Best Movies of 2019
In many odd, wonderful, and surprising ways 2019 felt like a year when, beset with troubling times in real life, movies looked ahead (often by looking behind) and moved forward, taking us with them. Here's my favorite 20. - by Keith Simanton, Senior Film Editor
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- DirectorTodd PhillipsStarsJoaquin PhoenixRobert De NiroZazie BeetzDuring the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.#1 Jim Carrey, himself a comedian shouting up from the bottom of his own mental well, has cautioned over the years, "Beware the unloved." Joaquin Phoenix’s disturbing, mesmerizing, affecting performance as Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips’ dark, violent, excellent JOKER, is the realization of that warning. In the best performance of the year Phoenix shows us a man so lonely, so terrified of his own circumstance, he has no recourse but pitch-black, abhorrent, unreal worlds. Phillips has taken the revenge fantasies of TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY (released in ‘82, one year after this film is set) and molded them over the Joker's rictus smile. The film is gritty, gory, depressing, and absolutely not for children. Because it’s so grim and realistic the social commentary, from a Bernie Goetz-like crime to an uprising against the 1%, mixes unevenly with the Batman mythology (including the Waynes and Arkham Asylum) unlike Nolan’s broader commentary in the DARK KNIGHT series. But, later, and for all time Phoenix’s unsettling cackle reminds you that this Joker is an entirely different creature for an entirely different time.
- DirectorAnthony RussoJoe RussoStarsRobert Downey Jr.Chris EvansMark RuffaloAfter the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once more in order to reverse Thanos' actions and restore balance to the universe.#2 How is it possible that so many surprises awaited us in ENDGAME, most of all that half the population of the universe now owes its existence to a rat? The production achievement alone is worthy of praise; it's a titanic feat just for the mechanics. Plus, it's the most entertaining film of the year by yards. If the brilliant Martin Scorsese does indeed want to see movie theaters still exist 10, 20, 30 years from now, it will be because some 9-13 year-olds sat in this movie and felt the entire crowd cheer and gasp and cry and learned to share in the communion of movies.
- DirectorLulu WangStarsShuzhen ZhaoAwkwafinaX MayoA Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.#3 Cultures may change from country to country but family, it appears, does not. Writer/director Lulu Wang crafts one of the most original tales of the year taken from her own real-life experience when her Chinese grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and her family decided not to tell her, something not unheard of there. Worse, they bum-rush a wedding in China so the family has a reasonable excuse to assemble around her without raising suspicion. Awkwafina manages to make her role of a pampered, privileged slacker both pathetic and heroic. And it's very, very funny.
- DirectorJosh CooleyStarsTom HanksTim AllenAnnie PottsWhen a new toy called "Forky" joins Woody and the gang, a road trip alongside old and new friends reveals how big the world can be for a toy.#4 Boy was I mad at Pixar and Disney when they announced they were making TOY STORY 4. What a disgusting money-grab! Boy was I wrong. This film amazingly expands on the near-perfect third installment, deepening the meaning and broadening the established themes overall. This finale is much more for aging parents (the biggest villain in the piece is obsolescence) than their kids, though the 2nd screening I saw it with, packed with 4-6-year-olds, were rapt the entire time. It's also very funny and requires that you wear a shirt with a sleeve. PS: Stay for the entire after-credits until the Pixar logo reappears for one of the longest joke pay-offs in film.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsLeonardo DiCaprioBrad PittMargot RobbieA faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.#5 A raucous and extremely satisfying third act turns ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD from a nostalgia-hobbled tour of 1969, with the world's most enthusiastic docent, into a Tarantino film that ranks perhaps just below INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. Pitt & DiCaprio remind us what movie stars do and why they're movie stars.
- DirectorBong Joon HoStarsSong Kang-hoLee Sun-kyunCho Yeo-jeongGreed and class discrimination threaten the newly-formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.#6 Bong Joon-Ho's societal commentary, ostensibly the attraction here, makes me stifle a great, big, SNOWPIERCER yawn. But he is a consumate craftsman, creating rich, vibrant characters, and every aspect of his filmmaking, particularly the production design, are for all time.
