I know a lot of people are doing “best of the decade” lists, but I can barely manage “best of the year,” so that’s what you’re gonna get!
I saw something on the order of 80 movies so far this year, with more to come no doubt over the next couple of weeks. Some were in theaters, some OnDemand or streaming and a few were on those tiny little screens on the back of airplane seats. In the latter category, my favorite was Bad Night at the El Royale, which was very entertaining on a flight from Japan to the US.
In the Stephen King Universe, there were three notable cinematic releases in 2019. First, there was Pet Sematary, which I was genuinely looking forward to after I read about the plot change they were making, but which ultimately disappointed me. Then there was It: Chapter Two, which wrapped up the lengthy and impressive adaptation of one of King’s longest and most popular novels. I liked it a lot. And, finally, there was Doctor Sleep, which failed at the box office, but to my mind was one of the best films inspired by a King novel in quite a while. I reviewed all three of these for News from the Dead Zone–that’s where the links above will take you. There was another movie release this year, In the Tall Grass on Netflix, but I haven’t managed to see that one yet.
To my way of thinking, a movie makes my favorite list based on how much I wanted to tell other people about it after I saw it. In no particular order, the movies that did this for me from 2019 were: Us, Rocketman, The Highwaymen, Yesterday, Downton Abbey, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Knives Out and Dolemite Is My Name.
I saw and enjoyed a few Marvel films this year, including Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. They feel like their in a category by themselves. I finally finished The Irishman after two sittings nearly two weeks apart, and then watched the companion piece on Netflix that had Pacino, De Niro, Pesci and Scorcese discussing the project. I liked the film well enough, but won’t rave about it. It was also good to go back to Deadwood this year, and El Camino, while not absolutely necessary, was a nice throwback to the Breaking Bad years.
In the oddball category, I got a big kick out of Velvet Buzzsaw, although it wasn’t to everyone’s taste. Bird Box was entertaining.
We watched a number of music documentaries this year, not all of them new: Echo in the Canyon, The Quiet (St)One, Rolling Thunder Revue, Now More Than Ever, Can’t Stand Losing You. Haven’t seen the David Crosby movie yet, but it’s on my radar. Also in the documentary category, we enjoyed Knock Down the House and Cold Case Hammarskjöld.
