Emery’s List – The Best of 2019
By Emery Snyder @leeroy711
We find ourselves, yet again, at the end of another year. And here
I am, attempting to make some sort of general concise statement about how
effecting, provocative, interesting, relevant or otherwise I found this year’s visual
arts. Was it a particularly good year? Did I find anything to be specifically transcendent
or illuminating? The answer to both questions is invariably, yes. But if I’m
honest, this is not a unique phenomenon. This is the art-form that speaks to me
and as such, I always seem to find passion in its output. If this ever stops, I’ll
just bow out and keep my mouth shut.
This being stated, I did find something quite unique about 2019. The
year started like most others. I visit the cineplex for anything that looks
interesting and try to weed out some gems among the Spring/Summer releases. I’m
always sure to find good stuff there. Raunchy teen comedies and off-putting
horror flicks to hold me over until the end-of-the-year prestigious titles fill
my mind as well as my list. I saw Tarantino’s previous three films during the
winter holiday. This year, his ONCE UPON A TIME… had me in the theatre in July,
fighting for my time with films like STUBER and CRAWL. (I liked all three
previously mentioned) Competition with original content from streaming platforms
as well as the saturation of our yearly dose of superhero films has changed the
way that studios think about release dates.
But as usual, the year came to its final months and our theatres filled
again with the more respected and “important” procedural and historical dramas
and biopics that we’re sure to hear much more about as The Academy and various
other critic’s circles announce their nominations. I’m not trying to sound too dismissive
here. I’ve loved a lot of these films over the years and I’m sure I’ll find
value in the future. But this year was different. Maybe the fact that three of
the most exciting names in horror directed their sophomore efforts. Maybe it’s
because certain big names have been more absent from the cineplex in the new “golden
age of television”. The Coen Brothers haven’t had a theatrical release since ’16,
David Fincher’s last film was 2014 and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s last feature was
THE REVENANT, his second of back-to-back “Best Director” Oscars.
But still, I think there is something else at play here. One of
the lesser known truths seems to be more explored in cinema’s most recent history.
This truth is simple yet long ignored and is as follows: There is nothing you
can say in prestigious art films that you can’t say in genre films. That’s it… It
seems simple because it is. Whether we’re talking about this country’s race
relations in a Jordan Peele horror or exploring positive female relationships
in Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, progressive insight and poetic metaphores anchor
these stories, once reserved for more exploitive themes. The line between
arthouse and gorefest have blurred out of existence. And it’s now far more
likely to find something provocative and perceptive in genre than in previous times.
To be clear, these lines were always fake and had more to do with perception
and funding than anything else, but I feel as though popular opinion maybe turning
a new page in the future to come. And what better way to start a new decade? I’m
ready.
On-Air Television
Chernobyl
– Limited – HBO
This is a miniseries that combined the toxic combination of misinformation,
propaganda and the quest for power. It’s kind of like a science nerd’s
procedural detective thriller but set in a very real time a place. I usually
have issues with pacing in miniseries but this one had me fully engrossed
throughout. Every tangent was critical and tense. Even the epilogue was
gripping. This is one that you can watch in its entirety in one sitting.
Euphoria –
Season 1 – HBO
I was skeptical about this one at first and it is certainly not
flawless. But I’m struck by how great Disney alumni Zendaya was. Her performance
is both elegant and vulgar. Her “Rue” weighs the show down when some of its
more outlandish plot twists threaten to go off the deep end.
Barry –
Season 2 – HBO
This is exactly the type of dark comedy that I love. “Coen-esque” matter-of-fact
violence committed by unassuming forces with layers of complexities. Bill Hader
is one of my favorite people to watch in anything he does, and he still manages
to surprise me here. Anthony Carrigan’s “NoHo Hank” is one of the funniest characters
on TV right now.
Performances
Adam
Sandler – UNCUT GEMS
Adam Sandler is a great actor with a very unfortunate filmography.
Yet he manages to strike gold a few times every decade or so. I don’t know if
this should make me upset about what he typically chooses to spend his time
doing. I’m just happy that this was a year that he showed off his talent.
