1986 - Aliens
1987 - Robocop
1988 - My Neighbour Totoro
1989 - Back To The Future: Part 2
1990 - Goodfellas
1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1992 - Reservoir Dogs
1993 - Groundhog Day
1994 - Three Colours Red
1995 - Before Sunrise
1996 - Fargo
1997 - Princess Mononoke
1998 - The Truman Show
1999 - The Matrix
2000 - YiYi
2001 - Spirited Away
2002 - City Of God
2003 - Oldboy
2004 - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
2005 - Cache
2006 - Children Of Men
2007 - Zodiac
2008 - The Dark Knight
2009 - Up
2010 - The Social Network
2011 - Hugo
2012 - The Master
2013 - Under The Skin
2014 - Whiplash
2015 - Mad Max Fury Road
2016 - The Handmaiden
2017 - Blade Runner 2049
2018 - Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse
2019 - Midsommar
2020 - Parasite
1987, 1989, 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2009 are pretty thin on choices for me so hopefully I can get some new recommendations from your lists.
Just going off US releases otherwise I’d be here all day.
1988- My Neighbour Totoro
1989- Do The Right Thing
1990- Home Alone
1991- The Double Life of Veronique
1992- Muppet Christmas Carol (Fire Walk With Me, Baraka and Aladdin too… what a year)
1993- Naked
1994- Pulp Fiction
1995- Before Sunrise
1996- Fargo
1997- Open Your Eyes
1998- Black Cat White Cat
1999- Colour of Paradise
2000- Battle Royale
2001- My Sassy Girl
2002- Talk to Her
2003- Oldboy
2004- Turtles Can Fly
2005- Brokeback Mountain
2006- Volver
2007- Secret Sunshine
2008- In Bruges
2009- Castaway on the Moon (Dogtooth, The White Ribbon, The Secret in Their Eyes, A Town Called Panic, Mary and Max,Moon, A Serious Man, World’s Greatest Dad, The Damned United, Fish Tank, Up, A Single Man, Mother, Broken Embraces… I could go on. Holy shit what a year)
2010- Four Lions
2011- Intouchables
2012- The Punk Syndrome
2013- Blue is the Warmest Colour
2014- Wild Tales
2015- The Lobster
2016- Raw
2017- Blade Runner 2049
2018- The Favourite
2019- Portrait of a Lady on Fire
2020- Sound of Metal
1982 Blade Runner
1983 Return of the Jedi
1984 Paris, Texas
1985 Back to the Future
1986 Blue Velvet
1987 Withnail & I
1988 Heathers
1989 The Burbs
1990 Home Alone
1991 Silence of the Lambs
1992 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
1993 Dazed and Confused
1994 Heavenly Creatures
1995 Before Sunrise
1996 Fargo
1997 Lost Highway
1998 Rushmore
1999 All About My Mother
2000 Eureka
2001 Spirited Away
2002 Secretary
2003 Memories of Murder
2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005 Me, You and Everyone We Know
2006 Volver
2007 This is England
2008 Still Walking
2009 The White Ribbon
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
2011 The Skin I Live In
2012 The Act of Killing
2013 Under the Skin
2014 Calvary
2015 The Lobster
2016 Moonlight
2017 Ladybird
2018 Shoplifters
2019 Parasite
2020 Protrait of a Lady on Fire
I’ve probably mashed up UK and US release dates, but never mind. Not been watching many films in the past year, might scour lists on here for stuff to watch.
funnily enough, my Facebook memory of this from 2014 just came up regarding this exact question, I’ve updated a couple here for current opinion/viewings;
1988: Scrooged / My Neighbour Totoro
1989: Do The Right Thing
1990: Millers Crossing
1991: Barton Fink
1992: Wayne’s World (by default, it’s been ages and there’s seemingly no other options)
1993: Groundhog Day
1994: Pulp Fiction (shoutout to Leon, however)
1995: La Haine
1996: Fargo
1997: Princess Mononoke
1998: Rushmore / The Big Lewbowski
1999: Magnolia
2000: Memento
2001: Ghost World
2002: The Royal Tenenbaums
2003: Lost in Translation
2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005: Cache
2006: The Lives of Others
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008: Let the Right One In
2009: A Serious Man
2010: Black Swan
2011: Submarine
2012: The Master
2013: Her
2014: Under the Skin
2015: Carol
2016: Moonlight
2017: Phantom Thread
2018: Roma
2019: I’d say Joker but I feel like it may have aged pretty poorly already, so IDK, Fighting With My Family?
