Top 10 Films of the Year
#11-#20 Honorable Mentions too
I saw 160 films in the cinema last year, which clearly means bartenders are suffering. Every movie gets a one-sentence review along with a rating from 0-to-5 fingers. Zero means “truly awful” (The Dreaded Fist of Badness), while a 5-finger film is termed a High Five. I am a tough grader and tend to round down. Of the films I saw last year, 20 scored my highest five rating.
In reverse order, here we go….first with the honorable mentions.
20. Stan & Ollie – 5-finger High Five. Based on comedy legends Laurel & Hardy’s final theater tour through the United Kingdom, this bittersweet story perfectly balances the poignant final curtain from both old vaudevillians’ points of view as the men face mortality with the petering, quiet, and humbling end of their remarkable show business careers.
19. Knives Out – 5-finger High Five. A terrific cast, wonderful story and whodunit mystery script, and snappy filmmaking at its highest level make this fine movie one of 2019’s most entertaining two hours.
18. Mary, Queen of Scots – 5-finger High Five. An overpowering performance by Saoirse Ronan as the ill-fated young Scottish queen lifts this 16th century sibling rivalry piece between Catholic Mary and her Protestant cousin (England’s Queen Elizabeth) from good to great, delivers the year’s best scene, and adds another fabulous performance to Ronan’s ever-expanding roster of outstanding starring roles.
17. Apollo 11 – 5-finger High Five. This terrific documentary honoring the 50th anniversary of man’s first flight to the moon uses archival footage from start to finish and frames how far technology has come with the courage it took for so many thousands of people to trust each other and defy the odds while fulfilling late president John F. Kennedy’s 1961 famous space flight prophecy.
16. Ash is Purest White – 5-finger High Five. This complex, beautifully made Chinese drama unfolds over the past two decades and tells a powerful story about the complex relationship evolution between a haughty woman and cocksure gangster.
15. High Life – 5-finger High Five. This truly unique film about death row inmates doomed to exile in outer space exploration with no hope of ever returning showcases the prodigious acting chops of protagonist Robert Pattinson and a truly wicked antagonist, Juliet Binoche.
14. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir – 5-finger High Five. A great story, well told and executed, this Indian film about a street magician’s accidental meanderings throughout Europe and Africa is fresh, clever, and a whole lot of wild, entertaining fun.
13. Girl –5-finger High-Five. While this film will not work for everyone, it certainly did for me: A visceral combination of gritty story, emotional gravity, and a heartbreaking internal struggle by a teenage girl fighting demons seen and unseen to pursue her lonely journey toward identify and fulfillment.
12. Toy Story 4 – 5-finger High Five. Impeccably made, this outstanding mainstream family film is great on a standalone basis and just might be the best “4th” installment from a serial franchise that Hollywood has ever produced.
11. Souvenir – 5-finger High Five. Isabelle Huppert puts the audience in the palm of her remarkably talented hand in this tight French film about a former national singing champion who quit singing for three decades before finding her desire and life rekindled by an aspiring 22-year-old boxer.
The Year’s Top 10
(drum roll, please)
10. Uncut Gems – 5-finger High Five. This grim, visceral drama about a gambling addict whose Manhattan jewelry store fronts the frantic and desperate life of star Adam Sandler in easily his best career performance, is a near-perfect combination of story, pacing, and score; and one of the best films of 2019.
9. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice – 5-finger High Five. Some die young, some keep singing, and some do cruise ship shoes in their seventies, but few as legendarily popular and talented as Linda Ronstadt simply fade away; and this nostalgic documentary reviews her marvelous career with the love, affection, and respectful insight that her remarkable career deserves.
8. The Mustang – 5-finger High Five. I am a sucker for great horse movies, and this gritty drama based on the Nevada prison system’s wild mustang breaking-and-training program certainly is one as we follow how a wild horse and untamed felon battle while helping each other repair the other’s broken psyche.
7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco – 5-finger High Five. One of the year’s finest films to date, this visceral drama ticks every box even the most discriminating cinephile hopes to see in a thought-provoking motion picture.
6. The Peanut Butter Falcon – 5-finger High Five. A young man with Down syndrome escapes confinement and unexpectedly pairs up with a backwater low-life in this unlikely buddy picture that is fresh, fun, really well made, and entertaining from start to finish.
5. Tel Aviv on Fire – 5-finger High Five. This terrific comedy about a guy with not much going for him who falls into an opportunity to get involved in a popular TV show—and finds himself relying on a border guard to help him with ideas—is one of the great surprises from this year’s crop of outstanding foreign films.
4. Ad Astra – 5-finger High Five. A great story, beautifully told, reminiscent of Gravity with far more depth, dimension, and soul.
3. Luce — 5-finger High Five. An outstanding ensemble headlined by Naomi Watts delivers the goods in this visceral and skillfully made drama that conveys a powerful message about the sad state of America’s situational morals and the ease with which people will lie and connive to duck accountability and preserve an illusion of goodness.
2. Midsommar – 5-finger High Five. A bit long, this psychological horror film about a handful of American friends visiting a rural Swedish commune—a trip that grows increasingly bad—is riveting in its storytelling and the skillful unfolding of a fresh new story we have not seen before.
The best film of 2019:
#1. Parasite – 5-finger High Five. Best picture at the Cannes Film Festival, this brilliant piece of filmmaking proves why it deserves its accolades from the very first frame to the last, as a family of four hustling to get by in South Korea latches onto a rich family in need of hired help; and the entire team behind its creation weaves a story that showcases filmmaking at its absolute finest.
Off we go to 2020. See you at the cinema. And may the great bird of paradise make sure there are zero unpopped kernels in your corn.
Ocean Palmer