
03. Revenge (Fargeat)
04. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (J. Coen/E. Coen)
05. The House That Jack Built (von Trier)
06. Unsane (Soderbergh)
07. BlacKkKlansman (Lee)
08. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (Van Sant)
09. Support the Girls (Bujalski)
10. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay)

LAST UPDATED: 09/21/2024

Past lists: 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007

1. First Reformed
2. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
3. If Beale Street Could Talk
4. BlacKkKlansman
5. Unsane
6. The Other Side of the Wind
7. The House That Jack Built
8. Vox Lux
9. Tully
10. Can You Ever Forgive Me?

01. La flor
02. Long Day's Journey into Night
03. Burning
04. Under the Silver Lake
05. An Elephant Sitting Still
06. The Wild Pear Tree
07. Our Time
08. Asako 1 & 2
09. Transit
10. Ash is Purest White

Next Tier: The Favourite; "I Don't Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians"; Her Smell; Happy as Lazzaro; Diamantino; 3 Faces; Cold War; Vox Lux; Sunset; Non-Fiction; Grass; Hotel by the River; Eighth Grade; Chained for Life

Next Tier (2): Isle of Dogs; The Mountain; The House That Jack Built; Sorry Angel; Donbass; Support the Girls; Maniac

Decent: Fahrenheit 11/9; Game Night; Peterloo; High Life; Relaxer; Sorry to Bother You; Leave No Trace; A Star is Born; Shoplifters; Ray & Liz; Knife+Heart; At War; Leto; Amanda

Not a fan: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; BlacKkKlansman; Widows; The Image Book; Roma; Madeline's Madeline; Wildlife; Ayka; Dogman; Annihilation; The Sisters Brothers

Rubbish: 22 July; Yomeddine; Generation Wealth; Vice; Climax; Hereditary; Capernaum; Everybody Knows; Girls of the Sun; Minding the Gap; Assassination Nation; Girl; Fahrenheit 451; Ready Player One

To see: If Beale Street Could Talk

2021—2020—2019—2018—2017—2016—2015—2014—2013—2012—2011

Annihilation
Isle of Dogs
You Were Never Really Here
BlacKkKlansman
The House that Jack Built
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
They Shall Not Grow Old
Roma
Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Shoplifters

1. First Reformed (Schrader)
2. Shoplifters (Koreeda)
3. The Favourite (Lanthimos)
4. Burning (Lee)
5. Mandy (Cosmatos)
6. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsey, Rothman)
7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Coens)
8. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay)
9. Mission Impossible: Fallout (McQuarrie)
10. Unsane (Soderbergh)
10. Game Night (Daley & Goldstein)

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Ross)
Isle of Dogs (Anderson)
Black Panther (Coogler)
Annihilation (Garland)
Eighth Grade (Burnham)
Paddington 2 (King)
Roma (Cuarón)
BlacKkKlansman (Lee)
Three Identical Strangers (Wardle)
Sorry to Bother You (Riley)
First Man (Chazelle)
RBG (West, Cohen)
Avengers: Infinity War (Russo Bros.)
Suspiria (Guadagnino)
Hereditary (Aster)

1. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
2. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)
3. The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie)
5. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel & Ethan Coen)
6. Bisbee '17 (Robert Greene)
7. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
8. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
9. Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis)
10. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)

1. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
2. Hereditary (Aster)
3. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
4. Roma (Cuaron)
5. Annihilation (Garland)
6. Isle of Dogs (Anderson)
7. The Favourite (Lanthimos)
8. First Man (Chazelle)
9. Unsane (Soderbergh)
10. Mandy (Cosmatos)

Honourable Mentions:
Deadpool 2 (Leitch)
Halloween (Green)
High Life (Denis)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (McQuarrie)
Overlord (Avery)
Upgrade (Whannell)
A Quiet Place (Krasinksi)

