Tired reference to how the previous year was garbage, at least on a macro level, much like recent years before. Familiarly sarcastic observation that the coming year likely won't prove that much better, tinged with hope that we can make some kind of substantive change this time around. Obvious segue into how trying times leads us to take solace in the potent art of our times, which - in this case - includes a lot of movies.
Half-deprecating and half-heartfelt praise of the number of very good-to-great movies that released last year in spite of the festering problems of late capitalism on the film industry. Disclaimer that I've not seen all the movies I "ought to have" because of lack of time (sorry, The Farewell) or uncooperative release rollouts (see you in a couple weeks, 1917), but I don't feel like waiting until mid-spring to take stock.
All caught up? Cool. Let's talk about the movies of 2019 that kicked serious booty. Because there really were a lot of them.
Those of you who remember how we did this last year may remember that the formula got tweaked a bit. In addition to listing films in order of release, rather than a ranking of preference, there will still be some bonus categories that. . .well, that only really exist as an excuse for me to talk about even more movies instead of having to leave a bunch of favorites off the list.
Speaking of.
This One is Cheating:
ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE
Anna and the Apocalypse is a zombie Christmas high school musical, which sounds like it's just asking for trouble - but every one of those disparate pieces works. The songs are catchy and the characters arch enough to be immediately recognizable but also humanized enough to make them memorable. The film deliberately skewers two of the primary zombie "fantasies" that have grown out of the genre (the base-building "prepper" and the blood-thirsty nomadic "survivor") for the toxic power fantasies that they are, and plays just enough for keeps that the dramatic beats land as hard as the plentiful laughs. Technically released on the festival circuit a couple years ago and in the UK last year, it only became available stateside this year.
Otherwise, it might very well be higher on the list, proper.
Hidden Gem:
THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING
A lot of people bemoan the fact that genre cinema - and by extension, the screen-eating blockbuster market that all too often crowds out smaller films - is currently dominated by adaptations, universes, "legacy" franchises that studios refuse to lay to rest, and other brands of recognizable "intellectual property" rather than more original fare, which is what they'd supposedly go and see if they could. These people are full of crap, and the reason I know this is because NONE OF THEM WENT TO SEE THIS SUPER CHARMING MOVIE.
From Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), this modern-day "kids on an adventure" fantasy does for movieslike The Goonies or The Neverending Story what his debut film did for E.T. or Gremlins, in emulating the feel of those '80s genre classics while also feeling modern and vital. When schoolboy Alex pulls Excalibur - yes, the Excalibur - from the stone in a construction site in suburban England, he gets swept up in a quest to save the world from the wicked Morganna Le Fay. It's the kind of film they literally don't make any more, a quality King Arthur yarn that's also an original story, suitable for children, but also with valuable and topical themes that they can grow with.
It also has Patrick Stewart as one of the actors playing Merlin, and as good as he is, he's not even the best of the pair.
See It to Believe It:
THE WANDERING EARTH
A new category appears! This is where I tell you about movies that are awesome, in the original sense of the word, and they don't get much moreso than The Wandering Earth. There are "high concept" sci-fi movies, then there are movies where scientists have turned the planet Earth into a literal rocket ship, fly it (again, the entire planet) through space, and fight Jupiter - again, the planet - with giant lasers.
Literally not making a word of that up.
The Wandering Earth, a mega-blockbuster in its native China, is like if someone saw the run of sci-fi disaster movies in the late '90s/early '00s (like Twister, Independence Day, Titanic, Deep Impact, Armageddon, 2012, etc.) and decided to "hold my beer" the lot of them. There's big family drama and big sacrifice and big acts of heroic teamwork and big sequences of very big stuff causing even bigger destruction as a huge ensemble cast works to keep humanity alive. It's big, hold, original sci-fi spectacle filmmaking and incredibly silly to boot, but it works. And. . . you just gotta see it to believe it.
Best Ass-Whoopings:
MASTER Z: THE IP MAN LEGACY
Another new category? You betcha - the 2010's were a banner year for action cinema around the world, so we're gonna start giving some credit where it's due.
