Top 15 Movies of 2019

 #50-40

#39-16

If this is the first part of the rankings you're reading, you've missed the back end of the rankings, posted above.  This is part three.  No need to have a long intro, let's get right to it.

#15 Luce

This is a thriller disguised as a commentary on race or a commentary on race disguised as a thriller.  Either way, it all hinges on the performance of Kelvin Harrison, a model student who's pretty much the perfect student in every way.  But there are cracks in the foundation and there are moments where you wonder if he's a sociopath.  He has loving and supportive parents, played by Naomi Watts and Eric Roth, who adopted him when he was a child soldier.  An essay earns the concern of a teacher played by Octavia Spencer, who uses the essay as a pretext to search his locker, where she finds something else.

Without spoiling it, it gets into the demands of the seemingly perfect black All-American student who might feel he has to live up to a certain burden given his race and background.  So you're never sure if this kid is seriously deranged or just a poor guy who has impossible demands for himself.  And the reason you are able to question all this is the seriously excellent performance by Harrison.  It wouldn't work without him at all.

#14 Dark Waters

I'm apparently a sucker for dry legal thrillers.  Back in 2016, Nathanial Rich wrote an article about a lawyer "who became DuPont's worst nightmare."  Funny enough this guy started as a corporate defense lawyer, but was just helping out a family friend, when he discovered much more than he bargained for.  He ends up discovering that the supposedly safe DuPont plant is anything but and that they aren't actually regulated by the EPA for certain dangerous chemicals by a loophole essentially.

And well, then he sues the fuck out of them and it takes forever to get results, and he's still suing DuPont today.  A good look at the truly soulless depths some corporations are willing to go to fuck over anyone just to make a profit and the efforts by one man to make them pay just a portion of what they should.  Any legal thriller requires a lead performance to instantly root for and Mark Ruffalo can seemingly play a likable guy in his sleep.  Anne Hathaway plays a thankless role as his wife and Tim Robbins is better than he needs to be as his boss.  Everyone involved seemed to be disgusted with DuPont's actions and wanted to do this right.

#13 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

This is described as a biographical film, and it's somewhat of a misleading genre.  Because it's not actually a biography of Fred Rogers.  It's not really even a biography of the man who interviewed him.  Because the character as he exists on screen and played by Matthew Rhys is apparently not all that similar to the real life guy.  There are surface similarities as with any "based on a true story" movies, but do not think of this as inside look into Mr. Rogers.

With that said, I think this is about as good a movie as one about Mr. Rogers will ever be (that's not a documentary at least).  The man just does not lend himself well to being a movie character.  He appears to be as close to a saint as you can get, and that kind of lead character in a movie just isn't interesting.  He's not the lead character though, Lloyd Vogel is.  And Vogel is interesting.  If you've ever seen The Americans, you know how capable Rhys is of trying to repress his emotions while on the verge of tears, a thing he does multiple times in this movie.  And I honestly think it's the best look we'll ever see of Mr. Rogers, with the central question of the movie being "Is he really as good as he seems?"

#12 The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao

The first question I'd have to ask of anyone who asks whether they'd like this movie would be "Have you ever seen My Brilliant Friend?"  After they inevitably answer no, I'd struggle to gauge their interests.  If you have seen that show and like it, you'll like this movie.  There are some similarities.  It looks at two young sisters, who through a tragedy of fate, end up separated at a young age.  One sister comes to think her sister abandoned her, the other sister has no idea where she is or if she's even alive.

This movie would not exist if social media were a thing in the 1950s.  In case you think all social media is bad.  The two sisters just have no way of contacting each other or even knowing where they are.  One forms her own life, disconnected from her family.  The other never stops searching.  Invisible Life won the Un Certain Regard from the Cannes Film Festival, which an award for films with unusual styles and non-traditional stories.  It's not only a look at the sisters, it's a look at growing up as a woman in a patriarchal and repressive society.  Like My Brilliant Friend, which I also recommend.

#11 The Nightengale

I could describe the plot of this movie to you and you'll probably go in thinking it's a much more fun movie than it is.  That's because it's essentially a revenge movie.  But unlike Django Unchained or many other revenge movies, revenge does not seem fun.  It's set in the early 1820s in what is now Tasmania, but was then an island for convicts.  This was a time directly preceding the "Black War" which was a war between European colonists and Aboriginal Australians.  And hoo boy.  The film does not shy away from the realities of the racism that it probably brought at the time.

Claire, a convict from stealing, was sold into "indentured servitude" but her time ran out six months ago and the lieutenant makes it clear it's more like slavery, because he needs to actually release her from servitude and he won't.  And well, let's just say the lieutenant is very much the bad guy and kicks the plot in motion.  And this needs to come with a huge, huge warning to know what you're getting into.  Because you'll know what I'm talking about 25 or so minutes in the movie when you'll need to pause, walk around, and maybe even give up watching.  It's not exploitative violence, but it is brutal to watch at times.  Hell of a follow-up to The Babadook from Jennifer Kent (but VERY different).

#10 American Factory 

Guys, I'm sorry if you're a fan of corporations.  But you need to snap out of it.  Watch The American Factory, which looks at a Chinese company who bought out an abandoned General Motors plant in Ohio.  The Chinese company thinks this is a good idea, because American laws are a fucking joke in some places and they can make more money than they would in China.  The filmmakers were granted unprecedented access because this was supposed to be a feel good thing.

