All films that are listed are in no particular order!
1. Diane
While it discusses major theories about shame, mortality, abuse, and faith, Diane, who follows Mary Kay Place’s widowed title character as she takes care of her sick loved ones, does so in a constantly shocking, human-scale way. Ever-diligent, Diane drives back and forth through Upstate New York, making grocery deliveries and checking in on the people she cares about — even as it brings her terrible pain and heartache. Film-critic-turned-filmmaker Kent Jones places the spectator in the driver’s seat and easily follows the same vision of the horizon. As you would have expected for a film made from such tiny data, the destination is not always the point.
2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
If it weren’t for the intellectual powerhouse that is Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire would definitely have been the favorite foreign film of 2019. And for good cause, Céline Sciamma’s intimidating love tale is a stunning and transfixing drama that sweeps you away in a discreet, seductive affair of quiet ferocity and leaves you overwhelmed by discreetly hidden looks and whispered confessions. It’s a lovely film; poetically written and sumptuously filmed, bringing you all to the short, exquisite world apart on a wind-swept island where two women might discover a moment of true love in an age that needs a secret to be kept, and therefore ever more delicious.
3. Shoplifters
A film about a Japanese family in abject poverty and their profound love and desire to do what is right, Shoplifters is a gut-wrenching watch. Osamu’s family needs a shoplift to make the ends meet. In one of their usual sprees, they come across a little girl left in the freezing cold. At first hesitant to shelter her, Osamu’s wife decides to take care of her after realizing that her struggles are far greater than their own. She becomes a family member, living peacefully together until a surprise occurrence exposes mysteries that will strain their ties.
4. Fast Color
If you like your super-powered stories on the serious side, you’re sure to give Fast Color a shot. Julia Hart’s film takes place in a near-future dystopia where there is not enough rainfall and no rain in eight years. In this picture, we see three generations of women who have the capacity to deconstruct and recreate matter, which becomes a powerful metaphor for trying to rebuild the broken links between them. While serious superhero movies such as Logan and The Dark Knight are acclaimed. Fast Color is just as worthy of praise as it uses the mold of an indie family drama to explore the emergence of relationships that we think might be. Anchored by three excellent performances by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lorraine Toussaint, and Saniyya Sidney, Fast Color is a film that you can never let fall under the radar.
5. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
The film is based on a real-life story featuring the creation of the DC superhero Wonder Woman and was released in 2017, but mostly unfamiliar to fans of film and comic book culture. Professor Marston and Wonder Women is an entertaining, emotional, and beautiful film. It tells the story of William Marston, played by Luke Evans, who served in colleges including Harvard and Radcliffe College in the 1920s and 30s, along with his wife Elizabeth, in Rebecca Hall. They both begin a multifaceted friendship with a student played by Bella Heathcote. The film centers on how he was influenced by the intense femininity of both women to construct a Wonder Woman character — who then used to generate ideas about DISC myths and xenophobia.
6. The Nightingale
I imagine that a lot of viewers won’t get past the disturbing and harrowing first act, which is a shame because director Jennifer Kent isn’t going to dark places just to get her audience out. She’s doing it to discover the complexities of revenge, and whether there’s a way out of it other than a bloodshed loop where everyone’s dead. Fortunately, her commentary refuses to minimize simplicity and makes it clear that, as predicted, white males are usually the root of such cruelty and violence. Kent knows how to traumatize her audience, but her environment still maintains its ambiguity and sensitivity, which makes The Nightingale such a strong experience, particularly when you have phenomenal performances by Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr.
7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Terrible breakups are normal events, and Jason Segel continues to delve into the serious, yet funny, the insecurity that has afflicted us all in the aftermath. When he’s turned down by his movie star love, Peter goes on vacation (and a little stalking) to relieve his sorrows (and he’s crying a lot too). Along the way, he finds a little self-esteem, a new lease on life, and a passion, and even a mean satire, this is indeed a romantic comedy. Paul Sturdy’s funny come and Russell Brand’s steep turn make this a rom-com that’s going to pass even the best audience test for the ultimate lazy Sunday movie.
8. Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky’s exciting mystery about the New York Ballet Company’s production of Swan Lake is emotionally and creatively challenging. Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a timid, aspiring ballerina who persuades the company’s artistic director to assume the leading role of Swan Queen. Nina sparks a friendship-slash-rival with a young actress, Lily (Mila Kunis), but quickly continues to hallucinate the wicked doppelganger and uncovers mysterious injuries on her back. Aronofsky is renowned for painting unsettling, vague allegories in his films, and Portman’s depiction of an artist compromising himself for beauty is one of his strongest examples to date.
9. Searching
John Cho stares at the abduction of his teenage daughter in Quest as a father. It’s a double-edged title — the film takes place solely on a computer screen (i.e. looking for his daughter and browsing the web). The gimmick is an update to the found-footage form (also widely seen in the lost horror of 2014, Unfriended) and could quickly get bored. But searching never loses steam, thanks in large part to Cho’s super-expressive face, which manages to convey sadness, anger, frustration, and hope through a camera.