The only new film I’ve seen in the last year was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom so I guess that by default.
There’s probably a couple more that could do with updating too
1977 Suspiria
1978 Halloween
1979 Alien
1980 The Shining
1981 An American Werewolf In London
1982 The Thing
1983 Videodrome
1984 A Nightmare On Elm Street
1985 Re-Animator
1986 The Fly
1987 Evil Dead II
1988 Child’s Play
1989 Puppet Master
1990 Jacob’s Ladder
1991 The Silence Of The Lambs
1992 Candyman
1993 Leprechaun
1994 In The Mouth Of Madness
1995 Se7en
1996 Scream
1997 Event Horizon
1998 Ringu
1999 Audition
2000 Battle Royale
2001 Session 9
2002 Dog Soldiers
2003 Haute Tension
2004 Saw
2005 Wolf Creek
2006 Pan’s Labyrinth
2007 Trick 'r Treat
2008 Let The Right One In
2009 Zombieland
2010 Troll Hunters
2011 Kill List
2012 Byzantium
2013 Oculus
2014 The Babadook
2015 The VVitch
2016 Raw
2017 Get Out
2018 Possum
2019 Midsommar
2020 The Invisible Man
1991: Thelma and Louise
1992: My Cousin Vinny
1993: Groundhog Day (but it’s really The Wrong Trousers)
1994: Speed
1995: Clueless
1996: Trainspotting
1997: Boogie Nights
1998: Run Lola Run
1999: The Matrix
2000: High Fidelity
2001: The Royal Tenenbaums
2002: Catch Me if You Can
2003: Memories of Murder
2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005: Serenity
2006: Zidane - A 21st Century Portrait
2007: The Mist
2008: Man on Wire
2009: A Town Called Panic
2010: Winter’s Bone
2011: Take Shelter
2012: Moonrise Kingdom
2013: The Kings of Summer
2014: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
2015: Carol
2016: The Love Witch
2017: The Florida Project
2018: lnto the Spider-Verse
2019: Midsommar
2020: Spontaneous
Pixar featuring in loads of top 3/5s but never quite getting a number 1. Same with The Muppets films
Coen Bros never winning a year, despite being probably my fav directors. Came closest in 96 but was a neck-and-neck choice with basically the best Scottish film ever
2006/2012 both very uninspiring years. 06 had a bunch of good films but no standouts (went with Zidane just as it’s the most different, plus Mogwai, though need to rewatch The Host) and 12 only had a couple that were even contenders - Mud and Moonrise Kingdom
2014 was an INSANE year generally, and especially for foreign language films: Girl Walks Home, Force Majeure, In Order of Disappearance, When Marnie Was There, Marshland - plus Whiplash, Birdman, Grand Budapest, Lego Movie, It Follows, Nightcrawler, and From Scotland With Love. Could have easily made a top 10 here
1997 was basically impossible with Con-Air, Boogie Nights and Jackie Brown. JB needs a rewatch though I remember it as by far my fav Tarantino film, Boogie is the only PTA film I love and Con-Air is a perfect action film - hard to separate those
Run Lola Run knocking off Truman Show was a hard one to take
Same with Take Shelter beating Drive, always hard to compare great artistic masterpiece vs. perfectly formed and compact b-movie genre piece
Being John Malkovich could have beaten The Matrix but haven’t watched it recently enough to confirm
Ditto Memento vs. High Fidelity
Royal Tenenbaums/Mulholland Drive/Spirited Away/LOTR Fellowship/Dogtown and Z-Boys was probably the best 5 films in any year for me. Tenenbaums might be my fav film ever so has the lead for now, but Spirited Away is also perfect, and I’m sure when I rewatch Mulholland again I’ll start to consider that as my fav film …
2007 feels like the furthest I’ll be from DiS consensus. The Mist, Shotgun Stories and Trick ‘r’ Treat (good one @Petagno ) are all miles ahead of TWBB or No Country in my eyes
2013 was the year of coming-of-age with Kings of Summer, Spectacular Now, Way Way Back and Drinking Buddies
2016 my instinct would be Manchester by the Sea but not sure how much I actually want to watch it again? Whereas Love Witch was great fun and really unlike most other things I watch
2018 with Spider-Verse vs. Support the Girls vs. Leave No Trace?? Ooft
Some annoyance with UK vs. USA release dates as I know I think of Spontaneous as a 2021 film not a 2020 one, and Midsommar shouldn’t be in the same year as Parasite and Uncut Gems but hey. Already spent far too long on this to go combing through release dates as well!