Well, it sure wasn't.  Chinese workers, American workers, the theme of this movie was that the working class is the one who gets fucked.  The leaders of the corporation that run the company look very bad in this movie - they would never have approved the access if they saw this coming.  If you think this movie is just a commentary on how Chinese companies are bad, you seriously missed the point of this movie.  The best part is that the documentary doesn't have talking heads explain this to you, they just let the results speak for itself.

#9 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

I'm very glad I watched this in theaters.  It was a blast.  I can't honestly say that I would have liked this movie less if I hadn't, but being with the crowd towards the end made the theater experience totally worth it.  The audience reaction was great.  At this point, you either like Quentin Tarantino or you don't.  You're probably familiar with his style, his movies, and you can get a sense of whether or not you're in - or you're out.

When the Sharon Tate murder was announced to be the subject of his next movie, I had serious doubts at how Tarantino would pull it off.  And to my great surprise, he not only pulled it off, I actually think he helped you realize the true extent of the tragedy of what happened through how he did it.  Sharon Tate, for large portions of this movie, seems to just be in it because they cast Margot Robbie.  I do wonder what your reaction to this movie would be without knowing the backstory - someone at some point will experience that movie without knowing the backstory - and I think they're going to be seriously confused, because you NEED that knowledge for her story to make sense.

#8 Jojo Rabbit

I had the pleasure of watching this twice, and it wasn't until my second viewing that this movie really clicked for me.  Wish I had the time to do that for every movie, but at least it happened for a movie I initially under-appreciated.  And I think maybe that's why its Metacritic is only 58?  I don't think my score would be that high after my first viewing if I'm being completely honest, so I wonder if that's part of it.

It was clearly appreciated by the Oscars, which I find interesting because if it wasn't necessarily well-reviewed (though hardly panned), and it wouldn't really seem to be an Oscar type movie.  Nonetheless, I think this movie mashes tones pretty well, with the performances help the comedy land in a terrible situation.  Specifically, Taiki Waititi as Hitler is one part that really helps give the movie it's satirical tone.  In fact, I actually wonder if this movie even works without his performance it's so essential.

#7 Little Women

Little Women is a movie that has been adapted many, many times.  Here's how many times it's been adapted.  It's been a silent film twice, it was adapted as soon as sound came to movies in 1933, and then had a adaptation in color 1949.  Not until 1994 was it adapted again until 2018 with a contemporary re-telling and then finally the Greta Gerwig version on this list.  It will surely keep being adapted until the end of time.  And I confess the Gerwig version is my first here.  I've never even read the book.  So I essentially learned the plot of this for the first time watching the 2019 version.

Did this impact how much I liked it?  Who's to say?  I think I'll have seriously trouble liking the older versions.  The '33, '49, and '94 versions are all on classic film lists and I feel like it's going to be tough jumping from a modern filmmaker who has some sort of pulse on what modern audiences like to older filmmakers who weren't thinking how audiences would respond beyond that specific year.  But that's a worry for the future.

#6 Booksmart

It's seriously hard to avoid the Superbad comparisons.  But I mean that truly as a compliment as Superbad is one of the few comedies from its time to hold up.  And it certainly doesn't help that Beanie Feldstein is Jonah Hill's sister.  I've only watched this once, but like Superbad, I feel like this is a movie that will be endlessly rewatchable.

The plot differs from Superbad slightly.  The two high schoolers are goodie two shoes who realize when they're about to graduate that they haven't really experienced high school - they've never gone to parties or done anything even remotely that they weren't supposed to.  So they have one night to do it.  Joined by Feldstein is Kaitlyn Dever, truly great as a child actress on Justified who seems to have not lost the touch for acting that some child actors do.  Thankfully.

#5 Honeyland

This is another accidentally great documentary.  It was planned as a short film about a region surrounding a river when they met a lone beekeper who is able to make a living by selling honey.  She has a rule.  She takes half for herself, half for the bees.  Take too much, the bees can't live, it hurts you long-term.  Well while the filmmakers were there, a seemingly nice, crowded family moves next door.  They ignore her advice.

And the unplanned documentary turns into a commentary at large of humans and the planet, who disregard it to make a buck because they have to.  If this wasn't a documentary, this movie would work just about as well - the fact that it's actually a documentary is insane because how well the movie works as a narrative by itself.  And the movie is so, so beautiful.  Just look at the trailer and you'll see what I mean.  It's no wonder they went there to shoot a short film - I'm just glad they ended up with more than that.

#4 1917

I suppose me writing this now is timely, because I'm going to end up watching zero 2020 films in theaters.  And that's a shame, because this movie, along with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, are two movies that I think would have less of an impact on me were I to watch it at home.  Something about the theater experience forces me to get lost in the movie.  The moviemaking magic of 1917 worked completely on me.  At the end, when he's running, I can't even describe the feeling it had on me.

