2019 Movie Favorites - 10-6

This is the latest that this list has ever come out (when 2019 is a distant memory and the Oscars have already happened). At the beginning of this year, I hit a bit of a low. Creatively, mentally, but that was also coupled with what I felt to be a somewhat lackluster year in movies. But I was reminded by others that whether a year is good or bad, there's still a top ten. Which I guess goes for life as well as films.

​Here are the tops for me:

10. Ash is the Purest White

Ash is the Purest White is Jia Zhangke's ode to the yesteryear of China, but also to the yesteryear of character Qiao (Zhao Tao). Split into three different parts and time periods of her life, it's also shot with three different types of media (DV, 35 mm, digital) to emphasize the passage of time and the alteration of color, mood, and context. But aside from the visual hues that hearken to  anything from John Woo to Tarkovsky, is the muted melancholy of Qiao, who is unable to reconcile herself with the transforming landscape around her or the evolving moral codes that she abides by. Ash might start out as a flashy underworld romance, but it centers around the loneliness that is potently and poignantly brought to the fore by Tao's performance, who commands the screen equally whether she's brandishing a gun or an unforgiving look.

​9. Nightingale

I loved Jennifer Kent's The Babadook​, but when I first heard of her follow-up The Nightingale, I didn't want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Violence in films has become less and less tenable for me, and sexual violence is the worst offender. I never expected to watch it, but lo and behold it made it to my top ten of the year. Of course, there are some scenes I just couldn't watch -- there are some things you just can't unsee in your life and I wish I had been a little more emphatic about that when I recommended Bone Tomahawk years ago. So. Be warned that there are some extreme scenes involved, but Kent's handling of the material is what makes The Nightingale so powerful. It starts as a revenge flick for a woman, Clare, who has been terribly wronged, but it evolves into a story about the cruelties inflicted on the Tasmanian Aboriginals and the bond that Clare forges with one of them, tracker Billy. Kent captures the bewildering wilderness and isolation in tight shots that close in on Clare as she navigates the forest, as well as displaying the violence as a matter of historical accuracy rather than voyeurism. Nightingale certainly isn't for everyone, but it is more about the compassion we need in the face of injustice, and there's an aching beauty to Clare's rising song when she finally sings only for herself.

8. Jojo Rabbit

An earnest young boy in Hitler's youth army has Hitler as an imaginary friend. Oh, and that Hitler is played by director Taika Waititi. Jojo Rabbit is every bit as zany as you'd expect from a Waititi foray, but it's the hidden pockets of heartfelt poignancy that really get you. What can we do in the face of wrong? Of overwhelming hatred or fanaticism? This is Waititi's answer. And although at times, the film can drive into territory that makes us wonder if he's making too light of something so serious, you also come to realize that perhaps that's the only way we can respond. Veering close to the black humor of "it's so awful and funny because it's true" that was perfected by Death of Stalin and literature's The Master and Margarita, Jojo Rabbit instead doesn't shy from the emotions that make us human -- not just anger or pride, but love, empathy, and the ability to grow.

7. 1917

I expected 1917 to be a fairly solid movie, nothing more - it's a war movie in a sea of war movies and a one-take film in a sea of one-takes. But one of the reasons why this film is so high on the list is because of Roger Deakins. For much of the opening, 1917​ feels like Birdman meets ​They Shall Not Grow Old. It's impressive for its veracity and for the dynamic way the camera moves its characters through the action. You can't help but groan when Schofield accidentally shoves his hand into a rotting corpse or hold your breath when Blake leads Schofield through a crumbling bunker. But then something happens in the middle, and then the Thomas Newman score swells, and suddenly Schofield is running through the darkness, lights flaring, gunfire blasting and you realize that you have, once again, been slain by Deakins and that 1917 isn't a theme park ride, or a movie for entertainment, but is actually a beautiful film. Truffaut claims that there is no such thing as an anti-war film, but I think you can get pretty damn close. The hopelessness of their situation, the wanton loss -- both in immeasurable numbers and immeasurable singular sorrows -- is what 1917 tries to hit on. It's despair at the war, but also such a deep despair at what could have been -- how we'd trade all the heroics in the world for the chance to not need them.

6. One Cut of the Dead

1917 may have been the most impressive one-take film, but One Cut of the Dead has one of my favorites of the year. Technically released in Japan in 2017, One Cut finally made its way for distribution to the States last year. It was one of the last movies I saw of the year, and I kind of fell in love with it right away. It's hard to talk about this movie just enough so that people will want to see it, but not too much to spoil what makes it great. One Cut starts with a 37-minute one-take movie about a film crew shooting a zombie film while they're beset by actual zombies. It's a bizarre portion that leaves you scratching your head and wondering what the heck is going on. But the more you pay attention, the more you'll be rewarded by what follows. One Cut is an ode to low-budget filmmaking, the never-say-die efforts of a crew that will make something work come hell or high water, and also ends up being an endearing family drama too. Take aside an hour and half, sit back, and let some absolutely killer jokes and setups pay off. I promise you, it's 100% worth it.