Top 10 Movies of 2019

Willem Dafoe (left) and Robert Pattinson in "The Lighthouse"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

10) The Lighthouse - For his second directorial feature, director Robert Eggers brought us one of this year’s best get-inside-your-head-and-under-your-skin movies with his New England seaside tale that goes to deep levels of insanity.  The story follows two lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) who suffer a descent into madness as their isolation begins to take a toll on them.  With this movie being mainly Dafoe and Pattinson's, there are so many opportunities for them to create storms of fury when they’re together on screen, and they deliver that to tremendous effect.  To see their mentalities breaking down piece by piece as the movie goes on is disturbing to watch, and it’s also some of the most powerful acting of the year.  Other than the volcanic performances, Eggers’ film succeeds in taking a rather simple story about isolation and offers it new life with strong attention to details of the time period, terrific black-and-white cinematography that compliments the dread within the film, and an approach to the narrative that has you question everything that you see.  This is a viewing experience that’s not just frightening, but staggering.

From left: Jiang Yongbo, Aoi Mizuhara, Chen Han, Tzi Ma,
Awkwafina, Li Xiang, Lu Hong, and Diana Lin in "The Farewell"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

9) The Farewell - Writer-director Lulu Wang gave us a movie this year that had a universal story about the importance of family, which follows a young Chinese-American woman (Awkwafina) who travels with her family to China for a wedding that has been planned as an excuse to be with her grandmother, who the family is told is dying from lung cancer.  However, they plan to keep the grandmother unaware about her condition.  After Awkwafina’s breakout role in last year’s comedy “Crazy Rich Asians,” she shines in her role of a granddaughter who finds it difficult to keep the secret from her grandmother.  Along with Awkwafina, the cast who plays her family evokes a wonderful dynamic as they interact, and through their talks, the movie doesn’t just become about a family trying to keep things as normal as possible for their matriarch, but it also begins to focus on the family’s conflicting notions about what it means to grow up in China and America.  This is a movie to which everyone can relate, allowing us to see similarities between our family and the one on screen, and that’s what helps this movie hit so close to your heart.

Alfre Woodard in "Clemency"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

8) Clemency - Writer-director Chinonye Chukwu’s prison drama has a gut-punch of an opening, and from there, you know that this is going to be a movie with a lot of emotional intensity, and you would be correct.  The story follows a prison warden, Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard), who must reevaluate the nature of her work when an inmate, Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), faces a death sentence for a crime that he might not have committed.  Woodard provides a terrific performance as someone who becomes more and more conflicted with her profession, showing someone who’s not only under scrutiny from others, but from herself.  Meanwhile, Hodge couldn’t be more heartbreaking as a prisoner who goes back and forth between the optimism of being found innocent and the prospect of being sent to his death.  The story is timely without suffering from a lack of subtly, and also spends an equal amount of time with both Bernadine and Anthony as we see the situation at hand from two perspectives, one from both sides of the prison system, the warden and the inmate.  Waiting to see what will happen to Anthony is a harrowing experience, and you’ll have a knot in stomach that won’t come undone until the film ends.

Jack Reynor and Florence Pugh in "Midsommar"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

7) Midsommar - After writer-director Ari Aster made an unforgettable feature directorial debut in summer 2018 with “Hereditary,” he made a swift return this year with his second horror film, which follows American tourists who travel to Sweden and soon find themselves in the midst of a mysterious festival.  Aster focuses again on the concept of grief, but from a different angle that’s just as terrifying as what he gave us in “Hereditary,” and it’s anchored by a shattering performance from Florence Pugh, who makes us feel the grueling weight of the emotional and frightening events that surround her, as well as the intense level of unease and disconnection that she feels from everyone and everything.  Aster places us in a stressful environment as we try to figure where the events of the film are taking us, which you can try to do, but it won’t be easy.  After just two movies, Aster has proven himself to be a filmmaker of tremendous confidence, and between the film’s performances, story, images, and music, he’s someone who promises that you’ll feel overpowered by what he can bring to a movie.

Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson, and Adam Driver in
"Marriage Story"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

6) Marriage Story - Writer-director Noah Baumbach’s drama may be a movie about divorce, but it’s also about love, nonetheless.  In the film, he follows a wife and husband (Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) who are undoing a separation, which they must navigate while being on opposite sides of the country.  To watch the performances of Johansson and Driver is to witness two people portray characters who pretty much strip themselves to the bone when bringing to life a couple who must face the notion that they’re not right for each other, something that comes to a head in a devastating scene near the end where they expose their souls.  There’s an emotional rawness that hammers you throughout the movie, but the story never shies away from making you laugh from time to time, and that helps this movie feel so genuine because of how it’s able to evoke both the pain and humor that can be found in this type of scenario.  Given how Baumbach is writing from experience, you sense the strong connection that he has with his characters, and you’ll find yourself building a connection with them that’s just as strong.

