My Favorite Movies From Every Year I've Been Alive

1993:

Best: Tombstone

Honorable mention: Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, The Sandlot, The Fugitive

Guilty Pleasure: Cool Runnings

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: In the Name of the Father, The Nightmare Before Christmas

Embarrassing admission: I’ve never seen the Nightmare Before Christmas all the way through. That will be corrected some time soon, however, since my girlfriend is a huge fan of the movie.

Daniel Day-Lewis is one of my favorite actors, and the best actor working today, so I don’t have any good excuse for why I haven’t see In the Name of the Father.

Schindler’s List took home Best Picture honors for this year, but for my money Tombstone was the best movie of the year. Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday remains my favorite movie character of all time and it is an absolute CRIME that he didn’t WIN best supporting actor for that role, let alone not even receive a nomination.

Tommy Lee Jones is great in The Fugitive, but he isn’t even in the same stratosphere as Kilmer in Tombstone.

This is the year that also launched The Jurassic Park franchise, and brought us a staple of mid-late 80s-90’s childhoods, The Sandlot.

My guilty pleasure movie from this year is Cool Runnings, which I haven’t seen in several years, but I have zero doubts that I would still love it. Fuck you, I don’t care what you think.

1994:

Best: Pulp Fiction

Honorable Mention: Forrest Gump, Lion King, Shawshank

Guilty pleasure: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Natural Born Killers, Leon the Professional

Pulp Fiction is one of my five favorite movies, so it is no surprise to anyone that knows me that it tops my list for 1994. Quentin Tarantino is still my favorite director and he followed up a strong debut of 1992’s Reservoir Dogs by bringing us what has turned into a cult-classic in Pulp Fiction for his second feature film.

1994 was a year of heavyweights with Forrest Gump (the best picture winner), The Shawshank Redemption, and Lion King all coming out. The Lion King didn’t receive any Oscar nominations outside of the nominations and wins it took home for music, which is hard to fathom in retrospect.

This was also the year that Jim Carrey made a couple of annoying movies that I thoroughly enjoyed, at least when I was younger. I haven’t seen Pet Detective or The Mask in a number of years, but when I was a teenager and younger I couldn’t flip past either one if they were on T.V.

I’m still disappointed in myself for not watching Leon the Professional yet; I’ve had it queued up on Netflix several times but couldn’t bring myself to hit play, instead going over and watching Sons of Anarchy for the second or third time.  

1995:

Best: Toy Story

Honorable Mention: Braveheart, Seven, Friday, Goldeneye, Before Sunrise

Guilty pleasure: Billy Madison, Tommy Boy

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: 12 Monkeys, The Usual Suspects

Toy Story broke onto the scene in 1995 and was a grand achievement; it became the very first feature-length film to be fully animated, and it was absolutely perfect. Toy Story launched a franchise that is still thriving to this day. It not only should’ve been nominated for Best Picture; it should have won, but Hollywood back then, and even now, refuses to admit that an animated film could be the best movie of the year.

The movie that did win best picture was very good, however. Mel Gibson showed his penchant for making outstanding war movies with Braveheart, and he continues to do so to this day (while still being crazy as shit).

David Fincher burst onto the scene with his first feature film, Seven, the dark and gloomy thriller with a mind-fuck of an ending.

1995 also blessed us with Friday, another cult-classic that made Hollywood stars out of Ice Cube and Chris Tucker.

A couple of SNL stalwarts dropped movies that I still find funny to this day: Adam Sandler’s Billy Madison and Chris Farley’s Tommy Boy.

I’m guessing the fact that I’ve never seen The Usual Suspects would surprise a lot of people, but I have no plans of ever actually seeing it. It’s a movie built around suspense, and when you already know that Kevin Spacey is Keyser Soze (not a spoiler since this movie came out 22 years ago, you fuckers) it ruins the allure of that movie.

