I watched approximately 70 movies in 2019. Some of them were rewatches; most weren’t. They also skew toward newer movies, but there are a few on the list that came out before I was born, some of them movies that I shockingly avoided spoilers for. I’ll go through some of the highlights and lowlights, with commentary.
Animated
Kubo and the Two Strings – The plot follows a typical quest – find these items/do these tasks and everything will be revealed to you – but the animation is amazing.
The Peanuts Movie – The production team did a good job keeping the spirit of Peanuts without directly remaking any of the previous films, except in a different animation style. In this movie, the hapless Charlie Brown tries to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl while Snoopy takes on the Red Baron.
Incredibles 2 – Another Pixar sequel, another box office success. It picks up where The Incredibles leaves off and continues the superheroes’ efforts to reemerge into the public eye through fighting crime and villains. Featuring stay-at-home Mr. Incredible, new math, and an Edna Mode suit for Jack Jack.
Ralph Breaks the Internet – Ralph and Vanellope leave the arcade in search of a replacement arcade game part and discover the wonders of the internet. It has its funny moments (there’s a Disney princess scene), and the ending resolves things without being too “and everyone lived happily ever after.”
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part – After the reveal at the end of the first LEGO movie, the writers focused more on the human characters in the sequel, but it’s interesting to see things from both the human and LEGO perspectives. This time, the worlds of siblings Finn and Bianca, Bricksburg/Apocalypseburg and the Systar System, collide. Can Emmett and Lucy rescue their friends and defeat the Systar System’s Queen Watevera Wa’Nabi? The music’s fun/annoying/catchy and overall the movie’s worth a watch. I did figure out an aspect of the ending because of something I heard, but that’s all I’ll say about that.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – This was a different take on Spider-Man. Kind of. It’s still a superhero movie, so the plot can be summed up as Spider-Man fights bad guys. But the animation style, meant to imitate the Ben Day dots used in comic book printing, is cool, and I enjoyed the Spider-Man variations. I almost would have liked them to cut down on some of the action scenes so the characters could interact more.
Musical
Shrek the Musical – As bad as this sounds, it’s actually kind of good. I wouldn’t pay a hundred dollars to see it on Broadway, but the music is surprisingly well done. The plot follows the first Shrek movie, which itself is better and more clever than people would think of a princess story with ogres.
The Greatest Showman – A sanitized version of P. T. Barnum’s creation of what would eventually become the Barnum and Bailey Circus. I do agree with the critics who say that the movie would have been better off not trying to base the story on Barnum’s life. The songs by Pasek and Paul are really good, which doesn’t redeem the story, but I can’t dislike a movie with that soundtrack.
Bohemian Rhapsody – Watched this for the music, and as it turned out, the plot mostly felt secondary to the music throughout the movie anyway.
A Star is Born – Again, I mainly watched this for the music, but the plot ended up being more well-developed than I expected. Stars Lady Gaga as upcoming musician Ally and human Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) as alcoholic singer-songwriter Jackson Maine as they navigate the music world and their relationship.
Mary Poppins Returns – No matter what, a sequel to Mary Poppins was always going to be missing the classic feel of the 1964 movie. That said, it was still a good movie with a storyline in the same vein as the first movie – Mary Poppins and children and friend (originally Bert, now Jack the lamplighter) go on fantastical adventures – with the added conflict of trying to save the family home. The songs did feel more modern, but several songs from the first movie were quoted in the score. And if you’re going to have Lin-Manuel Miranda playing a prominent part, you might as well add some rap.
Absolutely Serious
Spaceballs – Last year, I watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and thought it was great, so you shouldn’t really be surprised that I liked this satirical, I mean serious and artistic, take on Star Wars.
Best in Show – A documentary (okay, mockumentary) of characters and their dogs coming together for the Mayflower Dog Show. Again, this is the kind of ridiculousness that I find highly amusing.
Moderately depressing
For real this time, these are some really good movies about some actually serious topics. Just read the rundown below:
Wind River – A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and FBI agent investigate the rape and murder of an Indigenous woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – A woman rents billboards to question the Ebbing police about the lack of investigation in the case of her daughter’s rape and murder.
Manchester by the Sea – After the death of his brother, a man returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, to care for his nephew. He left the town because his actions while drunk caused a house fire that killed his children.
Spotlight – The Boston Globe uncovers widespread child sex abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic church. Based on true events.
I’ll stop here for now; back next time with the rest of my 2019 movies.
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