Kevin Whyte's BEST OF 2019
2019 can be seen as another year of the same old, same old in terms of movies yet the year has been anything but. The biggest winner of the year was definitely Disney but their dominance of the box office and franchises, in general, weren’t the only winners of the year. There were still countless original films released that showed audiences still crave new and fresh experiences. Films like Jordan Peele’s Us, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Ari Asters’ Midsommar, Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story show original films are still finding wide audiences, whether in theatres or the multitude of streaming services available.
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2019
1. Parasite
Bong Joon Ho has been a crown jewel for cinephiles for two decades now and while he has found success with his breakthrough films The Host, Snowpiercer and NETFLIX’s Okja, it was his Palme d’or winning box office success that catapulted his name to the mainstream and the top of many people’s Oscar predictions and best-of list. Featuring many of the elements that have made him so acclaimed since his debut — Barking Dogs Never Bite — Parasite is the representation of a filmmaker at full control of their craft.
2. Uncut Gems
The Safdie brothers and long-time collaborator Ronald Bronstein returned with not just their best work but a career-best performance from Adam Sandler. The hype surrounding Sandler’s performance is warranted and it’ll be interesting to see how he fairs more going into awards season. I firmly believe these guys don’t even make films, they just make the best version of the worst experience you can imagine.
3. Midsommar
Ari Aster took the horror world by storm with last year’s critically acclaimed Hereditary but it was his follow up film that firmly put him in competition with some of the greats of the genre. Just as Hereditary acted as a family drama within the confines of a ghost story, Midsommar is a break-up film disguised as a trip gone awry horror film. The performances are great across the board but it’s Florence Pugh’s lead performance, along with the unsettling atmosphere Aster builds, that takes this film to another level.
4. An Elephant Sitting Still
There is almost no talking about this film without discussing the suicide of its writer/editor/director Hu Bo. While there’s no way to know the true circumstances of his untimely passing, the film Hu Bo left behind is a staggering achievement. Clocking in at nearly 4 hours and told through expertly done long takes, it tells 4 interconnected stories of the life of people sinking under a capitalist society. It’s a journey into the darkness of life that simultaneously argues there’s still hope even in that darkness.
5. The Irishman
If we didn’t already know Scorsese was planning his next feature, one would think his NETFLIX film would serve as a swan song for a director on the way out. The film — led by strong performances from De Niro, Pacino and a scene-stealing, understated Joe Pesci — fits firmly within the confines of Scorsese’s established interest in the extraordinary lives of people. The last 30 minutes alone is the kind of gut-punch ending we rarely get from major Hollywood films nowadays.
6. The Beach Bum
Harmony Korine’s follow up film to his 2012 masterpiece Spring Breakers brought the ultimate form of Matthew McConaughey who stars as Moondog, a celebrated stoner poet who adventures through the streets of Miami and tries to write the next great novel. Supported by a wonderful supporting cast and Korine’s usual flourishes as a filmmaker, this is the perfect yang to Spring Breakers’s ying.
7. Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach’s often funny and bittersweet story of a marriage falling apart is easily one of the best films this year. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver pour their hearts out in the roles of Charlie and Nicole, with both delivering some of the best work of their respective careers. They’re assisted by a fantastic supporting cast, including a career-best turn from Laura Dern.
8. Watchmen
Damon Lindelof’s series is not only a work of urgency but one that completely subverts the ideas and expectations of superhero entertainment in an era where they’re ingrained into pop culture. It’s a fitting and often daring continuation that grows upon and deepens many of the ideas laid out in the original comic. Whether there are more seasons of the show or not, Lindelof created another rich and defined series about broken people finding their place in a strange world.
9. Mr Robot - Season 4
The final season of Sam Esmail’s idiosyncratic hacker series went out on the best emotional high of any final season in recent memory. Till the very end, the series remained a singular vision and one of the most original and daring shows to air during the era of prestige television.
10. Genndy Tarakovsky’s Primal
Airing over 5 nights on Adult Swim, Genndy Tartakovsky returned to the type of animation that made many of his series like Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars so beloved and award-winning. Using no dialogue, this series tells the story of a caveman and T-Rex who must depend on each other for survival in a harsh world. The 2D animation is both gruesome in its brutality and beautiful in its lushness of the prehistoric world it’s set in. It’s a unique series that needs to be seen.
BEST PERFORMANCES OF 2019
BEST ACTOR - ADAM SANDLER + ADAM DRIVER
It’s hard to discuss male actors this year without discussing the turns from both Adam Sandler and Adam Driver. Sandler has only taken on a handful of serious roles in his career, some of his best “serious” roles being Punch-Drunk Love and Funny People, but it was his turn working with the Safdie Brothers that shows he has great depth and can do more than the lowbrow comedies he’s mostly been associated with. Driver, on the flip-side, has been busy putting in work this year and continuously proving why he’s one of the best actors this generation. His turns in Marriage Story, The Report, and The Dead Don’t Die all display a performer able and willing to go from role to role, genre to genre and deliver his all every time.
#bensolodeservedbetter
BEST ACTRESS - FLORENCE PUGH
The best female performance of the year definitely belongs to Florence Pugh. While she began making waves earlier in the year with her performance in Fighting With My Family, it was her haunted turn in Midsommar that made people really start to take notice. She fully envelops the character Dani as she spirals through the nightmare she’s in. It’s a shame awards season often overlooks genre films like this because Pugh should be nominated for everything at the very least. She is our May Queen.
BEST FILMMAKING OF 2019
BEST DIRECTOR - BONG JOON HO
It’s going to keep being said that Bong Joon Ho’s career has been building towards Parasite and going back through his filmography, it’s hard to argue that point. All of his films have displayed a level of subversiveness that was dialed up to 11 with every peeling back of the layers in his newest film. He’s always been a master of the craft, Parasite just helped make it bluntly clear.
