It’s 2020! Isn’t that a wild thought?
My 2019 was an interesting year. 12 months of various ups and a few downs, but overall not too bad of a year for myself personally. But, I’m not here to talk about 2019 as a year in my life. I’m here to talk about what ended up being my favorite movies of 2019!
Now, I haven’t seen EVERYTHING from 2019 that I wanted to see just yet. I’ve yet to see or just flat-out missed catching in theaters movies like READY OR NOT, JOHN WICK 3, HER SMELL, I LOST MY BODY, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO, PAIN & GLORY, and PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE. I do still intend to catch WEATHERING WITH YOU, 1917, & of course CATS (haha – never in a million years) in theaters, but they weren’t available for me to see in a theater in 2019 so they were not applicable to this list. Ah well.
Before I get to the List that all three of you reading this are here to skim – I like writing this so no worries all, lots of love – here’s my quick Honorable Mentions for a few things that never got a theatrical run that I adored!
Honorable Mention #1 – CHERNOBYL.
I’ll keep this one super brief. CHERNOBYL is the best thing HBO has ever made! Craig Mazin’s miniseries is equal parts terrifying, intelligent, entertaining, tragic and unforgettable. Not a second is wasted in this horrific true story about government incompetence and the dangers of politicians putting the need to save face above the safety of their citizens. I don’t miss the irony that as I wrote this the Republicans are doing everything they can to save their parties face during an Impeachment Trial and it really showcases that incompetence, cruelty & corruption does not belong to any one nation. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to revisit this series at any future point in my life because it just does not play around and the 5 episodes of this mini-series destroys you emotionally, but I recommend everyone should experience this show at least once.
Honorable Mention #2 – INVADER ZIM: ENTER THE FLORPUS.
The Nostalgia hit me strong in the Squeedilyspooch with this one. INVADER ZIM and its boxy eared, loudly screeched dialogue and random WTF humor is a quintessential staple of my childhood. I’ve loved this fucking green asshole, his useless garbage robot assistant and his obnoxious nemesis since I was introduced to them in high school. I have vivid memories of torrenting this weird Nickelodeon cartoon on a dial up modem in Germany and just thinking of those times bring me joy. So when Netflix randomly dropped this feature length sequel I literally dropped everything and watched it. Then I watched it again. And then I watched it a third time the following day. I loved being with these assholes again! Surprisingly, Jhonen Vasquez and his team didn’t just repeat themselves, but instead they kept the insane attitude of the show while also making the movie a little softer and more empathetic towards the characters with some actual moments of honest emotionality that really connect. I love Invader Zim, but I never once felt the show tug on my heartstrings and yet Vasquez discovers a sweet spot in the movie by making Zim and Dib mirrors of each other who both just want the love and approval of their fathers… or the Tallest in Zim’s case. ENTER THE FLORPUS is a charming case of artists returning to an old work and actually improving on it. Even if you’ve never watched the series INVADER ZIM I recommend you should give the movie a shot. It’s on Netflix right now and only runs a quick 70 minutes.
Honorable Mention #3 – WATCHMEN (2019)
I’ve grown tired of superhero stories. This sucks, of course, because superheroes ain’t going anywhere. Superheroes are going to continue to dominate the box office throughout the 2020s and superhero stories will continue to marginalize resources that could be spent on all other types of mass appeal narratives. Superhero movies will also continue to sell the lie that ultra-rich billionaires with Daddy issues are really good and moral saints who care about the average person. Now, I’m being hyperbolic here and of course not all superhero stories are the same just like not all superhero stories are ultra-conservative,(#NotAllSuperHeroMovies?) but wouldn’t it be nice if the genre just, like, you know, took a rest for a while. Maybe take a year or two off, huh?
Thankfully, now that we’re 500 years into the SuperHero Pop Culture Invasion we might start getting some challenging superhero narratives that genuinely confront the status quo they push once in a while. Truth be told, my interest wasn’t peaked when HBO & Damon Lindelof announced they were doing a sequel series to Alan Moore’s graphic novel. I liked the novel the one time I read it just fine and I thought Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation was pretty cool, but I never felt there was any significant story left to tell after the original narrative. Honestly, when the show was airing week to week I just avoided it and figured all the talk of it being “The Best Show Ever” was just the same empty hyperbole I’ve heard comic fans yell about every mediocre Marvel, X-Men and DC superhero product that’s been churned out for the past decade.
This time I was wonderfully wrong and the praise was absolutely earned. This time it wasn’t hyperbole. WATCHMEN (2019) is a superhero story that is actually first and foremost about something! Most superhero stories now sell themselves as being about smarter than they are and being about “Something” but it’s always more of a marketing gimmick and less of an actual component of the film itself. Kinda like how CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 says it’s a 1970s conspiracy thriller, but take out a few scenes and Robert Redford slumming it, the movie is really about how super-secret American covert operations spying on other nations are cool and all long as we remove the evil Super Nazis.
