I saw most films that were nominated for Best Picture at 2020 Oscars except Ford Vs Ferrari- which was nominated why?- and two of them are 2020 films for Australians- 1917 and Little Women. I actually cannot think of a film that was on a lot of people's best films of 2019 that I didn't see. There is much less from the US on my list than previous years so that made me happy.
A warning there is a number 16 which is tied as there are two 2019 films I couldn't not include but I think the fifteen films above them were better. So let's start...
16 (tied). The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The two great auteur films of 2020 in one hit partly because they both have two matching issues which I will get to.
Plot description for The Irishman first I guess even if I saw it second (it is the one I saw in Inverness). Ageing hitman, Frank Sheeran (Robert de Niro), recounts his time "painting houses" (aka killing lots of people) in the 1950s-70s. Sheeran in the initial flashback was a truck driver in Philadelphia when he is recruited by a crime family to help things fall off the back of his truck. Sheeran soon meets Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) who recruits him to help paint houses among other jobs. Through Bufalino, Sheeran meets head of the teamster's union, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) and the two become friends. Hoffa, after being arrested for jury tampering, fights to regain power in the union. Meanwhile the mob is losing patience with Hoffa and start to talk about how to get rid of him. Sheeran also is struggling at home with the one of his daughters (Anna Paquin) suspecting that her father might be involved in crime.
Now to Once upon a Time in Hollywood. In February 1969, a formerly successful TV actor, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is struggling to figure out what steps to take with his career- to stay in Hollywood where he is struggling to find parts or to go to Italy and make spaghetti westerns. As Dalton struggles with his fading career, every day he sees what young Hollywood success looks like in his neighbours Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zanierucha) especially embodied in Tate whose star is on the rise. Dalton's stunt double and also driver, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), is having his own struggles as he has been deemed difficult to work with and there are rumours he killed his wife. As Dalton and Booth drive through Hollywood, they often drive past young girls who are headed to the Spahn Ranch and the leader of the community at the Ranch, Charles Mason (Damon Herriman) has also once shown up at Tate and Polanski's house looking for the former occupants. Dalton and Booth ultimately head to Italy to make spaghetti westerns and they return in August 1969, in the days that historically (no comment on the film but in reality) led up to the murder of Tate and several of her friends by the Mason family.
Both of these films take a historical incident that true crime buffs are fascinated with- the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa and the Mason murders respectively- but in very different ways. The Irishman tries to be a fairly clean historical film albeit it one adapted from a book, I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, that has been questioned- that said whilst the truth of Hoffa's disappearance isn't known, it was likely a hit mob. Ultimately Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is not about the Mason murders they are the sideline of the story and ends (sorry spoilers- though it is obviously from early on that Tarantino might be headed that way) with some alternative history. Both of these films are exceptional well made as you would expect from both these masters of the cinematic arts. Both have actors delivering outstanding performances- Pesci and Pitt in particular, but de Niro, Pacino, and DiCaprio are also amazing. Are these the films I would watch by these directors given the choice though? They are not- would be all about Goodfellas or Inglourious Basterds given the choice. I needed to include them on the countdown as they are without question exceptional films and I did enjoy them (if I'm honest likely The Irishman more so) but they are hampered by the same two issues that stopped me enjoying them more, and no, one of them isn't the de-ageing tech in The Irishman. The least worrying of the two issues is the simple one and that is learn to edit, guys! Both of these films are very slow paced and that is fine, both are also over three hours long which would also be fine if it weren't for the combination with the pacing. Both films could have cut at least half an hour and not lost anything vital. Neither of these should be watched if you are tired as you might risk nodding off. The bigger issue that stopped these being higher up...let the women speak, guys! I was fascinated to see Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate as I thought it was great casting and in what scenes you did see her, she was great, but there wasn't anywhere near enough of her. I think Pussycat- bikini top clad teen who tempts Cliff Booth out to Spahn Ranch- almost has as many lines as Robbie does as Tate. There is a distinctly lack of women in OUATIH (acronym time) and considering it is a film that is based off the murder of a woman (albeit one that doesn't occur in the film), has a character who might be guilty of spousal murder, requires the depiction of a rapist (you cannot tell this story without featuring a version of Polanski), and features an actor who has been convicted of physical assault against a woman (Emile Hirsch who plays Jay Sebring, one of the other actual victims of the Mason murders) that might amplifies existing issues. The Irishman doesn't have the baggage that OUATIH has in this space but it has the same issue. The women barely speak and the film is deeply men heavy. In OUATIH, I think Robbie, Margaret Qualley who plays Pussycat, and Julia Butters who plays Dalton's young female co-star give great performances, and the same is true of Anna Paquin in The Irishman but there is enough of them by half.
