Reflections on 2019 – My Year in Movies

-   by guest commentator, Larry Lee

We have reached the time of year in which the debate about the Oscars has reached its peak. We have already been treated to a plethora of articles in the media about so-called Oscar snubs (Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers? Uh, no), and critics’ Top Ten lists (Honeyland is the best film of the year, A.O. Scott?  Really?). It's a lot to chew on, but fun to think about the ten best movies of the year. Not my favorite movies, or the most interesting, or the ones that will still hold up in 20 or 50 years. The Top Ten, right now. Len has given us his Top Ten, and I will get to mine below. But let me just start with a few introductory comments.

The nominating process is not without flaws. Although the Academy has thousands of members and draws from a wide spectrum across the film industry, many years the winner of the Best Picture Oscar does not seem remotely to have been the “best” movie. Argo (2012)? Crash (2006)? Really? But the real flaw, of course, is the wholly fruitless endeavor of comparing works of art to one another. It would be as if we were choosing the Best Painting, and the nominees were Rembrandt’s “Night Watch,” Picasso’s “Guernica,” Munch’s “The Scream,” Renoir’s “The Boating Party,” and Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa (La Giaconda).” Like comparing 2019’s Honeyland with The Farewell, or The Irishman, with Avengers: Endgame, there is really no way to do this in a justifiable, neutral, qualitative way.

OscarSoWhite and MeToo

There is another problem, and opinions may vary as to its size and importance. As has been widely reported and discussed, only one of the 20 acting nominations went to a non-white actor (Cynthia Erivo, for Harriet). Does the Motion Picture Academy have a racial problem? Let me answer that question this way: The Academy has somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 voting members. Approximately 15 percent of the members are non-White. (This may not account for the several hundred new members added last year, but I doubt the numbers are drastically different.) Now suppose, when Thanos obtained all the Infinity Stones in last year’s Avengers: Infinity War and snapped his fingers, instead of powderizing half of all life in the universe, he instead converted the Academy to one in which 85 percent of the members were not White. In addition to the fact that Black Panther and the rest of the Wakandans might not have been fighting against Thanos with such ferocity, this year’s nominations might have looked like this:

Best Actor:

·       Daniel Kaluuya, for Queen & Slim

·       Jimmie Fails, for The Last Black Man in San Francisco 

·       Dev Patel, for Hotel Mumbai

·       Kang Ho Song, for Parasite

·       Eddie Murphy, for Dolemite is My Name

Best Actress:

·       Jodie Turner-Smith, for Queen & Slim

·       Awkwafina, for The Farewell

·       Lupita Nyong’o, for Us

·       Cynthia Erivo, for Harriet

·       Yeo Jeong Jo, for Parasite

Would that be racist? Can we say Leonardo DiCaprio was better, in Once Upon a Time. . . in Hollywood, than Eddie Murphy in Dolemite is My Name? Was Saoirse Ronan’s acting in Little Women better than Jodie Turner-Smith’s acting in Queen & Slim? We might as well ask if “Guernica” is a better painting than “Night Watch.” Different voting population, different results.

Now suppose that once Tony Stark/Ironman retrieved the Infinity Stones in this year’s Avengers: Endgame, he snapped his fingers (and, sadly, gave his life) to change the Academy’s membership from one that was just 31 percent female to one that was 31 percent male. This year’s Best Director nominations might have looked something like this:

Best Director:

·       Greta Gerwig, for Little Women

·       Lulu Wang, for The Farewell

·       Melina Matsoukas, for Queen & Slim

·       Olivia Wilde, for Booksmart

·       Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, for The Mustang

Would that mean the Academy has a gender problem? Or to restate it more pointedly, does the current Academy have a misogyny problem? Is it assumed that women can participate, but they can’t lead (i.e., direct)? Such an assumption reminds me of the past (and bogus) rationalization against allowing African Americans to be quarterbacks in the NFL, i.e., they have unquestionable football talent but (supposedly) lack those ineffable qualities of leadership and vision. Like the historic dearth of African American quarterbacks in the NFL, the issue of female directors seems to be getting better, although that improvement is not reflected in this year’s nominations. Can we really say Quentin Tarantino’s direction was demonstrably better, in Once Upon a Time. . . in Hollywood, than Greta Gerwig’s direction in Little Women? (My opinion: a hard “No.”) Was Todd Phillips’s direction in Joker, creating a dark and nihilistic version of our society, really better than Lulu Wang’s tender and touching direction in The Farewell? Is Picasso a better painter than Da Vinci?

