Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Precious Doll
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Armond White's Annual 15 Better-Than List:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/ ... -cynicism/

Good movies vs. Netflix cynicism
This year the Better-Than List is more necessary than ever, given film criticism’s decline alongside corporate media’s ethical failure. Good movies received bad notices, little attention, and scarce distribution and exhibition. Visually effective storytelling, emotional exploration, and political scrutiny have been so obstructed by Marvel–Star Wars inanity and TV distraction (through the novelty of streaming services) that critics have lost sight of cinema aesthetics. Good movies still get made but languish for worthy audiences. Critical thinking has been lost to fake mythology. Here’s proof:

Dragged across Concrete > The Irishman
Craig Zahler made the best movie of the year by examining the contemporary American nightmare with both horror and compassion. Lawmen Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, and lawless Tory Kittles test private conviction and social desire — unlike Scorsese’s mob-fetishizing, morality manqué tale. Personal filmmaking vs. decadent commercialism.

Sorry Angel > Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Christophe Honoré’s AIDS-era morality tale confronted still-current ironies of desire minus the special pleading that fouled up Céline Sciamma’s misguided lesbian/abortion historical romance. Sorry Angel’s range of masculine behaviors bested simplistic feminist standard-bearing, Plus, Honoré transcended sexual politics through the single most powerful — leveling — movie-lover’s image this decade.

Pain and Glory > Uncut Gems
Pedro Almodóvar’s gorgeous emotional autobiography showed wisdom while the Safdie Brothers’ ethnic carnival was callow. Antonio Banderas’s expressive regret and grace-filled recollections went deeper than Adam Sandler’s deliberately ugly, unfunny self-reproach.

Domino > Knives Out
Brian De Palma reexamines his Millennial politics — depicting the War on Terror in a swift, effective genre exercise. Rian Johnson’s crass, pseudopolitical whodunit can’t tell where citizenship or humanity begins.

Richard Jewell > The Irishman
Clint Eastwood’s account of an actual American tragedy (initiated by irresponsible media and rogue government) shames Scorsese’s distorted labor-union history. Respect for life vs. the love of crime. Simple fluency vs. baroque dishonesty.

The Image Book >Netflix
Jean-Luc Godard recalls the political complexity of our cinematic heritage. Images of beauty and doom reflect on the artistic expression of mortality — an increasingly forgotten goal. Godard shows us everything missing from the inundation of Netflix’s reckless film-production excess. Through a climactic scene from Max Ophuls’s Le Plaisir, Godard challenged Netflix (Scorsese’s and Obama’s boss) as the enemy of cinema.

Sauvage/Wild > Marriage Story
Camille Vidal-Naquet’s extraordinarily intimate debut is more candid than Noah Baumbach’s latest act of pampered social-climbing. The tough story of a social outcast (Félix Maritaud) looking for love (without conventional definition) contrasts with the flimsy narcissism that our media elite share and defend. Homo sensitivity vs. Hetero superficiality.

Tattoo of Revenge > Little Women
Julián Hernandez’s film noir turns male–female empathy into a constantly inventive spectacle while Greta Gerwig’s literary adaptation sentimentalizes bourgeois privilege as a woman’s right.

John Wick 3: Parabellum > Joker
Chad Stahelski’s slapstick violence wittily satirizes Millennial desperation (imagine if John Woo had Fred Astaire’s aplomb). But Todd Phillips’s Batman spin-off, featuring Joaquin Phoenix’s bonkers Heath Ledger re-do, is a grim, sarcastic appeal to nihilism (imagine a Scorsese sellout with no craft).

Shadow > The Souvenir
Zhang Yimou combines Chinese lore and pure cinematic dazzle, in a royal court’s battle of wills imbued with Shakespearean richness. Joanna Hogg’s vapid film-school heroine (Honor Swinton Byrne) epitomizes a generation’s cultural ignorance and foolish pride.

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians > Parasite
Radu Jude provides an ingenious perspective on Romania’s cultural and political legacy while Bong Joon-ho flirts with creeping fascism. Anti-Communist wisdom vs. cancel-culture terrorism. An Adam Schiff alarm vs. an Adam Schiff sitcom.

Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood > The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino recalls the Manson Sixties but with social perspective, while Scorsese brings back that ’90s malady: denial. It’s QT’s best-ever film — vividly acted and emotionally satisfying — a bulwark against film culture’s moral decay.

