The 2010s’ final revolution around the sun was full of half-baked goodbyes. The Avengers crew that inaugurated Marvel’s ubiquity hung up their bodysuits , but the franchise will probably outlive them all. “Star Wars” promos made a fuss about “The Rise of Skywalker” ending its titular hero’s saga, even though there’s more (so much more ) on the galaxy’s horizon, whether or not Luke is involved. And in between discarding projects from its newly acquired 21st Century Fox slate, Disney released a trio of uninspired reboots — “Dumbo ,” “Aladdin ,” “The Lion King ” — and bid farewell to creativity as a prevailing business model.
These movies were, or will be, massive hits, no matter their redundancies. In them, we see an industry unsure how else to thrive amid an overcrowded marketplace further veering toward streaming platforms and short-form handheld content . It was appealing, then, to watch a few greats grapple with their legacies, free from Hollywood’s intellectual-property demands.
Behind the camera, Martin Scorsese did it with “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Pedro Almódovar with “Pain and Glory” and the late Agnès Varda with “Varda by Agnès.” In front of the camera, Brad Pitt, Renée Zellweger, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Lopez and Shia LaBeouf asked us to reconsider how we perceive them . Their respective resurgences spoke to the power of the movie star, an endangered species in the age of comic-book dominance.
It’s been a strange year: dreadful in the first half, sneakily great in the second. What lingers most are the debates and dissension, which might be the most 2019 thing of all. Would “Joker,” a downer about a misunderstood clown who gets a gun, spark copycat violence ? Are superhero movies cinema, or nah ? Why were Sonic the Hedgehog’s teeth so big ? Why do the cats in “Cats” have humanlike bosoms , and who decided that Jason Derulo could share billing with Judi Dench? We may never have all the answers.
But for now, I’m here to direct people to gems they might have missed and to document, however subjectively, the wonders of what the movies can still offer us. Happy watching!
"Booksmart"
Annapurna Pictures
Booksmart should have been a major summer hit, but Olivia Wildes
directorial debut fizzled upon arrival. Bummer. Its a playful, progressive comedy that largely unfolds over the course of a single night, when two shrewder-than-thou high schoolers (Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever) decide theyll finally adopt their classmates partying ways on the eve of graduation. Few images this year were funnier than studious BFFs covered in what they assume to be an Altoids tins worth of cocaine while rushing to join the popular kids theyd spent so long spurning.
"Ready or Not"
Fox Searchlight
Want to have a blast? Try Ready or Not, a devilish horror comedy that might as well be the result of a steamy foursome involving Clue, Hereditary, Succession and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. With a searing eat the rich bedrock and a plucky lead performance from Samara Weaving as a bride whose wedding night descends into murder, the film never takes itself too seriously, which lends Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's masterstroke even more bite.
"The Lighthouse"
A24
Robert Eggers debut, The Witch, ranks among the decades horror showpieces, an eerie exploration of paranoia that shares some DNA with his follow-up, even if "The Lighthouse" is far more genre-fluid. Thats not the only thing thats fluid: Your interpretation of this psychodrama set in 1890s New England is as good as mine. What makes it memorable is the power struggle (
and latent homoeroticism ) unfurling as two lightkeepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) weather a monsoon in solitude. Dafoe and Pattinson demonstrate the greatness that can happen when gifted actors are let loose to chew every morsel of scenery around them.
"One Child Nation"
Amazon Studios
Part investigative memoir and part recent-history lesson,
One Child Nation chronicles the staggering effects of Chinas population constrictions. Nanfu Wang, who co-directed the documentary with Jialing Zhang, explores her own connection to the countrys one-child policy, in turn revealing a holocaust that spans government-mandated abortions, abandoned fetuses, twins separated at birth and the systematic policing of womens bodies. It would be heartbreaking and vital even if the film didnt draw comparisons to the United States' limited reproductive rights, but its all the more potent for doing so.
