Year-End Lists

The Wild Honey Pie: Top 50 Albums of the 2010s

[see also 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016]

1. Joanna Newsom — Have One On Me
2. Bon Iver — Bon Iver
3. Big Thief — Capacity
4. Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly
5. Beyoncé — Lemonade
6. Kishi Bashi — 151A
7. Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell
8. The National — High Violet
9. Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
10. Frank Ocean — Channel Orange
11. alt-J — An Awesome Wave
12. Alabama Shakes — Sound & Color
13. Tame Impala — Currents
14. Rostam — Half-Light
15. Haim — Days Are Gone
16. Vampire Weekend — Modern Vampires of the City
17. Big Thief — Masterpiece
18. Grimes — Visions
19. Pinegrove — Cardinal
20. Girls — Father, Son, Holy Ghost
21. Jamie xx — In Colour
22. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
23. Mitski — Be the Cowboy
24. Phoebe Bridgers — Stranger in the Alps
25. Sharon Van Etten — Are We There
26. Solange — A Seat at the Table
27. Julia Jacklin — Crushing
28. The War on Drugs — Lost in the Dream
29. Lana Del Rey — Born to Die
30. Solange — When I Get Home
31. Kendrick Lamar — DAMN.
32. Sylvan Esso — Sylvan Esso
33. St. Vincent — Strange Mercy
34. Jónsi — Go
35. Lizzo — Cuz I Love You
36. Beach House — Teen Dream
37. Gorillaz — Plastic Beach
38. Lorde — Pure Heroine
39. SZA — Ctrl
40. LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening
41. Dirty Projectors — Swing Lo Magellan
42. Henry Jamison — The Wilds
43. Tierra Whack — Whack World
44. Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour
45. Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
46. Frankie Cosmos — Next Thing
47. The xx — Coexist
48. Drake — Nothing Was the Same
49. Arctic Monkeys — AM
50. Maggie Rogers — Heard It In A Past Life

Jim Harrington: 50 Best Albums of the Decade, as published by San Jose Mercury News

[see also 2018, 2017]

1. Lorde — Pure Heroine
2. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Lana Del Rey — Born to Die
4. Kacey Musgraves — Same Trailer Different Park
5. Kendrick Lamar — good kid, m.A.A.d city
6. PJ Harvey — Let England Shake
7. Lorde — Melodrama
8. Beyoncé — Beyoncé
9. Eric Church — The Outsiders
10. Frank Ocean — Channel Orange
11. Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly
12. Miranda Lambert — The Weight of These Wings
13. My Bloody Valentine — mbv
14. Best Coast — California Nights
15. Chvrches — The Bones Of What You Believe
16. The War on Drugs — Lost in the Dream
17. Lana Del Rey — Norman Fucking Rockwell!
18. Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Denial
19. Beyoncé — Lemonade
20. Metallica — Hardwired… to Self-Destruct
21. Taylor Swift — Red
22. Lauren Daigle — Look Up Child
23. Beach House — Teen Dream
24. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds — Push the Sky Away
25. Maren Morris — Hero
26. Robyn — Body Talk
27. Black Sabbath — 13
28. Cowboy Junkies — All That Reckoning
29. J. Cole — Born Sinner
30. Carly Rae Jepsen — Kiss
31. Khalid — American Teen
32. Vince Staples — Summertime ’06
33. Billie Eilish — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
34. David Bowie — Blackstar
35. Sturgill Simpson — Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
36. Kendrick Lamar — DAMN.
37. Bettie Serveert — Pharmacy of Love
38. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — Ghosteen
39. Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
40. A Tribe Called Quest — We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
41. Radiohead — A Moon Shaped Pool
42. Björk — Vulnicura
43. Cardi B — Invasion of Privacy
44. Kanye West — Jesus Is King
45. Leonard Cohen — You Want It Darker
46. Eric Church — Chief
47. Sia — 1000 Forms of Fear
48. Lizzo — Cuz I Love You
49. Tame Impala — Lonerism
50. Haim — Days Are Gone

