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.
See my full ranking here.
- “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.
January 2019
- “Solo: A Star Wars Story” (2018) ★½
When are we all going to admit that we’ve dragged this “Star Wars” thing out way too long now? - “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018) ★★★★½
A beautiful and brutal achievement. - “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2001) ★★½
It’s hard to believe how dated this looks already. - “Free Solo” (2018) ★★★
A monument to stupidity. - “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002) ★★
Chris Columbus was the wrong director to kick off this franchise. - “Roma” (2018) ★★★★½
Intimacy on a huge scale. - “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004) ★★★
Wait, maybe this is going to be fun after all? - “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005) ★½
I guess not. - “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” (2017) ★★★
Confirmed: I’ll watch anything that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are involved in. - “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007) ★★
I have no idea what even happened in this one. - “Shirkers” (2018) ★★½
I try not to watch documentaries. This is why. - “Die Hard” (1988) ★★★★
A stone cold classic. - “The LEGO Movie” (2014) ★★★
Still good, but not really all that magical on rewatch. - “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2009) ★★½
Something important happened in this movie, I’m sure. - “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.
February 2019
- “The Oath” (2018) ★★★★
Terrific and hilarious, even if it goes off the rails a bit. - “Peter Rabbit” (2018) ★★½
Exceeded my very low expectations—by a little. - “Mission: Impossible–Fallout” (2018) ★★★★½
Rewatchable AF. - “Christine” (2016) ★★★★
Never loses its nerve. Superb. - “Man from Reno” (2015) ★★★★
Excellent, but it’s hard to believe this movie exists. Who would finance an American movie with so few white people?! - “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” (2011) ★★½
I made it all the way through to the end. - “Upgrade” (2018) ★½
More of an update to the idea of a schlocky exploitation flick. - “Y Tu Mamá También” (2001) ★★★
Inspired. - “Call Me by Your Name” (2017) ★★
Preposterous and boring. - “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) ★
Man this was painful to sit through. - “Lady Snowblood” (1973) ★★★½
Still strikingly beautiful, but felt even more substantial than the first time I watched it. - “A Simple Favor” (2018) ★★
A bit of a shambles, but it all could’ve worked with a better director than Paul Feig. - “Spellbound” (1945) ★★★
What “The Net” was to the Internet, this movie was to psychoanalysis. - “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997) ★★
I feel bad for Pierce Brosnan; he tried so hard, but the producers never gave him anything to work with. - “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” (2019) ★★½
Totally fine! - “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. - “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (2019) ★★★½
It got me in the end, I must admit. - “Notorious” (1946) ★★★★★
One of those rare films where everything went exactly right.
March 2019
- “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) ★★★★
Utter genius. - “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” (2009) ★★★
Seriously, sign me up for anything Lord and Miller work on. - “Leave No Trace” (2018) ★★★★½
Incredible. Makes other indie movies look like parodies of themselves. - “Life of Brian” (1979) ★★★
Genius sometimes suffers from its own ambition. - “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” (2017) ★
The title says it all. - “Captain Marvel” (2019) ★★
Sloppy and uninspiring in every way. - “Home” (2015) ★★½
Rewatched. Terrible title for an adorable tale. - “Dilili in Paris” (2018) ★½
Not my style. - “Burn After Reading” (2008) ★★★★
Superb genre exercise in a genre—bureaucratic black comedy—that no one really thought existed. - “Strangers on a Train” (1951) ★★★★
Basically just Hitchcock indulging his less perverse perversions. - “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” (2019) ★★
Documentaries are so frustrating. - “Triple Frontier” (2019) ★★★
Slightly better than your average manly movie. - “The Revenant” (2015) ★★★
I kind of hated it except it’s so good. - “A View to a Kill” (1985) ★
The pits. - “The Sisters Brothers” (2018) ★★½
Never manages to feel bigger than its meager budget. - “The Muppets” (2011) ★★½
Rewatched. It’s not without its charms, but it’s not really The Muppets, either. - “The Savages” (2007) ★★★½
Pretty decent for a story most people wouldn’t want to watch. - “The Handmaiden” (2016) ★★★★★
Like watching a master origamist folding a beautiful, complex sculpture.
