Take a crash course in the year’s best films with one critic’s best-of video countdown

If you like lists—and if you’re a frequenter of this and other pop culture websites, you almost certainly do—then this is the moooooost wonderful tiiiiiiiime of the yeeeeeeeear. We’ve got quite a few of our own. (Best TV shows of the year! Best films we didn’t review! TV performances of 2019! A whole mess of decade-related stuff! Many more to come!) But we must admit that of the many lists out there, the one with the best editing—at least of the cinematic sort—arrives year in and year out courtesy of IndieWire’s David Ehrlich. Ehrlich’s annual video countdowns are reliably entertaining, and this one is no exception, so put those headphones on as suggested and enjoy.

It’s hard to say which moment here exactly is the best—we’re fairly partial to the triptych of smiling Elisabeths Moss, though setting Hustlers to “Born In The U.S.A.” is pretty inspired, as is the juxtaposition of “Being Alive” and Uncut Gems. Like any list, your mileage may vary—this writer simply could not deal with The Beach Bum—and like many of the best lists, there are bound to be a few names here with which you won’t be familiar.

It doesn’t end with the #1 slot, either. If you stick around past the end of that perfect film/song pairing at the top of the list, you’ll find an index of the songs used and the films in which they’re featured—notably “Heaven” from Her Smell, “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” from Wild Rose, and a surprising number of showtunes—as well as one last moment from Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. Ehrlich also shared his favorite moments from these 25 films over at IndieWire, if you’re still hungry for more.

If we were making a list of the Top 25 David Ehrlich Year-End Video Countdowns, this one would miss out on the #1 slot, if only because it can’t top the absolutely perfect Mission: Impossible moment in last year’s installment. Still, a very good video. Enjoy while you wait for our own best-of film list.