Fertility and desolation, creation and destruction, isolation and togetherness all intermingle in hypnotic fashion in High Life, Claire Denis’ sci-fi reverie.
Great Great Great.
Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. In the Austrian Alps circa the 15th century, young Albrun (Celina Peter) tends to her mother (Claudia Martini), a supposed witch, in their remote log cabin. I hope you all had wonderful holidays, and I hope the new year brings you much love, luck, joy, and lots of film viewing. A portrait of the arduousness of transformation and redemption, Skin shares direct, unsettling ties to our current geopolitical moment.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to do those films justice when I compile my “Best of the Decade” list after the New Year, so be sure to check back for that one. In a Mexican city rendered a ghost town by violent drug gangs, young Estrella (Paola Lara) strikes up a prickly alliance with a group of orphaned boys – led by Shine (Juan Ramón López) – after her mother goes missing. LEGO Movie: The Second Part; There you have it, my list of the top 20 best films I’ve seen in 2019. James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari may not redefine its field in the way that the Ford GT40 revolutionized auto racing, but it’s nonetheless a muscular example of big-budget, star-driven Hollywood entertainment. His is a conservative celebration of the old at the very moment that the new took over (not to mention a wish for a fusion of the two), and an air of wistfulness – and desire to fight obsolescence – permeates the action. Reuniting him with his favorite stars (as well as Al Pacino), and clocking in at a whopping 209 minutes, The Irishman serves as Martin Scorsese’s grand closing statement on the gangster genre he helped elevate to greatness with 1990’s Goodfellas and 1995’s Casino. This 2019 IndieWire Critics Poll included 304 movie critics, making it the largest year-end survey in the site’s history.
Its characters linked by spectral bonds they can feel if not quite identify (or control), it’s an entrancing and inherently mysterious ghost story that’s both timeless and, sadly, of our particular moment. There’s plenty of shrieking horror to be found here, as well as droll comedy, as the writer/director never loses sight of the inherent humor of his out-there conceit. Rust Creek. Through it all, Keanu Reeves strikes a dashing pose as the increasingly harried (and bloodied) Wick, his trademark designer suits and walk-softly-and-carry-a-big-gun demeanor once again employed to expert effect in a series that continues, like Reeves himself, to improve with age. The top 20 movies have already been revealed, but the full list below includes the 50 movies from 2019 that earned the most votes from film critics, ranked from the most voted to least voted. More importantly, that revelation repositions the material’s focus onto the art of moviemaking itself, and the myriad headaches – caused by temperamental actors, budget constraints and unforeseen delays and obstacles – common to the process.
Alas, I can only judge and list the movies I’ve actually seen, with a qualifier that there are more top contenders I’ve missed than watched this year.
Eggers eventually drowns his material in slithering sexualized imagery of a crazed sort, and caps things off in a manner that’s all the more cautionary-tale haunting for remaining so unforgettably oblique. Independent writer Jo (Saoirse Ronan); conservative actress Meg (Emma Watson); prim painter Amy (Florence Pugh); and unwell pianist Beth (Eliza Scanlen).