"The Irishman"
Netflix
The crime genre has defined Martin Scorseses career. In The Irishman," the 77-year-old director contemplates what that means. Did he glorify gangsters, or did we? What happens when crooks grow old and lonely, no longer commanding the streets like they once did? How does the world see an accomplished storyteller who sometimes gets reduced to his most lawless portrayals? This is Scorsese looking back at nearly a century of American culture with the help of his right-hand associates (Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel). In doing so, Scorsese also gazes ahead, focusing on men who must seek absolution for their misdeeds. One day soon, they may be phased out by a less patriarchal world. Scorsese explores those contours from the vantage of hindsight, redrafting his own legacy in the process.
"Marriage Story"
Netflix
Divorce Story would be an apter title for this Kramer vs. Kramer-esque dramedy about uncoupling in the age of consciousness. Then again, divorce doesnt have to invalidate an entire marriage, especially when theres a child involved. That, among other lessons, is what Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) discover in Noah Baumbachs talky triumph. The accomplishment of Marriage Story stems from its ability to toss the audience back and forth between Nicole and Charlies differing perspectives, which are characterized by vulturous lawyers (Laura Dern! Ray Liotta!), years of shared history and the hard fact that we can never truly know another person.
"Climax"
A24
No artform fuses beauty and violence more thoroughly than dance, hence why so many movies have used it as a sinister backdrop (The Red Shoes, Suspiria, Black Swan). In Climax, Argentinian provocateur Gaspar No serves up the beauty first, opening with an unbroken six-minute electro vignette full of the wildest moves youve seen since 1990's Paris Is Burning. What follows is a raucous all-night blowout in which the troupe unknowingly downs LSD-spiked punch and
enters a psychotropic hellscape . Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, this movie wont be everyones cup of booze. But for those who can stomach it, the sensory assault is electrifying.
"Pain and Glory"
Sony Pictures Classics
Pedro Almodvars movies are known for coruscating colors and lusty longings, both of which are on display in Pain and Glory.
But he's doing something different here . A certain transcendence abounds, as if Almodvar has finally arrived at the destination hed been seeking all along. In doing so, he gives longtime muse Antonio Banderas a defining role as a gay film director grappling with age, health, creativity and romance. Like most of Almodvars work, the story doesnt congeal until the final moments. When it does, youll feel reawakened.
"Uncut Gems"
A24
If Josh and Benny Safdie spend their entire careers contorting movie stars reputations, well be better off for it. What they created with Robert Pattinson in
Good Time was a warm-up act for Uncut Gems, which casts Adam Sandler as a frenzied jewel dealer in Manhattans Diamond District. Only an established performer with a
track record of testing viewers patience could make such an irredeemable sleaze so likable. With their signature neon-infused hysteria, the Safdie brothers follow Sandlers character through the bowels of New York, where elite business deals (including one involving NBA bigwig Kevin Garnett) and seedy personal affairs exist in perfect anti-harmony.
"The Farewell"
A24
The Farewell started as segment on "This American Life" and became the years finest Sundance title. Culling from her own family history, Lulu Wang mines the complexities of maintaining a lie to benefit a loved one a
clever arrangement for this tragicomedy about an aspiring artist (Awkwafina, making a nourished dramatic debut) struggling with her relatives decision to conceal her Chinese grandmothers (Zhao Shuzhen) cancer diagnosis. Wang smuggles into that premise
a class drama , a wedding farce and a study in collectivism, all equally rich. Have tissues handy.
"Little Women"
Sony
I know, I know:
Another Little Women adaptation?
Greta Gerwig knows, too . Instead of giving Louisa May Alcotts classic a straightforward retelling, she scrambles the story and turns it into a meta reflection on authorship, femininity and the passage of time. Finding something new to say about a 151-year-old text is no easy feat. Doing so with such painterly finesse is even harder. (And bravo to her for again casting Saorise Ronan and Timothe Chalamet as would-be lovers.) Between this, Lady Bird and Frances Ha, Gerwig became the artist of her generation.
