Top Films Of 2019
When I sat down to hammer out this list, I went into it feeling as though 2019 was a pretty solid year for movies. However, after taking a good look back at the 118 new releases that I was able to see, I realized that 2019 was actually a pretty fantastic year for movies. Here’s what I loved the most, plus a smattering of other bits. Enjoy.
15) Long Shot
This is one of the best rom coms I’ve seen in a very long time. Who knew that Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron would end up having such great chemistry? Too bad it bombed at the box office.
14) Toy Story 4
To me, Toy Story 3 is still the franchise closer and this is more of an epilogue. I sure adored it though. What a touching movie.
13) Little Women
Even though it has a few moments that make me want to roll my eyes, there’s so much passion and energy zooming about in every scene that it’s hard to not get caught up Greta Gerwig’s latest.
12) Dolemite Is My Name
Welcome back, Eddie Murphy! This film is funny and heartfelt. I’m admittedly also a sucker for movies about movies.
11) The Farewell
A thought-provoking, emotional and charming affair. Not sure if there’s enough juice behind this film to get Awkwafina a Best Actress nomination, but she deserves one.
10) Midsommar
Florence Pugh had a great year with Little Women, Fighting With My Family and this horror gem. The way this film steadily ramps without ever taking a turn you expect it to is masterful.
09) The Death Of Dick Long
I really loved this at Fantastic Fest. It’s weird and goofy, but also very sharp.
08) Uncut Gems
Pure anxiety from the Safdie Brothers. So much has been said about Adam Sandler’s performance, and it’s all for good reason – his shifty, predictably unpredictable character is one to remember.
07) A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood
If you want a movie about Fred Rogers, you should watch Won’t You Be My Neighbor?. If you want a movie about the power of positivity and good deeds, then you should watch this. Also, Tom Hanks is just so damn great here.
06) Ford v Ferrari
This is less of a car movie and more of a look into the deep friendship that two talented men shared, and boy is it fantastic. Matt Damon and Christian Bale both shine in it.
05) Knives Out
One of my favorite whodunnits of all time – it’s just so damn engaging and entertaining. Daniel Craig’s Southern-fried detective is worthy of a Best Supporting Actor nomination, in my opinion.
04) Avengers: Endgame
A powerhouse finale that closes out an unbelievable 22-film arch. I’ve seen this movie quite a few times, and I get more attached to it with every viewing.
03) Jojo Rabbit
Taika Waititi’s latest is smart, funny, endearing and – apparently – just off-center enough to weird people out. I fully expect it to be remembered much more fondly than it was received. On another note, Archie Yates’ Yorkie is one of my favorite characters of 2019.
02) Parasite
This Bong Joon-Ho affair is most people’s top movie of the year, and that totally makes sense to me – it’s amazing from top to bottom and should probably win Best Picture (and Best Foreign Pic). For me though, it’s not something that I’ll frequently revisit, so I’m slotting it here in the runner-up spot.
01) Once Upon A Time In … Hollywood
Since I picked up my 4K copy of this in December, I’ve watched it three times. Quentin Tarantino’s head is a weird, interesting place, and this movie just lets you live in there for a while. I love his version of old Hollywood and I love every single character that exists inside of it I think I’ll actually go put it on now. Bye.
10 Additional “Big” Movies That I Also Liked A Lot:
Shazam
Ready Or Not
Hustlers
Doctor Sleep
Ad Astra
1917
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
The Irishman
Rocketman
5 Additional “Small” Movies That I Also Liked A Lot:
The Lighthouse
Climax
Honey Boy
Her Smell
Marriage Story
My Bottom 5 Of 2019:
Glass
Dumbo
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Men In Black: International
Cats
Biggest Disappointment Of 2019:
IT: Chapter 2
Biggest Surprise Of 2019:
Fighting With My Family
–
NOAH
For all of the bitching about the state of film – about how superheroes and big budget action flicks and streaming platforms and an overabundance of content and the death of the mid-tier drama and so on and so on – I have to say, it was a fucking fantastic year for cinema, across the board. For a year absolutely rife with amazing “indies” and amazing micro-budget films and cheapie horror flicks, the best of the year for me were big films with big names in front and behind the movie camera. It speaks to the idea that as much as we complain about the state of the industry and what “cinema” looks like these days, 2019 was a banner year for seeing movies across the spectrum of genre, of budget, of execution – the borders of how we define film and how we view it has never been thinner.
If you’re complaining about the state of cinema, I don’t believe you’re actually watching it.
I didn’t see everything I wanted to and I saw a lot that in a weaker year would’ve made the big list. Both are noted below.
I Should Have Seen Them: The Lighthouse, The Souvenir, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Peanut Butter Falcon, Honey Boy, Waves, Monos, Atlantics, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Honorable Mentions: Ford v. Ferrari, Knives Out, Toy Story 4, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Crawl, The Platform, Sea Fever, The Death of Dick Long, Booksmart, The Art of Self-Defense, Transit, Her Smell
THE BEST FILMS OF 2019:
15) Once Upon a Time In … Hollywood / Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino’s most elegiac film is a slow, abstract meander through late-60s Hollywood with DiCaprio and Pitt as tour guides. A film to be rewatched again and again and again, just to luxuriate in the world Tarantino has reimagined.
14) Jojo Rabbit / Taika Waititi
As much as it doesn’t shock me that Waititi’s genre-busting historical film about a Nazi youth whose imaginary best friend is Hitler didn’t exactly land at the box office, it absolutely shocks the hell out of me. Waititi is a master of threading even the most cynical of satires with a soft, warm glow of emotional resonance and Jojo Rabbit is no exception. Every actor is fantastic in this, but none more so than Scarlett Johansson, who nearly reinvents herself as the mother that every human being always wanted to have. If you’re holding back from seeing this one – don’t.
