I liked it a lot (although I really feel like I want to see it again to pick up on more of it). It's definitely worth a watch (and I think it's streaming?)
Putting that list together made me realize I did not see as many movies this year as I thought, even though this year I tried to make an effort to move away from television into watching more films.
VinylGuy wrote:I wont be seeing Little Women until January. Marriage Story wasnt good enough for me.
You're not a big Baumbach guy though, right? So not really surprising. I just appreciate that you take time to still see movies by filmmakers that you don't always love.
As a card carrying member of SAG-AFTRA I get screeners for the SAG Awards. Got a bunch of DVDs from Netflix today and I have no idea why they don't just send out codes to watch the stuff for free through Netflix instead. They did that once a few years ago and then switched back to physical media the next year.
cutuphalfdead wrote:As a card carrying member of SAG-AFTRA I get screeners for the SAG Awards. Got a bunch of DVDs from Netflix today and I have no idea why they don't just send out codes to watch the stuff for free through Netflix instead. They did that once a few years ago and then switched back to physical media the next year.
cutuphalfdead wrote:As a card carrying member of SAG-AFTRA I get screeners for the SAG Awards. Got a bunch of DVDs from Netflix today and I have no idea why they don't just send out codes to watch the stuff for free through Netflix instead. They did that once a few years ago and then switched back to physical media the next year.
cutuphalfdead wrote:As a card carrying member of SAG-AFTRA I get screeners for the SAG Awards. Got a bunch of DVDs from Netflix today and I have no idea why they don't just send out codes to watch the stuff for free through Netflix instead. They did that once a few years ago and then switched back to physical media the next year.
20. Long Shot
I'm as surprised as anyone that a Seth Rogen comedy could still be good in 2019, but this lovely film about learning to accept oneself as worthy of love has a sweetness at its core that totally won me over.
19. Crawl
A case for the inherent worth of cinema as an experiential thrill ride. Stupid beyond stupid, but so much fun.
18. Booksmart
A sweet-hearted, winsome high school comedy that claims its rightful place among classics such as Easy A, Mean Girls, Clueless, and the John Hughes "Brat Pack" catalogue.
17. Retrospekt
A dizzying, structurally innovative Dutch drama with a powerful emotional core and very interesting use of cinematic resources.
16. Felix in Wonderland
Marie Losier's new documentary is as much about the breathless joy of creation as it is about its subject: German experimental musician Felix Kubin.
15. Rocketman
Everything boilerplate biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody aren't: thrilling, honest, emotional, surreal, delivered with directorial flair, and brimming with love for the music.
14. La Muerte No Existe y El Amor Tampoco
A taciturn and beautiful meditation on two kinds of grief: the grief over a lost loved one, and the grief over lost love.
13. Rare Beasts
Billie Piper's directorial debut is impressive in the confidence of its vision, in its poetic and fanciful dialogue, in the way it sustains a frenetic and surreal tone throughout, and in its incisiveness as it examines the pitfalls of romantic love.
12. The Mountain
Rick Alverson's latest is deliberate, painterly, complex, difficult but rewarding. Jeff Goldblum's utter Jeff Goldblumness may feel a bit out of place at parts, but the way it subtly washes out of the film as it progresses is a stroke of genius.
11. Dragged Across Concrete
A masterful exercise in slow, hypnotic pacing; tense, gorgeous, horrifically violent. Probably S. Craig Zahler's best.
10. Love Me Not
Bold, poetic, confrontational, absurd, deliberately (and joyfully) obtuse. A sensuously shot biblical allegory; Luis Buñuel by way of Robert Downey Sr.
09. Greta
One of the scariest films in recent memory. Tense and gripping; Isabelle Huppert is incredible in this. Performance of the year, IMO, or at least tied with Leo in Once Upon a Time...
08. It: Part 2
A completely bonkers, maximalist, out-there movie that takes a number of bizarre turns while also being a poignant story about trauma, memory, and loss. It’s a brave film: incredibly funny, sweet, often disturbing, and stylish as all hell. Yes, it is also very cheesy at parts. That's fine. It's a movie about a demonic alien clown who eats children. It is inherently cheesy.
07. Lina de Lima
This Chilean musical about the life of a Peruvian immigrant trying to get by as a cleaning lady for the wealthy is a fascinating, moving, deeply human experience; the subject matter could come off as dour if the film weren't so joyful, the elaborate musical setpieces serving as the main character's inner monologue.
06. The Beach Bum
Harmony Korine returns with another deeply entertaining, vivid, brightly-colored, A E S T H E T I C movie. Matthew McConaughey was born to play Moondog. It's a glorious mess of a film.
