There are no new reviews this week. That’s because except for one small horror movie (see below) no new films opened. There’s a sizable bunch coming next week but right now, especially as the awards season revs up with the Golden Globes on Sunday, most everybody is looking back at the best films of 2019. (My list is below).
The VanCity Theatre had an eclectic selection in the series they just finished including Once Upon A Time … in Hollywood, Pain and Glory, The Farewell, Marriage Story and two Canadian films: We Will Stand Up and The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. (The theatre is now on to a festival of Italian films).
The Cinematheque has taken a broader view. Starting Wednesday and through to Feb 17, they’re showing what two programmers over there say are The Best Films of the whole Decade. As you might expect, many are art-house and foreign films. Force Majeure, Tony Erdmann and Uncle Boonmee are in there along with Moonlight, Jackie and David Lynch’s revival of Twin Peaks. You can see the whole line-up at https://thecinematheque.ca/
I found 2019 an exceptionally good year for movies. There were so many superb films that I had a real struggle to cull my list down to 10. Shouldn’t films like Apollo 11, Amazing Grace, 3 Faces, Us and We Will Stand Up be in there? 1917 and Just Mercy would be for sure, if they had been here already. They’re coming next week.
My ten best, in alphabetical order:
Birds of Passage: modern lives and tradition clash over the drug trade in Columbia.
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open:
two indigenous women bond and one side of the real Vancouver emerges.
Capernaum:
a gut-wrenching drama among refugees and migrants in Lebanon.
A Hidden Life:
long, languid but powerful is Terrence Malick’s examination of courage and taking a stand through an Austrian farmer who refused to join Hitler’s cause.
Honeyland: a documentary about bee-keeping in Macedonia? Highly engrossing when you find added themes like modernity versus ancient ways, personal strength, humility, living in harmony with nature and even a form of gentrification by inconsiderate neighbors.
The Irishman: Martin Scorsese simultaneously recalls and expands on his gangster movies with a couple of old hands (Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci) and Al Pacino’s brilliant performance as Jimmy Hoffa.
Knives Out: hurrah.
Rian Johnson, between Star Wars projects, has given us a drawing room murder mystery that’s as enchanting and engrossing as the best of Agatha Christie and her ilk.
Marriage Story: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play a couple cin the aftermath of their marriage collapsing. It’s harsh, revealing and heartrending as they get caught up in the divorce industry.
Parasite: The best of the bunch.
Inequality and the class divide are explored through two families. The film is precise and comic until a startling change of tone that’ll have you marveling at the audacity of Korean director Bong Joon Ho.
The Two Popes:
Literate, articulate, intelligent and sometimes funny is this meeting of two contrasting popes, Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) and his eventual successor, Francis (Jonathan Pryce). Superb acting and visual design.
Three of those 10 are Netflix movies, an indication of one of the big changes in movies this year. The streaming services are getting the crowds and the stars these days. Disney and Apple have joined in and started their own and AT&T in the US is working on one too and may contract all Warner Brothers’ films for its exclusive use.
Netflix is delivering quality too. Remember Roma last year? Among this year’s contenders they have The Irishman, Marriage Story and The Two Popes.
So, is the movie-going experience in danger? Still not clear but you can’t blame people who’d rather stay home and avoid that expensive popcorn and that guy who keeps turning on his cell phone light.
The other BIG story this year is Disney, not only for starting their streaming service but for the cash they’re making in regular movie houses. All five of the highest grossing films of 2019 are Disney products: Frozen II, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, The Lion King and the new biggest money-maker of all time,Avengers: Endgame.
That’s come a long way from a rabbit, a mouse and a bunch of dwarves and may raise calls to break up the company.
James Cameron meanwhile, whose Avatar lost the all-time-biggest status to Endgame, thinks he can get it back by re-releasing his film.
Welcome to the New Year.
And meanwhile, now playing:
The ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL at the VanCity Theatre for the next six days has an attractive mix of new and classic films. The Champion (pictured above) has won a best new director award. The Traitor is a veteran director’s look at the Mafia. Martin Eden was declared “A Blast” by A. R. Scott at the New York Times. Among the oldies, there’s the original long cut of one of the best westerns ever made, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, plus three films from the Italian horror genre called giallo, notably Blood and Black Lace by one of the masters, Mario Bava. And also note the 60th anniversary screening of a real classic: La Dolce Vita. There’s more info and the whole schedule at https://viff.org/
Oh, and that horror film, the first to arrive for 2020, is THE GRUDGE. It’s small, was not previewed around here but has an interesting history and apparently some fan anticipation. It started as a movie series in Japan, was re-made in the US 15 years ago and made enough money to spawn two sequels. This new film is trying to revive the excitement with a story set concurrently with those old ones. There’s a house haunted by a vengeful ghost who attacks anyone who enters. This one was filmed two years ago in Winnipeg and has been through development hell. However, it’s got some good actors and the director, Nicolas Pesce, is praised as a visual stylist, so maybe …