From left: Kevin Garnett, Lakeith Stanfield, and Adam
Sandler in "Uncut Gems"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

5) Uncut Gems - Directors Josh and Benny Safdie have developed a reputation for throwing viewers into the underbelly of New York City, and they do it once again in their latest crime thriller, which takes us to NYC’s Diamond District and follows gambling addict and jewelry-store owner Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), as he tries to recoup an expensive gem so that he can pay his debts.  This movie has Sandler like you’ve never seen him before, taking on an intense dramatic portrayal that will forever change your views on him as an actor.  The Safdies make you feel the oppressive danger that Howard experiences as he traverses the unpleasant corners of the city and tries to shift the events of the movie in his favor, and the way in which the Safdies deliver these events with a fast-paced manner helps to increase the weight of the pressure that Howard is forced to carry.  The story has so many things that go wrong for Howard from scene to scene, and we’re left wondering how he will get out of the life-threatening problems in which he finds himself.  Between the intense performances, breathless direction, and electrifying story, “Uncut Gems” is a movie that will cut deep into nerves.

Jonathan Majors (left) and Jimmie Fails in
"The Last Black Man in San Francisco"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

4) The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Director Joe Talbot brought us one of the most beautiful films of the year, both narratively and visually, with his elegiac and poetic view of what home means to a person.  His movie tells the story of Jimmie Fails (Fails, playing himself in a semi-autobiographical role) as he returns to the titular city and finds out that his childhood home is now occupied by another family.  With the help of his playwright friend (Jonathan Majors), the two devise a plan to get the house back.  Fails provides a joyful and melancholic performance as someone who seems lost and forgotten in his own city, while Majors is endearing as Fails’ friend, providing work that leads up to an explosive and heartbreaking display of emotion in the film’s last half hour.  Talbot captures the city of San Francisco in such a way that makes us understand why Jimmie loves it so much, while also showing the changes that make him a stranger to the area.  This is a poignant examination of returning home and feeling as though it has abandoned you, and you’ll walk out of the movie with a newfound appreciation of where you grew up.

From left: Tim Roth, Kelvin Harrison Jr.,
and Naomi Watts in "Luce"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com 

3) Luce - If you’re looking for a movie where you won’t be able to tell, even at the end, which character has your allegiance, it’s director Julius Onah's drama-thriller, a movie that follows high-school student Luce (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), a star in both academics and athletics.  When his teacher (Octavia Spencer) makes a startling discovery in Luce's locker, his friends and family and will begin to question the person he is.  With scorching performances from Harrison, Spencer, Naomi Watts, and Tim Roth, the latter two of whom portray Luce's adoptive parents, we see a quartet of individuals whose lives spiral out of control upon the questioning of Luce.  Onah and J.C. Lee’s screenplay, which is based on the latter’s 2013 play, creates a scenario where we're not sure who to trust, whether it be any of the four main characters, or any of the supporting characters who populate Luce's life at school, and your trust shifts so many times to the point where you feel as if you're being drawn and quartered.  The movie gets more puzzling as the story goes on, but that's why it works so well, because once it's over, you're left with many questions because of how the actions of the characters are up for debate.  Trust me, this movie will have you talking.

Al Pacino (left) and Robert De Niro in "The Irishman"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

2) The Irishman - Just when you think that director Martin Scorsese couldn’t get any better, he goes ahead and delivers a sprawling crime epic that absorbs you in the true story of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a truck driver who becomes involved with the mob and soon begins working for union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).  Seeing the acting trio of De Niro, Pacino, and Joe Pesci, who portrays mobster Russell Bufalino, was a dynamite big-screen experience, and having these legends in a movie together made you wonder how the power of all three performances can be contained in one movie, but it was possible.  Running at three and a half hours, the length is justified because of the strength of the movie’s cast, technical proficiencies, and the journey through several decades that offers rich historical context and themes of loyalty and mortality.  This is a film that overwhelms you in the best possible way, and even more so in the final half hour, where the movie becomes more profound and moving than I anticipated.  You won’t leave the movie wanting for anything because Scorsese does everything to give you his all.

From left: Choi Woo-shik, Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin,
and Park So-dam in "Parasite"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com 

1) Parasite - Out of all of the great movies to come out this year, there wasn’t anything quite like director Bong Joon-ho’s dark-comedy thriller, which tells the story of a lower-class family in South Korea that slowly integrates into an upperclass household, with unforeseen results.  The cast members who portray the assimilating family have a perfect chemistry with each other, evoking strong ties that show how close-knit they are and making us worry about how they will get out of whatever trouble into which they find themselves.  As for the story, Bong and co-writer Han Jin-won craft a story that’s both enjoyable to watch and eye-opening in what it has to say about class structure.  With all of his filmmaking skill on display, Bong is able to have flawless transitions between different genres that help enhance this film’s intense unpredictability.  It’s not often that I watch a movie and am caught off-guard by everything that happens, but this movie pulls it off, and you’ll find yourself laughing and gasping in equal measure.  “Masterpiece” isn’t a word to be thrown around a lot, but this movie is that, and so much more.