Year in Review: Top 30 Discoveries

In the name of posterity here are my favorite 30 film 'discoveries' of the year. For scale, I watched roughly 200 films this year. I'm not crazy about the idea of ranking such diverse cinematic experiences, so I wouldn't take the numbers too seriously, but the three tiers more or less represent the memorability of these films for me. I've ranked them based on how persistent they are in my thoughts and how much their affective qualities linger within me. And also something or other about shaping my views of cinema. Happy New Year!

1. The Quiet Man + Donovan’s Reef (John Ford, 1952 + 1963)

2. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)

3. The Chameleon (John Leslie, 1989)

4. California Company Town (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2008)

5. Seeking the Monkey King (Ken Jacobs, 2011)

6. Sparrow (Johnnie To, 2008)

7. Real (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2013)

8. Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976)

9. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)

10. Manhattan Baby (Lucio Fulci, 1982)

11. Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955)

12. The River (Jean Renoir, 1951)

13. Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008)

14. Spies (Fritz Lang, 1928)

15. The Opening of Misty Beethoven (Radley Metzger, 1976)

16. Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese, 1991)

17. God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 1976)

18. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (Hiyao Miyazaki, 1979)

19. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

20. The Mummy (Terence Fisher, 1959)

21. The Yakuza Papers (Kinji Fukasaku, 1973-1974)

22. Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)

23. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

24. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949)

25. Matango (Ishiro Honda, 1963)

26. Description of a Struggle (Chris Marker, 1960)

27. Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)

28. A Hero Never Dies (Johnnie To, 1998)

29. Q: The Winged Serpent (Larry Cohen, 1982)

30. I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like (Bill Viola, 1986)