2019 was an interesting year for movies. I think that it had some really high highs and some really low lows. But, I had a really good time at the movies this year. I found more than 10 movies that I LOVE and I tended to avoid the movies that no one even kind of liked (I’m looking at you MIB International and Serenity). So, while someone who had to see all the movies may have had a not great year, I had a generally good year. It’s no 1994, 2007, or 2012, but I had a good time! Here are a few movies why:
What a delightful movie. Now, I’m going to start with a quick negative. I was one of those that was asking the question of should this movie exist since Won’t You Be My Neighbor just came out, but at the same time, wanted to experience this story (mostly for Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers). After seeing this movie, I’m glad it exists because it tells one specific story of this spectacular human being that encapsulates all that we have learned about him through the documentary. And 9/10 times I’d rather watch the documentary over this, but this movie works so well as a companion piece to it. The acting is terrific. Matthew Rhys is doing stellar work here, but will always be overshadowed by the giant that is Tom Hanks. This is a movie that I will find myself revisiting over and over again, even just for background noise, especially if I’m not in a great mood. The only real knock I have on this movie is I feel the movie doesn’t earn the redemption of the father/son relationship that it sets up the whole movie with an enormous amount of conflict and hatred both in words and actions.
Let’s keep going with a movie that came and went and not a lot of “regular” people saw or even heard of. Heck, I didn’t even hear of it until it was about to be released on home release. But then I picked this one up on day one because I found it for a great price and I found a movie that just made me feel good literally 2 ½ minutes in. These characters are just so charming together and surprisingly Shia LaBeouf is one of the main reasons for that. This movie felt like all the best parts of my favorite indie comedies recently: The Kings of Summer, Little Miss Sunshine, and Safety Not Guaranteed. I don’t want to say too much about this movie because I want you to simply experience it and laugh and love this journey the same way that I did.
Let’s get this out of the way. This is not a movie about a happy marriage. This is a movie about a failed marriage that only gets worse once the movie begins. You so badly want to root for this couple to figure it out, but it slowly progresses to this incredible scene where you finally see that all hope is lost for these two broken people who have, because of the divorce system, driven each other to the absolute end of their livelihood. But just because this movie is not happy does not mean that it isn’t brilliant, emotional, joyous at times, and spectacular. This is undoubtedly in my mind the most brilliantly acted movie of the year and while I may not find myself watching this one often, I definitely think I will still be fascinated by these two characters and actors each time I do.
I’m not a horror fan at all. There is a very small amount of horror movies I love (Alien, The Shining, Sinister, The Cabin in the Woods, The Evil Dead 2, for example) but there are so many that I really don’t like at all (You name it, I probably don’t like it). But this one was something special to me. I really like to go see movies on opening night, and I could not wait for this one, but I was busy this particular night and then it was out and I kind of forgot about it. I wound up hearing from some trusted people about how spectacular and fresh it is and I really got around to seeing it late and I had an absolutely amazing experience. Marriage Story probably would have been this movie for me if I had seen it on the big screen, but this is the one that I could not take my eyes off of for one minute. I know the final act at the Overlook Hotel gets a lot of flak, but I was so invested in that point that I really didn’t notice anything wrong with it. And the thing I appreciated most about this is that it really felt like a part of a larger Stephen King universe and the studio wasn’t afraid of that. I keep hearing differences of the It book vs the movie and I want the book version so badly (minus the child orgy scene, eek) and this movie made me think that this is just one small story of a few people who “Shine” that stuff like this happens often. And maybe one of the big reasons why I loved this “horror” movie is that it feels more like a dark, slow-paced, thriller. Honestly, you could have told me David Fincher directed this and I might have believed you if I didn’t already know who did.