So yes these are great films and I wish to could place them above 16th but I just can't.
15. Blinded by the Light
Now for another film based on a true story. In Luton in the late 1980s Thatcherite Britain, unemployment is rife and right wing racism is on the rise. Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra), the son of Pakistani immigrants, dreams of being a writer. He writes songs for his friend's band (which his friend deems as too depressing) but his father does not find this an appropriate ambition. When Javed transfers to a new school which is largely white, he develops a crush on a girl who is left wing activist (Nell Williams), is inspired by his English teacher (Hayley Attwell), and befriends the only other student of South Asian descent (Aaron Phagura). Roops, his new friend, tries to convince Javed that Bruce Springsteen's music will make sense of the world. Though initially resistant to this, Javed listens to the cassettes Roops lends him and finds Springsteen does speak to him. Javed uses Springsteen to help him work through the rampant racism around him, rejection of his writing by the school newspaper, his father losing his job, and his father's rejection of both his desire to be a writer and his love of Springsteen.
I love a good British feel-good movie and this is the highest quality version of that. I was in two minds when deciding to see this or not at the Sydney Film Festival last year as I'm not a huge Springsteen fan- don't dislike Springsteen, his music just isn't something I ever got into- and I was so happy to opted to see it. The use of Springsteen's music is great and the way that as the working class becomes much less white, his music which leans on working class experience could easily find a new audience deeply resonates and this is based on a true story so clearly it did. There is also a clear parallel to the modern day as the type of extreme right wing racism and the economic uncertainty that marked Thatcherite Britain is very much back but just in Britain but everywhere. It is a joyful film in these dark times- if you are finding 2020 tough, I strongly recommend locating this film and giving it a watch.
14. Kona fer í stríð (Woman at War)
First of two Scandinavian films (does Iceland count as Scandinavia? I'm not sure) making the countdown in 2019. Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttr) is a choir director. She objects to the building of an electricity plant never her town and in her spare time she goes into the countryside and destroys pylons to the plant. The police are increasing their efforts to identify who is the destroying the pylons and Halla is almost caught. She escapes with the assistance of a farmer and makes it back to town. When she returns home, she discovers that her application to adopt has been approved after many years and she will need to travel to the Ukraine to collect her adoptive daughter.
This film is the kind of slightly surrealist (there is a band that follows Halla around and a random Mexican tourist wondering around) fare that you get out Scandinavia when they aren't making crime dramas. That said, it is also very funny at times. Geirharðsdóttr gives an exceptional grounded and honest portrayal of Halla (and her twin sister) which centres the whole film. The film is simply a delight and I'd try watch the original before it gets an English language remake (which is happening with Jodie Foster in the lead role).
13. The Report
Based on real events, this film follows Daniel J Jones (Adam Driver) a senate staffer as, in 2009, he is assigned to lead a team that will look into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes in the mid 2000s. Locked in a windowless room with air gapped computers, as Jones and his team trawl through the data and gaps become clearer they start to see the repeated breaches of human rights by the US in the early/mid 2000s. In flashbacks, the direct aftermath of 9/11 is seen and the initial decisions to pursue a practice of interrogation of terrorist suspects that was at odds both of with previous US government policy and UN human rights legislation. Jones and his team find myriad cases of blatant torture including some that resulted in the death of suspects. As the team dwindles due to the horrifying nature of the work, Jones finalises and submits his report, nicknamed by some "the Torture Report", to the Senate Intelligence Committee. After it is submitted, the leadership of the CIA changes and Jones is told his report will never be published.
