The Top Ten Project

Welcome to my collection of annual best-of lists, inspired by a similar project from Ed Gonzalez at Slant Magazine. After I feel I have seen and reviewed a sufficient number of films from a specific year, I will post a list. Where applicable, you may follow a link to an in-depth review of a film; if the year is highlighted, you may follow a link to an essay with capsule reviews of the films.

Lists will unranked, alphabetical, and capped at whatever number I feel like. Out of tradition, I'll aim for ten films each year, but it'll simply depend on the number of great films in any given year. Onward from 1998 (the year I began publishing reviews in newspapers and on websites), films will fall under their U.S. release dates. Otherwise, dates will correspond with the Internet Movie Database.

Check back for regular updates.
________

2000
• Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
• George Washington (David Gordon Green)
• High Fidelity (Stephen Frears)
• Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)
• Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson)
• Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
• The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)
• Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson)
• Yi Yi (Edward Yang)

2001
• Ali (Michael Mann)
• Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
• Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
• In the Bedroom (Todd Field)
• In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
• Memento (Christopher Nolan)
• Monsters, Inc. (Peter Docter)
• Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
• Waking Life (Richard Linklater)

2002
• Adaptation. (Spike Jonze)
• Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass)
• Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
• Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes)
• Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
• The Pianist (Roman Polanski)
• Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes)
• Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
• Time Out (Laurent Cantet)
• Y Tu Mamá También (Alfonso Cuaron)

2003
• American Splendor (Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman)
• Angels in America (Mike Nichols)
• City of God (Fernando Meirelles)
• Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
• Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton)
• The Fog of War (Errol Morris)
• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
• Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
• School of Rock (Richard Linklater)
• The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet)

2008

• Boy A (John Crowley)

• Che (Steven Soderbergh)

• Chop Shop (Ramin Bahrani)

• The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)

• The Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsein)

• In Bruges (Martin McDonagh)

• Milk (Gus Van Sant)

• Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)

• Wall•E (Andrew Stanton)

• The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)