- DirectorGreta GerwigStarsSaoirse RonanEmma WatsonFlorence PughJo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.#7 Greta Gerwig's adaptation of this well-known story is startling. In the first ten minutes most of the well-known, beloved plot points (the curler, her hair!) are dispensed with. Okay, Greta, what are you gonna do now? Wow, does she do it. Please keep directing films Ms. Gerwig. The world needs you.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsAugust DiehlValerie PachnerMaria SimonThe Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II.#8 There is, of course, the enduring legacy of the story of a solitary man who refused to take the oath to support Hitler as the heart of the plot. But Terrence Malick, in a return to form, exceeds at showing us the sacrifice that his protagonist, a poor farmer performs, surrendering a world that is our planet at its finest: happy children, a breathing, moving earth, the seasons, hard work, food, a warm and loving spouse. What he leaves behind pains us so much that, at one point, you think to yourself, “Just take the stupid oath.” And then you are hit with the point of this movie, a sharp as a needle that turns into a lance, into a spear.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsDean-Charles ChapmanGeorge MacKayDaniel MaysApril 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.#9 Like Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE Sam Mendes' beautiful, horrific film is episodic, as life is, culminating in one whole story that doesn't, no, can't make sense. George MacKay is officially the most overlooked actor this year.
- DirectorSergio PablosCarlos Martínez LópezStarsJason SchwartzmanJ.K. SimmonsRashida JonesA simple act of kindness always sparks another, even in a frozen, faraway place. When Smeerensburg's new postman, Jesper, befriends toymaker Klaus, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleigh full of holiday traditions.#10 I can’t tell (and don’t care) where traditional & computer-generated animation start & stop in KLAUS but I do know this, a new, gentle, rich, gorgeous Christmas treasure is among us, courtesy of director/co-writer Sergio Pablos. Utterly unexpected and one of the best of the year
- DirectorAlma Har'elStarsShia LaBeoufLucas HedgesNoah JupeA young actor's stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father and deal with his mental health.#11 HONEY BOY was the best thing I saw at Sundance in 2019 (I'd missed THE FAREWELL). Shia LaBeouff wrote the screenplay and plays a version of his own father, a nightmare stage parent and borderline psychotic. Lucas Hedges continues to grow as an actor playing the adult version of LaBeouf, in a film that digs its nails into old scars and still-suppurating mental wounds.
- DirectorMarielle HellerStarsMatthew RhysTom HanksChris CooperBased on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel.#12 Forget ENDGAME or THE IRISHMAN. The best communal, theatrical experience this was one-minute in Marielle Heller's thoughtful film which reminded us that real cruelty and real kindness can be only a moment away.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsGary OldmanAntonio BanderasAJ MeijerA widow investigates an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of Panama City law partners exploiting the world's financial system.#13 Soderbergh packs a TARP-loan worth of humor, information, human drama (murder! bigamy! corruption! infidelity!) into the very lean (90 minutes!) mirthful, patriotic, fair, deadly serious THE LAUNDROMAT, one of his best films in years. Vignettes from the “Panama Papers” unspool, each somehow connected to the seedy shell company, Mossack & Fonseca (Gary Oldman & Antonio Banderas, respectively, both droll, both perfect). Meryl Streep plays Ellen Martin, a widow who travels to one of the company’s off-shore tax shelters seeking justice. The film manages the near-impossible task of capturing our need and love of money and the eventual corruption that brings. THE LAUNDROMAT, with a wickedly clever script by Scott Burns (based on Jake Bernstein’s book “ Secrecy World”) keeps growing and growing as its scenes replay in my head. "Whaddya wanna do, go back to bananas??" is a personal quote I'll use for years.
