The Interested Bystander's Top Films of 2024 (and 2023!)

Touch (c) Focus Feature

Two Years in Films: Best of 2023 & 2024 

After the foregone conclusion of Oppenheimer at last year’s Oscars, the films of 2024 do not have a slam dunk favorite for Best Picture or in my own personal list with really good films that I admired seemingly now destined to be on my best films of 2024 “Best of” list. 

Like last year, I will only list my favorite twenty films of 2024, in alphabetical order and not actually list them in order of my top ten favorites until the end of 2025, after a year of reflection and catching up on films I may have missed. In fact, at the time of this article, I have not seen Babygirl or All We Imagine as Light yet. 

Which means, after a year of reflection, my final Top Ten of films of 2023 is below. I am also pointing out some 2024 performances that haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve from award groups so far. So, enjoy my wrap up of 2024 and, as always, I hope you have a safe and cinematically rich 2025. 

The Interested Bystander's Top Films of 2023 (and 2022!)

Passages (c) MUBI

Two Years in Films: Best of 2022 & 2023 

The 2023 film year was hampered (but necessarily so) by the Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA strike, but I have a feeling that the full effect of the work stoppage will be felt in 2024. Still the lack of promotion of some of the indie films really hurt their chances in the theaters, so I hope you will check out the films listed below that are unfamiliar to you. 

Like last year, I will only list my favorite twenty films of 2023, in alphabetical order and not actually list them in order of my top ten favorites until the end of 2023, after a year of reflection and catching up on films I may have missed. In fact, at the time of this article, I have not seen Napoleon or American Symphony yet. 

Which means, my final Top Ten of films of 2022 is below. I am also pointing out some 2023performances that haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve from award groups so far. 

So, enjoy my wrap up of 2023 and, as always, I hope you have a safe and cinematically rich 2024. 

Best Films of 2022 (and 2021!)

Two Years in Films: Best of 2021 & 2022 

Close (c) A24

2022 was the first full year of film reviews for this website, as I try to watch as wide a swath films as I can: from big budget studio films as well as small indies, some of which are celebrated at various film festivals before quietly debuting on streaming and hoping not to get lost in the avalanche of online media. 

Like last year, I will only list my favorite twenty films of 2022, in alphabetical order and not actually list them in order of my top ten favorites until the end of 2023, after a year of reflection and catching up on films I may have missed. In fact, at the time of this article, I have not seen “Avatar: The Way of Water” or “Triangle of Sadness” yet. 

And as a result, my final Top Ten of films of 2021 is below. I am also pointing out some performances that haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve from award groups so far. 

So, enjoy my wrap up of 2022 and I hope you have a safe and cinematically rich 2023. 

Best of Film in 2022 So Far. Time to Catch Up on Some Great Cinema (Even at Home)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (c) A24

Happy Fourth of July. 

As many film critics are doing their “Best Films of the First Part of 2022” columns, I decided to also highlight some of my favorite movies and moments. Since most of these films are available to stream now, be sure to catch up with them during the upcoming lazy days of summer before the onslaught of Oscar films arrive in the fall.   All the categories are listed in alphabetical Order.

Enjoy! 

Top New York Theater of 2021

My Favorite NYC Theater Shows of 2021 

Seven Deadly Sins (c) Matthew Murphy

Even with only five months of in-person theater in the year of 2021 (with the last month making national news because of the overwhelming impact of the omicron variant of Covid-19 on Broadway shows), there was enough good work by the vibrant New York theater community that cries out to be remembered at year’s end.  Here are 8 shows that stood out for me. 

Best Films of 2021 (and 2020!)

Two Years in Films: Best of 2020 & 2021 

Minyan (c) Strand Releasing, In the Heights (c) Warner Bros, 

Pig (c) Neon, The Worst Person in the World (c) Neon

For The Interested Bystander website, I’m going to shake up the year-end Top Ten tradition. 

I’ve decided that making end-of-the-year lists at the end-of-the-year is just too stressful: I haven’t seen all the movies that have been getting awards attention and I believe you need time to reflect on a movie for a bit before committing to the best of the year. 

So, I will first give you my top 20 favorite movies of 2021, and at the end of 2022, I will rank my final top ten, knowing that some film I didn’t list or haven't even seen yet will be ranked higher than the ones I listed here. 

To make it fun, I am also highlighting some favorite performances no one is talking about from 2021, and then I ranked my definitive top ten films of 2020. 

Enjoy!