Alina Fauld's BEST OF 2019
2019 has been the first full year that I’ve paid attention to cinema as a whole and what a wonderful year it has been. I’ve seen almost 70 releases from 2019 on streaming platforms, at theatre chains, at local cinemas, and at film festivals. While the year has been riddled with remakes and franchises, some bad and some good, original stories have still been able to shine through. Along with making a name for themselves on the film festival circuit, critically-acclaimed films are starting to find their homes on streaming services after short runs at indie cinemas. Films that come to mind include The Irishman, Marriage Story and The Two Popes. I always try to support my local cinema over the theatre chains when possible and I am greatly looking forward to how showing NETFLIX exclusive films before they drop on the platform continues to help, or maybe hinder their audience attendance over the next decade.
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2019
10. Dolemite Is My Name
A film about making a film, Dolemite Is My Name is unapologetically black and one of the funniest stories of the year. Eddie Murphy nails his portrayal of Rudy Ray Moore and proves he deserves a best actor nomination as he tries to launch a career in Hollywood by working with his friends.
9. The Lighthouse
Robert Eggers is the man that made me appreciate horror with 2015’s The VVitch and continues to prove his writing skills with The Lighthouse. One of the most baffling films of the year, The Lighthouse features impeccable performances from Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson and its themes linger long after the film’s end.
8. Joker
Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the Joker is completely different from what we’ve seen from the Batman films of the past. Joker has been one of the most divisive and controversial films of the year with much of the criticism directed towards Todd Phillips, but Phoenix makes the most of the screenplay and plays the twisted Arthur Fleck in such a way that forces the audience to question their empathy.
7. Parasite
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite explores capitalism and class warfare. It starts off relatively normal but soon devolves into disturbing twisted insanity. Parasite is the most original film of the year that shows Bong Joon-ho’s unique style and invents a genre of its own.
6. The Irishman
Martin Scorsese’s three and a half hour gangster epic can be considered the director’s magnum opus. The editing, cinematography, soundtrack and score help bring Frank Sheeran’s world to life and with an all-star cast — including Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino — The Irishman is more than worth its immense runtime.
5. Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit is a bizarre story about a little boy with Adolf Hitler as an imaginary friend that only works because of Taika Waititi. The film is absurdly funny but is also unexpectedly endearing, with beautiful performances from Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie and Scarlett Johanssen that add much-needed heart into this satire.
4. Ford v Ferrari
Ford v Ferrari is the best sounding film of the year, the pacing is thrilling and remains engaging for its entire 152 minutes. It is a standard biopic but the racing scenes are magnificent, and with Matt Damon and Christian Bale’s chemistry, Ford v Ferrari is one of the most enjoyable films of the year.
3. The Farewell
Based on an experience from director Lulu Wang’s own life, The Farewell delivers an emotional punch as Awkwafina’s Billi struggles with keeping her grandmother’s illness a secret from her. Lulu Wang has a knack for writing dialogue that injects The Farwell with enough comedy to balance the heavy underlying story.
2. Pain and Glory
Pedro Almodóvar’s semiautobiographical Pain and Glory follows director Salvador Mallo as he struggles with drug use and various illnesses. The film explores different points of Mallo’s life and Almodóvar easily causes the audience to feel exactly what he wants about Pain and Glory’s themes and his own life.
1. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
The ninth film by Quentin Tarantino is such a great hang-out film. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt portray the friendship of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth so well as Dalton tries to make the leap from television to film. The film is endearing, it’s funny, the characters are amazing and the pacing works for the story Tarantino is trying to tell.
BEST PERFORMANCES OF 2019
BEST ACTOR - ANTONIO BANDERAS (Pain and Glory)
Salvador Mallo is based on director Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas delivers an inspired performance of a director he has worked with countless times before. Banderas’s acting is stunningly subtle, the way his Salvador revisits his past is nothing short of mesmerizing.
BEST ACTRESSS - AWKWAFINA (The Farewell)
Awkwafina a comedy star proves she can also do drama with her portrayal of Billi in Lulu Wang’s The Farewell. With her family deciding not to tell Nai Nai about her illness, Billi is caught between two cultures, she is unable to hide her concern and wears it right on her face. The Farewell is about embracing your emotions and Awkwafina nails this concept.
BEST FILMMAKING OF 2019
BEST DIRECTOR - QUENTIN TARANTINO (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood)
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood is the director’s love letter to Hollywood and shows the care he put into telling this story. Told through the portrait of a washed-up actor, Tarantino explores the glory days of filmmaking and is chockfull of references to other works admired by the director as well as his own. It has Tarantino’s usual brand of extreme violence and exceptional characters but feels very different from his earlier pieces. Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood culminates into a delightful film about a Hollywood that could have been.