2019 was a great year for Adam Driver between this, The Dead don't Die (a super quirky Jim Jarmusch which didn't crack my top 16), Rise of Skywalker (which I was not a fan of at all but Driver was good in), and another film that is much higher up this countdown (you can probable guess what it is). As always he is great in this film and nimbly hold the audience's attention when he is the main person on screen for the bulk of the film. Annette Benning isn't on screen much but is also great as Senator Dianne Feinstein. The film is an important one as it shows that for all the downright atrocities that Bush administration committed (which were many and are at times described in excruciating detail in this film), the Obama administration is not without fault on this front as they did try to limit the release of this information.
12. The King
Inspired by Shakespeare's plays about Henry IV and Henry V (mainly the latter), the film follows the life of Henry V. Prince Hal (Timotheé Chalamet) has no interest in being king and is happy with a life of drinking and whoring and palling around with his drunken mate Falstaff (Joel Edgerton). His father therefore decides to leave the throne to Hal's younger brother Thomas. Despite his lack of interest in ruling, Hal continues to show himself a capable soldier and upstages his brother in battle. His brother trying to win glory is killed in battle and so the inheritance of the throne shifts back to Hal. On the death of his father, Hal becomes Henry V and his coronation is marked by an insulting gift from the Dauphin of France (Robert Pattinson) and a warning from his sister to trust no-one at court. The court openly distrust Henry V and to unify the country, he beheads to dissenting nobles and declares war on France. On arrival in France, they are constantly taunted by the Dauphin and nobles advise Henry V to turn back. Henry V refuses and on the advice of his old drinking buddy Falstaff, plans what becomes a definitive victory at the Battle of Agincourt and the French surrender. The terms of surrender include the marriage of Henry V to Catherine of Valois (Lily-Rose Depp) the daughter of the king. Catherine reveals to Henry that there must have been English involvement in plot that lead to his war with France and Henry uncovers the traitor and kills him.
That was the whole plot of the film as I assume that people know it either from history or from Shakespeare. The concept of Shakespeare without the Shakespearean verse is an interesting one and I know for some people it didn't sit well but I think if someone can watch this and it helps them delve deeper into the original texts, that is a great thing. Timotheé Chalamet is fast becoming to my countdown what Mark Ruffalo and Tilda Swinton were previously- he was in 2017 and 2018, and, spoiler, will be in 2020. He is amazing young actor and he perfectly cast as Hal/Henry, granted I said that about his role in Call me by your name and will be saying that about his role in the film in the 2020 countdown as well, maybe he is just perfect for all roles. Robert Pattinson has spent years ridding himself of the horrors of the Twilight series and with this and Tenet in 2020, he finally has in my opinion. I was surprised by the strength of his performance as the Dauphin. The cinematography especially the battle cinematography is exceptional. My single issue with the film, more of a petty gripe really, was the fact that they insisted in so much of it being in English- there is even a line about speaking English instead of French in the scene between the French king and Henry- despite the fact there are French actors in the film and both Chalamet and Depp speak it fluently.
This also is my Australian film for the countdown- well may you laugh but it is directed by David Michod who is Australian and written by Minhod and Joel Edgerton (also Australian) and is an Australian/American co-production.
11. Den skyldige (or The Guilty)
Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) is a police office in Copenhagen. After an incident on the job, he is assigned to desk duty on the emergency call line. A woman calls the line but acts not as if she is speaking to Holm but as if she is speaking to a child who is not on the phone call. Holm gets her to answer yes/no questions which indicate that she has been abducted and she mentions a white van. Holm starts trying to trace the call and find where the woman is, whilst also desperately trying to keep her on the line. He tries to get the closest station to send a patrol car out to her location but they refuse as he has no information except white van. He looks up the woman on the police database and finds her home number. On calling the number, a six year old girl answers saying that her separated parents argued in his baby brother's room and then her father forced her mother into his white van. Now absorbed by the case, Holm tries to get a colleague to go to the house and check on the situation.
Second Scandinavian film for my 2019 countdown and it may have knocked A Quiet Place out of contention as the most intense thriller of recent years. Except for a few scenes where Holm's colleague is seen and minor roles for others in the emergency call centre, it is all voice acting with only Cedergren on screen. You never see the woman on the phone or her daughter or husband. The director was inspired by the intensity that can be conveyed by a emergency centre call, and you really feel it. Despite the fact that the film is almost entirely just in the call centre, the tension never lets up. The performance by Cedergren and the voice acting by the rest of the cast keeps you hanging off every second of the film. The direction from Gustav Moller is outstanding particularly in light of the fact that this is his directorial debut. Not surprisingly, the English remake is currently being made as Hollywood cannot leave a good foreign language film to be that it seems.
