Best Movies Every Year Since I’ve Been Alive

Posted on by Kevin Wozniak

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There has been a thread going around the internet of people naming the best movies of each year they have been alive.  So I decided to give it a whirl and give my picks.  I am going to name my favorite movies every year since 1988 and I will include my current favorite movie of 2017, though that is subject to change as the year goes on.  And, at the very end, I am going to rank them all in order, because I can.  So here we go, the best movies every year since I have been alive.

 

 

 

1988:

BEST MOVIE – DIE HARD (John McTiernan)

With it’s classic everyday hero, game-changing villain, and explosive action,  Die Hard is the greatest action movie of all-time.

 

 

1989:

BEST MOVIE – DO THE RIGHT THING (Spike Lee)

Spike Lee’s hot-blooded look at rising racial tensions in a section of Brooklyn is as relevant today as it was during its initial release.

 

 

1990:

BEST MOVIE – GOODFELLAS (Martin Scorsese)

Martin Scorsese’s in-depth look at living three decades in the mafia is the only perfect movie I have ever seen and my favorite movie ever.

 

 

1991:

BEST MOVIE – BOYZ ‘N’ THA HOOD (John Singleton)

The directorial debut for John Singleton, this authentic and gritty urban drama and the best depiction of the projects I have ever seen on film.

 

 

1992:

BEST MOVIE – RESERVOIR DOGS (Quentin Tarantino)

Quentin Tarantino’s debut shook the cinema world by bending genre conventions and spitting dialog like we’ve never heard before.

 

 

1993:

BEST MOVIE – DAZED AND CONFUSED (Richard Linklater)

With it’s great characters, quotability, relatability, and stellar soundtrack, Dazed and Confused feels like your hanging out with your friends every time you watch it.

 

 

1994:

BEST MOVIE – PULP FICTION (Quentin Tarantino)

Tarantino took everything he did in Reservoir Dogs and elevated it to another level, making one of the most influential and original films of the 1990’s.

 

 

1995:

BEST MOVIE – SE7EN  (David Fincher)

After a lackluster debut, David Fincher showed his true chops as a director with this gritty, grisly, pulse-pounder that features one of the greatest endings in any movie ever.

 

 

1996:

BEST MOVIE – SCREAM (Wes Craven)

A close call between this and Fargo, but no horror/thriller has been this creepy, tense, smart, and fun ever since.

 

 

1997:

BEST MOVIE – L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (Curtis Hansen)

Curtin Hansen created a perfect neo-noir that boasts an all-star cast, constant twists and turns, and a stellar script.

 

 

1998:

BEST MOVIE – THE BIG LEBOWSKI (The Coen Brothers)

I almost picked Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, but at the end of the day, the Dude abides in one of the Coen Brothers’ weirdest and most iconic movies.

 

 

1999:

BEST MOVIE – THE MATRIX (The Wachowski’s)

A true groundbreaker in terms of visual effects and story.

 

 

2000:

BEST MOVIE – ALMOST FAMOUS (Cameron Crowe)

A sweet ode to friendship and the bond of music highlighted by one of my favorite movie scenes ever; a bus sing-a-long to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”.

 

 

2001:

BEST MOVIE – MEMENTO (Christopher Nolan)

Christopher Nolan launched himself onto the cinematic scene with the mind-bender that is told from the end and progresses backward to give us a beginning that is still shocking.

 

 

2002:

BEST MOVIE – GANGS OF NEW YORK (Martin Scorsese)

The most important movie of my cinematic life, Martin Scorsese’s historical epic is a film that solidified my love for movies by showing the medium on a whole new level.

 

 

2003:

BEST MOVIE – MYSTIC RIVER (Clint Eastwood)

Clint Eastwood’s gut-wrenching powerhouse is a police thriller wrapped in a tragedy about broken friendships and consequences of the past.

