Gonna change it up this year and put out 2 lists. The later list will be out soon. I’ve always thought it was difficult for non-critics to make a good comprehensive list of films released in the current year, when several are still out on the festival circuit, or just released the last week of the year. Like David Fincher says, the Oscars should award movies 10 years after they’ve been released, and people have had time to properly digest them.
1. Little Women
Out of the 31 films I’ve seen that were released in 2019, there was only 1 I thought was worth rating 5 stars. And it’s a 3rd time adaptation (4th if you count the mini-series for tv). Little Women! In the first 15 minutes it already had enough kinetic energy and emotion that I knew it would be in the top of the list. There are few films that can make the viewer feel what it’s like to be in love for the first time. Little Women is a success in that it made me feel as if I was seeing the world through a child’s eyes. By the end of the film, I felt I’d lived a lifetime of emotion (and the film didn’t feel long at all). Pass out all the Oscars to Greta, Saoirse, and Florence.
2. Ready or Not
Ready or Not was so fucking fun. What seemed like, from the trailer to be an obvious survival/suspense picture, but had so much more comedic chops and creativity than I could have imagined. If you haven’t seen the trailer, don’t watch it. Just see the movie. Out of everything on this list, this will be the one I go back to the most.
3. Dolemite Is My Name
After seeing this, my first thought was “What an Ed Wood rip-off”, then I realized it has the same writers, and you don’t need to change a perfect formula. But to call 2 films a formula is a stretch. I’m a sucker for films about the magic of movie making, and this movie is magic.
- Parasite
- The Lighthouse
- Us
- Booksmart
- Knives Out
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
- The Art of Self-Defense
- Happy Death Day 2U
- Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
-100. Cats
Cats is not so bad it’s good. It’s boring, the songs are shit, the camera can’t keep still. Evertything in the film is a poor decision that was made, not a lack of ability. Ugg. They need to just take all the audio they have, put it on a website, run a contest to remake the entire soundtrack then release it with new music and new dialog. Pure fucking shit.