10. Knives Out
On the day after his 85th birthday, mystery novelist Harlon Thromby (Christopher Plummer) is found dead and, though slitting your throat is an odd way to kill yourself, it is ruled by police to do a suicide. Despite the police ruling, someone pays private detective Beniot Blanc (Daniel Craig) to investigate the death. Blanc speaks to each of the family members who each recount the night of the birthday party from their own point of view, and each seems to be hiding something. Blanc discovers that Thromby's nurse, Marta (Ana de Armas), cannot lie without vomiting and recruits her to assist with his investigation. Certain that it is not murder the question becomes was it the philandering son-in-law (Don Johnson), the daughter who is being cheated on (Jamie Lee Curtis), the son who is about to be cut off (Michael Shannon), the daughter-in-law who is skimming money (Toni Collette), the narcissistic grandson (Chris Evans), or someone else?
Now I love a Rian Johnson film (as my continual defeating of Last Jedi might indicate), an old school locked room murder mystery, and most all of this cast in anything, so this film would have to have gone very wrong for me to not love it. Also I saw it for my birthday last year so I was in a mood to like it. That said, it still had to do much more to be a top 10 film. There is a quirk and a humour to the film that lifts it above the normal murder mystery, and even the quirkiest of quirks, the lying makes Marta vomit bit, somehow isn't too much. It is so smart right down to the tiniest of details such as how the party changes when each person recounts it. The actors will seem to be having the time of their lives making the film, even Daniel Craig and his slightly busted Southern accent. Also Chris Evans in a cable knit sweater...gosh it works...
9. Amazing Grace
More the story of the film itself, instead of a plot as this is a thing for having plot as it is live concert recording. In 1972, Aretha Franklin was filmed recording her live gospel album over two nights. Unfortunately after the filming, it was found that they couldn't synch the audio with the video properly, and so it put on a shelf somewhere and it was thought that it might never see the light of day. In the mid 2000s the footage was bought by a new producer and they worked to synch the audio and the video. Franklin sued a few times over attempts to release it but after her death, her family permitted the release of the film.
Basically you just need to sit back and dwell in the pure absolute talent of Aretha Franklin. I don't think I have every been bought to tears by music on its own in the past- musicals yes but not music on its own no- but this film got me especially Franklin's rendition of Amazing Grace. If you are religious, you will find deeper meaning in the songs as they are gospel songs but even if you aren't you can appreciate the sheer power of Franklin's voice which even, as you see on screen, Mick Jagger showed up to appreciate during this recording.
8. Sorry we missed you
Ricky and his family have lived pay check to pay check since the global financial crisis. Ricky's friend recommends that he buys into a franchise of delivery trucks so he convinces his wife, who is a home care nurse, to sell their family car so that he can buy in. Ricky finds the new job tough- to break even he has to take on a huge volume of deliveries and he is fined for late deliveries, unhappy customers, and on one occasion taking his daughter on deliveries with him. Ricky's wife, Abbie, now has to get to her patients by public transport which means on top of the difficulty of her job to begin with- low pay and often having to assist patients with things such as feeding themselves or use of the toilet- she now has to try and rush between patients despite the fact they are all profoundly lonely and want her to hang around longer. On top of this, Ricky and Abbie's teenage son is getting into trouble and skipping school and neither of them has space in their work schedules to properly deal with that.
This film is a TOUGH watch. It is a damning critique of the gig economy and the lack of support of the working poor. As Ken Loach does on occasion, he cast the film with non professional actors, but you wouldn't know. The performances, in particular Debbie Honeywell as Debbie, are exceptional. The film is set up to have a documentary feel and that works in diluting what could be a didactic message. It is brilliantly crafted but it will kick you in the guts and stay with you for quite a while afterwards.