April 2019
- “The Square” (2017) ★★★½
A fascinating mess. - “The Muppet Movie” (1979) ★★★★
A real gem, but… - “The Great Muppet Caper” (1981) ★★★★½
…For my money, this is the best Muppet movie. - “So Dark the Night” (1946) ★½
Beautifully photographed but empty-headed. - “Muppets Most Wanted” (2014) ★★
Actually has the right kind of energy, but runs too long on too few original ideas. - “Youth of the Beast” (1963) ★★★½
Violent, angst-driven, stylized yakuza fairy tale. - “High Flying Bird” (2019) ★★★★
Feels stridently out of step with Hollywood in the best way. - “Solaris” (1972) ★★★
Fully engrossing, very, very serious sci-fi classic that’s also unintentionally absurd, if truth be told. - “Last Hurrah for Chivalry” (1979) ★★½
An early work from director John Woo that’s as over-the-top and homoerotic as you’d expect. - “Suede: The Insatiable Ones” (2018) ★★★
More than decent rockumentary. - “Interstellar” (2014) ★★★★
Really flawed, but also really thrilling. - “Shazam!” (2019) ★★½
Captain Meh-vel. - “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017) ★★½
Probably the best super-hero movie of the Marvel age of cinema. - “Solaris” (2002) ★★★½
Re-watched this after seeing the original, and I was surprised by how well it compares. - “The Wife” (2017) ★★
Terrible. Truly terrible. - “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) ★★½
Re-watched it, didn’t like it any better the first time around. - “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) ★★½
A triumph of lowered expectations on a mass scale. That means I thought it was crap. Read my review.
May 2019
- “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City” (2018) ★★★½
Genius comic brain in a Young Spalding Gray body. - “My Name Is Julia Ross” (1945) ★★½
Proto-gaslighting. - “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018) ★★★★
Rewatched, eagerly. - “The Lineup” (1958) ★★★★
Vicious little noir B-movie - “Unsane” (2018) ★★★½
Soderbergh working it out. - “Drive a Crooked Road” (1954) ★★★★
Formulaic even for noir, but executed with extraordinarily care. - “The Matrix” (1999) ★★★½
I used to think I’d never get tired of rewatching this, but that’s no longer true, turns out. - “The World’s End” (2013) ★★½
Rewatched. Edgar Wright just can’t get out of his own way. - “Spy Kids” (2001) ★½
Oof. - “The Grinch” (2018) ★★½
Rewatched. Quite sweet and pretty well done. - “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) ★★★★★
Rewatched. A sustained series of miracles captured on camera. - “John Wick: Chapter 3–Parabellum” (2019) ★★
Too much. - “Girlfriends” (1978) ★★★½
A lovely time capsule of singlehood in pre-Giuliani New York. - “Kaleidoscope” (1966) ★★
I watched this on TV as a kid! It seemed better then. - “Being There” (1979) ★★★★
Sadly prescient. - “Ronin” (1998) ★★★★
Rewatched. Holds up very well. - “Starman” (1984) ★★
What if E.T. were handsome? And boring. - “All the President’s Men” (1976) ★★★★★
Rewatched. I could listen to just the sound effects endlessly. - “Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance” (1974) ★★
Kind of pointless. - “Three Outlaw Samurai” (1964) ★★★½
If you like samurai films, you’ll like this. - “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” (2019) ★★
The name says it all. - “Ant-Man” (2015) ★★★
Rewatched. The best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. - “Stuart Little” (1999) ★
Bizarre. - “Entertainment” (2015) ★★★
Horrific. - “The Lives of Others” (2006) ★★★
Rewatched. Labored but effective.
June 2019
- “Always Be My Maybe” (2019) ★★★½
Keanu’s cameo got the most attention, and it’s not even the best part! - “The Sting” (1973) ★★★★½
Rewatched. An almost perfect little fairy tale of the confidence game. - “The Kentucky Fried Movie” (1977) ★★
Teeming with ideas, not all of them great. - “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” (2007) ★★★
Rewatched. It nails the rock biopic genre, but doesn’t do much more than that. - “Bumblebee” (2018) ★★½
A good Transformers movie is still only as good as a Transformers movie. - “Network” (1976) ★★★
Rewatched. Prescient but really only resonant for an age without YouTube. - “Booksmart” (2019) ★★
I’ve already said enough. - “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” (2019) ★★★★
One of the most beautiful things ever to come out of that city. - “Benji” (2018) ★½
These people think kids will watch anything. - “Heat” (1995) ★★★★½
Rewatched. Action cinema as romantic poetry. - “Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance” (1972) ★★★
Genre fluff. - “Miami Vice” (2006) ★★★★½
Rewatched. After I finished it I immediately wanted to watch it again.
