BOT's Top 25 Movies of 2019 | The forums can eat shit

[Jake Gittes]

4 minutes ago, grim22 said:

#14

 

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Heil Hitler

A-

@Ninenin

 

Now you're speaking my language.

[grim22]

#13

 

Spoiler

US

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort dealing with evil versions of the lead family taking them hostage for some reason. A great and overlooked by awards performance by Lupita anchored the movie and the twists were aplenty. It never reached the heights of Get Out, but that was probably a high level of expectation from the movie.

 

User Reviews:

A+++

 

Absolutely loved this! @Valonqar

 

 

Instant horror classic in my opinion. A

@YLF

 

[Dementeleus]

3 minutes ago, grim22 said:

#13

 

  Reveal hidden contents

US

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort dealing with evil versions of the lead family taking them hostage for some reason. A great and overlooked by awards performance by Lupita anchored the movie and the twists were aplenty. It never reached the heights of Get Out, but that was probably a high level of expectation from the movie.

 

User Reviews:

A+++

 

Absolutely loved this! @Valonqar

 

 

Instant horror classic in my opinion. A

@YLF

 

WHAT

[grim22]

#12

 

Spoiler

THE FAREWELL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From @MrPink

When I watched The Farewell, it was impossible for me to not draw parallels to my own life. I never knew my grandparents, all of them had passed away before I had the chance to visit them. But I do have many relatives who are in the twilight of their years, and it's that shared experience that made The Farewell a moving and thoughtful film for me. It also beautifully captures the tightrope that Asian Americans walk through every day, blending the balance of Asian Culture and Western culture. On one hand, Billi has her own self aspirations, but it clashes with her duty to act in the best interests of an entire family. How do we determine this balance? It's impossible to tell, but The Farewell carefully examines and processes through the struggle before coming to an answer. Whether it's right or wrong is up to the viewer, but it deftly humanizes the situation to make it understandable to everyone despite being a foreign concept to others.

 

I think about every time I see my relatives who live on the other side of the world and are in their 80s and wonder if it's my last time seeing them in person. I can only go back so often, every few years. It doesn't have to be a cancer diagnosis, but as current events reminds us every so often, life can be gone in an instant. As The Farewell concluded, I thought back to the last time I saw my relatives last year and couldn't help but notice how the emotions I felt during the film's ending mirrored what I felt back then. In a way, even though I don't have a diagnosis saying death is imminent, I visit my relatives with almost an expectation in the back of my head that the next time I return, one more person could be gone. And it's the same for Billi as she arrives in China, cherishing the time with her grandmother, without being able to say a true goodbye. It meant that director Lulu Wang had captured something honest and true to the immigrant experience.

 

User Reviews

Exceptional movie, the absolute best version of the "indie Sundance dramedy" that has usually looks like a film student project but in this case is really brilliant. What a cast too. Awkwafina really wasn't doing it for me in Ocean's 8 or CRA but she is exceptional in this with the schtick dropped. Zhao Shuzen deserves a really run for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, she's that good.

@Cmasterclay

 

[charlie Jatinder]

22 hours ago, grim22 said:

145 War

Dafaq

[grim22]

#101 to 120

 

101	Late Night
102	Hobbs and Shaw
103	Honeyland
104	Triple Frontier
105	Dora and the Lost CIty of Gold
106	Gloria Bell
107	Hotel by the River
108	Hotel Mumbai
109	Transit
110	Angry Birds 2
111	Annabelle Comes Home
112	Dark Phoenix
113	High Life
114	The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
115	Cold Pursuit
116	Shadow
117	Light of My Life
118	Echo in the Canyon
119	Steven Universe: The Movie
120	Western Stars

[The Panda]

2 minutes ago, grim22 said:

#12

 

  Hide contents

THE FAREWELL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From @MrPink

When I watched The Farewell, it was impossible for me to not draw parallels to my own life. I never knew my grandparents, all of them had passed away before I had the chance to visit them. But I do have many relatives who are in the twilight of their years, and it's that shared experience that made The Farewell a moving and thoughtful film for me. It also beautifully captures the tightrope that Asian Americans walk through every day, blending the balance of Asian Culture and Western culture. On one hand, Billi has her own self aspirations, but it clashes with her duty to act in the best interests of an entire family. How do we determine this balance? It's impossible to tell, but The Farewell carefully examines and processes through the struggle before coming to an answer. Whether it's right or wrong is up to the viewer, but it deftly humanizes the situation to make it understandable to everyone despite being a foreign concept to others.

