Best Films 2015-current

[MikoTython]

Thru 2024 - I see a lot of films, I miss a lot of films, my taste is limited, but I do have some. Here are a few from 2015-2024 that stood out :

The Big Short
Ex Machina
Spotlight
Manchester By The Sea
The Lobster
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
First Reformed
Get Out
The Favorite
Hereditary
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Midsommar
Beanpole
The Power of the Dog
The Banshees of Inisherman
Azor
Tar
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
The Promised Land
No Other Land
Zone of Interest

[3dender]

Thru 2024 - I see a lot of films, I miss a lot of films, my taste is limited, but I do have some. Here are a few from 2015-2024 that stood out :

The Big Short
Ex Machina
Spotlight
Manchester By The Sea
The Lobster
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
First Reformed
Get Out
The Favorite
Hereditary
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Midsommar
Beanpole
The Power of the Dog
The Banshees of Inisherman
Azor
Tar
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
The Promised Land
No Other Land
Zone of Interest

Once more I'll add to my own list from this one: Hereditary, Midsommar and The Lobster.

[seattleblue]

Thanks for those! Yeah we saw Hereditary and Midsommar. The Lobster has been on "I should see this" for a bit. Midsommar was trying so hard to be The Wicker Man (original), but it didn't quite make it.

Thank you Miko! I saved your list too.

[MikoTython]

Thanks for those! Yeah we saw Hereditary and Midsommar. The Lobster has been on "I should see this" for a bit. Midsommar was trying so hard to be The Wicker Man (original), but it didn't quite make it.

Thank you Miko! I saved your list too.

I hear you. Thing is, I'd never seen the original, so it was all new to me. Hereditary is much the superior film. Also, the aspect of Midsommar I appreciated was the alienation of the main character, her journey from hanger-on to 'belonging', however the circumstance.

For anyone who doesn't know, this guy knows hockey.

[seattleblue]

OK, so I consolidated all your suggestions – thank you again for taking the time to not just make the recs but actually to know what you're talking about in the first place! It occurs to me that there's a cohort of midwestern men Gen X (me) and older who have movies and films woven into them. People today cannot understand how fundamental it was to go to the theater to see movies at least once a week, or can't understand the early era of HBO/Cinemax/Showtime when the movies they'd get would just be cycled endlessly and you'd see them dozens of times ...

Anyway so what I did was make a list of every title I hadn't seen and asked chatgpt to curate that list based on its understanding of my film appreciation and the first ten it told me I would appreciate the most are:

1. Manchester by the Sea (2016)
A masterclass in grief, guilt, and emotional paralysis — a man stuck in moral stillness who is forced to re-engage with life. Absolutely your wavelength.

2. The Rider (2017)
A quietly devastating, non-fiction-adjacent narrative about identity, masculinity, and futility. It has The Ox-Bow Incident kind of ache.

3. Burning (2018)
Korean existential dread. Long, slow burn with class resentment, mystery, and an ambiguous sense of doom. Think The Third Man by way of Murakami.

4. Tar (2022)
Power, ego, decay — a character study with psychological noir elements. Lydia Tár could be your favorite modern morally ambiguous protagonist.

5. The Zone of Interest (2023)
Bleak in the most chilling sense — horror not from gore but detachment and complicity. It turns banality into terror. A must for your study of how humans harm each other passively.

6. Drive My Car (2021)
Long and contemplative. A man haunted by grief and betrayal finds unexpected healing in performance. Stillness with emotional depth.

7. The Handmaiden (2016)
Stylish and psychologically layered. Betrayal, power, eroticism, and shifting agency — this hits both your noir sensibilities and your appreciation for plot architecture.

8. Hell or High Water (2016)
Neo-western noir. Two doomed brothers, systemic rot, moral compromise, lawman as fatalist. Lean, dusty, and right up your alley.

9. Sound of Metal (2019)
An internal war of identity, control, and surrender. Feels like watching someone wrestle down a soul-deep reckoning.

10. Sorry to Bother You (2018)
A surreal, angry, politically charged film that starts as satire and ends in nightmare. You’ll either love its ambition or find it overwhelming — but either way, it’s fascinating in how it confronts systemic rot.

Thanks for those! Yeah we saw Hereditary and Midsommar. The Lobster has been on "I should see this" for a bit. Midsommar was trying so hard to be The Wicker Man (original), but it didn't quite make it.

Thank you Miko! I saved your list too.

I hear you. Thing is, I'd never seen the original, so it was all new to me. Hereditary is much the superior film. Also, the aspect of Midsommar I appreciated was the alienation of the main character, her journey from hanger-on to 'belonging', however the circumstance.

For anyone who doesn't know, this guy knows hockey.

I appreciate the compliment! I'll accept it since I did just nail the draft