I just told you that I’m not a horror fan, but here we are and I have back-to-back horror movies on my Top 10 of 2019 list. Maybe it’s not fair to call this a horror movie because it is more of a comedy, Sci-Fi, and even more of a drama. A little background. I like the first movie; I don’t love it. It’s got plenty of flaws and doesn’t work quite as well as it thinks it does, but I had a good time. When they announced a sequel I thought, “I won’t see that.” But then the plot synopsis and trailer came out and I said, “I have to see that.” So I watched them back-to-back with my now wife, and we both agreed this one has no right to be this good. This is the biggest surprise of my Top 10, especially if you would have asked me 1 year ago, but it’s here and I’m not changing it. We both belly laughed several times, the science is very much yada-yada’d but this was never meant to be a very head-ey movie. And one thing that neither of us expected was that absolutely we cried. And we didn’t cry out of fear or joy like you sometimes might, we had straight up tears from sadness. We walked into said scene and thought, “okay, this is happening” and that’s kind of also how I feel about the whole movie. It’s constantly saying, “okay, this is happening” except every time it works so well. This might have been the most fun I had at the theater all year.
Here it is, my official Toy Story Ranking: 3, 1, 2, 4. But this is still in the Top 5 of the year for me! Wow, that’s remarkable for a franchise to be so consistently amazing. I’m a HUGE Star Wars and MCU fan, but every now and then you get a Rise of Skywalker or Thor: The Dark World but not with Toy Story. If you want to read more of my thoughts, I wrote a full review for Siftpop and all of my thoughts are the same. The animation is transcendent. The old characters are back and bring so many warm feelings without feeling forced (except Bo Peep). The new characters feel as loved as the old ones (especially Ducky and Bunny, Bitey White and Forky). And the story is full of warmth, humor, and important messages. I just don’t know that I’m fully on board with the ending with some of the character decision making. Woody forgot the cardinal rule of astronauts before polka-dots.
I’m just going to get this out here now. This is my favorite stand-alone Spider-Man movie ever. I recently re-watched all of them and while I liked the OT, I never really loved it. I like Spider-Man 3 more than most, but that’s not saying much. Spider-Man 1 does not hold up at all over time, and I’ve never really been high on Spider-Man 2. As far as The Amazing Spider-Man, I like both of those movies more. The first one is nearly perfect to me and I really enjoy the second one. As far as Homecoming goes, it’s great until the jet scene, then it’s pretty bad. But this one I have no gripes with. I understand some people’s gripes about the Mysterio origin and the fact that he does everything with drones which is fairly outlandish, but it’s far more realistic than the actual comics! Anyways, I really enjoyed the characters in this, especially Tom Holland, I thought the movie was shot beautifully, made me laugh plenty, and gave me one of my favorite shots in the MCU: Zombie Iron Man. As I look back, I haven’t re-visited it much, but I cannot stop thinking about how much I love it and how perfect the mid-credits scene is and how excited I am for the future of this character.
God Bless Taika Watiti. Who knew you could make such a lighthearted, yet still very reality-based movie set in Nazi Germany?! I want to make one thing clear: this movie does have characters and moments that just don’t quite work out. But I fell in love with this movie, nearly instantly because of the cast. All three child leads are perfect, Sam Rockwell is at his usual best, Watiti’s Hitler is a highlight for sure, and Stephen Merchant is in one of the funniest scenes of 2019, no surproise there. This movie is an absolute joy, which is a weird thing to say about a movie about a boy Nazi, but just watch it and see what I mean. The only movie that charmed me more this year was Peanut Butter Falcon.
When I made my list for “19 2019 Movie Opinions You Didn’t Ask For” I listed this as the Best Movie. BUT Best and Favorite are two different qualifications for movies and for my Top 10 list, I go by favorite. I really hope this movie cleans house at the Oscars because it is the one movie that I left the theater thinking, “That was really really great” but has only grown on me over time. I admire so many moments so much more after the fact and there is literally nothing that I wish was done differently. As I’m writing this, I’m also looking up showtimes so I can see this one again! I don’t want to spoil any of the plot, but this is one of the most original movies I’ve seen in a long time. Between this, Brick, Looper, and The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson is definitely in my top 3 working directors with Christopher Nolan and Dennis Villeneuve.
Of course, the guy that writes the Marvel Hindsight articles picked Endgame as his favorite movie of the year. I’ve seen this one I think seven times now, five of which was in theaters. This is an example of how you end an era (looking at you JJ). What Endgame does best and why I really wanted to write these Hindsight articles is that Endgame’s existence elevates each individual pre-existing MCU movie. There isn’t any praise I can give this that hasn’t already been said, but it just hits me in all the right places and doesn’t wear for me on subsequent watches.