 

I think about every time I see my relatives who live on the other side of the world and are in their 80s and wonder if it's my last time seeing them in person. I can only go back so often, every few years. It doesn't have to be a cancer diagnosis, but as current events reminds us every so often, life can be gone in an instant. As The Farewell concluded, I thought back to the last time I saw my relatives last year and couldn't help but notice how the emotions I felt during the film's ending mirrored what I felt back then. In a way, even though I don't have a diagnosis saying death is imminent, I visit my relatives with almost an expectation in the back of my head that the next time I return, one more person could be gone. And it's the same for Billi as she arrives in China, cherishing the time with her grandmother, without being able to say a true goodbye. It meant that director Lulu Wang had captured something honest and true to the immigrant experience.

 

User Reviews

Exceptional movie, the absolute best version of the "indie Sundance dramedy" that has usually looks like a film student project but in this case is really brilliant. What a cast too. Awkwafina really wasn't doing it for me in Ocean's 8 or CRA but she is exceptional in this with the schtick dropped. Zhao Shuzen deserves a really run for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, she's that good.

@Cmasterclay

 

Way too low!!

[grim22]

#11

 

Spoiler

Toy Story 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From @DAJK

 

Who says growing up ends when you become an adult? While Toy Story 3 was a movie about transitioning from child to adult, Toy Story 4 tells what might be the most human lesson of all: we never stop growing up. With a protagonist who grows immensely throughout the film, a worthy antagonist, and a sea of supporting characters who each grow and develop in their own ways, Toy Story 4 takes the hero's journey of the first installment and builds upon it, combining heartfelt storytelling with some of the best animation I have ever seen, as well as some truly laugh-out-loud moments. This movie touched on a lot of fears I've been having about my own path of growing up, and made me consider my own life, as well as the elements of emotional storytelling, in a way that no other movie from 2019 made me do.

 

To infinity...

and beyond.

 

User reviews

The first and only Toy Story I actually enjoyed.  I liked all of it and the themes resonated with me this time around.

 

9/10

@baumer

 

[charlie Jatinder]

EG for #1.

Parasite #2.

 

I didn't made the list thinking I have to include Parasite then many Indian films would be there. Also just watched Knives Out today, Jo Jo yesterday so I wasn't ready as well.

[grim22]

#10

 

Spoiler

THE IRISHMAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From @Jake Gittes

 

Part of what makes Scorsese such an invaluable filmmaker - more than ever in hindsight - is his fundamental understanding of, and honesty about, the world that humans make and the experiences they have in it; he's been able to dedicate an entire creative life to making films that explore various subjective POVs (of people flawed at best and varying degrees of reprehensible at worst) while maintaining their own awareness of the bigger picture, and as such are emotional without being sentimental and intelligent without being distant - a rarity in an increasingly hostile major-studio environment. (To quote Casino: "Today, it looks like Disneyland.") Crime is not remotely his main focus, but it is the subject he's returned to most often - being the clearest representation of sin and transgression - and crime has, across his films, been thrilling, cathartic, tense, funny, appealing. It is none of those things in The Irishman, which is not to say that now, after all those earlier provocative, red-blooded movies, Scorsese has finally gone simplistic on us. But, as befits a reflective old man, the longer view of history is more important than ever now. This is both a logical endpoint and a subversion of his expected style, a movie that derives its particular power from being packed with events all the more important for how unimportant they end up being in the grand scheme of things: the stuff human lives revolved around, pounded down by Time. Scorsese's previous gangster epics have covered the path of postwar American organized crime from the streets to skyscrapers; The Irishman, which opens and culminates earlier than those films, takes a more resigned look at history, deliberately choosing perhaps the least dynamic protagonist in any Scorsese movie - a man whose defining feature is his complete lack of moral spine - and revealing, through his waste of a life, the world as defined by the failures of (white, American) masculinity and then left with the wreckage. It's what it is. 

 

 

USER REVIEWS:

A+

Very well done as expected. With the talent involved, how could it not be? Pacino and Pesci were especially good. The only thing I could have done without was the daughter storyline for the most part. That could have been done far more succinctly. And those blue eyes were very unsettling/uncanny valley for me.

