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Best of 2019: Movies February 9, 2020

Photo credit: flickr user Hans Splinter

Another pretty mediocre movie year, based on my Rotten Tomatoes reviews of what I saw on the big screen. I’m a pretty tough grader, but am open to arty films for grownups as well as blockbusters. I gave a rare 4 (out of 5) star review to The Irishman, but the only 3.5 star picture was Uncut Gems. I saw a dozen worth 3 stars and 18 at 2.5.

I got a fair-to-middling 17 of 24 Oscar picks right, and lost the Card family pool to my brother-in-law again. I was predicting “chalk” i.e., 1917 big wins, and it didn’t even sweep the technical awards. Parasite was a better movie, so there was that. Greta Gerwig and Scorsese were robbed. Hollywood hates Netflix more than it hates foreign films, I guess.

Two of the best movies I saw in the cinema last year were black and white re-releases from the ’60s: Battle of Algiers (1966) is horrifyingly prescient and frighteningly relevant, and High and Low (1963) united two of my favorite artists – Kurosawa and Ed McBain – for the ultimate class-conscious Shakespearean police procedural. There’s a reason I live in New York.

According to Box Office Mojo, the U.S. box office was down a little (less than 5%) versus 2018. A similar mix of superheroes, cartoons or live re-makes of cartoons, Star Wars, and one horror movie made up the top ten. The final Avengers movie was huge, with over $850 million in domestic ticket sales but Marvel/Disney only had one other superhero in the top 10 if you don’t count Sony’s Spider-Man movie. Nonetheless, Disney dominated again, even without adding its Fox acquisition. Netflix doesn’t talk, so Mojo doesn’t know what movies like The Irishman and Marriage Story did in their limited releases. (Indiewire says $7M and $2M, respectively.) Some other things to watch:

• There’s some evidence of superhero (Marvel) and Star Wars fatigue, but probably not enough to panic Disney yet. Lots of effort on those franchises will go into on-demand streaming, perhaps more than theatrical releases. With the departure of a lot of Marvel stars (current Avengers, Iron Man), Black Panther is by far its most promising building block. That’s pretty remarkable. Or it may be an opening for a Warner Bros./DC re-emergence.
• If you don’t count Avengers, which was pretty sombre, there were only two “serious” movies in the top 20. And one of them was Joker! The other was Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. That’s identical to 2018. Likewise, the top 10 and top 20 chewed up most of the ticket sales, and only a handful of surprise mid-budget successes. There’s no sign of the demise of hits, though there might be some subtle shifts in what franchises propel them.

So here’s my take on my favorite new movies in 2019. PS, that’s two years in a row my favorite was released by Netflix:

• The Irishman – Marty gets the boys together one last time and earns some grand performances. Epic betrayals. Elegaic, almost tragic. There’s no redemption here; gangsters die alone. Does Scorsese wistfully regret making them so glamorous?
• Uncut Gems – Overheard exiting the packed theater: “That was stressful.” Great cast headed by Sandler, who’s mesmerizing as a mostly unloveable loser @-hole adrenaline junkie. The pace is frantic and anxiety-inducing, goofy, dangerous, even touching; I’m beginning to love the writer/director Safdie brothers team.

The best of the others, not in any particular order:

• Little Women – Can I admire the craft and still admit it’s too girly for me? Beautifully shot, designed, and costumed; suitably proto-feminist. Director Gerwig is 2 for 2.
• Ford v. Ferrari – Lots of fun and even more testosterone. The cars are raw sex. Thrilling racing scenes with minimal CGI, but not quite as exciting as 2013’s Rush.
• Parasite – High craft and a terrific cast. To my thinking, Parasite handles its tone shifts and (similar) themes more effectively than “Us.”
• The Nightingale – Savage. Australia has much to answer for, though in this telling it’s mostly the fault of English white fellas. Brutal, if ham-handed indictment of racist, paternalistic “civilization” – there’s none here. Excellent cast.
• Crawl – Tight, tense, efficient, gory throwback to the Nature’s gone bad B-movies of yore. I can’t stress how shockingly good are the gator effects from its micro-budget. The two leads play it straight and suffer heroically and convincingly (even through the corny familial conflict dialog).
• Avengers: Endgame – Fairly epic, with 5 or 6 Big Moments, but immensely satisfying if you’ve invested in these characters.
• The Lighthouse – Director and co-writer Eggers may be drawing on a few too many sources in this weirdly funny, hallucinatory psychodrama with its New England folklore, horror, and and Beckett moments. But it sure looks and sounds great. Channeling Ahab and Lear by way of Jaws’ Quint, Dafoe overwhelms Pattinson’s semi-straight man, whose method acting might be trying a bit too hard.
• John Wick 3 – Gorgeous, witty ultra-violence. “Art is pain.”

Some of the big ones and Oscar nominees didn’t do much for me. 1917’s tension and magic of its single-take filming wore off for me about a third of the way in. It hits the classic war movie cliches fairly effectively, but remains emotionally aloof. I thought Joker was unpleasant, even disturbing, and pretentious but with nothing to say. It has several powerful scenes and a performance from Phoenix that’s even more over-the-top and mannered than Ledger’s, though not as charismatic. Once Upon a Time had two terrific movie-star performances from Leo and Brad. But unlike Tarantino’s best, it lacks tension and any truly great scenes.

