I caught up with a bunch of 2019
movies in the last couple of weeks, but I haven’t written reviews for all of
them. Now, I did prioritize reviewing those
that I liked the most, so that I could finally finalize my picks for this
blog’s annual “top 20 movies” list – which I will be posting next once I’m done
with this article. Meanwhile, as for the
remaining unreviewed films (there are 11), I decided to cover them in one go by
doing another roundup article, just like what I did for most of the movies I saw in December 2019. That should take
care of my movie reviewing backlog (and maybe, just maybe, I can finally start
addressing my anime reviewing backlog).
However, unlike the previous one, which arranged the movies in the
chronological order of when I watched them, this list is ordered from what I
liked the most to the least.
Ad Astra
Brad Pitt won an Oscar for his
supporting role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He was definitely amazing
in that movie, but it can be argued that his best performance in 2019 was from Ad Astra. In it, he plays a fearless astronaut named
Roy McBride who sets out on a perilous mission to Neptune, where the Lima
Project, an antimatter-powered ship that was supposed to look for intelligent
life in far space, had mysteriously stopped and lost communication with Earth
16 years ago. Its malfunctioning
antimatter power source has been causing deadly power surges in Earth, and it
ultimately threatens mankind with extinction.
Thus, McBride hopes to reach his father (Tommy Lee Jones) – the
legendary astronaut in charge of the Lima Project, and who seems to be still
alive – before it’s too late.
The slow-burn space epic is
mesmeric and pensive, and ultimately cautions us from pursuing grand dreams,
which in retrospect are actually foolish and unmeaningful, that we fail to
actually pay attention to the things that really matter in life.
The Irishman
From a space epic, we now go to a
gangster epic.
The Irishman is directed by well-renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who had made some of the best gangster classics not named The Godfather in the past, and has a cast that includes gangster cinema icons Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.
The Irishman is directed by well-renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who had made some of the best gangster classics not named The Godfather in the past, and has a cast that includes gangster cinema icons Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.
I would be lying if I say that I
never got bored while watching this movie.
Long and tedious with its 209-minute runtime, there were parts that did wear
me down. However, the longwindedness
serves the purpose of making the life of the main character, played by De Niro,
feel utterly lived out. Based on a true
story, the film follows the life-long arc of a mob hitman, from his start as a lowly
delivery truck driver to his rise through the ranks of a powerful union to his ultimate downfall.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
This French period drama film
tells the story of a painter who is commissioned to do a portrait of a young
woman who is about to be married off to an Italian nobleman. However, the bride-to-be doesn’t want to be
married, and as an act of defiance, she refuses to pose for a painting. Thus, the painter, who is under the guise of
a hired companion, has to undergo the painstaking challenge of closely observing
her features during their daily walks, and then paint her in secret by memory
afterward.
The mark of great filmmaking is
that, even if what’s happening on screen is quiet and seemingly uneventful, the
audience is kept thoroughly gripped. This
is true with this movie. I really
enjoyed the painting scenes, as they incite a cozy feeling in a Bob Ross-ian
sort of way. In fact, for a stretch, the
entire film – an excellent combination of production design, sound design,
cinematography, direction, and acting – was wonderfully ASMR-ish.
Then, the movie had to involve a
subplot about abortion, and it ruined the connection of the movie with me. I found this arguably unnecessary aspect sickening. After that, I couldn’t immerse myself into the
movie in the same way I initially did.
Still, this is a well-crafted,
clever film that delivers a couple of unforgettable moments (especially that bonfire
scene and that theater scene at the end, just wow).
Midsommar
This film follows a group of
American friends who have been invited to visit a rural Swedish commune, which is celebrating a festival that only occurs every 90 years. As it turns out, the village still holds on
to primitive pagan practices, and the festival rituals that the friends witness
grow increasingly unsettling as time passes. But before they can ever start to think of
getting out, it has become too late, as the cult has already had them completely in
their clutches.
Midsommar is reminiscent of The
Wicker Man, a film I really like (I also like the terrible remake, but
primarily because of Nicolas Cage’s hilariously hammy acting), and thus, I got
to like it as well. Not only is Midsommar like The Wicker Man because it features a village that practices
paganism (and a disturbing burning sacrifice as finale), but because it also
creeps under your skin and terrify you in a subtle, psychological level rather than
through loud, bombastic scares.
The Nightingale
The Nightingale is an uncomfortable, rough movie to watch at times,
not because it’s bad, but because it has a couple of gut-wrenching depictions
of rape and violence. This Australian
period drama film follows a young Irish woman convict (Aisling Franciosi) who
embarks on a perilous trek through the Tasmanian wilderness to take her
vengeance on the British soldiers who repeatedly raped her and murdered her
husband and baby. It’s a visceral,
gripping revenge movie that also has something deeper to tell underneath its brutal
surface.
A Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood
This movie is not a Fred Rogers
biopic, as I originally thought. It revolves
around a journalist (Matthew Rhys) who’s assigned to write a piece on Fred
Rogers (Tom Hanks) for Esquire
magazine. He’s initially skeptical of Mr.
Rogers’ good nature and relentless positivity, and is determined to find dirt on him. But as their conversations progress and
becomes deeper, he finds himself being inspired by the kind man, prompting him
to improve his relationships with the people in life.
Through its framing device and
the seemingly fantastical elements that occur in the film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood works like a made-for-adults
episode of Mister Rogers’ Neigborhood. I didn’t grow up with that show, so this
movie didn’t affect me in the level that it probably intended. However, I still think it’s a sweet, touching
film.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood also serves as a fitting companion piece to the 2018 documentary film Won’t You Be My Neighbor?.
Uncut Gems
The consensus is that Uncut Gems features
Adam Sandler’s greatest performance ever and he got snubbed by the Academy.
It’s an anxiety-inducing crime thriller about a Jewish jeweller (Sandler) who’s addicted to gambling and who keeps on digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole as he schemes to pay for his debts. It’s a frustrating watch, but only because the movie revolves around a frustrating main character – someone you simultaneously root against and root for. As a whole, Uncut Gems is beautifully chaotic and subtly poetic.
It’s an anxiety-inducing crime thriller about a Jewish jeweller (Sandler) who’s addicted to gambling and who keeps on digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole as he schemes to pay for his debts. It’s a frustrating watch, but only because the movie revolves around a frustrating main character – someone you simultaneously root against and root for. As a whole, Uncut Gems is beautifully chaotic and subtly poetic.
It’s also worth noting that NBA legend Kevin
Garnett plays an integral role in the
story (as a fictional version of himself). It’s been reported that *sniff* Kobe
Bryant *sniff* (still hurts) was considered for the role. But it might as well
he didn’t get it since he wasn’t known as the superstitious type, a characteristic needed
for the basketball superstar needed for the plot. Nevertheless, it would have been nice if we got to see Kobe star in a Hollywood film before *sniff* he passed away.
The Lighthouse
It’s a really, really weird movie
about two men slowly descending into madness while performing their duties as
wickies in an isolated lighthouse island off the coast of New England in the late 19th
century. The plot is ambiguous,
containing bizarre elements that the audience may interpret as either “all happening
in the characters’ heads” or are genuinely supernatural in nature, but it’s
apparently loosely inspired by a real-life event and has obvious parallels with Greek mythology.
The Lighthouse riveted me because of the performances, as actors
Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson really had to behave and speak like grimy 19th
century wickies, and the cinematography, as it was shot in black-and-white and
in 1.19:1 aspect ratio, giving it a gorgeously old-fashioned look. However, in the end, I was unsure what to
feel about it. It’s just, well, really, really weird.
If nothing else, between this
movie and The Witch, writer-director
Robert Eggers has proven to be a master in creating and sustaining atmosphere –
probably the main reason why I manage to sit through it.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
One-dimensional characters. Illogical behavior. A laughably idealistic denouement. A stupid script. It’s clearly a terrible film. And yet, like with its 2014 predecessor, I kind of enjoyed it. Angelina Jolie’s fun performance,
her snarky character’s unique dynamic with Aurora (I really enjoy everytime Maleficent
calls her “Beastie”), and the imaginative fantasy creatures genuinely delighted
me. On top of that, as a whole, it’s also
the kind of movie that reaches so-bad-it’s-good territory.
A Dog’s Journey
This is the 2019 sequel to 2017’s
A Dog’s Purpose, which I had initially
mistaken A Dog’s Way Home for. Like both of those films, A Dog’s Journey may be negligible in the
end, but it’s heartwarming and charming in the moment.
The Addams Family
Due to the 90’s cartoons and
movies, the Addams has always been one of my favorite fictional families. And some time after I wrote that list in that last link, I also got to watch the original 60’s TV show, making me grow fonder of them. Thus, I was really looking forward
to the 2019 animated film reboot.
Unfortunately, despite the impressive voice cast (Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll), it turned out being a
dud. It fails to make something hilarious and endearing out of its satirical macabre premise as the property usual does in its previous incarnations. It can entertain in a basic sense,
but it has a lot of boring parts and is ultimately forgettable. The gag of Thing looking at foot pictures in
the Internet is genius, though. And I immensely enjoyed the recreation of the intro of the original 60’s TV show at the end.
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