Article by Lauren Rosewarne /
Medium /
December 31, 2019 /
Welcome to the list of the 149 new release films I saw in 2019. These were seen in the US or in Australia, or were new features with teeny tiny cinema releases that I saw on streaming services. (Note that I list by viewings in a given calendar year, which means that some films released in certain markets in 2019 appeared on last year’s list).
I didn’t leave many screenings this year having fallen in love, but I did swoon over 1–7– and my favourite film of the year, Yesterday, is one I wrote about here.
8–34 were films I very much enjoyed — which I’d be delighted to recommend — but which, alas, didn’t involve any swooning.
35–69 were films I liked — which fit the bill for being in, varying degrees, worthy or entertaining — but which weren’t transformative, weren’t ones I need to bully you into seeing and which aren’t masterpieces. 70–105 are in the passable/forgettable/meh category: acceptable viewing experiences but ones you needn’t prioritise. From 106 onwards are the films I hated — ones where I felt robbed, where the bad far outweighs the good, or where I simply walked out of the cinema in overwhelming frustration (as I did with Cyrano, My Love and The Mountain). The most egregious on this list were the films where the undue hype only sharpened my loathing (think Joker, The Lighthouse, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Gloria Bell, and The Irishman).
It’s hard to make generalisations about a year’s worth of film, but here’s six:
· I thoroughly enjoyed an awful lot of films about disintegrating relationships. This should surprise no one.
· While I made a concerted effort to see female-directed films, that three in my top ten — and five in my top twenty — were directed by women is just splendidly fortuitous.
· While not always directed by women, many of my high-ranking entries — from Booksmart to Portrait of a Lady on Fire to Animals, from Pink Wall to The Wolf Hour to After the Wedding and Maiden– are properly pithy takes on female stories and completely worthwhile.
· My favourite takes on sexual consent were given by two completely unlikely films: Good Boys and Daniel Isn’t Real.
· Living in small-town New England for a chunk of 2019 meant that I didn’t have easy access to many foreign films. That said, that the French, the Spaniards, the Russians and the English are represented in my Top 10 is a reminder that sometimes we — or, at least me — have to dig a little for the year’s gems because those that dominate the box office aren’t normally what I want to see. And on that note…
· I only saw two of 2019’s ten highest grossing films, both of which I hated. There’s a point here to be made about the films that make the money not being the ones I’m interested in and, more broadly, I just generally remain loathed to spend time or money on animation or superheroes.
Enjoy. Happy watching and have a wonderful 2020!
P.S. You can access my 2016, 2017 and 2018 lists here.
1. Yesterday
2. Booksmart
6. Leto
7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco
8. Parasite
9. Honey Boy
10. Marriage Story
11. Untogether
12. Animals
13. Pink Wall
15. Luce
16. The Wolf Hour
18. The Report
19. Maiden
20. Dark Waters
21. A Kid Like Jake
22. Late Night
23. Fast Color
24. Ready or Not
25. Stan & Ollie
26. Queen & Slim
27. 21 Bridges
29. Jojo Rabbit
30. Black and Blue
31. Ford v Ferrari
32. Good Boys
33. Rocketman
34. Diane
35. Where’d You Go Bernadette?
36. The Goldfinch
40. American Woman
41. Papi Chulo
42. Judy
43. Long Shot
44. Sword of Trust
45. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
47. Bird Box
48. The Operative
49. Wild Rose
50. I Am Mother
51. Official Secrets
53. The Professor
54. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
55. Don’t Let Go
56. The Upside
57. Brian Banks
58. The Chaperone
59. The Kitchen
60. Escape Room
61. Love, Gilda
62. Knives Out
63. Midsommar
64. Doctor Sleep
65. Greta
66. The Quietude
67. The Laundromat
70. The Farewell
71. The Fall of the American Empire
72. Light From Light
73. Last Christmas
74. Angel of Mine
75. Cold Pursuit
76. A Dark Place
77. Anna
78. Little Woods
79. Harriet
82. Plus One
84. The Aftermath
85. Gemini Man
86. Angel Has Fallen
87. The Tomorrow Man
88. The Souvenir
89. Villains
91. Velvet Buzzsaw
92. In the Aisles
93. Countdown
95. Destroyer
96. ECCO
97. Murder Mystery
98. If Beale Street Could Talk
99. Fyre
101. The Aeronauts
102. Wine Country
105. After Class
106. Drunk Parents
107. Ad Astra
108. Isn’t It Romantic
109. Aladdin
110. The Trouble With You
111. Stuber
112. Dumbo
113. Burning
114. Dora and the Lost City of Gold
115. Lucy in the Sky
116. Charlie’s Angels
117. Hustlers
118. Gloria Bell
119. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
120. Serenity
121. The Current War
122. Joker
123. An Acceptable Loss
124. The Last Laugh
125. Euphoria
126. Stockholm
127. The Song of Names
128. The Irishman
129. Playing with Fire
130. Cyrano, My Love
131. Evaru
132. Den of Thieves
133. Palm Beach
134. The Lighthouse
135. Cats
136. Light of My Life
137. The Dead Don’t Die
138. Jexi
139. The Fanatic
140. The Bravest
141. Ranarangam
142. The Hustle
143. State Like Sleep
144. Daniel Isn’t Real
145. Her Smell
146. Chained for Life
147. In the Tall Grass
148. The Mountain
149. Swiped
© Lauren Rosewarne 2019