If you're a fan of martial arts cinema and haven't been keeping up with the Ip Man series. . . you're probably dead, but on the off chance that it's just passed you by, Master Z is a spinoff from the third of Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip's action drama series about the legendary Wing Chun master. The Ip Man Legacy follows the antagonist/rival Wing Chun master of the third film, Cheung Tin-chi (Jin Zhang), as he looks to put martial arts behind him and provide for his son. However, in the grand tradition of kung fu movies where "A total badass who has kicked too many asses and must now hang up his ass-kicking shoes inexorably gets drawn back into the dangerous world of asses that need kicked and must. . . kick them"
If you're a fan of martial arts cinema and haven't been keeping up with the Ip Man series. . . you're probably dead, but on the off chance that it's just passed you by, Master Z is a spinoff from the third of Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip's action drama series about the legendary Wing Chun master. The Ip Man Legacy follows the antagonist/rival Wing Chun master of the third film, Cheung Tin-chi (Jin Zhang), as he looks to put martial arts behind him and provide for his son. However, in the grand tradition of kung fu movies where "A total badass who has kicked too many asses and must now hang up his ass-kicking shoes inexorably gets drawn back into the dangerous world of asses that need kicked and must. . . kick them"
. . . Look, it's 107 minutes of Yuen Woo-ping (fight director of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) directing people like Michelle Yeoh and Dave Bautista and Tony Jaa as they kick enough asses to fill a church. The final dust-up in particular is both an incredible physiocal showcase for Bautista in particular and one of the best fights of its kind in recent memory.
It's on Netflix now, and absolutely rules. Treat yourself.
Biggest Surprise:
THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE / TERMINATOR: DARK FATE
What, are you surprised that there are two entries here, and that one of them is a Netflix series, rather than a single movie? Well, I was pretty damn surprised that the cult oddity The Dark Crystal not only got a 37-years-later revival in the form of a 10-episode prequel, I was absolutely gobsmacked that The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance nailed the tightrope combination of "all or nothing" conviction and talent required to go Full Muppet, and furthermore that it was just an astounding example of quality fantasy storytelling. In a year of quality Peak TV, Age of Resistance was s delightful standout.
As for Terminator: Dark Fate, I heaped praise upon it in my review back in November, but in returning to the focus on Sarah Connor (with Linda Hamilton returning to the role she both defined and then redefined) as well as several dynamite newcomers while also stripping the narrative back down to a "protect the asset" sequence of escalating chases with clear stakes, Tim Miller (Deadpool) delivered easily the best film in the franchise since the second. And it doesn't get more shocking than that 2019 delivered a better Terminator movie than it did a Star Wars movie.
Biggest Disappointment:
I feel a bit bad including this here, because - as I stated in a previous post - I actually had a lot of fun with The Rise of Skywalker. The film is rushed, messy, and somewhat thematically confused, but there's a lot of quality drama and an overall thematic arc that I rather like, but the simple fact is that it's very much the weakest of the recent "Sequel Trilogy." Where both The Force Awakens and - to an even greater extent - The Last Jedi felt very sure of their aims, Rise bends over backwards trying to please as many people in its prospective audience as possible and ends up coming up at least a little bit short in most areas.
It's not bad, but it's a bit of a shame that the end* of the Skywalker saga ended up being an "also-ran of finales" to the movie where a talking raccoon travels through time with a magic space viking.
(*we know better, don't we?)
The 12 Honorable Mentions:
Booksmart, Crawl, Dolemite is My Name, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Hustlers, Shadow, The Lego Movie 2, Little Monsters, The Lighthouse, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Shazam, Toy Story 4.
