[For an explanation of my blog-post title, check out my “best of” list from 2013.]
To be honest, I am suffering from “best of” fatigue, having already published a variety of thoughts on the cinema of 2019 at Film Festival Today (where I am Associate Editor), Hammer to Nail (where I am lead film critic) and The Fog of Truth (the documentary-themed podcast which I cohost), not to mention voting in the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association’s annual awards poll. But none of those particular lists showcased the full range of my thoughts on the films of the year, so below, you will find more comprehensive lists of my favorites, divided by documentary (nonfiction) and narrative (fiction) formats. Most of these received some kind of theatrical or online release in 2019, though some of them perhaps did not (hard to keep it all straight when I see so much at film festivals). Where I have previously written reviews of a movie (whether for Film Festival Today or Hammer to Nail), the title of that movie is hyperlinked to my original review. If I have not reviewed a film, I hyperlink the title to the movie’s official website.
If there are films that you saw and loved this year which are not included in my list, then it is possible that either I did not see them, or liked them but not enough to include among my favorites. I also may have seen them and not liked them. As per my thoughts last year, I felt it was an excellent year for both nonfiction and fiction films, though my absolute favorites were among my top documentaries: Los Reyes (see below) may well be the movie I love the most from 2019. Enjoy my list! At two later points, hopefully within the next month, I will publish other “best of 2019” lists, for acting and technical/artistic achievements.
TOP 10 DOCUMENTARIES (in alphabetical order):
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American Factory (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert)
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Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)
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The Brink (Alison Klayman)
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Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Mads Brügger)
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Los Reyes (Iván Osnovikoff/Bettina Perut)
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Maiden (Alex Holmes)
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Mike Wallace Is Here (Avi Belkin)
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One Child Nation (Nanfu Wang/Lynn Zhang)
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Pahokee (Patrick Bresnan/Ivete Lucas)
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Tell Me Who I Am (Ed Perkins)
TOP 10 NARRATIVES (in alphabetical order):
- Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi)
- The Load (Ognjen Glavonić)
- Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)
- The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)
- 1917 (Sam Mendes)
- Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
- Ramen Shop (Eric Khoo)
- Transit (Christian Petzold)
- Us (Jordan Peele)
10 DOCUMENTARY RUNNERS-UP (in alphabetical order):
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Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops (Jenifer McShane)
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Facing the Dragon (Sedika Mojadidi)
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For Sama (Waad Al-Khateab/Edward Watts)
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Gay Chorus Deep South (David Charles Rodrigues)
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Hail Satan? (Penny Lane)
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Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska/Ljubomir Stefanov)
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Knock Down the House (Rachel Lears)
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Midnight Family (Luke Lorentzen)
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Midnight Traveler (Hassan Fazili)
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Skid Row Marathon (Mark Hayes)
10 NARRATIVE RUNNERS-UP (in alphabetical order):
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Captain Marvel (Anna Boden/Ryan Fleck)
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Dora and the Lost City of Gold (James Bobin)
- Everybody Knows (Asghar Farhadi)
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Honey Boy (Alma Har’el)
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Motherless Brooklyn (Edward Norton)
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Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)
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Plus One (Jeff Chan/Andrew Rhymer)
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Tigers Are Not Afraid (Issa López)
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Three Peaks (Jan Zabeil)
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The Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in alphabetical order):
- Building the American Dream (Chelsea Hernandez)
- Burning Cane (Phillip Youmans)
- Dolemite Is My Name (Craig Brewer)
- The Edge of Democracy (Petra Costa)
- Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg)
- The Farewell (Lulu Wang)
- Fast Color (Julia Hart)
- #FemalePleasure (Barbara Miller)
- The Great Hack (Karim Amer/Jehane Noujaim)
- I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter (Erin Lee Carr)
- The Kingmaker (Lauren Greenfield)
- Knives Out (Rian Johnson)
- The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot)
- Long Shot (Jonathan Levine)
- Luce (Julius Onah)
- Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Midge Costin)
- Memory: The Origins of Alien (Alexandre O. Philippe)
- Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Stanley Nelson)
- Our Time Machine (S. Leo Chiang/Yang Sun)
- The Perfect Candidate (Haifaa Al-Mansour)
- Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (Janice Engel)
- The Report (Scott Z. Burns)
- Sea of Shadows (Richard Ladkani)
- This Is Not a Movie (Yung Chang)
- We Are the Radical Monarchs (Linda Goldstein Knowlton)
WORST MOVIES OF THE YEAR (in alphabetical order):
- A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
- High Life (Claire Denis)
- The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
- Joker (Todd Phillips)
- The Kitchen (Andrea Berloff)
- Lucy in the Sky (Noah Hawley)
- Ma (Tate Taylor)
- Penguins (Alastair Fothergill/Jeff Wilson)
- Stuber (Michael Dowse)
- Waves (Trey Edward Shults)
Happy New Year, and may 2020 bring you all the cinematic joy you want and need!