A film that needs to be in more conversations. In the 21st century, indie films are getting seen by more people than ever alongside mainstream offerings. Add Aretha’s voice, her performance, the audience, Rev. Let’s get to it. An epic crime saga with an understanding of how societies evolve – by confluence of everything from the external forces of globalization to the personality trait of a specific individual – that is worthy of Tolstoy or Coppola. Steven Farneth went from intern to sales agent to standing on the stage at the Oscars last year as one of the producers of “Green Book” (but that story is nothing compared to him giving up a perfect game he was pitching in college to defend a teammate). More than anything — and regardless of gender — such proud self-sufficiency is a privilege in a world where help is seldom offered to those who need it most. Remember “Out of Sight”? “Non-Fiction” “Liberté” The movie features a show stopping performance from Lexy Kolker as seven-year-old Chloe. “Apocalypse Now: The Director’s Cut” Just a fun romp. A must for the big screen. It Will Blow Your Mind”, “Hollywood’s Big Office Slump May Point to Bigger Issues”, “Men Are in Trouble and Hollywood Wants Help”, Ira DeutchmanProfessor of Professional Practice, School of the Arts Film Program, Columbia University, “Parasite” “Booksmart” – I love these girls! Eric Kohn. The format for this developing resource is simple: Any movie reviewed by IndieWire that has received a B+ or higher makes the cut. Because Adam Driver is the best performer today. And the passion she and her husband Dr. Hamza al-Kateab have to keep getting this story out there goes beyond just the film. A bitter and mesmerically beautiful documentary that focuses on a single beekeeper as though our collective future hinges on the fragile relationship between she and her hives. Keep your eyes on Ty Roberts, a director to watch for his next film, “12 Mighty Orphans.”. Billi’s contempt for that decision only bolsters her parents’ argument that their daughter should remain in New York, away from the overcomplicated arrangement that Billi’s mother Diana Lin explains in matter-of-fact terms: “Chinese people have a saying: When you get cancer, you die.” That abrupt statement establishes the deft balance of Wang’s screenplay, which veers from serene, observational moments to unexpected bursts of disarming humor. Dec 2, 2019 9:00 … Whew. Favorite episodes included Candy’s funeral and the road trip to the Hamptons with the main characters. I spend a good chunk of my day trying to turn young people into cinephiles, and the short-sightedness of locking great films in some sort of imaginary vault is so counterproductive as to honestly boggle the mind. 2019 gifted us a bounty of audacious dramas, documentaries, comedies, thrillers and action-adventures. You have your Avengers: Endgame, Game of Thrones, John Wick and so on. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Uncut Gems” for their pure innovation. “Dolemite Is My Name” It was a great year for Asian American films and filmmakers where we saw promising up and coming Asian American filmmakers. A lot of the time, they are the best films of the year. “Waves” “American Factory” And she looks amazing! “Booksmart”: Olivia Wilde made the teen movie I’ve been waiting for all my life. But it made me cry. An artful fable that examines what it really means to save the world, Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Woman at War” is the rarest of things: A crowd-pleaser about climate change. 4. Read the full review here. What great actors. “Amazing Grace” “Jojo Rabbit”: Mileage varied, but I found Waititi’s latest to be a suitably savage take-down of organized hate, from someone who had to learn to laugh at it. Gotta admit that my true list would include a heavy dose of NEON, but here’s the No Conflicts list: 1. It set the tone for this year. “Uncut Gems” I accidentally fell into this one night and was hooked for the whole season. Share Tweet Submit Pin. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Michael BarkerCo-President, Sony Pictures Classics, 1. 2. Forget it, digital phonies, great theater is as natural and exciting and dangerous and beautiful as breathing. “Rocks”: Gonna tell my kids this was “Little Women.”. Also, there’s a mad scientist who’s trying to clone Diamantino in order to create an invincible super team capable of stoking national pride and “Making Portugal Great Again.” Also, there are giant puppies. Booksmart (2019) If you liked Superbad, you will love Booksmart. If you thought Tarantino did a great job of re-creating 1960’s Hollywood, feast your eyes on the job the production design team did in transporting us to the oil-boom era of 1920’s Dallas. Super-smart comedy with wonderful performances across the board, proving that traditional networks still make great TV. The 20 best films of 2019, from Burning to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It’s also why Olivier Assayas’ sly and delightful “Non-Fiction” (née “E-book”) feels like such a lark at first — like a master filmmaker clearing