1996:

Best: Fargo

Honorable Mention: Jerry Maguire, From Dusk till Dawn, Twister, Independence Day

Guilty Pleasure: Space Jam, Happy Gilmore, Beavis and Butthead do America, Black Sheep

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Trainspotting, Sling Blade

I didn’t see Fargo until a couple of years ago despite the fact that I’m a big fan of the Coen brothers (as you will later see more evidence of), but I thoroughly enjoyed it when I did. Of the movies I’ve seen from this year, it was the best film and it’s not all that close. Jerry Maguire probably comes the closest, but it’s not on Fargo’s level. That’s just my two cents, you pathetic piece of shit.

I’ve heard the Fargo T.V. show is even better than the movie, so I’ll have to at some point make time to watch it.

Twister and Independence Day are both very enjoyable and easily rewatchable films from that year. I LOVE Independence Day. Nobody was more disappointed (or less surprised) than me that the long awaited sequel that came out last year was utter shit.

More Adam Sandler and Chris Farley making movies that made me laugh this year with Happy Gilmore and Black Sheep respectively. Also, fuck you if you didn’t like Space Jam.  

1997:

Best: Good Will Hunting

Honorable Mention: Jackie Brown, Donnie Brasco, As Good as it Gets, Men in Black

Guilty Pleasure: Beverly Hills Ninja, Liar, Liar

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: LA Confidential

Why Good Will Hunting? Because fuck you, that’s why.

In all seriousness, this was a difficult year to pick the best movie. I think Jackie Brown, As Good As It Gets, Donnie Brasco, and even Men in Black have a legitimate argument. What doesn’t have an argument is best picture winner Titanic. Fuck that movie.

Jackie Brown is one of Quentin Tarantino’s least appreciated movies, but his diehard supporters will tell you it is one of his very best.

Will Smith followed up 1996’s blockbuster hit Independence Day with 1997’s Men in Black co-starring Tommy Lee Jones, which officially landed Smith in superstardom.

Liar Liar probably doesn’t belong in the guilty pleasures section seeing that it got mostly positive reviews but I felt it deserved to be mentioned somewhere.

If you don’t like Beverly Hills Ninja then you can have a conversation with these hands.

1998:

Best: The Big Lebowski

Honorable Mention: Saving Private Ryan, The Truman Show, American History X

Guilty Pleasure: Armageddon, The Waterboy

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

If you don’t agree with The Big Lebowski as 1998’s best movie, then well, that’s just like, your opinion, man. The Big Lebowski didn’t get the best reviews when it first came out, and received no love from the Academy, but it is now considered a cult-classic, and is probably my very favorite movie.

I don’t blame you if you pine for Saving Private Ryan, either. You aren’t wrong as much as you are just an asshole. It’s a great movie, though, and of the nominated films at the 1999 Oscars, it should have taken home Best Picture.

American History X and the Truman Show are also strong admissions. American History X took on tough subject matter and turned out a movie with a very strong moral message. This movie made me a big Edward Norton fan.

Those are good movies, but the Dude abides.

I’m not sure why I liked Adam Sandler so much back in the day, but damn it if The Waterboy didn’t get me every time I watched it. I’m kinda embarrassed to have been as big of an Adam Sandler fan as I was with how terrible his movies have been for more than a decade now.

1999:

Best: The Blair Witch Project

Honorable Mention: Fight Club, The Matrix, American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, Eyes Wide Shut, Toy Story 2, Green Mile

Guilty Pleasure: Spy Who Shagged Me, The Mummy, Big Daddy

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: The Boondock Saints

I probably had the longest argument with myself over which movie topped 1999 for me. I thought when I saw Fight Club that it would win going away, and it would have five years ago. But five years ago I hadn’t seen Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut or The Blair Witch Project.

The Blair Witch Project takes top honors mainly because I’m still terrified to piss her off. I’ve seen it four or five times at this point, and it is still just as unsettling as the first time I saw it.