 

 

2004:

BEST MOVIE – THE AVIATOR (Martin Scorsese)

Martin Scorsese’s stunning and fascinating look at Hollywood mogul and aviation tycoon Howard Hughes gives us insight to old Hollywood, impeccable filmmaking from Scorsese, and a legendary performance from star Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

2005:

BEST MOVIE – WEDDING CRASHERS (David Dobkin)

One of the greatest comedies ever made featuring the dynamic duo of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson at the height of their powers.

 

 

2006:

BEST MOVIE – THE DEPARTED (Martin Scorsese)

The film that finally earned Martin Scorsese his long overdue Oscar is a tricky gangster flick about family roots and finding your identity.

 

 

2007:

BEST MOVIE – THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Paul Thomas Anderson)

In an absolutely loaded year, There Will Be Blood stands out with it’s themes of greed, power, and religion, and a colossal performance from Daniel Day-Lewis to become this centuries Citizen Kane (1941)

 

 

2008:

BEST MOVIE – THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

The greatest comic book movie of all-time led by a hauntingly brilliant performance by Heath Ledger as The Joker.

 

 

2009:

BEST MOVIE – INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (Quentin Tarantino)

Quentin Taratino’s wild take on World War II features some of the best characters he has ever written and introduced the world to Christoph Waltz.

 

 

2010:

BEST MOVIE – THE SOCIAL NETWORK (David Fincher)

A Shakespearean tragedy hidden within the invention of Facebook, David Fincher has never been better behind the camera and gives us a film that will go down as a modern classic and film that will be looked on to define not only a year, but an era in American history.

 

 

2011:

BEST MOVIE – MONEYBALL (Bennett Miller)

No movie about numbers and math has ever been this captivating and exciting as Bennett Miller’s meticulous homerun.

 

 

2012:

BEST MOVIE – DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)

Tarantino’s epic Western that only Tarantino could think of is one of his best on a technical level and, as usual, features a stellar cast who all give grade A performances.

 

 

2013: 

BEST MOVIE – FRUITVALE STATION (Ryan Coogler)

Ryan Coogler’s debut film showed his grit, passion, and deft hand behind the camera, giving us an emotionally powerful and socially relevant true story.

 

 

2014:

BEST MOVIE – WHIPLASH (Damien Chazelle)

An absolute knockout of a film, Damien Chazelle’s war film in a music room is as intense as movies get and will get your heart racing from frame one.

 

 

2015:

BEST MOVIE – CREED (Ryan Coogler)

Coogler impresses once again, this time taking a much beloved franchise (Rocky) and taking it to knew heights while getting a star-making performance from Michael B. Jordan and the best performance of Sylvester Stallone’s career.

 

 

2016:

BEST MOVIE – LA LA LAND (Damien Chazelle)

The 32 year old Chazelle created an original, technicolor, modern musical that acts as love letter to classic films of the Hollywood Golden Age.

 

 

2017:

BEST MOVIE (So far) – 78/52 (Alexandre O. Philippe)

A stirring documentary breaking down the infamous ‘Shower Scene’ from Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho (1960), that acts as a two hour film school.

 

 

OVERALL RANKING

1- GOODFELLAS (1990)

2- PULP FICTION (1994)

3- THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

4- DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)

5- THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010)

6- THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

7- SE7EN (1995)

8- RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)

9- GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002)

10- WEDDING CRASHERS (2005)

11- MYSTIC RIVER (2003)

12- DIE HARD (1988)

13- WHIPLASH (2014)

14- DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)

15 – INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (2009)

16- THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007)

17- THE MATRIX (1999)

18- MEMENTO (2001)

19- CREED (2015)

20- THE DEPARTED (2006)

21- FRUITVALE STATION (2013)

22- LA LA LAND (2016)

23- SCREAM (1996)

24- L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997)

25- MONEYBALL (2011)

26- BOYZ ‘N’ THA HOOD (1991)

27- DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012)

28- THE AVIATOR (2004)

29- ALMOST FAMOUS (2000)

30 – 78/52 (2017)

 

 

What would you rank as the best movies to come out each year you’ve been alive?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter or Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.