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Ah, lists, glorious lists. During these freezing winter months it's always comforting to bask in the warm and fuzzy reflective pleasures of movie rankings. Sometimes it seems people get more enjoyment out of reading top 10 lists than they do actually watching the films themselves. I am can be guilty of this myself; the problem is every time I see an entry I'm unfamiliar with on a top 10 list by a critic of relative note it's like a punch in the gut – J. Hoberman is particularly reliable for a good ass-kicking.

But while completing a checklist of notable films all feels terribly important in the moment - not to mention satisfying - when I look back over the years those rankings never seem to hold up. Using myself as an example, when I look at the top 10 lists I've formed dating back to 2006, some of the placements confound me. For example, in 2007 the two of my favorite genre films – you know I had to get that distinction in there - of the decade were released, The Bourne Ultimatum and Knocked Up. Yet somehow I ranked Bourne at #8, right behind Juno, and only gave Knocked Up an honorable mention. What? I was also struck by how my opinions have changed over time. Take a film like Antonement - coming in at #9. It made the list because in spite of its flaws, I was so riveted by its first half. Now my lingering memories of the film are those flaws it succumbed to in its latter section. Paris je t'aime - an honorable mention of that year - only exists in my memory as a joyful oasis on I stumbled upon on a transatlantic flight. All of its pleasures rise to the surface of my brain, the forgettable ones being just that.

2006 is even more bizarre with Little Miss Sunshine at #3 – a movie I've now all but dismissed as a formu-quirkic indie – and Casino Royale, another genre fave of the decade, all the way back at #10, and if I remember I waffled a bit to even put in on. Plus, nowhere can I find Half Nelson or Borat. I was pleased to see I had the courage to include Apocolyto, though. Oh yeah, that's right.

There are countless inconsistencies between my opinions then and now and I suppose that's to be expected. I've often referenced here the inevitable evolution of one's tastes over time. I certainly don't regret making the lists. If not for anything else, just to be able to look back and see what my cinematic palate had an appetite for at that given moment in time – despite how embarrassing it may be. But what I've mainly taken away from this journey backwards is the thought that numerically arranging what you feel to be the best overall films is not necessarily the most accurate approach to defining a year, or decade, in film.

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