The 10 best movies of 2019

Note: This article was first published on 5 January 2020.

2019 was a great year for TV series, but it was an even better one for movies! Franchises like Avengers, John Wick and Toy Story saw some really great sequels last year. However, it wasn’t just a great year for franchises – there was an avalanche of both indies and big-budget original movies, with many of them surpassing big releases like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in terms of quality. Hey, subjectivity and all that. 

Here’s my pick for the 10 best movies of 2019:

10. Ready or Not

If we’re lucky, we usually get one or two truly great horror movies a year. This is one of them. In Ready or Not, newlywed Grace (Samara Weaving) is introduced to a tradition within her husband’s family. Whenever there’s a new addition to the family, they have to draw a card and play the game written on it. There are games like chess and checkers, and then there are games like Hide and Seek, where the entire family has to hunt down and kill their newest member. Guess which card Grace draws?

This film masterfully mixes in suspense and comedy to make exactly the kind of horror movie I love. It’s got a sharp sense of humour, but never lets up on the tension. Weaving is amazing in this, and between Ready or Not, The Babysitter and the upcoming Bill & Ted Face the Music, you can tell she’s well on the way to becoming a household name. 

If you liked "horror" movies like Cabin in the Woods and Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, you’ll love this. After all, unconventional horror movies are the best horror movies. 

9. The Farewell

The Farewell centres on a family who learns that their grandmother has very little time left to live – and decides not to tell her. Instead, they schedule a family gathering under the guise of a wedding in China, just to spend time with her before she passes. Billi Wang (Awkwafina) struggles to come to terms with the rest of her family lying to her grandmother, and clashes with them as a result.

Remarkably, this story is based on director Lulu Wang’s life, who found herself in the same situation with her family. Awkwafina shines here, breaking out of her usual comedic fare by playing a woman who’s utterly confounded by the stubborn traditionalism of her family. She’s extremely close to her grandmother, so having to spend time with her while knowing about her imminent death utterly breaks her, and it’s written on her face in every scene. 

The movie is beautifully shot and deeply relatable not only because of its Asian roots, but also the candor with which it portrays this family. 

8. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story

While Breaking Bad gave us all closure on Walter White’s story, we were left in the dark on what happened to Jesse Pinkman. The last we saw of Aaron Paul’s character was when he stole his captors’ El Camino and drove to freedom – a wanted man finally free for the first time in six months. Still, he was a wanted man, so we never really knew if he actually found freedom, or just drove right into the loving arms of the police. Well... now we know.

El Camino refuses to waste a minute of its two-hour runtime, showing us old and familiar faces without making them feel cheap. Vince Gilligan proved with Better Call Saul that a follow-up to to the Breaking Bad Universe could work, and he did so again here. Aaron Paul delivers a fantastic performance, one that almost eclipses his work on the show. Even Jesse Plemons got to show off his remarkable acting chops, injecting Todd with some much-needed complexity.

The plotting feels meticulous, with frequent callbacks connecting it to the series. In every way possible, this feels like a true sequel to Breaking Bad with its signature full-circle storytelling. Whether or not Jesse gets a good or bad ending, Gilligan makes sure it feels earned either way. 

7. Us

Us was Jordan Peele’s second stab at the horror genre after the brilliant Get Out, proving that his first film wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a fluke. This horror film stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex as the Wilsons – a family vacationing in Santa Cruz who find themselves terrorised by four of their doppelgängers. 

Having to play two lead characters is no easy feat, but Nyong’o’ is certainly up to the task, playing both a scared mother and a revenge-driven psychopath in a performance fraught with emotion. The rest of the cast is fantastic too, with Winston Duke being especially hilarious whenever the film needs a moment of levity. Where Get Out mixed racial tension with horror, Us instead serves up themes of classism with a dollop of scares. While I did like Get Out quite a bit more, Us was still a fantastic sophomore outing for Peele, leaving me hungry for more of his brand of highly-relevant horror. 

6.  Parasite

Honestly, the less said about this film, the better. I went in blind only knowing of Bong Joon-ho’s stellar filmography of movies, which includes Netflix movies like Okja to monster movies like The Host. That said, this is easily the best movie he’s directed thus far, and that’s saying quite a bit, considering everything else he has under his belt. Its highly compelling story is shot gorgeously, and boasts great performances from the main cast.

Parasite follows a poor family in Korea, the son of whom stumbles onto a high-paying job working for an incredibly wealthy family. He then starts to integrate his entire family into the household, giving them well-paying jobs as well, but things don’t take long to spiral out of control. This movie completely blew me away, portraying the separation of classes in modern society with such a fresh and highly cinematic take. 