Lupita
Nyong’o – US
It was right around this time last year that the US trailers
started to come out. I remember considering Nyong’o in a horror to feel like
somewhat of a novelty. A lot has changed in a year. I’m counting this as two
performances and I loved both. The film is hinged on a plot twist that repeated
viewing reveal the subtleties of her performance that informed and fleshed out the
complex relationship between her doppelganger characters. Adding this role to
her “Miss Caroline” from this year’s LITTLE MONSTERS and now I can’t remember a
time that she wasn’t a horror icon.
Robert
Pattinson & Willam Dafoe – THE LIGHTHOUSE
I couldn’t pick which role to highlight from this strange dark hypnotic
nightmare of a film. Neither would work without each other. A slow descent into
madness never looked so fun.
Florence
Pugh – MIDSOMMAR
I can’t really say enough about Pugh’s personification of anxiety in
this film. Everything about this flick is simultaneously horrifying and
beautiful. Her performance is no exception.
Shia
Lebeouf – THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON & HONEY BOY
After Andrea Arnold’s AMERICAN HONEY (’16), I thought that we may
have found the perfect typecasting for Lebeouf. It turns out I was right. Poor white-trash
looks great on him. I’d love to see him pick up a role in the next season of
Netflix’s OZARK.
Original Series by Streaming Network
PEN15 – Season
1 – Hulu
It took me a solid three episodes before I realized that these two
seventh-graders were played by grown women… This is probably the most I’ve
laughed at any show this year. It’s uncanny in its nostalgia but still leaves plenty
of room for a real plot and great character development. The show has “real
problem” conflicts as well. But to its credit, it gives these issues the same
weight as whatever drama two tween BFF’s deal with on a weekly basis.
Unbelievable – Limited
– Netflix
The country took a backslide after the Kavanaugh hearings implied that
we are still not ready to take victims of sexual assault seriously. This show serves
as a great companion piece to the many hours I spent watching those hearings on
CNN. You know, in case you weren’t angry enough… It’s a powerful story that deserves
to not only be heard but believed.
The
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – Season 3 – Amazon Prime
Episode five of this latest season is why this show made my list. The
show pauses to reenact and recreate a scene from Mikhail Kalatozov’s Soviet propaganda
masterpiece SOY CUBA (’64). Contextually, this excursion makes a ton of sense,
given the rhetoric of the show’s setting and the tribulations of the Maisel
family. It is also a gorgeous film that I have championed for a long time so
any reference to it scores easy points with me.
Underseen & Underrated
BOOKSMART
– Directed by Olivia Wilde
I’m still maintaining that Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut will
be entered into the canon of high-school comedies like EASY A and MEAN GIRLS in
due time. But I am surprised at how little the film is in the year-end lexicon
by bloggers and critics. It will happen. It just needs more people to see it. Of
all its brilliance, I was most impressed by how kind the film was to all of its
characters. There are no expendables or villains here, just fleshed out,
organic people, doing funny stuff.
WHERE’D
YOU GO, BERNADETTE – Directed by Richard Linklater
I’m not much of a Linklater fan. Maybe that’s why I ended up a
defender of one of his least championed films. It meanders and lulls through the
life and mind of an eccentric genius dealing with anxiety, uncertainty and restlessness.
But somehow, it still sticks to its relatively lighthearted tone. Like most
Linklater, this is a character study. But I’m far more interested in Bernadette
than I am in the “bro” characters in his more loved films.
THE PEANUT
BUTTER FALCON – Directed by Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz
This is thoughtful, tender and endlessly smile-inducing. Which is
saying a lot considering that this film’s description seems frighteningly close
to something cheap and exploitive. The cast list sounds like what would happen
if a Sundance after party were held at a WWE Smackdown event. But it all works.
The heart of the characters shine through the plot. It’s good writing, highlighted
by good performances all around.