7. Booksmart
Amy (Kaitlyn Denyer) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are best friends who have spent their teen years studying and doing extracurricular activities. Molly uses the fact that she got into Yale to hold something over her class mates only to find that despite their partying was, they all got into good colleges too. Molly therefore decides she and Amy wasted their high school years, and pushes Amy to join her in going to the party hosted by the most popular boy in their year, hinting that the girl Amy has a crush on is likely to be there. Having no idea where the party is, they ask the awkward rich boy who has a crush on Molly (Skyler Gisondo) where it is and he gives them an address. They get to the address to find it is only Jared, the boy who gave them the address, and his very high best friend, Gigi (Billie Lourd). Amy wants to go home but Molly convinces her to continue on the quest to find the party. Hijinks ensue as they continue from party to party and random car rides in between.
After the hard hitting number 8, have a sheer delight at number 7. This film is the coming of age teen comedy for teen girls that Hollywood has been calling out for after all the similar films for teen boys in late 90s/early 00s. It is flat out hilarious and doesn't shy away from tackling sex or drugs in a humourous way as teen boy films of the past have. The chemistry between Feldstein and Denyer sparkles and I look forward to seeing more from both of them in the future- did also love Feldstein in Ladybird and Denyer was exceptional in Unbelievable. This also one of the only teen films I've seen where one of the lead characters is queer and the actress playing the other is not a stick figure, and no fuss is made of either of these things, both are completely normal. The film is written by several women and directed by one (actress Olivia Wilde making her debut as director) so no surprise that it is such a great depiction of the awkwardness of teenage women. Also be prepared for some deeply hilarious screen stealing from Billie Lourd who if she keeps going as she has been, will be one of my favourite actors of her generation (much like her mother was of a past generation of actors).
6. Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (or Portrait of a Lady on Fire)
Some time in the 18th century, an artist, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), is commissioned to paint an engagement picture of a young noble woman. Marianne travels to a remote island in Brittany where she meets the mother of her subject (Valeria Golino) who explains that she hired Marianne because she admired the work of her father who was also a portrait artist. Marianne is told that woman she is painting does not want to be painted as she knows the painting is part of a betrothal and she does not wish to marry- several other painters have quit in the attempt to complete the portrait. Marianne told to pretend to be a companion for the young woman instead of an artist hired to paint her. Marianne meets Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) and the two bond as they take daily walks together under the guise of Marianne's job as her companion. Marianne completes the portrait but she doesn't want to show Heloïse as it would show the deception of her companionship. Héloïse sees portrait and dislikes it so Marianne destroys it. Héloïse volunteers pose for the portrait and the two women (and Héloïse's maid Sophie (Luàna Bajrami)) are left alone as Héloïse's mother goes to the mainland.
This is beautifully formed and wonderfully shot period piece. It looks amazing and when you consider the subject matter before Marianne and Héloïse fall in love is an outstanding achievement. The film is a testament to the banal minutia of day to day life for a woman in the 18th century, whilst also being a film about desire. The women in the film clearly have had their lives shaped by men despite the fact there are no men on screen- be it Marianne's father, Héloïse's father's impact on her mother, Héloïse's future fiancee, or the father of the child that Marianne and Héloïse help Sophie to abort. It is a film pretty much without men but at all times, you feel the impact of the patriarchy in silencing women and limiting their freedoms at that time. Aside from being an exceptional filmic achievement, it also has the great achievement of their pretty much only being women both in front of and behind the camera.
5. JoJo Rabbit
In the dying days of WWII, Johannes "Jojo" (Roman Griffith Davis) is a proud member of the Hilter youth. He is so passionate about the Nazi cause that he has created a version of Hitler as his imaginary friend (Taiki Waititi). After an incident at a youth camp, Jojo is injured and his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), demands that the local commander (Sam Rockwell) take Jojo on to do office work. Jojo spends his days putting up posters to promote the Nazi cause and every day he walks past the spot outside the town hall where traitors are hanged. One evening when his mother is late home, Jojo follows a noise and goes into the room of his deceased sister. Moving aside a section of the wall, he finds a secret cupboard and in the cupboard is Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), a Jewish girl in her late teens, hiding. Jojo threatens to report her but as Elsa points out that would lead to Rosie being executed as traitor which neither of them wants. Jojo decides to use Elsa to research her "Jew secrets" to help the Nazi cause and he begins to disobey his mother who he now sees as lacking patriotism.