his throat between more significant projects. Note: While some films on this list were released by studios, they were initially developed as independent projects. Speaking of Academy campaigns, former director of marketing Erin Owens is doing a bang up job of getting awards attention on Nancy Schwartzman’s “Roll Red Roll,” a painful look at the town of Steubenville, OH, literally circling their wagons around protecting their cherished high school football team from rape allegations. “Parasite” Less than a year after it was released in his native Italy, Paolo Genovese’s smash hit “Perfect Strangers” inspired a Greek remake. The movie tracks this epic saga across seven years of hiccups and tragic developments as the reality of taming nature settles in. “Fleabag” – Hot priest! Loved isn’t the right word. Legendary rocker David Crosby has never been one to mince words, but in A.J. Hu had reportedly been feuding with his financiers, who wanted to cut the running time in half. I bought the DVD! You’ll never see a $100 million superhero movie on here, but a singular vision with some studio backing is fair game. 3. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” – Great use of movie stars in an idyllic version of 1969 Los Angeles. “Jallikattu”: The most relentless, aggressive, triple-bypass courting film of the year. “Cane River” Director Waad al-Kateab’s energy and her zest for life and having the wherewithal all to start filming when the war broke out in Aleppo to keep the truth out there is inspiring and incredible – all while dodging Russian bombers with her baby Sama and family. 9. “Rocketman”: My sentimental favorite. “I didn’t play by the rules,” Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) says at one point, “but there never were any rules.” That seems to be Stearns’ mantra. Every glance and gesture matters in Celine Scaimma’s gorgeous feminist masterpiece. 10. His sophomore effort, “Us,” proves that surprise hit wasn’t a fluke. No matter how silly it gets, “Booksmart” never sacrifices the authenticity of its two leads. The Sondheim song left me breathless. 7. 2. 10. “Jojo Rabbit” – Taika Waititi applies his ridiculous and sublime lens to a coming-of-age story set in Nazi Germany. Amanda Sherwin led many a successful Oscar campaign at THINKFilm, helping notch close to a dozen nominations in just seven years. First things first: Bi Gan’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” has nothing to do with the Eugene O’Neil play of the same title, but that’s not the only misdirection in play. “American Factory” “Marriage Story” “Watchmen”, My favorite Latin American films of the year (some are from last year, but they were released—or premiered—in the U.S. this year), Honorable mentions (alphabetical): “Atlantics,” “Booksmart,” “Burning Cane,” “Clemency,” “Diane,” “Give Me Liberty,” “Honey Boy,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family,” “Queen & Slim.”, Anne HubbellVice President of Motion Picture, Kodak; Co-Founder, Tangerine Entertainment. If you’ve seen the film, you know this scene involving a baby. “When They See Us” – Heartbreaking and infuriating. Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. I can only hope I can be as strong and committed as these three are. 50. The best comedy of its kind since “Superbad,” Wilde’s slick, unpredictable romp can sometimes feel like several movies at once. Hats off to Steven Canals, Janet Mock, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and that cast: Billy Porter; MJ Rodriguez; Indya Moore; Angelica Ross; and Dominique Jackson blew us away every week. Movies. Imagine if Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs” was about Courtney Love in the mid-’90s, and you’ll have a pretty good sense of how this raw punk epic has been structured. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is pooled together from several different truths, as it borrows as much from star Jimmie Fails’ own life as it does from his friendship with his co-writer and director. But the film, like Billingham’s photography, is all the more powerful for its refusal to tidy up, explain itself, or try to glom some kind of retroactive grace onto an impoverished existence that was defined by boredom and neglect. Artistic Director, Film Independent, These are “Impressive Narrative Feature Directorial Debuts of 2019” “Varda by Agnes”, And, if we’re being real: “The Great British Baking Show,” Season 10, Michael TuckmanPresident, mTuckman media, inc. (Exhibition), As always, top 10 films involving former THINKFilm employees. “Years and Years” – Terrifying. It slaps. “Shadow” By Paste Movies Staff | March 8, 2019 | 10:10am. Thanks to Chiemi Karasawa for getting this film out there. This year brought some talented Asian American women filmmakers to the forefront, telling their stories their way and how they wanted to. (@DamonLindelof and @NicoleKassell please bring it back in 2020.). We all forgot that J. With his wife Molly, a culinary writer, the filmmaker abandoned their Santa Monica home to launch a sustainable farm an hour outside the city. “A Marriage Story” In the process, it gives audiences exactly what they want by delivering what they least expect. The Best Movies of 2019. “For Sama” Independent films created numerous film movements across the world that were always rebellious to the mainstream mentality. Long may it reign. That’s exactly what Assayas wants you to think. 