Best of 2019 - Part 2

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The last top 5 of the previous decade.

5. Us

Following up his directorial debut with "Get Out," Jordan Peele keeps his winning streak moving with a horror/thriller about doppelgangers rising up to take over the world that doesn't quite have the sharp focus of his previous feature but is loaded with masterclass filmmaking and ambition to tell a story about identity, coping with trauma, and the animalistic nature of man in contrast with the clean narratives we try to weave for ourselves.

"Us" is a little bit less accessible than "Get Out" but it hints at greatness that Peele is capable of that I'm ecstatic to watch play out over the course of his career.

4. Knives Out

Whatever you believe the current state of "Star Wars" to be, Rian Johnson is one of the most unique mainstream storytellers of our age and "Knives Out" stands as proof that the worlds he can create are infinitely more compelling than any that Hollywood wants to shackle him down to.

It isn't just a brilliant throwback to the whodunit mysteries of old, playing with the tropes and structure of said stories to weave a narrative of the virtues of selflessness and compassion amidst the crueler side of human duality but a brilliant kick off to a series in the very genre it pays homage to and it would be criminal to not see a new 'Benoit Blanc book' hit the big screens any time soon.

3. 1917

War films often don't get their due these days, with much of the emotional complexity and Earth shattering intimate contemplation on the nature of life and humanity amidst a surrounding engulfed in chaos and unpredictability often getting brushed over in modern discourse over exhaustion with explicit combat and combat setpieces.

Ignoring how little World War I has been explored within the last decade or so cinematically, "1917" still feels like a wonderfully calculated response to the notion that war movies are about war rather than the humans that have the misfortune of being impacted by the war.

The central gimmick of its single tracking shot method through easily the best editing of the year only serve to make the setting more intense, the quiet portions eerie and unsettling, draw attention to the moments of beauty that exist within the chaos of the battleground and make you feel for these people profoundly by making you empathize with their mindset and drawing attention to some truly subtle yet magnificent performances.

2. Avengers: Endgame

At this point, praising the MCU feels so stock that it's getting nigh impossible to say anything new about any of these movies, especially in a case like this where its achievements practically speak for themselves.

Then you have to remember that precisely 10 years ago from today, as we wondered whether "Iron Man 2" could possibly live up to the bar of quality set by "Iron Man," we weren't even wholly convinced that cinematically creating a shared setting for these characters was even feasible, much less the notion of a full blown team up movie, which was so mythical that it didn't even feel destined for failure so much as it just didn't seem likely to happen.

It did happen and Hollywood was never the same afterward. All of it was building to this.

"Avengers: Endgame" is a 3 hour epic of loss, trauma, sacrifice, and finding closure to gain resolve in moving forward into unknown territories that's somehow as grand, bold, bombastic, and glorious as its comic book source material yet cohesive and accessible to the masses while still being powerful in its own right.

It's the "Return of the King" for the superhero genre and its accomplishment in roughly a decade what franchises spanning generations have failed to do continues to display a level of passion, energy, care, and attention to detail that proudly show why it continues to be king of the hill in the industry.

1. Parasite

Bong Joon-Ho's unparalleled ability to mix tones to portray the complexity of sociological phenomena has never been sharper, wittier, funnier, and more tragically bleak than ever before.

Even before the 3rd act twist kicks in to powerful effect, the thing that makes "Parasite" so disturbing is not simply how easy its central characters are able to take advantage of an upper class family's trust to bottom feed and get a taste of decadence that their impoverished standing won't allow them to have but how easy it is for them to justify such a breach of trust and how easy it is to agree without hesitation.

The film indictes elitism and capitalism in biting new ways that show how there are no winners when we all play into the systems and institutions that run our society without thinking and acting outside of the box but never without pointing out the humor in its surreal circumstances.

It's funny, heartfelt, tragic, disturbing, it'll make you question your choices, and it's everything I hope to experience when going to the theater.