Top Ten: No Joking Irishman in Hollywood

Okay, with that off my chest, here are my Top Ten Movies for 2019. It overlaps somewhat with Len’s list, but not entirely. But first, a few caveats. First, such lists are highly subjective, and omission from my list is not intended to slight those films that did not make my cut. But ten is ten, and while I admit ten is an arbitrary cut off, there it is. Unlike other writers/critics, I will not list an additional 10 or 20 “honorable mentions.” Suffice it to say there are many worthy movies not on my list. Indeed, the movie I most enjoyed this year, Yesterday, is not on my list. Perhaps Oscar should institute an Audience Award for such enjoyable movies, like at many film festivals, but I suppose gross ticket sales are their own reward. Am I right, Avengers and Star Wars?

Second, beware of people telling you their opinions of the best movies of the year when they haven’t seen many movies. I can’t tell you how many people express opinions to me about movies they haven’t seen. The Academy announced over 300 films were eligible for Oscar consideration from the calendar year 2019, and I saw somewhere north of 100 of them.

Third, about my prejudices. We all have them, and here are mine: I love foreign language films, for their often different take on storytelling, and their ability to open a window on a different culture. I enjoy genre films, so I don’t look down on thrillers, action movies, comedies, sci-fi, rom-coms, etc. But I don’t like horror movies much, and don’t see a lot of them.

Fourth, we must consider what movies are eligible. The Academy releases a list of eligible movies, but sometimes a movie, often foreign, is on the list but is more associated with the previous year. That happened this year with Christian Petzold’s movie, Transit. It would have made my Top Ten list this year, but I think of it as a movie from the previous year. Indeed, I think it made my Top Ten list then. Ditto Woman at War. Both are on Len’s Honorable Mention list. On the flip side, Little Joe, an understated and interesting sci-fi thriller about a plant breeder who accidentally creates a dangerous breed of plant, is not on the list of eligible movies this year, although it came out in theaters in 2019.

So, with that said, here is my Top Ten, in in ascending order:

10. The Two Popes   I was leery of this movie, but in the end, I was utterly charmed by it, largely due to the amazing performances by Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins. The direction, and the look of the film, also seemed different, perhaps because it was not directed by an American but a Brazilian, Fernando Meirelles. Might Pryce, sadly overlooked (probably due to the hype around Glenn Close) in last year’s The Wife, sneak in and win an Oscar?

9. 1917   This is a big-screen must; no streaming this one on your TV no matter how large. The spectacle of The Great War, though largely (and criminally) forgotten by Americans, comes amazingly to life in Sam Mendes’s spectacular production. I loved the understated illustration of the futility and idiocy of war when the protagonists, after enduring unbelievable hardship and danger to travel a few miles on foot, suddenly encounter a whole troop who just drove up to their position. And yes, the cinematography is epic and awesome.

8. Queen & Slim   Unlike The Help, Hidden Figures, and last year’s Oscar-winner Green Book (all fine films which I enjoyed), Queen & Slim is a different animal: a film about the African-American experience in America told from an entirely Black perspective. The viewer suspects the journey of Queen and Slim won’t really end well, but what an interesting journey! We’ve not seen this story before.

7. The Farewell   Lulu Wang’s tender and funny story, based in facts drawn from her own family, gives us a glimpse of the life of Chinese living in America, and the cultural divide between the two countries and cultures. Awkwafina was a revelation, and Shenzhen Zhao, as the grandmother, was deserving of an Oscar nod.

6. Little Women   Greta Gerwig has reimagined this much-adored 19th Century tale with admirable verve and intelligence. Faithful to the tone of the original story and yet updated for today (did they really dance like that back then?), I wanted to be part of that creative and loving family. Saoirse Ronan is wonderful as the irrepressible Jo March, and Laura Dern deserved a nomination for her performance as the mother of the March family, more for this movie than her performance in “Marriage Story.”

5. Marriage Story   I saw this with my wife, and after the movie, she thought the movie was too hard on Nicole, played by Scarlett Johansson. I felt just the opposite; that the movie was too hard on Adam Driver’s Charlie. After discussing some of the scenes in the movie, we concluded the movie was actually pretty fair. The movie is very perceptive in showing how, when a loving relationship fractures, one of the parties is often farther along the emotional journey of separation, and the other party needs time to process the split and catch up before the couple can reach a point of balance and equilibrium. And the use of Sondheim’s songs near the end of the movie is inspired.

 4. Pain and Glory   Pedro Almodovar has eschewed his more outlandish tendencies to give us a controlled meditation on the value and meaning of past glories, the power of regret, and the sadness that can accompany growing old.

3. Jojo Rabbit   This was the most audacious movie of the year. A goofy Adolf Hitler (played by the director, Taika Waititi) as a young boy’s imaginary friend? Scarlett Johansson as a young Bavarian mother? Sam Rockwell as a possibly gay Nazi? To hear the description is admittedly off-putting, but don’t be. Director Waititi maintains the tricky tone of the film perfectly, and the performances are uniformly terrific (including the overlooked Thomasin McKenzie, last seen in 2018’s undervalued Leave No Trace). In addition, the movie is at times laugh out loud funny. Can you see Martin Scorsese trying to make this movie?