On a $60,000 budget, The Blair Witch Project earned $248 million at the U.S. box office. It was the first of its kind, and launched a plethora of copy-cat found footage movies that have mostly been awful. Also, if you haven’t seen the documentary attached to the blu-ray of Blair Witch, I highly recommend it. I watched it and had to do a couple google search verifications to ensure what I was watching was indeed fake.

One more note on The Blair Witch Project: I had an unsettling experience in the immediate aftermath of my first viewing (this seems to be the case for most people who have seen this, too).

Anyway, after my former roommate and I finished watching this, we stepped outside so I could smoke a cigarette (he didn’t smoke but there was no way I was going out there alone). While I was smoking, we both clearly heard someone in the distance shouting the name “Josh” loudly. Which is extremely creepy when you remember that one of the main characters in the movie was named Josh, and the other two (Mike and Heather) spend the last part of the movie looking for Josh after he goes missing, and loudly shout “Josh” off into the woods. I thought potentially that I was hearing shit, but then I turned to my roommate whose face was ghostly white. He obviously heard the same thing as me. I’ve never moved that quick in my life to get back into our apartment. I’m pretty sure I slept with the lights on that night.

2000:

Best: Memento

Honorable Mention: Gladiator, Cast Away, American Psycho, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Patriot

Guilty Pleasure: Bedazzled, Scary Movie

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Almost Famous

This was another pretty tough year with a lot of strong candidates. Memento is an early Christopher Nolan movie, and isn’t perfect by any stretch, but it is smartly crafted and well executed. It’s a different movie than anyone was used to, and it got a bump from a phenomenal performance from Guy Pearce.

Gladiator gave the world potentially the most badass name in history with Maximus Decimus Meridius, which is what I would name my first-born son if my girlfriend wasn’t so boring.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Is a hilarious Coen Brother addition and made us all Dapper Dan men.

I saw Cast Away when I was seven or eight and cried like a baby when Chuck lost Wilson. I had to quickly leave the room I was watching it in so neither of my brothers would call me a pussy.

I feel like I would hate Bedazzled if I saw it now, mainly because Brendan Fraser is awful, but I did enjoy it quite a bit when I was younger. Scary Movie was a parody of scary movies and was so successful that people still try to copy its formula.

2001:

Best: Ocean’s Eleven

Honorable Mention: The Royal Tenenbaums, Training Day, AI, Donnie Darko, A Beautiful Mind, Shrek

Guilty Pleasure: Scary Movie 2, Jeepers Creepers, Pearl Harbor

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Amelie, Moulin Rouge!

I don’t think Ocean’s Eleven was the BEST movie of the year, that was probably best picture winner A Beautiful Mind, or potentially even Shrek. But, Ocean’s Eleven was the movie I enjoyed the most. It’s a thoroughly entertaining ensemble piece.

I still have not seen either of the sequels that came after because I’ve heard nothing really good about either and I don’t want to be disappointing.

I saw The Royal Tenenbaums a year ago after discovering how enjoyable a director Wes Anderson is when I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel in theatres.

Stanley Kubrick is one of my all-time favorite directors and his influence on Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence is noticeable.

I have no idea why I enjoy Pearl Harbor so much because it’s pretty much everything I hate wrapped into a movie, but shit if it doesn’t make me feel more patriotic every time I see it. I’m also an unrepentant Ben Affleck supporter, so maybe that explains it.  

2002:

Best: Road to Perdition

Honorable Mention: Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, 8 Mile

Guilty Pleasure: The Mothman Prophecies, Mr. Deeds, A Walk to Remember

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: The Pianist, Chicago

I went back and forth between Road to Perdition, Gangs of New York, and Catch Me if You Can for tops of 2002. 8 Mile also deserved mention, but it was a distant fourth behind the big three.

I’m a big fan of gangster films, and Road to Perdition hit all the right notes for me with a strong performance from leading-man Tom Hanks. It got several after-thought Oscar nominations, but didn’t get serious consideration for the major awards, which seems like a crime.

Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio had strong years with Hanks playing Michael Sullivan in Road to Perdition and then chasing Leonardo DiCaprio as Carl Hanratty in Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can.

Leo was running from Hanks as the con-artist Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can while also playing Amsterdam Vallon in Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. It’s hard to beat Gangs of New York as a Scorsese movie starring DiCaprio and the best actor working, Daniel Day-Lewis.

The Mothman Prophecies scared the ever-loving shit out of me and I still get paranoid every now and then when I drive at night.

I believe Mr. Deeds is the last Sandler slap-stick that I enjoyed, probably, maybe. I don’t know.

A Walk to Remember is corny and cheesy and at times not very well acted, but it’s also beautiful and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.

2003:

Best: Lost in Translation

Honorable Mention: Return of the King, Finding Nemo, Curse of the Black Pearl, Matrix Reloaded, Kill Bill Volume I, Mystic River, Old School

Guilty Pleasure: Bruce Almighty, Wrong Turn

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Matchstick Men

The final part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, took home best picture at the 2004 Oscars, and as much as I hate to admit it, it is quite a good movie. I need to go back and watch the other two because I only half-watched either. My brother was a big fan of the series, and it was my sole purpose in life at the time to hate everything he loved.

2003 also brought us the beginning of the still-running Pirates of the Caribbean series and a new animated soon-to-be classic in Finding Nemo.

The second (and third????) Matrix movies also came out in 2003. I was only 10 at the time, but I don’t remember those coming out within six months of each other. Maybe that’s why Revolutions sucked.

Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation received four Oscar nominations, taking home a single win with her best original screenplay award. The on screen chemistry between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson was palpable, and drove this to the top of my list for ‘03.

I enjoy Wrong Turn thanks solely to Eliza Dushku (infinite flame emojis). My crush on her came in full force after this movie. (marry me plz).

2004:

Best: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Honorable Mention: The Incredibles, Shrek 2, Kill Bill Volume 2, Million Dollar Baby

Guilty Pleasure: The Girl Next Door, The Butterfly Effect

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: The Aviator

The first time I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was on blu ray, and when it ended I left it playing and it eventually started over. And I just went ahead and watched it again. It’s that good.

Best Picture Winner Million Dollar Baby is worth the price of admission, and a couple of sequels, Kill Bill Volume 2 (which doesn’t really count as a sequel) and Shrek 2 were also strong admissions this year.

Also, I cannot WAIT for the Incredibles sequel in 2018.

I really have to see The Aviator. A Scorsese movie with what is probably still DiCaprio’s signature role? Every time I’ve looked at watching it in the past I’ve stared at the 2 hour and 50 minute run time, and just couldn’t bring myself to hit play. I will eventually.

2005:

Best: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Honorable Mention: Brokeback Mountain, Sin City, Batman Begins, Revenge of the Sith, Wedding Crashers

Guilty Pleasure: House of Wax, The Longest Yard

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: A History of Violence, Capote, Munich

There were three real contenders here, but I’d be lying to myself I picked anything other than Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as much as I wanted to pick Brokeback Mountain. Shane Black has turned into one of my favorite directors, and this film gave rise to Robert Downey Jr. and earned him the role of Iron Man. Val Kilmer’s depiction of Gay Perry is also tremendous.

I didn’t see Brokeback Mountain until a couple of years ago because in 2005 it wasn’t socially acceptable for a 12 year old boy to watch, or like, a movie about a couple of gay cowboys, at least where I am from. That was a mistake, however, because it is outstanding, and of the nominated films it deserved to win Best Picture, but the Academy didn’t have the testicular fortitude to give it to them.

The actual Best Picture winner, Crash, is probably the worst movie to ever win Best Picture. I watched it a few years ago just to see what the big deal was, and it’s really not very good. Certainly not on the same level as Brokeback Mountain.