But I don't want to diminish 1917 by saying that.  Because I could have said the same thing about Dunkirk.  Except I watched Dunkirk at home.  And its impact on me was no less effective and I'd find a hard time thinking it would be more effective in theaters.  Sometimes when it works, it works.  And as far as the "gimmick" of following the characters in real time with one, prolonged shot - well I'll put it this way: I watched this with my dad, who didn't even notice that, so it's not distracting to say the least.

#3 Parasite

I've mentioned before in my list that the burden of high expectations sometimes can ruin a movie for me.  Ruin might be a bit strong, but I'm always looking for the thing that will blow me away.  This was not an issue with Parasite, a movie I did have high expectations for, but which managed to still blow me away.  I think, when recommending movies to friends, keep in mind which movies might be hurt by raised expectations and which will live up to them, and keep in mind their tastes, because I am always surprised at how much expectations impact my enjoyment of a film.

This is another movie about our times, which even though it's set in a different country, could just as easily apply to America.  What I especially liked was that the wealthy family wasn't actually mean, they in fact would think of themselves as generous and nice, but that their wealth put them so far out of touch of the poorer family that it's impossible for them to truly see their struggle or their privilege for what it is.

#2 Knives Out

You know what puts this movie over the top for me?  For being a simple murder mystery - well it's not simple actually - but for seemingly being a fun murder mystery, there's a nice message about immigrants.  The moment the Thrombey family turns truly villainous is the moment that Michael Shannon's character threatens deportation to Ana de Armas.  And suddenly, this movie became more than just a complex and fun murder mystery. 

And yet the sense of fun is always there.  Rian Johnson managed something truly difficult.  He managed to say something while making an audience friendly movie that appeals to everyone.  The dense among the moviegoers will not really even pick up on the theme even though it's not exactly in the background, but if you're at all paying attention to the movie beyond a surface level, you see it.  And that's what turns the movie for me from fun to one of the best of 2019.

#1 The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Before I compiled my list, I knew this would be my #1 movie of 2019.  It's the only thing I knew.  I talked about expectations above.  This is the type of movie that, if you were to watch it based on me saying it's the best movie of the year, you'd probably be underwhelmed.  It's not that type of movie.  Some movies can withstand high expectations, I don't think this is one of them.  And I'm speaking for myself too.  I had no expectations going into this movie.  If I did, I don't think it'd be my #1 movie.  I am aware this may not make sense.

That's just a long-winded way of saying: please temper your expectations watching this movie.  I want you to love this movie like I do, but am worried you'll keep waiting for the moment it becomes the #1 movie.  And the longer the movie goes on, the more you wonder why exactly is it that high, and by the time the movie can theoretically deliver on that promise, you're much to disappointed for it to course correct.  This is all in theory anyway.

The soundtrack is my favorite of the year.  In fact, I think the soundtrack is a large reason it's here.  Because the images and the music together can make you emotional by itself.  I'm hesitant to recommend a song before you see the movie, because hearing the song for the first time in the movie is part of the power, but I'd recommend the movie just for the music itself.

In the first half, one thing I'll say is that it's clear the director is somewhat showing his abilities off - he uses every filmmaking trick he has up his sleeve.  By the second half, he's gotten that out of his system and makes only right choices.  But honestly the tricks are still good filmmaking - it's not like too much editing or something truly distracting - you just notice he's trying to direct the hell out of this movie.  There are worse things.

I could tell you the plot, but it truly doesn't do the movie justice.  The plot does not sound like a great movie.  A man tries to reclaim his old house, which is now so ridiculously out of his price range that he could ever afford it.  And when the old tenants move, for a moment, he can live there as a squatter.  A truly great performance from Jonathan Majors, who plays a very different type of character here than he did on Lovecraft Country.

In the future, I'll probably just stick to a top 15 or top 20.  But this was an interesting experiment.

Best Movies of 2019: #39-16

#50-40

If this is the first part of the rankings you're reading, you've missed the back end of the rankings, posted above.  This is part two.  No need to have a long intro, let's get right to it.

#39 Bait

This is an utterly fascinating film to watch, because stylistically, it's filmed like it was made in the 1920s or 1930s.  It's kind of eerie.  Mark Jenkin, writer-director, used an old timey camera to film it and the whole movie feels stuck out of time.  Fair warning, if you're not familiar with what a movie from that time looks like, well you may be seriously off-put by the movie.  So it's not for everyone.

#38 Toy Story 4

This is, in my opinion, clearly the worst of the Toy Story movies but much better than a fourth movie has any right to be at the same time.  So you probably have a sense of your interest in this movie before you've ever seen it, and you'd probably be right.

#37 Atlantics

It is hard to describe this film, because it's both a love story and a ghost story.  But because it features characters of lower socioeconomic background, it's also in some ways a social commentary as well.  It won the Cannes Grand Prix award which is essentially "the second place award."

#36 High Flying Bird

I actually wrote my thoughts on High Flying Bird during my Soderbergh marathon.  I felt it was a good commentary on modern sports and is sort of a sneaky caper movie - the plot is essentially the agent maneuvering things the way he wants and to do so, he has to pull a con of sorts.

#35 Corpus Christi

The Polish selection for the Best International Feature Film, Corpus Christi has a bit of an outlandish premise which apparently isn't as outlandish in Poland.  A man with a criminal past poses as a priest for a small village.  The act works because the fake priest takes it extremely seriously and sincerely, and the lead performance goes a long way towards making this movie work as well as it does.

