Sam Pausman is a contributing film writer to Boston Hassle. His upcoming documentary film debut is set to premier later this summer.

Realistically, this was the only year-ender list I could see myself making. The reason is simple: I love needle drops. A good one can elevate the text. A bad one can cheapen it. If the track is too on the nose, I can tell the director doesn’t trust me enough. But oh boy, when it hits, a needle drop can take a scene — a movie — to the moon. You lean forward. You turn to the person beside you. You may laugh. You elevate from your seat. That happened to me ten times this year. Here are the films responsible.

Disclaimer: Songs are only eligible for this list if they were not original songs written for the film. Otherwise, this entire list would be the Sinners (dir. Ryan Coogler) soundtrack and “My Baby” by Japanese Breakfast for Materialists (dir. Celine Song)

10. “Firework” by Katy Perry – Eddington (dir. Ari Aster)
The ultimate use of a needle drop played for laughs. “Firework” catches us as Joaquim Phoenix and Pedro Pascal are knee deep in their descent into madness. And before we know it, the two middle-aged politicians of Eddington, New Mexico are arguing over the acceptable volume level of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Bonus points for the sequence turning into a semi-horror scene as Phoenix walks away from the speaker. As an audience, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never does.

9. “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin – F1 (dir. Joseph Kasinski) 
Easily the most capital-B Boy of all my selections here. A ramshackle Brad Pitt doing pull-ups. Cars go fast. Perfect song choice here. I only wish it was louder. 

8. “Punkrocker” by Teddbears f/ Iggy Pop – Superman (dir. James Gunn)
I can’t remember a time in my life when I hadn’t seen the Christopher Reeve Superman films. Thanks to my Dad, these were nailed into my subconscious at a very young age. So when James Gunn’s Superman came out last summer, there was no other person I was going to share that theater with. Me and my dad, us together, Superman, an enormous IMAX screen. Crowned by a needle drop about childhood, about parents, about the bond between the two. 

7. “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan – One Battle After Another (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
One Battle After Another could realistically make up half this list (“Mo Bamba” honorable mention). Its needle drops add meaning to scenes, rather than cut corners or restate obvious themes. So when the film’s 30-minute opening chapter ends with a baby in the backseat, and we cut to a 16-year-old Willa Ferguson in a dojo, we’re left wondering where the film will go from here. But then the opening chord strikes, that elusive sound derived from an electric organ. And Willa delivers her Karate routine on beat to Steely Dan. And I just smiled, because I couldn’t wait to see where this film took me next.

6. “Redpepper Dragonfly” by Cho Yong Pil – No Other Choice (dir. Park Chan Wook)
“Redpepper Dragonfly” is included for the craft, for the creativity. It’s the only song on this list I’d never heard before seeing (hearing?) it on screen. But Park Chan-Wook, once again, does something I’ve never seen before. Cho Yong Pil’s vocals wash out the voices on screen. So when — during the fight scene— actors sneak up on each other or can’t hear each other, we actually believe it. So many directors would’ve just evened out the audio mix and let the tone and timbre of the actors show the audience that they’re yelling, but Park is bold enough to show us exactly how it is. We’re confused too. The music is jarring, distracting. It’s too loud, and thus, effective.

5. “Beware of Darkness” by George Harrison – Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger)
“Beware of Darkness” is used in direct contrast to the on-screen images. Our eyes witness something sinister and unsettling. Meanwhile, our ears are amused. Kids flee their homes. They go into the darkness, but that darkness is the only thematic connection between the audio and the visual. Despite the lighthearted George Harrison track, the montage isn’t played for laughs. The music choice itself is confounding — as confounding as a slew of elementary-aged students all fleeing their homes at 2:17 a.m. 

4. “Soldier Boy” by The Shirelles – One Battle After Another (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
I think the best thing a needle drop can produce is a visceral audience reaction. So when we cut to Perfidia Beverly Hills and Capt. Steven J. Lockjaw in a room at the Primrose Path as “Soldier Boy” floods the speakers, I laughed aloud. The power dynamics between the characters are muddy. Lockjaw has the power outside the bedroom, but in the bedroom, Perfidia is on top. And to make that dynamic perfectly clear, “Soldier Boy” comes into the fray, making a mockery out of the man who sees himself as the manifestation of state power.

3. “Forever Young” by Alphaville –  Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie)
Talk about a big swing! Opening credits. Microscopic sperm swimming across the screen, all while a children’s choir sings Alphaville’s “Forever Young.” It’s not exactly formulaic. At first I laughed — more out of shock value than anything, but the sequence sets an expectation. This needle drop was a batter stepping up to the plate and pointing to the centerfield bleachers. “Watch what I’m about to do,” Safdie says, before getting into stance and swinging for the fences himself.

2. “In Spite of Ourselves” by John Prine, Iris DeMent – Die My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay) 
This is (for me) the love song to end all love songs. Raw, unflinching, empathetic, deeply non-judgmental. A song about faults and idiosyncrasies and acceptance and grace and loving without reservation. So if you get Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson dancing to the John Prine/Iris DeMent track at their wedding, it’s going to land with me. And later in the film, when the couple drives down remote roads and the song comes on the radio, it lands even harder. This time, Pattinson takes an a capella shot at the Prine part and Lawrence the DeMent role. As the car continues down the road, the couple sings. They hold hands. They miss glances. They catch glances. They hesitate and grin and smile and sing. It’s rare for the same song to appear multiple times in a film and the whole thing to not feel overstated. But here, it was executed to perfection. Also, bonus points for Celine Song for including this as the credit song in Materialists. 

1. “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers –  One Battle After Another (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Here’s why this is number one. One Battle After Another redefined what “American Girl” represents in American culture (at least in my own personal filter of American culture, whatever that means). It’s no longer the Tom Petty song. It now belongs to this film. It belongs to Willa. I can’t recall the last time a movie did that, the last time a film recalibrated a song’s place in the zeitgeist. It’s rare to hear a song that wasn’t written specifically for a film and mentally equate it with a particular film, but in One Battle After Another, that’s achieved several times. Ultimately, though, the pinnacle of this accomplishment presents itself in the film’s final moments. “Be careful,” Bob Ferguson says to his daughter. “I won’t,” she says back. Rain falling. Hood on. Musical cue. Well, she was an American girl. Raised on Promises. Watching this scene back now, I can’t help but smile. And I suppose that’s what a good needle drop is all about.