Sin City didn’t get the praise it deserved this year, either. We also got the beginning of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy with Batman Begins, and what we thought would be the final Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith. I stan for this movie, by the way. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are by all accounts bad movies, but I enjoyed Revenge of the Sith, maybe just because of the nostalgic value of everything finally coming together. Or maybe it was Yoda throwing those imperial guards into the wall when confronting Palpatine.

Ah fuck another Sandler movie I kind of liked. I forgot about The Longest Yard. Damn it.

I should probably remove House of Wax because I liked it when I first saw it, and I bought the blu ray a couple of years ago excited to see it again because I remembered liking it. And then I watched it. It’s bad.

2006:

Best: The Prestige

Honorable Mention: The Departed, The Illusionist, Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness

Guilty Pleasure: Talladega Nights

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Little Miss Sunshine, Letters from Iwo Jima

There was a period of time where I would have ranked The Prestige as my favorite movie. The entire movie is one big magic trick and misdirection to the audience. The big reveal of the movie is hiding in plain-sight for the entire movie, but like Michael Caine’s Cutter explains throughout the movie, we aren’t really looking because we want to be fooled.

The payoff of The Prestige is worth it, and we get strong performances from leading men Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. It’s unfortunate that this movie didn’t get much play at the Academy Awards; I believe it deserved a lot more recognition.

Best Picture winner The Departed was a very close runner-up for me led by an all-star cast and strong direction from Martin Scorsese.

There was a second really good movie about magicians this year, with The Illusionist starring one of my favorite actors - Edward Norton.

This year also brought us a critical James Bond offering with Casino Royale, which has an argument as the best Bond film of them all.

I’m not typically a big Will Ferrell fan, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like Talladega Nights, as much as it pains me to admit.

2007:

Best: No Country for Old Men

Honorable Mention: Gone Baby Gone, There Will Be Blood, Zodiac, Into the Wild

Guilty Pleasure: Disturbia, The Bucket List

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Atonement, American Gangster

The Coen Brothers finally broke through with a best picture with No Country for Old Men in 2007, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 book by the same name. The movie is made by a haunting performance by Javier Bardem as the antagonist Anton Chigurh. I think Javier Bardem should play the bad guy in every movie.

Ben Affleck made his directorial debut in 2007, and it was a smashing success to the surprise of many. Gone Baby Gone gave Affleck the platform to show his ability and he made the most of it. This won’t be the last time you see one of his movies on this list.

There Will Be Blood had Daniel Day-Lewis at the top of his game, so it deserved mention as well as Zodiac, which some consider to be David Fincher’s best movie.

I list Disturbia as a guilty pleasure film despite the positive reviews solely because those that know me know my disdain for Shia LaBeouf. That disdain is thanks to Transformers and his horrendous southern accent in Lawless, but he’s perfectly fine in Disturbia.

As much as I love gangster movies, and Denzel Washington, I have no real excuse for never seeing American Gangster; that’ll be remedied as soon as possible.

2008:

Best: The Dark Knight

Honorable Mention: Iron Man, Pineapple Express, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Guilty Pleasure: Tropic Thunder, Step Brothers

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Slumdog Millionaire

A pair of superhero movies lead the charge for me in 2008, with The Dark Knight narrowly edging out Iron Man, the movie that kicked off the Marvel universe and made Robert Downey Jr. a superstar.

My first date was a trip to see Nolan’s Dark Knight, and I actually saw this before I saw Batman Begins, which was the first of his Dark Knight Trilogy. I don’t think that was all that uncommon though, because there was a lot of disdain back then for Batman flicks due to several poor renditions of the character in years past.

Heath Ledger’s masterful, Oscar-winning portrayal of the Joker is reason enough to see The Dark Knight. To me, it’s the best Batman film ever made.

