Favourite movies of 2019
I started this blog a week(ish) ago with a list of my favourite games of 2019. The first couple of posts are likely to be reflective of 2019 - and the decade - so here’s the next instalment: my favourite movies of 2019.
As I’ve mentioned previously, it’s impossible to see everything. This year in particular, there were a couple of movies I would’ve loved to have seen before making this list. So please remember - this is both an incomplete sampling, and represents my opinion at a specific moment in time. Ask me again next week, and the list will likely have changed.
Check out the end of the article for the movies I was disappointed I didn’t get to see in 2019 and am looking forward to catching up on in 2020. In the meantime, let’s get on with it!
My top ten movies of the year
10. Aziz Ansari: Right Now
Can you put a comedy special on a “favourite… of the year” list? I have no idea, but I knew from the second I saw it that Ansari’s Right Now would end up on this list. It’s brutally honest, uncomfortably honest - for both Ansari and the audience. It reveals truths about him we won’t like, and he exposes truths about us (as both individuals and groups of people) that we won’t like.
Oh, and I should mention, it is also hilariously funny. It might be serious and self-reflexive at times, but it’s still a comedy special, and it delivers the laughs.
Also worth noting is Spike Jonze, whose direction of this special is gorgeous indeed. When is the last time you’ve paid attention to the “directed by” credit on one of these things? You will when you finish Right Now.
9. Captain Marvel
I’ve already caught quite a bit of flack from friends for rating this movie too highly, but in my opinion, Captain Marvel is the best single hero focused movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sure - some of that comes down to Brie Larson’s performance, which helps elevate the material. But it’s also a meaningful story told well - and the action spectacle climax that every Marvel movie has to end with is executed with perfect panache in this movie.
Seeing Captain Marvel once she unlocks her full powers is a delight, and so is this movie.
8. Avengers: Endgame
We’re not even halfway through this list, and we’re already at our second MCU movie. I don’t know what this says about the state of cinema, superhero saturation, or Disney’s ownership of all entertainment, but I’m sure it says… something about at least one of those things.
Look - this movie is a marvel (pardon the pun). Nothing about it should work. There’s way too many characters, and a bloated story that’s already stretched over three dozen movies.
But it does work. The Russo Brothers direct and deliver a movie of such scale and scope, the culmination of decades worth of Kevin Feige’s planning, that this could be a singular cinematic feat which may never be replicated.
7. Alita: Battle Angel
So… we’re in a little bit of a superhero/super-powered people rut in this part of the list, but stick me. We’re almost done - and Alita is worth mentioning at number 7, because it was awesomely entertaining.
The digital technology that melds Rosa Salazar’s performance with a CGI version of Alita’s cyborg character is stunning, and works so well. This movie is visually exhilarating, and worth seeing for the vistas and action set pieces alone.
I’m surprised it received mostly mediocre reviews - I loved every minute of it it.
6. The Wedding Guest
This movie really surprised me. It’s actually a very quiet film.… for much of it's run time. It almost hypnotically lulls you in through the sheer pedestrian nature of what’s occurring on screen - until the suspense builds and builds and builds, and the quiet is ultimately shattered by quick and effective flashes of violence.
The success and impact of this movie rests almost entirely on it’s lead performances, which are outstanding. Dev Patel’s understated performance, balanced perfectly by Radhika Apte (who just manages to outshine him), is fantastic. Their chemistry is electric, and does wonders for the film.
The Wedding Guest gets off to a slow start, but not a boring one. Once its plot machinations snap into place, the movie does not let up.
5. Ready or Not
We seem to be in a little of a period of “kill the rich” movies - and boy is this a good one.
Samara Weaving plays protagonist Grace, who is marrying into an old money family with some rather peculiar and specific traditions. Her performance is spell-binding, as we get to watch her react in ever more desperate ways to the escalating insanity unfolding around her.
A large part of the fun of this movie - beyond the murder and gory mayhem - is the satisfaction of seeing that with or without our protagonist, old rich folk are more than capable of destroying themselves.
At one point, Grace almost literally gets to stand back and watch. As she does so and laughs, it’s hard not to join her. She’s earned it.
4. Furie
This Vietnamese action thriller was one of my favourite surprises this year - and as far as I know, it’s still on Netflix, so do yourself a favour and enjoy it too!
As far as this archetype of movie goes, the setup is pretty straightforward: Veronica Ngo delivers an ass-kicking performance as an ex-gangster turned mother who has to put her violent skills back to use when her daughter is kidnapped.
The stakes feel grounded and real, the action sequences are brutal and kinetic, and the whole movie moves at a satisfying pace.
Furie makes a perfect companion piece to the next movie on my list, which is…
3. John Wick 3: Parabellum
What more can be said of a franchise that delivered a near-perfect first entry, followed it up with a perfect sequel, and has now given us the best movie yet in the franchise?
You might not be able to tell, so let me be clear: John Wick 3 is fucking awesome. It’s the kind of movie I’ve re-watched five times at home after seeing it at the cinemas.
It’s also the kind of movie that makes you wonder: is Keanu Reeves actually super human? Somehow this franchise tops itself again, delivering even more innovative ways for Wick to kill bad folk. The direction and stunt coordination continue to be flawless, allowing us to follow the action in all it’s glory.
The movie is worth seeing for the action alone, but franchise newcomer Halle Berry is a scene stealer and a very welcome cherry on top.
2. Parasite
While Ready or Not delivered a rather satisfying heaping of “kill the rich” action, Parasite is a movie that’s thematically adjacent, but also something wholly different.
Class struggle and social differences are front and centre in this South Korean thriller - and a real thriller it is.
This is a movie with a dozen anxiety-inducing twists, none of which you will see coming, yet they all feel completely earned. It is an incredibly well-constructed movie that gives us characters to root for, while not having a real villain beyond society itself. The performances are stunning across the board, and the way characters play off each other is a joy to watch.
