There is this widespread and shockingly common misconception among the general public (and even some filmmakers!) that critics hate movies; that they derive sadistic pleasure from bashing the work of artists.'

These people have it all wrong. We film critics don’t hate movies. We hate ourselves. We love movies because for a few hours we get to leave behind all that self-loathing and explore different stories, different worlds, and different lives. We get to walk in another person’s shoes, and experience feelings and emotions outside our own personal miseries. Then the lights come up, we exit the theater, and we have to go back to, you know, [gestures at everything].

The reason anyone is foolish enough to pursue criticism is not because they hate cinema; quite the opposite. It’s because they love cinema so much they want any excuse, no matter how impractical as a skill or how risky as a career path, to spend every possible second thinking about movies.

The drawbacks of this decision are endless. Time away from your family, writing at all hours, taking on other jobs just to pay the rent so you can afford to spend your evenings writing a treatise on the Fast & Furious franchise. But the benefits are endless too. They start with getting to see and write about movies like the 20 masterpieces below, my personal picks for the best of the last 20 years.

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