I can't believe these are the movies that didn't make my list. 2019 was such an embarrassment of cinematic riches that, any other year, Booksmart would easily make my Top 10 for the strawberry sequence alone. I almost forgot about how great a sequel The Lego Movie 2 was in terms of deepening its themes and growing with its audience, and I was one of the folks that didn't sleep on it in theaters. Dolemite is My Name is a beautiful return to form by Eddie Murphy as indie blaxploitation icon Rude Ray Moore, alongside a murderer's row of brilliant supporting players including a barn-burner of a performance by Wesley Snipes. And Little Monsters is not only yet another zombie movie that's good enough to make you forget how sick you are of the genre, but it features Lupita N'yongo giving her third masterful performance of the year.
And the rest are absolutely top-drawer as well. Yes, even the new Godzilla. Fight me.
Runners-Up:
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT / A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Not only are both Blinded By the Light and A Beautiful Day int he Neighborhood top-notch filmmaking in their own right, they've got something in common. Two "based on a true story" period pieces indulging in magical realism where characters at major turning points in their lives work through deep-seated emotional issues with family members while titans of 20th century pop culture (Bruce Springsteen and Fred Rogers, respectively) act as either direct (in the case of the latter) or indirect (the former) sages to guide the protagonist through their journey?
Yeah, that's very much My Sh*t.
The Really Good Stuff:
US
How does Jordan Peele follow up Get Out, which was not only one of *the* films of 2017, but also one of the defining horror movies in a decade defined by fresh and exciting horror films?
Well, he went and made another genre-defining movie.
Us doesn't have the clockwork precision of the director's polished-to-a-mirror-sheen debut feature when it comes to swiss-watch screenwriting, but the parallels to class and race and the faces we present to the world vs. what we keep beneath the surface are as potent as ever. And not only does Lupita N'yongo deliver her other two best-of-the-year performances in this film, but her role drives home a specific point about conditional empathy in fiction, especially in horror, and the film is packed with unsettling imagery that stays with you long after the unforgettable final shot.
Somehow, the biggest film conglomerate on earth used the finale to the (more than slightly retrofitted) 11-year and a 20-plus film "Infinity Saga" to smuggle a 2-hour character piece into theaters disguised as a 3-hour sci-fi heist adventure, and it only worked because that final stretch genuinely does feature a superhero blowout for the ages that would work even if the 2 hours before hadn't been great.
Except they. . . were. Avengers: Endgame is mostly composed of a bunch of oddball characters talking about their feelings, is about melancholy and loss and failure, and yet somehow is still ludicrously entertaining in the moment as well as packing one of the biggest emotional haymakers in the genre. I definitely don't envy the next person who has to write or direct a film with the word "Avengers" in the title, because if 2012's teamup confidently launched the "shared universe" concept as a reality and not just a promise, 2019's four-quel sticks the landing of an insane juggling act with so much skill that it almost makes it look easy. As much as I enjoyed Shazam! and Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home, this was funnybook movie that stuck with me all year, and likely will for many more to come.
I'm not quite sure if I love it 3000, but it's at least the mid 600-900 range.
ONE CUT OF THE DEAD
Since its streaming-only release in September, one of my new favorite past-times has been to inflict this movie on unsuspecting people after telling them as little about it as possibly (while filming in a Very Spooky Location, and indie film crew making a low-budget zombie movie get beset by the actual walking dead) and watch it work its magic on them. The film is doing A Thing during its first act (shot entirely as one continuous shot) and then starts doing a Very Different Thing during its second two thirds, transforming into one of the most heartwarming movies of the year.
Yes, you read right. A heartwarming zombie movie.
Just watch it.
TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID
Like One Cut of the Dead, this is another film that had an earlier (and very limited) rollout in theaters before finally getting wide distribution on the streaming service Shudder (think "Netflix, but for just horror movies"), and the inclusion of these two as featured programming would be worth at least a month's subscription all on their own.
One of the reasons that horror has flourished this decade has been the explosion of fresh and diverse voices that cheaper filmmaking costs and more distribution options have allowed access to telling their stories in its sandbox. Issa Lopez's dark daydream following a group of orphaned kids on the run from brutal cartels and vengeful spirits shares the same sense of genuine magic among the all-to-real monsters that wear the faces of men that Guillermo del Toro used to such great effect in Pan's Labyrinth, but Lopez has a signature all her own as well as a gift for pulling astounding performances out of young actors.