By the Grace of God >The Two Popes
François Ozon addresses the Catholic Church sex scandal without the defamation seen in Fernando Meirelles’s progressive calling-card movie. Ozon revives the astute reverence of Hollywood’s I’d Climb the Highest Mountain and A Man Called Peter. Meirelles is just smug.

Brian Banks and The Best of Enemies > Us, Clemency, and Queen & Slim
In this year’s race-movie genre, Tom Shadyac and Robin Bissell empathize with real-life civil-rights struggles. Their decent films rise above the insulting exploitation of Jordan Peele, Chinonye Chukwu, and Lena Waithe’s superstitious thrillers.

Peterloo > 1917
Before Mike Leigh succumbs to Marxist sentiment and secular skepticism, he gives us fine moments of common-people sacrifice and brilliant instances of British political rhetoric putting opposing sides of history at cross-purposes. Leigh senses contemporary national crisis, but Sam Mendes ignores it with a mawkish, tedious WWI pictorial stunt.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Indiewire's Best of 2019 list just came out. I'll only list the top ten.

Link to full results: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/12/best- ... 202197615/

Four "wins" for Parasite.

BEST FILM
1. “Parasite”
2. “The Irishman”
3. “Marriage Story”
4. “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
5. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
6. “Pain & Glory”
7. “Uncut Gems”
8. “The Souvenir”
9. “Joker”
10. “Little Women”


BEST DIRECTOR
1. Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”
2. Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
3. Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
4. Celine Sciamma, “Portrait of a lady on Fire”
5. Josh and Benny Safdie, “Uncut Gems”
6. Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”
7. Pedro Almodovar, “Pain and Glory”
8. Greta Gerwig, “Little Women”
9. Joanna Hogg, “The Souvenir”
10. Todd Phillips, “Joker”


BEST SCREENPLAY
1. “Parasite”
2. “Marriage Story”
3. “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
4. “The Irishman”
5. “Knives Out”
6. “Little Women”
7. “Pain & Glory”
8. “Uncut Gems”
9. “The Farewell”
10. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”


BEST ACTRESS
1. Lupita N’yongo, “Us”
2. Scarlet Johansson, “Marriage Story”
3. Elisabeth Moss, “Her Smell”
4. Rene Zellweger, “Judy”
5. Awkwafina, “The Farewell”
6. Florence Pugh, “Midsommar”
7. Mary Kay Place, “Diane”
8. Zhao Tao, “Ash Is Purest White”
9. Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”
10. Adéle Haenel, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”


BEST ACTOR
1. Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”
2. Antonio Banderas, “Pain & Glory”
3. Adam Sandler, “Uncut Gems”
4. Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
5. Robert De Niro, “The Irishman”
6. Leonardo Di Caprio, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
7. Eddie Murphy, “Dolemite Is My Name”
8. Taron Egerton, “Rocketman”
9. Song Kang Ho, “Parasite”
10. Brad Pitt, “Ad Astra”


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
2. Jennifer Lopez, “Hustlers”
3. Florence Pugh, “Little Women”
4. Zhao Schuzhen, “The Farewell”
5. Margot Robbie, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
6. Da’Vine Joy Randloph, “Dolemite Is My Name”
7. Julia Fox, “Uncut Gems”
8. Annette Bening, “The Report”
9. Scarlet Johansson, “Jojo Rabbit”
10. Park So-dam, “Parasite”


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
2. Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
3. Al Pacino, “The Irishman”
4. Wilem Dafoe, “The Lighthouse”
5. Song Kang Ho, “Parasite”
6. Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
7. Alan Alda, “Marriage Story”
8. Tom Burke, “Souvenir”
9. Shia LaBeouf, “Honey Boy”
10. Wesley Snipes, “Dolemite is My Name”


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. “1917”
2. “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
3. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
4. “The Lighthouse”
5. “Parasite”
6. “The Irishman”
7. “A Hidden Life”
8. “Uncut Gems”
9. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”
10. “Ad Astra”


BEST DOCUMENTARY
1. “Apollo 11”
2. “American Factory”
3. “Honeyland”
4. “For Sama”
5. “One Child Nation”
6. “Varda by Agnes”
7. “Amazing Grace”
8. “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story”
9. “Hail Satan?”
10. “Diego Maradona”


