Best Movies of 2019

The one-child policy is such an interesting subject and there are so many ways this affected the people of China and the world, yet the documentary seems to focus only a couple aspects, likely to give us the most emotional impact; but I was left wanting more.

The set up good, the acting good, the progression of action good, the ending fine enough; but the title quite misleading. There was little attention put on the bridges being closed and the effect that had.

Except for the part with the traveling dirt/dung beetles, this was a totally uninspired remake of an animated classic. Yes, it was gorgeous, yes it had Nice moments. But what a miss.
Also, small little thing, when you have a song titled "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" it might be good practice not to distract the audience by having NOT take place 'tonight'.

Long. I like the cast and the story is good enough, but all the scares weren't as creative as the first movie. It's not a bad movie, but the first movie would have been fine on its own even if I know it was far from concluding.

I read the book "Orlando" earlier this year and my wife loves the book; so we though this would be a great one to watch. There really is very little about the book, it seems like she writes it overnight. True, it's more about the inspiration but it was still disappointing.

The two leads are very good and there is an effective, even if strange, chemistry between the two. It's ultimately a sad movie and one that never really lifts off. Plus, there are some strange VFX choices that aren't clarified and I was left wondering what they had to do with the plot.

A very important and interesting subject, I'm just not sure it needed to be so long, even if the development of the story was important and effective.

Director: Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov
Their 1st movie
My 1st movie watched from the directors

Added to Lists:

Best Documentaries of the Decade - 2010s

Director: Dome Karukoski
His 8th Movie
My 1st movie watched from the director.

A nice background to one of the most beloved stories in literature. There isn't anything grand about it, but there are many lovely bits that add up to a worthy story. A story about friendship, love, adventure, and changing the world for better. All themes obviously found in Tolkien's work.

I was expecting more of the movie to be about the process for when he was writing, but I actually quite like that it was mostly all before he even put quill to paper.

Added to Lists:

Origin Stories
Top Ten Performances - Lily Collins

Nice learning a little more about the wildcard of CSNY. Lived quite a full life and the emotional regret was effective.

This was not ever meant to be a great movie, but for as simple as it is it packs a lot of heat and so effectively paints a beautiful story of two hetero best friends living a depressing life right until the end. It's very Duplass, but not even directed by him/them.

Not as clever and genre inspiring as the first, not that it was really expected; but still entertaining while being informative.

Director: Michael Flanagan
His 10th Movie
My 1st movie watched from the director.

I was completely entertained in this horror sequel. I my opinion a creatively successful horror sequel is about as rare as a morel mushroom in the Kalahari. Everything worked, something I did not expect, after watching a trailer that made it actually look pretty stupid - a big reason why it took so long to watch it.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Rebecca Ferguson
Best Horror Movies
Best Horror Sequels

I'm really confused by the crazy low ratings for this. Natalie Portman is fucking great in this. The other performances a pretty solid, too. The pacing is spot on, the cinematography and production design is excellent, plus effective music and clever editing choices. Sure, the end is not remarkable, but this is a character study and it had me invested the whole way through.

Director: Rupert Goold
His 3rd movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

I knew what I was getting into before the movie began, but it didn't prevent me from falling for the performances, music, and tragedy. I rarely cry at movies these days, but somehow this one did it. Damn you, Judy!

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Renée Zellweger
The Story of Hollywood Through Movies
The Great Big List of American Biopics (In Subject's Chronological Order)
Top 25 Predictions of Future Stars - 2019 - Jessie Buckley

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Location: Covent Garden in London, England, UK; Beverly Hills, CA, USA

Director: Edward Norton
His 2nd Movie
My 2nd movie watched from the director.

This is a great throwback to the entertaining gumshoe genre we don't get exposed to anymore. The cast is impressive, the cinematography is mostly impressive, and the script ends up being impressive, even if I wasn't impressed with the movie overall after the first act, it impressed me in the end.

Added to Lists:
Top Ten Performances - Ed Norton
Alec Baldwin - The Best Supporting Actor of All Time?

Alex Gibney continues to prove he is the best documentarian out there. He continues to nail it with each documentary. They are mostly a statement on our society woes, and he does it again here: The freewheeling issues of Silicon Valley CEOs. The main subject here is a very interesting (for mostly the wrong reasons) person and the documentary relies on this, to fault which is why I didn't rate it even higher.
Gibney does such a good job with editing, graphics, archival footage, and, once again EDITING. This is so key in a documentary and he kills it.

A nice story of "uncommon" love during war time. The characters are makes this work, along with some nice editing choices. The film quality and direction were a weaker aspect, preventing this from being a very good, memorable movie.

Murphy is awesome in this biopic of a true artist in the most unartistic of ways.

Necessary viewing because of subject matter; but not wildly entertaining even with respectable performances.

Director: Greta Gerwig
Her 3rd movie
My 2nd movie watched from the director

High production value and a stellar cast takes the source material into a beautiful world. Gerwig adapts with a clear love for the source material but manages to modernize some of the themes, yet doesn't try to make it so wildly different that it gets ruined.

Added to Lists:

Batman: Ranked
Top Ten Performances - Saoirse Ronan
Top Ten Performances - Emma Watson
Top Ten Performances - Timothée Chalamet
Top Ten Performances - Chris Cooper (Honorable Mention)

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Location: Concord, MA, USA

Very important story. Innocent people on death row is a very tough subject and gets me very emotional. The performances are all solid, but Foxx shines the most with his commanding performance.

Director: Todd Douglas Miller
His 4th movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

This is very good straight-forward-action documentary. There are no talking heads, statistics, graphics, voice overs, nothing but showing you the step-by-step mission. It's very impressive and paced incredibly well.
The footage throughout is also beautifully maintained. It's sometimes hard to believe this is live footage from 1969.

Added to Lists:

Best Documentaries of the 2010s

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A feel-good movie that should be able to put anyone in a better mood. Nothing special here, but the two lead performances and their chemistry is something worthy of note.