Best films of 2019

Metacritic produces an annual list of the top films of the previous year based on top-10 lists created by various film critics. This is an aggregation based on lists produced by 340 critics:

FILMS MENTIONED ON MOST CRITIC TOP 10 LISTS - 2019

Movie and Metascore		# 1st Place	# 2nd Place	# Other	Points
1	96 Parasite	77	33	137.5	434.5
2	83 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	38	27	124.5	292.5
3	94 The Irishman	24	45	118	280
4	93 Marriage Story	14	27	117	213
5	90 Uncut Gems	20	18	87	183
6	95 Portrait of a Lady on Fire	12	10	79	135
7	91 Little Women	5	12	85	124
8	82 Knives Out	9	5	82	119
9	87 Pain and Glory	10	7	66.5	110.5
10	89 The Farewell	2	7	87.5	107.5
11	91 The Souvenir	3	9	55.5	82.5
12	81 Us	1	1	73.5	78.5
13	84 Booksmart	2	5	52	68
14	78 1917	5	5	42.5	67.5
15	72 Midsommar	3	2	52.5	65.5
16	83 The Lighthouse	3	2	50.5	63.5
17	83 The Last Black Man in San Francisco	4	2	46.5	62.5
18	82 Transit	4	7	28.5	54.5
19	80 Ad Astra	1	3	45	54
20	59 Joker	4	5	30.5	52.5
21	58 Jojo Rabbit	4	2	34	50
22	78 Avengers: Endgame	3	1	38.5	49.5
23	78 A Hidden Life	3	2	34	47
24	85 Atlantics	0	3	37	43
25	79 Hustlers	1	0	37.5	40.5
26	80 Waves	4	1	25	39
27	85 Ash Is Purest White	3	2	24	37
28	77 High Life	1	1	31.5	36.5
29	69 Her Smell	2	2	25.5	35.5
30	88 Apollo 11	0	2	28.5	32.5

Through February, I've now seen 15 of the 30 listed films. My rankings would be (roughly):

Tier I Outstanding: top award choices

Parasite
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

1917
Marriage Story
Little Women
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

October 2020 update: 2019 was a great year for movies, clearly. Indeed, the top 3 on the next tier could be moved up with these 6 on another day.

Tier 2 Very good: strong consideration for awards

Knives Out!
Uncut Gems
The Irishman
Transit
JoJo Rabbit

Atlantics

Uncut Gems was very well done, generally, but I didn't care for the 3 artsy shots used by the filmmakers to peer and travel inside a human colon, a gemstone, and an open wound. The film it most reminded me of this year was Her Smell, actually, as the two main characters of these films were seriously flawed and frustrating to observe.

Tier 3 Above average, but flawed in some way

The Souvenir
The Farewell

Hustlers
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Us
High Life
Ad Astra
Joker
Booksmart
Apollo 11
Her Smell

My rankings are not very precise. Virtually all of the films listed here have real strengths and are worth your time.

Tier 4 Skip it

Avengers: Endgame
N/A

If you are a big fan of these Marvel films, you probably already saw it. If you are not, then just skip it. I wish I had the nearly 3 hours back to watch something else and read. It moves slowly at times. There are too many characters. The fight scenes are cartoonish with lots of CGI. I'm tired of the impossible-to-kill villain. Spoiler alert: Now available with time travel. 

I'll update this list with highlighted additions after this post first appears.

Of the 15 films I've missed as of the original post, it's unlikely I'll see Midsommar anytime soon as I'm not a big fan of horror.

These are all of the unlisted films in alphabetical order. I'll move them up as I see them:

Ash is the Purest White
A Hidden Life
The Lighthouse
Midsommar
Pain and Glory
Waves

On any given day, I might feel slightly differently about film rankings within the different tiers. In any case, 2019 was another good year for film.


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