BEST FIRST FEATURE
1. “Atlantics”
2. “Booksmart”
3. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
4. “An Elephant Sitting Still”
5. “Les Miserables”
6. “I Lost My Body”
7. “The Mustang”
8. “The Chambermaid”
9. “Burning Cane”
10. “End of the Century”


BEST FOREIGN FILM
1. “Parasite”
2. “Pain and Glory”
3. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
4. “Atlantics”
5. “Transit”
6. “Monos”
7. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”
8. “An Elephant Sitting Still”
9. “Synonyms”
10. “Les Miserables”
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Best Netflix Original Movies of 2019 - Variety (Peter Debruge)

1. “I Lost My Body”
These days, Netflix’s strategy appears to be outspending the competition to enable ambitious auteur’s dream projects, like “Roma” and “The Irishman,” but the bigger budgets don’t necessarily make for better movies. The most original, life-affirming addition to the service in 2019 was a relatively modest animated movie picked up at the Cannes film festival, where Jérémy Clapin’s outside-the-box debut won the top prize in Critics’ Week. The one-of-a-kind mystery unfolds from the point of view (so to speak) of a disembodied hand, which undertakes an epic quest across Paris to find the body to which it once belonged.

2. “The Two Popes”
Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins both deserve Oscar nominations as the impressive pair of papal protagonists who make Fernando Meirelles’ crackling two-hander the season’s most unexpected delight. Hopkins plays Pope Benedict, the staunchly conservative church leader who shocked the world by abdicating the position and selecting Pope Francis (Pryce) to be his successor. It couldn’t have been an easy decision, which allows screenwriter Anthony McCarten to speculate how exactly the hand-off took place. Told with warmth and wit, this unlikely buddy movie proves infinitely more entertaining than a look into the fate of the Catholic faith has any right to be.

3. “Girl”
A tender, thought-provoking coming-of-gender story, this stunning Belgian drama puts audiences in the shoes — or rather, the ballet slippers — of a teenager in transition. Fifteen-year-old Lara wants nothing more than to be a successful ballerina, but she’s frustrated to have been born in the wrong body. “Girl” won nearly as many awards as “Roma” on the festival circuit last year — including quite a few for newcomer Victor Polster’s courageous lead performance — but encountered resistance in the U.S., where trans advocates challenged some of its artistic choices. Though imperfect, the film fosters empathy and, thanks to Netflix, can be seen by those in places LGBTQ stories seldom reach.

4. “Marriage Story”
Noah Baumbach made a big stink when Netflix bought “The Meyerowitz Stories,” only to become a convert when it went on to become the most widely seen movie of his career. Reteaming with the streamer enabled Baumbach to tell his most intimate story yet, loosely based on the director’s divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play the creative couple whose decision to involve lawyers makes their differences all the more irreconcilable. The generic-sounding title may have fooled some into thinking it’s a romance, when in fact, “Scenes from a Marriage” would make a better date movie.

5. “American Factory”
Documentary co-directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert were Oscar nominated for chronicling the final days of an American institution with “The Last Truck.” Now, they return to the site of the former General Motors assembly line to observe a unique attempt to revitalize the community, as Chinese windshield manufacturer Fuyao Glass takes control of the plant, creating jobs for hundreds of American workers, who work alongside trained employees from overseas. Uncertain how the story would turn out, the filmmakers roll cameras amid culture clashes, union whispers, and expanding automation, coming away with a surprising portrait of the fast-changing 21st-century workplace.

6. “Edge of Democracy”
As moves toward impeachment consume the American government, director Petra Costa’s chilling look at the successful coup to oust Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff on trumped-up corruption charges offers valuable perspective on what’s happening in this country. Mixing personal insights with penetrating investigative techniques, Costa comes away with an alarming cautionary tale about the way the institution of democracy can be perverted to serve the powerful. Launched on opening night of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, this daring project also represents how Netflix now rivals HBO (long the leader in producing provocative documentaries such as “Leaving Neverland”) on the nonfiction front.

7. “The Irishman”
If you can get past the unconvincing anti-aging effects and the ruthlessly long running time, Martin Scorsese’s miniseries-scale Mob drama introduces an element of conscience missing from previous gangster epics “Goodfellas” and “Casino.” Robert De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, who claimed to have offed Jimmy Hoffa (an Al Pacino-fied version of the not-at-all Al Pacino-like organized labor leader) and countless others. The movie takes Sheeran at his word (should it?), focusing on the irony that a self-proclaimed killer should die of old age when so many of his peers were violently whacked. The last 45 minutes is arguably Scorsese’s best work.

