My top ten films for each year of the 2010s. These are always up for revision as I watch more films, revisit ones I’ve seen before, and think about them over time. I don’t really believe in top “ten” lists, despite using the common nomenclature for the title of this page, nor do I hold fast to the order, though it’s generally from films I liked better to films I liked less well. This is going to be my top several films of each year, down to whatever point I feel is right. Might be eight one year, might be twenty-three another.

1929

  • Why Be Good
  • Man With a Movie Camera
  • The Godless Girl
  • Blackmail
  • The Love Trap
  • Bulldog Drummond
  • Sunnyside Up

TOP FIVE YET TO WATCH
Diary of a Lost Girl
Woman in the Moon
Applause
The Canary Murder Case
Hallelujah

1928

  • Steamboat Bill Jr
  • The Passion of Joan of Arc
  • The Cameraman
  • The Circus
  • The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
  • Lonesome
  • The Docks of New York
  • Beggars of Life
  • Our Dancing Daughters

TOP FIVE YET TO WATCH
Pandora’s Box
The Crowd
Show People
Spies

1927

  • Metropolis
  • Sunrise
  • Wings
  • The Cat and the Canary
  • My Best Girl
  • College

TOP FIVE YET TO WATCH
Napoléon
The Unknown
Underworld
Seventh Heaven
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness

1926

  • For Heaven’s Sake
  • The General
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • The Adventures of Prince Achmed
  • The Bat
  • The Son of the Sheik
  • The Black Pirate

TOP FIVE YET TO WATCH
Faust
Mother
Battling Butler
So This is Paris
The Pleasure Garden

1925

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  • The Big Parade
  • The Gold Rush
  • Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
  • The Freshman
  • The Battleship Potemkin
  • Seven Chances

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Phantom of the Opera
The Lost World
The Unholy Three
Don Q Son of Zorro
Go West

1924

  • Sherlock Jr.
  • Girl Shy
  • Changing Husbands
  • The Thief of Bagdad

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Navigator
The Last Laugh
Greed
The Iron Horse
He Who Gets Slapped

1923

  • Safety Last
  • Why Worry?
  • The Pilgrim
  • A Woman of Paris

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Ten Commandments
The Three Ages
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
La roue
Felix in Hollywood

1922

  • Haxan
  • Nosferatu
  • Nanook of the North
  • Robin Hood
  • Cops

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler
Foolish Wives
The Prisoner of Zenda
Phantom
Doctor Jack

1921

  • The Kid
  • The Boat
  • The Goat
  • The Phantom Carriage
  • The Three Musketeers
  • The Sheik

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Orphans of the Storm
Destiny
The Haunted Castle
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

1920

  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  • One Week
  • Way Down East
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • The Golem

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Mark of Zorro
The Phantom Carriage
Within Our Gates
Pollyanna
Last of the Mohicans