The 30 best films of 2019

Our best of 2019 list has been put togeth­er with you in mind, dear read­er. These are not sim­ply the movies we most enjoyed watch­ing this year, or the ones we think will stand the test of time. In most cas­es, they’re artist-dri­ven works which we feel offer some­thing new or else have some­thing impor­tant to say, and which deserve our sup­port. In short, these are the films we think real­ly matter.

As ever, we’ve cho­sen from fea­ture-length releas­es which came out either in the UK or US this cal­en­dar year, be it the­atri­cal­ly or via an online stream­ing plat­form. There are a hand­ful of films we love which aren’t due out on these shores until ear­ly 2020, such as Bong Joon-ho’s Par­a­site and Céline Sciamma’s Por­trait of a Lady on Fire – look out for those in cin­e­mas and in next year’s ranking.

After you’re done perus­ing the below count­down, as well as the accom­pa­ny­ing video by Luís Azeve­do, we’d love to hear which films have made the biggest impres­sion on you in 2019. Share your per­son­al list with us @LWLies.

What we said: ​“Because direc­tor Andrew Bujal­s­ki is work­ing in a neo­re­al­ist genre, it doesn’t come as any real sur­prise that nei­ther work nor her mar­riage become eas­i­er for Lisa (which doesn’t mean that the ensu­ing turn of events isn’t heart­break­ing – expec­ta­tion isn’t always con­sol­ing). It’s what she does in the face of her insur­mount­able dif­fi­cul­ties that reveals the director’s deep under­stand­ing of what it means to be a cog in the machine of our cru­el 21^st cen­tu­ry economy.”

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What we said: ​“Ali­ta oper­ates as a wel­come balm to the cur­rent wave of glossy stu­dio block­busters. It offers a stern rebuke to the con­tin­u­ing (and, frankly, deeply depress­ing) Mar­veli­sa­tion of action movies, tak­ing a fair­ly stan­dard hero-must-rise sto­ry­line but strip­ping away all the turgid self-impor­tance, the visu­al flat­ness, the vul­gar iconog­ra­phy and that con­stant eye on core brand values.”

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What we said: ​“The film doesn’t real­ly run with a tra­di­tion­al nar­ra­tive, it’s time­line con­sists of Sofía’s dai­ly life, her roman­tic clinch­es, her peri­ods of silent reflec­tion, cig­a­rettes in the bath lis­ten­ing to shoegaze, and her attempts to move back to the city to live with her moth­er. It’s an unshowy, yet sen­su­al per­for­mance, depict­ing a young woman’s attempt to secure per­son­al hap­pi­ness amid the hap­py mael­strom of this infant civil­i­sa­tion out in the forest.”

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What we said: ​“A less hon­est and bold film­mak­er would have been sat­is­fied with pre­sent­ing art as the sure way to sal­va­tion and self-actu­al­i­sa­tion. But Josephine Deck­er, who worked in an exper­i­men­tal the­atre set­ting with her entire crew for sev­er­al months in prepa­ra­tion, under­stands that mak­ing art is as con­fus­ing as life itself, with poten­tial for mis­un­der­stand­ing and abuse of pow­er at every turn.”

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What we said: ​“Chained for Life isn’t a patro­n­is­ing, didac­tic moral­i­ty tale about por­tray­als of the mar­gin­alised in cinema’s his­to­ry. The inter­play of the var­i­ous egos com­fort­ably places it in the com­pa­ny of François Truffaut’s Day for Night or Rain­er Wern­er Fassbinder’s Beware of a Holy Whore, two high­lights of the small genre of movies set on film sets where cast and crew from dif­fer­ent places on the peck­ing order try to make the best of chaot­ic situations.”

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What we said: ​“Burnham’s com­e­dy cre­den­tials trans­late into scenes which show his ado­les­cent grow­ing pains, but the film belongs to young Elsie Fish­er, and Josh Hamil­ton who plays her sup­port­ive (if not ter­mi­nal­ly embar­rass­ing) father. There’s a ten­der­ness that under­writes Eighth Grade’s com­e­dy, ensur­ing we always laugh with Kay­la rather than at her.”