10. Creed 2
Creed 2 sees Michael B. Jordan returning to the part of Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, the icon of the Boxer, the sequel to Ryan Coogler ‘s 2015 smash. Of course, Apollo died in Rocky 4, killing Russian destroyer Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago) during a fight. Now, Adonis has the chance to avenge his father’s death by fighting Ivan’s son, Viktor, but many of them are concerned in his life that he is not ready to meet the same fate. Find out what’s going to happen by streaming it on Hulu.
11. Warrior
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are starring in this gritty MMA family drama. Hardy and Edgerton play strange brothers who meet in the ring decades after their family has been torn apart by drug use and their father’s (and Nick Nolte’s) abuse. Hardy plays Tommy, a war veteran who has had a horrible time abroad. Edgerton plays Brendan, a high school chemistry teacher competing in underground battle rings to earn some extra cash. The two squares in the ring, where more than just blows are exchanged.
12. Coherence
If you’re in the mood for a psychological thriller, this one should satisfy your hunger. There’s a mystery power outage after a meteor passes past as friends hold dinner parties; all of a sudden, odd things begin to happen. At a dinner party scheduled for eight in an abandoned house across the street, friends will find a package of photos of themselves. It points out that the other house is an alternate, a kind of upside down, a bizarre inverted copy of the world, just as perplexed as it is, with the identical replicas of each human in it. It’s like life comes to life in a sick, mind-bending funhouse, and the crowd is going to enjoy the ride.
13. Shirley
The world’s foremost director for women who use their canny insane in ways that are absolutely interesting is Josephine Decker. Her last performance was Madeline’s Madeline, in which a girl’s acting class switches to surrealism while a drama teacher attempts to leach from her pupil’s experience. Today, with Shirley, she’s bringing another story about art and people on the brink, a fictionalized story about the horror writer Shirley Jackson, played by Elisabeth Moss with impish vigor. Shirley encounters a young couple, Fred and Rosie (Logan Lerman and Odessa Young), on-campus in Bennington, at the home of Shirley and her husband, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg). Fred works for Stanley, and while Rosie is supposed to be in auditing training, Stanley immediately hires her to serve as a coarse and agoraphobic housekeeper and caregiver.
14. The Prince of Egypt
The Prince of Egypt is an underestimated film with an excellent plot and screenplay, but the biggest concern emerges with the film.t animation was unfortunate in the room and the excitement was at the point of The Lion King, which may have set up an inaccessible floor. Nevertheless, the Prince of Egypt, who has taken to his own merits, is a beautiful movie sharing the wonderful history of Moses (Val Kilmer) Exodus, who will turn against his adopted brother Ramses (Ralph Fiennes) and claim the Jewish people’s freedom.
15. Booksmart
It may sound like Booksmart is sort of like Superbad after viewing the teaser, except with teenage girls, but there is more to it and it can not be compared. Instead of merely imitating, Olivia Wilde’s debut directorial will talk in one voice, but the film is funny and unexpectedly wet. The plot follows best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) on the night before their classes are over. They strive to find a group so that they can show their fellow students that, as they have a lot to do, they are not boisterous.
16. Eye in the Sky
The film portrays the late Alan Rickman’s last live-action movie and was devoted to his memory. Exploring the ethics of drone warfare, it is set in Nairobi, Kenya, where an undercover British / Kenyan operative has been killed by a militant group and the mission begins to take them down. The British Army’s Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) must consider whether to give the go-ahead for a missile attack to wipe out suicide bombers. But there’s a wrench in the scheme; there’s an innocent teenage girl in the house, and there’s a good possibility she’ll be killed, too.
17. Casino
From Goodfellas to their most recent The Irishman, the crime drama trio of Martin Scorsese, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro remains a Hollywood heaven match. While it might not stand the test of time as well as the ones mentioned above, Casino is still sufficient proof of Scorsese’s directorial talent and ability to translate real-world crime stories to epic photographs. It is based on Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction work Casino: Passion and Honor in Las Vegas, showcasing the brutal and abusive day-to-day gaming handicapper (De Niro) with ties to the mafia. The casino is an expert portrait of the glitzy and seedy underground that is the base of America’s casino capital.
18. The Oath
With this directorial debut, Ike Barinholtz crafts a sharp parody of America during the Trump Period with all the political divisions it entails. The film takes place in America, where everyone has to sign an allegiance oath before the day after Thanksgiving. Liberal pair Chris and Kai press back against such an oath, but they are more worried about having to deal with a politically fractious family at Thanksgiving. The holiday gets even more chaotic when two special agents arrive at the house asking questions. What makes The Oath such a joy is that Barinholtz is not trying to hang on to his leftist character as the one who has all the answers but rather showing a variety of views that eventually leads to heated debates with no simple answers. Although the film gets darker as it goes on.
