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"