Best of 2018: Movies March 31, 2019

Photo credit: flickr user Hans Splinter

Based on my personal Rotten Tomatoes ratings, 2018 was a poor year compared with the two years prior. I only rated two new movies 3.5 stars out of 5, versus 6 in 2017 and 5 plus a rare 4-star the year before.

My two favorites of the year didn’t even chart in Box Office Mojo’s domestic top 100. As usual, the top 10 were dominated by superheroes and cartoons, though a biopic snuck in. Does Freddie Mercury count as a superhero?

Some other comments on the box office:

• For most of the 2010s, there have been three or four $300 to $400 million sellers at the top. 2012’s big Avengers movie bested $600 million, and 2015 saw two re-booted franchises explode: Star Wars sold over $900 million in the U.S. and Jurassic World over $600. Star Wars follow-ons also tended to do very well. In 2018, Disney again did spectacularly, with Black Panther over $700 million, another near-$700 million Avengers title, and the long-awaited Incredibles sequel over $600 million, but the Star Wars Solo was a relative flop. Like 2015, overall ticket sales were up strongly, over 7% better than the prior year.
• I saw seven of the top 10. The only one I gave a 3-star rating was the latest Mission Impossible. I loved Black Panther’s Afro-futurist look, its women, and Michael B. Jordan’s villain. (I’m definitely Team Killmonger thematically.) But it was way too long, poorly paced, and the special effects were awful.
• Disney again ruled the roost; its 26% market share was 10 points better than number two Warner Bros. And it’s swallowing up Fox as we speak, presumably to re-unite the rest of the Marvel superheroes.

I have no problem with super blockbusters. I enjoy ’em as much as I do movies for grown-ups. It’s just that this year’s batch wasn’t very good. I’m looking forward to the last Avengers movie, but have no desire to see Aquaman or Shazam. And not because they’re light-hearted – I’m a big fan of the funny Thor episode, even if there’s only so far improv should go.

Last year, like 2017, my tastes looked more adult. The two 3.5 star movies I saw last year:

• Roma – Full of life and Cuaron’s love of this (his) family and home. The film is beautifully shot, edited, and sound-designed – by all means, see it on a big screen if you can.
• Free Solo – You’ll catch yourself holding your breath during this documentary. Spectacular footage and gets pretty deep into the heads of the climber and those around him.

The best of the others:

• First Reformed – Ethan Hawke takes a long look at despair. Will he emerge pastor or Taxi Driver? The script cheats a little – it’s pretty clear whose side of the modern church Calvinist Schrader is on – but the director/writer’s moral convictions are ferocious, his construction formal, and at 71, it’s his best work in 20 years.
• The Favourite – Your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for anachronism, misanthropy, and tone shifts. Swift is name-dropped appropriately. Excellent cast, costuming, cinematography (natural lighting plus fish-eye lenses!), soundtrack.
• A Star is Born – The first half is pretty terrific, but the draggy second half wilts, and I’m torn as to how effective is its meta-ness. While it’s admirably ambiguous on the “what is authentic” angle, the script – by director Cooper – cheats for actor Cooper with a lame backstory and sweetens the male resentment. And “Shallow” is no “The Man That Got Away.”
• BlacKkKansman – Painful demonstration of just how little has changed. And – no offense to Jordan Peele and Boots Riley, but this is how a master handles tone shifts. The usual Spike Lee high craft in photography and scoring/soundtracking; if only the cast was more charismatic. Driver, who’s growing on me, is very good and Grace is superbly typecast. But Washington shows no signs of his dad’s charm.
• 8th Grade – I was cringing throughout – I can only imagine how women or parents with daughters will shudder. Pity the middle schooler. 14 year-old Fisher is terrific; was she acting? Does it matter?
• Mission Impossible: Fallout – The Franchise that Never Fails. Fast chases, silly stunts, triple crosses, a new hot villainess, and the masks are back. Even earns a few laughs poking fun at Tom’s height, running, and stunting.
• Widows – Artsy heist movie that doesn’t care much about the heist, but digs into the characters and Chicago race/corruption/politics milieu. Solid cast and good script.
• And a handful of horror movies:
  • Halloween – Michael Meyers and Laurie Strode still have it. Far more than serviceable updating, with a slow build to its very tense last half hour.
  • Hereditary- Superbly cast with several excruciating scenes, classic camera work, and great sound design. But it lacks momentum and chickens out on its toughest themes. Those scenes will stay with you, though.
  • Suspiria – Nobody goes over the top like Guadagnino. (Except, maybe, Argento.)

This year’s Oscars – I went only 17 of 24 and lost the family pool again – made some, shall we say, dubious choices. They didn’t display much in the way of Big Themes in Pop Culture, either. Maybe a bit of a multi-culti vibe. Green Book was charming enough, I suppose, if glaringly obvious. And its attitudes toward race relations seemed far more Driving Miss Daisy than BlacKkKlansman.

Finally, two big disappointments. I had high hopes for what turned out to be the worst movie of the year. A Wrinkle in Time replaced spacey psychology and Christian insights with Oprah-esque self-help platitudes. Please read the book instead. And one of my favorite talents to watch, writer and sometimes director Taylor Sheridan botched the Sicario sequel badly, losing all the first one’s moral ambiguity. If you want some of that, read Don Winslow’s epic War on Drugs trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, The Border).