8. “Dolemite Is My Name”
They say it takes as much effort to make a bad movie as a great one. In the tradition of Melvin Van Peebles’ “Baadasssss!” (a half-documentary homage to his father Mario’s revolutionary “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song”) and 2017’s “The Disaster Artist,” this behind-the-scenes satire pokes affectionate fun at R&B has-been Rudy Ray Moore’s uphill attempt to reinvent himself with 1975 blaxploitation classic “Dolemite.” In a much-needed comeback of his own, Eddie Murphy leverages his comedic instincts to celebrate an unlikely hero who couldn’t get his foot in the door of Hollywood, so decided to kick it down.

9. “Atlantics”
The French film industry may have succeeded in barring Netflix movies from competing at the Cannes Film Festival, but they can’t stop the streaming giant from snapping up the best films that premiere there. Winner of the grand jury prize (second place to the Palme d’Or-gilded “Parasite”), Mati Diop’s directorial debut represents a poetic new voice in international cinema — and thanks to Netflix, it can be seen more widely than just big-city arthouses. A fresh take on the refugee crisis, the Dakar-set romance imagines a community haunted by the ghosts of men lost at sea seeking opportunity in Europe.

10. “Always Be My Maybe”
The Keanu Reeves cameo alone makes this ridiculously funny romantic comedy the most satisfying of Netflix’s studio-caliber charmers — and the company also deserves props for hiring far more women and people of color to direct than any of the majors. Co-writers Ali Wong and Randall Park play lifelong Bay Area buddies who could never figure out how to take their friendship to the next level. You can guess where their years-later reunion is headed, although the movie keeps blindsiding us, as in the detail of casting Keanu as a hilarious douchebag version of himself. Infinitely better than “Murder Mystery” or “Sextuplets.”
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Film Comment Top 20 of the Year - Critics poll

1. Parasite
2. The Irishman
3. Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood
4. Transit
5. Atlantics
6. The Souvenir
7. High Life
8. Ash Is Purest White
9. Pain and Glory
10. Uncut Gems
11. Marriage Story
12. La Flor
13. An Elephant Sitting Still
14. Long Days Journey Into Night
15. Synonyms
16. Asako I & II
17. Us
18. The Image Book
19. Portrait of a Lady
20. Ad Astra
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Well... we fucked up. We're late on Peter Travers' list.

1. The Irishman
Martin Scorsese, 77, and still America’s greatest living filmmaker, shook up the year by claiming Marvel movies aren’t cinema. “What’s not there is revelation, mystery, or genuine emotional danger,” claimed the director, who supplies all that and more in what is not just the best film of 2019 but also an incendiary, indelible summation of a landmark career. The film reunites Scorsese with his peerless acting muses Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci nearly 25 years after they made Casino. It also brings in a live-wire Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters leader who De Niro’s hit man, Frank Sheeran, is ordered to kill. A digital de-aging process allows the actors to play younger as the film spans decades of American history. But it’s not violence that brings them down — it’s debilitating age. That searing note of poetic justice makes The Irishman unique among Scor­sese’s Mob films, from Goodfellas to The Departed, and earns a place in the cinematic canon.

2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s mad love for Hollywood on the fringes permeates every frame of this richly detailed, ravishingly told fable. The time is 1969, and something sinister is creeping into Tinseltown. Who else but Tarantino would dare make a buddy comedy with the murderous Manson family lurking in the background? Leonardo DiCaprio works wonders as a boozing, fading star reduced to playing TV villains and leaning hard for support on his stunt-double buddy (Brad Pitt, heading for his first Oscar). And, yes, living next door is actress Sharon Tate, a personification of innocence as played by Margot Robbie. As is his habit, the virtuoso who had Hitler killed in Inglourious Basterds adjusts history to suit his own moral compass. To paraphrase a line from the script: He’s Quentin fucking Tarantino and don’t you forget it.

3. Parasite
Give thanks to filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, the South Korean master whose game-changing Parasite seems to be curing America’s aversion to subtitles. As the financially struggling Kim family stealthily infiltrates the home of the wealthy Parks, first by securing posts as tutors and then by posing as servants. The film builds from a stingingly comic social satire about class into a horror show that indicts the parasitic nature of greed across all borders. Bong’s technique is blindingly brilliant — you watch the film marshal its forces in awe.