I think there must be a thing with Taiki Waititi films inspiring a rewatch as much like Thor: Ragnarok I saw this three times at the cinema. The idea of the comedy about the Nazis seems like it could go profoundly wrong but somehow this film just works and also I cannot think how much Hitler would have hated being played by a Jewish man of colour. It is deeply hilarious at times and heart breaking at others (in the four times I've seen it (yes I watched it not at the cinema too), I cried every one of them). The adult performance are exceptional in particular Johansson (this is her greatest performance to date in my opinion despite the fact I'm not done with her on this countdown- no don't worry Endgame didn't make it and mainly because it killed her), with solid support from Rebel Wilson and Alfie Allen in minor roles. The film ultimately belongs to the two younger actors though as McKenzie brings a complexity to the role of Elsa that overcomes the fact the character could have just been just a tool for Jojo's growth/awakening, and Griffith Davis brings a beautiful naivety coupled with joy to the role of Jojo- also special mention to Archie Yates who is a delight as Jojo's friend Yorgi. This film won't be for everyone but I simply loved the tender heart that is some how at the centre of this satire.
3. (tied) Marriage Story and The Farewell
Charlie (Adam Driver) is a theatre director and his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johnsson) is an actor. As they start to experience marital difficulties whilst preparing for a play, they go to a counsellor who asks them to write down what they like about each other and when Nicole cannot read her list out, they stop counselling and Nicole accepts a role that will take her and the couple's son to Hollywood where her mother lives. Charlie meanwhile stays in New York for the play and the couple agree to an amicable separation with no lawyers. Despite agreeing to no lawyers, Nicole starts consulting with Nora (Laura Dern), a family law specialist, and telling her about how neglected she has felt in her marriage and her fear that Charlie may have cheated on her. Charlie visits Nicole in the hopes of reconciling after he has won the MacArthur grant only for her to serve him with divorce papers. The film then follows the couple's path towards divorce.
Everyone in this film is firing on all cylinders. Driver and Johansson who I'm always a fan of deliver greatly empathetic performances. Both Nicole and Charlie are characters that an audience could easily hate but somehow you don't and you flip from one side to the other as the two characters battle. Though not my favourite performance from either (which are Paterson and Jojo Rabbit respectively), both Driver and Johansson are on top form- I really didn't like Joker so part of me was hoping Driver would get the Oscar for this. The performances in support are also great in particular Laura Dern, Julie Hegarty who plays Nicole's mother, and Alan Alda who plays Charlie's lawyer. Noah Baumbach wrote the film in the aftermath of his own divorce and also whilst reflecting on his parents' divorce (previously the inspiration for his film The Squid and the Whale- a great film if you haven't seen it) The script is grounded in the reality of the emotion of people going through a divorce and it beautifully turns from heartbreaking to heartwarming as it goes on.
Onto The Farewell...
Billi (Awkwafina) is an struggling aspiring writer who has just heard that her latest application for funding has been unsuccessful. She then hears from her parents that her Nai Nai (grandmother) (Zhao Shu-Zhen) has been diagnosed with lung cancer and only has a few months to live. Billi is told that her grandmother does not know she is dying, she merely believes the tumour that was found is benign and that she has a cold. Billi told not to come to China with her parents as they believe she will not be able to lie to her grandmother. Billi refuses and travels with them. Billi's grandmother has been told that the family is gathering for the wedding of Billi's cousin to his Japanese fiancee which has been organised at great speed. Billi and her cousin (who was raised in Japan) are outsiders in the family gathering as their Mandarin is broken, and both seem to disagree with the family plan though Billi's cousin is too shy to speak up. Billi enjoying spending time with her grandmother with whom she has always been close and struggles to lie to her.