WATCHMEN (2019) though, is directly about something with no cowardice involved. The show is about the United States awful history of bigotry and government sanctioned white nationalism. The show fucking starts with the Tulsa Black Wall Street Massacre, a real-world hate crime so intentionally erased from US History textbooks that most people never even heard of it before the premier episode aired. Following that, the show goes on to deal with police brutality, white supremacists, slavery, corrupt US power structures, generational black trauma, the Trump Family history and its direct ties to the KKK and even confronts cultural appropriation and how it ties in with black and homosexual erasure. There’s no halfed-assing or mixed messages. This is a story ABOUT real world issue that uses the superhero genre as a vehicle! Even better, the show does all this while still allowing itself to be a fun cartoon that embraces outlandish ideas like alien squids, clones and giant blue dildos! If more superhero stories were this brave and intelligent then I’d be happy to get more of them!
Okay. That’s that. Now it’s time for…..
THE TOP 15 FILMS OF 2019!
15. THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. (Terry Gilliam.)
It’s delightful when an artist achieves a dream! That dream may have taken 30 years and sure, it might be a little messy, a bit disjointed and all over the map tonally, but a dream come true is still worth celebrating. Terry Gilliam achieved one such dream when he finally made THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE! Gilliam’s dream movie doesn’t come close to matching the masterpieces he made at his creative peak in the 80s or 90s and it does showcase some outdated thinking – Gilliam’s writing and treatment of female characters continues to be … very not good – but I still embrace the movie for all its flaws because it’s a pure – perhaps final – vision from a one of a kind filmmaker.
If he can make a movie he’s dreamed about for over 30 years finally happen I can certainly get a few projects I’ve been holding on to for just a handful of years made.
14. MARRIAGE STORY. (Noah Baumbach.)
I’ve never been in love.
Oh, I’ve FALLEN in love many times during my life. But, I’ve never been loved back in return. Sex and all that has been pretty easy to find and I’ve been very lucky in that regard. Love…. not so much. Always hopeful, but never fulfilled.
MARRIAGE STORY is a movie about what it means to have been in love, what it means to be needed by another person and how the ending of that union is life altering. Obviously taken directly from his own life and divorce, Noah Baumbach’s film is an affecting and uncomfortably real portrayal of a divorce viewed from the inside out. Nothing in this feels artificial. It’s a tightly constructed journey carried along by superb writing and excellent acting. Adam Driver is phenomenal as Baumbach’s obvious stand-in and Scarlett Johansson easily gives the best performance she’s done in years. The two have excellent chemistry together throughout the film that feels lived in and you accept that they were once in love and now can’t stand to be in the same room. But, despite how great those two are the real stars of the movie for me are Alan Alda, Laura Dern & Ray Liotta as the three divorce lawyers who each approach the process with different and often conflicting attitudes. There’s a scene where Dern and Liotta go head to head that is just THE BEST.
Some of the heavier moments didn’t connect with me – they felt a little too staged and actorly – but the construction of the film is just delightful. You never question what the characters are thinking or why they’re doing what they’re doing. Perhaps if I had found some kind of love in my life that I could lose this film would have hit me harder and would have ended up higher on the list. Alas, that’s not the case, but that does not take away the fact that Baumbach’s film is one of the best of the year.
13. KNIVES OUT. (Rian Johnson.)
Conservative. Liberal. Moderate. For the wealthy, political ideals are performance when it comes to the protection of wealth. KNIVES OUT is a wickedly fun, gorgeously filmed, beautifully edited and highly entertaining murder mystery, but remove the genre conventions and Rian Johnson’s movie is really about the artifice of the ultra-riches political stances. No one attains wealth by being an altruist. There is no billionaire on the planet who got there through a kind heart. Capitalism is a constant battle.
After the self-made patriarch of the Thrombey family (Christopher Plummer – delightful) is found dead, Rian Johnson pointedly spends much screen time during the inspector’s investigation setting up the political views of each of the Thrombey heirs. This odd collection of people cover the spectrum of political views from super-liberal woke influencers to an actual Nazi. And they all claim to be self-made. They’re all noxious caricatures, but every viewer can find at least one member of the Thrombey clan who their political views can kinda align with in some fashion. Some preach progressive ideals I can agree with while other viewers might find themselves siding with Don Johnson’s bigoted self-serving MAGA supporter. But, when their wealth and status are put in jeopardy at the halfway point of the film, regardless of how they sold themselves before, every member of the Thrombey clan reacts the same way. The facades are removed and they all lash out in anger. It’s the money that matters. If there’s a message to KNIVES OUT it’s one I fully agree with. Don’t. Trust. The Rich. It doesn’t hurt that the stellar cast are all doing excellent work! Daniel Craig is a king and Ana De Armas is the donut hole this donut of a movie needs to be complete!
12. ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. (Robert Rodriguez.)
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is my pure popcorn movie of 2019. I am well aware of the many flaws in the execution. Like, I know the movie wastes talented actors like Jennifer Connelly and Mahershala Ali in paper-thin secondary parts while at the same time casting a dull dude who feels like he stepped out of a tween Disney sitcom in the lead male role. I realize that instead of telling a complete story the movie awkwardly stops at an arbitrary point without any major resolutions and instead ends with a major tease for a sequel that is likely never going to happen based on the okay worldwide box office results. ALITA has a lot of flaws.
Can’t help it. I love this fucking silly movie. It looks great, it flows along at a quick pace and the action scenes are equal parts campy and thrilling. I mean this movie builds to a set piece where robot dudes try to kill the heroine while they’re all on ROLLERBLADES! It’s pure anime goofiness orchestrated on a huge live-action scale! One of the things I love about James Cameron’s work – yes, this film is directed by Robert Rodriguez, but he has been open with the fact he made this film using Cameron’s script and research materials and approached shooting with a “What Would Cameron do?” mindset – is his movies are 100% earnest and sincere. He embraces how outlandish the worlds of his movies are and doesn’t undercut them with one liners or side characters commenting on how weird things get. He just approaches the universe as a real place just like the characters would and that helps sell the reality of the world being presented. I love that earnestness and it carries through all aspects of the movie. This authenticity of presentation helps make the full CG main character of Alita (Rosa Salazar in an amazing performance) be a risk that pays off!
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is really great and I hope we’ll get a sequel one day. I have a feeling this is a movie that a lot of people skipped out on in theaters and could be “rediscovered” on home video and that there would be a larger audience for a Part II if it were ever made…. at least that’s what this nerd is telling himself.
Man, James Cameron’s AVATAR sequels can’t get here fast enough for me.
11. LITTLE WOMEN 2019. (Greta Gerwig.)
This was my first experience with Louisa May Alcott’s novel. Yeah, I know what the book was and all that, but I never read it nor seen any of the previous eight hundred adaptations so this was all new to me. I came to the film first and foremost as a Greta Gerwig fan. Gerwig is one of the most exciting new filmmakers of the last decade and she uses her sharp sense of storytelling to make the text thrilling. The movie looks great having been shot on 35mm, the cast is the absolute best – is Florence Pugh the actor of 2019? YES, the answer is YES – and the choice to crosscut between the childhood and adult narratives is a stroke of genius that helps make the whole thing move with a life all its own. The standouts in the cast are Saoirse Ronan, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern and especially Florence Pugh. I don’t have much to say except that LITTLE WOMEN 2019 is a film I adored and I am really looking forward to revisiting it in the near NEAR future.
10. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. (Marielle Heller.)
We all need love. We all need to be held. We all need help.
Marielle Heller is the MOST EXCITING new filmmaker on the scene today. I was worried going into this that Heller might have made her first misstep by signing on to direct a tired studio-sanctioned biopic about how much of a saint Fred Rogers was. I shouldn’t have fretted. Heller is too original of a voice to make a simple Mr. Rogers biopic. Instead, she and her team have gloriously made a movie NOT about Mr. Rogers, but about the affect of Mr. Rogers. Tom Hanks is superlative and projects his inherent goodness in every moment, but his Mr. Rogers is a supporting role. Heller’s film is actually about a normal man who meets Mr. Rogers and is forced to reflect on his own flawed humanity in comparison. Sure, a traditional biopic about Fred Rogers could work and I’m sure it would win all the Oscars, but I can’t see MYSELF relating to Mr. Rogers. This is a man who literally spent his life being a paragon example of human kindness. I can be INSPIRED by that goodness, but I can’t ASPIRE to be that. Mr. Rogers is a saint. Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys – great) isn’t a saint. Lloyd Vogel is a man in need of help. Vogel’s crisis is simply having to find it in himself to forgive someone from his past for having hurt him. Vogel has carried the pain of someone else’s indifference towards him his entire life and has allowed that to dictate how he expresses himself with others. I can relate to that! I understand feeling rejected, feeling hurt and I understand refusal to forgive those who have harmed me. Moving Mr. Rogers to the side of the narrative as an outside element whose inherent goodness forces Vogel to confront his inner demons makes the story a relatable one and boy, does it deliver.