It took me a while to see either Step Brothers or Tropic Thunder because I just assumed both would annoy me. I finally broke down and watched both and they both made me laugh. Don’t tell anyone I said that though,

2009:

Best: Inglourious Basterds

Honorable Mention: Zombieland, Hangover, Public Enemies, Up, The Hurt Locker

Guilty Pleasure: Knowing, Law Abiding Citizen

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Crazy Heart, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Quentin Tarantino not netting a single Oscar, not even for writing, for Inglourious Basterds is a crime. Not only was it my favorite movie of 2009, it was the best of the year as well. The Hurt Locker swept the major awards, and while it is an eery look at war and the people in it, it isn’t quite on the same level as this Tarantino offering.

Public Enemies had the most upside to me when it came out in ‘09, and I genuinely thought after seeing the initial trailer for it that it might end up being my favorite movie ever. A Johnny Depp led gangster film about John Dillinger? Sign me up.

Unfortunately, Public Enemies didn’t quite live up to the hype. That’s not to say that Public Enemies is a bad movie; it’s actually very good, but it just wasn’t on the level many thought it would be.

Disney broke everyone’s hearts in 2009 with Up, and an argument can be made that it was the best movie of the year.

2009 delivered two of the best comedies of the last decade with Zombieland and The Hangover.

F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen got poor reviews, and I’m not entirely sure why. It’s not a great movie by any stretch, but I think it is good and deserved more positive attention.

2010:

Best: The Town

Honorable Mention: Toy Story 3, Shutter Island, Inception, The Social Network, True Grit, The Fighter

Guilty Pleasure: The Expendables

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Black Swan, The King’s Speech

Ben Affleck announced himself as a director to be reckoned with in 2007 with Gone Baby Gone, and his follow-up The Town is even better in my eyes. Affleck gives a strong performance as the lead, and Jeremy Renner is every bit as strong in a supporting role that garnered him an Oscar nomination. The movie also gave us one of the most badass lines in movie history when Affleck’s MacRay asks Renner;s Coughlin for help, and tells him he can’t tell him anything more about it, he can’t ask anything, and that they are going to hurt some people, and Coughlin responds “whose car are we going to take?”

2010 was a year of strong directing with Nolan delivering Inception, a movie some consider to be his best; the Coen brothers remaking True Grit in their first film since their Oscar win for No Country for Old Men; David O. Russell bringing The Fighter with an Oscar-winning performance from Christian Bale; Martin Scorsese’s mystery thriller Shutter Island, which people are still arguing over; and David Fincher’s The Social Network about Mark Zuckerberg founding FaceBook and the ensuing legal fight that surrounded it.

It was a great year for movies, but for me, The Town stands about above the rest.  

2011:

Best: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Honorable Mention: Thor, Fast Five, Captain America: The First Avenger, Moneyball, Limitless, Source Code

Guilty Pleasure: Horrible Bosses

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: The Artist, Midnight in Paris, X-Men: First Class, The Help, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

After a strong 2010, 2011 was a bit of a disappointing year for movies. This was a year where I unfortunately missed a good many of the year’s best offerings, including a few that I will be remedying before too much longer. The most glaring omission for me is David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Best picture winner The Artist also seems like a movie I’d quite enjoy.

The Marvel cinematic universe grew in 2011 with the debuts of Thor and Captain America after the successes of the first two Iron Man films.

The Fast and Furious franchise finally got off the snide after three consecutive lackluster movies with Fast Five, which steered the franchise toward the massive success it has seen since.

Cerebral thriller Source Code, the biographical Moneyball, and the thriller Limitless all made strong cases for the top spot.

In the end, however, Rise of the Planet of the Apes took the top spot for me. It’s probably my least favorite favorite movie of a particular year. It’s good, but a notch below many of the others. It’s helped by a masterful performance by Andy Serkis as Caesar and a great many strong visual effects.

2012:

Best: Django Unchained

Honorable Mention: Looper, Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, Argo, Wreck It Ralph, Silver Linings Playbook

Guilty Pleasure: John Carter, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Life of Pi, Les Miserables

After a bit of a disappointing 2011, 2012 came with quite a few heavy hitters. Argo took home Best Picture, finally giving due recognition to Ben Affleck’s directorial success.