Karen Han: The Best Movies of the 2010s Decade, as published by Polygon

[see also 2019]

1. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
2. Take Shelter — Jeff Nichols
3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy — Tomas Alfredson
4. True Grit — Joel & Ethan Coen
5. Moonlight — Barry Jenkins
6. The Lost City of Z — James Gray
7. The Hateful Eight — Quentin Tarantino
8. Shoplifters — Hirokazu Kore-eda
9. Toni Erdmann — Maren Ade
10. Paddington 2 — Paul King
10. A Cure for Wellness — Gore Verbinski

Rolling Stone: The 50 Best Movies of the 2010s

1. Moonlight — Barry Jenkins
2. The Social Network — David Fincher
3. Holy Motors — Leos Carax
4. Boyhood — Richard Linklater
5. Get Out — Jordan Peele
6. Toni Erdmann — Maren Ade
7. The Master — Paul Thomas Anderson
8. Roma — Alfonso Cuaron
9. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller
10. Carol — Todd Haynes
11. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
12. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
13. A Separation — Asghar Farhadi
14. Inside Llewyn Davis — Joel & Ethan Coen
15. Faces Places — Agnès Varda and JR
16. 12 Years a Slave — Steve McQueen
17. Winter's Bone — Debra Granik
18. Under the Skin — Jonathan Glazer
19. Anomalisa — Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
20. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
21. Burning — Lee Chang-dong
22. Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig
23. Dunkirk — Christopher Nolan
24. The Act of Killing — Joshua Oppenheimer
25. Selma — Ava DuVernay
26. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
27. Cold War — Pawel Pawlikowski
28. Spring Breakers — Harmony Korine
29. Zero Dark Thirty — Kathryn Bigelow
30. The Grand Budapest Hotel — Wes Anderson
31. Meek’s Cutoff — Kelly Reichardt
32. No — Pablo Larraín
33. The Lobster — Yorgos Lanthimos
34. You Were Never Really Here — Lynne Ramsay
35. Tangerine — Sean Baker
36. We Are the Best! — Lukas Moodysson
37. 45 Years — Andrew Haigh
38. Zama — Lucrecia Martel
39. First Reformed — Paul Schrader
40. Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
41. I Am Not Your Negro — Raoul Peck
42. Elena — Andrey Zvyagintsev
43. Amour — Michael Haneke
44. Hereditary — Ari Aster
45. Black Coal, Thin Ice — Diao Yinan
46. Personal Shopper — Olivier Assayas
47. Lincoln — Steven Spielberg
48. The Tribe — Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
49. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino
50. Black Panther — Ryan Coogler

Barack Obama: Favorite Books of 2019, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2018]

• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
  Shoshana Zuboff
• The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
  William Dalrymple
• Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
  Casey Cep
• Girl, Woman, Other
  Bernardine Evaristo
• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
  David Treuer
• How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
  Jenny Odell
• Lost Children Archive
  Valeria Luiselli
• Lot
  Bryan Washington
• Normal People
  Sally Rooney
• The Orphan Master’s Son
  Adam Johnson
• The Yellow House
  Sarah M. Broom
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• Solitary
  Albert Woodfox
• The Topeka School
  Ben Lerner
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
  Jia Tolentino
• Trust Exercise
  Susan Choi
• We Live in Water
  Jess Walter

For the Sports Fans

• A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney's Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule
  Jim Rooney
• The Sixth Man
  Andre Iguodala

And here's a reminder of books I recommended earlier this year

• American Spy
  Lauren Wilkinson
• The Education of an Idealist
  Samantha Power
• Exhalation
  Ted Chiang
• Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward
  Valerie Jarrett
• Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
  Sarah Smarsh
• How to Read the Air
  Dinaw Mengestu
• Inland
  Téa Obreht
• Lab Girl
  Hope Jahren
• Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
  Stephanie Land
• Men Without Women
  Haruki Murakami
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
  Melinda Gates
• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead
• Pachinko
  Min Jin Lee
• The Shadow of Sirius
  W.S. Merwin
• The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
  Nicholas Carr
• Toni Morrison's collected works
• Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For
  Susan Rice
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
  Isabel Wilkerson
• Wolf Hall
  Hilary Mantel