By making Mr. Rogers a side character, Marielle Heller’s A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD isn’t a film about a saint, but is instead a film about healing. As someone familiar with loneliness that central theme of healing completely floored me and left me hopeful for a bright future.
09. THE LIGHTHOUSE. (Robert Eggers.)
HARK! Let ’em audiences experience this picture show thine ownselves fully! I befell in love with tis masterwork of seething, foul, be-tentacled, black and bright tale of Poseidon horrors from the deeps of the dark inky sea! I…. uh….
Yeah… I can’t write in this old timey talk. Basically, this is an incredible two man show where Robert Pattinson and ESPECIALLY Willem Dafoe give some of the greatest performances of all time playing drunken sailors who just want to eat, shit, drink, fart and cum to their manly hearts content. It’s gross and I loved it! A surreal, black & white moody tone poem about the horrors of isolation shouldn’t be so funny, but THE LIGHTHOUSE is the best comedy of 2019. Sure, you gotta be a real sicko to fully embrace the humor that comes with the dude from Twilight openly proclaiming he wants a goddamn steak so much that if he had one he’d fucking fuck it, but I am that kind of sicko.
Robert Eggers is a madman who twice now has made great films where everyone speaks in an antiquated dialect. Because of that very distinct choice, both of his theatrical films shouldn’t work for so many reasons, but through Eggers own determination and sharp control of character and emotional nuance he makes them come alive beautifully! I don’t know how Eggers does this – honestly, in both this and THE WITCH I only caught like 2/3rds of the dialogue and that somehow didn’t hamper my love of either film – and I will worship the cinematic ground this madman walks on to find out his trick! This movie is a delight and I can’t wait to see what Eggers does next….. oh my god… his next movie is The Northman: A Viking revenge saga set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century… inject this ‘ere fucker into me veins!
08. THE FAREWELL. (Lulu Wang.)
I spend Christmas with my parents at their house in South Carolina. Now, they aren’t from the area and I don’t know anyone who lives within a hundred of miles of them and I also have no real affinity for the area. Still, I had a wonderful time! It was delightful to be surrounded by people who loved me! We ate good food, drank delicious wine, had good conversations and just enjoyed being in each others company.
The power of storytelling is in making the unknown familiar. I’m a white dude from the United States who doesn’t speak a word of Mandarin – surprise – but because of Lulu Wang’s skills as an artist THE FAREWELL feels intensely familiar to me. The various relationships in the family are sharply presented as dynamic and real in all their weird idiosyncrasies as they would in an actual family. This family isn’t like mine … and yet it is. Their squabbles and relationship with food mimics my own family. The central relationship between Billi (Awkwafina – wonderful) and Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao – incredible) brought forth memories of my own grandmothers and made me long to experience that relationship again. It’s just beautiful how THE FAREWELL keeps finding new ways to showcase the weird magic of being with your family and how, if you’re lucky, it can bring you strength. Honestly, there’s a good chance this is going to become my go-to Thanksgiving movie. It’s wonderful and I hope to see much more from Lulu Wang in the near future!
07. A HIDDEN LIFE. (Terrence Malick.)
JOJO RABBIT upset me. The world is in chaos. Brazil elected a fascist President. China is committing genocide on the Uighurs and still holds Tibet captive. England is proceeding with Brexit and will burn the world economy. Everything currently happening in Russia. The United States has elected an incompetent bigot/rapist/sexist/liar/Russian Asset/etc to President who while claiming to be a “Builder” has only built US-funded Concentration Camps on the border and the governmental system is so broken he’s still in Office as a whole governmental party fights to prevent EVIDENCE from being included in a case of impeachment. And more. All across the globe, nations are having their norms upheaved because people are knowingly electing Authoritarian leaders into power. People are CHOOSING to give control of their countries over to insecure men who project strength by promising to hurt others. People are willing to look the other way because a Strong Man Leader might help them a wee little bit.
So no movie in 2019 pissed me off more than JOJO RABBIT, a fucking “anti-hate satire” that lacks any insightful commentary or actual satire and is too so glib and pandering to actually be effective at this time in history. It’s the movie equivalent of The New York Times in Summer 2016 saying “the Election is over and there’s a 99% chance Clinton will win“. JOJO is an empty two-hour movie about how “Fascism is silly and fascists are idiots” and “If people only talked to those they claim to hate they’ll learn the error of their ways“. Thing is, fascism isn’t silly and fascists aren’t goofy idiots. Fascism is terrifying and effective because it unites people through two of the strongest emotions; hatred and fear. Fascists are terrifying effective. As for people learning to love others if they just talked? Yeah, every person who voted Trump in 2016 personally KNOWS someone his Presidency has hurt or intends to hurt and they didn’t give a fuck about them when they cast that vote. Most people only care about an issue when it directly effects them. JOJO RABBIT disappointed me to no end. I’ve liked Taika Waiti’s previous work – even his way overrated Thor movie is pretty good- but his “everybody deep down is a good person” viewpoint doesn’t work when making a film about fascism. Fascism is not pop culture. Like GREEN BOOK did with racism last year, I won’t be surprised when/if JOJO RABBIT wins Best Picture at the Oscars as the “reach out to MAGA viewers to let them know they’re good people and we can move on together” outreach film of 2019.
