Top ten box-office films of 2019: 1. Avengers: Endgame 2. The Lion King 3. Frozen II 4. Spider-Man: Far From Home 5. Captain Marvel 6. Joker 7. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 8. Toy Story 4 9. Aladdin 10. Jumanji: The Next Level What are your top three films for 2019? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be: 1. The Irishman 2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 3. Uncut Gems What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later? YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm
Looking up and sharing the top ten of each year has just confirmed a lot of the things I half-knew or assumed about the decline of mainstream cinema over the last fifty years. What is probably most egregious is that most of those "Disney" films are from franchises and studios that they just bought and took over. If you can't beat them, acquire them.
1. First Cow 2. Vitalina Varela 3. Parasite Portrait of a Lady On Fire was a really, really tough cut. I would have loved to been able to include Test Pattern, which I think as many people should see as possible. The Irishman is as brilliant as anything Scorsese has done. Greta Gerwig, Makoto Shinkai and the Safdies had strong works to try and follow-up this year, and they all did well with Little Women, Weathering With You and Uncut Gems. Midsommar and Marriage Story were also strong works from writer/directors I love. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino's best since Basterds, and A Hidden Life is Malick's best since To the Wonder. Mati Diop's Atlantics I found beautiful to look at and very meaningful. High Flying Bird is Soderbergh's best film of the year, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco was great as well. The Souvenir, The Farewell, The Lighthouse, The Dead Don't Die, The Beach Bum, and An Easy Girl were other extremely strong works in an extremely strong year.
1. Midsommar 2. Marriage Story 3. Avengers: Endgame 4. The Lighthouse 5. For Sama 6. Knives Out 7. Parasite 8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 9. Waves 10. Little Women Also loved Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Promare. Toy Story 4, Uncut Gems, Sorry We Missed You, Booksmart, Us, System Crasher, The Forest of Love, First Love, Love, Antosha, Jojo Rabbit, The Art of Self-Defense, Klaus, Ad Astra, Weathering With You, Sound of Metal, Paddleton, A Hidden Life, Bacurau, Honey Boy, Detective Pikachu. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Fighting with My Family, Bliss, Invisible Life, 1917, Dragged Across Concrete, Swallow, Pain and Glory, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Beach Bum, John Wick: Chapter 3, The Farewell, The Irishman, Babyteeth, and Ready or Not.
1. Parasite 2. Little Women 3. Midsommar The Irishman, Knives Out, Uncut Gems, Marriage Story, The Lighthouse, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and Us are all phenomenal. Booksmart, Beach Bum, Ready or Not, Endgame, and Detective Pikachu were all really enjoyable. El Camino was a good epilogue but entirely useless as a standalone. I did not really care for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
It has been a few years now and I can confidently put The Irishman among the great Scorsese films. Those who are inclined can pick at the uncanny valley of the de-aging software or the fact that Robert DeNiro is clearly moving like an elderly man, but the history of cinema has always been about accepting a certain level of artificiality and trickery (I would hate to see these people try to watch old stop-motion films). Scorsese's films have always explicitly criticized its criminals and the mob life, but people become so intoxicated with the music cues and the style that they often end up coming away with at least a slight admiration for these people. Every honest Italian-American hates being compared to the Mafia, but you can hardly find a mom-and-pop pizzeria in America without a poster of The Godfather or Goodfellas or The Sopranos. The Irishman is so stark and unforgiving and brutal that it can be interpreted in part as a function of Scorsese's age, which is part of it, but it operates the same way as a professor underlining something on the chalk board three times to get their point across. You can't finish the entire film without a profound sense of defeat, which is closer to the reality of this lifestyle than anything people might imagine by only remembering the first half of Goodfellas. Frank is never shown as particularly rich, never shown to even enjoy his work, and he loses his family for it. Henry Hill can look back on how good he had it and Sam Rothstein can talk about the good old days of Las Vegas, but Frank Sheeran spends his final days haggling over the cost of his own coffin, being harassed by the FBI, and desperately trying to get attention from nurses and priests.
1. Booksmart 2. Little Women 3. Knives Out Thought that Driveways, Hala, Buffaloed, and Premature were all pretty under-sung at the time, as well.
1. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 2. Little Women 3. Ford vs. Ferrari Parasite, Marriage Story, 1917, Jojo Rabbit, Weathering With You, Endgame... all great too.
This was a huge bounce back year for me: The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Uncut Gems Other standouts: Marriage Story, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Richard Jewell Been meaning to watch: Sound of Metal, Midsommar, Us, Parasite
Parasite Midsommar Once Upon A Time In Hollywood HM: The Irishman, Marriage Story, Sound of Metal, Doctor Sleep, Uncut Gems, Little Women, The Lighthouse, Portrait of a Lady On Fire, Ad Astra, Babyteeth
Such a strong year. The top 3 is basically interchangeable, and quite a few of the HM's would have been #1 in most other years. 1. Uncut Gems 2. The Irishman 3. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Honorable mentions: The Lighthouse Midsommar Parasite First Cow Little Women Marriage Story Knives Out Portrait of a Lady on Fire The Dead Don't Die The Last Black Man in San Francisco Ford v Ferrari
Vitalina Varela has some of the most astounding cinematography I've ever seen. I don't know if anyone has played with darkness and shadows so well. Alongside First Cow, two of the strongest films of the year are also two of the quietest in their near-silence. I didn't expect either to show up on many lists but I hope I can convey that they're as essential to this year as The Irishman and Parasite in terms of two historical masters of the medium producing arguably career-best work.
It was probably the Pedro Costa film I connected with the most. One day I need to go back and start from the beginning.
Ossos really left an impact on me but was also so dense that I need to be in a very specific mood to check out any of Costa's other stuff
Uncut Gems Portrait of A Lady on Fire A Hidden Life A Hidden Life is straight up classic Malick imo. Strong performances all around and I'm a sucker for the theological / faith based thematic content that is at the forefront of his stuff. The locations they used were unreal. Uncut Gems is just a masterpiece lol might sound hyperbolic but whatever HM's: The Irishman, The Lighthouse, Parasite, Midsommar, Ad Astra, The Beach Bum, Little Women, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Art of Self Defense, John Wick 3, The Farewell, Dolemite is My Name, Honey Boy.