You’ve Got Mail, rw (Nora Ephron, 1998): 3/5
The politics (sexual and otherwise) are blinkered, but Ephron fully harnesses the formidable charms of its leads.
Everyone Says I Love You, rw (Woody Allen, 1996): 3.5/5
Movie stars singing and dancing in a realistic and amateurish way. Charming, graceful and casually moving—rare pleasures in this day and age. Who is this generation’s Woody Allen? (And don’t say Hong Sang-soo.)
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019): 3.5/5
Scorsese tries to ruin his movie with CGI and almost succeeds. The last half-hour functions like The Wild Bunch—trying to dash a genre on the rocks.
American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016): 3.5/5
Overlong, and the unprofessional actors are a straight-up problem. Yet LaBeouf is great, and I continue to think about the kids singing joyfully along to their hedonistic, nihilistic hip hop.
Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2018): 4/5
Beautiful and moving, simple and epic. Why did I wait so long to see it?
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019): 3.5/5
I liked the first half of this quite a lot. Pitt does a lot by doing little.
Atlantics (Mati Diop, 2019): 2/5
I don’t think this is as feminist as the director thinks. It turns out the women are just channels for the missing male characters. Interesting to see Dakar, tho.
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019): 4/5
Personally painful, but writing and direction of the very highest caliber, and Driver is great. The singing scene at the end knocked my wig back, and during the end credits I granted myself a prolonged sob.
Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska, 2019): 3.5/5
All these immigrants! Ugh! Takes such a classic turn to initiate Act 2 that it really didn’t even seem like a documentary. I love how she lit up when the kids came around.
Dolemite is My Name (Craig Brewer, 2019): 2.5/5
I didn’t like it as much as Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody, but maybe I just like music?
Married to the Mob, rw (Jonathan Demme, 1988): 3.5/5
Just as cartoony as I remembered, but Pfeiffer is luminous.
Uncut Gems (Benny and Josh Safdie, 2019): 4/5
Harrowing but compelling. Score of the year by Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never. At one point near the end, I cheered audibly when Kevin Garnett made a basket on the TV: I was involved!
Long Shot (Jonathan Levine, 2019): 3.5/5
Setting Fleabag aside, I believe this is the funniest, rom-commiest movie of the year.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Jake Kasdan, 2017): 3/5
Much better than I thought it was going to be. All the actors were charming. Jack liked.
Silicon Valley, Season 6 (Mike Judge, et al., 2019): 3/5
Satisfying.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (Chad Staheiski, 2019): 3.5/5
No idea what’s going on with the title or any of the “mythology.” Still, the best action scenes of the year.
Happy Death Day 2U (Christopher Landon, 2019): 2/5
I never saw the first but heard this was fun in a Back to the Future 2 way. Disastrously cheery and self-satisfied.
Ready or Not (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, 2019): 2.5/5
Like Stephen King’s It, it’s too “feel good” for horror, but Samara Weaving shines.
Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz, 2019): 4/5
Surprise of the year. Shia LaBeouf is great, and the movie has classic story-telling chops.
I, Tonya, rw (Craig Gillespie, 2017): 2.5/5
I guess I’m kind of in love with Margo Robbie, but not in this movie, which wants to be Goodfellas for some reason, but is really just a mess.
The Mandalorian, Season One (Jon Favreau, 2019): 4/5
Enjoyably subtext-free excuse to cart out some cool stuff and zoom it around.
Monos (Alejandro Landes, 2019): 2/5
Kids fucking around in the jungle. Frequent Apocalypse Now comparisons are … unwarranted.
* Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019): 3/5
Unpleasant and pedantic. The up/down, dark/light visual scheme is … schematic. I related most to the mother who just wanted the best for her son. But no, she was guilty guilty guilty! I guess everyone who likes this movie is for the overthrow and death of everyone at the top? #1789.
Ford v Ferrari (James Mangold, 2019): 4/5
Expert entertainment, with career-high(ish) performances from Damon and Bale. The pleasure I took in it proves that I am indeed a 50-something white male.
Kiki’s Delivery Service, rw (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989): 3/5
My least favorite Miyazaki (although I’m no Porco Rosso fan either). Oddly mundane.
Veronica’s taking an avant-garde cinema class:
Flaming Creatures, 45 mins. (Jack Smith, 1963): 4/5
Wowsers. Glamour, sensuality, an orgy, a party, an earthquake, a reverie. I was confused and occasionally bored. It was great! Its divorce from original context probably changes its meaning irreparably.\
Hold Me While I’m Naked, 17 min. (George Kuchar, 1966): 4/5
Delightful, hilarious, completely relevant, and very dark. Lynch totally rips off the bird bit plus so much more in its criticism slash subconscious relish of Hollywood glamour.
Desistfilm, 7 mins. (Stan Brakhage, 1954): 3/5
Primitive and sensual.
Atman, 11 mins. (Toshio Matsumoto, 1975): 4/5
Stunning, beautiful, frightening, overwhelming, and obviously deeply psychedelic. Impossible to believe it’s only 11 minutes.
Transit (Christian Petzold, 2019): 2/5
I had no idea who abruptly loved or stopped loving anyone or why.
A Rainy Day in New York (Woody Allen, 2019): 3/5
75% delightful; 25% awkward.
For Sama (Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts, 2019): 2.5/5
A miserable viewing experience, but it’s important innit?
The Perfection (Richard Shepard, 2019): 1/5
MeToo# revenge porn.
* 1917 (Sam Mendes, 2019): 1.5/5
I would say that there are basically the same number of cuts in this film as in a normal film, they’re just stitched together with bad CGI. Paper thin script and zero gravitas. Will win best picture.
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