Thankfully, Terrence Malick doesn’t feel that way about fascism and returned from the wilderness where he was making narrative-less two-hour montages (mind you, I loved the films he did after THE TREE OF LIFE a great deal and view them as an interesting experiment) to make a challenging work of art that is a direct challenge to the Hollywood Version of “give everyone a hug cause we’re all good people on the inside“. A HIDDEN LIFE is a heartbreaking spiritual essay on what it means to see your world turn to hate and the need to stick to your morals even though going with the crowd might be the safer choice. The film is a loose biopic of Franz Jäggerstätter (August Diehl – haunting and amazing), an Austrian conscientious objector during WWII who was accused of undermining military moral for not pledging allegiance to Hitler and who was ultimately executed for refusing to do so. In the film, Malick shows Franz’s perfect world of blue Himmel Der Bayern skies, green fields, and his once lovely neighbors become corrupted when his world quickly embraces fascism. Even his faith becomes diseased as the Church sides with Hitler. The remainder of the film closely follows Franz as he’s tortured in prison, sent to trial and eventually murdered. All his pain could end if he’d just sign a piece of paper and offer his allegiance to Hitler. He does not. He stays true to himself.
It’s a crushing tale and is even more powerful when directly connected to the world around us. A HIDDEN LIFE, like the world today, is a harrowing and political experience. But, like the world today, it also has brightness, warmth, good people and a hope for better times to come. I understand Malick isn’t for everyone, but even if he’s not for you, at the very least he treats the threat of hatred honestly and not as some glib cutesy joke.
06. UNCUT GEMS. (Josh & Benny Safdie.)
You ever found yourself intentionally repeating your mistakes again and again only THIS TIME YOU KNOW the outcome is gonna be different? Yeah, last time I took that risk and it royally fucked everything up majorly I didn’t get what I was after, but fuck it, you know, this time is gonna be different. I just know it. That’s human nature, right? That’s insanity, right?
That’s UNCUT GEMS!
For 135 minutes you are along for the ride as miserable son of a bitch Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler giving the best performance of his career!) who seemingly can’t do one thing right without fucking two other things up for him at the same time. Really, it’s insane how this movie flows and I love it! Howard is deep in debt owing some unsavory characters $100,000 and you’d think he’s done? He’s in the shit! Well, within five minutes Howard has pulled together $30,000 and you think “Great, this motherfucker has paid off a third of his loan“, but instead he immediately places it all down on a new bet and digs himself a brand new hole to dig himself out of. Howard does this to himself for the entire movie and it is the most thrilling and frustrating thing I’ve seen on screen all year. You get pulled into his insanity and literally spend the final third cheering as things fall into place for Howard’s newest bet and cringing whenever a new obstacle comes into play. The last act of this movie leaves you breathless! It’s wonderful.
UNCUT GEMS is all about being a gambling addict. Howard’s entire life has been brought down by his idiotic risks and in the end only he can be blamed for his troubles. Still, Howard can’t stop himself from making another dumb gamble because he’s always chasing after the high that comes when a risky bet pays off. I’ve never gambled in the traditional sense – don’t we all gamble every day in life, har har – but I have to imagine the experience is kind’ve like what watching this movie feels like…. maybe I should start?
Every movie likes to claim that it’s an “Experience“, but UNCUT GEMS is one of those rare cases where that’s actually true. I can’t explain it any better than that. I could sit here and break down the plot, tell you the actors are great, the music is phenomenal, that Darius Khondji’s cinematography is the best, etc and it still won’t approximate anything of what the film is like. I recommend you just see it…. who knows, you might be like Howard Ratner and find yourself saying “Holy shit. I’m gonna cum“!
