Best movies of 2019

Johnny Novgorod

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Having written down a Top 10 of 2019 for my own amusement (all the cool kids are doing it this time of the year) I find that 2019 was a GREAT year for movies. I've had easy best-of-the-year picks before but nothing to supply an entire Top 10 and still leave pretty good movies out of the list. Usually I can't even fill out a Top 5.

Here's mine:

1) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2) The Irishman
3) Joker
4) Parasite
5) John Wick 3: Parabellum
6) Midsommar
7) Ad Astra
8) Ford v Ferrari
9) A Hidden Life
10) Dolemite is My Name

What's yours?
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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I think the only new movies I saw this year where Avengers: Endgame and Joker, both of which were kinda shit.

I did see slightly less new movies this year though, like Mandy, Revenge, and The Witch, and those were excellent.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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I liked Endgame, but I'm a sucker for happy endings and non-edgelord garbage.

Trying to think of a movie I saw this year that was good...Star wars sucked, Joker sucked, Bombshell sucked, Terminator sucked, Zombieland sucked, Toy Story 4 was tolerable, Captain Marvel was cringe to the tenth degree, Glass was an absolute mess, and I stopped paying attention to the Lego 2 movie within 10 minutes.

I guess I'll make the list:
Endgame
Spiderman
Lighthouse
Maybe Alita or Us? Probably closer to Alita. Us looking back was a little...absurd? I dunno, feels like a second watch would bring out a lot of errors previously unseen.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Oh yeah, I also saw Alita which was a bit of a non-movie. It was made by Robert Rodriguez, but you barely recognize his style, and the style in general was kinda tepid. Alita herself felt like a cartoon character in every scene she was in. Like what was the point in doing her face like that, other than showing off and going 'get it, cuz anime'? The other cyborg characters look 10 times better, because they used the actors' actual faces. And despite Rosa Salazar being incredibly charming and witty in all the promotional material and interviews, the actual performance was just bland as can be. Also, fuck this movie for turning Hugo into a generic heart throb.
 

09philj

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I didn't see many films this year. I saw Joker, which was alright, and Apollo 11, which was also alright. My favourite film was Promare, which I thought was a delightful love letter to fans of Studio Trigger.
 

Wintermute_v1legacy

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As usual, I don't think I've seen 10 movies released in the current year. My watchlist on IMDB is... jesus... 789 movies? Yeah, so I tend to watch older stuff first. I'll make my top 10 movies of 2019 in 2025 or so. I saw a couple of Netflix movies that were complete garbage, though.

2019 movies I remember seeing:

1. The Invisible Life of Eur?dice Gusm?o
2. Midsommar
3. 6 Underground
4. Estou Me Guardando Para Quando O Carnaval Chegar
5. Bacurau
6. In the Tall Grass
10. Terminator Dark Fate
632. The Silence
8475. Alien Warfare
 

PsychedelicDiamond

Wild at Heart and weird on top
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I still have to see the actually good ones they don't show at any theater nearby. Like Lighthouse. Or Uncut Gems. Or Knives Out. Or Parasite. And so on.

From the ones I actually have seen I'd probably hand it to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Irishman too. A bit "safe" in the context of their respective directors work but then, the work of those directors is also among the best there is. Other than that... I don't know, Joker, Avengers and Alita were alright, I guess, though in case of Alita really only just barely so. I'm glad some interesting stuff came out in the second half of the year so I don't have to unironically name fucking Avengers as my movie of the year.
 

Catfood220

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I've only seen a few films this year, I think Ready or Not was about the best one I saw in the cinema. It was just such a lot of fun and then ending just had me giggling like a madman.

Of the others, I think I might have been the only person to of liked Terminator: Dark Fate. Joker was alright, not the film everyone hyped it up to be. And Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was so very anticlimactic for a film that was supposed to end a nine film story, it was so meh that despite enjoying it at the time, it gets worse the more I think about it. Still better than The Last Jedi.
 

stroopwafel

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Joker, Parasite and The Irishman are the best I've seen this year. Strong, character driven dramas with a dash of social critique. Loved all of them. I would definitely also put Apollo 11 on this list an absolutely brilliant work of ingenuity giving remastered archival footage a narrative quality that feel like it was made today. It captures the excitement, challenge and genuine adventure of the first moon mission prefectly. And it's real! In a similar feat the best movie I've seen not from this year is Age of Pioneers(or Vremya Pervyh it's original title). Still can't stop thinking about it it's so good.
 

Kyrian007

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Ford vs. Ferrari were really the only good movies I saw this year. I really think Uncut Gems might have actually been 3rd best and that's probably just because of the rock bottom expectations I had going in. It Chapter 2, Rise of Skywalker, Endgame, and The Irishman were fine but nothing special. Joker made me regret not considering it a DCU film and watching it even though I have otherwise given up on the awful DC movies, it's easily as bad. It was all in all a pretty bad movie year, nothing as unexpectedly awesome in the finish like last year's Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Again the closest we got to that might actually be Uncut Gems.
 

McElroy

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Finland
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood -- shit
Ad Astra -- good
X-Men: Dank Phoenix -- stark crap
El Camino -- boring
Avengers: Endgame -- by the numbers
Godzilla II: King of the Monsters -- loud and obnoxious

That's 2019 for me. Honestly, people are nuts for liking Tarantino that much.
 