5. Marriage Story

This is where arranging these movies into a list gets difficult. Marriage Story is exactly what it doesn’t sound like, and that’s a film about divorce. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a married couple going through an incredibly painful separation. We're shown why these two loved and subsequently stopped loving each other so clearly that it's almost impossible to root for one over the other. 

Driver in particular was an emotional powerhouse here, especially during a heartbreaking room-to-room argument later in the movie. Baumbach’s writing stops short of drenching the film in misery through-and-through though, carefully placing moments of levity here and there to ground the film. Even Randy Newman’s Toy Story-esque score is beautifully perfect here, complementing Marriage Story’s poignant aesthetic. This is a movie that will be remembered for a very long time, and for good reason too. It's hands-down the best thing Netflix put out in 2019. 

4. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

All you have to do is watch this movie's opening sequence to get hooked on it. The Last Black Man in San Francisco sees a stunning directorial debut from Joe Talbot, in a movie that highlights the gentrification of San Francisco. The movie centres around Jimmie (Jimmie Fails) and Mont (Jonathan Majors), whose best-friendship boggles in how immediately believable it is. From the first ten minutes, you know that these are two men who have known each other for many years, even if you’ve only known them for a couple minutes. 

The movie follows Jimmie's determined efforts to reclaim his childhood home – an old and beautiful house that is now well beyond his financial reach. Gentrification has struck San Francisco hard, and the only thing Jimmie feels connected to anymore in the city, besides Mont, is the house he grew up in. Talbot’s directing style is in the vein of Wes Anderson, and it shows in this movie’s breathtaking visuals. The music is one of a kind as well, blanketing every scene with a lush, majestic tone. 

3. Jojo Rabbit

From movies like What We Do in the Shadows to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it's clear that Taika Waititi can do no wrong. Jojo Rabbit is a dark comedy about a young boy, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), who practically worships Hitler in Nazi Germany. Eventually, he finds out that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their house’s walls, which leads him to question every one of his beliefs. Also, Waititi plays Jojo’s imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler. Fun!

Waititi’s message is clear here – Nazis are an absolute joke. Since some form of the group's ideology has had a worrisome resurgence lately, this message couldn’t be any more timely. However, this isn’t a movie deeply rooted in political drama. It’s a comic look at a boy struggling to come to terms with the terrible things society has taught him. Roman Griffin Davis is fantastic in this, and Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Alfie Allen just sweeten the deal in this movie's incredibly strong cast.

Jojo Rabbit has a lot of heart to offer, and it can be an incredibly touching lesson on human decency too. 

2. Avengers: Endgame

I’m not just putting this on the list because it was one of the most defining movies of the entire decade, but because it was such a satisfying close to ten years’ worth of stories. That isn’t an easy achievement any way you cut it, but Endgame managed to do so while delivering one of the best (if not the best) comicbook movies of all time. 

Even if you don’t read comics, and even if you haven’t been keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s still a lot to love here. Endgame almost immediately chops up every theory fans might have had after Infinity War in its first five minutes, and then gives us two and a half hours of utterly unpredictable entertainment. Watching characters like Rocket Raccoon and War Machine interact with each other is completely surreal, and the movie doles fanservice like that out in spades without sacrificing its blockbuster story. 

There has never been a movie like Avengers: Endgame in history – it pulled together a decade’s worth of characters and stories into one epic climax and did so brilliantly. Seeing Captain America do that thing or watch those circles open were unforgettable moments, and impossible for me to recall without also hearing my theatre explode into excited screams as they happened. I would ask how Marvel could possibly top this. Then again, I thought the same after 2012’s Avengers, and look at us now. 

1. Knives Out

Knives Out took me completely by surprise. In my review, I called it a brilliant and subversive take on the whodunnit genre, and that’s exactly what it is. This murder mystery never lets up with its twists and turns, taking viewers on a wildly unpredictable and endlessly enjoyable journey. 

The movie begins with Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a wealthy crime novelist, getting murdered in his own home right after celebrating his birthday with his family. The rest of the Thrombeys are then all brought together and interrogated by Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a man certain that foul play is afoot. Almost immediately, Knives Out takes its entire premise and flips it on its head, and that's when you realise this movie is something special. 

It's by far the most well-written and fun film to come out of 2019, with an incredible ensemble cast and some really great acting. Murder – it really brings a family together.

What did you love watching in 2019?

Like I said before, 2019 was a fantastic year for movies. I found myself banging my head against the wall many times over before this list was narrowed down. The Irishman, Joker, Ford V Ferrari, The Lighthouse, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Peanut Butter Falcon and more came out in 2019 as well! One thing’s for sure – awards season is going to be a total bloodbath. 

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