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What we said: ​“So many films have told of destruc­tive male genius­es, and it’s refresh­ing to see a woman grant­ed the space to be more than a fig­ure of tragedy. An infi­nite­ly frus­trat­ing but unques­tion­ably com­pelling pres­ence, Becky is in con­trol of her own des­tiny and her own down­fall, and Her Smell rejects all notions about the music indus­try being a place of unend­ing excess and glamour.”

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What we said: ​“Rian John­son shifts the who­dun­nit goal­posts at every oppor­tu­ni­ty, so at the point you think you know where all this is head­ed, you real­ly don’t. Knives Out is less inter­est­ed in the ins­ta-grat­i­fi­ca­tion of col­lar­ing the cul­prit than it is air­ing out a lot of dirty laundry.”

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What we said: ​“Petzold’s two pre­vi­ous offer­ings, Bar­bara and Phoenix, showed how Germany’s trou­bled recent his­to­ry still leaves traces on cir­cum­scribed lives, yet here he’s not just join­ing the dots between then and now, he’s cre­at­ing an auda­cious over­lay where past and present co-exist. It’s not quite as blunt as pro­claim­ing that yesterday’s Holo­caust is today’s migrant cri­sis, yet Pet­zold is cer­tain­ly keen for us to con­sid­er the com­mon­al­i­ties for those unfor­tu­nates on the receiv­ing end.”

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What we said: ​“While the nar­ra­tive is anchored in con­tem­po­rary con­cerns about the loss of region­al cul­ture and tra­di­tions, the ana­logue equip­ment and old-school edit­ing tech­niques Jenkin employs give the film a dis­tinct­ly archa­ic look and feel. High-con­trast cin­e­matog­ra­phy, over­dubbed dia­logue and extreme close-ups com­bine to immer­sive effect, cre­at­ing the impres­sion of dis­cov­er­ing a lost rel­ic of ear­ly cin­e­ma that’s been fresh­ly sal­vaged from an old shipwreck.”

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What we said: ​“A direc­tor does not win fem­i­nist points by can­celling out a sex­ist ele­ment in their film with an engi­neered ​“clap­back”. The Nightin­gale is a refresh­ing, nec­es­sary reminder that sex­u­al vio­lence isn’t just a trendy top­ic that exists sole­ly in the abstract, but is pri­mar­i­ly some­thing expe­ri­enced which can­not be reduced to a film trope or eas­i­ly pre­vent­ed in real life.”

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What we said: ​“Rober­to Min­ervi­ni has spo­ken open­ly about how close he is to the peo­ple he films, and here once more he takes the time to build a gen­uine, life-long rap­port with var­i­ous cit­i­zens of Louisiana and Mis­sis­sip­pi. He is deter­mined to pre­serve the dig­ni­ty of his sub­jects, and col­lab­o­rates with them at every stage of the film­mak­ing process. He uses long takes which func­tion not as a force­ful agi­ta­tor but rather as a cat­a­lyst: his role is to gen­er­ate moments that speak to a wider reality.”

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What we said: ​“Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Richard Billing­ham restages scenes from his for­ma­tive years and brings to life the pho­tographs of anar­chic domes­tic dis­cord and des­o­la­tion that won him the plau­dits of the art­world cognoscen­ti in the mid-’90s. He does so with triple mea­sures of brac­ing hon­esty and lac­er­at­ing ten­der­ness, all chased with a teacup shot of trea­cle black humour.”

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What we said: ​“The film’s suc­ces­sive and col­lec­tive tri­umphs, though, real­ly belong at Noah Baumbach’s door. Gone is arch­ness and intel­lec­tu­al­ism that threat­ened his pre­vi­ous work as writer/​director, replaced with a ten­der­ness and emo­tion­al truth­ful­ness so gen­er­ous and empa­thet­ic that he’s final­ly earned con­tention as one of the great­est Amer­i­can film­mak­ers of his generation.”

