Back for today only. Here's my Top 10 Movies of 2019. Curious to hear your thoughts. Oscar Picks to follow.
*excuse any grammatical mistakes or content mistakes. didn't feel like proofreading.
10 (tied) - Avengers: Endgame - I don’t know if I can necessarily call this a top 10 movie of the year because so many of my favorite movies of the year are deeply personal films. I am still grappling with Disney the corporation and how their movies are increasingly feeling like big budget, crowdsourced spectacles. All this being said, Marvel ended Phase 3 perfectly (sorry - I don’t count Spiderman as Phase 3). My appreciation of this movie grew after the release of the Rise of Skywalker too, a movie that virtually ruined its two predecessors. It could have been so easy to get this wrong, and I didn’t quite appreciate that in the moment. This was a fun movie, visually spectacular, and moving at many points. I don’t expect myself to tweet Robert Downey Jr. “I love you three thousand” any time soon, but I particularly liked how they ended Steve Rogers’ story. It was also generally a great experience watching this with an invested crowd. People began cheering, for instance, when Captain America picked up Thor’s hammer. What can I say - it was fun.
10 (tied) - The Farewell - This movie begins what I felt like was a good year for small, independent, personal films. The Farewell was genuinely moving and I felt like I glimpsed into a world I really hadn’t seen before. This reminds me of one of the dumbest comments on movies this year, a la Stephen King tweet: “That said I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.” I recognize that in making these lists, unlike Stephen King, that my unique perspective perhaps obscures my ability to truly evaluate quality. Moviegoing is a deeply personal experience, and I cannot remove who I am from the experience. As I have gotten older and have tended to watch more movies representative of experiences not like my own, I hope to continue to grow my capacity for empathy. Director Lulu Wang made an incredible movie, which explored the divisions that exist among a family culturally changing, and a love which holds those who are different together. Shuzhen Zhao as Nai Nai gave one of the best performances of the year. I was deeply invested in her character and felt Wang’s love of her grandmother in each scene. This movie was at once a new experience and one that I also intimately understood.
9 - Parasite - I recognize this is low for what many say is the best movie of the year. I also admit that psychological thrillers are a hard genre for me to enjoy. This movie is tense, disturbing, and profound. This movie had some of the most stressful scenes of the year. If this is your kind of excitement, I highly recommend it. Bong Joon-ho’s movie feels particularly inspiring in the opening and closing scenes on the streets of South Korea, and within the subterranean apartment. This is undoubtedly a great movie and one in which I need to explore more deeply.
8 - The Irishman - I tend to agree with many people who would have shortened this movie just slightly. The de-aging technology didn’t bother me as much as it did other people. This was my most highly anticipated movie of the year, and the performances definitely lived up to those expectations. Scorsese instantly recalls his greatest work with a meditative tracking shot through a nursing home to start the film. As many have noted, Pesci and Pacino were both phenomenal, and I wasn’t sure they had that sort of range anymore. DeNiro in the last third of The Irishman, however, once again proves he’s the greatest living actor. He captures Frank as a broken man, who recognizes this, and accepts the encroachment of death. While many of these people will continue to make more films, it feels like an iconic goodbye for that generation.
7 - Dolemite is My Name - In sticking with the theme of comebacks, Eddie Murphy’s turn as Rudy Ray Moore was spectacular. It was tough to imagine him with the same kinetic energy he brought to so many 80s films, but this energy propels Dolemite to greatness. This movie is at once an ode to an eccentric visionary filmmaker and the star who plays him. It was hilarious and moving. The cast was incredible. In particular, Wesley Snipes and Da’Vine Joy Randolph brought so much life to this film. I did not know who Rudy Ray Moore was before this film, but I found myself quoting his jokes after watching it. This is a minor tribute to the staying power of his vision.
6 - Little Women - Again to wade into the debates of this coming Oscar season, it’s absurd that Greta Gerwig is not nominated for Best Director with Little Women. This movie is so clearly inspired by her vision and a great companion piece to Ladybird. Is there a better current director-actor combination than Gerwig-Ronan? I am not familiar with the source material, but this era of 1850s-1860s America felt so alive. I often wonder if we were to glimpse into the past, how much of ourselves would we recognize in those people. Little Women deftly explored the relationship between our common humanity, time, and culture in ways that many works haven’t done before. As much as I hate the idea of that little weasel Timothee Chalamet, he was one of a few standouts, another being Florence Pugh. Laura Dern also turns in her best work of the year, much better than what she did in Marriage Story - a movie I largely passed on because it felt too much like a Hollywood divorce and Baumbach seems like a creep (sorry Greta).
