I held off finalizing this list as long as I could, since it takes a while for works to make it to Indiana even in non-plague times. While some late-in-the-decade titles have yet to hit the affordable streaming services (HBO Max doesn’t count as affordable) and I still need to resign myself to finding a 210 minute block of my life to watch The Irishman, I’ve managed to see just about all the one-to-three hour narrative films from up to 2018 on my Movies I Should Probably See spreadsheet, although the unknown unknowns are undoubtedly more plentiful among movies in languages other than English. As for documentaries and the avant-garde, go pray for a Film Comment resurrection.
The top two were clear throughout the (two-year-long) listmaking process. I decided on my number one by asking myself which one I wanted to watch again list night. For all its (extremely uncharacteristic among Trier’s oeuvre) merits, Melancholia’s ending is so, uh, definitive, one hardly needs to watch a minute of Trier again (though reaching this conclusion required me getting through 45 minutes of Nymphomaniac.) In contrast, since Burning’s about the impossibility of complete knowability, it’s highly amenable to repeat viewings to properly calibrate one’s probabilities. What’s more, the first half at least is, detail for detail, as good as any movie ever—the Trump newscast, to name one thing, acquires additional resonance once you understand how the characters are competing at constructing their own realities, with the author guy getting absolutely bodied by the rich guy until he takes the fight to an oasis of non-constructed reality. Perhaps the second half is largely just playing things out, but as with 2000s movie of the decade Mulholland Drive or 1950s movie of the decade Vertigo, there’s a lot to play out.
Elsewhere: Lots of Koreans and Iranians and (still) French people! Maybe not enough Latin Americans! Many more women than last decade but still not enough! That fjucker Godard! Orson Welles somehow! One superhero movie, not counting Mad Max or Paddington as superheroes!
Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018)
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, 2014)
Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2012)
Cemetery of Splendor (Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Your Name. (Masashi Ando, 2016)
Transit (Christian Petzold, 2018)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019)
The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
Barbara (Christian Petzold, 2012)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
The Rider (Chloé Zhao, 2018)
Paddington 2 (Paul King, 2017)
Taxi (Jafar Panahi, 2015)
Peterloo (Mike Leigh, 2018)
Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Good Time (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2017)
Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)
The Past (Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2011)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2017)
Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Life Without Principle (Johnnie To, 2011)
Western (Valeska Grisebach, 2017)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Peter Ramsey/Bob Persichetti/Rodney Rothman, 2018)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda, 2018)
The Shape of Water (Guillermo Del Toro, 2017)
Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)
Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong, 2010)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
Max Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke, 2013)
Looper (Rian Johnson, 2012)
Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo, 2015)
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019)
Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, 2012)
The Continent (Han Han, 2014)
45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)
Jane Eyre (Cary Fukunaga, 2011)
Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Premium Rush (David Koepp, 2012)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Atlantics (Mati Diop, 2019)
Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2018)
The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, 2018)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira, 2010)
Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, 2018)
The Measure of a Man (Stéphane Brizé, 2015)
Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)
Inside Out (Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015)
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010)
Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh, 2012)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan & Joel Coen, 2013)
Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR, 2017)
Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard, 2012)
Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, 2015)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Call Me by My Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017)
Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)
The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki, 2017)
People’s Park (J.P. Sniadecki & Libbie Dina Cohn, 2012)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
Fright Night (Craig Gillespie, 2011)
Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011)
Aftershock (Feng Xiaogang, 2010)
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, 2018)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011)
Seeking the Monkey King (Ken Jacobs, 2011)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Kaili Blues (Bi Gan, 2015)
Being 17 (André Téchiné, 2016)
Please Give (Nicole Holofcener, 2010)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (Rich Moore & Phil Johnston, 2018)
***
The 9th or 10th Annual Expert Witnesses Poll
There were 46 voters, comprised of members and alumni of the Expert Witness Facebook group as well as subscribers to this here newsletter.
Top 50+ albums:
Pazz and Jop scoring applies. Tiebreakers: (i) points per vote, (ii) points after dropping highest score.