Good:
At Eternity's Gate (Schnabel)
The Wind (Tammi)
Destroyer (Kusama)
Searching (Chaganty)
The Strangers: Prey at Night (Roberts)
Black Panther (Coogler)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Ramsey, Persichetti, Rothman)

Decent
Bird Box (Bier)
Bad Times at the El Royale (Goddard)
Avengers: Infinity War (Russo Brothers)
Tag (Tomsic)
Game Night (Daley, Goldstein)
Widows (McQueen)
The Nun (Hardy)
Chappaquiddick (Curran)
Insidious: The Last Key (Robitel)
The Death of Stalin (Iannucci)
Anna and the Apocalypse (McPhail)
The First Purge (McMurray)
Life Itself (Fogelman)
Crazy Rich Asians (Chu)

Not Good:
The Predator (Black)
Aquaman (Wan)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Howard)
Winchester (Spierig Brothers)
Slender Man (White)

Terrible:
The Commuter (Collet-Serra)
Extinction (Young)
Truth or Dare (Wadlow)
How It Ends (Rosenthal)
The Cloverfield Paradox (Onah)
Little Italy (Petrie)

2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012

Looking forward to updating/keeping on top of this as the year goes on. My favourite cinema releases this year:

1.The Rider (dir. Chloe Zhao)
2. Western (dir. Valeska Gisebach)
3. Rey (dir. Niles Attalah)
4. Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. The Nothing Factory (dir. Pedro Pinho)

1. Burning
2. Bisbee '17
3. Zama
4. You Were Never Really Here
5. BlacKkKlansman
6. If Beale Street Could Talk
7. First Reformed
8. Lazzaro felice
9. Sorry to Bother You
10. The Other Side of the Wind

Honorable Mention: 24 Frames, Annihilation, Blindspotting, The Favourite, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Hereditary, Isle of Dogs, Lean on Pete, Madeline's Madeline, The Rider, Roma, Shoplifters, Vox Lux, We the Animals, Western

01. Phantom Thread (Anderson)
02. Cold War (Pawlikowski)
03. First Reformed (Schrader)
04. Roma (Cuaron)
05. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay)
06. Hereditary (Aster)
07. The Shape Of Water (del Toro)
08. Annihilation (Garland)
09. L’Amant Double (Ozon)
10. Leave No Trace (Granik)

1. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsey)
2. The Favourite (Lanthimos)
3. Shoplifters (Kore-eda)
4. Roma (Cuaron)
5. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
6. Isle of Dogs (Anderson)
7. Tully (Reitman)
8. BlackKklansman (Lee)
9. Eighth Grade (Burnham)
10. Sorry to Bother You (Riley)

Finally some films to fill out this list!

1. First Reformed (Schrader)
2. Burning (Lee)
3. Under the Silver Lake (Mitchell)
4. Roma (Cuaron)
5. Happy Hour (Hamaguchi)*
6. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (Van Sant)
7. Madeline's Madeline (Decker)
8. Donbass (Loznitsa)
9. Claire's Camera (Hong)**
10. Knife + Heart (Gonzalez)

Also seen / at least partly liked: Ash is Purest White (Jia), Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Tyrnauer), Three Faces (Panahi), Climax (Noé), BlacKkKlansman (Lee), Vent d'ouest (Anonymous), Custody (Legrand), Mandy (Cosmatos), You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay), Asako I & II (Hamaguchi), The House That Jack Built (Von Trier), Shoplifters (Kore-eda).

* Including this here because I saw this in its French theatrical release, and it has been hard for a lot of people to see up until the semi-recent home video release.
** Same reasoning as Happy Hour.

