Movies: Best Film of the Year 2019?

[Howard Beale]

Last one! You can cast 3 votes, and I'll leave this poll open for 2 weeks, so you're welcome to change your votes after watching more of them.

Here's the results from previous polls:

The 2018 poll is led by:
1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Annihilation
T3. Roma
T3. Burning

The 2017 poll was won by:
1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Get Out
3. Logan

The 2016 poll was won by:
1. Arrival
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. Hell or High Water

The 2015 poll was won by:
1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Sicario
3. The Big Short

The 2014 poll was won by:
1. Interstellar
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Guardians of the Galaxy

The 2013 poll was won by:
1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. Her
3. Gravity

The 2012 poll was won by:
1. Django Unchained
T2. Life of Pi
T2. Silver Linings Playbook
T2. Zero Dark Thirty
T2. The Avengers

The 2011 poll was won by:
T1. Drive
T1. Moneyball
3. Midnight in Paris

The 2010 poll was won by:
1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. Black Swan

Click to read more...

 

[Dubi Doo]

Damn, this looks to be a very strong year. Unfortunately the movies that look to be the cream of the crop I have yet to see...1917, the Lighthouse, Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood etc...

 

[Trap Jesus]

As of right now The Lighthouse then Marriage Story. I lost My Body is currently number 3, but I expect it to be beat by one or both of Uncut Gems and 1917 when I see them. I feel like my top 2 are going to be tough to crack though, maybe Uncut Gems can do it though.

I expect Parasite to win. I thought it was really good, just not as good as everyone is saying.

 

[kihei]

Best of 2019

1) Parasite, Bong, South Korea
2) Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Sciamma, France
3) An Elephant Sitting Still, Hu, China
4) Hope, Sodahl, Norway
5) Pain & Glory, Almodovar, Spain
6) A Hidden Life, Malick, US
7) 1917, Mendes, UK
8) Vitalina Varela, Costa, Portugal
9) The Irishman, Scorsese, US
10) The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Tailfeathers/Hepburn, Canada


11) Varda by Agnes, Varda, France
12) The Lighthouse, Eggers, US
13) Uncut Gems, Safdie brothers,. US
14) It Must Be Heaven, Suleiman, Palestine
15) Atlantics, Diop, Senegal
16) Little Women, Gerwig, US
17) I Lost My Body, Clapin, France
18) The Cave, Fayyad, Syria (documentary)
19) The Two Popes, Meirelles, Brazil/UK
20) High Life, Denis, France/UK
20a) Honeyland, North Macedonia (documentary)


English Language Top Ten

1) A Hidden Life
2) 1917
3) The Irishman
4) The Body Remembers When the World Brpke Open
5) The Lighthouse
6) Uncut Gems
7) Little Women
8) The Two Popes
9) High Life
10) In Fabric

 

[discostu]

I haven't seeb enough from this year to be able to vote in good conscious. Knives Out probably my favourite that I've seen, but I have high hopes for a number I haven't had a chance to. There was a lot of dry stretches this year where there wasn't anything playing near MS worth making it out to.

I'll probably see 1917 next week, so hoping that lives up to hype.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

Voted for Knives Out, Ford v Ferrari, Joker

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Well.... really haven't seen anything (8 mostly weak films from the poll, only 2 from the ones listed by kihei which I'm sure are overall 1000x better). The only really good film I've seen is Marriage Story, so I voted for it (I refrained from voting in most of these polls because my favorite films were never listed).

I'm almost done with Too Old to Die Young, probably not as good as Marriage Story (I'll wait til I'm done to judge), but far better than any other films I've seen from this year.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Another vote for Knives Out (haven't seen a few of the ones that came out in December like Little Women and Bombshell but even after I see them, I doubt I'll change my vote based on the ones that are left not necessarily being my type of film).

I actually re-watched it which isn't something I do much with films but I still loved it and admire it more. It was definitely better on the big screen than at home where it loses something but just the fact that it's a good whodunnit film which Hollywood has failed miserably at for decades now is admirable (excluding the hilarious Pink Panther remake but that was a kids comedy film). Speaking of re-watches, my opinion of Endgame actually improved. They did a phenomenol job of bringing everything together as neatly as you can expect in a mass-appeal blockbuster. Not movie of the year but has to be admired for what it had to do.