05. MIDSOMMAR. (Ari Aster.)
I wasn’t crazy about Ari Aster’s first feature, HEREDITARY. It was a film I greatly admired and a true cinematic experience, but it never captured me in total for some reason. I can’t pinpoint why. One of those weird mysteries of cinema where something which should be right up your alley just doesn’t gel with you. Well, that wasn’t the case with MIDSOMMAR, a film that ferociously grabbed me by the neck in the first scene and refused to let go even after I left the theater. The lengthy pre-credits prologue is one of the bleakest sequences of the year that astutely summarizes a perfect broken relationship. Dani (Florence Pugh – phenomenal) is trying to keep her relationship with her boyfriend Chris (Jack Reynor – wonderfully awful) alive. Chris meanwhile, is the classic handsome asshole who having never been truly challenged has coasted through life and always been the object of someone’s affection even though he never intends to return it. He’s lucky in love and careless with it. He’s planning to break up with Dani so he “can crush some pussy“, but when Dani has a real traumatic experience that leaves her a crippled mess he can’t bring himself to leave her. Not because he cares for her necessarily, but more because he knows how it would look if he did leave her at THAT moment. 10 minutes in and you’ve broken and hooked into the story. And then that title credit hits.
The following 2+ hours take you on a completely different whirlwind of an adventure! It’s a “horror” film that takes place almost entirely in daylight with lush eye-popping colors. And it’s fucking funny! You wouldn’t think a movie about trauma, the end of relationships, xenophobia, cultural heritage and heads being bashed in with a fucking mallet would be so goddamn hilarious but it is! The older I get the more I think all truly great movies are secretly comedies. It’s easy to wallow the audience in self-despair or hit them over the head with self-importance, BUT to achieve that while still undercutting things with humor to alleviate tension and enrich the experience of watching a film is magical. Not being glib mind you, but actually finding authentic comedy in the experience of the moment. It’s something I need to remind myself to take to heart and incorporate more often into my own work.
04. PARASITE. (Bong Joon Ho.)
The smartest film of 2019.
Bong Joon Ho’s thriller could easily have been a story of evil rich assholes abusing poor kind-hearted people OR it could have just as easily been a story of evil poor assholes taking advantage of rich misguided fools. Instead his philosophical & cultural commentary is a little bit of both … and so much more! Bong has such a stellar grasp of storytelling and knows just how to manipulate and play with his audience that the viewer is literally caught off guard with the unexpected almost once every fifteen or so minutes during the film. Just when you think you have a grasp on where the thing is going it shifts naturally in tone and who the audience should find their allegiance with. These aren’t “M. Night Shyamalan TWISTS” mind you, but naturally occurring and beautifully orchestrated shifts in the direction of things. Every shift in the film is exactly where the story should go and while it’s the right choice every step of the way the viewer never anticipates it because we’ve so elegantly been led astray by fantastic writing, scene construction and a cast of masters at the top of their acting game! How Bong’s regular star, Kang-ho Song, isn’t a worldwide star is a forever mystery to me.
I don’t want to talk more about PARASITE because this is a film everyone should see cold and not be pre-spoiled on. It’s an absolute treasure and yet another confirmation that Bong Joon Ho is one of the greatest filmmakers alive! If he really wants to do an HBO Limited Series of this in English I say let the man do what he wants! Whatever lazy story conventions you expect Bong to fall into he’s already worked out a way to subvert them and still have it be narratively appropriate. Wonderful all around!
03. AD ASTRA. (James Gray.)
AD ASTRA destroyed me.
AD ASTRA destroyed me because the film understands what it means to feel deep in your heart that you are unneeded. Not unneeded professionally. I know with a certainty my job appreciates me for the dedicated work and long hours I put in and that my colleagues appreciate me for the workload I take off their shoulders. But, I am unneeded emotionally. I’m not needing by anyone after work hours. AD ASTRA understands what it means to know that if you weren’t in other people’s lives that they wouldn’t miss a thing. That if you disappeared or died, the minor inconvenience of having to replace you on the job would be the only burden. Otherwise you’re just a tool. A professional. You’re not a person deserving of attention unless it’s accreditation for your job. You’re not deserving of affection. Or of tenderness. Or love. You’re an actor in their live. Not real. Not needed.
AD ASTRA goes to space to show this. James Gray isn’t shy about his film being about isolation, but he spices it up for mainstream audiences by placing it in a genre tale complete with action set pieces, space pirates, explosions and top-quality world building. The sci-fi spice is nice, BUT none of that is what really matters. What matters is the protagonist traveling across our Solar System in search of acceptance only find rejection. To find that despite their desperate need to be loved that they are unwanted. Unneeded.
Roy McBride – Brad Pitt, incredible – is an amazing astronaut. One of the best. He’s reliable on the job and famously his pulse has never gone above 90, no matter the situation. Roy’s handsome, respected, well-off financially and seems to the ideal man. Roy is also alone, in pain and unable to express these feelings to others. He’s suffering from absolute loneliness internally and he’s unable to fix this fatal flaw that undermines his chance to find fulfillment. When the situation arises and Roy needs to head off to Neptune to find his long lost father – Tommy Lee Jones, haunting and cruel – he does so in hopes of finding an answer for his pain through his father.
