BEST FILMS OF 2019: #20-11
20. Climax, dir. Gaspar Noé
A dizzyingly immersive vision with an intoxicatingly playful spirit, easily feeling like Noe’s most joyous, carefree effort, boldly casting conventions aside to instead play by its own rules.
19. The Cave, dir. Feras Fayyad
A riveting act of bearing witness that centers the contributions of women in the medical response to the unfathomable crisis continually unfolding in Syria, paying as close attention to the horrors as to the fleeting moments of levity and respite. Fearless and vital.
18. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, dir. Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
A quiet stunner, deftly tackling the thorny ramifications of domestic abuse and the experience of indigenous women with a slyly cinematic eye. Forget 1917, THIS is the one shot spectacle of the year. Subtly bold and richly textured.
17. Sunset, dir. László Nemes
A stunning, propulsive vision of the Austro-Hungarian empire on the verge of collapse that swallows you whole, thrusting us and our protagonist into a deceptively high-octane, hostile world that disorients and thrills.
16. Sorry Angel, dir. Christophe Honoré
As complicated and messy as first love, Honore’s inspired, personal tale of star-crossed gay would-be lovers in early 1990’s Paris is refreshingly untethered from narrative convention, bound only to a hard-earned authenticity of feeling that is palpable throughout. Equal parts charming and affecting.
15. Transit, dir. Christian Petzold
WWII Nazi drama as riveting contemporary social allegory, dabbling in melodrama while muddying the line between past and present to staggering effect. Demands to be poured over countless times.
14. For Sama, dir. Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts
A devastatingly immersive account of the unspeakable atrocities being committed against the Syrian people that should shake any viewer out of complacency, where death and devastation bombard you, but you are also constantly shown the light of empathy, compassion and love. Breathtaking and heartbreaking in equal measure.
13. Hustlers, dir. Lorene Scafaria
An electric and vast study of agency and community amongst working class women grappling with a sexist, capitalist system that’s discarded them, training its eye as much on the glitz as on the grit. A ravishing delight.
12. An Elephant Sitting Still, dir. Hu Bo
A deep dive into widespread despondency in post-industrial revolution China, which it casts as a bleakly gray, open-air prison of sorts, crushing its viewer under the weight of its gargantuan running time, but is never short on empathy for its central quartet of Hu Bo stand-ins. Devastating in every sense of the word.
11. Parasite, dir. Bong Joon-ho
A capitalist nightmare where the daily indignities of poverty compound on themselves, ruthlessly pitting the working class against itself in narratively dazzling ways while remaining a rollicking good time at the movies, despite its decidedly heavy, bleak themes.
