I guess if we're going through our picks that we think definitely didn't make it...
The World's End was my #4. While this has a reputation for being one of Edgar Wright's weaker films due to how it recycles certain tropes and themes from his earlier films - the body-snatching aliens are arguably a hybrid of
Shaun of the Dead's zombies and
Hot Fuzz's eerie villagers - I think this illustrates how it best serves as a proper summation of the "Cornetto trilogy" and how, regardless of how much hyperkinetic hipster gamer fun can be had with
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, it still rings a little hollow next to the middle-aged regrets and ravages of addiction that infuse this booze-soaked odyssey and help it stand out more and more as Wright's subsequent work starts to get shallower and shallower.
First Reformed was my #9. For a long time I only really knew Paul Schrader as a screenwriter on some of Scorsese's best films such as
Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and
The Last Temptation of Christ. However, in recent years I've finally started getting into his directorial filmography and he's definitely started to turn into one of my favourite filmmakers. Taking inspiration from the likes of Bresson and Bergman,
First Reformed became a surprise hit - even earning Schrader his first Oscar nomination decades into his career - and its tale of faith in crisis as a priest on the edge is made to confront the impending realities of climate change and how the world around him is (or more likely isn't) preparing to deal with it seems like the film he's been building towards for his entire iconoclastic career, a raw and despairing cry into the void (but one that still carries a sliver of hope).
John Wick: Chapter 2 was my #10. Much like
The Raid 2, this follows up a lean, no-nonsense action classic with a bloated, overly intricate expansion of the crime-riddled world hinted at in the corners of its predecessor. Unlike
The Raid 2, I actually enjoy this one.
Labyrinth of Cinema was my #15. It sucks to realise that, if I'd put Nobuhiko Obayashi's
Hanagatami in this position, it would've earned enough points to get onto the final list. Unfortunately, this was the Obayashi I voted for instead, but can you blame me? The man's ultimate swansong may look like another movie about The Magic Of The Movies, but there's more than enough creativity to make it stand out and maintain a remarkable pace across its considerable runtime. In tracing the history of cinema (Japanese and international, especially when the two intertwine in ways both historical and fantastic), he crafts as grand a testament to the medium's power as anything as its vastly different leads are sucked from movie to movie and creates something that's admittedly rather melancholy but ultimately a worthy celebration of the form we love so much.
Embrace of the Serpent was my #17. There are shades of Herzog and Tarkovsky to this tale of a shaman undertaking two separate but similar journeys along the Amazon in order to guide white explorers in search of a rare plant, coming face to face with the grim realities of colonisation as it corrodes the continent from within. The end result is a worthy heir to the aforementioned directors as the film sculpts in time - the voyages take place decades apart and the consequences of one are drastically felt during the other - while capturing proceedings in evocative monochrome.
Everybody Wants Some!! was my #20. Linklater's follow-up to his years-in-the-making
Boyhood is a spiritual successor not only to that film's coming-of-age narrative but to his cult high-school classic
Dazed and Confused - a simple return to familiar ground, perhaps, but he does it so well that it doesn't matter.