My Favourite Films of 2019

Posted by Victor R Gibson ⋅ January 3, 2020 ⋅ Leave a comment

Filed Under LISTS

FILM	POSTER	REMARKS
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood		I, like many others, am just a bit of a Tarantino fan. I have not liked everything he has done, but this film contains all he does best. My wife and I might have been just a bit influenced by the cinema; an open air screen in Chania in Crete.
Le Mans ‘66		I am an old time sports car fan, and although I quite like today’s Formula 1, it is nothing like the wonderful events when the only limit on engine size was the weight of the unit, in relation to the horsepower produced. So the story of the GT 40 really hit the spot for me.
Yesterday		Perhaps this was just nostalogia as well, but the Beatles songs were so well presented and the alternative reality was easy to accept. It would not be quite the same for the Millennium, generation I realise, but for we old farts, who are not purists and just enjoy the music, essential viewing.
Rocketman		An here’s another, an unrestrained jouney into the past, with the music soaring out of the cinema’s magic sound systems. I could have watched it again straight away, and would have done if the film was on a continuous loop as it would have been when Elton John first sat at a piano.
Green Book		The film won nearly everything at the Oscars and other awards, and got 97% on Rottemn Tomatoes. This might have put off those who tend to take against over hyping of some movies. But this one was pretty well perfectly formed and the two main characters go from poles apart to becoming good friends.
The Irishman		This film was a Netfix special, and so had a limited reelse at the cinema, fortunately for us one of the cinemas in Madrid showed it. It is very long so you have to give it time, but it is well worth the watch and may be Martin Scorsese’s masterwork. Quite disturbing, but we have to remember that the story it presents may not be true.
Knives Out		Rian Johnson is a clever writer and director and so this film was fun. In my view not his best but probably the one with the most star spangled cast, all of whom seemed to enjoy it and therefore making our enjoyment more likely. Daniel Craig has a best actor nomination in the Golden Globes.
Jumanji: The Next Level		After the first film starring this cast, which topped my list of films in 2017, I have a bit of a soft spot for what is now a franchise. The guys who are the avatars (you have to have seen the film) continued to do really well, now having extra people to imitate, but the story was just a bit weaker. Still worth a watch.
Parasite		I join the critics who big up foreign language films at every opportunity and include this Korean film which is rivetting. A family of down and outs take over a luxurious dwelling in the city (apparently a real one) just because the inhabitants do not know the layout of their own house, or what anyone in the outside world actually does.
The Favourite		The Favourite does not have much competition from a rather dire year in films, and we saw quite a few outings that we would rather have avoided. Or films to which we were indifferent, which had an unacceptable level of plot failures. This surreal outing was enjoyable, and was not interested in being politically correct. A plus in my view.