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What are your favorite movies of 2019 so far?
Since we're fast approaching the second half of the year, I think it's a good time to look back on the first half, to the movies that came out this year and to share our favorites. I'm giving my favorite 10 (though in no particular order) but if more or fewer stood out to you and you want to share all of them, feel free! Blockbusters, indies, comedies, dramas, whatever stands out to you from 2019 so far. Don't feel pressured to write anything but the title or a basic synopsis if you don't want to.
- Apollo 11: Okay, I know I said this list isn't in order, but this one is definitely #1. It's history in motion, and its images and editing will surely be seared into my mind as the way I think of the Apollo launch.
- An Elephant Sitting Still: Technically came out in 2018 in some regions, but has a 2019 release in my country, which is the order I'm organizing this list in. A beautiful and heartbreaking journey into universal pain and suffering and catharsis in the tiniest things. At nearly 4 hours and with an oppressively melancholy tone, I struggle to recommend it to everyone and anyone, but if the description interests you, definitely give it a look.
- The Farewell: Hilarious and sad, often in the same moment. My love of this may well have been colored by my experiences as an immigrant under very similar circumstances as its main character, but it's an interesting look at differing cultural philosophies of the worth of the individual on their own versus their relation to society.
- The Last Black Man in San Francisco: A layered critique of gentrification and the personal individual obsessions that keep us from truly seeing it and other issues in our world as they happen. It's filled to the brim with things to say, sometimes to a detriment, and some of the screentime spent just showing the sad beauty of San Francisco could've been used to further flesh out some of its ideas, but I still found it extremely compelling all the way through.
- John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum: I think the John Wick movies get a little more bloat on them every entry(much like their titles, actually), but the action only seems to get slicker. I still like the balance of the world, character work, and action in Chapter 2 the best, but while I think 3 drags itself down into its lore a bit too much, its setpieces are still top of the line. I find Keanu endlessly killing people left and right to be incredibly cathartic. Should probably talk to someone about that.
- Burial of Kojo: This doesn't say "Netflix original" on it, but it does seem to be distributed by them in all the countries I checked, so I don't know what's happening there. Regardless, there's a good chance you'll find this on Netflix in your country. I'm willing to admit this movie is heavily, deeply flawed. It overtelegraphs many of its plot points repeatedly, for one. But I also think it is filled with a gorgeous charm. It's light fantasy and grounded fairy tale feels half Tarsem and half Guillermo del Toro, and I was captivated from beginning to end.
- Booksmart: I find the new crop of female led high school movies (Booksmart, Edge of Seventeen, Eighth Grade) to be far more relatable and interesting than the dozens of high school movies of decades prior. It feels like the hands of the filmmakers is more on the pulse of the struggles of modern kids. Booksmart is very much a heightened comedy compared to the other examples I mentioned, but it is great at it. It's hilarious, even if there's one scene in particular that goes on forever. The comparisons to Superbad are mostly warranted, and I still lie awake at night, sad at the fact that I saw this opening night and the theater was mostly empty.
- Dear Ex: The Netflix revolution of every indie movie ending up on streaming services and leaving the theaters to the blockbusters isn't quite happening at the speed originally anticipated, but it definitely seems like more and more of my favorites of the year end up being a streaming original. Dear Ex is a Netflix film about different people grappling with the loss of one man, and it shows the power of the individual to connect the lives of the people they love, and of the many tools we employ to try to get over losses in our lives.
- High Flying Bird: Yet another Netflix movie. Steven Soderbergh is one of the people who can make a bearable heist movie in this day and age imo, and he lends that gift to this to make a movie where the heist isn't money or jewels, but the basic rights of human beings being trampled on by a system that creates middle men to suck up money, leaving the real workers with pennies. It's shot on an iPhone, and there are moments where that seems like a limitation, but honestly, a lot of it looks really impressive.
- Ash is Purest White: This is Jia Zhangke well within his comfort zone, looking at the strain put on human relationships by the passage of time and the everchanging effects of globalization and shifting national landscapes. The World(2004) (aka Shijie) is still my favorite of his, and it is definitely an idea he's explored before, but his ideas and commentary on it have never failed me to keep me enthralled all the same.
I have a list of all the 2019 movies I see that I consider "good" here (29 films at the time of writing this) if anyone wants to take a look at all of them.
Toy Story 4: Visually stunning sequel to a trilogy that didn't need a one. After 5 minutes, you're right back in their world and along for the ride. It was funny, heartfelt and beautiful to look at.
Totally agree! I was actually cautiously excited about it as soon as it was announced because I was a bit lukewarm on 3, I felt it wasn't the right ending for Woody, and I thought 4 rectified that in a really well done bittersweet way.
Favourite movie of the year is easily Parasite.
If you don't go in with too much info, it's delightfully hard to pin down. What genre is this? Where is the plot going? Oh it's doing that? Wait no, it's not!
It really nicely handles the issue of class and inequality, and it's funny throughout.
Had high-ish hopes for Rocketman and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood but didn't get too much out of them.
Parasite doesn't come out until October here, but it's my most anticipated movie of the year.
I was also a bit disappointed by Rocketman, though I did like it well enough. I thought the fantastical elements were well done, but at its core it was still a really generic biopic structure.
One Cut of the Dead made me love movies more than any other film this year. It's a masterpiece on how to make a movie that pays off every small thing that's set up early in the movie.
I wish I could say more, but it's best to go in not knowing anything about the movie.
It's technically from 2017, but it's finally getting an American release this year, so I'll count it.
I really liked The Professor and the Madman, on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. My girlfriend suggested we see it; I said yes, then I saw the reviews which left me feeling we were walking into something boring. Was not the case, we were both captivated and it's the most remarkable movie I've seen this year.
Endgame was also good :)
Easily The Farewell for the same reasons as you'd mentioned, followed closely by Midsommar on account it was just quite an intensely directed odyssey.
I've been so disappointed by everything else I'm catching up on in my queue that I'm coming up short trying to think of anything else that's swept me away quite as much as those two.
I absolutely adored The Art of Self Defense.
It's a bizarre combination of offbeat Napoleon Dynamite humor and the sinister undertones of Fight Club. So funny, yet so dark. Excellent cinematography too—the film has a very deft grasp of its own aesthetic, and executes it beautifully from start to finish. On the same level as Death of Stalin and Nice Guys, as modern comedies go.
I recommend avoiding trailers, but this short teaser does a great job of conveying the movie's style without spoiling the best gags or the story.
I'm going to comment here like I can see the future and just say that IT: Chapter 2 is/was my favorite. I haven't seen it, it's not out yet. But I know it'll be my favorite unless they really, really, really fuck it up.
All I've seen new is Yesterday, a fantasy about the music industry in the here and now. It was billed as a comedy and is more of a romcom, but it's well done and everything is casual and low key. There are some jokes, but they're usually subtle. There are also a couple of interesting surprises. After seeing a slew of epic, complex fast moving films last year, it was good to relax in the theater to something that didn't break my eardrums.