So, we’ve reached the end of the year, so it is time to reflect on the year and film to look at the best and worst of the year. First the best and in this list I rank the ten films I enjoyed/ would recommend the most from 2019. These are all films which I saw in UK cinemas in 2019, as a result there are lots of films, which I haven’t yet seen which came out in the US this year, but haven’t been released in the UK yet, so if you think, where’s this?, I probably haven’t seen it yet.
A reminder my top five six months ago was: 5. Diego Maradona 4. Us 3. Rocketman 2. Spiderman: Far From Home 1. Avengers: Endgame.
10. Diego Maradona (released 14th June)- Diego Maradona is an excellent documentary, which I highly recommend if you are a football fan or just a fan of good documentaries. It plays almost like an action film at times, with phenomenal sound design, which lets you hear every kick of the ball. Films which nearly made the list include Doctor Sleep, The Favourite and Star Wars: Episode IX.
9. Us (released 22nd March)- Jordan Peele’s follow up to Get Out was not loved by all, but I throughly enjoyed it. The score is fanatastic, the performances are excellent (particularly Lupita Nyong’o) and it managed to both make me laugh and keep me on the edge of my seat the whole way through.
8. Spiderman: Far From Home (released 2nd July)- Another really entertaining outing from my second favourite Spiderman (after Tobey Maguire), lots of humour, Jake Gyllenhaal was great and the characters were all really likeable.
7. Rocketman (released 22nd May)- Has moved one place ahead of Spiderman since my top five six months ago and its just because I think it is such an entertaining film. Taron Egerton’s performance is excellent, the music is great and Dexter Fletcher was able to craft an excellent musical from Elton John’s life, not just a biopic.
6. Knives Out (released 27th November)- An excellent murder mystery from Rian Johnson. Has a fantastic cast, who all bring their a-game. Genuinely interesting mystery with some really funny moments.
5. Joker (released 4th October)- Now please don’t attack me when I say Joker wasn’t the best film of the year. It is really good, it has a great central performance, an excellent score and some fantastic scenes. It is not perfect, too much trying to link back to Batman and a few other things hold it back, but I did enjoy it.
4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (released 14th August)- You know Tarantino is good when OUATIH is probably my least favourite Tarantino film, but still reaches number four on my list of the year. It is just an excellent experience of a film, with some great scenes and good performances. I would recommend it.
3. Avengers: Endgame (released 25th April)- My number one six months ago, but now number three. The highest grossing film of all time, it does a fantastic job of bringing an end to characters we have come to love and building on the end of Infinity War. It is just amazing and I throughly enjoyed it.
2. Parasite (will be released in the UK in full 7th February 2020- saw at Odeon’s Screen Unseen) Parasite is one of the most hyped films, by both critics and audiences, in recent years and it is really great. Try to avoid hearing or reading anything about it before you see it, but Bong Joon-Ho has created an intricate story with great acting, cinematography and scenes which stick with you for a long time afterwards. I look forward to seeing it again when it is released in full in the UK.
1 The Irishman (released 27th November)- I had the pleasure of seeing The Irishman in the cinema and I was blown away. It is classic Scorsese, building intricate characters and storylines to make you feel you’ve lived an entire lifetime with the characters in just a few hours. It proves Scorsese is still at the top of his game and can produce fantastic films like this.
Movie Night 