July 2019
- “Under the Silver Lake” (2018) ★★½
A lot of promise for too little payoff. - “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” (2018) ★★
Gus Van Sant seems bored. - “Spider-Man: Far from Home” (2019) ★½
Spectacularly uninteresting. - “Miami Vice” (2006) ★★★★½
Rewatched. I know people think this looks like a cheesy adaptation of a cheesy TV show, but this movie is genius. - “Phoenix” (2014) ★★★½
Pretty ridiculous if a bit implausible World War II fairy tale, with an amazing ending. - “Amazon Women on the Moon” (1987) ★½
Baby boomers break bad. - “The Big Doll House” (1971) ★★
Exploitation perfected, but I don’t need to see it again. - “Public Enemies” (2009) ★★★
A noble experiment, but it doesn’t hold up on rewatch. - “Kill!” (1968) ★★
passable samurai fable. - “The Kid Who Would Be King” (2019) ★½
Hard to believe this guy made “Attack the Block.” - “Jules and Jim” (1962) ★★★
Great and all I guess, but good advice for Truffaut would’ve been “Show, don’t tell.” - “The Gay Divorcee” (1934) ★★★★
Fred and Ginger dancing to “Night and Day” with the moonlit beach in the background is so beautiful I nearly cried. - “Ratatouille” (2007) ★★★½
Rewatched. If only Brad Bird didn’t hate critics so much, this would’ve been perfect. - “Miami Vice” (2006) ★★★★½
Rewatched again, third time in a month! - “The Equalizer 2” (2018) ★★
Kind of amazing this movie ever got made. Because it really didn’t need to be. - “A Vigilante” (2018) ★½
Conspicuously tasteful, woke filmmaking at its absolute worst. - “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974) ★★★½
Classy AF. - “Top Hat” (1935) ★★★
I totally get why people fell for Rogers and Astaire. - “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” (2005) ★★★★
Rewatched. “May contain nuts”! - “Collateral” (2004) ★★★★
Rewatched. Didn’t expect this to hold up, but it really does. - “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” (2019) ★★★★
Let me know if you’re free to go see this.
August 2019
- “Iron Man” (2008) ★★
Rewatched. Clear from the beginning: the real auteur in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the studio. - “Deadwood: The Movie” (2019) ★★★½
Everyone wanted a reunion, so they got a reunion. - “Inglourious Basterds” (2009) ★★★★
Tarantino at his least sophisticated, but still remarkable. - “Django Unchained” (2012) ★★★½
Rewatched. A brilliant ride. - “Burning” (2018) ★★★★
Exemplar of the post-Modern mystery. - “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019) ★★★★
Rewatched. This is what moviegoing should be all the time. - “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. - “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976) ★
Intolerably boring. - “Wolf Children” (2012) ★★★★
Anime that’s not overly impressed with its own wonder. - “Pulp Fiction” (1994) ★★★★½
Rewatched. Still a goddamn masterpiece. - “Funeral in Berlin” (1966) ★★★★
A delightfully stylish working-class spy thriller. - “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (2018) ★
Completely incompetent. - “Airplane!” (1980) ★★★½
Rewatched. Still laughing. - “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” (2017) ★★½
Fine. - “Jackie Brown” (1997) ★★★★★
Rewatched. No one got a better showcase than Pam Grier did, and she made the most of it. - “The Lady Vanishes” (1938) ★★
What a great title. What a boring movie. - “Reservoir Dogs” (1992) ★★★★½
Rewatched. Remains undimmed. - “Death Proof” (2007) ★★★½
September 2019
- “Police Story” (1985) ★★½
It’s hard to resist Jackie Chan, but this one is way too sloppy for my taste. - “Ralph Breaks the Internet” (2018) ★★★½
Could be a pretty decent trilogy in the making. - “High Life” (2018) ★½
The production values of a 70s sci-fi TV show, the brains of an insufferable art student video. - “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (2005) ★★★½
Off the wall bonkers from Park Chan-wook. - “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” (2003) ★★★★½
Rewatched. The thrills remain but the characters somehow work even better now. - “Stalag 17” (1953) ★★★½
A prisoner of war movie as a cozy blanket. - “Widows” (2018) ★★★★
Rewatched. A masterpiece hiding in plain sight. - “The Awful Truth” (1937) ★★★★★
Rewatched. Just confirming that this movie deserves its spot on my top five all time best list. - “Battle of Britain” (1969) ★★
Sounds like homework, and pretty much is. - “The Circus” (1928) ★★★★
Chaplin at his most effervescent. - “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” (2004) ★★★★★
Rewatched. This is the movie that convinced me Tarantino is a genius. - “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) ★★
Why people are sentimental about this movie, I have no idea.. - “Between Two Ferns: The Movie” (2019) ★★
You can’t make a conventional movie out of an unconventional show. - “Grand Illusion” (1937) ★★★★
A prison break tale with unexpected humanity. - “American Psycho” (2000) ★★★★
Rewatched. A black hole of humanity. - “Un Flic” (1972) ★★★
Painstakingly made but tests the limit of macho posturing.