#34 The Lighthouse

Is there currently a genre or category for a good movie that has essentially no rewatchability?  There should be.  The Lighthouse is kind of like Bait in the sense that it's meant to evoke an earlier time, but unlike Bait, The Lighthouse is clearly filmed in a way where only someone in 2019 could film it - the cinematography could only be modern it's so beautiful looking.

#33 Ford v Ferrari

This movie is too long.  There's no getting around that.  It's not really a premise that supports a 150 minute runtime.  Aside from that, it's a pretty good movie.  Matt Damon and Christian Bale plus some well filmed race sequences keep your attention for most of the story.  But it should seriously be about two hours.

#32 Ad Astra

You know when I started Ad Astra, I was not totally encouraged.  It gave me more of a Terrance Malick vibe than I liked.  Which for the people who don't know, I don't think Malick films very much.  But to my surprise, I ended up liking it and appreciating it.

#31 Give Me Liberty

Full disclosure: I watched this movie without subtitles.  More than half the characters spoke Russian.  Most of them were there purely to annoy and complicate the driver's life, and not actually essential dialogue.  You got the gist of what they were saying because the driver would respond to them in English (or not at all).  You'd be surprised how much you can pick up without subtitles if one side is speaking English.

#30 The Art of Self-Defense

You have to prepare yourself for the fact that this is a black comedy and as such adjust your wavelength of sorts.  Jesse Eisenberg plays essentially a loser who turns to karate after getting beaten up and nearly killed.  Problem is that the karate place he turns to... is run by a truly shining example of toxic masculinity.  I like where this movie ends up if you're one to be worried about that.

#29 The Report

This is positively Soderbergh-esque dealing straight with the facts and dispensing any romance.  Which makes sense because Scott Z Burns has written a few movies directed by Soderbergh.  This movie dispenses with romances or anything extraneous.  It just deals with an FBI agent who tries to investigate the CIA's use of torture after 9/11.  For simply remaining informed, this is a must-watch.  It works as a movie in my opinion too. 

#28 Diego Maradona

I confess: I am not remotely anything close to a soccer fan, so much so that I didn't really know who Diego Maradona was.  I've heard the name, but definitely did not associate him with someone as good as he is.  Anyway, this focuses on his years at S.C.C. Napoli, but it does cover essentially his whole life.  I'm not sure how good this is for people who knew all this shit before, but I found it all compelling.

#27 The Mustang

Feel free to read what this movie is about, because it more or less does exactly what you think it will do.  A convict with anger issues engages in a therapy program centered around the rehabilitation of mustangs.  Sometimes, when something is done well, it doesn't matter that it's clichéd.  The performance of Matthias Schoenaerts certainly gives is A game.

#26 Pain and Glory

Another Oscar nominated International Feature Film, this is from acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar, but this is my first ever movie I've seen from him.  He uses frequent collaborator Antonio Banderas, who got nominated for an Oscar for his performance.  I last saw this in February so my specific memory of the movie is not as good as most of the movies on this list unfortunately.

#25 The Farewell

Another movie that is written and directed by the same person - is this becoming more common or something?  Anyway, this is from Lulu Wang and as I understand it, is partially autobiographical, or at least inspired by her own life.  Which shows in the final product as it feels very real.

#24 Uncut Gems

This movie made me feel exactly what it wanted to feel which was stressed out for two hours.  In fact, my one complain about this movie is that it's too long.  Just speaking personally, a film that is designed to have you stressed the whole time seems like a movie that should be about an hour and a half.  Over two hours is asking a lot.

#23 Midsommar

I watched Midsommar before I watched Hereditary.  I did not like Hereditary.  But I liked Midsommar quite a bit, which is saying something for a guy who doesn't particularly like horror movies (I'm really trying horror fans).  I enjoyed how this could be framed as a woman moving on from a terrible boyfriend to find her sense of self if you ignore all the horror trappings.

#22 The Peanut Butter Falcon

This is the feel good movie of feel good movies.  It would be higher but I did not care for the ending all that much.  There's a specific thing I don't like about it where the movie goes from realism to fantasy, but otherwise the movie will put a smile on your face.

#21 The Vast of the Night

This is the epitome of why execution is so much more important than the premise.  Because this premise is not all that spectacular or original.  But hell if Andrew Patterson doesn't direct the hell out of it.  There's a few long takes that are incredible.  Some people are put off by the long stretches where nothing necessarily happens - speaking specifically of the beginning which is one of those long takes, but it helps set the mood and give a sense of place.

#20 Marriage Story 

Another movie where - sorry just watched it a while ago and don't have as much to say.  I watched most of the Oscar nominated stuff back in February and early March.  I'm sure you've seen this.  Well maybe the premise doesn't appeal to you and I'm not here to convince you because it's really about how divorce is ugly no matter the intentions.

#19 The Cave

Now this is confusing.  There were two movies called The Cave in 2019.  I'm speaking of the documentary, which is a look at a female physician in a makeshift hospital during the Syrian Civil War.  If you want a personal look at the Syrian Civil War to see both innocent victims and people preserving in the face of impossible odds, this is a necessary watch.

