Portrait of a Lady on Fire

1) Parasite

Heist thriller. Pratfall comedy. Primal yell. Multitudes, y’all.

2) Marriage Story

Gutting, yes, but also the kind of generous and melancholy comedy Mazursky was master of.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

3) Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A sumptuous, slow-burn romance anchors a larger portrait of women bound together as second-class citizens.

4) I Lost My Body

A severed hand goes on a hero’s journey in this totally wackadoo, terribly sad animated picture.

Knives Out

5) Knives Out

Devilishly fun stuff.

6) Transit

Kafka meets Casablanca in this rattling romance set now, under Nazi occupation.

7) Long Shot

This slyly feminist Charlize Theron/Seth Rogen rom-com was just so dang likable.

8) Shadow

The visuals in Zhang Yimou’s wuxia epic dropped my jaw again and again.

9) The Farewell

A beautiful evocation of family bonds; of being lost, and found.

10) Queen & Slim

Never mind the leads are played by two Brits: This is America.

Booksmart

Near Misses

Booksmart, Honey Boy, Diane

Most Overrated

The Irishman, Ad Astra

Most Underrated

Plus One, Diane

Wild Card

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag was the best thing I saw on any screen, big or small, all year – pure catharsis.

Acting Kudos (Male)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story), Tom Burke (The Souvenir), Daniel Kaluuya (Queen & Slim)

Acting Kudos (Female)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit), Tessa Thompson (Little Woods), Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Best Director

Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)

Best Original Screenplay

Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman (Booksmart), Rian Johnson (Knives Out)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant (I Lost My Body), Christian Petzold (Transit)

TV Series/Event

FX’s Fosse/Verdon

Worst Film

Serenity

The Little Film That Could

Little Woods

This article appears in Top 10s 2019.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...