Sierra's Top 10 Movies of 2019
This year I finally started using Letterboxd (add me: sierraslaughter), which has been a great resource for logging the films I watch. Let me play with numbers a little bit, which I have been doing a lot to figure out my year-end/decade lists. According to Letterboxd, I watched 96 films released in 2019! And out of those 96 films I rated 24 films 4 stars and higher (out of 5)! That means approximately 25% of the films I saw released in 2019 I considered to be nothing short of outstanding, and out of the 24 highest rated I marked 3 as 5 star PERFECT movies. Anyway, out of those 24, here are my favorites in a year of extraordinary cinema:
Honorable Mentions: Wild Rose, Waves, Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, Booksmart, Luce
10. Ready Or Not
A rip-roaring good time. I’m a sucker for a comedy horror film and a double sucker for a film that takes place during the amount of time we watch it. It’s an automatic win in my book. And this is the first film on my list where you stand up and scream "EAT THE RICH!" during the credits.
Rent from the library or buy for approximately $6 on Amazon Prime.
9. Ad Astra
A.k.a. Sad Dadstra. This is the first space movie I have ever truly loved. I saw it with my Mom and she fell asleep while I sobbed next to her. I found it powerful, heartbreaking, and absolutely gorgeous.
Rent from the library or buy for approximately $6 on Amazon Prime.
8. The Art of Self Defense
As much as I try and deny it, I’m a sucker for Jesse Eisenberg ("Please Abraham, I am not that man"). This film was so intense and it made me nostalgic for my favorite Ben Stiller performance (Heavyweights), and I swear this connection makes no sense to anyone but me. Such is life.
Rent from the library or buy for approximately $6 on Amazon Prime.
7. Little Women
Incredible! incredible! Work! From Greta Gerwig! Her ability to make such beautiful and personal films is truly so rare; this is my favorite script of the year, filled with my favorite female performance, Florence Pugh, and possibly my favorite supporting male, Chris Cooper. It made me want to read the book... until I found out the book is 700 pages long. Still out in theaters!
6. Maxima
I wrote a blurb for this movie in the 20th Annual Woodstock Film Festival program, and if I wasn’t asked to I probably would have never seen it. And that makes me so sad. I liked what I wrote, so please enjoy “Maxima is the impassioned story of a simple Peruvian woman, Máxima Acuña, and her stalwart fight to preserve her home and life in harmony with nature. Maxima lives on beautiful land surrounded by the Yanacocha Mine — the second largest producer of gold in the world — controlled by massive American mining conglomerate Newmont Mining Corporation. Newmont is brutally trying to force Maxima off of her land. With exquisite cinematography and deep sensitivity for its subject, we watch this tiny woman in a poncho, full of grace, stand up to corruption and an abusive adversary. A true underdog, this hardworking, brave, resilient, woman stops at nothing in her fight for justice and nothing more. If you ever need a reason to stand up to corporate bullies, Maxima shows you that it can be done with dignity and a strength that never wavers.” This is the second instance of EAT THE RICH. Unsure how to watch it but once I know so will you.
5. Knives Out
What a grand ol' time. It’s fun, clever, got a powerhouse cast, and more importantly Daniel Craig reminded me of a David Hyde Pierce performance I hold near and dear to my heart. Chris Evans sweater hive assemble! Still in some theaters! HURRY!
4. Honey Boy
The best-acted movie of the year, hands down. The story is written by Shia LaBeouf and based loosely off on his life growing up in Hollywood. This powerful story shines in the performances and the script. This is the kind of movie where your throat tenses up and tears well and your body feels heavy as you sit in the discomfort of life for a few hours. Truly magical. Lucas Hedges’s Shia impersonation is so spot on, it’s eerie. We’re in the weird in-between where it’s no longer in theaters and not yet available to purchase.
3. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
The first of my 5-star rated movies this year. I ranted and raved about this film earlier in the year; the Lego Movie franchise is remarkable. Rent from the library, streaming on HBO sites, $9 on Amazon Prime
2. The Last Black Man In San Francisco
Another 5-star, perfect film. So much joy, so much pain, so much loss, so much love. The most gorgeous film of the year, with cinematography so beautiful I wept. Knowing that this was a first feature by Joe Tallbot blows my mind, I can’t wait to follow his career and Jimmie Fails for a long while. If we’re being honest, this film narrowly missed my Best of the Decade list.
Rent from the library or $5 on Amazon Prime
1. Parasite
There is really, truly, NOTHING like Parasite. My third 5-star film of the year; it is perfect. Watching Parasite for the first time in theaters was one of my favorite moviegoing experiences of the decade. You have it all: drama, comedy, horror, thriller, and romance, and you will be at the edge of your seat the entire time. Parasite snagged a deserrved Top 10 spot on my Best of the Decade list. The film will stay with me forever. Bong Hive!! This is the final EAT THE RICH film.
If you’re lucky, maybe it’s still in theaters around you but you’re gonna have to wait a bit, it's also in the in between time.