LITTLE WOODS
– Directed by Nia DaCosta
The plot reads like a smorgasbord of today’s social issues. The
opium epidemic, the economic impact of fracking on small Midwest communities as
well as America’s lacking healthcare system and women’s reproductive rights all
pour out of the screenplay. The “one-last-caper” trope gives the film its
tension but Tessa Thompson and Lily James’ performances stand out as rising
stars in their best work yet. Director Nia DaCosta is currently in post on the
CANDYMAN remake and I’m looking forward to it.
Home Video Release
An
American Werewolf In London – Arrow Video
This release is chalked full of stuff to sink your teeth into. It
came out a couple of days before Halloween and I’m still not finished watching
everything. There are about fifteen separate featurettes, a full-size poster, six
lobby cards and a sixty-page booklet that I have no idea when I’ll find time to
get into. I would specifically suggest the I
Think He's a Jew: The Werewolf's Secret short video essay. Aside from all the extra swag, the new 4K as
quite magnificent. This really is the most fang
you’ll get for your buck this year. (Sorry, not sorry…)
Original Films by Streaming Network*
*full disclosure: I have yet to see Netflix’s
MARRIAGE STORY or THE IRISHMAN. I don’t tend to like many Baumbach films and I
just haven’t seemed to find the time for Scorsese’s latest. I’ll see them
eventually. Their probably both great…
HORROR
NOIRE: – Directed by Xavier Burgin – Shudder
More on this one later…
LITTLE
MONSTERS – Directed by Abe Forsythe – Hulu
I mentioned earlier about how impressed I’ve been with Lupita Nyong’o.
She’s great in this one as well. Her presence is pitch perfect as the epitome
of innocence in a violent and chaotic setting. And I really dug Josh Gad’s Teddy
McGiggle.
FYRE FRAUD
– Directed by Jenner Furst & Julia Willoughby Nason – Hulu
In a world of FOMO, fake news and Instagram celebrity, this film
does well to marry today’s culture with a disastrous attempt to exploit it by a
world class swindler. The Fyre Festival was essentially a Ponzi scheme, built
on hype. The fact that it was so easily funded and endorsed is as much of a
story as the calamity that followed.
Films
11. US –
Directed by Jordan Peele
A few small aspects of the plot and the predictability of the
twist kept this one just barely out of my top ten. But the technical aspects of
Jordan Peele’s second film were amazingly accomplished. I talked about Nyong’o
earlier but the whole cast was great. And Peele just seems to intimately
understand how horror works. We are truly witnessing the infancy of what will
be a storied career.
10. UNCUT
GEMS – Directed by Josh & Benny Safdie
I spent the first half of this film wondering why it had already
made so many end-of-the-year lists. But this proved to be the groundwork that
the second half of this story needed for empathy and tension. The final act is
a taut and beautifully staged heist. I was particularly impressed with how the
screenplay interlaced the actual events of the 2012 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals
with the Safdies’ fictional account of Kevin Garnett’s off-the-court antics.
9. JOJO
RABBIT – Directed by Taika Waititi
This is Waititi’s most Wes Anderson film to date. Its lighthearted
romp is periodically interrupted by moments of sheer devastation. It sneaks in
its heavier subject matter in between gloriously ridiculous bits of comedy. I
heard a lot of people complain about Johansson’s weird accent but the fact that
these characters were all speaking English kind makes that point moot for me. I
found her performance to be beautiful and her moments to be earned. The same
goes for Sam Rockwell.
8. HORROR
NOIRE: A HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR – Directed by Xavier Burgin
The idea that representation doesn’t matter is far too easily
believed by those of us that have never seen a time in popular culture in which
we were not heavily over-represented. This film makes the case that it not only
matters, it matters significantly. And it does so in a Film Studies 101 nature
that is far more informative than I would have expected. This somehow manages
much more than 83 minutes of material into its running time.
7. ONCE
UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Directed by Quinten Tarantino
I feel as though Tarantino’s ninth film requires a bit of prerequisites.