- DirectorNisha GanatraStarsEmma ThompsonMindy KalingJohn LithgowA late night talk show host suspects that she may soon lose her long-running show.#14 The Best Comedy of the year showed up at Sundance and that never changed. Mindy Kaling’s screenplay and her comedic timing are impeccable & Thompson is superb.
- DirectorCraig BrewerStarsEddie MurphyKeegan-Michael KeyMike EppsEddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.#15 There is a moment early on in Craig Brewer's film where Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy, present for the first time in a long time) gets his song rejected by a local DJ (a Snoop-Dog cameo). The look of rejection, befuddlement, disdain and eventual determination to go on regardless that run over Murphy's face in a moment encapsulate the entirety of this ED WOOD-like tale, one of the best assembled casts of the year. Also contains one of the best scenes of the year, the lighting of the Dunbar Hotel.
- DirectorDavid MichôdStarsTom Glynn-CarneyGábor CzapTom FisherYoung Henry V encounters deceit, war and treachery after becoming King of England in the 15th century, in the aftermath of his brother's death.#16 David Michod’s reimagined Henry V sets aside the music of Shakespeare’s words but substitutes in a surprisingly fresh take on the ascendancy of the 15th century monarch. Here the historic personalities are both familiar (a la Welles's CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT) and new and the well-known events aren’t so well-known as we thought. Timothee Chalamet’s brooding Henry V, with an impossible boy-band mop of hair is more dreamboat Hamlet than diamond-in-the-rough Hal, and, at first, it’s like watching Keanu Reeves in DANGEROUS LIAISONS. But that just goes to show what a good haircut can do for a young man. Hal’s puking in his exile and dissipation, tutored by the bawdy Falstaff (Joel Edgerton, bearish and lovable) until Henry IV (Ben Mendelssohn, great even in a teeny part like this) croaks. To fit that crown on his head the bangs get lopped off and Hal is now Henry and Chalamet more than manages to make us believe he’s a new monarch, freighted with the weight of a kingdom. Almost immediately Henry’s goaded into a war with France by a particularly cheeky Duaphin (Robert Pattinson having loads of fun) and we’re off to Agincourt. In one of many departures Hal takes Falstaff along as an adviser though Falstaff himself doesn’t seem to have much to say. Michod makes it all so watchable and fresh that you don’t mind that the St. Crispin’s Day speech isn’t here. That’s because THE KING is a bit of a taste of the events, and the people, that would have inspired a guy like Shakespeare.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroAl PacinoJoe PesciAn illustration of Frank Sheeran's life, from W.W.II veteran to hit-man for the Bufalino crime family and his alleged assassination of his close friend Jimmy Hoffa.#17 The superb, mostly understated acting lights the path of Martin Scorsese's often-meandering, but never boring, tale. It’s a story of mob loyalty and betrayal, both of which are, on the surface, always professional but are fundamentally deeply personal. The de-aging may not age well but it survives current inspection.
- DirectorDexter FletcherStarsTaron EgertonJamie BellRichard MaddenA musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.#18 In any other year the Best Actor race would have had only four slots available after Taron Egerton’s performance in ROCKETMAN. Dexter Fletcher’s film had some of the same faults (some gummy drama) and soaring successes (inventive staging of beloved songs) as BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. My eyes welled up several times during this winning film.
- DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsAntonio BanderasAsier EtxeandiaLeonardo SbaragliaA film director reflects on the choices he's made in life as the past and present come crashing down around him.#19 Almodovar's ruminations on his youth, his creatively triumphant adulthood, and his waning years provide moments of truth splashed on the screen. Banderas has never seemed so vulnerable and so exotic, even while playing an artist withering in pain and regret.
- DirectorBenny SafdieJosh SafdieStarsAdam SandlerJulia FoxIdina MenzelWith his debts mounting and angry collectors closing in, a fast-talking New York City jeweler risks everything in hope of staying afloat and alive.#20 Me? I'm a GOOD TIME fan. But I'm also, first and foremost, a Safdie brothers fan. Keep it up guys. Can't wait to see what's next.