#18 The Irishman

This is too long.  I'm sorry.  This is insanely long.  It's a story that should be long.  It just shouldn't be three hours and thirty minutes.  But hey it's Martin Scorsese and who am I to tell him he's doing his movie wrong.  People that are mad that there are some internet users who are giving advice on how to watch this as a miniseries of sorts - please fuck off.  There is absolutely no reason you need to watch this entire movie in one sitting - I think it would benefit from multiple sittings in fact, because there are in fact points in the movie where you can obviously stop. 

#17 Portrait of a Lady on Fire

I think in my viewing of a Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I had the unfortunate situation where my expectations were expecting it to blow me away.  That is never a good place for a movie to be for me.  It places an impossible burden on the movie.  Nonetheless, at the end, I was really impressed with the writing of the movie.  Maybe you'll understand when you reach the end.  And I'd like to rewatch it with a proper set of expectations.

#16 Wild Rose

I did not expect to like this movie that much.  A Glaswegian woman wants to be a country singer and believes she belongs in Nashville.  These musical dramas where someone is trying to make it - they're not my favorite type of movie.  But god damn.  Jessie Buckley won me over.  She's a genuinely great singer, and the message of the movie is quite heartwarming.

I wasn't sure if I was going to go Top 15 or Top 10 tomorrow, but the clock is ticking and I think it's time to stop.  There's at least one movie outside the Top 10 where I think I'll have a lot to say about it.  Little worried I won't have a lot to say about all the movies though, which again - some of them were watched a while ago.  But nevertheless, I finish my rankings tomorrow.

Best Movies of the 2019: #50-40

Yes, you are correctly reading that I am posting a best movies of 2019 in late 2020.  The simplest answer I can give as to why is that I just finished watching all the 2019 movies I thought might make a list such as this.  I had more or less ignored movies in the actual year of 2019 and didn't get the train moving on watching 2019 movies until the pandemic hit.

I watched every conceivable movie I could with the exception of two movies.  I think one of them was rather unlikely to make my list and the other had a better shot, but I don't think it would have ranked that highly.  I made my list by looking at every movie that had pretty good reviews and/or was nominated in relevant categories at the major award shows, which included the Oscars, the BAFTAs, and the Independent Spirit Film Awards.  

I still probably missed movies, even aside from the movies I knowingly skipped, that probably could have made such a list as this, but I wanted to get these rankings in before Christmas of 2020.  With all of that said, let's start with the honorable mentions.

Honorable Mention 

Burning Cane - No less a filmmaker than Ava DuVernay gives a glowing review to this film made by a literal teenager - Phillip Youmans, born in 2000, who wrote, directed, and edited this movie.  (Full disclosure: it was distributed by her company)   But ultimately, it's a very slow movie that can barely sustain it's very short 77 minute length.

Blow the Man Down - A movie about two young sisters who have to cover up a crime and while it's ostensibly about them, the movie ends up being stolen by Margo Martindale, June Squibb, and Annette O'Toole.  Entertaining enough to watch.

Colewell - Another short movie that nonetheless is very slow.  Tom Quinn wrote and directed this movie and thankfully for my self-respect, he is not a teenager.  This is a good look at growing old and the death of small towns with a great performance from Karen Allen.

The Great Hack - This is a good primer movie for learning how data mining companies, specifically Cambridge Analytica, helped target ads as propaganda to unsuspecting internet users.  There is stuff in it that you probably know, but it's a fairly easy watch for being a documentary about the destruction of democracy!

Honey Boy - I honestly thought I was going to like this more than I did.  If you're at all interested in why Shia LeBeouf is the way he is, this is a movie to watch.  I was, and yet, I can't help but feel something is missing from this movie.

Missing Link - If you're someone who will end up watching movies with small children, whether that be your own or someone you have to watch, this is the type of movie you should put on.  Enjoyable and family friendly.

Rocketman - As far as biopics of legendary singers is concerned, this is vastly superior to Bohemian Rhapsody.  It does not rely on playing Elton John's greatest hits and actually manages to separate itself somewhat from the cliche biopic that many fall prey to with some interesting choices.

#50 Avengers: Endgame

When I did my Marvel rankings, one thing I should probably have done is ranked Endgame lower than I did.  I have a higher Marvel movie on this very list, and it was below Endgame on my original Marvel list.  When I paired the two movies together, I just wanted to watch one more than the other.  My feelings on this film are conflicted and I might think differently about this movie in a year.

#49 Klaus

Fun fact: this is currently the #176th best movie on IMDB.  I... would not have predicted that.  So long as you significantly lower your expectations from that, this is another fun animated, family friendly film.  And hey Christmas is around the corner and this is a Christmas film.

#48 Greener Grass

I'm not sure I've ever actually watched a cult film that wasn't a cult film yet.  This is one weird ass movie.  I watched this sober, but I'm pretty sure I should have watched it high.  This is the type of movie where the two main leads have braces for reasons that are never explained.  It's a surreal comedy skewering suburbia.

#47 Dolemite is My Name

Some movies on my list I would never recommend to anybody, because I know it's not a movie that appeals to everyone.  Greener Grass is one such movie.  Dolemite is My Name is the opposite, a movie that I think just about everyone would enjoy.  I do think this movie got a bit more praise than it otherwise would have because it was the first thing Eddie Murphy has done in forever that was good.  Wesley Snipes steals the movie though, not Murphy.