Quentin Tarantino earned his second Oscar for writing with Django Unchained, and he should have earned his first Best Picture award this year as well, no offense to Affleck.

Looper was a close runner-up for me, and it’s the movie that gives me supreme confidence in Rian Johnson’s ability to helm The Last Jedi this December.

The Avengers was the convocation of the MCU, a massive project that was a resounding success; The Dark Knight Rises was the final chapter of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, also a resounding success.

David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook is the bronze medalist for me behind Django and Looper.

Skyfall and Wreck It Ralph certainly deserve praise, and that’s not to mention Les Miserables and Life of Pi, two movies that I missed that are by all accounts very good.

2013:

Best: Dallas Buyers Club

Honorable Mention: Gravity, Iron Man 3, 12 Years a Slave, Wolf of Wall Street, Catching Fire, The Conjuring, Blue is the Warmest Colour, Inside Llewyn Davis

Guilty Pleasure: We’re the Millers, Now You See Me

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Great Gatsby, Don Jon, Saving Mr. Banks

2013 was the year that turned Matthew McConaughey around in my eyes. His performance in Dallas Buyers Club, where he plays a hustler cowboy Ron Woodruff, who is diagnosed with AIDS and looks to work the system to get AIDS patients non-FDA approved medication that they need, was exemplary, and earned him an Oscar for Best Performance in a Leading Role.

McConaughey carried over his performance in Dallas Buyers Club with an even better performance as Detective Rust Cohle in True Detective the next year, where he won an Emmy for his performance.

Dallas Buyers Club fell short in the running for Best Picture to Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. 12 Years a Slave told the true story of Solomon Northup, based on his memoirs, who was a free-born African-American who was abducted and sold into slavery. It can be a difficult movie to watch because it paints the ugly and real picture of the antebellum United States.

2013 delivered the best horror movie since The Blair Witch Project with The Conjuring directed by James Wan. It was a breath of fresh air into a genre that sorely needed it.

Visually, there wasn’t a more aesthetically pleasing film in theatres than Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity. The stunning visuals more than make up for some of the thin plot elements and, in my opinion, subpar acting. It’s a much better film when seen in an IMAX theatre than on cable.

2014:

Best: Gone Girl

Honorable Mention: Whiplash, Interstellar, Boyhood, Grand Budapest Hotel, John Wick, American Sniper, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Big Hero 6

Guilty Pleasure: TMNT

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Selma

I was surprised when the Oscar nominations came around for 2014 films that Gone Girl didn’t garner much consideration. The one nomination the film got was Best Actress for Rosamund Pike’s stellar performance as Amy Dunne. Her performance was my second favorite performance of the year, and she should have won the Academy Award over Julianne Moore.

Gone Girl is David Fincher at his absolute best, and he gets strong performances from the aforementioned Pike, Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris, and in a surprising non-comedic role, Tyler Perry, who is outstanding as Affleck’s lawyer.

I mentioned that Pike’s performance was my second favorite of the year, and that’s because she was runner-up to J.K. Simmons in Whiplash. Simmons took home the Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as Fletcher in Damien Chazelle’s debut film.

I’m a bigger fan of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar than most, and despite some lukewarm reviews, I still find it to be one of the top three films of the year. It’s got the stunning visuals of 2013’s Gravity while adding a lot more in terms of character development and plot. It’s not perfect, but it is damn good.

The movie that took home Best Picture and Best Director, Birdman, is the most overrated film of the year. Sure, the visuals are very good with neat camera tricks by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. It did not deserve either of those awards, however. Of the nominated films, Whiplash should have taken home Best Picture, even though I could have lived with Boyhood.

Richard Linklater was absolutely robbed for Best Director. His achievement in shooting Boyhood, a movie filmed over 12 years with the same cast as it tells the story of Mason (played by Ellar Coltrane) from his life at six years old up until he’s eighteen.