Marriage Story is probably my second favourite. It was a damn good year, too bad it waited until the final third to release most of the good stuff.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

1. Jojo Rabbit
2. Pain and Glory
3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
4. Little Women
5. The Irishman
6. Toy Story 4
7. Parasite
8. The Two Popes
9. Marriage Story
10. Knives Out
11. Avengers: Endgame
12. Joker
13. Ford v Ferarri
14. Midsommar
15. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
16. I Lost My Body
17. Us
18. Spider-Man: Far from Home

Still to Watch

1917
The Farewell
Booksmart
Richard Jewell
a hiddenlife
A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Rocketman

 

[MXD]

Pain & Glory should probably be amongst the choices.

 

[OhCaptainMyCaptain]

Right now, it is Ford v Ferrari for me, with Uncut Gems not too far behind. Those are the two that really have stuck out to me this year, though I have LOVED plenty of other movies. I still want to re-watch a couple of these movies, though, so we will see if that impacts my view on them at all.

 

[Eisen]

Of the ones I watched, Parasite was the best followed by An Elephant Sitting Still.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Parasite ... followed closely by The Lighthouse

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Uncut Gems was even better the second time around and is making a serious case for my favorite film of 2019.

As of now, it's probably Parasite, with OUATIH and Knives Out not far behind.

The Irishman and The Lighthouse get my vote for most disappointing films of 2019, though I'd like to see both again.

Still need to see: The Last Black Man in SF; Portrait of a Lady on Fire; 1917; Pain & Glory.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Feel like I should wait for the weekend when I finally get to see 1917 before voting, but for now:

1. Parasite (9/10)
2. The Lighthouse (9/10)
3. 1917 (8/10)

Thought 2019 ended the decade with a bang.

Edit: Replaced The Irishman with 1917.

Special mentions The Irishman to Portrait of a Lady On Fire (both 8/10). Excellent depth at the top.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Good thing about 2019 is that regardless of your taste, I think most agree this was one of the best years for movies.

 

[Savi]

Thought 2019 ended the decade with a bang.

Yeah I couldn't agree more. But I've also seen way more films this year for some reason than previous years so there was A LOT I liked. I'm gonna do a Top 20, and @kihei I stole your pictures idea from last year's thread but I'll also discuss some other stuff I loved (or didn't) so bear with me


So, I've seen about 160 new releases in 2019 and I'd say about 20 to 25 of those were absolute shit. Some of the worst movies of the year include 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Keanu Reeves' horrible Replicas, I also really hated It Chapter Two, Brian de Palma's Domino and Argentinean 'drama' The Daughters of Fire which someone told me was gonna be a roadmovie and ended being a hardcore lesbian movie with unattractive women

Then there were a lot of mediocre, forgettable films that were just fine, for instance the new Woody Allen film, A Rainy Day in New York or stuff like Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw - but some of those forgettable films were actually better than anticipated and deserve a mention for being much more fun than originally thought. Ready or Not was an absolute delight, and Assassination Nation might have a chance to be this year's Spring Breakers.

At the same time I was also disappointed in a number of titles I really looked forward to. One of those was Everybody Knows by one of my favourite directors, Asghar Farhadi. His Latin cast just didn't fit his usual more reserved style. Doctor Sleep also did very little for me; same with Casey Affleck's Light of My Life which had a really good premise but I thought was just plain boring and way too long. Olivia Wilde's Booksmart got a lot of praise however I just didn't think it was funny.. at all. And I'll probably never become Laszlo Nemes's biggest fan because Sunset did nothing for me, as did his debut a couple of years ago.

Since I love (cerebral) scifi movies, I was delighted to see Shane Carruth return after some quiet years, with the lead role in The Dead Center which he didn't direct but just as well might have, because it feels very Carruth. For all the bad reviews it got I also really, really liked Ad Astra; and there were a bunch of smaller scifi films which didn't really get good ratings but you should love as a SF fan: Jonathan (Oliver, US); Starfish (White, US); I Am Mother (Sputore, Australia); Prospect (Caldwell, Canada) and Aniara (Kagermann & Lilja, Sweden).

I also want to mention some foreign movies that eventually didn't make my list, but all caught my attention and were all very good for a variety of reasons. Brazilian drama Silences (B. Seigner) for it's beautiful symbolism and fantastic final scene; Summer (Serebrennikov, Russia) for it's music and gorgeous black/white visuals; French Sophia Antipolis (V. Vernier) for it's views on estrangement and loneliness in big urban environments; and Monos (A. Landes) a kind of Colombian take on Lord of the Flies, very chaotic but also really intriguing.