1. Ballad of Buster Scruggs
2. BlacKkKlansman
3. Green Book
4. OJ Made in America
5. Sorry to Bother You
6. Bohemian Rhapsody
7. Tully
8. The Death of Stalin
9. Eighth Grade
10. If Beale Street Could Talk

01. Burning (Chang-dong Lee)
02. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
03. Peterloo (Mike Leigh)
04. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
05. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)
06. The Heiresses (Marcelo Martinessi)
07. Diamantino (Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt)
08. Custody (Xavier Legrand)
09. Memoir of War (Emmanuel Finkel)
10. I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (Radu Jude)

1. Aquaman
2. The 15:17 to Paris
3. Ready Player One
4. Batman Ninja
5. Dragon Ball Super: Broly
6. The Equalizer 2
7. Death Wish
8. Upgrade
9. Mile 22
10. The Mule

1 Roma
2 BlacKkKlansman
3 Annihilation
4 First Reformed
5 The Favourite
6 Sorry to Bother You
7 A Star is Born
8 Black Panther
9 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
10 Hereditary

The Best:

1. Burning
2. Shoplifters
3. First Reformed
4. Unsane
5. Annihilation
6. You Were Never Really Here
7. Sorry to Bother You
8. Mandy
9. Cold War
10. Roma

The Rest (not numbered, but listed in ranked order): Hereditary, The Rider, American Animals, Game Night, Tully, If Beale Street Could Talk, First Man, Widows, Thoroughbreds, Disobedience, Let the Sun Shine In, The Favourite, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, BlacKKKlansman, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sisters Brothers, Teen Titans Go!, A Simple Favor, Upgrade, A Star Is Born, Vice, Free Solo, Den of Thieves, Suspiria, Incredibles 2, Beirut, Bad Times at the El Royale, Isle of Dogs, Avengers: Infinity Wars, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Assassination Nation, Black Panther, White Boy Rick, A Quiet Place, Deadpool 2, Three Identical Strangers, Ant Man and the Wasp, Support the Girls, Nutcracker in the Four Realms, The House With A Clock In Its Walls, Let the Corpses Tan, Ocean's 8, Tag, Equalizer 2, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Crazy Rich Asians, Happytime Murders, Rampage, Stree, Hotel Transylvania 3, Truth or Dare, Hotel Artemis, Uncle Drew, Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, Blockers, Skyscraper, Aquaman, Breaking In, A Wrinkle in Time, Overboard, The Predator, Sin Island

1. The Death of Stalin
2. Black Panther

1. Paddington 2
2. You Were Never Really Here
3. First Reformed
4. Support the Girls
5. The Rider
6. Won’t You be My Neighbor?
7. BlackkKlansman
8. Eighth Grade
9. Lean on Pete
10. Love Simon

Worst: 15:17 to Paris

Biggest Disappointment: Annihilation

(So far)

1. Roma
2. The Other Side of the Wind
3. Suspiria
4. First Man
5. The Favourite
6. Vox Lux
7. A Star is Born
8. The Front Runner
9. Vice
10. Red Sparrow
...
11. Mary Poppins Returns
12. Ready Player One

1. The Wild Pear Tree
2. Roma
3. Burning
4. The Rider
5. First Reformed
6. Zama
7. The Favourite
8. If Beale Street Could Talk
9. You Were Never Really Here
10. Isle of Dogs

Honorable mentions: Widows, Cold War, Disobedience, Birds of Passage, The Fugue, Lean on Pete, Leave No trace, Eighth Grade, Sweet Country, Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse, Museum, Dogman, Bad Times at the El Royale, Tully

Others Seen: Suspiria, Unsane, Vox Lux, Happy as Lazarro, First Man, Shadow (Yimou), The Kindgergarten Teacher, Halloween, Colette, Hereditary, BlackKlansman, A Quiet Place, Sorry to Bother You

Roma
Shoplifters
Burning
If Beale Street Could Talk
Destroyer
The Third Murder
You Were Never Really Here
The Favourite
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
First Reformed

Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg)
Unsane (Steven Soderbergh)

1. First Reformed
2. The Other Side of the Wind
3. Burning
4. Roma
5. Annihilation
6. Private Life
7. The Rider
8. Apostle
9. Happy as Lazzaro
10. Leave No Trace

HMs: Zama, Upgrade, You Were Never Really Here