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What we said: “‘A sort of musi­cal with a touch of mys­tery,’ is how Mar­i­ano Llinás describes episode two, a jaw-drop­ping piece of Almodóvar-ian melo­dra­ma with a sub­plot fea­tur­ing a secre­tive cabal of sci­en­tists who seek the life-giv­ing prop­er­ties of a rare scorpion’s poi­son. Throw in mul­ti­ple allu­sions to Hitchcock’s Ver­ti­go and you’re not even half way there.”

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What we said: ​“It’s a fas­ci­nat­ing look at a woman who is too depressed to be depressed, steam­rollered by a lifestyle that has nev­er allowed for nor­mal­cy. Her body has been honed for Hol­ly­wood, and she’s unable to con­vert it back, to use it for fam­i­ly mat­ters and relax­ation. It’s not a maudlin film, but a very sad one – chiefly down to Judy’s eter­nal opti­mism and good humour in the face of so much tough luck.”

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What we said: ​“At the point where Atlantics appears set to dou­ble down on this Goth­ic-tinged roman­tic mys­tery, set against a back­drop of pover­ty and oppres­sion, it swerves off into anoth­er, more entic­ing direc­tion. Diop not only han­dles this big tonal shift with immense grace, she also man­ages to weave it back into the fab­ric of her orig­i­nal tale, because she obvi­ous­ly cares deeply about these peo­ple and their stories.”

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What we said: ​“It’s an inti­mate film about the ten­der­ness of van­i­ty, inter­est­ed main­ly in sub­tle body lan­guage and obscure nuance. Scenes are stretched to break­ing point and beyond for max­i­mum dis­com­fort. Yet the sto­ry unfurls on a grand can­vas which includes tim­pani con­cer­tos, sweaty hate-sex, scenes of a bull gor­ing a don­key, and the advan­tages of hav­ing some Gen­e­sis albums loaded up on the stereo of your Range Rover.”

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What we said: ​“There is some­thing vague­ly seedy about the fact that, fol­low­ing Franklin’s death in August 2018, the green light for a vale­dic­to­ry release was instant­ly flashed, per­haps going against her admit­ted­ly obscure wish­es. But when the final prod­uct stands with its shoul­ders in the clouds with­in the pan­theon of sub­lime con­cert films, it’s tough to be too irked about any bureau­crat­ic wheel­er deal­ing that went on in the background.”

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What we said: ​“James Gray lands the big finale with visu­al and emo­tion­al ele­gance. Ad Astra is a lament to the things we won’t see or the ideas we won’t under­stand in our rel­a­tive­ly mea­gre life­times. These astro­nauts pray to God before their ves­sels blast off, and it’s both strange an excit­ing to see a film where human­i­ty retains its spir­i­tu­al belief in a future dom­i­nat­ed by sci­ence, dis­cov­ery and cold rationality.”

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What we said: ​“Over the course of the film Almodóvar builds a com­plex pic­ture of a gift­ed but fick­le artist whose glo­ry days look to be long behind him. We also dis­cov­er that Anto­nio Ban­deras’ Sal­vador suf­fers from chron­ic back pain and occa­sion­al chok­ing fits, which fur­ther explains his sud­den urge to rec­on­cile his for­mer tri­umphs and tragedies.”

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What we said: ​“A good amount of time is ded­i­cat­ed to depict­ing the minu­ti­ae of these lives and demon­strat­ing the gulf that sep­a­rates star from stunt man. Flash­backs show how far the pair have come against the shift­ing tide of the Los Ange­les land­scape. Fore­most, Quentin Taran­ti­no has com­posed a love let­ter to Tin­sel­town, in all its dirty sexy glory.”