Boyhood is every bit of three hours long, but I could’ve just continued watching for several more after it was over.

I attempted to screen Selma at the movie theatre that I work at before it came out, but right after it started a speaker went out and that was that. I didn’t get another chance, and I deeply regret it.

2015:

Best: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Honorable Mention: Spotlight, The Martian, Straight Outta Compton, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hateful Eight, Creed, Room

Guilty Pleasure: Southpaw, Trainwreck

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Brooklyn, Beasts of No Nation, The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, Concussion

I really wanted to say that Spotlight was my favorite movie of 2015, and it is truly a great film, but I’d be lying if I put anything other than the seventh film in the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens, as my favorite movie of the year.

In my entire life, there has never been a movie I was more eager to see than this, and it delivered upon my ridiculously high expectations. The Force Awakens came a full ten years after the last Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith, which was the final film of the prequel trilogy, and thought at the time to be the final Star Wars film ever. That was until Disney wisely bought LucasFilm and decided to make (hopefully) a million more.

When the opening crawl started for The Force Awakens, I felt like a kid again. It almost didn’t seem real. Sure, the movie draws from the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, but even with the similarities, the Force Awakens gives us the nostalgic value of old beloved characters such as Han, Chewbacca, Leia, and the final, brilliant shot of Luke, but it also introduces a lot of fun, new characters such as Rey, Finn, and Poe along with a new strong villain in Kylo Ren, and the promise of a big, bad master in Supreme Leader Snoke.

The power of the Star Wars franchise catapulted it to number one for me, but it just as easily could have been Spotlight. Tom McCarthy’s film about the journalists who uncovered the scandal and coverup of child molestation in the Catholic Church. It’s a powerful movie that sheds further light on a horrific scandal.

The Martian deserves consideration too highlighted by a strong performance by Matt Damon, who an easy argument could be made for him to have gotten the Best Actor nod that was given to Leonardo DiCaprio, which felt like more of a lifetime achievement award for him.

The Revenant earned DiCaprio his first Oscar, and garnered the second consecutive (undeserved) Oscar in Directing for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Spotlight was a deserving Best Picture winner, but I would have gone with George Miller as Best Director for Mad Max: Fury Road.

I have to mention Creed as well because it was the best I’ve ever seen Sylvester Stallone play Rocky, and I believe he should have garnered the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it.

2016:

Best: The Nice Guys

Honorable Mention: La La Land, Arrival, Captain America: Civil War, Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, Fences, Hell or High Water, Everybody Wants Some!!, Hacksaw Ridge

Guilty Pleasure: Blair Witch, Suicide Squad

Movie(s) I feel bad for not seeing: Silence, Paterson, Nocturnal Animals, Jackie, American Honey

Ryan Gosling played a leading man in my two favorite movies of the year. The Nice Guys was critically adored, but didn’t get as much attention as it deserved. It’s the best comedy I’ve seen in years led by Director Shane Black, who has quickly become one of my favorite in the industry.

The chemistry between the two leads, Gosling and Russell Crowe, is palpable. I really hope there is a sequel.

It’s a credit to how much I like The Nice Guys that La La Land finishes runner-up, because most years it would have been number one. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are electric together, and they easily could have swept the Best Actor/Actress categories. Stone took home Best Actress, but Gosling seemingly finished third behind Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington. I’ve seen all three of those films, and after seeing La La Land for the second time on blu ray recently, respect to both Affleck for Manchester by the Sea and Washington for Fences, I believe Gosling’s performance should have netted him the award.

Moonlight is outstanding, but it isn’t on the same level as La La Land, which should’ve taken home Best Picture, like it was initially announced.

Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea is the bronze medal award winner for me from last year. Sprung by a sensational performance by Affleck, Manchester by the Sea is a wonderful film about love and loss, and is one of the saddest movies I’ve ever seen.

This was a fun, if draining project. I had a lot of fun putting it together, and would love to see your own lists, or any disagreements, in the comments below.