October 2019
- “The Five Venoms” (1978) ★★
Everybody really was Kung fu fighting. - “Robin Hood” (2018) ★½
A bold reimagining of the classic folk tale as a terrible action movie made for idiots. - “Transit” (2018) ★★★
Fantastic execution of a plot that doesn’t always bear scrutiny. - “Inside Out” (2015) ★★★★
Rewatched. I got emotional. - “Wonder Woman” (2017) ★★★½
Rewatched. A so-so movie elevated by two very charming leads. - “Joker” (2019) ★★★½
A funny thing happened on the way to the box office. - “L’Eclisse” (1962) ★★★★★
Rewatched. Emptiness was never so beautiful. - “Ad Astra” (2019) ★★★
For a movie about the vastness of space, it’s surprisingly narrow. - “Columbus” (2017) ★★★★
A wonderful meditation on the spiritual power of Modernist architecture. Recommended. - “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” (2019) ★★★½
Inessential except as an excuse to enjoy Vince Gilligan’s ingenious storytelling chops. - “Anna” (2019) ★
Hard to believe, but this movie about a supermodel assassin is not very good. - “The Laundromat” (2019) ★★★★
I’ll take this over “The Big Short” any day. - “Toy Story 2” (1999) ★★★
Rewatched. They should’ve stopped here. - “I Knew Her Well” (1965) ★★★★
Neo-realist gem that both celebrates and skewers post-War Italy. - “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985) ★½
Rewatched. They made this in the Eighties and it stank then too. - “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” (1988) ★★½
Rewatched. This one is special to me but it’s less zany than I remembered.
November 2019
- “The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear” (1991) ★★★
Rewatched. Not too bad actually. - “Shadow” (2018) ★★½
Exquisitely made martial arts epic that’s devoid of feeling as to the point of grotesqueness. - “The Bourne Identity” (2002) ★★★★
Rewatched. Never gets old. - “Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult” (1994) ★★★
Rewatched. Surprisingly maybe the best one? - “The Irishman” (2019) ★★★
Very distracting. - “The Hate U Give” (2018) ★★★
Comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb. - “Parasite” (2019) ★★★½
So, so close to being perfect. - “Dolemite Is My Name” (2019) ★★★½
Eddie Murphy pure charm elevates a by-the-numbers biopic. - “The Addams Family” (2019) ★
Frighteningly boring. - “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. - “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” (1969) ★★
Rich people problems from the Sixties.
December 2019
- “Okja” (2017) ★★½
Very respectable until the English-speaking actors start acting. - “The Wolf’s Call” (2019) ★★★½
A French “Hunt for Red October” and a solid dad movie. - “Rounders” (1998) ★★★★
Rewatched. I didn’t realize how good this script was. - “Thirst” (2009) ★★
There hasn’t been a truly decent vampire movie in decades. - “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) ★★★
Rewatched. The only worthwhile installment since, well, “The Empire Strikes Back.” - “Harakiri” (1962) ★★★★★
Starkly rendered, beautifully told samurai fable. - “He Ran All the Way” (1951) ★★½
One of those noirs in which the characters are all dumb as a rock. - “Tokyo Story” (1953) ★★★★
Searingly human tale of grown children and aging parents. - “Samurai Rebellion” (1967) ★★★★
Anatomy of a moral tragedy. - “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. - “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (2019) ★
Intergalactic garbage. - “Klaus” (2019) ★★★
Insofar as holiday specials go, not half bad. - “Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx” (1972) ★★
Episodic, not in a particularly beneficial way. - “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” (1993) ★★½
Decent ideas, substandard animation. - “The Wedding Guest” (2018) ★★★★
An off kilter thriller set in South Asia. Not for everyone, but I adored it. - “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) ★★★★½
Rewatched with my kid for the first time. She was enchanted. - “Frozen II” (2019) ★★
All of Disney’s number crunching and strategy decks pretty much worked this time. - “The Souvenir” (2019) ★★★★
Absolutely nails its milieu. - “The Art of Self-Defense” (2019) ★★★
In the proud tradition of indie absurdity. - “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017) ★★★
A bit self-serious, but I enjoyed it. - “Abominable” (2019) ★½
Aside from its transparent pitch for the Chinese market, this is a movie utterly lacking any specific qualities. - “School of Rock” (2004) ★★★★★
Rewatched. A masterpiece.
If you want to keep up with what I watch this year, just follow me on letterboxd.com.
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