Barack Obama: Favorite Movies of 2019, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2018]

• American Factory — Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Amazing Grace — Sydney Pollack
• Apollo 11 — Todd Douglas Miller
• Ash is Purest White — Jia Zhang-ke
• Atlantics — Mati Diop
• Birds of Passage — Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra
• Booksmart — Olivia Wilde
• Diane — Kent Jones
• The Farewell — Lulu Wang
• Ford v Ferrari — James Mangold
• The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
• Just Mercy — Destin Daniel Cretton
• The Last Black Man in San Francisco — Joe Talbot
• Little Women — Greta Gerwig
• Marriage Story — Noah Baumbach
• Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
• The Souvenir — Joanna Hogg
• Transit — Christian Petzold

And a quick list of TV shows that I considered as powerful as movies

• Fleabag (season 2)
• Unbelievable
• Watchmen

Atwood Magazine: The Best Albums of the Decade

• Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• Bon Iver — Bon Iver
• Lady Gaga — Born This Way
• Tyler, The Creator — Goblin
• Of Monsters And Men — My Head is an Animal
• The Vaccines — What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
• Adele — 21
• Ed Sheeran — ÷
• Lana Del Rey — Born to Die
• Frank Ocean — Channel Orange
• Kendrick Lamar — good kid, m.A.A.d city
• The Lumineers — The Lumineers
• Arctic Monkeys — AM
• Beyoncé — Beyoncé
• Lorde — Pure Heroine
• Daft Punk — Random Access Memories
• The Wonder Years — The Greatest Generation
• Justin Timberlake — The 20/20 Experience
• Glass Animals — Zaba
• Sia — 1000 Forms of Fear
• Taylor Swift — 1989
• Troye Sivan — Blue Neighbourhood
• Carly Rae Jepsen — E•MO•TION
• Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Original Broadway Cast — Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Father John Misty — I Love You, Honeybear
• Jamie xx — In Colour
• Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly
• David Bowie — Blackstar
• Beyoncé — Lemonade
• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — Nonagon Infinity
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds — Skeleton Tree
• Phoebe Bridgers — Stranger in the Alps
• Clairo — diary 001
• St. Vincent — MassEducation
• Mac Miller — Swimming
• Ariana Grande — thank u, next
• Billie Eilish — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Ty Burr: The 50 Best Movies of the Decade, as published by The Boston Globe with insightful capsules for the top ten

[see also 2014, 2012, 2011]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller
2. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
3. The Clock — Christian Marclay
4. The Social Network — David Fincher
5. Manchester by the Sea — Kenneth Lonergan
6. Get Out — Jordan Peele
7. The Florida Project — Sean Baker
8. Le quattro volte — Michelangelo Frammartino
9. The Act of Killing — Joshua Oppenheimer
10. Under the Skin — Jonathan Glazer
11. Moonlight — Barry Jenkins
12. Amour — Michael Haneke
13. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
14. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
15. Margaret — Kenneth Lonergan
16. Holy Motors — Leos Carax
17. Beasts of the Southern Wild — Benh Zeitlin
18. Cameraperson — Kirsten Johnson
19. The Shape of Water — Guillermo del Toro
20. The Rider — Chloé Zhao
21. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino
22. Her — Spike Jonze
23. A Separation — Asghar Farhadi
24. Paterson — Jim Jarmusch
25. Shoplifters — Hirokazu Kore-eda
26. Fruitvale Station — Ryan Coogler
27. The Immigrant — James Gray
28. MANAKAMANA — Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
29. Spotlight — Tom McCarthy
30. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman
31. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
32. Whiplash — Damien Chazelle
33. Toy Story 3 — Lee Unkrich
34. Boyhood — Richard Linklater
35. The Death of Stalin — Armando Iannucci
36. 45 Years — Andrew Haigh
37. The Tree of Life — Terrence Malick
38. Hugo — Martin Scorsese
39. Inside Out — Pete Docter
40. Portrait of a Lady on Fire — Céline Sciamma
41. Marriage Story — Noah Baumbach
42. Burning — Lee Chang-dong
43. Atlantics — Mati Diop
44. This is Not a Film — Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
45. Lincoln — Steven Spielberg
46. Long Day's Journey Into Night — Bi Gan
47. Oslo, August 31st — Joachim Trier
48. The Fits — Anna Rose Holmer
49. Nebraska — Alexander Payne
50. Spring Breakers — Harmony Korine