#46 Spiderman: Far From Home

Like I said above, I actually ranked Endgame higher on my Marvel rankings, but I couldn't bring myself to put Far From Home below it.  I think it was just the scale of Endgame felt so massive that I had to rank it above other movies I'd rather watch.  In any case, Far From Home purposefully goes smaller scale and is a "you get what you came for" type of movie and nothing more.

#45 Apollo 11

Your interest in space and specifically Apollo 11 could drive your level of interest in this film.  I'm not particularly into space, but I was pretty captivated by the newly uncovered footage on the moon.  Not all of it, unfortunately is quite as gripping as the beginning, but if you're at all into space, watch this.

#44 Shazam

This is the highest ranked superhero movie mostly because it's fun and it's an original take on the superhero movie.  I have not a whole lot else to say about Shazam, which is weird because I watched it last week.

#43 Hustlers

I'm oversimplifying, but the structure and story of Hustlers is pretty much like every mob movie ever made.  Except with strippers.  A slight change to a formula that is done well is usually worth watching though and this is no exception.

#42 Richard Jewell

This movie has one huge flaw that is holding it back and that is in its depiction of real life reporter Kathy Scruggs, who is shown trading sex for information, which is objectionable in its own right, but is also just lazy and cliché.  Good performances help make this movie better than it probably should be.

#41 John Wick: Chapter 3

I'll confess: I'm getting a little burnt out by the John Wick action formula.  I liked Chapter 3 better than I liked Chapter 2, but at this point I feel like I'm getting diminishing returns.  I'm still ranking it here, so I still liked it.

#40 Just Mercy

Another movie where performances make all the difference.  The story isn't really anything new and Michael B Jordan's character is a fairly boring movie character (though awesome person in real life).  But good performances help elevate the material.

I'm not going to only do ten rankings at a time.  Depending on length, tomorrow I will write up the next 25 or 30 spots, and finish the rankings on Wednesday.  Theoretically, I'll have more to say about the top 10 (or 15), which is why I'll cover more tomorrow. 

Welles Marathon Conclusion

The Orson Welles marathon has finally come to an end.  It took longer than I thought.  My first post was on August 4th, writing about the classic Citizen Kane.  And it ended Monday earlier this week, which means that it took me nearly four months to watch and write about every Orson Welles movie I picked.  I only posted twice a week, sometimes talked about other movies, and skipped some weeks, but still: I wasn't expecting to finally be able to move onto my next marathon in December.

I can't speak to Orson Welles personal motivations, but after having watched both the movies he directed and the movies he starred in, it seems like he was just unnaturally gifted.   I come away especially impressed with his acting.  It seems like he could act in his sleep.  And I mean that.  Some movies, it seems like he was barely trying and it legitimately did not matter, he was still the most compelling part of a movie.

The popular perception of Welles was that he was a wunderkind who ultimately blew his potential by being unreliable and never quite having enough money to make his projects happen.  A lot of his older movies were reevaluated later and praised as classics, but they weren't at the time.

Citizen Kane, immediately a flop, was received as the best movie of all time within two decades.  And every movie he made after Kane was compared to Kane, and the reception of the vast majority of his movies suffered for it.  Modern critics have responded to the mostly lukewarm receptions of the time by praising some of his movies as classics.

I compared Orson Welles to another artist at the top of his game in one of my Welles marathon posts, and I'll do it again here.  But fair warning: if you're not a fan of hip hop, you might find this jarring and not understand my comparison. 

Orson Welles is Nas.  I can already hear you groaning.  Both were impossibly young prodigies who produced their best work first.  Nas was 17 and 18 when he recorded Ilmmatic.  Welles was 25 when he did Citizen Kane.  Both have their subsequent works compared to their first work, which caused their later works to be under-appreciated for their time.  Later appraisal of those works have elevated those works to masterpieces. 

It's not a perfect comparison.  Illmatic was nearly immediately recognized as the best while Citizen Kane was not.  Nas has not had the equivalent of Welles struggling to make movies after Citizen Kane, or anything close to it.  And to say the least, hip hop did not evolve like film did, making Illmatic sound boring in comparison (I don't find Citizen Kane boring, but it's a popular criticism nowadays)

In any case, the movies that more or less hold up from Welles catalogue are The Magnificent Ambersons, made immediately after Citizen Kane; The Stranger, made immediately after World War II, The Trial, and Chimes at Midnight.  And Citizen Kane of course. Which is why I think modern critics overcompensate by calling too many of Welles movies classics.

But I'm aware my opinion of Touch of Evil is not with the hivemind.  I almost can't speak to either Macbeth or Othello, where I completely acknowledge my opinion of both is influenced by the fact that I find Shakespeare movies difficult to like.  Didn't stop me from liking Chimes at Midnight.  And I stand by the fact that Othello does not stand the test of time, thanks to shoddy sound and what certain critics call "bronzeface" which still leaves me with a queasy stomach watching.

Both The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil, to me, suffer from style over subtance.  Really cool shots, story makes no sense.  Even reviews, such as Roger Ebert, who love the movie, say that the story makes no sense.  And his only truly bad film that he directed was Confidential Report, or Mr. Arkadin, which mainly suffers from some truly bad acting from the lead (not Welles.)

