Lindsey Campbell
Lindsey holds an MA in film studies from Concordia University's Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema and an MLIS from the University of Alberta. She is a professional film watcher, and has also had the privilege of being a real film projectionist for many years and of working for the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride Colorado. Lindsey watches upwards of 500 films a year. She has opinions, and she'll help you find something new and exciting.
Lindsey's Top 10 Movies of All Time (in no particular order):
Another 500 movies/year. Tough choices had to be made.
Top 25 Films for 2022 in no particular order:
Living (UK)
Holy Spider (Iran/Denmark)
Bones and All (US/Italy)
Tar (US)
Bad Axe (US)
The Worst Person in the World (Denmark co-pro)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (US)
Petite Maman (France)
Brian and Charles (UK)
The Phantom of the Open (UK)
Fire of Love (US)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (US)
Official Competition (Spain/Argentina)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (US)
The Territory (Brazil/Denmark/US)
Emily the Criminal (US)
The Silent Twins (Poland co-pro)
Aftersun (UK)
Women Talking (Canada)
Eo (Poland/Italy)
Triangle Of Sadness (Denmark)
Banshees of Inisherin (Ireland co-pro)
Hit The Road (Iran)
Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey (India)
Klondike (Ukraine/Turkey)
I watched 521 movies (likely 523 by end of the day/year), not including shorts, with 103 directed by women putting us at 20%!!
(Note: women make way more docs than features)
Here's my Top 15 Movies for 2021 in no particular order:
French Exit (Azazel Jacobs)
Red Rocket (Sean Baker)
Never Gonna Snow Again (Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert)
The Hand Of God (Paolo Sorrentino)
The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg)
C’Mon C’Mon (Mike Mills)
Spencer (Pablo Larrain)
Dug Dug (Ritwik Pareek)
Nine Days (Edson Oda)
Pig (Michael Sarnoski)
The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Limbo (Ben Sharrock)
Lapsis (Noah Hutton)
Through the Night (Loira Limbal)
The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright)
Special mentions:
Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers)
Doctor (Nelson Dilipkumar)
Manadu (Venkat Prabhu)
Mass (Franz Kranz)
The Humans (Stephen Karam)
Ajagajantharam (Tinu Pappachan)
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
The Exchange (Dan Mazer)
Lune (Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Arturo Perez Torres)
Nobody (Iilya Naishuller)
Of the features, 84 were directed by women (17%).
Top 20 Very Very Hard to Narrow Down Best Films of 2019:
Thunder Road (Jim Cummings, USA)
To Dust (Shawn Snyder, USA)
Mouthpiece (Patricia Rozema, Canada)
The Dig (Andy and Ryan Tohill, Ireland)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Corvino, USA)
Gully Boy (Zoya Akhtar, India)
Kumbalangi Nights (Madhu C. Narayanan, India)
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, USA)
Wild Rose (Tom Harper, UK)
Monos (Alejandro Landes, Latin America co-production)
Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu, Kenya)
10 Days Before the Wedding (Amr Gamal, Yemen)
The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, UK)
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache (Pamela B. Green, USA)
Jeune Juliette (Anne Emond, Canada)
The Body Remembers when the World Broke Open (Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Canada)
Parasite (Bong Joon-Ho, South Korea)
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
The Twentieth Century (Matthew Rankin, Canada)
Top 15 Best Films of 2018
Luk' luk'I (Wayne Wapeemukwa, Canada)
Ex'Libris: NYPL (Fredrick Wiseman, USA)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
Dogman (Matteo Garrone, Italy)
Unsane (Soderbergh, USA)
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik, USA)
Beyond the Clouds (Majid Majid, India)
Science Fair (Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, USA)
Champion (Kim Yong-wan, South Korea)
We the Animals (Justin Torres, USA)
Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, USA)
Blaze (Ethan Hawke, USA)
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, USA)
American Animals (Bart Layton, USA)
Special Mentions:
First Reformed (2017)
Foxtrot (2017)
Loveless (2017)
The Favourite
Sorry to Bother You
Won't You Be My Neighbour?
Burning
Borders
A Star is Born
Roma
RBG
Black Panther
Meditation Park
Never Steady, Never Still
Doob: No Bed of Roses
Blackkklansman
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Puzzle
Prospect
How Viktor ‘The Garlic’ took Alexy ‘The Stud’ to the Nursing Home
Beast
Fistful of Dirt
and, of course,
PADDINGTON 2!!!
