The best films of 2019 responded to the past few years of tribalism and economic disparity with wit, vigor, and prophetic imagination.
1. Us
“The movie’s final reveal is not just a gotcha twist, but a brilliant comment on how affluence, when we bow down before it, engenders a complacency so insidious that we not only forget others, but even ourselves.”
“Should a painting capture its subject or liberate her?”
3. Parasite
“Class distinctions aside, what really matters is whether or not you’re willing to sacrifice your own well-being on behalf of someone else. If not—if you only take and never give—you’re a parasite.”
4. The Irishman
“A reckoning for both a genre and a singularly sordid soul.”
“There’s an overwhelming urgency to its vision of holding onto faith in the face of evil.”
“Banderas delivers a somber portrait of extinguished artistic ambition. You can see there is still a creative spark in Salvador’s eyes, even as you recognize in his stiff, careful movements that his body can no longer keep the fire kindled.”
7. Jojo Rabbit
“The movie is far from a revolutionary act, yet in the way it hilariously thumbs its nose at ignorance and sweetly depicts the opening of one small mind, it at least makes resistance seem possible.”
8. The Souvenir
“Watching The Souvenir is like watching a friend drown, and being unable to help.”
9. Knives Out
“In 2019, the movie suggests, the American dream is no longer to improve your situation, but to hoard what you have.”
10. High Life
“Sex is a curse in Claire Denis’ High Life—a burden to bear, an urge to satisfy, a sticky means to a reproductive end.”
