2019 Year in Review

Well folks, another year is in the books; another decade, in fact. Now I've only been reviewing movies since 2011 and since I've recently published top 10 lists on Arnold's Benediction of best and worst movies I've ever reviewed (in April and June of 2019 respectively) one could basically assume that those are my top 10 lists for reviewed films of the 2010's – with a couple exceptions as you'll see in a moment. And so today we'll ignore the past decade of films and look just at what I saw in 2019.

Movie-wise 2019 was more interesting than the previous year; in the past twelve months I saw 14 films in theatres and they earned an average of 3.2 stars each. Whereas the 2018 films (average 3.4 stars) I saw were either average or lacking in surprise, a bunch of the 2019 ones I saw were more unique and risky. That made this Year in Review article way easier to write than last time, which hopefully makes it more interesting for you to read. So without further ado, let's reminisce about the past year of movies.

Best Movie: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

It was close but I decided to give this award to Quentin Tarantino's love letter to latter-day Golden Age Hollywood. OUATIH is a long, slow-paced movie but it rewards those who can appreciate its atmosphere and setting which was crafted with such a fine attention to detail that you may as well be watching a live-action late-1960's time capsule. There's a lot of fun to be had in watching Leonardo DiCaprio's and Brad Pitt's characters make their way through the sometimes-absurd world of show business, partially because the absurdity is often of their own making! Mixing these lively fictional characters in with real-life events during a tumultuous period of US history and having it all directed by a famously unorthodox filmmaker is, in this case, a recipe for true greatness. And yes, the ending is totally worth the wait.

Runner-up: Joker

Worst Movie: Cats

No contest here: Cats is by far the worst film I saw in 2019. When general film-making elements such as editing, camerawork, and sound balancing aren't done right you know you're dealing with some shoddy work. And that's before you lay your eyes upon the disgusting, quasi-feline monstrosities that barely look, move, or behave like the animals they're supposed to represent! Needless to say, if you don't like the musical genre – like me – then Cats certainly won't win you over. And even if you do you won't be too pleased at the inconsistent singing quality, the difficulty in discerning the lyrics, and the sub-par acting.

But is Cats the worst movie of the 2010's? No, that distinction still belongs to the movie that took the #1 spot on my Top 10 Worst Movies I've Ever Reviewed. I won't name it here but that film is way more boring and irritating, and is almost one hour longer.

Runner-up: (none)

Most Disappointing Movie: Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

I hate to do this but for the second time a Star Wars movie is my most disappointing film of the year. I hesitated at choosing The Rise of Skywalker to fill this spot since my expectations for it were not great – thanks to Solo (2018) and The Last Jedi (2017) – but gosh darnit this is Star Wars! I've been a Star Wars fan most of my life and to have this many mediocre films come out so rapidly is a tough pill to swallow (I mean at least Attack of the Clones was only one lousy film, not three!). Episode IX continues the Sequel Trilogy trend of remaking the Original Trilogy films one by one, but innovates in the overly-technical department with plenty of MacGuffins and an unnecessary amount of locations to make you start tuning things out. There are a bunch of plot threads that go nowhere and several plot elements and characters that are criminally under-utilized. In fact, there's so much that could've been done better that I'm planning on writing a separate article on the shortcomings of episodes 7, 8, and 9 that includes spoilers. To conclude, The Rise of Skywalker is better than The Last Jedi – in fact, it's not that bad in general. However it is a fittingly so-so capstone to a trilogy that I kind of wish never happened.

Runner up: Midway