Supposedly this practice of hiding serious diagnoses so that the family not the individual bears the pain is common in China and it is an interesting concept to watch as an outsider from a culture where that would never occur. I'm definitely not sold on the idea but it is interesting to have to think about this from an outsider's perspective. The film is largely in Mandarin and it is intriguing for the film to be carried by a character who is defined as having broken Mandarin and it heighten the outsider perspective which I believe was the intension of the writer/director who is Asian American. Awkwafina was someone I had never heard of before her scene stealing supporting role in Crazy Rich Asians and she is exceptional here- I cannot wait to see her in more things in the future. Zhao Shu-Zhen is simply adorable as Nai Nai. The film is based on the personal experience of Lulu Wang who wrote and directed it, and the personal touch just enhances the delightful humanity at its core. This film was flat out robbed by the lack of Oscar noms as there should have been nominations for Awkwafina, Zhao Shu-Zhen, and for Lulu Wang's script.
2. If Beale Street Could Talk
Based on the novel by James Baldwin, the film follows the romance of Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James). Flipping backwards and forwards through their lives, it shows them growing up together and then falling in love and then to several tragic events in their adult years. I cannot recall the order of things as it is now close to two years since I saw it in January of 2019 so I don't want to guess at retelling it and get things out of the order they are in the film as that would be spoilers. That means as a plot, all you get is that it is love story between two young black people in 1960s/70s New York where blatant racial discrimination is very much a reality (not that it isn't nowadays- unfortunately).
Speaking of films that were robbed at the Oscars, this should have been nominated in most every category- in particular the lead acting ones, directing, editing, and best film- but it was only nominated for adapted screenplay, score, and supporting actress (winning the last of these). Much like Barry Jenkins' previous film, Moonlight, this film is stunning. Jenkins' direction and James Laxton's cinematography once again shine and this is a deeply beautiful film that shows cinema for the art form that it is. The 1960s and 1970s are evoked perfectly and you feel the reality of the era, you also deeply feel the pain of the black experience at that time. The performances from Layne and James as the young lovers are superb, as is Regina King who delivers the film's best performance as Tish's mother. It is just a straight up gorgeous piece of film making.
1. Gisaengchung (or Parasite)
The Kim family live in poverty packed into a basement apartment assembling pizza boxes for a living. The son of the family, Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-shik), meets with a friend of his who is a university student and his friend tells Ki-Woo to pretend to be a uni student and he recommend him to take over as the tutor for Da-hye Park, the daughter of the wealthy Park family. The Kim family then gradually recommend each other for roles in the Park household. First, Ki-Woo recommends his sister, Ki-Jung (Park So-dam), as an art therapist for the Park family's son claiming that she is someone he knows from University. Then Ki-Jung gets the chauffeur dismissed and recommends her father, Ki-taek (Song Kang-Ho), to replace him claiming that he is the former chauffeur of a friend of her family. Finally the Kims spur an allergic reaction in the Park's long term maid and the Kim mother, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), takes over based on a fake elite cleaning service her family sets up. Having now all gained a place in the Park household, the Kims finally start to have money coming in.
As I often say, I rarely agree with the Oscars and you just have to scroll up to see me complaining about them, but there was no other film that could have been a more worthy first foreign language film to take out Best Picture. I gave away on my post of over a year ago of the top films of 2010-2019 that this was my top film of 2019 and there are barely any people who disagree with me on this front- over a year after its release it still holds a 99% positive critic score on Rotten Tomatoes which is near unheard of. It is flat out phenomenal. As you know from previous countdowns, I'm a big fan of Boon Joon-ho's work- both Snowpiercer and Okja made my countdown on their release and The Host would have had I done one that year. Even taking that into account, Parasite is far and away his best film to date. Defying conventional genre definition, the combination of black comedy, thriller, and other genres when the mood strikes it make the film feel more real. The script is sharp and the performances in particular Song as Mr Kim are amazing. The top layer of this near perfection of film making is the film's scolding and timely critique of late stage capitalism and the wealth gap which supposedly is very marked in South Korea but also speaks to all wealthy nations. There is a reason this won all the awards and that despite being in a foreign language, it screened at a cinema near me for about a year (I think it had only just stopped screening when COVID closed Australian cinemas in March 2020). When it is funny, it is hilarious, when it is thrilling, it is intense, and always it is parable of the corruption of our modern times.
So a year too late there are my films of 2019.
As always I have some extras to recommend or not. I don't have an animated film of 2019 as the only one I recall seeing was Frozen 2 which I didn't love but I have two generally fun films, an Aussie film, and two docos to recommend before I get to my worst film of 2019.