Glenn Kenny: The 25 Best Films of 2019, posted to his blog, Some Came Running, with links to his reviews and with a list of restored films

[see also 2010s, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012]

1. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
2. Pain and Glory — Pedro Almodóvar
3. Black Mother — Khalik Allah
4. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino
5. High Life — Claire Denis
6. Climax — Gaspar Noé
7. Dragged Across Concrete — S. Craig Zahler
8. Uncut Gems — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
9. Rolling Thunder Revue — Martin Scorsese
10. Asako I & II — Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
11. The Image Book — Jean-Luc Godard
12. Portrait of a Lady on Fire — Céline Sciamma
13. Little Women — Greta Gerwig
14. The Burial Of Kojo — Blitz Bazawule
15. Dark Waters — Todd Haynes
16. Marriage Story — Noah Baumbach
17. In Fabric — Peter Strickland
18. Long Day's Journey Into Night — Bi Gan
19. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
20. The Dead Don't Die — Jim Jarmusch
21. Suburban Birds — Qiu Sheng
22. Sorry Angel — Christophe Honoré
23. Non-Fiction — Olivier Assayas
24. The Nightingale — Jennifer Kent
25. Our Time — Carlos Reygadas

Other Films Enjoyed and Reviewed, in Alphabetical Order

• Apollo 11 — Todd Douglas Miller
• Aquarela — Viktor Kosakovskiy
• Ash is Purest White — Jia Zhang-ke
• Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground — Chris Smith
• Burning Cane — Phillip Youmans
• By the Grace of God — François Ozon
• Diamantino — Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt
• The Eyes of Orson Welles — Mark Cousins
• First Love — Takashi Miike
• Grass — Hong Sang-soo
• Hotel by the River — Hong Sang-soo
• Knife+Heart — Yann Gonzalez
• The Load — Ognjen Glavonic
• Piercing — Nicolas Pesce
• The Plagiarists — Peter Parlow
• Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project — Matt Wolf
• Richard Jewell — Clint Eastwood
• Shadow — Zhang Yimou
• Sword of Trust — Lynn Shelton
• Velvet Buzzsaw — Dan Gilroy

Enjoyed but Not Reviewed

• Ad Astra — James Gray
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood — Marielle Heller
• Diane — Kent Jones
• Dolemite Is My Name — Craig Brewer
• The Lighthouse — Robert Eggers
• Midsommar — Ari Aster
• The Souvenir — Joanna Hogg
• Us — Jordan Peele

BookPage: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019

[see also Best Fiction Books of 2019]

1. In the Dream House
   Carmen Maria Machado
2. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
   Jia Tolentino
3. Underland: A Deep Time Journey
   Robert Macfarlane
4. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
   Patrick Radden Keefe
5. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
   Dani Shapiro
6. The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
   Greg Grandin
7. The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
   Rick Atkinson
8. How We Fight for Our Lives
   Saeed Jones
9. Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss
   Margaret Renkl
10. Three Women
    Lisa Taddeo
11. The Plateau
    Maggie Paxson
12. Figuring
    Maria Popova
13. Ordinary Girls
    Jaquira Díaz
14. Make It Scream, Make It Burn
    Leslie Jamison
15. Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves
    Frans de Waal
16. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
    David Treuer
17. Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
    Adrienne Brodeur
18. Once More We Saw Stars
    Jayson Greene
19. The Yellow House
    Sarah M. Broom
20. No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us
    Rachel Louise Snyder