05. Us
Jordan Peele's follow-up to Get Out works as societal commentary on the invisibilization of the underclass while also delivering on the pulpy thrills; stylish, often laugh-out-loud hilarious, and held together by great performances to distract from the fact that the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
04. Por El Dinero
The best Argentine film of the year; Alejo Moguillanski balances absurdist comedy with genuine drama and the poetic sensibility that's come to define El Pampero Cine
03. Genèse
Philippe Lesage returns with another dark, heart-wrenching, gorgeously shot exploration of the horrors of young love. Along with The Demons, he's establishing himself as one of the most interesting voices in Canadian cinema.
02. Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood
A lot has been said about Tarantino's film, and most of it is true. It's a lot. But it's also a visually sumptuous fairy tale about the feeling of worthlessness that rewards repeated viewings. Probably Tarantino's best film, to be honest.
01. Parasite
A masterpiece. Everybody should watch this film. The way it grabs you as a comedy and moves you through tonal shifts until arriving at its visceral, deeply moving conclusion is nothing short of masterful. Legitimately one of the best movies I have ever watched.
*note: some of these movies, like Greta and Retrospekt, have fuzzy release dates, or premiered in film festivals in late 2018 before getting a wide release in 2019. I watched them in 2019 as did most of the world so I am counting them as 2019 movies.
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
I did, much to my surprise, have a lot of fun with the new Jumanji movie. But I think much of that was the joy of watching The Rock do an extended Danny DeVito impression, and also Karen Gillan in that outfit.
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
VinylGuy wrote:I wont be seeing Little Women until January. Marriage Story wasnt good enough for me.
You're not a big Baumbach guy though, right? So not really surprising. I just appreciate that you take time to still see movies by filmmakers that you don't always love.
Yeah i like him fine. I appreciate a lot of his movies. This one was very flawed tough.
Some thoughts on 2019, which I think has been surprisingly strong year for cinema - far better than 2017 or 2018.
Top 20 Favorite Movies of the Year:
1. Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood
2. 6 Underground
3. 3 from Hell
4. The Beach Bum
5. Dragged Across Concrete
6. Richard Jewell
7. The King
8. Rambo: Last Blood
9. Greta
10. The Perfection
11. Ad Astra
12. Hotel Mumbai
13. The Fanatic
14. Domino
15. The Dead Don't Die
16. The Two Popes
17. Shazam!
18. The Aeronauts
19. The Best of Enemies
20. Aladdin
A movie I'm still wrestling with: The Mountain
Rick Alverson's last two movies - The Comedy and Entertainment - are seminal works of 2010s art that knocked me the fuck out. This film is even darker and bleaker than those already brutal films, but I think it's also more difficult and I'm not totally sure it's in a rewarding way. There's also far too much Denis Lavant toward the end.
A movie with very high highs and extremely low lows: Marriage Story
There is so much good stuff in this, primarily Adam Driver, Adam Driver, and Adam goddamn Driver. Seriously, I love Adam Driver so much. The man is a treasure.
But Jesus is this movie full of awkward, embarrassing Baumbach-isms. All the jarring stabs at comedy, the whole insulated air of wealthy NYC privilege, the overbearing cynicism, the generally alien, stilted, was-this-written-by-an-actual-human? weirdness of minor character interactions - the usual stuff that turns me off in Baumbach movies, really.
That said, I could watch the scenes that deal with the minutiae of divorce law all day long. Fascinating stuff. Every scene involving lawyers is gold. And there's some kind of magic at play in Driver's singing scene, which is wonderful and poignant for so many reasons.
Two wildly overrated movies: The Irishman and Uncut Gems
The de-aging special effects in the former were a horrendous idea and an abject failure in every conceivable way - they compromise every facet of the movie to an unsalvageable degree. On top of that, this whole thing plays like a much-worse retread of The Godfather II and III. Coppola already covered this ground while expressing so much more (and much more elegantly).
The latter is pretty much the exact same movie the Safdies already made with Good Time, and they're not interesting enough filmmakers to play in the tension-for-tension's-sake playground and make it compelling. I love Adam Sandler to death but this is one of the least interesting roles he's ever played. If you want well-crafted tension cinema, watch a De Palma thriller. If you want to watch a movie about a self-destructive, compulsive guy making terrible decisions, watch the Karel Reisz/James Toback joint The Gambler. If you want ticking-clock, in-deep-shit, how-is-he-gonna-get-out-of-this intensity that encompasses both of those things, watch Refn's Pusher. They're certainly all far more convincing and worthwhile than anything the Safdies are gonna come up with.
A movie with an incredible opening and a mostly terrible everything else: Us
Bottom 5 Least Favorite Movies of the Year:
5. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
4. It: Chapter Two
3. The Laundromat
2. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
1. Alita: Battle Angel
Still excited to see: Ford v Ferrari, Doctor Sleep, Gemini Man, others I'm forgetting. I'll eventually watch (or at least attempt) Parasite, Midsommar, and The Lighthouse, but I'm mostly dreading them. 1917 looks absolutely unbearable and I get bored just sitting through the trailers.