2.  Ad Astra   I know this movie is not on many Top Ten lists. Maybe people are put off by the space thing, or the introspective, meditative tone. But like most great movies, it is about more than one thing. Sure, the moon colony looks interesting, the visuals of space are amazing, and whether Brad Pitt, disobeying orders, will be able to board the spaceship to Neptune, is thrilling. But the movie is also about a grown son’s difficult relationship with his father, and about living up to a father’s expectations and enormous legacy. And finally, the movie asks us to consider: What if, contrary to most science fiction stories, there really is no intelligent life in the universe other than us? No ET, no Arrival, no Rebel Alliance, Jedi Knights or Sith Lords, no Aliens. Just us. On Earth. Does that change anything? Can we all just get along?

1. Parasite  A perfectly balanced commentary on modern income equality, wrapped up in a gorgeous caper movie about a family of con men (and women). And then, just when you think you have the movie figured out, it swerves. And then a little while later, it swerves again, venturing into a crazy place. It reminded me a little of last year’s Get Out in that regard. The performances are uniformly excellent, and the look of the movie is great. If you see one movie this year, this should be it.

Yeo-jeong Jo in Parasite

So those are my ten picks. As readers may notice, there is no Joker, no The Irishman, and no Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood. I’m under no obligation to explain, but I’ll try. I thought Joaquin Phoenix was great in Joker,  but did not otherwise admire the movie. This guy is an evil genius, Batman’s arch-nemesis? He seems more like a pathetic incel who stumbled into a revolution. The dark tone seemed wholly derivative (Dark Knight, anyone) and we’ve already seen Heath Ledger win an Oscar for playing this guy. Thanks, but no thanks.

The Irishman was entertaining enough, but I tired of the computer de-aging thing, seeing the 75-year-old De Niro walk stiffly like, well, a typical 75-year-old, although his character, Frank Sheeran, was supposed to be 40. Compare that to the virile, animalistic 30-year-old De Niro playing the young Vito Corleone in Godfather II. Can you imagine if Coppola just used a computer to de-age Marlon Brando? But that nit aside, I felt the story just went on and on, with no strong story arc and not enough editing.

I liked Once Upon a Time even less. I tried to watch it a second time the other day and found it tedious and off-putting. Tarantino has a schtick, I think, with the period clothes and hairdos, the songs, the radio ads and promos (“The Real Don Steele”!) and billboards and cars. The name dropping (“Land of the Giants”! “Mannix”! Bob Conrad and his tight pants (“Wild, Wild West”!)) Changing the screen aspect for TV replays.

But aside from those things, what was really in this movie? There were so many pointless scenes of driving around, so many other unnecessary scenes, the offensive scene where Brad Pitt fights Bruce Lee. And although people in movies don’t necessarily have to speak as normal people talk, the hyper-realism has to work (as it did in Pulp Fiction), and the scene with the little girl counseling DiCaprio about acting and staying in character was just embarrassing. And then the ending! After two-and-a-half hours, I felt like I got all dressed up for big date and she didn’t show up. After all that anticipation, what a disappointment.

Final Thoughts

The most heartening, happiest nominations this year are, for me, the accolades for Parasite. No surprise there, given that I chose it as the best movie of the year. The worst nomination? No doubt there either: The nomination for Original Song for “I’m Standing With You,” from the movie Breakthrough. The movie, about a boy who falls through the ice in a frozen lake, is “dead” for 45 minutes, and then miraculously comes back to life when his mother prays for him, was made for an evangelical Christian audience and is plodding, pedestrian, and predictable. Although there is no requirement a great song has to be from a great movie, or even a good one, but the song is entirely forgettable. Boring, in fact.

Finally, throughout the year I often see small movies worth your time that come unaccompanied by anyhype, let alone full-page ads in the New York Times (I’m looking at you, Netflix), or other Oscar buzz. A few come to mind: Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo, Honey Boy with Shia Leboeuf, Lucy in the Sky with Natalie Portman, The Mustang with Matthias Schoenaerts, Sword of Trust with Marc Maron. 

But if I were to recommend one small, overlooked movie, it would be Wild Rose with an amazing performance by Jessie Buckley. (She also plays the English assistant to Judy Garland in Judy). In another world, this movie would have been nominated for Best Actress (Buckley), Best Supporting Actress (Julie Walters) and Original Song - Glasgow (No Place Like Home), cowritten by actress Mary Steenburgen(!). You can check out the song on YouTube. Maybe I should try and get my hands on those Infinity Stones for one more snap of the fingers. No Joke(r).