Revisiting My Top 10 Movies of 2019 of 2019

Hey, was 2019 an incredible year for cinema? I mean look at this:

This is…… a good list, if I may say so myself. Heck, this is a great list. Even accounting for my “not living in NY or LA” filmgoing handicap. This is a list of 10 excellent movies. With one unmissable quirk right at the top.

If you held a poll to determine the greatest movie of the first quarter of the 21st century, Parasite would be an easy finalist. In fact I bet I can tell you all five finalists: Parasite, In the Mood for Love, Mulholland Drive, Spirited Away, and Moonlight. (Actually, let’s make it six: Portrait of a Lady on Fire.) I agree that it might be the best film of its era, and I agreed with that back in 2018 too. Logically, how can I say that while also saying it’s only the third best film of the year?

Easily: Logic was not a factor here. Too much logic makes for a dull list. These are inherently emotional endeavors. Sentimentally, The Farewell punched me in the gut so hard I was still sore at the end of the year. I knew it would fade. So I made it my #1 as a reminder to myself. Comparing it to the grandiose social statements of Parasite or the decades-spanning epicness of The Irishman, the tender and intimate The Farewell deserved recognition, I thought. I’m still holding all the Awkwafina stock I bought off it.

7, 9, and 10 are all movies I think quite highly of but don’t have so much emotional resonance to be indispensable. My main memory of Pain and Glory is having to watch it in Spanish because I couldn’t find suitable subtitles. It’s a movie-about-making-movies, a genre I often shy away from when it’s not Pedro Almodóvar behind the camera. Ad Astra is the only James Gray film that ever worked for me, somehow. I think it’s the setting. The films of his I’ve seen are often cold and lonely, even the ones about camaraderie, so outer space is a suitable backdrop. (It also has moon pirates.) And then there’s Uncut Gems, the infamous cinematic panic attack. I’ve been thinking about it a lot as I try to find time to see Josh Safdie’s follow-up Marty Supreme before the year ends. The more time passes, the more convinced I am that Adam Sandler should have not only been nominated for an Oscar but won it.

Everything else, though, I can’t imagine not being on my list. Us may be a sophomore effort from Jordan Peele but still that makes it more compelling than 90% of horror movies. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is the definitive adaptation of the novel. I’ve never seen a film before or since that exists in dialog with its source material as strongly. Knives Out, Marriage Story, and The Irishman are all movies I revisit to remember what it’s like to be so fully absorbed in a film that I forget the distance between me and the screen. All brilliantly written with phenomenal production design and some of the best performances their respective actors have given in their careers.

I guess I could make a new list, but it will look almost identical:

1. Parasite
2. Little Women
3. The Farewell
4. The Irishman
5. Marriage Story
6. Knives Out
7. Us
8. Uncut Gems
9. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
10. Avengers: Endgame

I don’t have room here to start defending the new lists. Ask me about Avengers: Endgame again in 10 years.