He is not accepted. And it destroyed me.
I understand rejection. I haven’t had to travel across the Solar System, but it’s felt like I’ve travelled that same distance when I’ve opened up and reached across the room to another person. I have been broken time and time again by rejection and time and time again I’ve had to rebuild myself. It’s hard. You can only open up your heart and share your feelings with others only be turned away so many times before the foundation is destroyed.
At the end of AD ASTRA, Roy accepts his father won’t love him back and he has to turn to self-acceptance if he wants to survive. He needs to work on bettering himself and not hoping to find acceptance from others. Maybe that acceptance will come, but he needs to accept himself first. I relate to that. I haven’t found acceptance in another so I do work on my own self-acceptance. I wake up every day and put another step forward. I hire a life coach. I attempt to improve my diet. I meditate. And while I don’t need to find my way back to Earth like Roy does in the finale of AD ASTRA I still DO need to find my back to Earth. Will I ever find my two feet planted on firm ground and feel accepted in this world and not adrift in space?
Maybe one day.
Until then, I hate myself….. and I love myself.
02. ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD. (Quentin Tarantino.)
It’s important to be reminded that movies are fucking awesome.
Quentin Tarantino’s 9th film – his penultimate if he sticks to his plan of retiring after making 10 Movies – is a rare gift. Is it a nerdy and myopic picture that treats Los Angeles and moviemaking as the center of the world? Yeah, it is. But, just like his greatest masterpiece, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, this movie wonderfully argues that film is important and it can save the world. In BASTERDS this was achieved in the literal sense when cinema itself became the weapon that took down the Nazis & racists- who by the way are some of the most malicious and skilled at using media for their own gains whether it be D.W. Griffith (fuck him), Leni Riefenstahl (fuck her) or FoxNews (fuck them) – and cinema is the weapon that ends the War early in a drastically and cartoonishly enjoyable alternate version of history. In HOLLYWOOD, Tarantino course corrects history again this time by having a film professional, a Stuntman, step in and alter things on the night of August 9, 1969. And just like how the movies work, the Stuntman puts themself in danger and it’s the movie star who steps in to talk all the credit. But, that revisionist history is only a small part of what the movie is about. Mostly this is just the coolest hangout picture of 2019 and that’s a joy to behold!
I could go on and talk about why I love this film for ages, but ultimately it’s just fun. I don’t think there was a movie I smiled at more in 2019 than this. The cast are superlative – Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are at the top of their game – the movie looks great and is smoothly edited, the writing is on point and it just flows! It’s gonna be a real disappointment if Tarantino does retire after his next film, but if he does do just that, whenever I revisit or think about one of his movies my immediate thought will be –
01. THE IRISHMAN. (Martin Scorsese.)
“It’s what it is.”
There was never going to a world in which THE IRISHMAN didn’t end up being my top film of 2019.
No filmmaker has inspired me in life more than Martin Scorsese and no living filmmaker – besides Hayao Miyazaki – has delivered so many masterpieces again and again and again like he has. Now while Scorsese has a very diverse body of work – 25 feature films in an array of genres, over a dozen documentaries, two TV series pilots, a ton of shorts and much much more – he is most closely associated with his movies in the gangster genre. While the Mob has shown up in ancillary roles in several of his projects, in actuality his works that are Mafia specific are a select few – MEAN STREETS (1973), GOODFELLAS (1990) and CASINO (1995) – and while I personally argue THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013) was his actual final statement on crime – open criminality is now something to aspire towards and people admire that level of corruption and literally voted the Avatar of Crime to the President – it was exciting to know Scorsese was returning to the Mafia and the allure of crime and that he was doing so with his greatest leading man.
Except he didn’t. Frank Sheeran – Robert DeNiro, phenomenal in the best & richest understated performance of the year – isn’t drawn to the Mafia because he admires the Lifestyle. He’s no Henry Hill with a “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” mentality. When Sheeran is introduced to his first Mafia figure he’s already well into his 30s – DeNiro’s youngest scenes chronologically are a little glossy and one scene doesn’t work at all visually BUT the CG de-aging effects are an effective choice overall and really allow the film to accumulate more strongly in the second half because we the audience have spent the 209 minutes with DeNiro and didn’t spend time away from him watching a younger actor do a Robert DeNiro impersonation for half the movie – and is already set in his ways. Frank Sheeran is just like millions of other men of his time – the focus on maleness is vital for a film that is a sharp condemnation of this closed off, status focused, man first “The Greatest Generation” way of life – in that he works to support a family. But, like a lot of American men, he’s too closed off emotionally to really function with his family as a present Father so he instead lives for his job. He provides. He doesn’t nurture. One day, he starts stealing from said job to get a little extra money on the side and it’s through this very innocuous beginning that Frank is pulled into a whole new way of life that offers bigger rewards for less work. The Mafia isn’t an aspiration for Frank. It’s a JOB he just finds himself becoming a part of. He’s already familiar with killing having fought in World War II so shooting a guy in the face is really no different to him than having delivering a shipment of steaks to a butcher. A job’s a job. If the pay is good he’ll take it.