"Portrait of a Lady on Fire"
Neon
Elegant and tender, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a French romance set at the close of the 18th century, when its heroines -- a young portraitist (Nomie Merlant) and her wealthy subject (Adle Haenel) -- were strictly forbidden from expressing desire. For much of the film, Merlant and Haenel telegraph their flirtations through subtleties all too common to the queer experience: a glance here, a coded debate about Orpheus and Eurydice there. Director Cline Sciamma, who also challenged gender assumptions in her films Girlhood and Tomboy, treats the camera like a canvas, applying the paint delicately until it becomes a vivid mural bursting with life.
"Hustlers"
STXfilms
Hustlers announces its mission statement at the start, courtesy of Janet Jackson: This is a story about control. Every person in every frame is competing for power, and none of them can keep it forever. Not the Wall Street brokers robbing America, nor the strippers maxing out said criminals credit cards. Director Lorene Scafaria makes heroes out of the latter group, emboldened by their resourceful transgressions. For so long, women like them ranked among societys supposed reprobates; now they get to bathe in the cash that wealthy men stole from a country too mangled to know the difference. With a catchy soundtrack,
a career-best Jennifer Lopez and a script overflowing with splendid one-liners, Hustlers is as fun as it is smart, an increasingly rare combination for a movie that opened on more than 3,000 screens.
"Her Smell"
Gunpowder & Sky
The female psychodrama is one of cinemas
great traditions , and Elisabeth Moss rage savant for our modern times is the perfect performer to wear the microgenres crown. Playing a 90s punk-rock hellion who roars and rants and seethes with high-strung resentment, Moss delivered the years most ferocious performance. The camera in Her Smell is wed to her every movement, snaking through cavernous corridors as chaos follows. Its a feat of acting complimented by haunting sound design, romping riot-grrrl anthems and a wrenching finale wherein director Alex Ross Perry
uncorks the characters trauma to unforgettable effect.
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"
Sony
Heres to Rick Fucking Dalton, has-beens, old buddies, revisionist history, the best acting youve ever seen in your whole life, California dreamin, acid-dipped cigarettes, drive-in theaters, Brandy the pit bull, Musso & Frank Grill, hippie love triangles, lethal weapons, The Wrecking Crew, Brad Pitt shirtless on a roof, the legacy of Sharon Tate, flamethrowers, TV cowboys and
Quentin Tarantinos best movie .
"Parasite"
Neon
Nothing comes close to the mastery of Parasite, Bong Joon-hos twisty crowd-pleaser about class dimensions in South Korea. The rare foreign film to become something of an American phenomenon, Parasite treats everyone as victims of capitalisms clutches, from the struggling family living in a dank semi-basement apartment to the upscale clan who employs them. What starts as a social comedy becomes a tense thriller set amid a country a world, really that is robbing its population of mobility. Bong,
one of the craftiest filmmakers alive , threads that needle in unpredictable ways. He disguises a deeply meaningful parable in the clothes of an electric blockbuster, proving that neither subtitles nor sophistication should be an impediment.
Honorable mentions:
“1917” (directed by Sam Mendes)
“The Beach Bum ” (directed by Harmony Korine)
“Diane ” (directed by Kent Jones)
“Hail Satan? ” (directed by Penny Lane)
“High Life ” (directed by Claire Denis)
“Honey Boy ” (directed by Alma Har’el)
“In Fabric” (directed by Peter Strickland)
“Jawline ” (directed by Liza Mandelup)
“Knives Out ” (directed by Rian Johnson)
“The Souvenir ” (directed by Joanna Hogg)
Plus eight indelible performances worth seeking out:
Roman Griffin Davis, “Jojo Rabbit”
Andrew Garfield, “Under the Silver Lake”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “Dolemite Is My Name”
Alfre Woodard, “Clemency”
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