All in all, 2019 was a pretty fantastic year in movies as far as my own tastes go. What follows are my ten favorite films from the year and I don’t even get to mention that we had two wonderful rock docs in Beyonce’s ‘Homecoming’ and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese’. I do talk a little about superheroes, but I don’t touch on the fact that ‘Spider-Man: Far from Home’ came out featuring my all-time favorite Spider-Man villain, Mysterio. And I go through all these films and can’t find a place for some of the most fun I had at the movies this year watching ‘Ready or Not’, ‘Dolemite is My Name’, and ‘Rocketman’. Enjoy!
10. The Last Black Man in San Francisco: A surprising film about class, gentrification, and San Francisco. In addition to shooting the Bay Area with beauty, this film has the electricity that comes with live theater. Appropriately enough, in a meta turn, the film ends with a play brilliantly featuring the supporting cast of the film. And the version of ‘San Francisco’ by Emile Mosseri that plays throughout is not only a fantastic rendition but also adds to the jazzy, melancholic, tone.
9. Avengers: Endgame: Not many things can stick such an ending with such a massive body of work and collection of characters behind them, in fact, I can’t think of single thing like it that does on this level. Start things off with the gut-punch scene of Hawkeye’s family on the farm, jump to a beheading of Thanos, and I was awash in Marvel wonder. Kudos to the time heist curtain call and thank god we finally got to hear Captain America say, “Avengers assemble”.
8. Us: I always love a movie that allows me to debate it for weeks to come. This year, Us was that movie. A comedic social horror with some of the year’s most memorable visuals in its red jumpsuits, scissors, and rabbits. It’s tense, scary, funny, and bloody. Lupita Nyong’o should have been nominated. Her dual performance carries the film and that inhaling voice still haunts my dreams. Fortunately, I always laugh myself back to sleep thinking of Tim Heidecker’s shadow pulling his handshake short and combing his hand through his hair. Keep the Jordan Peele movies coming.
7. Under the Silver Lake: This is a spiraling, conspiracy-laden noir with an obsessive, misogynist, and all-around-terrible anti-hero played by Andrew Garfield. It’s a dark and not-all-that exaggerated satire of Los Angeles right down to its main character who goes to absurd lengths just to get laid. The plot may update conspiracy-noir, but the camera moves like it did in the 40s . The Songwriter scene alone is almost worth the ticket price. One of my favorite scenes of the year.
6. Booksmart: I’m a sucker for high school films, especially high school party films, especially high school party films that take place in one night. Booksmart does a great job painting the current high school frontier and giving each character their due. They did an excellent casting the high schoolers and it doesn’t stop at Dever and Feldstein: Victoria Ruesga as Ryan, Mason Gooding as Nick, and Skyler Gisondo as Jared all wonderful discoveries. Olivia Wilde made a classic.
5. Marriage Story: I absolutely adore about half of Noah Baumbach’s work. I find it quirky and universal, funny and heartbreaking. But I cannot stand the other half of his films. I won’t deny they can feel aloof and elitest. And while you can’t take the rich director out of Manhattan, you sure can make a great relationship/divorce movie there. Refreshingly, more funny than sad, this almost plays like a spiritual sequel to ‘Annie Hall’ right down to it’s Los Angeles loathing. Adam Driver is far and away my pick for Best Actor, but this whole cast puts in fantastic work. Dern will be the only one honored on Oscar night, but Alda, Liotta, and ScarJo all deserve accolades.
4. Little Women: I’ve never read Little Women, nor have I ever seen the Winona Ryder version, in fact, all I knew about this film going in was that it had a stellar cast and that I have loved most all of Greta Gerwig’s work. Ronan was terrific, Pugh was a standout, and count me a member of the Chalamet fan club. A wonderfully told story that breathes with life, romance, and vibrancy. Saoirse Ronan lamenting to Laura Dern that she’s doing everything she can to lead the life she wants but is still “so lonely” sunk my heart. Another of my most favorite scenes of this film year.
3. Parasite: This is absolutely, 100%, the best made film this year. It has the best cast with the best director working from the best screenplay on the best set. And I didn’t even mention the best lighting! Like many films this year, it has a lot to say about class issues and does so most effectively. This thing is packed with amazing scenes: The fumigation scene, the coffee cup test, the peach fuzz, the housekeeper reveal, the ghost story, caught under the coffee table, the descending staircase sequence (better than ANY OTHER staircase scene this year), the climax! The movie of the year, the should-be Oscar winner, and my third favorite of 2019. May Bong Joon Ho take home all the awards.
2. Jojo Rabbit: My most cathartic movie of the year. Of course it’s the awful political climate but it’s also Taika Waititi, who’s work I love almost completely top-to-bottom. His quirky directing style with an earnest heart is worthy of Michel Gondry level ‘indie’ praise. Hats off to Roman Griffin Davis and Archie Yates who both give star turns. But it’s honestly Scarlett Johannsen that really won me over. Her scene when she portrays both herself and her absent husband using a beard of soot broke my heart and, by the end, re-filled me with hope. This has hands down the best opening scene of the year with the ‘Heil Hitler’ pep talk into The Beatles “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” opening credits and I will always leave a movie dancing to David Bowie.
1. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: I loved this movie from the very first shot: we’re in the backseat of a car with the camera, our stars sit down in the driver and passenger seats, and the credit titles have their names reversed. Maybe it’s just a dumb joke, but it sets up Tarantino’s playful relationship with both the audience and the truth that he carries through the entire film. This is easily the least “Tarantino” movie of the director’s oeuvre and certainly the most conservative which surprises even me when I say that this is my favorite film of his career (Pulp 2, Basterds 3). DiCaprio and Pitt are both dynamite, both radiating an unquestionable and misguided cool. Cliff Booth at Spahn Ranch could have been cut straight out of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’. And I absolutely go crazy and get nostalgic for a level of monoculture that I never had. Everyone listens to the same songs on the same radio station, everyone sees the same movies, and everyone, from Rick and Cliff to the Manson Family, watches ‘FBI’ on Sunday nights. I love driving around and hanging out in Los Angeles now. I could live in Quentin Tarantino’s 1969 Los Angeles forever.