(oh god! there are too many! it was a good year for cinema and i can't name them all)
500 movies later, I present to you my Top 15 picks for 2017, (in no particular order, followed by a few special mentions *with the caveat that I have not seen Call Me By Your Name yet*, and then thanks mostly to Telefilm, the Worst 15 of 2017)
Best Films of 2017:
The Rider (Chloe Zhao, USA)
The Florida Project (Sean Baker, USA)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, France)
Patti Cake$ (Geremy Jasper, USA)
Good Time (Safdie Brothers, USA)
The Lovers (Azazel Jacobs, USA)
After the Storm (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, USA)
Suck it Up (Jordan Canning, Canada)
I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, USA)
A Taxi Driver (Jang Hoon, South Korea)
Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (Dileesh Pothan, India)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, USA)
Trapped (Vikramaditya Motwane, India)
Special Mentions:
Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater, USA)
Lady MacBeth (William Oldroyd, UK)
This Is Not What I Expected (Derek Hui, China)
The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, USA)
Brigsby Bear (Dave McCary, USA)
Angamaly Diaries (Lijo Jose Pellissery, India)
Phillauri (Anshai Lal, India)
Colossal (Nacho Vigalondo, USA)
Get Out (Jordan Peele, USA)
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, France/USA)
Werewolf (Ashley Mackenzie, Canada)
and
Barielly Ki Barfi (Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, India)
WORST:
She Has a Name (Canada)
It's Not My Fault and I Don't Care Anyway (Canada)
Authoratarian (Canada/Nigeria)
Blood Hunters (Canada)
The Recall (Canada)
Radius (Canada)
GeoStorm (USA)
Kidnap (USA)
Unforgettable (USA)
The Snowman (UK/Sweden/USA)
The (Re)Assignment (USA)
Ozzy (Spain/Canada)
Raajakumara (India)
Split (USA)
The Only Living Boy in New York (USA)
My Top 15 Films of 2014 (in no particular order):
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
Gone Girl
Mommy
Birdman
Red Army
’71
2 days 1 night
Dancing Arabs
Nightcrawler
Whiplash
Obvious Child
Enemy
DamNation
Short Term 12
In no particular order, my Top 15 Films of 2013:
Mud
Blue Jasmine
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
Nebraska
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Wolf of Wall Street
Fruitvale Station
Enough Said
The Act of Killing
Blue is the Warmest Color
Under the Skin
La Passe
Ida
The Unknown Known
Best films of 2012, in no particular order:
Stories We Tell
Take This Waltz
The Hunt
Pilgrim Hill
Rust and Bone
Killer Joe
Wadjda
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
The Queen of Versailles
Moonrise Kingdom
Argo
Top 25 Films for 2022 in no particular order:
Living (UK)
Holy Spider (Iran/Denmark)
Bones and All (US/Italy)
Tar (US)
Bad Axe (US)
The Worst Person in the World (Denmark co-pro)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (US)
Petite Maman (France)
Brian and Charles (UK)
The Phantom of the Open (UK)
Fire of Love (US)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (US)
Official Competition (Spain/Argentina)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (US)
The Territory (Brazil/Denmark/US)
Emily the Criminal (US)
The Silent Twins (Poland co-pro)
Aftersun (UK)
Women Talking (Canada)
Eo (Poland/Italy)
Triangle Of Sadness (Denmark)
Banshees of Inisherin (Ireland co-pro)
Hit The Road (Iran)
Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey (India)
Klondike (Ukraine/Turkey)
I watched 521 movies (likely 523 by end of the day/year), not including shorts, with 103 directed by women putting us at 20%!!
(Note: women make way more docs than features)
Here's my Top 15 Movies for 2021 in no particular order:
French Exit (Azazel Jacobs)
Red Rocket (Sean Baker)
Never Gonna Snow Again (Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert)
The Hand Of God (Paolo Sorrentino)
The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg)
C’Mon C’Mon (Mike Mills)
Spencer (Pablo Larrain)
Dug Dug (Ritwik Pareek)
Nine Days (Edson Oda)
Pig (Michael Sarnoski)
The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Limbo (Ben Sharrock)
Lapsis (Noah Hutton)
Through the Night (Loira Limbal)
The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright)
Special mentions:
Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers)
Doctor (Nelson Dilipkumar)
Manadu (Venkat Prabhu)
Mass (Franz Kranz)
The Humans (Stephen Karam)
Ajagajantharam (Tinu Pappachan)
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
The Exchange (Dan Mazer)
Lune (Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Arturo Perez Torres)
Nobody (Iilya Naishuller)
Of the features, 84 were directed by women (17%).