There’s very little allure to THE IRISHMAN. Frank Sheeran doesn’t buy the flashiest suits or most expensive toys when he gets into the Mob. He doesn’t even start treating his family that he “cares so much about” to fantastic vacations. In fact, aside from their usage as a status symbol Frank doesn’t seem to feel much for his family at all. In telling us his story Frank pays more attention to the style of chili dog he purchases than he does the moment he leaves his first wife for his second. He just passes through life not really caring about anything or giving much thought to his own actions and how they affect those around him. Frank is perfectly fine coasting through life killing whoever needs to be killed as long as he gets paid and can call himself a provider for his family that he doesn’t care much for. “Whatever happens, happens.”
Frank’s life eventually circles around two important figures. Philadelphia Mob Boss Russell Buffalino – Joe Pesci in a holy-shit-this-man-is-a-legend performance – and Union Leader Jimmy Hoffa – Al Pacino doing his best work in I don’t know how long. Both of these men ARE passionate in THEIR life pursuits; Buffalino has built a Mob Empire and Hoffa has “MY Union”. Frank finds himself becoming close confidants to both these titans of American business. With Russell, Frank has found a mentor and boss to respect. With Hoffa, he finds his best friend and a man whose aspirations he can truly admire. Both men really become the focus of Frank Sheeran’s life. That is until business gets in the way and forces beyond his control make a ruling on what needs to happen. Once the dice is set, Frank has to make a choice…. and Frank does what he’s always done. He places the job first. His job is his life.
For three glorious hours, Scorsese tells this enthralling story of crime, betrayal and business in his usual fashion. So it’s perfect is what I’m saying. It’s equal parts harrowing, entertaining, hilarious and horrifying. Eventually, Jimmy Hoffa is dead and Russell Buffalino and Frank Sheeran are sent to prison for other unassociated criminal activities. Movie’s over, right? Except it isn’t. Instead of wrapping up with the crooks in jail we watch Frank age even more and we see the unremarkable story that comes AFTER the legend ends. Frank ages into a withered old man, now divorced from his family due to his life of crime and is left alone in a retirement home waiting to die. Frank still shows no remorse for the people he’s killed – he regrets one phone call though – and Hoffa and Buffalino has faded away into history. The final coda to this film is chilling in its austere power. None of this “Empire” that mattered so much to these arrogant fucking assholes really mattered in the long run of history.
THE IRISHMAN is not a film about being in the Mob. THE IRISHMAN is a film about a life wasted. Frank Sheeran lived through amazing times alongside great historical figures and had a front row seat to a period when the world literally changed and he experienced none of it. He was there through these amazing times, but he didn’t embrace life. He didn’t spend time with his family. He just existed for himself. And at the end we see what awaits him. He’s sitting in a waiting room for the grave. When the film cuts to black at the very end we know Frank’s going to die soon. And it’s no great loss.
It’s a haunting thought and THE IRISHMAN is a powerful essay about morality and about the need to embrace life. It’s also a perfect final statement on the gangster genre by the very artists who have been the titans of the genre ever since Al Pacino first played the role of Michael Corleone almost 50 years in THE GODFATHER.
THE IRISHMAN is THE film of 2019.
And that’s 2019.
If you read this List I hope you it. This was a fun two days of writing and I hope it wasn’t too rambling or unfocused. I just kinda go with the flow and write whatever when I do one of these things.
I’m gonna turn 35 in the year 2020. It’s an odd thought. I don’t know if I’ve lived my life fully just yet. Though I can say with confidence my life has improved drastically as of late. Things have and are changing for the better. I feel a little more freedom lately. And I hope this freedom can allow me to live more. I want to embrace life more often from this point on. I’m feeling ready to try new things and make new films. I’m a catch and the world needs to know it. I want to accept love. Accept change. Accept the weird and embrace the unique. But, I just want to reiterate, no matter where my life goes from this point on there is one thing that no matter what happens will forever remain a constant in my life. What is that one constant, you ask? Well….
Movies, of course!
