It's time once again for us to award the best movies of 2019 a place on our list. Since we're restricting the pool of nominees to movies we've watched and reviewed this year, we may have left a few of your favourites off the list.
But before we do, here are a few special mentions.
Some reboots do well. Others do okay. And others fail completely. Despite David Harbour doing his absolute best in the lead role, Hellboy is very much the latter. With a toxic mix of poor CGI and a badly written narrative filled with clunky exposition and missing entire scenes, Neil Marshall’s latest seems to have killed any chance for this franchise to make a permanent return to cinemas everywhere. A terrible, loud and gross adaptation, seemingly based on the most casual skim-read of the source material.
The fact that Gemini Man was filmed at an experimental 120 frames-per-second was supposed to be a huge draw. But the final product barely gets itself off the ground, all the more surprising since it features the talents of Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ang Lee. It’s a mystery, with a poorly written, poorly paced script and some lacklustre special effects that drag the whole affair down into mediocrity. Things were made even worse by the revelation that there were no cinemas in the United States capable of showing the film in 3D at 4K resolution at 120fps as intended by Lee, so only a tiny fraction of audiences ever got to see it as filmed. This technical showcase was flattened by its terrible story, sending HFR tech back to the toolbox, with renowned director James Cameron famously criticising it as being against his own personal filmmaking philosophy. A puzzling and tragic misfire, and not a great start for HFR.
And now onto our list.
For trading CGI spectacle for substance, and bringing intelligence and flair to science fiction.
Netflix didn’t come out well from this year’s Academy Awards, but they might just fare better in ours. I am Mother couples together a gripping and original narrative with masterful twists with hard-hitting performances from veteran actors and rising stars alike. Aside from offering cerebral, open-ended ethical conundrums that force its audience to think about what they’re watching, it’s also an expertly crafted thriller with a savage, slow-burning momentum. A powerful argument for substance over spectacle, and it’s a testament to the truly spectacular quality of some of the other films this year that it only manages to be our honourable mention.
For its phenomenal lead performances and great period drama production design.
Even if Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louise May Alcott’s famous novel had only brought a single accomplished performance to bear, it still would have been excellent. As it stands, it brings many. Its four leads all shine in their own ways, but Saoirse Ronan just about tops them all with a standout performance that lets all of the cast cohere around her. Gerwig also brings first-rate production design and cinematography to the fore, alongside a stirring soundtrack from the seasoned hand of Alexandre Desplat. A great period drama, beautifully done.
For bringing an epic ten year saga to a close in spectacular fashion.
Okay, so it doesn’t really end here and probably won’t until the end of time, but doesn’t Iron Man seem like a lifetime ago now? Over the past ten years, cinema has been dominated by Marvel’s tentpole films, and to cap the Infinity Saga off without dropping the ball would be just about all fans could ask for. It took a gargantuan effort. But thanks to the Russos, Marvel just about managed to pull it off, providing fans with an encore unlike any other, bringing the stories of beloved characters to a close with groundbreaking, emotionally powerful spectacle and setting the stage for a new, more unconventional Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For taking a fresh, original perspective on high school comedy and earning genuine laughs.
With Booksmart, we might just have a film that helps you see the funny side of high school. Its breathless, youthful energy, and its humour, heart and soul all come from a genuine honesty and earnestness that’s hard not to respect. With her director’s debut, Olivia Wilde displays a sharp wit, managing to find plenty of laughs without sacrificing taste, and balancing that with compelling true-to-life drama about the mistakes we all make when we’re young and don’t know any better. Its two leads Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein have wonderful chemistry and their trials and tribulations earn some real, genuine laughs. We’ve grown up, and with a film as clever and heartfelt as this, it’s evident that comedy has now caught up.
For proving the old ways still work.
Martin Scorsese got more attention this year for his comments about Marvel than he did about the film he made for Netflix; a shame because it really is a masterwork in the old-school art of filmmaking. Clocking in at over three hours, it takes some effort to get through, but trust us when we say it’s totally worth it. Scorsese’s direction is skilful, deft and understated and he brings the absolute best work of his cast, including the likes of Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci. All this is coupled with smooth, striking camera work that creates an almost-minimalist epic Mob tale. Where some films are fast and loud, The Irishman is patient and slow, drawing out its build-up to create a spectacular climax and finale. An elegant swansong, and one of the last of its kind.
For investing heart, soul and extraordinary production values into a fascinating real-life story.
If James Mangold had simply chosen to retell the story of the war between Ford and Ferrari in a straight-talking, simple biopic with no frills attached, he might still have made this list anyways. But he went further. Ford v Ferrari is a gripping tale about the high-energy conflict between creative visionaries and the business executives trying to slow them down, transformed by the mesmerising performances of Matt Damon and Christian Bale who lose themselves in their respective roles. That electric human drama is combined with incredibly visceral, high-octane car races with extraordinary clarity of detail and rich, warm sound design. Mangold taps into rich veins here to create a truly excellent film with million-mile-an-hour energy to spare.
For breaking new ground in a crowded genre, and for being powerful enough to disturb.
It’s not enough to be a superhero film these days. To really stand out, you need to be both clever and unconventional. With Joker, Todd Phillips does that and then some, with a film that feels too raw and true-to-life with a power to genuinely disconcert and discomfort. As the audience, we watch Joaquin Phoenix deliver a performance that finally unseats Heath Ledger’s previously definitive performance as the Clown Prince of Crime. Joker is a pressure cooker of a film, taking the character’s ambiguous multiple-choice origin to heart, warning us about the cycle of neglect and violence in modern-day society, and shaming us for looking the other way when faced with it. Phillips’ approach to cinematography is methodical and deliberate, incorporating tension and powerful imagery, while Hildur Guðnadóttir’s effortlessly foreboding, stress-inducing soundtrack turns things up to 11. There’s a little Joker in all of us, and bringing us to that realisation is a truly worthy achievement.
For being both entertaining and instructive, and breaking the one-inch subtitles barrier.
It’s no surprise that the wonderfully cerebral Parasite is at the top of our list this year. Its powerful allegory about societal truths and norms and its biting critiques of human behaviour are brought to life by characters who become multi-faceted human beings with both desires and flaws. The ensemble cast bring their A-game under the skilled direction of director Bong Joon-ho, who populates his film with striking imagery and clever positioning. It’s a wonderfully cerebral, mind-bending experience that blends genres together, flipping between humour, heartbreak and suspense without losing coherency, making us appreciate how meritocracy can be a long and treacherous ladder to climb. There are no heroes and villains, only people trying to climb the next rung in the hopes of a glimpse of sunshine in a sharp indictment of both materialism and capitalist culture. Parasite effortlessly crosses cultural lines and encourages us all to climb that one-inch barrier of subtitles, and for that reason, it's our official 2019 Movie of the Year.
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