1) Parasite
The class struggle cast as both comedy and tragedy. All hail Bong Joon-ho!
2) Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Audacious puzzle with an hourlong dream sequence shot in a single take. Mulholland Drive times 10.
3) Marriage Story
Hilarious one minute, devastating the next. Love ultimately rules in Noah Baumbach’s scenes from a divorce.
4) Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
Bursting with nostalgic pleasures, it’s Tarantino’s drive through the Hollywood Hills with the top down.
5) Booksmart
Year’s funniest movie about high-school goody two shoes who finally kick up their heels.
6) Little Women
Greta Gerwig smartly rearranges a beloved book’s narrative to celebrate women’s self-determination and family bonds.
7) Pain and Glory
Almodóvar’s elegiac portrait of the artist as an older man, with Antonio Banderas as his aging doppelgänger.
8) Apollo 11
You feel you’re experiencing mankind’s giant leap in this amazing documentary featuring rare footage.
9) Us
Jordan Peele’s paranoiac horror film about our subterranean selves is the year’s biggest creep-out.
10) Hustlers
Tell a friend this movie is a total blast and the response will likely be: “Really?” Yes, really.
Near Misses
Ford v Ferrari, Climax, Jojo Rabbit
Most Overrated
The Irishman, Late Night, Joker
Most Underrated
Sword of Trust, To Dust, Blinded by the Light
Wild Card
Ford v Ferrari, Driver v. Johansson, Scorsese v. Marvel, Us v. Us: duking it out on and off the screen.
Acting Kudos (Male)
Adam Driver (Marriage Story), Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse)
Acting Kudos (Female)
Renée Zellweger (Judy), Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose), Shuzhen Zhao (The Farewell)
Best Director
Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers)
Best Original Screenplay
Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Jason Begue and Shawn Snyder (To Dust), Scott Z. Burns (The Report)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Anthony McCarten (The Two Popes), Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander (Dolemite Is My Name), Greta Gerwig (Little Women)
TV Series/Event
Goodbye to The Deuce, HBO’s fascinating series about 42nd Street, the birthplace of the American sex industry.Worst Film
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral: Is this really goodbye to that ratty wig and plus-size housedress? Praise Jesus.
The Little Film That Could
Monos: A squad of armed teenagers in remote Latin America disturbingly enact their own Lord of the Flies.
This article appears in Top 10s 2019.
