is a blog about design, technology and culture written by Khoi Vinh, and has been more or less continuously published since December 2000 in New York City. Khoi is currently Principal Designer at Adobe. Previously, Khoi was co-founder and CEO of Mixel (acquired in 2013), Design Director of The New York Times Online, and co-founder of the design studio Behavior, LLC. He is the author of “How They Got There: Interviews with Digital Designers About Their Careers”and “Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design,” and was named one of Fast Company’s “fifty most influential designers in America.” Khoi lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
It’s the weekend so I’m sneaking in an incredibly tardy housekeeping post here: a full wrap-up of my movie watching from 2019. Like my monthly roundups, I’ve been doing this for the past several years as a way of assessing what I’ve seen—usually not five months after the year has wrapped, but better late than never.
The way it works is: every time I watch a movie, I log it in my Letterboxd film diary. Then, at the beginning of each month (more or less), I post a recap of what I watched the previous month. After the year is over, I put all of the roundups together in a single post, along with a top ten list.
Currently, in May of 2020, I’m in the middle of my fifth year of doing this, which is nuts. In my first year, 2016, I watched a total of 189 movies. In 2017, I watched 191 movies. In 2018 I watched 201. And last year, I watched 219. (You can see Letterboxd’s automatically generated overview of my year here.)
Top Ten
One of the benefits of posting this so late in the following year is that I had the time to actually watch more of the previous year’s films than I normally do. As a result this list of my favorites looks slightly different now than it would have looked back in January, say. Reassessing the year now I realize that only the first five or so feel absolutely essential to me. The rest are worthwhile for sure, but I’m less passionate about them than I was about the lower spots on previous years’ lists. This actually seems like a fairly accurate reflection of the fact that most of 2019, at least leading up to the traditional, late-year awards season, was a terrible time for movies.
“Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” (2019) ★★★★ A more expansive, complete idea of what a movie can be than anything else released in 2019.
“Knives Out” (2019) ★★★★ I almost don’t even care about the political morality tale at its heart because every beat feels like pure entertainment.
“Uncut Gems” (2019) ★★★★ Breathlessly alive like few other movies in recent memory.
“1917” (2019) ★★★★ Largely a technical accomplishment but I really did feel something when I watched it.
“The Wedding Guest” (2019) ★★★★ Your mileage may vary on this one but it’s the sort of brainy, anti-thriller that I find irresistible, plus it’s a showcase for its two incredible vibrant South Asian leads.
“High Flying Bird” (2019) ★★★★ Puts huge demands on the viewer to keep up.
“The Souvenir” (2019) ★★★★ Fully believable descent into the the helplessness of loving someone bent on self-destruction.
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” (2019) ★★★★ An amazing performance from Tom Hanks and an incredibly judicious narrative exploration of what it takes to be good.
“Parasite” (2019) ★★★½ I really was blown away by this movie but I just couldn’t work up any passion for the final act and how it undermined everything that preceded it.
“Marriage Story” (2019) ★★★½ Too well-directed and emotionally honest to be denied, even if it’s irritatingly fixated on privileged living.
“How to Train Your Dragon 2” (2014) ★★★ Apparently our current decade’s films are obsessed with the idea of mother figures being banished to purgatory.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” (2010) ★★½ What this franchise needed but never got was a creative team more interested in making good movies than in adapting the books.
“Hail, Caesar!” (2016) ★★★½ You know the term “inside baseball”? This is “inside Hollywood,” but, like, old. I mean, I enjoyed every minute of it. Rewatched.
“Okko’s Inn” (2018) ★★ Little more than an excuse for gorgeous hand-drawn animation.
“The Hateful Eight” (2015) ★★★½ Rewatched. How to stage a play for the cinema.
“sex, lies, and videotape” (1989) ★★★½ Rewatched. Like a blueprint for independent cinema, and yet still so much less interesting than what Soderbergh would go on to do.
“Mother” (2009) ★★★★ So emotionally true it’s harrowing.
“The Killing” (1956) ★★★★★ Rewatched. My favorite Kubrick work; a definitive text for every heist movie that followed.
“Ford v Ferrari” (2018) ★★★ Perfectly fine but it’s easy to imagine what it could’ve been in the hands of a more distinctive directorial talent than James Mangold.
“Do the Right Thing” (1989) ★★★★½ Rewatched. Electrifyingly urgent, even thirty years later.
“Suspiria” (2018) ★½ Shallow ideas dressed up with high class pretensions.
“Chris Claremont’s X-Men” (2018) ★★ A look back to when comics grew up, before the rest of the world noticed.
“Knives Out” (2019) ★★★★ One hundred percent pure entertainment.
“Marriage Story” (2019) ★★★½ Impeccably directed but distractingly preoccupied with lives of privilege.
“Uncut Gems” (2019) ★★★★ More successfully distortive than most fantasy movies, and also happens to finally solve the question of what to do with the Adam Sandler persona.