1. Run the Jewels: RTJ4 (365 points/30 votes/highest points given 23)
2. Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters (352/27/25)
3. Billy Nomates (187/16/30)
4. Elizabeth Cook: Aftermath (180/15/18)
5. Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud (170/16/21)
6. Haim: Women in Music Pt. III (120/11/18)
7. Lori McKenna: The Balladeer (110/12/15)
8. Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways (95/11/20)
9. Kalie Shorr: Open Book (86/9/20)
10. Kahil El’Zabar: Kalil El’Zabar’s America the Beautiful (79/6/30)
11. Lucinda Williams: Good Souls Better Angels (78/9/12)
12. Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully the Music Is Yours (76/6/20)
13. Jessie Ware: What's Your Pleasure? (57/5/20)
14. Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia (55/5/19)
15. Drive-By Truckers: The Unraveling (51/5/16)
16. Serengeti & Kenny Segal: Ajai (50/4/20)
17. Low Cut Connie: Private Lives (46/6/10)
18. The Avalanches: We Will Always Love You (45/3/20)
19. Aly Keïta/Jan Galega Brönnimann/Lucas Niggli: Kalan Teban (45/4/15)
20. Thiago Nassif: Mente (45/6/10)
21. Rina Sawayama: Sawayama (43/3/18)
22. Hanging Tree Guitars (43/5/10)
23. Taylor Swift: Evermore (43/5/13)
24. Brandy Clark: Your Life Is a Record (42/5/10)
25. Dramarama: Color TV (41/4/12)
26. Juice WRLD: Legends Never Die (39/4/16)
27. Emma Swift: Blonde on the Tracks (37/4/16)
28=. Mark Lomax, II & the Urban Art Ensemble: The 400 Years Suite (35/3/15)
28=. Bruce Springsteen: Letter to You (35/3/15)
30. Sault: Untitled (Black Is) (35/4/10)
31. Sault: Untitled (Rise) (34/3/12)
32. X: Alphabetland (32/5/10)
33. Gil Scott-Heron: We’re New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven (30/2/15)
34. Sam Hunt: Southside (30/3/20)
35. Kesha: High Road (28/2/20)
36. Carly Rae Jepsen: Dedicated Side B (28/3/13)
37. Shabaka and the Ancestors: We Are Sent Here by History (25/2/15)
38. Eric Revis: Slipknots Through a Looking Glass (25/3/10)
39. Megan Thee Stallion: Good News (24/3/10)
40. Idles: Ultra Mono (24/3/11)
41. Spillage Village: Spilligion (24/3/13)
42. Lady Gaga: Chromatica (23/2/13)
43. Drive-By Truckers: The New OK (23/3/10)
44=. Chloe x Halle: Ungodly Hour (22/2/12)
44=. Public Enemy: What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? (22/2/12)
46. Ariana Grande: Positions (22/2/13)
47=. The Beths: Jump Rope Gazers (20/2/10)
47=. Hazel English: Wake Up! (20/2/10)
47=. Fox Green: The Longest April (20/2/10)
47=. Sunny Sweeney: Recorded Live at the Machine Shop Recording Studio (20/2/10)
47=. Taylor Swift: Folklore (20/2/10)
Top 23 songs:
One point per vote, plus an extra half point for star votes. Ties broken by number of star votes, then by the Farruggia rule (reverse order of album rank.)
#1: Lil Baby: “The Bigger Picture” 7.5 (3 star votes)
#2: Iris DeMent: “Going Down to Sing in Texas” 7.5 (1)
#3: Bree Runway & Yung Baby Tate: “Damn Daniel” 7 (2)
#4: Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion: “WAP” 6
#5=: The Weeknd: “Blinding Lights” 4
#5=: Megan Thee Stallion feat. Beyoncé: “Savage Remix” 4
#7: The Chicks: “Gaslighter” 4
#8: Sam Hunt: “Hard to Forget” 4
#9: Chad Matheny (Emperor X): “The Ballad of HPAE Local 5058” 3.5 (1)
#10: Rina Sawayama: “STFU!” 3.5 (1)
#11: Run the Jewels feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha: “JU$T” 3.5 (1)
#12=: Phoebe Bridgers: “Kyoto” 3
#12=: Mickey Guyton: “Black Like Me” 3
#12=: Jerry Joseph feat. Drive-By Truckers: “Sugar Smacks” 3
#15: Luke Combs: “Six Feet Apart” 3
#16: Miley Cyrus: “Midnight Sky” 3
#17: Haim: “The Steps” 3
#18=: Bad Boy Chiller Crew: “450” 2.5 (1)
#18=: Kylie Minogue: “Say Something” 2.5 (1)
#18=: John Prine: “I Remember Everything” 2.5 (1)
#18=: Tyler Childers: “Long Violent History” 2.5 (1)
#22: Soccer Mommy: “Circle the Drain” 2.5 (1)
#23: Elizabeth Cook: “Thick Georgia Woman” 2.5 (1)
Next week: Finally, some substantive content with a 2020 catch-up Semipop Life.