@glassfairy

 

[The Panda]

5 minutes ago, grim22 said:

#11

 

  Hide contents

Toy Story 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From @DAJK

 

Who says growing up ends when you become an adult? While Toy Story 3 was a movie about transitioning from child to adult, Toy Story 4 tells what might be the most human lesson of all: we never stop growing up. With a protagonist who grows immensely throughout the film, a worthy antagonist, and a sea of supporting characters who each grow and develop in their own ways, Toy Story 4 takes the hero's journey of the first installment and builds upon it, combining heartfelt storytelling with some of the best animation I have ever seen, as well as some truly laugh-out-loud moments. This movie touched on a lot of fears I've been having about my own path of growing up, and made me consider my own life, as well as the elements of emotional storytelling, in a way that no other movie from 2019 made me do.

 

To infinity...

and beyond.

 

User reviews

The first and only Toy Story I actually enjoyed.  I liked all of it and the themes resonated with me this time around.

 

9/10

@baumer

 

Toy Story 4 was in my bottom 5 for 2019

[grim22]

#9

 

Spoiler

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

 

 

 

 

 

 

From @WrathOfHan

"It's official, old buddy: I'm a has-been." When Rick Dalton says these words to Cliff Booth at the beginning of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino reveals a lot about himself in this line. Tarantino has long been hyping up his 10-film plan, and with Hollywood being his 9th film, there is only one theatrical Tarantino release remaining if he sticks with this fantasy. The director believes filmmaking is a young man's game, and at nearly 60 years old, Tarantino has evolved significantly. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is Tarantino's most personal film yet as he reminisces about the end of Old Hollywood into the beginning of New Hollywood. The locations Tarantino remembers from his childhood are brought to live so vividly with fantastic characters, ranging from the great duo of Rick and Cliff to a blind, horny old man at the Manson-filled Spahn Ranch. Some of the situations are absurd yet feel authentic, and as we follow these many characters around, Hollywood is a tribute to what was and wasn't, especially with Sharon Tate's story.

 

Furthermore, Rick Dalton is a caricature of Tarantino himself with all of the director's own insecurities on display. Rick Dalton is a self-absorbed perfectionist that seeks greatness in his work, and as he is relegated to guest spots on television series, he longs for his glory days on Bounty Law. By the end of the film, Rick Dalton has a very good future ahead. Tarantino obviously hasn't hit the lows that Rick Dalton has, but the character's fear of irrelevancy to younger actors translates significantly into the director's anxieties. Tarantino has witnessed several decades of filmmaking greats retire and pass away and new generations break onto the scene, and as he is exploring new avenues of storytelling, he must grapple with a changing industry that he is so passionate about. Quentin Tarantino will figure out his plan eventually, but in the meantime, he has made his penultimate film a love letter to Hollywood. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is one of the director's best  films and worthy of high praise.

 

USER REVIEWS:

I wondered if the question has ever been raised:

 

What would happen if Quentin Tarantino made a film inspired by Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express? That's the vibe I got from this film: a meaningful portrait of pop culture with many loosely connected stories happening in the same general location.

 

Tarantino is in full command of the craft, dedicating blood, sweat, and tears to provide a window into his personal nostalgia that oozes cinematic "cool".

 

This--yes, this--is what film can do.

 

10/10

 

(Yeah, there's some slow parts, but it's riveting nonetheless. Don't go in expecting Kill Bill. And, no, I'm not spoiling the ending for you. See it in a theater with a reactionary crowd--it'll go down as one of the best movies of the year, and you'll be kicking yourself for missing it.)

@SLAM!

 

It's definitely Tarantino's most subdued film since Jackie Brown, and the fact that the first big explosion of violence doesn't occur until 2 hours in is probably gonna disappoint the GA and maybe even some of his fans. Nevertheless, even though he's been putting out solid films consistently over his career, I've been hoping for Tarantino to return to the style of his earlier, pre-Kill Bill films, especially after what I thought was a slight misstep with The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood comes closest. However, while I can say that I loved it for the most part, it's still far from a masterpiece.

 

Ever since the unfortunate passing of Sally Menke (RIP), it feels like Tarantino's have gotten longer and more bloated, and this one suffers from that in many places. Say what you will about Tarantino's status as an auteur, she really did a great job at tightening up his films, and it seems like Fred Raskin isn't stringent enough with his editing choices. Maybe we can cut back on some of those scenes of Cliff driving around LA? Or the one bizarre sequence where Sharon Tate walks past the movie theater to go to buy a book, and then goes back to the movie theater? Earlier in his career, regardless of their length, Tarantino's films always felt like a breeze. Now they're starting to feel 3 hours long.

