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Happy January, movie lovers! It’s that time of year when we get to soak up the cheesiest comedies and the most ridiculous action movies while recovering from the last two months of heavy Award Season dramas. And what a wild Award Season it’s been! Though Award Season technically continues for another few weeks—until the Oscars on February 9th—the season is officially over for me. My last votes are in, and the Critics Choice winners have been announced—and now I’m finally able to sit down, catch my breath, and look back on the movies of 2019.
For much of the year, I’ll admit that I expected it to be yet another ho-hum year. The movies were okay but not great. The Award Season buzz seemed unimpressive. Studios made some surprising decisions, choosing not to screen noteworthy films for a whole lot of critics. There didn’t seem to be any standouts. But as the award screeners started showing up, I began to realize that this wasn’t because there weren’t any good movies to talk about; in my exhausted Award Season haze, it occurred to me that there were a whole lot of worthwhile films and performances in the mix. And when I finally sat down to enter my final votes for the Critics Choice Awards, it was hard. Sometimes, I’d look at a category and realize that five of the nominees truly deserved the award. And I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. Choosing my favorites has never been that hard. And as I look back on my favorite movies of the year, I realize that it’s really hard to pick and choose and put them in order. So, this year, I’m putting them in alphabetical order instead.
Kristin’s Top Movies of 2019:
1917
Most of us who watch a lot of movies have seen a lot of war movies. Some are good, some are not so good. But most of them are so similar that it’s sometimes hard to remember which is which. With 1917, though, Sam Mendes has done something different. This isn’t the same old war movie with the same old story, the same old setting, and the same old characters. It’s real. It’s dramatic. And it connects to audiences. And that makes it the best war movie I’ve seen in a very long time.
Bombshell
I find it interesting that Jay Roach’s exposé hasn’t garnered more attention than just a few half-hearted nominations. Maybe it’s because it involves Fox News—but, really, this film isn’t about Fox News as much as it’s about companies in general. More than that, though, I suspect that it’s been brushed aside because critics and award voters are still, in general, white males. Yeah, I can feel the eyes rolling as I write this. But if you haven’t experienced harassment at work…if you haven’t been treated like a stripper in front of your colleagues…if you haven’t been called The Girl in a huffy, irritated tone…if it hasn’t been suggested to you that the path to success is through short skirts…if you haven’t quietly endured years of discomfort and hostility, only to end up losing your job for being “difficult”…then this movie may seem silly. I watched this film with my husband, and while he saw it as a movie about something that happened once at Fox News, I cried for two hours afterward, realizing that this is the reality for so many of us—and that, unless we do something about it, it will be the reality for my daughter, too. So while I appreciated the artistry of several of this year’s movies, none of them punched me in the gut quite as hard as this one did.
Booksmart
While we’re on the topic of female-centric films, let’s talk about Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, Booksmart. It’s a film that I didn’t get a chance to see until the end of the year, when the award screeners started showing up. It’s one that I watched on one of those lazy nights when I needed something relatively short and light—and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it lived up to the hype. While it certainly has its wild comedic moments, it’s also a smart coming-of-age story for the other kids: the outsiders, the weirdos, the smart girls who didn’t get invited to the big parties. It’s funny, but it’s also surprisingly real and incredibly honest and heartfelt.
Ford v Ferrari
This is one of those movies that tends to get lost in the Award Season drama. It isn’t a heavy, serious drama. It takes the usual tension and drama, and it gets under the hood, makes a few adjustments, and makes everything faster and louder than the average Award Season movie. And maybe that’s why it gets overlooked: because it just isn’t serious enough. But, technically, it’s pretty remarkable. The performances are solid, and the story is interesting, too—especially for those of us who spent a lot of their childhood traveling to car shows and watching Sunday afternoon races.
Harriet
So maybe we’re seeing a bit of a theme here. In 2019, I was struck by a lot of female-led films that didn’t really resonate as much with my fellow award voters. Harriet is not a flawless film, but it also isn’t the same old biopic (and, believe me: I watch a lot of biopics during Award Season). This film is captivating, it’s emotional, and it’s inspiring—and it’s led by strong women, both in front of the camera and behind it.
Knives Out
Once again, we’ve run into a movie that may have run into Award Season roadblocks because, well, it was too much fun. Rian Johnson is a great storyteller and a talented filmmaker. He makes movies that are clever and funny and beautiful and just too much fun to watch. And that tends to freak award voters out a little bit. Because if it doesn’t involve war or sickness or global warming or Nazis or dying children, it can’t be a really good movie, can it? Well, yeah. It can. And this one is. But while award committees might not get it yet, the commercial and critical success of Knives Out means that Rian Johnson will be able to keep making movies like this one—and that’s a very good thing.
Marriage Story
Netflix came into Award Season this year with guns a-blazing. And while The Irishman was the buzziest of this year’s Netflix contenders, it wasn’t really the strongest. Though I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Noah Baumbach through the years, this one falls strongly into the love category. There weren’t many movies this year that took audiences through a rollercoaster of emotions quite like this one—which, admittedly, can make it exhausting to watch. It’s gritty and honest, and it just feels so authentic. That’s partially a credit to the remarkable cast, but it’s also just a striking drama.
Parasite
When it was announced that director Bong Joon Ho had tied for Best Director at the Critics Choice Awards, he was sitting back, enjoying his dinner, confident that he had no chance of winning. He was just happy to be invited. And I think most of us are just as shocked as he is that Parasite has gotten so much attention. But this Korean dramatic-comic-thriller is just such an intriguing film. It’s clever, it’s quirky, and it’s entirely unexpected.
The Two Popes
Another noteworthy film that ended up flying under the radar this year is Netflix’s The Two Popes. Maybe that’s because it just isn’t flashy enough. Or maybe it’s because it just seems a little too…churchy. It may be a chatty movie focused on a couple of church leaders, but it’s so much more than just a churchy drama. It’s well-written and well-acted. It’s surprisingly funny. And it sneaks right up on you with its story of two rivals—two men who disagree on virtually everything, in every way—who are able to talk to each other with respect. And that is truly refreshing.
Toy Story 4
I’ll admit it: I thought that Pixar had crossed the line when they announced that they were making another Toy Story movie. But then I saw Toy Story 4. Not only is it a chance to reunite with the beloved characters, but it also has a little bit of everything: action, comedy, Keanu Reeves as a Canadian stuntman, and drama that definitely lives up to Pixar’s typical level of thoughtfulness and sophistication. It may look like a movie about a bunch of toys on a road trip with a spork, but it’s so much more than that.
Wild Rose
It just wouldn’t be right to end this list without another strong, honest, female-led film—because women had some truly memorable moments over the last year. Wild Rose definitely isn’t an easy film, and newcomer Jessie Buckley’s character isn’t one that you’ll always love. But it’s a moving film about dreams and responsibilities—and the challenges of motherhood. And if you’re a country music fan, the music is pretty good, too.
And there you have it: my look at just some of my favorites from the last year. I have to tell you: this is a difficult piece to write—especially this year. I always feel that there’s a movie or a performance or something else that I’ve overlooked. I could talk about this stuff all day (seriously…you do not want to get me started). But what it comes down to is this: 2019 was a pretty good year for movies (especially toward the end). And I can’t wait to dive into 2020.
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