13) Swallow / Carlo Mirabella-Davis
The best thing I saw at Fantastic Fest. Haley Bennett plays a kept woman who revolts against her ultra-rich, ultra-controlling husband (and his family) by, well, swallowing household objects. It’s a darkly funny, starkly shot, prickle of a film that twists and turns and twists and turns, never losing its low-key momentum.
12) High Flying Bird / Steven Soderbergh
I watched this film an hour after getting home from a three-day stint in the hospital due to an emergency appendectomy. It was exactly what I wanted: a caper flick, a basketball movie, a film that rests on a series of high-octane conversations and plot reveals that Soderbergh pulls off with aplomb. It’s fast-paced and absolutely riveting while peering into the seedy world of professional sports. Andre Holland should be in every movie.
11) Pain and Glory / Pedro Almodovar
Almodovar made a movie about his life. Unsurprisingly, it’s amazing – a bizarrely paced collage of Spain’s greatest living filmmaker that examines his life in miniature with bracing, and often times hilarious honesty. Antonio Banderas should be in every movie with Andre Holland.
10) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood / Marielle Heller
I actively avoided this film for as long as I could due to an adverse reaction to the circle jerk of savior-praise that the late (and, sure, great) Fred Rogers has been drowned in. But Christmas, and parents, and everyone wanted to see it, so I went and it was, quite frankly, fantastic. Marielle Heller’s first two films are darkly comic, mildly experimental and brilliant (Can You Ever Forgive Me? ranked high back in 2018 for good reason) and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood continues the trend. This isn’t a bio-pic about Mr. Rogers, nor is it a blinding grin of a praise film – it’s about the power of his message and what even the saddest sack can do with a little bit of a positive push. And yes, Tom Hanks is fantastic, but when has that ever not been the case?
09) Ad Astra / James Gray
I will take all of the man-discovering-he-has-emotions-in-outer-space films. All of them. Especially if they’re beautifully shot odes to Stanley Kubrick that feature Brad Pitt mixing the low-key threat of Cliff Booth with the military sneer of Aldo Raines. It’s the strangest big budget sci-fi flick you’ve seen in a long time, and just about every second of it works.
08) Wild Rose / Tom Harper
I am mad that Tom Harper’s story of a Scottish ex-con (and sometimes loser) trying to become a Nashville superstar while working as a maid isn’t on every list this year. It’s like A Star Is Born if A Star Is Born existed in reality. I don’t dig on musicals so much, but the country swagger of soon-to-be-insanely famous singer/actor Jesse Buckley is absolutely alluring. You will scream the words (while sobbing) to the song Buckley belts over the finale of this film in the quiet of your car often. I promise.
07) Avengers: Endgame / The Russo Brothers
I am also mad that Avengers: End Game isn’t on every best of list this year. How is it that a film that closed a ten year cycle of superhero movies featuring twenty films and nearly every famous person playing a character with great powers, with all of the emotions and a heavy splash of style to boot, get so much flack? I saw it three times in the theater and cried through six of those nine hours. And I’d do it all over again.
06) Ash Is Purest White / Jia Zhangke
My favorite discovery of 2019 – Jia Zhangke’s ultra slow ruminations on the state of China. Ash Is Purest White, a story in three distinct parts, follows a small-town gangster’s girlfriend’s evolution as a human being outside of his subtly toxic sphere. Zhangke’s films are quiet ponders where plot is an afterthought, and the evolution of a character is everything. Glacial in pace, but goddamn riveting all the same.
05) Uncut Gems / The Safdie Brothers
It is the cinematic equivalent of a two-hour panic attack starring Adam Sandler. And, after inhaling deeply into a brown paper bag for many minutes, I loved it. The Safdie Brothers can do no wrong. Kevin Garnett should be in every movie with Antonio Banderas and Andre Holland.
04) Little Women / Greta Gerwig
Greta Gerwig injects a modern sensibility and a crackling line of energy into Louisa May Alcott’s 19th century classic. No other film this year understands better the way in which families converse – a wash of broken sentences and arguments that turn into laughter and laughter that turn into arguments and on and on. Every performance is a stand-out, but Florence Pugh’s Amy stands out above the other stand outs. Also, no one does angsty confessions of love like the main guy, Timothy Chalamet.
03) Marriage Story / Noah Baumbach
Baumbach has always been a great director, so watching him evolve into one of the great directors is an absolute joy. Marriage Story explores the complexities of a relationship (from start to finish) through the lens of divorce with a biting honesty. Baumbach captures just how many layers of emotions go into loving someone and how difficult it is to parse through them all when that love doesn’t work out. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson should walk away with armloads of awards this year.
02) Midsommar / Ari Aster
Even if I didn’t love Hereditary (and I did not) it is a horror film that asserts very early that it will do anything to its characters – emotionally or physically – and then demands the audience stick around and see just how bad it gets. Midsommar follows suit. Ari Aster is an absolute genius at slowly cranking the wheel of suspense to a point where your only options are to flee the theater or throw up in your lap. And though Midsommar is a far quieter film than Hereditary, it speaks volumes when it chooses to. It is strange and surprising every single step of the way, and Aster’s flaying of the American view of “other cultures” is near perfect. Beautifully shot, beautifully staged and beautifully produced – Midsommar will stick in your craw and refuse to evacuate.
01) Parasite / Bong Joon-Ho
If not my favorite Bong Joon-ho film, it’s absolutely his best work to date. A genre-smashing tale of class struggle that features a family of con artists beyond comparison. I saw it three times in the theater and each viewing brought some new piece of genius to light. Joon-ho’s ability to stage a scene – big or small – is downright masterly. It’s funny, it’s harsh, it’s violent, it’s emotional – it is the best film of the year and a strong candidate for best film of the decade.