First generally fun films. Both of these I debated including in the above (I even predicted in a post in April 2019 that one of them was definitely in) but they didn't fit and in all honesty they are more just films I enjoyed than films that actually were "best of the year" films. Surprisingly both are action films...
John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum
Vengeance for my puppy part 3! As a dog lover, I cannot love the motivation for these films more whilst also finding it a tad OTT. As this is the third film in a series, I won't spoil it beyond that for those who haven't seen parts 1 and 2. These are the best non comic based action films since The Matrix and it helps that they have the same star (plus costar in this one when Laurence Fishburne pops up). Between this and Always be my Maybe, 2019 was a great year for Keanu and any year that has two Keanu films makes me very happy. If you are yet to get on the John Wick train, you should before part 4 comes out.
Captain Marvel
I really wanted to get this into the main countdown but it didn't fit. The first Marvel film with a female lead (how has it taken this long?!?)! The 90s nostalgia! The revolutionary de-aging technology! The cast full of people I love- Samuel L Jackson, Annette Bening, Ben Mendolsohn, Clark Gregg, and Jude Law- plus one of the people who is sure to be a power player in the next decade of Hollywood- Brie Larson! Just brilliant and I cannot want for more Captain Marvel in phase 4.
Onto my Aussie film recommend of the year which isn't The King despite what I said above (again this was a film that was pushing at the edges of my top 16):
Slam
Trailer wasn't easy to find what with slam being a common title for things on YouTube but it is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CtA5g6QGgk
Slam shows the intersection between Islamophobia and misogyny as a young muslim woman who is a slam poet disappears. The film then follows the police officer on the case as she seeks to solve the case whilst also dealing with an abusive ex partner and the young woman's brother who is being targeted to by the press as speculation rises that she has gone overseas to train as terrorist. The film only got a very limited release but track it down if you can. It is griping and you cannot look away as it gets right to the heart of racism and sexism, and their impact on policing and the media in Australia.
Now for docos, there was one on my list above in Amazing Grace but for a more conventional doco, try these two:
One Child Nation
This film explores the one child policy in China and the continuing impacts of it despite the fact that it is no longer in place. From the abortionist who still takes pride in her "patriotic work", to the family in America who seeks to link children who were adopted out of China that era, to the film maker's own family (they kept her even though she was female), the film maker speaks to everyone in the chain and the whole story is made more personal by the fact that she and her husband (who was also born in China when one child was law) are expecting their first child during the filming process.
Fyre: the Greatest Party that Never Happened
I think everyone has seen this doco but the trailer is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ0KNVU2fV0 if you haven't.
One of two docos on the Fyre Festival in 2019 (this is Netflix version, the other one wasn't easily available in Australia). If you need a damning criticism of late stage capitalism (beyond Parasite that is), you only need two seconds of this doco. The whole fact of the Fyre Festival existing simply boggles the mind.
So there are all the 2019 films I recommend now onto my worst film of 2019...
As you might recall I watched a Michael Bay film in 2019 (I mentioned it in a previous post) and anything directed by Michael Bay normally would be straight to the bottom of my film list of that year. Shockingly, it wasn't the worst thing I saw in 2019. Also there was a DC film in 2019 but is was Shazam! which I enjoyed so again not the worst thing I saw in 2019. That said the worst film I saw in 2019 was a comic book film. It was....
Hellboy
I went into this in two minds. Unlike a lot of people I don't like the earlier Hellboy films- yes I saw both of them even after hating the first one, I actually slightly prefer it- but I love David Harbour in Stranger Things, Ian McShane in most everything he is in (I mean I just mentioned John Wick 3 which he is great in), and Daniel Dae Kim in Angel and Lost so was curious to see if the new cast made the idea of Hellboy more palatable. The concept isn't too ridiculous as I love a good comic book film but the tone of the early films was the main thing that didn't work. Who was I to know that this would make the earlier films look good? This film is a hot mess. The script is awful, the tone was more misaligned than the old Hellboy films, and the plot is a joke. I needed more ham from the performance if the plot was going to be this ridiculous and Harbour is the only one who gets close to it.
So that is it, my year too late count down of films for 2019... hopefully I will have the 2020 list for you in a much more timely version.
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