The Lists: Must See Movies, 2010-2023

The Tree of Life. Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Since we are currently only four years into this decade, I am not including a top 10 noted by asterisks. This list will continue to grow as the years march on. At the end of 2014, it will be updated.

Another Year (2010, Mike Leigh)
Black Swan (2010, Darren Aronofsky)
Carlos (2010, Olivier Assayas)
Greenberg (2010, Noah Baumbach)
The King's Speech (2010, Tom Hooper)
Shutter Island (2010, Martin Scorsese)
The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
True Grit (2010, Joel and Ethan Coen)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Winter's Bone (2010, Debra Granik)
The Artist (2011, Michel Hazanavicius)
Bridesmaids (2011, Paul Feig)
A Dangerous Method (2011, David Cronenberg)
The Descendants (2011, Alexander Payne)
Drive (2011, Nicolas Winding Refn)
Hugo (2011, Martin Scorsese)
Le Havre (2011, Aki Kaurismaki)
Margaret (2011, Kenneth Lonergan)
Melancholia (2011, Lars Von Trier)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
Take Shelter (2011, Jeff Nichols)
The Tree of Life (2011, Terrence Malick)
Amour (2012, Michael Haneke)
Argo (2012, Ben Affleck)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012, Benh Zeitlin)
Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino)
Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
Lincoln (2012, Steven Spielberg)
The Master (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012, Stephen Chbosky)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow)
12 Years a Slave (2013, Steve McQueen)
American Hustle (2013, David O. Russell)
Before Midnight (2013, Richard Linklater)
Blue is the Warmest Color (2013, Abdellatif Kechiche)
Gravity (2013, Alfonso Cuaron)
Her (2013, Spike Jonze)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013, Joel and Ethan Coen)
The Place Beyond the Pines (2013, Derek Cianfrance)
Prisoners (2013, Denis Villeneuve)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013, Martin Scorsese)
American Sniper (2014, Clint Eastwood)
Birdman (2014, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
Boyhood (2014, Richard Linklater)
Foxcatcher (2014, Bennett Miller)
The Immigrant (2014, James Gray)
Inherent Vice (2014, Paul Thomas Anderson)
Mr. Turner (2014, Mike Leigh)
Selma (2014, Ava DuVernay)
Under the Skin (2014, Jonathan Glazer)
Whiplash (2014, Damien Chazelle)
Brooklyn (2015, John Crowley)
Carol (2015, Todd Haynes)
Clouds of Sils Maria (2015, Olivier Assayas)
Hard to Be a God (2015, Aleksei German)
The Hateful Eight (2015, Quentin Tarantino)
Inside Out (2015, Pete Docter)
It Follows (2015, David Robert Mitchell)
Mustang (2015, Deniz Gamze Erguven)
The Revenant (2015, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
Son of Saul (2015, Laszlo Nemes)
Spotlight (2015, Thomas McCarthy)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015, J.J. Abrams)
Straight Outta Compton (2015, F. Gary Gray)
13th (2016, Ava DuVernay)
American Honey (2016, Andrea Arnold)
Everybody Wants Some!! (2016, Richard Linklater)
Hail, Caesar! (2016, Joel and Ethan Coen)
La La Land (2016, Damien Chazelle)
Manchester by the Sea (2016, Kenneth Lonergan)
Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)
O.J. Made in America (2016, Ezra Edelman)
Paterson (2016, Jim Jarmusch)
Silence (2016, Martin Scorsese)
Sing Street (2016, John Carney)
Toni Erdmann (2016, Maren Ade)
Baby Driver (2017, Edgar Wright)
Call Me By Your Name (2017, Luca Guadagnino)
Detroit (2017, Kathryn Bigelow)
Dunkirk (2017, Christopher Nolan)
The Florida Project (2017, Sean Baker)
Lady Bird (2017, Greta Gerwig)
Mother! (2017, Darren Aronofsky)
Okja (2017, Bong Joon Ho)
Personal Shopper (2017, Olivier Assayas)
Phantom Thread (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017, Rian Johnson)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018, Joel and Ethan Coen)
BlacKkKlansman (2018, Spike Lee)
Blindspotting (2018, Carlos Lopez Estrada)
Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
Cold War (2018, Pawel Pawlikowski)
First Reformed (2018, Paul Schrader)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018, Barry Jenkins)
Roma (2018, Alfonso Cuaron)
Shoplifters (2018, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Widows (2018, Steve McQueen)
Ash is Purest White (2019, Jia Zhangke)
Birds of Passage (2019, Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego)
The Irishman (2019, Martin Scorsese)
Little Women (2019, Greta Gerwig)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (2019, Bi Gan)
Marriage Story (2019, Noah Baumbach)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino)
Pain and Glory (2019, Pedro Almodovar)
Parasite (2019, Bong Joon Ho)
Transit (2019, Christian Petzold)

Crip Camp (2020, James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham)

Da 5 Bloods (2020, Spike Lee)

First Cow (2020, Kelly Reichardt)

Mank (2020, David Fincher)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020, Eliza Hittman)
Nomadland (2020, Chloe Zhao)
Small Axe, Pts. I-V (2020, Steve McQueen)
Soul (2020, Pete Docter)
The Vast of Night (2020, Andrew Patterson)

Belfast (2021, Kenneth Branagh)
CODA (2021, Sian Heder)
Drive My Car (2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
The French Dispatch (2021, Wes Anderson)

Licorice Pizza (2021, Paul Thomas Anderson)
No Sudden Move (2021, Steven Soderbergh)
Parallel Mothers (2021, Pedro Almodovar)
The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion)
Titane (2021, Julia Ducournau)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021, Joel Coen)

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022, Laura Poitras)

Armageddon Time (2022, James Grey)

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022, Martin McDonagh)
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022, Cooper Raiff)

EO (2022, Jerzy Skolimowski)

The Fabelmans (2022, Steven Spielberg)
Fire of Love (2022, Sara Dosa)

Holy Spider (2022, Ali Abbasi)

Petite Maman (2022, Celine Sciamma)
TAR (2022, Todd Field)

Air (2023, Ben Affleck)
All Of Us Strangers (2023, Andrew Haigh)
Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Justine Triet)
Asteroid City (2023, Wes Anderson)
The Holdovers (2023, Alexander Payne)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023, Martin Scorsese)
Oppenheimer (2023, Christopher Nolan)
Past Lives (2023, Celine Song)
Poor Things (2023, Yorgos Lanthimos)
A Thousand and One (2023, A.V. Rockwell)
The Zone of Interest (2023, Jonathan Glazer)