Happy New Year! It is finally 2020 and not 2019! We made it another year, and with another year comes more movies. I have not seen any movies that have come out this year yet, so I decided to do little reviews over my favorite movies of 2019.
“Knives Out”
“Knives Out” is a mystery written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is formatted and advertised like a classic whodunnit story, but with a lot of twists and subversions that will leave first time viewers confused but intrigued. The entire ensemble cast of this movie is amazing, but there are two standouts that outshine the rest. Daniel Craig plays the private investigator “Benoit Blanc,” and anyone used to him in other movies, such as his “James Bond” movies, will be a little shocked when he starts to talk in a goofy southern accent. Ana de Armas plays “Marta Cabrera,” and she absolutely steals the show as a kind protagonist with a big heart. This movie may still be in theaters, so go check it out.
“The Two Popes”
“The Two Popes” is a biographical drama written by Anthony McCarten and directed by Fernando Meirelles. The movie is based on an interaction between Joseph Ratzinger, who at the time was Pope Benedict XVI and played by Anthony Hopkins, and Jorge Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis and played by Jonathan Pryce. This movie is an excellent depiction of the struggle between traditionalist and reformist ideologies within the Catholic Church. It is shot like a documentary, which adds to the grounded realism of the story. The impact that conversations like these have are important in reaching compromise or change within any institution. This movie is on Netflix, so check it out if you wish.
“The Irishman”
“The Irishman” is a mob epic written by Steven Zaillian and directed by Martin Scorsese that stars Robert De Niro as “Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran,” Joe Pesci as “Russell Bufalino,” and Al Pacino as “Jimmy Hoffa.” I went into this movie wanting to hate it because of the three and a half hour runtime, but the movie immediately gripped me and did not let go until the end. Scorsese crafts a well-paced and somber look into mortality and asks its audience what kind of legacy you want to leave after you die. The performances of all the actors above are perfect, especially De Niro, who is in about every scene of this three and a half hour movie. The movie is also on Netflix. It is a long movie, but it is worth it to stick it through to the end. You will not regret watching it.
“Parasite”
“Parasite” is a movie written and directed by Bong Joon Ho and focuses on a poor family of con artists in South Korea as they slowly manipulate, lie and sabotage to become a rich family’s workers. This movie is a genre-defying masterpiece. The movie focuses on themes of social and economic class and family and examines just how far someone will go for their family or just to survive. If you get the chance, please, please PLEASE check this one out. Subtitles are not hard to read and not a reason to avoid a movie.
“The Lighthouse”
“The Lighthouse” is an A24 psychological horror written and directed by Robert Eggers. It stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as two lighthouse keepers alone on an island as they slowly lose their minds from social isolation. This movie is excellent and it dives into themes of isolation, power, belief, sexuality, and much more. The movie is shot in the style of that era (late 19th to early 20th century), making the aspect ratio 1:1.19, which adds to the tension within the film. The performances by the two actors in this movie are nothing short of amazing, with Pattinson acting as a worker with a chip on his shoulder and Dafoe pulling off a stereotypical sailor accent with a thousand phrases for every occasion. If you get the chance to watch this movie, please do.
Those are my favorite movies of 2019! I just hope that this year will be just as good.
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