With the end of another year comes another list of great movies. 2019 was a strong year for movies, both in terms of critical acclaim and mainstream success. Here’s a few of them that I liked more than others. I am skipping films like Uncut Gems because I haven’t seen them yet, though feel free to watch them on your own.
Booksmart
Director Olivia Wilde’s female coming of age story has a lot of good things going about it. The two protagonists, Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) set out on the last day of school to make their mold and have an all out party. Of course, they get distracted several times along the way. It’s a heartfelt movie with solid comedy that makes you think about your own bittersweet transitions out of school or college.
Doctor Sleep
The Mike Flanagan directed Doctor Sleep had a lot to do from the get go: make a respectful sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining while also doing a faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. Anchored by a compelling performance from Ewan McGregor, Doctor Sleep tells a story about loss, addiction, recovery and redemption. And the supernatural horror bits that are there are effective as well, with Rebecca Ferguson’s Rose the Hat being a dangerously seductive adversary for McGregor’s Danny Torrance. It’s a shame that the film failed the box office; here is to hoping it finds a second life in home entertainment sales and streaming.
Knives Out
Rian Johnson revitalizes the traditional whodunnit story by setting up a locked house scenario populated by a fantastic cast, each of whom who has problems and eccentricities of their own. There are several twists that change the narrative and keeps the audience on its own, and keeps the story from ever getting stale. Daniel Craig and Chris Evans are both standouts for different reasons, and Ana De Armas does well as the audience surrogate observing the antics of the rich.
Avengers: Endgame
It’s easy to get swarmed by all the hype and build up of Avengers: Endgame to the point you forget that it’s also a good movie by itself. It’s not as consistent as its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, but it’s got a lot of heart, and it culminates the stories of various important characters who have been in the franchise for many years. From Tony Stark’s sacrifice to Steve Rogers’ retirement, the moments in this film felt earned, making for a worthy capstone for over a decade of filmmaking.
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to 1960s Hollywood is perhaps his most mature and meditative film yet. It’s almost a metaphor for how the age of Tarantino, Pitt and DiCaprio is on the verge of becoming a thing of the past. While DiCaprio gets a couple of good scenes of his own, it’s Pitt’s laconic Cliff Booth who shines as he navigates a Hollywood that he fully doesn’t understand. While Margot Robbie doesn’t get to do much as Sharon Tate, she’s there to symbolically represent a loss of innocence that, in true Tarantino fashion, is averted in deliciously vicious fashion.
The Irishman
While The Irishman has a competent story that charts the journey of a mob hitman throughout five decades, it’s more of a showcase of four legendary professionals at the top of their game. In what’s likely to be his final gangster film, Scorsese shows what a life full of remorse and regret looks like, and powerhouses De Niro, Pesci and Pacino put in virtuoso performances that goes a long way in making up for phoned in performances throughout the last couple of years. While this isn’t as outright spectacular as, perhaps, The Wolf of Wall Street is, it’s still a consistently solid film that feels almost like a cinematic novel due to its runtime.
The Farewell
Director Lulu Wang tells a heartfelt, personal story that explores the tug of war that mixed race Americans often feel between their two sets of origin. Awkwafina plays Bili, a displaced, yet sincere woman who doesn’t agree with her family’s decision to keep her grandmother, Nai Nai’s cancer secret from her and arrange an impromptu wedding to get the family together for one last time. It’s a poignant exploration of family, death and affection where the relationship between Bili and Nai Nai is at its core, hitting close to home for everyone who has estranged relationships with their families.
Parasite
Parasite is a darkly funny tragicomedy that features Bong Joon Ho at the height of his powers. The name, at first glance, might seem like a reference to how the Kim family attaches itself to an oblivious, upper class family. The Parks seem blissful, perfect and gullible, while the Kims are wily survivors. It’s when the Kims find another secret in the Park house that things take a dark turn. The buildup to the climax in particular is beautiful: every time a Park brings up the Kim patriarch’s weird smell, he gets a little more disgusted and tries to smell himself. The film has a surreal nature to it, and keeps you glued to the screen until the sad but hopeful end.
The Lighthouse
Robert Eggers’ black and white psychological drama telegraphs the fate of its two main characters early on, but the fun is in watching them slowly unravel as they wander through a desolate island. Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe let loose with their characters, portraying two men arriving at a remote lighthouse in New England, sometime in the 1890s. It’s a slow burn narrative, with an aura of encroaching dread that surrounds the characters, threatening to suffocate them. The beautiful black and white visuals sets the film apart from its peers and reinforces its dreary, oppressive atmosphere.
Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach’s powerful love story draws from his own experiences with marriage (and divorce). By now, everyone has talked about the raw nature of Charlie and Nicole’s explosive argument and the way the divorce proceedings get drawn out and ugly as the lawyers get involved. But what often gets lost in that conversation is how Marriage Story is sweetly funny and sincere, and how it refuses to take a stand between either side. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson both embody their complicated characters who try (and sometimes fail) to be kind and cordial to each other even as their lives are falling apart.