2019 was an outstanding year for women in film. Call it history in the making, part two. “Bait”: I saw this delicious little morsel by Mark Jenkin when I was on the jury of the New Horizons Film Festival International Competition. Read the full review here. Then you add director Edward Watts on top of that to help shape the film and story – it’s a perfect combination. “For Sama” Read the full review here. “Rocks” All I can say is, wow. Economic disparity wrapped in suspense and good storytelling. “Donnybrook” But to presume the role that may have played in his death would be as problematic as assimilating Hu’s suicide — which inevitably casts a long shadow over the film — into the fabric of the film itself. J. Final Day at the Masters Tournament with Tiger Woods, -“The Good Fight” is the best show on television, -“Oklahoma!” the best show of the year on Broadway. This list of course features a huge hole this year due to the passing of Mark Urman. Snapchat. “Parasite” – Bong Joon Ho is at the top of his game with this tense, timely, social thriller. “Honeyland”: How could someone as selfish as me care about a beekeeper? 2019 was so great as I had the honor of working together with this legendary filmmaker Michael Apted on his ninth chapter of his “Up” series. One of the most important and misunderstood films of the year. Lo giving us what 50 years old looks like and her pole solo. Season 2 of “Pose” A German emergency doctor named Rieke (Susanne Wolff) takes a well-deserved vacation from her long nights of saving lives, and flies to the sunny rocks of Gibraltar in order to fulfill one of her forever dreams. YouTube. This April, Beyoncé managed to fit the whole spectacle into a euphoric, triumphant, and exhaustingly fierce documentary that should help see Beychella enshrined as one of the definitive pop culture events of the century. Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. “Invisible Life”: Karim Ainouz’s elegant film reinvigorates melodrama — a complete pleasure to be enveloped in this world. Year-end conversations about the movies are often dominated by top 10 lists from critics who spend the year watching movies. Assembled from an immaculately restored motherlode of 16mm vérité footage shot by Howard Alk and David Myers (much of which Bob Dylan left to rot on the cutting room floor when he was done editing “Renaldo and Clara”), and sprinkled with a fairy dust of unlabeled fiction, “Rolling Thunder Revue” is a mythic story of self-invention. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” 3. -On Off-Broadway there were two astonishing productions: A Hollywood retro “Magic Flute” by the Komische Oper Berlin (part of Mostly Mozart Series at Lincoln Center) “Why?” (at Theater for a New Audience), where Peter Brook at 94 and Marie-Helene Estienne show us how it’s done with three actors and a bare stage. > The 10 Best Arthouse Films of 2019 The 10 Best Arthouse Films of 2019. A complete list of Independent movies in 2019. “Uncut Gems, *Bonus: The extraordinary “Cantine women” in Ilyja Khzhanovsky’s fascinating failure, “Dau”, Rajendra Roy Chronicling the reckless fall and tentative rise of punk rocker Becky Something — lead singer of the band Something She — “Her Smell” is told across five long scenes that stretch over 10 years, each of the vignettes unfolding in real time, and most of them set in the snaking bowels of a concert venue’s backstage area. “Pain and Glory” “My First Film” The Museum of Modern Art, “Parasite” “Ad Astra” and “High Life” for confirming my suspicion that when we get to space it will be incredibly lame, and “Apollo 11” for punching that suspicion in the face like it told Buzz Aldrin the moon landing was a hoax. “The Good Place – I binged all seasons this year. Several decades into the digital revolution, there’s still a twinge of discomfort whenever new work from a major auteur dares to invoke the internet. Bi’s lyrical neo-noir begins with the poetic tale of a man returning to his hometown and searching for a long-lost love, then finds him putting his 3D glasses on at a movie theater — a cue for the audience to follow suit, as the movie launches into a staggering 55-minute long take shot entirely in 3D. t’s a remarkable educational experience for anyone eager to go back to the basics. Read the full review here. Finding an intersection between inspiration and nostalgia, Blinded By The Light celebrates the universal power of art and how it can expand someone’s worldview. “Hustlers” – A movie about strippers ripping off Wall Street dudes turns out to be about the bond between working women and the family they create. www.tasteofcinema.com/2019/the-10-best-indie-sci-fi-films-of-the-21st-century Not a potential future double feature. And thank goodness now