Best movie title of the year: When I Get Home, My Wife Always Pretends To Be Dead (Lee, Japan)


Now; as for my favourites:

20. Genesis (Lesage, Canada)

19. Bacurau (Dornelles & Filho, Brazil)

18. Last Sunrise (Ren, China)

17. Donbass (Loznitsa, Ukraine)

16. Les Misérables (Ly, France)

15. Teen Spirit (Minghella, US)

14. A Colony (Dulude-De Celles, Canada)

13. A Land Imagined (Yeo, Singapore) orig: "Huan Tu"

12. Beats (Welsh, UK)

11. Galveston (Laurent, US)

10. Marriage Story (Baumbach, US)

9. Parasite (Bong, South Korea) orig: "Gisaengchung"

8. Pain and Glory (Almodóvar, Spain) orig: "Dolor y Gloria"

7. Hellhole (Devos, Belgium)

6. Shoplifters (Koreeda, Japan) orig: "Manbiki Kazoku"

5. Lillian (Horvath, Austria)

4. An Elephant Sitting Still (Bo, China) orig: "Da Xiang Xi Di Er Zuo"

3. Paris is Us (Vogler, France) orig: "Paris est á Nous"

2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Sciamma, France) orig: "Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu"

1. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Bi, China) orig: "Di Qiu Zui Hou De Ye Wan"

 

[Howard Beale]

Pain & Glory should probably be amongst the choices.

Good call. A few people have mentioned it now, so I've added it to the poll.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

Good thing about 2019 is that regardless of your taste, I think most agree this was one of the best years for movies.

In my opinion, looking at the entire decade of picks, seems to be one of the weakest decades of movies in recent memory.

There haven't really been any films where I've thought to myself "man, I have to go see that!", sadly. It appeared the majority were either remakes, continuing franchises that had no business being continued, or yet another comic book movie.

Again, just my two cents worth.

 

[nameless1]

I picked Parasite, The Two Popes and Us, but I defintiely liked Dwelling in the Funchun Mountains and The Realm a lot more than the latter two. I would also recommend Noahland and the vastly underrated Antigone too.

Overall though, this year is rather weak. I am not overly impressed with the choices up there, and I did not find too many gems from international cinema either.

 

[kihei]

Good thing about 2019 is that regardless of your taste, I think most agree this was one of the best years for movies.

There was a lot of cream right at the top, but most of it didn't arrive until November and December. I thought the first ten months of the year was the pits in terms of depth, for international film as well as for NA film.

In my opinion, looking at the entire decade of picks, seems to be one of the weakest decades of movies in recent memory.

There haven't really been any films where I've thought to myself "man, I have to go see that!", sadly. It appeared the majority were either remakes, continuing franchises that had no business being continued, or yet another comic book movie.

Again, just my two cents worth.

I think a distinction needs to be made between NA film, primarily Hollywood, and international film. With rare exceptions Hollywood film seems unimaginative, cautious and stagnant. But the 21st century has been a great time for international film with many great films {Loveless; Amour, Like Father, Like Son; Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives; Parassite: Roma; A Simple Life; The Assassin; Once upon a Time in Anatolia Portrait of a Lady on Fire; and so on, and that's just counting the second decade) often coming from unexpected places {Thailand, Isreael, Palestine, South Korea. and Canada, for example, all produced some terrific movies recently).

 

[kihei]

HB: How about a final poll to determine among the winners or winners/runner-ups of the various years what was the best film of the decade according to voters? But, hey, if it stops here, thanks for the patience and hard work. Much appreciated.

 

[Howard Beale]

HB: How about a final poll to determine among the winners or winners/runner-ups of the various years what was the best film of the decade according to voters? But, hey, if it stops here, thanks for the patience and hard work. Much appreciated.

That idea had occurred to me, and I'm thinking I just might...

 

[John Price]

19 17

Uncut gems

 

[Savi]

HB: How about a final poll to determine among the winners or winners/runner-ups of the various years what was the best film of the decade according to voters? But, hey, if it stops here, thanks for the patience and hard work. Much appreciated.

We really don't need a poll to know that Drive was this decade's best film, but hey that's just me