The Best Films of 2019
The past year has been a remarkable one for cinema. Masters outdid themselves by finding fresh new approaches to the medium while singular new voices (many of them female directors) rung out with groundbreaking storytelling and stunning visuals. Below are the top 10 movies of 2019, as recommended by the women of Passerbuys.
1. Parasite dir. by Bong Joon Ho
recommended by Nicole Najafi, Katy Hallowell, Mina Alyeshmerni, Lyndsey Butler, Julia Corsaro, Rachel Nguyen, Jenna Saraco, Sandi Marx, Mimi Packer, Natalie Falt, Zan Goodman, Holly Mitchell and Eva Goicochea
Universally beloved for a reason, Bong Joon Ho’s masterpiece solidified him as the rightful heir to Hitchcock and built upon his work as an incisive social critic and irreverent comedic mind. The film follows two families, the destitute Kims and the ultra-wealthy Parks, as they get further and further intertwined after the Kims begin posing as qualified household workers for the Parks. Tense, beautiful, and a continuation of the peach-related cinema established by Call Me By Your Name, there was little other competition for the number one film.
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2. Pain and Glory dir. by Pedro Almodóvar
recommended by Nat Guevara, Carolina Santos Neves, Kristi Garced and Jenna Saraco
Pedro Almodóvar has been a legend for nearly 40 years (so much so that we’ll even forgive him for I’m So Excited) and this year he turned his cinematic eye inward to craft this heartbreaking semi-autobiographical reflection on age, filmmaking and love. The film follows director Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) as he reflects and recalls the major events of his life that led him to personal and professional decline.
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3. Booksmart dir. by Olivia Wilde
Recommended by Katy Hallowell, Erin Allweiss, Carolina Santos Neves and Courtney Preiss
Who knew Alex from The O.C. had this in her? Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut follows Amy (Kaitlin Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) best friends and overachievers as they set out to cram 4 years of fun into one night after finding out the classmates they disregarded as hard-partying idiots got into the same Ivy League schools as them. An entirely new outlook on what seemed like a tired genre, the film has multiple set pieces whose cinematographic excellence is only upstaged by the hilarious jokes.
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4. The Farewell dir. by Lulu Wang
Recommended by Erin Allweiss, Fariha Roisin, Mimi Packer and Mina Alyeshmerni
Improbably based on a true story from writer/director Lulu Wang’s life, this film follows writer Billi (Awkwafina) as she heads to China with her family to stage a fake family wedding to say goodbye to her Grandmother (Zhao Shuzhen) who is the only person unaware that she only has a few weeks to live. Astonishingly acted and deeply humane.
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5. The Last Black Man in San Francisco dir. by Joe Talbot
Recommended by Mimi Packer, Eva Goicochea, Georgie Greville and Katy Hallowell
What does it mean to lose your home? Is it just the physical space or can the shifting tide of a city rob you of an identity far beyond tangible space? Jimmie (Jimmie Fails who also has a “story by” credit on the film) and Mont (Jonathan Majors) seek to reclaim Jimmie’s now vacant childhood home in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. The work on the house and dreams Jimmie and Mont share push their friendship to extremes and tease out deeply considered thoughts on masculinity, art and the city they love so dearly that may no longer love them back.
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6. Uncut Gems by the Safdie Brothers
recommended by Zan Goodman, Natalie Falt, Lyndsey Butler, and Nadia Bedzhanova
A two-hour anxiety attack may not seem like a ringing endorsement but the Safdie Brothers’ film is so perfectly wound and incredibly stylish that it turns out to be like an amusement park ride crossed with a Saul Bellow novel. The film self-consciously harkens back to the NYC-set thrillers of the 70s (Martin Scorsese is a producer) as it follows degenerate gambler and subterranean jeweler Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) on an odyssey to somehow turn his self-destructive bad luck into a happy ending. The plot involves a rare opal, basketball great Kevin Garnett, Passover and The Weeknd but best to just go in knowing you’e in for a tight story masterfully told.
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7. Portrait of a Lady on Fire dir. by Céline Sciamma
recommended by Julia Corsaro, Natalie Falt and Mimi Packer
Set in late 18th-century Brittany Portrait of a Lady on Fire follows Marianne (Noémie Merlant) who has been commissioned to secretly paint a portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) that will be sent to the future husband Héloïse has no interest in marrying. As Marianne gets closer to Héloïse mutual fascination turns to romantic love and the vagaries of life that carried them together pull them apart. The best possible version of a costume drama from one of the greatest working filmmakers in the world.
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8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood dir. by Quentin Tarantino
recommended by Mimi Packer, Lyndsey Butler and Courtney Preiss
We all know Tarantino and think we know what to expect but this meditation on L.A. in the 70s had surprisingly profound things to say about fame, violence, aging and our collective fascination with all three. Get on its wavelength and enjoy Brad Pitt finally synthesizing his otherworldly good looks with his true nature as a character actor and Leonardo DiCaprio getting acting lessons from a 9-year old girl.
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9. Atlantique dir. by Mati Diop
recommended by Jenna Wortham and Natalie Falt
Mati Diop became the first black female director to compete for Cannes’ Palme d’Or (better shockingly late than never we suppose) with this stunning story of love, aspiration and revenge between Ada (Mame Bineta Sane) and Souleimane (Ibrahima Traore) amid an increasingly modernizing Dakar.
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10. Jojo Rabbit dir. by Taika Waititi
recommended by Erin Allweiss and Courtney Preiss
A lonely German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) finds companionship with his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler (writer/director Taika Waititi) during World War II until he discovers his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic, leading him to question the propaganda he’s been fed and the hateful path his country has taken. It sounds like a collossal mistake at the nexus between horrible taste and saccharine sentimentality but Waititi as a director, writer and performer is able to delicately balance each element to make a hilarious and moving film.
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Other film recommendations include Knives Out dir. by Rian Johnson (Nat Guevara and Eva Goicochea), Honey Boy dir. by Alma Ha’rel (Dasha Faires and Lyndsey Butler), Queen and Slim dir. by Melina Matsoukas (Fatima Jones and Georgie Greville), Hustlers dir. by Lorene Scafaria (Nicole Najafi and Fariha Roisin), Marriage Story dir. by Noah Baumbach (Nicole Steriovski and Beverly Nguyen) and Climax dir. by Gaspar Noé (Nat Guevara and Natalie Falt).
Words by Eric Margulies