There is a real thrill to this movie when you start to figure out which direction the central plot is starting to take. This movie will leave you gasping for breath - often from anxiety, often from a new realisation, but just as often from laughing too hard. The tonal shifts in Parasite are massive, but they work perfectly.
1. Knives Out
And that leaves us with my number 1 favourite movie of 2019, which is director Rian Johnson’s beyond excellent Knives Out!
Johnson’s love for the whodunnit detective genre is clear from the outset, as he constructs a wonderful mystery filled with an absolutely delicious cast of characters - this movie features a star-studded ensemble, and they all deliver. None more so than Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas, who deliver the two central performances as the respective “Sherlock” and unwitting/unwilling “Watson”.
Knives Out is a very clever spin on the Agatha Cristie style whodunnit because it actually answers that question rather quickly - as it turns out, we’re actually watching a whydunnit, and that story is expertly crafted and immensely satisfying.
This movie is already destined to become a classic. It’s near infinitely rewatchable, and a true example of a master filmmaker operating at peak performance.
For all these reasons - and many more that would be too long to list - Knives Out is my favourite movie of 2019.
The purpose, or criteria, for honourable mentions can differ quite widely. So I thought I’d be helpful to at least try to define how I decided what to include on the list that follows: these are not necessarily movies that would’ve made my top ten but missed out. Rather, they are movies that I valued or enjoyed for a particularly well-executed aspect, and would recommend viewing for that aspect alone, even if their overall appeal didn’t push them into top ten territory (for me).
Without further ado…
Honourable mentions
Ad Astra
Ad Astra has three awesome things going for it: gorgeous space visuals and action sequences (perhaps the best since 2013’s Gravity), a fantastically subdued central performance by Brad Pitt, and the posing of a terrifying existential question (what if humanity is truly alone in the universe?).
Unfortunately, while it’s thematic questions are grand, the way the movie answers them is often clunky and unsatisfying. The plot and writing are generally mediocre, and fail to support the level of ambition the movie was clearly shooting for.
Apollo 11 (2019)
If there is one movie from my honourable mentions list that you should watch, do yourself a favour and make it Apollo 11. This movie is an extraordinary achievement in documentary film-making. There are no talking heads, no interviews, no current day reenactments - just original footage from the year, restored to breathtaking clarity. I have no idea how they managed to find so much impressive footage that had never been seen publicly before, but this documentary puts one of humanity’s greatest achievements into spell-binding context.
Booksmart
The setup to Booksmart is this: two besties have refused to party through their high school years, choosing instead to focus solely on their academic achievement. With graduation upon them, they feel they’ve missed out and want to make up for it all in one debaucherous night. It’s a very funny movie, and you will be entertained, but it didn’t really stand out to me beyond that.
Gemini Man
It’s not a spoiler if it’s in the trailer for the movie so: Will Smith is the world’s best assassin, and he ends up having to fight a much younger clone - of himself. The plot is dumb, the character work is meh, but some of the action is cool, and from a technological standpoint, this movie is very impressive. It was shot in 4K at 120FPS (though it can’t actually be viewed anywhere in that format). The closest we can get at home is 4K at 60FPS, and compared to a normal film’s standard 24FPS frame rate, the movie achieves a fluid, hyper-realistic look that is particularly intense and electrifying during the action sequences.
Happy Death Day 2U
Happy Death Day 2U, much like Happy Death Day (the first movie), is so much better, and so much more entertaining, than it deserves to be. This should be a shlocky horror B-movie, and it is, but Jessica Roth’s central performance is so insanely fantastic that it elevates the franchise, including this second instalment, into far more entertaining territory than you would expect.
I Am Mother
In a future where humanity has gone extinct, a lone human girl is being raised and cared for by a robot. And that’s almost as much as I want to give away when it comes to this movie. It’s low-budget is obvious, and it isn’t a terribly showy movie, but it’s a surprising little sci-fi gem with a cool central story and great characters.
Rust Creek
I’m noticing a bit of a theme in my list, as well as honourable mentions, this year: a lot of the movies resonated with me because of the strength of their lead performances. That’s the case for Rust Creek as well, which Sawyer (played by Hermione Corfield) fighting for her life in the Kentucky wilderness under increasingly dire circumstances. A decidedly tense and entertaining low-budget affair.
I’m not a fan of “worst of the year” categories, as it places a rather objective sounding label on something that’s always going to be very subjective. That having been said, nobody I’ve talked to in the last two months will be surprised at what I consider to be the biggest cinematic letdown of 2019.
Biggest disappointment
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Wow. What a mess of a movie. It is hard to imagine a more disappointing conclusion to this new Star Wars saga. As someone who loved the bombastic (though familiar) take JJ brought to The Force Awakens, and the visionary imagination Rian brought to creating perhaps the most morally pure and thematically consistent Star Wars episode ever in The Last Jedi, I knew it was going to be a hard task for any director to finish this off satisfactorily.
That having been said, I never expected it to end in such a major disaster. The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t just squander the potential created by its prior two entries, but of the entire preceding franchise.
I have a lot more to say about this movie, but this post is already running long - I’ll save it for it’s own post, another time.
As always, there are movies I didn’t get to this year. Based on everything I’ve heard about 1917 in particular, it sure sounds like it could’ve made my top ten - but it wasn’t out in time for me to see it. I’m looking forward to catching up on all of the below, and more, as we ease into 2020.
Backlog for 2020
1917
The Aeronauts
Ash is Purest White
Ford v Ferrari
Jojo Rabbit
Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Image credit for cover image is Denise Jans on Unsplash, all movie posters and images are sourced from the relevant movie pages on The Movie Database (TMDb).
