My Best in Movies 2019

Oh, I love me some lists!

This list is my 10 favorite movies seen in 2019.  It is any movie I saw in 2019, regardless of the year the movie was made.  In two cases, they are movies I have seen in previous years but saw again in 2019, and since I wasn't making lists in 1972 or 2003, I include them here!

And yes, I'm a huge science fiction fan, so my list is chunk full of those kinds of movies. Deal.  Or make your own list.

10)  Yesterday (2019) Well, hey!  The first on this list is kinda a rom-com.  But, yeah, it's also kind of science fiction.  The world has a major blackout, and pretty much everyone forgets the Beatles, except for one guy (with an awesome memory and some musical ability), and he becomes a significant force in music when he releases the songs of the Beatles.  Hanesh Patel stars as a talented man struggling to do the right thing, and also in love with a young woman and friend played by Lilly James.  The successful rom-com part is that the two have great chemistry together, and you actually care whether they get together.  There are also enough alternate reality elements to keep someone like me entertained.

9)  Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)  One of Quentin Tarantino's best.  Violent but engaging, with great music, cinematography, and editing.  Yes, I have seen it before.  With Doug at the Gwinnett Mall - you know, the mall featured in Stranger Things 3.  It had gone so far downhill in the ensuing years that it was scheduled for demolition.

8)  Within Our Gates (1920)  The first silent film that has been preserved that was written and directed by an African American, Oscar Micheau.  A stunning tale that includes a brutal rape and a lynching, it addresses the struggle to keep a school for young blacks open in the south.  Frank and open about the racism of the time, it is a compelling answer to Birth of a Nation, the popular racist movie that championed the Ku Klux Klan.

7) Captain Marvel (2019).  Sue me, incell comic fans.  I liked this movie.  I liked her strong and confident character.  I look forward to seeing more from Brie Larsen as Captain Marvel.

6) Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)  The first of these movies took us by surprise.  Sequels usually disappoint, but this one did not.  By far, the best movie I have ever seen based on a video and/or board game.  Gret action sequences, but most importantly, it's the funniest movie I saw all year.  LOVE the playful transfer orf character identities.  The whole cast is outstanding, but I particularly admire Jack Black and Awkwafina as Ming Fleetfoot.

5)  Cabaret (1972) Yes.  I've seen it before, at the Temple theater in downtown Saginaw.  I don't always like musicals, but when I do, I love them.  The thing to live among the Nazis' theme is especially poignant today.  I rank the song Tomorrow Belongs to Me as the most emotionally devastating musical sequence I have seen on film.

4)  Vice (2018) Brutally honest portrayal of an American monster.  More successfully manipulative than Trump could ever dream of being, Dick Cheney comes across as human, in a way that makes the negative in him even more evil.

3)  Avengers: Endgame (2019).  A tour de force ending to a great storyline.  Yes, some characters will be missed, but they got some great sendoffs.  But let me tell you this, as a comic book fan who has read THOUSANDS of Marvel comic books - nobody in the Marvel universe stays gone. 

2)  BLACKkKLANSMAN (2018) Man, this was a great movie!  When I picked it out to watch, I had no idea how good it was going to be.  A black cop contacts white supremacists via phone, develops a relationship, and, to further the undercover mission, a white cop played by Adam Driver makes the direct contacts.  It is based on actual events and plays out in a compelling and well-directed storyline. If you have not seen it, I give it my highest recommendation. This is the movie that should have won the Best Picture Oscar instead of Green Book.

1) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)  Good Lord, people!  What did you expect?  I'm a huge Star Wars fan who's seen every movie in the epic at the theatres when each came out, and this is a great ending to that saga! 


Honorable Mentions:  Spider-Man: Far From Home. Glass, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Deadwood: The Movie, Bird Box, Green Book, and Shazam!


Looking forward to another great year at the movies, both at the movie theatre and streaming from my home!