Tigers Are Not Afraid is a film that will break your heart and then gently set you on the path you'll need to walk to mend it, and should be seen by as many people as possible.
PARASITE
If you've seen Parasite, you already know why it's on here. If not, then I'm not telling you a damn thing about Parasite, because you should go see it knowing as little as possible.
. . . Ok, I'll give you this: it's a movie about a family of con artists scamming their way into the employ of a rich-but-kinda-dumb family in the posh part of town, and then things go a bit off the rails in a way that you might expect from Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer). But I ain't telling you any more than that.
Except that it's equal parts ludicrously tense and shockingly funny.
But that's it.
DOCTOR SLEEP
Now's a pretty good time to be a Stephen King fan, especially this year (yes, I know I'm among the outliers on It: Chapter 2, but I maintain that was a big ambitious swing that mostly connected), and nowhere is that more apparent than the fact that A) someone actually went filmed a sequel to The Shining, B) they did it by melding the famously divergent Stanley Kubrick take on King's material with King's own follow-up novel (with the author's blessing, no less), and C) not only is Doctor Sleep good, it's so great that it even elevates The Shininig.
Which was already, ya know, pretty great.
Mike Flanagan (Gerald's Game, Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House) digs into the anger and sadness at the heart of the tortured Torrences and pulls out a story of facing demons with the help of those who have been down the same road as us before or might follow after. Ewan McGregor and Rebecca Ferguson are reliably fantastic as adult Danny Torrence and the wicked Rose the Hat, respectively, but it's Kyleigh Curran's young "shiner" Abra who puts the perfect bow on this trip down Overlook Lane.
A lot of folks slept on this one in theaters, and in doing so, they missed out on arguably the best horror sequel ever made.
It's no secret that Rian Johnson has become one of my favorite film makers to emerge over the past couple decades, but Knives Out great even by the standards of the guy who made the best Star Wars film since 1980 and who pulled the last great performance outta Bruce Willis. This is a big old steak dinner of a movie - a perfectly-prepared feast of sumptuous performances, clockwork screenwriting, clever camera work, and compelling cat and mouse antics that leaves you licking your fingers when you're done to savor every last morsel. Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc is a sleuth for the ages, and everyone of the supporting cast - from Chris Evans charismatic rapscallion who you really want to turn it around to Christopher Plummer's deceased patriarch who still owns a lot of the film's real estate even though he's literally dead at the open of the film - is dynamite.
But it's Ana de Armas's resourceful heroine Marta who provides the secret ingredient that makes this film more than just a fun locked-room murder mystery, and while I'm keen to follow Daniel Craig through Blanc's further investigative adventures, it'll be hard for anyone else he meets to measure up to such a perfect Watson.
JOJO RABBIT
"You're not a Nazi, Jojo. You're a ten-year-old who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be part of a club."
If you want a one-sentence summation of the film's empathy-driven themes as well as its biting satirical tongue, there it is. Jojo Rabbit, from Kiwi wunderkind Taika "Thor: Ragnarok" Waititi, is about how Nazism is about dressing up the ugliness of prejudice in the childish trappings of ignorant fantasy, and that the only difference between a committed Nazi and a literal child is that a child has a better chance at recognizing and accepting the truth when it stands in front of them.
This film won't be for everyone - it's a sensitive subject as is, and while Waititi approaches his target from the Mel Brooks school of "mockery takes the power out of a scary thing" filmmaking (even down to playing a buffoonish-until-he's-suddenly-not imaginary friend version of Hitler), there are some tonal shifts between the almost Wes Anderson-esque whimsy goofiness of Jojo taking the wrong things way too seriously and the right things not seriously enough that will turn some people off. However, Waititi turns down the brightness considerably for an obscenely powerful third act, and leaves just enough hope that maybe the kids will be alright. If we let them.