Top 20 Very Very Hard to Narrow Down Best Films of 2019:
Thunder Road (Jim Cummings, USA)
To Dust (Shawn Snyder, USA)
Mouthpiece (Patricia Rozema, Canada)
The Dig (Andy and Ryan Tohill, Ireland)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Corvino, USA)
Gully Boy (Zoya Akhtar, India)
Kumbalangi Nights (Madhu C. Narayanan, India)
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, USA)
Wild Rose (Tom Harper, UK)
Monos (Alejandro Landes, Latin America co-production)
Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu, Kenya)
10 Days Before the Wedding (Amr Gamal, Yemen)
The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, UK)
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache (Pamela B. Green, USA)
Jeune Juliette (Anne Emond, Canada)
The Body Remembers when the World Broke Open (Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Canada)
Parasite (Bong Joon-Ho, South Korea)
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
The Twentieth Century (Matthew Rankin, Canada)
Top 15 Best Films of 2018
Luk' luk'I (Wayne Wapeemukwa, Canada)
Ex'Libris: NYPL (Fredrick Wiseman, USA)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
Dogman (Matteo Garrone, Italy)
Unsane (Soderbergh, USA)
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik, USA)
Beyond the Clouds (Majid Majid, India)
Science Fair (Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, USA)
Champion (Kim Yong-wan, South Korea)
We the Animals (Justin Torres, USA)
Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, USA)
Blaze (Ethan Hawke, USA)
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, USA)
American Animals (Bart Layton, USA)
Special Mentions:
First Reformed (2017)
Foxtrot (2017)
Loveless (2017)
The Favourite
Sorry to Bother You
Won't You Be My Neighbour?
Burning
Borders
A Star is Born
Roma
RBG
Black Panther
Meditation Park
Never Steady, Never Still
Doob: No Bed of Roses
Blackkklansman
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Puzzle
Prospect
How Viktor ‘The Garlic’ took Alexy ‘The Stud’ to the Nursing Home
Beast
Fistful of Dirt
and, of course,
PADDINGTON 2!!!
(oh god! there are too many! it was a good year for cinema and i can't name them all)
500 movies later, I present to you my Top 15 picks for 2017, (in no particular order, followed by a few special mentions *with the caveat that I have not seen Call Me By Your Name yet*, and then thanks mostly to Telefilm, the Worst 15 of 2017)
Best Films of 2017:
The Rider (Chloe Zhao, USA)
The Florida Project (Sean Baker, USA)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, France)
Patti Cake$ (Geremy Jasper, USA)
Good Time (Safdie Brothers, USA)
The Lovers (Azazel Jacobs, USA)
After the Storm (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, USA)
Suck it Up (Jordan Canning, Canada)
I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, USA)
A Taxi Driver (Jang Hoon, South Korea)
Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (Dileesh Pothan, India)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, USA)
Trapped (Vikramaditya Motwane, India)
Special Mentions:
Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater, USA)
Lady MacBeth (William Oldroyd, UK)
This Is Not What I Expected (Derek Hui, China)
The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, USA)
Brigsby Bear (Dave McCary, USA)
Angamaly Diaries (Lijo Jose Pellissery, India)
Phillauri (Anshai Lal, India)
Colossal (Nacho Vigalondo, USA)
Get Out (Jordan Peele, USA)
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, France/USA)
Werewolf (Ashley Mackenzie, Canada)
and
Barielly Ki Barfi (Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, India)
WORST:
She Has a Name (Canada)
It's Not My Fault and I Don't Care Anyway (Canada)
Authoratarian (Canada/Nigeria)
Blood Hunters (Canada)
The Recall (Canada)
Radius (Canada)
GeoStorm (USA)
Kidnap (USA)
Unforgettable (USA)
The Snowman (UK/Sweden/USA)
The (Re)Assignment (USA)
Ozzy (Spain/Canada)
Raajakumara (India)
Split (USA)
The Only Living Boy in New York (USA)
My Top 15 Films of 2014 (in no particular order):
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
Gone Girl
Mommy
Birdman
Red Army
’71
2 days 1 night
Dancing Arabs
Nightcrawler
Whiplash
Obvious Child
Enemy
DamNation
Short Term 12
In no particular order, my Top 15 Films of 2013:
Mud
Blue Jasmine
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
Nebraska
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Wolf of Wall Street
Fruitvale Station
Enough Said
The Act of Killing
Blue is the Warmest Color
Under the Skin
La Passe
Ida
The Unknown Known
Best films of 2012, in no particular order:
Stories We Tell
Take This Waltz
The Hunt
Pilgrim Hill
Rust and Bone
Killer Joe
Wadjda
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
The Queen of Versailles
Moonrise Kingdom
Argo