And like I said, as strange as it may sound, I come away most impressed by his acting.  Well most impressed isn't how I would define it.  Most surprised maybe.  A lot of acting from around his time period simply doesn't hold up.  And no matter the movie surrounding him, he is always good, even when he's seemingly not on his 'A' game.

I will continue with my director marathon in 2021.  I'm going to leave my next director in suspense, but just know, I already know who I'm covering.  It may be a bit before I start though.  I like to get a head start on the posts before I actually release to them to the public, because I may very well be unable to watch the movies at a two-a-week pace every week and a head start eases that burden.

But in the meantime, I am going to be posting my favorite posts of 2020 next week on my twitter.  That will be followed with a ranking of my favorite movies of 2019, yes 2019.  Took me a long time to get through that list, and I'm probably going to post my favorite movies of 2020 pretty late in 2021 too (though ideally before December).  Then it's the week of my favorite shows of 2020.  And then, well, then I'll probably figure some random movies I want to write about until I have a few marathon posts written and then I'll start the marathon.

I'm excited, and I hope you'll like my next director pick.

Note: If you're interested in reading my thoughts on specific Welles movies, I have a link inserted onto the names of the movies mentioned above.  So just click the movie and it should take you to a new page.  And of the movies not mentioned above, I'll post the rest below.

Jane Eyre 

The Other Side of the Wind

A Man for All Seasons, Waterloo, and Catch 22 were all covered in one post here.

Compulsion

Prince of Foxes

The Third Man

The Long Hot Summer

F for Fake

Welles Marathon: F for Fake (1973)

 Well this is a strange movie.  Between this and unreleased The Other Side of the Wind (until 2018 that is), Welles clearly was in an experimental stage of his career by the 1970s.  He wanted to push the limits of what a film was.  As such, it is best to go in with an open mind.

I honestly thought F for Fake was a fake documentary.  Like completely made up.  And, well, that's not a wrong impression, per sé.  You truly don't know what to believe.  But to my surprise, despite seeming like a fake person, Elmyr de Hory is in fact real, and him being an art forger is real.

Okay, so the backstory to this movie is pretty interesting, as all backstories to Welles movies seem to be.  The accepted story is that Francois Reichenbach filmed a documentary about Hory, which featured his biographer Clifford Irving.  He then handed it to Welles to edit.  

Sometime in this process, Irving was revealed to be a fraud himself.  He claimed to have had interviews with famous recluse Howard Hughes, and wrote a biography on him.  Only trouble was that it was not real.  He made it up.  And this news broke sometime in the editing process.

For Welles, this was too good to be true.  Suddenly, it was not just a documentary on Hory, but a documentary on something larger.  No, he was going to comment on fraud itself, and compare making a movie to fraud.  A filmmaker's ability to fool the audience with trickery.

And actually, the way he did this was quite clever.  Like almost too clever for its own good.  Because he purposefully makes you question if what you're watching even really happened.  Which is directly commenting on a movie fooling you.  In this instance, how the framing of a documentary can mislead you.  But also just a normal movie.  And he used the art forgery of Hory, and the fraud of a skilled writer as a backdrop to make these points.

He references his own career.  His famous War of the Worlds broadcast, the story of which seems mostly apocryphal, no doubt egged on by Welles himself.  Were people really in a panic over his broadcast?  It may have happened, but it has definitely taken a life of its own and has been overstated to an insane degree.  Most people were not stupid.  But he eggs this myth on.  He reads from the War of the Worlds broadcast, but doesn't say the same words as the original broadcast.  But the way its filmed, you think it is.

In another lucky twist of fate, the fact that Irving was a fake biographer of Howard Hughes worked out quite nicely because the original subject of Citizen Kane was going to be Hughes.  Or at least that's what this movie tells me.  It could very well be bullshit.  Welles said he was going to tell the true for the first hour.  This information was in that hour.

This is all pretty brilliant, but there is one weakness in this movie: the Oja Kador sequences.  I get her place in the movie.  It's adding to the unreliability of the whole thing.  But it's just not interesting.  The fact that everything about her story ends up being fake makes it even less interesting than it already was.

I don't have a solution for this problem.  Kador herself just isn't that compelling.  You need something like her, a fake story to help with the movie's themes.  And I hate to say it but the fact that she's his mistress in real life makes it seem like she's just in this movie because she's his mistress.  Which is pretty much true.  And it seems like that too!  

Her presence in The Other Side of the Wind works better, because she's just walking around in an experimental art movie making fun of experimental art movies while an entirely different movie is happening and she has basically no impact on the final product.

I do wish I found the Kador scenes more compelling, because I think I'd find this to be a masterpiece otherwise.  But 25 or so minutes of a short movie weigh it down enough that it's not particularly close to a masterpiece.  It's still a good movie though.

3/4 stars

Welles Marathon: The Long Hot Summer (1958)

In this marathon, we hit the last movie that Orson Welles was only an actor in and we only have one more movie period left.  A movie I have purposefully not watched yet.  Because the last few posts, including this one, have been me writing about movies I saw roughly a month or so ago, which is not ideal from my perspective.