4. Marriage Story
Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) are made for each other. But she wants to move to L.A. and he wants to stay in New York. Their eight-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), occupies the scorched earth between them. Out of the million things that can lead to divorce, writer-director Noah Baumbach crafts his finest film yet, a series of scenes from a marriage that you can’t help taking personally. With Driver at his best and Johansson at hers, you’ll laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time.

5. Little Women
It’s a thrill to watch writer-direc­tor Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), partner to Marriage Story‘s Noah Baumbach, tackle the prospect of holy wedlock as an unholy burden. It sure is for Jo (Saoirse Ronan), the firebrand and fledgling author among the four March sisters, who occupy the plot of Louisa May Alcott’s 1860s novel. Sisters Meg (Emma Watson) and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) bear witness as Amy (the marvelous Florence Pugh) challenges Jo at her own game. Of the eight film versions of Little Women to date, this is by far the best, and the filmmaker brings Alcott’s own life and rebellious streak into the mix. The result creates an exhilarating gift of a movie that honors female independence at any age.

6. 1917
A potent and prodigious achievement on every level. Director Sam Mendes and camera visionary Roger Deakins — both their talents shining on their highest beams — have set out to tell a World War I story that propels itself forward in one continuous take (or at least it looks like that way.) Two young British soldiers — Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) — take on the impossible mission of crossing enemy lines to deliver a message that the Germans are setting a trap that could cost the British army more than 1,600 lives. There’s nothing gimmicky about the approach of Mendes and Deakins, who perform technical miracles that are surpassed only by their deep emotional investment (MacKay’s turn is a heartbreaker) in a high-tension war film that succeeds in pinning you to your seat.

7. Jojo Rabbit
New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi is a wild man (see What We Do in the Shadows, Thor: Ragnarok), who doesn’t scare off easily. And the polarizing Jojo Rabbit is his biggest swing yet, a comedy tangled in tragedy, in which Waititi plays Hitler for laughs. What happens when 10-year-old Jojo (a terrific Roman Griffin Davis) tries to reconcile his membership in the Hitler Youth with the Jewish girl (Leave No Trace‘s Thomasin McKenzie) his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding at home? Waititi trusts that his young hero’s journey to empathy will also be ours. And in a world still consumed by ­divisiveness and hate crimes, let’s hope he’s right.

8. Uncut Gems
The Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, make movies in a fever — and their teaming with Adam Sand­ler, as a New York jeweler risking his life on a rare opal and an all-or-nothing hoops bet, is a match made in red-hot heaven. When he’s not playing the doofus, Sandler can act his ass off. And his all-in performance for the Safdies stands as Exhibit A.


9. The Farewell
A tough core of intelligence and wit marks writer-director Lulu Wang’s tale of cultural conflict. Awkwafina brings a touching gravity to Billi, a New York writer who returns home to China to see her dying grandmother Nai Nai (the sublime Shuzhen Zhao). Chinese custom says the cancer diagnosis should be withheld from Nai Nai. Billi pushes for truth. That’s the debate at the center of a film whose grace notes are only strengthened by its grit.

10. Joker
In a performance that will be dissected for years, Joaquin Phoenix astounds as Arthur Fleck, a street clown and wanna-be-stand-up who morphs into a brutal avenger. Creating their own stand-alone Joker origin story, Phoenix and director Todd Phillips hit a mother lode of controversy about the violence in a film that became the most successful R-rated movie in history. For inspiration, the filmmakers looked to Martin Scorsese, the legend at the top of this list. And in Fleck, you can see tormented traces of Travis Bickle in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, and Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. The Irishman and Joker bookend a year in which the best movies showed characters struggling to put on a happy face. Talk about art imitating life.
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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Top 50 Films of the year from and wide round-up of film critics from around the globe which accounts for titles from 2018 appearing:

50. The Mule (Clint Eastwood)
49. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
48. Just Don't Think I'll Scream (Frank Beauvais)
47. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
46. Rose Plays Julie (Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor)
45. Rocks (Sarah Gavron)
44. Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov)
43. Holiday (Isabella Ekloff)
42. I Lost My Body (Jeremy Clapin)
41. Hail County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross)
40. Ray & Liz (Richard Billingham)
39. Joker (Todd Philips)
38. Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
37. No Data Plan (Miko Revereza)
36. America (Garrat Bradley)
35. Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello)
34. Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)
33. Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
32. Booksmart (Olivia Wilde)
31. Knives Out (Rian Johnson)
30. In Fabric (Peter Strickland)
29. I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)
28. Varda by Agnes (Agnes Varda)
27. Ad Astra (James Gray)
26. The Hottest August (Brett Story)
25. The Farewell (Lulu Wang)
24. A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
23. Transit (Christian Petzold)
22. Border (Ali Abbasi)
21. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
20. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)
19. Hustlers (Lorena Scafaria)
18. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
17. The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers)
16. Midsommar (Ari Aster)
15. For Sama (Waad Al-Kateab & Edward Watts)
14. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)
13. Monos (Alejandro Landes)
12. Uncut Gems (Benny & Josh Safdie)
11. High Life (Claire Denis)
10. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
09. Us (Jordan Peele)
08. Bait (Mark Jenkin)
07. Atlantics (Mati Diop)
06. Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodovar)
05. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma)
04. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
03. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
02. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
01. The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

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A.O.Scott from The New York Times

1. ‘Honeyland’ (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov)

Conceived as a government-sponsored informational video, this documentary is nothing less than a found epic, a real-life environmental allegory and, not least, a stinging comedy about the age-old problem of inconsiderate neighbors.

2. ‘The Souvenir’ (Joanna Hogg)

Honor Swinton Byrne plays a diffident version of the director’s younger self in an elusive autobiographical film that also functions as a kind of superhero origin story.

3. ‘Parasite’ (Bong Joon Ho)

I can’t think of a film that made me sadder about the state of the world and more jubilant about the state of movies.

4. ‘The Irishman’ (Martin Scorsese)

What is cinema? If you have three and a half hours to spare — and you do — this is a pretty good answer.

5. ‘Marriage Story’ (Noah Baumbach)

The joys and miseries of a creative family in 21st-century New York and Los Angeles.

6. ‘Little Women’ (Greta Gerwig)

The joys and miseries of a creative family in 19th-century Massachusetts.

7. ‘Peterloo’ (Mike Leigh)

British politics in 1819, full of passion and pageantry, bad faith and factionalism. It feels like a very short march from then to now.

8. ‘The Edge of Democracy’ (Petra Costa)

This harrowing documentary, a thoughtful inside look at the events leading up to the election of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s populist president, is the scariest movie of the year.

9. ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ (Quentin Tarantino)

Another answer to the “what is cinema?” question, with special attention to Brad Pitt’s jawline and Margot Robbie’s feet.

10. ‘Atlantics’ (Mati Diop)

See No. 3. A startlingly original debut feature about the specters that haunt Dakar, and everywhere else.

And … “American Factory,” “Ash Is Purest White” “Birds of Passage,” “Booksmart,” “The Chambermaid,” “An Elephant Standing Still,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” “Gloria Bell,” “Her Smell,” “High-Flying Bird,” “The Nightingale,” “Pain and Glory,” “Richard Jewell,” “Transit,” “Us.”
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Sabin
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Re: Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

Post by Sabin »

Owen Gleiberman calls Joker the best films of 2019.

https://variety.com/2019/film/opinion/b ... 203423630/

1. Joker
Every so often, a movie emerges from the comic-book ether that can, and will, stand the test of time. But a decade from now, when you watch Todd Phillips’ grandly squirmy and hypnotic say-hello-to-the-bad-guy fantasia, it’s not just that the film will hold up; it will, I predict, stand as the only movie of 2019 that channels our moment by turning it into a dark dream. In telling the story of Arthur Fleck, a damaged geek who gets in touch with his inner showbiz psycho, “Joker” expresses the collective unease of a world spinning out of control. As Arthur, who sheds what’s left of his sanity to get high on rage, Joaquin Phoenix laughs, cries, howls, implodes, and mesmerizes in the performance of the year.


2. Marriage Story
3. The Irishman
4. Diane
5. Toy Story 4
6. Uncut Gems
7. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
8. Bombshell
9. A Hidden Life
10. The Report
"How's the despair?"
anonymous1980
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Critic's Top Ten Films of 2019

Post by anonymous1980 »

Stephanie Zacharek is the first to weigh in.

Surprised it wasn't Peter Travers.
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