 

The film's extra-slow pace, along with what was maybe a lack of narrative heft, almost made me bump down my grade to a B until the final act, which just blew me away. Easily Tarantino's best scene since the ending of Inglourious Basterds, perhaps even since the battle at the House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Even the buildup to the climax, as narrated by Kurt Russell, does a fantastic job of creating tension that's released in the best way possible.

 

Some stray thoughts:

- Margot Robbie was excellent as Sharon Tate. In the scene where Tate watches The Wrecking Crew, she brilliantly conveys this aura of innocence with an underlying feeling of sadness and melancholy accompanied by the real-life tragedy. Sadly, I don't think she'll get much attention from awards groups and the Academy because of how little time she has on-screen.

- Speaking of drawn-out, unnecessary scenes, I feel like you could've cut out Damon Herriman as Charles Manson from the movie entirely. His one scene really doesn't serve much of a purpose.

- I was hoping for a larger payoff for Bruce Lee as a character, to be honest. Even after his fight with Cliff, he way he was alluded to in his brief interaction with Tate and his standalone scene in the final act made it seem like he would play a larger role in the climax.

 

A-

@Alpha

 

[grim22]

81 to 100

 

81	Bacarau
82	Richard Jewell
83	Togo
84	The Nightingale
85	Asako I & II
86	Birds of Passage
87	Gemini Man
88	Godzilla
89	The death of dick Long
90	Missing Link
91	Unplanned
92	The Art of Self Defense
93	The Upside
94	Lady J
95	Greener Grass
96	Dark Waters
97	Adopt A Highway
98	Ash is Purest White
98	Game Changers
99	For Sama
100	The Beach Bum

[Ezen Baklattan]

God, I'll never forgive myself for missing Bacurau on my list. What an awesome movie.

[Avatree]

Gemini Man may technically only be at #87, but adjusted for frameflation it's actually at #17.

 

Congrats to Ang Lee for making it into the top 25.

[The Panda]

4 minutes ago, grim22 said:

81 to 100

 

81	Bacarau
82	Richard Jewell
83	Togo
84	The Nightingale
85	Asako I & II
86	Birds of Passage
87	Gemini Man
88	Godzilla
89	The death of dick Long
90	Missing Link
91	Unplanned
92	The Art of Self Defense
93	The Upside
94	Lady J
95	Greener Grass
96	Dark Waters
97	Adopt A Highway
98	Ash is Purest White
98	Game Changers
99	For Sama
100	The Beach Bum

Unplanned in the top 100?

 

yikes

[grim22]

#8

 

Spoiler

FORD V FERRARI

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t seen this yet, and therefore don’t know which actor is Ford and which one is Ferrari

 

USER REVIEWS:

Loved this. James Mangold has delivered the kind of crowd-pleaser we rarely see anymore, and proves why these types of movies deserve a comeback. The 2.5 hour running time zooms by (wink wink), and it works as both a racing movie and as a feel-good tale about the friendship between two different men. Matt Damon and Christian Bale are both at the top of their game here, and they have such an easy chemistry between them that one wonders why it's taken so long for these two certified leading men to share the screen together (too bad the trailer ruined the best scene in the movie, when they fight outside Bale's home while his wife just pulls up a chair and watches). There's nothing about this that'll reinvent the mainstream sports/friendship movie, but when the results are this well-done in every way, who is gonna complain? A-

@filmlover

 

I adored this movie @SchumacherFTW

 

[CoolioD1]

6 minutes ago, Spaghetti said:

God, I'll never forgive myself for missing Bacurau on my list. What an awesome movie.

...it's US release date is in march so it shouldn't have been even eligible that's why i left it off my list (i loved it too). vote for it again next year.

[Ezen Baklattan]

9 minutes ago, grim22 said:

91	Unplanned
92	The Art of Self Defense

I'm going to fucking vomit

[Ezen Baklattan]

1 minute ago, CoolioD1 said:

...it's US release date is in march so it shouldn't have been even eligible that's why i left it off my list (i loved it too). vote for it again next year.

you have a deal