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What we said: ​“Eggers has cast The Light­house with the instincts of a silent film­mak­er, deploy­ing two actors with dis­tinc­tive, remark­able faces. For all their tal­ents and traits, Pat­tin­son and Dafoe are both cham­pi­on sour­puss­es, their expres­sions drawn and glum, and on Eggers and Blashcke’s film stock of choice, the crags and pores and lines scored into their skin are accen­tu­at­ed, giv­ing these famil­iar fea­tures a weath­ered texture.”

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What we said: ​“Sight unseen, the film might come across as a trite plea for glob­al peace in the name of ​‘the chil­dren’, and it does fit that bill in many ways. Though trite it is not, as Waad Al-Kateab (along with co-direc­tor Edward Watts) mute any unwar­rant­ed sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty by focus­ing pure­ly on what’s there and what’s hap­pen­ing, forc­ing the view­er to con­stant­ly ask of them­selves: are you com­fort­able with all of this?”

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What we said: ​“The way the film is shot, and the way the actors are blocked with­in the frame, and how they play off of one anoth­er, and how they inter­act with the sets, and the speed and vol­ume at which they talk, all serve to height­en a sense of roman­tic real­ism. The lived-in aspect of the film, and the feel­ing that we are expe­ri­enc­ing mere high­lights (and low­lights) of these rich, event­ful lives, is how this love is articulated.”

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What we said: ​“See­ing Robert De Niro mirac­u­lous­ly returned to a state of youth­ful vigour not only brings back mem­o­ries of all those sen­sa­tion­al moments in Mean Streets, The God­fa­ther: Part II, Taxi Dri­ver, The Deer Hunter, Rag­ing Bull, The King of Com­e­dy, Good­fel­las et al, it serves as a sober­ing reminder of our own mortality.”

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What we said: ​“Robert Pat­tin­son is amaz­ing, deliv­er­ing a sophis­ti­cat­ed, emo­tion­al­ly dis­crim­i­nat­ing per­for­mance that is root­ed in small phys­i­cal process­es. Claire Denis is a direc­tor who rewards col­lab­o­ra­tors that give them­selves to her – mind, body and soul. She hon­ours vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty by fram­ing and mag­ni­fy­ing it on screen.”

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What we said: ​“Sandler’s fun­ny, of course, but he’s also cuts an incred­i­bly trag­ic fig­ure. He’s frus­trat­ing, yet some­how you sort of feel for him, despite all his man­i­fold ​‘faults’. It’s such a fine­ly-cal­i­brat­ed per­for­mance, it feels like you could watch if for hours; bet­ter still, it helps to gain a real feel for the world in which this char­ac­ter func­tions. The out­ra­geous, osten­ta­tious behav­iour all feels root­ed in some­thing real, some­thing raw.”

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What we said: ​“Malick’s mes­sage is clear: van­quish­ing evil requires indi­vid­u­als to take a stand, to recog­nise what is right and what is wrong. So beware of false prophets; nev­er stop hold­ing on to love and hope; above all, don’t let hate in. For Franz and Fani, the path to sal­va­tion begins and ends in Rade­gund, high up in the moun­tains. Giv­en the uncer­tain, deeply polarised times we live in, what could be a more beau­ti­ful and poignant sen­ti­ment than that.”

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What we said: ​“Burke and Swin­ton Byrne’s pierc­ing per­for­mances are the film’s crown­ing glo­ry – their nat­ur­al chem­istry is the beat­ing heart of The Sou­venir. Joan­na Hogg’s deci­sion to with­hold plot details from her cast, and in the case of the lat­ter, not pro­vide a shoot­ing script at all, cre­ates a sense of expert frag­men­ta­tion. Real­i­sa­tions come slow­er to Julie than they do to us, the all-see­ing audi­ence, as we gain a sense not only for Julie’s naïveté́, but the deep ache of want­i­ng some­one to so des­per­ate­ly match up to an image built in your mind’s eye.”

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