The Best Movies Of 2019

The Irishman. Image courtesy of Netflix.

It was a pretty strong year overall for movies. Once again, Netflix proved that it's capable of bankrolling some of the best filmmaking out there - and let's hope that it will continue to provide theatrical releases to at least some of its high profile movies.

Some of the year's best films were comeback stories (my number 3 of the year), while others acted as career summations (my top three). More so than any other recent year in memory, my top 10 was crowded with great international films - only four films from the United States cracked that list.

There are still, unfortunately, a handful of highly acclaimed movies that I've yet to see. For example, Celine Sciamma's "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," which has landed on more top 10s than I can count, doesn't spread out until mid-February.

A few others I missed include Nadav Lapid's "Synonyms," Edward Norton's "Motherless Brooklyn," Carlos Reygadas's "Our Time," Melina Matsoukas's "Queen and Slim," Jessica Hausner's "Little Joe," Ira Sachs's "Frankie" and Sheng Qiu's "Suburban Birds."

Without further adieu, my best of the year:

Ten Runners Up
20. Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)... Reviewed here.
19. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller)... Reviewed here.
18. Ad Astra (James Gray)... Reviewed here.
17. Uncut Gems (Joshua and Benny Safdie)... Reviewed here.
16. Us (Jordan Peele)... Reviewed here.
15. Atlantics (Mati Diop)... Reviewed here.
14. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot)... Reviewed here.
13. 1917 (Sam Mendes)... Reviewed here.
12. The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers)... Reviewed here.
11. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (Martin Scorsese)... Reviewed here.

Top Ten
10. Little Women (Greta Gerwig)... Reviewed here.
  9. Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)... Reviewed here.
  8. Birds of Passage (Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego)... Reviewed here.
  7. Transit (Christian Petzold)... Reviewed here.
  6. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)... Reviewed here.
  5. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Bi Gan)... Reviewed here.
  4. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)... Reviewed here.
  3. Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodovar)... Reviewed here.
  2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)... Reviewed here.
  1. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)... Reviewed here.