Marriage Story really packs an emotional punch, the story of a couple in their 30s going through divorce. Photo / Netflix
Marriage Story really packs an emotional punch, the story of a couple in their 30s going through divorce. Photo / Netflix
In a year when big tentpole blockbusters, sequels, remakes and franchise instalments dominated the box office and broke multibillion-dollar records, it can be easy to forget that the industry still tells wonderful original stories.
Which is not to say that films have to be original to be of artistic andentertainment value.
In fact, one of my favourite films I've seen this year was Greta Gerwig's Little Women (but you won't find it on this list because it comes out on January 2, 2020 in New Zealand – so it'll definitely have a presence on next year's roundup) while Avengers: Endgame (a movie as corporate and wrapped up in intellectual property as they come) was an immensely satisfying and emotional spectacle.
But complaints about Hollywood running out of ideas or that we're stuck in some kind of creativity blackhole are numerous, especially when you look at the top box office performers of the year.
When I compiled this best of 2019 movies list, I didn't set out to feature original stories, but at the end of it, all bar one were, and the one that wasn't (If Beale St Could Talk) was adapted from a James Baldwin novel.
It's proof that exciting, original storytelling is thriving in cinemas, you just have to seek them out.
These movies didn't all have massive marketing budgets and they didn't all open on hundreds of screens across the country (though a couple of them did), but they are out there, and they're waiting for you to find them.
Two families – one is wealthy and lives in a perfectly designed architectural marvel, the other is poor and dwells in a semisubterranean apartment. The poor family are resourceful grifters, enmeshing themselves in the well-off clan's lives. To say any more about Parasite is to give away a truly masterful twist.
Korean director Bong Joon-ho's social satire is wildly entertaining and so sharp, and that rare foreign language film that has captured the cultural conversation in English-speaking countries. Parasite is an absolute standout film.
Marriage Story
Marriage Story really packs an emotional punch, the story of a couple in their 30s going through divorce. Inspired by director and writer Noah Baumbach's own divorce from actor Jennifer Jason Leigh, Marriage Story is a raw and authentic experience.
Baumbach weaves a complex story so expertly that when the characters hurt, you hurt. The performances from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, as the couple in question, are career-best, certainly for Driver, and when they square off in a bruising climax, you'll need to remember to breathe.
Knives Out
You'd struggle to find a movie as compulsive and puzzling as Knives Out – puzzling in a good way, because this modern take on an old-fashioned Agatha Christie-esque whodunit will keep you guessing until the very end.
Written and directed by Rian Johnson, who'd previously made homage films in the film noir and heist genres, Knives Out has a seriously impressive cast including Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Craig as the Poirot-like detective, Benoit Blanc.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Burning and urgent, this 18th century-set tale about two women falling in love on an isolated island estate is an evocative and passionate portrayal of female desire.
French filmmaker Celine Sciamma has crafted a stunning film from a female gaze and featuring searing performances from leads Noemie Merlant and Adele Haenel. It's intimate and intimate, yet grand in its emotions.
The Farewell
American writer and director Lulu Wang used her own experiences with her family to form the deeply personal, tender and restorative comedy-drama, The Farewell.
Awkwafina plays a New Yorker named Bili who is forced to go along with her family's plot to keep her grandmother's fatal cancer diagnosis from the woman herself. Instead, her family returns to China under the guise of a wedding to say their goodbyes.
There is so much layered in The Farewell – it's both a migrant story and a story about the love and bonds between family – and it balances the pathos and humour with ease.
Ad Astra
Brad Pitt earned more notices for his work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood this year but his standout performance is actually in Ad Astra as an even-keeled and emotionally repressed astronaut who is sent on a galaxy-spanning mission to search for his long-lost father.
James Gray's film features not just that mesmerising Pitt performance but also visually arresting sequences including one in which Pitt's character plummets to earth and another involving a space buggy chase on the moon. Ad Astra is an unrivalled sensory and emotional experience.
Booksmart
Damn. Booksmart is so fresh and fun, it injects life into a genre – teen comedies – that often relies on a tired formula to be "good enough". Well, Booksmart races past "good enough" by some distance and more.
Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever play two high schoolers on the last night of school, partaking in that favourite tradition – the graduation blowout party. Molly and Amy feel like they've missed out on the fun of high school and they're looking to make up for all that wild time.
While the very appealing Booksmart, directed by Olivia Wilde, may seem like a teen movie following a familiar path, it's more than just raucous fun and cutting humour (though there is plenty of that). It's a celebration of being young, smart and optimistic.
No one can accuse The Nightingale on holding back, because it does not. Jennifer Kent's movie about Australian colonialism is at times a shattering experience, as it follows an Irish convict over the unforgiving bush of Van Dieman's Land as she hunts after a British officer who killed her family.
Kent is best known for directing horror flick The Babadook but her follow-up deals with a different kind of monster, the legacy of Australia's past, one we're still dealing with today. Her film is ferociously effective at making sure you never forget.
Once Upon a Hollywood
The more time you have to sit with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the more your estimation of it grows, really appreciating his skills as a filmmaker in crafting this evocative love letter to a certain time and place.
By building his story around two fictional, peripheral Hollywood types, and weaving in parts of reality into his film, Tarantino has made an exhilarating and yet sentimental film. He clearly loves this era – 1969, the cusp between innocence and full-blown adult horror – and his adulation is infectious. You'll find yourself in love with it too.
Wild Rose
Wild Rose will go down as the movie which revealed to the world the outsized talent that is Jesse Buckley. The movie itself, directed by Tom Harper, is a great film, but Buckley's performance is superb, elevating Wild Rose and everything around it.
As Rose-Lynn Harlan, Buckley gives her character, a Scottish lass desperate to be a country music star, a burning ambition and humanity that is so empathetic and layered, you won't be able to take your eyes off her, at all.
Despite being one of the earliest releases of the year, If Beale Street Could Talk has managed to cement itself as one of 2019's most impressive, and it won star Regina King an Oscar.
Barry Jenkins' sensual and stunning film is a tale of young lovers torn apart by the spectre of prejudice and an unjust world. It's both heartbreaking and transcendent.
Adapted from a novel by James Baldwin, Jenkins has made an exquisite movie with an equally moving score by composer Nicholas Birtell.
