The Best Films of 2019

I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to watch both out of laziness (sorry High Life, Ash is the Purest White, Antlantics) and lack of availability (us hicks in the “flyover states” are not good enough for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, it seems), but at over 90 films seen, things here are unlikely to change. But you know what, it will all change as time goes by and I will continue to update my letterboxd list as needed.

Anyways, here’s my top 20 movies of the year, and the usual superlatives and shenanigans.

The Best Movies of the 2010s

I originally wanted to do a big, multi-part, very detailed look into the films of the decade. But then life got in the way. So I’m just gonna go ahead and present my top 30 movies of the decade. This is far from a definitive list since there’s many films from the earlier years of the decade that I really want to see but haven’t gotten around to yet. Hell, there’s still films from 2019 that I want to catch up on before doing that write up (it is not easy loving films and living in the middle of nowhere).

So, enjoy

The Cinema of the 2010s: The Music

I’m gonna start my coverage of the best that the movies had to offer this decade although I don’t think I’ll have a list of my favorites of the decade that I can stand by until March at the earliest, especially since I have to do a 2019 lists first. But I’m gonna start now with genre or category-specific lists to not just dump everything at once.

Today, we are starting with the following music-specific categories: Best Musical, Score, and Songs Written for Motion Pictures.

The Lion King (2019)

I wish I could say that John Favreau’s remake of The Lion King was terrible, but I can’t say that. I can’t say it when it has the best visual effects money can buy, the great Caleb Deschanel handling the cinematography, and Hans Zimmer, Elton John, and Tim Rice back doing the music in addition tot Beyoncé. They are doing the very best they can, in service of the director’s vision: And that’s the problem: The vision is disappointingly mediocre.

Best of 2018

Honorable Mentions

Black Panther | Blockers | Can You Ever Forgive Me?

The Commuter | Eight Grade | The Favourite

Ideal Home |Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again |Mission: Impossible- Fallout

Nappily Ever After | Outlaw King | Paddington 2

A Simple Favor | A Star is Born | Teen Titans Go! to the Movies

Tully | Where is Kyra? | Widows 

July 2018

This month I watched 16 films. For the first time in a while most of them were not from this millennium so yay me. I think this is the most I’ve used my Filmstruck subscription in a single month.

Anyways, you know the drill.

June 2018

This month I watched 16 films. There were a few great films in there, but for the most part they eere just good. There were a couple of stinkers, of course.

May 2018

Only watched 13 movies this month, most were good. I’ll just do a top 7 this time around.

1. Taking Off
2. The Lodger
3. Summertime
4. Do the Right Thing
5. Solo: A Star Wars Story
6. Tully
7. The Parent Trap (1998)

The actual best thing I watched all month: The Leftovers (Complete series)

April 2018

Sorry i’m late. Not much to say: I only watched 12 films and they were all good. So, to save some time I’ll just post a screenshot from my letterboxd that shows them all ranked.

Also, Don’t forget to checkmout my write-up on the best in movies of 2017

Love My Way: The Best in Film of 2017

2017 was kind of a bad year for humanity, and it really wasn’t an especially good one on a personal level either (to put it mildly). So more than ever, the movies became an escape. I wouldn’t just watch anything that I came across, I looked for things that would either make me feel good, end at the very leadt on hopeful note, or somehow enrich me.

I found all this, even in the most unlikely places. Mudbound was not so something that I would have anticipated this particular year, but went ahead and watched it because it was a Dee Rees film. It was not an easy sit, but by the end, although it obviously didn’t change me, I felt like I had a new valuable experience in my life. I even found value in something like Home Again. I can see the problems that people who dislike it have with it, but my viewing experience during a particularly bad day was so much fun that I couldn’t help but fall for it.