Specifically, Karina Longworth’s eight-part “Charles Manson’s Hollywood” series of her You Must Remember This podcast should be required listening prior
to this film. I’m sure Tarantino listened to it before he wrote the script. Other
than that, I’m not sure what to really say about it. It’s his longest and slowest
film yet. Also, his most meditative and least tangible. And it has one of his
most rewarding third acts. I’m still a bigger fan of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS but I’m
glad he got this one out of his system.
6. KNIVES
OUT – Directed by Rian Johnson
Those of us that were Rian Johnson fans prior to the Star Wars
films expected a tight, well written mystery script. This is his third behind BRICK
and THE BROTHERS BLOOM. I can only hope that this leads to more in his future.
It’s one of the most fun times I’ve had in the cinema all year. It’s probably
my favorite ensemble cast of the year as well.
5. MIDNIGHT
TRAVELER – Directed by Hassan Fazili
This is the story of a filmmaker, forced to flee his home in
Afghanistan, after the Taliban issues his death warrant. About four years in
the making, he documents his travels throughout the world, seeking only the
safety of his family. This was a phenomenal film. Shot of three mobile phones,
he sheds light on the modern-day immigrant experience. Facing the exploitation
of smugglers, the bureaucracy of asylum and the spurn of Europe's latest surge
of nationalism. When the late Roger Ebert said: "Movies are the most
powerful empathy machine in all the arts..." This is what he meant.
4. ONE CUT
OF THE DEAD – Directed by Shinchiro Ueda
I emphatically loved this movie, so I have so much to say about
it. But if the zombie angle doesn't sound appealing to you, go for the fact
that it is a uproarious comedic romp of a dark humor. If a meta 'inside
film-making' flick doesn't float your boat, see it for its heartwarming
father/daughter story. And if the gimmick and technical mastery of a 40-minute-long
uncut shot doesn't get you to sit for this, well there's just no pleasing
you...
3. THE
LIGHTHOUSE – Directed by Robert Eggers
I loved the dialogue, even the parts that I couldn’t understand.
Now I get to look forward to the subtitles on the Blu-ray release to see all
the great stuff that I missed the first time around. The film was shot in gorgeous
black & white 35 mm on a 1.19:1 aspect ratio. This was a unique theatrical
experience. I specifically enjoyed quietly listening to others espouse their opinions
as we walked out of the cineplex. There was a wide range. Most of them negative….
There are usually my favorite films.
2. PARASITE
– Directed by Bong Joon-ho
This is the spiritual sequel to Akira Kurosawa’s HIGH AND LOW (’63)
set on the more complicated socioeconomic stage of modern-day South Korea. A
place, like post-war Japan, is experiencing a severe and rapid decrease in the
middle-class. The line between the “haves” and “have-nots” however, is only
stark by measuring their successes. Both sides are arrogant, condescending, opportunistic
schemers. Both seek to exploit each other. The screenplay is so tight and resourceful
with its metaphors, it will reward its audience for many repeated viewings. This
film only unclassifiable by its tone. And that tone could only be called “Bong
Joon-ho-esque”. To attempt to fit it into any specific genre would be to sell
it far short.
1. MIDSOMMAR
– Directed by Ari Aster
This was the most affected I’ve found myself in the theatre this
year. I was impressed by Aster’s first effort, HERIDITARY but not nearly as much
as most of my peers. This follow up looked like an interesting entry into the
WICKER MAN/KILL LIST subgenre of horror. I was not, even a little bit, prepared
for Florence Pugh’s literal embodiment of anxiety and depression. There is a
moment in the beginning, when we see her holding back her fears and sadness
while playing it cool on a phone call with her boyfriend. The specificity of
her expression tells you her whole story. While her words and voice hide
everything from the other end of the call, desperately afraid of letting him
know just how much she needs him. But we the audience, are instantly informed
that this is routine for her. She’s seasoned and quite good at it. My heart
broke for her in that moment, and it was only ten minutes into the film. Daytime
horror is a rarity already. It’s easier to exploit the audience’s imagination
in the dark. This film, in contrast to its characters, hides nothing.