I'll keep you all in suspense over what exactly that movie is, and focus on the movie today: The Long Hot Summer.  This movie gets off to a great start with what is a fantastic theme song by Jimmie Rodgers.

And the movie that follows it... is actually pretty good.  I was not aware of this movie's existence before researching what Orson Welles movies to watch (because he made a few just to get a paycheck that... do not hold up).  So my expectations were nill.

It helps that the lead role is played by Paul Newman, not exactly playing against type here.  Probably because this movie, and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof the same year, helped define his "type."  He's a smooth talking,con man who ingratiates himself into a rich family and finds love well the love changes him.  Fairly typical stuff here.

But it is probably helped by what was a real life love story behind the scenes.  Newman played opposite Joanne Woodward, still alive by the way, and they fell in love off screen and were married until Newman died.  You can get a sense of that when watching this movie.

It's a fairly stacked cast.  Angela Lansbury, also still alive, is in the movie for a comic little sideplot that doesn't really work.  Not her fault.  It was probably funny in 1958.  Anthony Franciosa was fresh off an Oscar nomination when he did this movie, and plays Woodward's brother, while Lee Remick plays her sister.

And then there's Orson Welles.  He adds to the entertainment with his Southern accent.  With his bellowing voice and big frame, he does not really try to make sure people understand what he's saying.  You need subtitles to understand him.  It doesn't really matter, because it's seriously entertaining as hell.  Honestly, I don't know that I would be that interested in the movie if Welles didn't keep my interest.

3/4 stars

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Because I don't have much to say, and I don't feel like making a whole post about this movie, I'll quickly explain my thoughts on the other movie Newman made in 1958.  I'm not a fan.

If I could sum up why, it's that the director did not take advantage of the fact that he was making a movie.  He might as well just filmed the play and released it that way.  Bewilderingly, the screenplay changed a lot of the play's dialogue and less bewilderingly because of the time, removed the gay element of the play.  So you're not even getting the best version of the play in this version.

When I say Richard Brooks, the director, didn't take advantage of this being a movie, I mean there are two settings in the entire movie: the house and in the first few minutes when Brick injures himself.  That's it.  When we go to the house, we are there for the rest of the movie and the rest of the movie is pure melodrama turned to 11 for the entire freaking movie.

Give me flashbacks of Brick being his normal self.  Don't need to reveal what actually happened.  Do something interesting instead of just regurgitating the play, which you have changed so much that Tennessee Williams didn't like it.  I don't know.  There are lot of words spoken and the everyone is just talking in circles for most of the runtime.  Don't really get the love for this movie.

Also, if you play a drinking game for every time Big Daddy is said, you would die before the movie was over.  Good lord did that get annoying.  Acting is good though.  Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives.

2/4 stars

Welles Marathon: Touch of Evil (1958)

Touch of Evil was one of the few Orson Welles movies I had seen before I started this marathon, but I was excited to re-watch considering I haven't seen it in a long time.  But appropriately enough, I'm pretty sure I watched a different version.  It's Orson Welles, so of course there are more versions than just one.  Couldn't be easy!

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I think critics have a tendency to overrate movies based on the technical skill of how the movie was made.  And I think this is especially true of older movies analyzed retroactively, because we can see the influence they made.  And I'm all for putting the movie's accomplishments into context to better appreciate it.

But there's a difference, I think, between appreciating what the movie did and looking at how good the movie actually is.  I can appreciate that what a movie did was impressive while also thinking that for whatever reason the movie hasn't necessarily aged well, and I don't even mean in terms of political correctness or the sort.  

The version I watched this time is evidently much more clear in terms of plotting than the version I think I watched the first time, but it has a wide swath of time given to what I think is a black hole.  And that's when Susan Vargas is threatened by a gang in the motel in the middle of nowhere.  

None of this part of the movie works in my opinion.  I do not remember this part being quite as prominent in the first version I watched, like significantly less screen time was dedicated to it.  I don't know what the fuck Dennis Weaver is doing in this movie, but his performance as the hotel manager is quite terrible.  Like these motel scenes alone drag this movie down.

I think there a couple of scenes in this movie that made this movie a classic to most.  The opening scene is the clearest example.  It's a memorable and impressive way to begin a movie.  And I believe there's another unbroken take in an interrogation scene later in the movie. 

I began my review noting that I think certain critics overrate movies because of how they're shot, and the reason I did that was to provide to following anecdote.  In Roger Ebert's "Great Movies," he says that Peter Bogdanovich once told Orson that he didn't notice the story until he had already saw it four or five times, because he was focused on the direction.

Ebert follows that up with saying "That might be the best approach for anyone seeing the film for the first time: to set aside the labyrinthine plot, and simply admire what is on the screen."  That's all well and good, but this feels like a backhanded compliment to me, or at least not as much of a compliment as intended.  What's great about the movie are the shots, but as a story, well go ahead and ignore that to really enjoy it.

But between the disastrous motel scenes, Charlton Heston playing a Mexican, and that it's better enjoyed if you ignore the story, well these are a little too much for me to accept personally.  I'm not saying it's a bad film.  It's actually mostly a good film.  But I don't think it's a classic and I think it's probably one of Welles' more overrated movies.

3/4 stars