Scarim Coral

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Thank god that I keep making a sentence review on films I had watched in the cinema! So yeah this is more than 10! This is more like rating the films I had watched in the cinema in 2019! Top being the best and bottom being the worst!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Detective Pikachu
Avengers: Endgame
Shazam
The LEGO Movie Part 2
Joker
Spider-Man: Far from Home
Toy Story 4
Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalkers
Alita Battle Angel
Aladdin
Terminator: Dark Fate
Captain Marvel
 

Elfgore

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I've seen like five movies this year, not much of a film dude. Full list below. I found enjoyment on some level in at least all of them, even if it was just fan-service. My personal favorite is probably Star Wars. I'm a sucker for those movies. If I'm being objective, probably Joker? I'm no movie critic, so I don't try and over-analyze stuff or even critique it too much. Acting felt good in that one though.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Detective Pikachu
Avengers: Endgame
Joker
Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker
 

Batou667

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I've seen exactly two films in a cinema this past year, and the only one I liked was Joker.
 

BrawlMan

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My best movies of the year:

Alita: Battle Angel
John Wick 3
Toy Story 4
Godzilla: KOTM
Us
Rise of Skywalker
Detective Pikachu
Joker
 

Trunkage

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Not interested in top ten or whatever. You can have this instead

Good movies: Booksmart, End game, Detective Pikachu

Special mentions: Joker had great acting but a really stupid story. Shazam is utterly regurgitative and boring. Until it isn't. Parts are really good but they aren't top tier becuase of their bad parts

Fine movies: Captain Marvel, Aladdib Far From Home, John Wick 3, Toy Story, Frozen 2, Alita

Meh movies: Rise of Skywalker, Lion King, Lego Movie 2, Dark Pheonix

Bad movies: Dora the explorer. I didn't review this but this shoild have been a TV movie. Things I do for my daughter
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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-Avengers: Endgame - really really loved it even though Thanos' plan is really shortsighted.
-John Wick 3 - great fun with great set-pieces. The 1st is still the best though.
-Jojo Rabbit - well done quirky Nazi movie with some powerful moments.
-Knives Out - really entertaining who-dun-it featuring Daniel Craig pulling off an immensely entertaining southern accent. Rian Johnson is a really great director, his other films are just as great.
-Once Upon A Time In Hollywook - not Tarantino's best but really solid movie.
-Ford v Ferrari - really great movie with great performances.

Catfood220 said:
I think Ready or Not was about the best one I saw in the cinema. It was just such a lot of fun and then ending just had me giggling like a madman.
Yeah, Ready or Not is a ton of fun.

Fine movies:
-Parasite - I don't get the overwhelming praise for it, it's solid but not up there with other South Korean films like Oldboy or The Handmaiden.
-Us - some really great moments and performances but I feel like the story went way too far-reaching and really doesn't make much sense when you start to think about it. It would've been great if it stayed much more intimate.

OK movies:
-Ad Adstra - just kinda boring and I love space stuff.
-Alita: Battle Angel - I felt like it was just the intro for the nextt story (which we probably won't get).

Bad movies:
-Joker - great performance but that's really it.
-Godzilla - anything involving the humans was either annoying, boring, or dumb-as-fuck. Monster fights were pretty good.
 

CyanCat47_v1legacy

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American Factory and Dolemite Is My Name were my favourites. There were lots of good action movies from established franchises, but none of them stuck with me quite as much. Rise of the Skywalker might have been a contender if not for palpatine. As fun as it was seing him again, all his inclusion ultimately did was make the ending feel like a knockoff of Harry Potter
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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I also saw Shazam which was pretty good, though it wasn't as good as I think it could've been. First off, while I think Zachery Levi is great in the part and has terrific chemistry with the other kid, his Shazam persona doesn't really match up that well with him as Billy. He's a lot more childlike and wacky as a grown-up than as a kid, which I guess makes a little sense given he's probaly in a more jubilant state of mind when he has superpowers, but it doesn't create as well of a connection between the superhero self and the regular kid self as I would've wanted.

Secondly, I think there's a phase missing that shows him as Shazam upgrading from being a street performer to doing very light vigilante work before the bad guy enters the stage. As it is it feels too abrupt when he meets Mark Strong for the first time. I don't think the whole superhero presence gets as much time to breath before the climax hits.

And this might be more of a critisicm of the property itself, but how come if Billy gets the intelligence of Socrates and the bravery of Achilles does he never display this in the movie? I don't know how this is in the comic. I understand that we want to see that adjustment period and him playing around a bit with his powers, and that we wouldn't get that if he's instantly capable from the start, but it's never explained why he apparently lacks these qualities as Shazam.

But apart from that I really do like this movie. It was nice seeing a superhero movie that was smaller scale, didn't feel like just a stepping stone for the next big event movie, and actually had some teeth to it.
 

gorfias

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I'm not seeing "Marriage Story" in posts so far. I love a movie that makes you think a lot after watching. Called a love letter to divorce, it is about 2 artists living in New York and the wife is initiating a divorce. Scarjo is the wife, Adam Driver (Kylo) the husband. The story is written and directed by Noah Baumbach (who also did Squid and the Whale now streaming on Netflix). I don't know how much of it is inspired or lifted from his marriage/divorce to Jennifer Jason Leigh. Most reviews see this as a mutual dissolution of a marriage. Not so this critic that sees this movie as "justifying emotional tyranny".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLfrf_00Ync

If you like talky movies, I advise you see this one.