5 - 1917 - People aren’t wrong when they say the story is pretty barebones but this movie is a technical masterpiece. It has so much visual excitement and each set piece brought with it new dangers and beauty. Thomas Newman’s score coupled with Roger Deakins’ cinematography made this a truly thrilling movie. I know there’s a long and ongoing debate about a movie’s role in glorifying war, but this is one that straddles that line carefully. I am looking forward to seeing this movie again because it was it was an experience that felt unique.
4 - Knives Out - I really watched this movie the wrong way. I saw it after school on a Friday, watched the first 15 minutes, fell asleep, and woke up for the end. I, therefore, got most of the mystery set-up and then the all answers while cutting out the fun. I eventually went back to see it as buzz continued to steadily grow. And the second time: I loved Knives Out. It’s so original and I was shocked by how politically and culturally relevant it feels. Ana de Armas with Daniel Craig’s assistance was moving as the film’s hero, and kudos to the rest of the cast for capturing the insidiousness of today’s everyday villain. This is a whodunit but it has some of the best commentary on race, immigration, class, and wealth in the United States. I am being deliberately vague so as not to spoil it, but I highly recommend giving it a watch if you haven’t already.
3 - Waves - I had no idea what this movie was about and I recommend everyone to go into it the same way (if possible). Even while watching it, I really wasn’t sure what sort of movie I was watching. I had a sense of what is was saying and condemning but that really didn’t come into frame until the movie’s second half. There were so many great performances. Sterling K. Brown’s performance was incredibly powerful and moved me more than any other this year. I also don’t think I’ve seen Kelvin Harrison Jr or Taylor Russell before, but wow. Again I am being purposefully vague when describing this movie, but you should expect something that is as intense and as disturbing as any movie I’ve seen this year (thinking about you @Uncut Gems), while also being simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring.
2 - Honey Boy - This movie! It’s great. I can’t believe how little traction its gotten in the mainstream conversation. It’s this bizarre story based on the life of Shia Labeouf and the trauma he experienced at the hands of his father while child acting. Labeouf also plays his abusive father while child actor Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges play him. It seems like an absurd premise. Boo-hoo stories about child actors generally garner little sympathy from me. And you’d expect the description above to be some egotistical exhibition- the kind that Shia Labeouf seems to be known for. All this being said, this was a deeply moving movie. It was beautifully filmed by director Alma Har’el, wonderfully scored, and well-acted. It appears to be a deeply personal exploration of Labeouf’s broken relationship with his family and himself. It also reframed the image of Labeouf in a way that I found to be profound. There is definitely a meta-exploration of the ways in which being an artist shapes someone and how that intersects with fame. Yet, this film engages you with the central character, and pushes you to empathize deeply with someone (in ways that were reminiscent of Roma).
1 - Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood - This is a tough mini-review to write. I saved this description for last and I probably have more to say about this film than any other. First, I am not one of Tarantino’s biggest fans. I think he’s a great director who makes extremely engaging films, but I often question the nihilism within them. Second, I recognize this might not be your your movie. Tarantino has an incredible ability to slow down movies (which may lose you) but to keep even the simplest of ideas thrilling. Third, it is also hard to dismiss everything I knew about Tarantino’s life from the final product of this movie. And lastly, I have long claimed to hate Oscar bait: movies about movies and Hollywood. Yet, here I am praising Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. I love this movie for a variety of reasons and probably saw it in theaters 4 to 5 times. It’s a thorough exploration of the relationship between illusions and reality; what we become invested in and what we do not. Tarantino has always been masterful in this sense: he compels us to become invested in his movies yet we’re always aware that Tarantino is there (whether it’s from his acting appearances, jarring visual titles from scene to scene, or the presence of a narrator). Here he’s introduces us to this fictional world of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth against the backdrop of this seemingly real story of Sharon Tate and Charlie Manson. You can sense the ticking of this time bomb, the infamous murders about to happen. Tarantino makes you feel for Sharon Tate in ways that the headlines and the myth of Sharon Tate and Charlie Manson do not. Like many, I loved the scene on the night of the murders where LA’s signs are lighting up while the Rolling Stone’s “Out of Time” plays throughout. It's a moving portrayal of those final moments of an imagined Hollywood. This was an ending I was dreading, knowing that Tarantino generally spares no violence. While we are building to this moment, meanwhile, Tarantino continues to blend perceived reality with perceived fiction with DiCaprio’s character, Rick Dalton. We are watching him make a TV show western and are pulled out of the scene by production assistants walking down set stairs and pulled back into it with cowboy boots walking up the same stairs. We are aware of up to four people layering into the same roles and legends: Dalton, Booth, DiCaprio, Pitt. This all culminates with an ending that is somehow cathartic, joyous, and incredibly sad. This is by a long shot my favorite Tarantino movie, and my favorite movie of the year.