THE IRISHMAN
Martin Scorsese took $140 million of Netflix's money and delivered a 3 1/2 hour decades-spanning gangster epic about. . . how devoting decades of your life to being a gangster will leave you a hollowed out shell, having to betray your friends, watching the friends you have left die, and making you a pariah to those you loved. It's a brilliant old artist directing a brilliant old artist playing a shadow of a person who reflects on his life with the desperation of the damned, sifting through the sands of the emptying hourglass to find something - anything - that could have made his bloody existence worthwhile.
It's Scorsese commenting on the myth of the noble and glamorous mafia, the genre of film that has celebrated it for nearly a century, and arguing that those who would give up their humanity to be important among monsters deserve to be pitied at best. If not forgotten.
The Irishman is a masterpiece.
But the next one is even better.
LITTLE WOMEN
Ok, yes, I "accidentally" did the thing - again - where I arranged this list in order of release date while also knowing that the most recent film on said list is also head-and-shoulders my favorite movie of the year.
I first met the March family when I was nine, going with my family to see the 1994 Gillian Armstrong film adaptation of Alcott's classic novel, and was shocked at how much I enjoyed a story that featured no dinosaurs or sword fights whatsoever. I don't know if Jo Marsh is the first person who ever made me want to write, but she's the first writer I ever rooted for, and after her astounding solo directing debut Lady Bird knocked me flat, I was ready for writer/director Greta Gerwig to deliver something special.
However, I wasn't prepared for her adaptation to completely re-contextualize the entire approach to this story and give it more emotional (in my opinion) than ever before. By taking a non-linear approach of moving between two timelines (one in which the titular characters are adolescents and another when they're young adults), Gerwig's Little Women takes a sprawling but matter-of-fact "following a family through the years" odyssey and morphs it into a rumination on dreams of youth, who we though we were going to be, and how we come to terms wither where we wound up as opposed to where we wanted to go. Where The Irishman uses these points in time as nails in a coffin, Little Women finds rhyming sequences across time to find as much comfort as possible the little victories that might otherwise get lose among life's big losses.
None of us become exactly who we thought we were going to be, but from its opening frame story to its final shot, this movie reaches into the attic of your past to reveal a face you'd thought you'd forgotten, and says that maybe this is the person you've been all along.
Ok, yes, I "accidentally" did the thing - again - where I arranged this list in order of release date while also knowing that the most recent film on said list is also head-and-shoulders my favorite movie of the year.
I first met the March family when I was nine, going with my family to see the 1994 Gillian Armstrong film adaptation of Alcott's classic novel, and was shocked at how much I enjoyed a story that featured no dinosaurs or sword fights whatsoever. I don't know if Jo Marsh is the first person who ever made me want to write, but she's the first writer I ever rooted for, and after her astounding solo directing debut Lady Bird knocked me flat, I was ready for writer/director Greta Gerwig to deliver something special.
However, I wasn't prepared for her adaptation to completely re-contextualize the entire approach to this story and give it more emotional (in my opinion) than ever before. By taking a non-linear approach of moving between two timelines (one in which the titular characters are adolescents and another when they're young adults), Gerwig's Little Women takes a sprawling but matter-of-fact "following a family through the years" odyssey and morphs it into a rumination on dreams of youth, who we though we were going to be, and how we come to terms wither where we wound up as opposed to where we wanted to go. Where The Irishman uses these points in time as nails in a coffin, Little Women finds rhyming sequences across time to find as much comfort as possible the little victories that might otherwise get lose among life's big losses.
None of us become exactly who we thought we were going to be, but from its opening frame story to its final shot, this movie reaches into the attic of your past to reveal a face you'd thought you'd forgotten, and says that maybe this is the person you've been all along.
Love the list. A lot of them I want to see but am pretty sure I won't ever see. Damn you, Netflix. Personally, you DID tell too much about Parasite. As little as you told. But that's okay. Good work as always.
ReplyDeleteSure, this is a good list. But really, you should see The Farewell.
ReplyDelete