more people know this case of injustice that have impacted these five boys who are now known as The Exonerated Five. Closing night brought first timer Andrea Walter and her debut feature “Empty By Design.” And then this year, the first trans Filipina filmmaker, Isabel Sandoval, premiered her film “Lingua Franca” at the Venice Film Festival. I went in thinking it would be a silly comedy about strippers and was treated to a full-on story with J. “Euphoria” 6. With the sexiest movies of 2019, there's no through line that connects them all outside the fact that each of them have the capability to raise an eyebrow (or two). Not coincidentally, it’s also Perry’s best. OK, let’s not forget that I worked as the VP of Theatrical Sales for THINKFilm for seven years as well. “63 Up” is such a great milestone in this series for so many reasons and worth a watch. A master still at the top if his game having a blast with his tried and true favorite genre. Read the full review here. As one of the co-directors of the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival since 1997, I have seen so many of our films and filmmakers come through. Taryn Egerton deserves every bit of attention he’s getting, but I also adored Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin. “Downtown Abbey”: So cleverly constructed. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Paul Thomas Anderson’s film only wears a veil of dystopian uniformity so that it can fling it off and touch the tender spots underneath; so that it can find something and lose it and find it again. “Watchmen” – This show is EVERYTHING! A swiss army knife of a team member while at THINKFilm, Dylan Marchetti would go on to be associated with WellGo USA for many years after THINK. Independent movies are the films that, mostly, populate the Academy Awards every year — and there's a reason for that. Note: to see if each film is available for you to stream on Netflix or elsewhere, click on the title to be redirected to the movie page. Glad she’s back. I had to take a break from binging because it is so intense and way too possible. “Harriet” “Uncut Gems”: The second most heart attack inducing film of the year. 6. 9. Read the full review here. Really tough to reconcile the art, the artist and audience complicity. And even if “An Elephant Sitting Still” can be read as one man’s self-immolating act of surrender, to do so would be to ignore the film’s compellingly fraught relationship with the politics of survival in a no-hope nation. Read the full review here. Lo at 50 The only element of Nisha Ganatra’s charming comedy “Late Night” that feels even slightly fantastical is easy enough to overlook when faced with the full force of the crowdpleaser: that a woman isn’t just a network late night talk show host, but that’s she’s been one for nearly three decades. “Parasite”: For two of the last five years, the best film of the year has come from South Korea (see also: “Burning,” “The Wailing”). 11. Zia Anger’s transmedia performance is a triumph of vulnerability and easily the best “browser thriller” ever made. 8. To make it not necessary to have seen the series and to lay the groundwork for an obvious sequel. And to top things all off, he treats us to his vintage animation. Watching the two daughters play with each other on a playground surrounded by barb-wired fences yet laughing and running on a warm spring day shows the power of the human will like few films have done before. Dan Berger rose from intern at THINKFilm to president of Oscilloscope Laboratories in record time, and with acquisitions like “Midnight Traveler,” it’s easy to see why. “Synonyms” While the quality of studio movies tends to peak in the summer and fall seasons, they represent just one small piece of the much larger equation. An appropriately furious portrait of oppression that finds beauty in the possibility for intersectional struggle. Extraordinary performance by Joaquin Phoenix. Jacqueline Lyanga Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. Blinded By The Light. 5. This sort of dark, jagged storytelling won’t settle with viewers who require every emotional beat to be telegraphed upfront, and regardless, the movie pushes the limits of its appeal over the course of 104 minutes. “Souvenir” “Birds of Passage” Another fave film from TIFF, “Hustlers,” took me there. At the end of every calendar year, critics rank the best movies of the past 12 months. Because it was true. Needless to say, “High Life” isn’t your average science-fiction movie. Posted on January 1, 2020 January 1, 2020 by Ryan Akler-Bishop. “Beanpole”: An incredibly mature, accomplished film by a talented young master, Kantemir Balagov, who is only just beginning his career. 7. 10 Best Movies of Sundance 2019 From a devastating documentary on the King of Pop to Awkwafina’s dramatic breakthrough — our favorites from this year’s fest “Varda by Agnes”, Kim Yutani Director of Programming, Sundance Film Festival. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Read the full review here. 10 Ways 2020 Changed the Film Industry, from Streaming Wars to Film Festivals, Screen Talk’s Christmas Movie Guide: Everything You Need to Know About the Best New Releases This Week, Here’s What Critics Groups Can Tell You About This Year’s Weird Awards Season, How ‘Gunda’ Captured the Hypnotic Images and Vivid Sounds of a Pig’s Life — Toolkit, The Art of ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ Is Not Its Manufactured Setup – Toolkit, ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’: Kirsten Johnson Made Cinema Magic Out of Embracing the Unknown, 35 Must-See New Movies to See This Fall Season, The 7 Best Movies New to Netflix in January 2021, ‘Shadow in the Cloud’: Roseanne Liang Turned a Max Landis Script Into Her Own Feminist Monster Movie. 2019 Independent movies, movie release dates. Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us” Best of 2019. And the clothes – yes, we really wore those back then. Somewhere between a ballet dancer and a murderer. The best comedy of its kind since “Superbad,” Wilde’s slick, unpredictable romp can sometimes feel like several movies at once. Anchored by a bravely loathsome and unhinged Elisabeth Moss in the lead role, Perry’s film boasts one of the year’s very best supporting casts (including Eric Stoltz, Agyness Deyn, and Amber Heard), and it puts them all to great use in the service of a difficult but extremely rewarding story about the strength we get from the people in our lives. This Article is related to: Film and tagged Year in Review 2019. NOW-2019. Peele’s second outing as writer-director confronts the ridiculously high expectations of its predecessor by pivoting to a broader canvas of ideas about the nation’s fractured identity. I was working in the local record store when this album came out and they were flying off the shelves. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” “1917” But this year starting with Lulu Wang and her incredibly moving “The Farewell,” which premiered at Sundance. “Leaving Neverland” – A disturbing, graphic, clear-eyed account of horrible child abuse inflicted by an extremely powerful man. Read the full review here. Here’s a list of 11 art house, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”: My crazed, obsessive fandom for this film is my worst-kept secret. It’s tempting to think of “An Elephant Sitting Still” as a suicide note written with blood in a dirty patch of hard snow. If not, you must see it for this scene alone, not to mention how powerful the other 92 minutes are. 2019 was the year that Netflix movies came of age, and ageing actors were made young again. I’ll say it loud and clear here: This is the film “Call Me By Your Name” COULD have been. BEST NEW THRILLER MOVIES!!!! An unexpected and truly bizarre thought might — no, will — occur to most viewers during “Hail Satan?,” though the lightning bolt of an idea is sure to strike different people at different points of Penny Lane’s provocative, hilarious, and latently enraging documentary about The Satanic Temple. Read the full review here. A great example of unique, exciting storytelling from way outside of Hollywood. Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. Read the full review here. A decade after solidifying her improv-heavy approach with “Humpday,” Lynn Shelton has delivered another endearing misadventure about bored, wistful people compelled to gamble on a reckless proposition. Through the right lens, a life can be appreciated like a landscape. Though outwardly a film about a family spending two years crossing two continents seeking political asylum, the film is much more about how a family stays a family through such an ordeal. But, do know that this is one of the best character-driven sci-fi thrillers of 2019. The movie they’ve made together is both a spiteful love letter and a hilarious surrender; it’s as much a requiem for the things we lose as it is a pointed reminder that nothing is really ours to keep. Jordan Peele’s 2017 debut “Get Out” was a landmark in African-American storytelling, broke box-office records, and served as a representational wakeup call to the film industry — but it wouldn’t have carried so much weight if it weren’t also such a gratifying viewing experience. Each year, IndieWire reaches out to a range of figures from the independent film community to give them the opportunity to single out some of their favorite movies from the past 12 months. “The Iron Orchard” Such vulgar things become virtually unavoidable in any movie that’s about the modern world, but the transience of social media remains hard to reconcile with the timelessness of great cinema. Steven and his gang at Cinetic were the sales agents for Mads Brugger’s “Cold Case Hammarskjold,” an investigative coup combining elements of Hunter S. Thompson and “All the President’s Men.” Why the discoveries in this film have not led to multiple arrests and imprisonments I do not know, but see it for yourself to go for a wild truth-finding ride. (Wondering where the American version is? Read the full review here. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” But what do you do when you’re tired of all these mega-budget blockbusters? Release Calendar DVD & Blu-ray Releases Top Rated Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Showtimes & Tickets In Theaters Coming Soon Coming Soon Movie News India Movie Spotlight. What a year 2019 has been for movies. Based on a 2016 episode of “This American Life” drawn from filmmaker Lulu Wang’s own experiences, “The Farewell” centers on Billi (Awkwafina), an out-of-work New York writer who learns from her parents that her beloved grandmother — that is, her “Nai Nai” (Zhao Shuzhen) — has terminal cancer. “Pain and Glory” “An Officer and a Spy” Finally, this concert film from the legendary Aretha at age 29 was released and stunned me. Sole honorable mention goes to those leading the charge to ensure theaters across the country, small and large, are allowed to screen the films that made many of us cinephiles in the first place. Write For Us. The stories, risk taking, pushing the envelope on storytelling and the acting from these newcomers blew me away — so much that after the finale, I had to find an online “Euphoria” fan group to discuss the finale and all that series was all about. Working with him – thanks to BritBox – from Telluride to the New York Film Festival to Heartland to Mill Valley to Doc NYC and more was incredible. This year, I worked with some amazing filmmakers from a family who survived being bombed by Russian and Syrian bombers to having the honor of working for a legendary filmmaker on his ninth installment of his groundbreaking and inspiring documentary series. “Sorry We Missed You” Holy shit ending. “I Was at Home, But…” “American Factory”: Julia Reicherdt and Steve Bognar reveal the sorrows of working class America and the foreign heartless takeover of an American car factory. Even worse: when it does so by name. “First Love” marked a return to form for Miike, revisiting his famed Yakuza suspense yarns with an edge of your seat twisting and thrilling plot, and enough laughs and gags to remind you he was having a ball while making this film. My post-programming season treat: Season 3 of “The Crown.”. And thank heavens more people will get to take in the stunning “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” a love story that brims with passion and feelings unable to be constrained by conservative mores of the time. Groundbreaking, intelligent and important. “From Dresden on the 50th Anniversary of Slaughterhouse 5”, “Look at the Mueller Report. “Little Women” Neon’s decision to hire former THINK’er Elissa Federoff to lead their distribution team was the smartest thing they did to ensure their incredible films are being seen by as many eyeballs as possible. This is in no particular order: 1. Movies Lists Netflix. Being in the presence of this trio has been truly great. Whether Duke is trying to jump over a cat, or Bo is running away from Gabby Gabby’s army of horrifying ventriloquist dummies, the movie’s elegant physical energy makes it a rare testament to the virtues of computer-generated animation — a form that too often feels like a shortcut — and serves to remind us that this franchise is still better suited to Pixar’s style than anything else the studio has ever made. 7. In the process, it arrives at a deeper understanding of the underlying impulse, while delivering an emotionally resonant narrative with plenty of cute animals to spare. Olivia Wilde’s feature directorial debut transforms Katie Silberman’s episodic script into a relentless stream of hilarious antics rooted as much in the authentic chemistry of its two leads as their zany misadventures. This year has felt interminable! This riotous, candy-colored celebration of sisterhood is so dense with anarchic developments it often threatens to collapse into itself, but avoids lingering on any gag long enough to let that happen. 1 The Irishman. Last April, Beyoncé marched onto a stage in the Coachella Valley and led more than 100 singers, dancers, and steppers through the greatest performance in the modern history of music festivals. For those of us tracking a range of quality movies released throughout the year, the hunt often begins much earlier, when many of these titles first surface on the festival circuit. Read the full review here. 20 Great Dystopian Films That Are Worth Your Time . The 20 Best Japanese Animated Movies of the 21st Century. “Yeah, I got a huge regret about the time I wasted, smashed,” Crosby says straight to the camera, and that’s putting it mildly. James Cleveland, and that choir and choir director was truly amazing. Menu. “Proxima”: 2019 helped me imagine a future where films like Alice Winocour’s astronaut story would be common entertainment, and not arthouse test cases for the relevance of women’s lives. “The Souvenir” This Article is related to: Film and tagged Best Films of 2019, High Flying Bird, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Us. A blunt, breathless, and astoundingly unsentimental morality play that’s told with the intensity of a ticking-clock thriller, Wolfgang Fischer’s “Styx” is every bit as ominous as its title suggests, and far less fanciful.