ScreenAnarchy's Top Ten Films of 2019

10. Atlantics (dir. Mati Diop)

A ghost story, a tale of female solidarity, expertly interwoven with current headlines of maritime disasters, in which countless African refugees searching for better lives meet their watery graves at the bottom of Atlantic ocean. Atlantics has all the right ingredients to become an arthouse success story to rival Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. It's a melancholic romance set in bustling Dakar, focusing on the lives and hopes of young Senegalese citizens we seldom get to see. It's also hopeful and lyrical, yet pointy. - DC

Read Dustin’s review

9. Midsommar (dir. Ari Aster)

Part gruesome folk horror, part relationship drama, and part pitch black comedy, Ari Aster's Midsommar is a more than worthy follow up to 2017's Hereditary. A bold new voice in the genre film world, Aster uses every aspect of the film medium to tell stories that pick at the fraying edges of our collective sanity. A terrific ensemble cast, led by breakout star Florence Pugh, anchors this modern take on ancient traditions, that shocks and awes at every opportunity. This is one of our favorites for a very good reason, it is one of the most rewatchable films of the year, both in its original theatrical version and the extended director's cut. - JH

Read Josh’s review

8. Knives Out (dir. Rian Johnson)

Rian Johnson’s best film, following his divisive Star Wars entry, is a welcome return to the sneaky, tricky crime-filled drama of his earlier efforts, Brick and The Brothers Bloom. Retaining his signature style of wickedly humored fun, Knives Out is not a subversion of the whodunit, but a whip-smart modern warping of the Agatha Christie-likes. This onion of a layered murder is replete with an impressive cast of questionable characters giving it their all, but it also cleverly touches on class, privilege and (literal) entitlement. A yarn brilliantly unspooled by a scene-stealing Southern Fried Detective Benoit Blanc, easily Daniel Craig’s best performance. - KB

Read Shelagh’s review

7. Marriage Story (dir. Noah Baumbach)

Adam Driver may well have shouted himself all the way to an Oscar for his nuanced portrayal of a self-involved theatre director, who realises all too late that his marriage to Scarlett Johansson’s frustrated actress is coming to an end. Noah Baumbach channels the best version of a tragicomic Woody Allen for this impressively observed, and often amusing drama, that dares to suggest that a divorcing couple may still love and respect each other. Laura Dern and Ray Liotta are on fire as the predatory lawyers looking to score big from the couple’s misfortune, and I for one would gladly watch an entire series devoted to their deliciously evil litigators. - JM

Read Thomas’ review

6. Uncut Gems (dir. Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie)

After their coming out party with Good Time, the Safdie Brothers dropped this masterpiece of controlled chaos on audiences this year, featuring a spectacular Adam Sandler, who has not given a performance of this magnitude since Punch Drunk Love in 2002. Howard Ratner is a Jewish jewellery hustler in New York City’s Diamond District, who gets in over his head via a dizzying combination of schemes involving fist-size opals, NBA sports rings, and, somehow, a diamond encrusted Furby. The action and choreography of Uncut Gems is a breathtaking achievement, that is impossible to look away from. - KH

5. The Irishman (dir. Martin Scorsese)

Martin Scorsese's triumphant return to the gangster genre is an epic 3.5 hour crime opus that serves as both a blood-splattered whirlwind tour of 20th century America, and a powerfully introspective eulogy to the career of Scorsese and his closest collaborators. Reunited with De Niro, who hasn't been this good in years, Pesci, out of retirement and more sensitive than ever, and finally working with Al Pacino for the first time, The Irishman chronicles the life and work of hitman Frank Sheerhan, from his dealings with the mob, to his close association with Jimmy Hoffa, to his possible involvement in the union boss' notorious disappearance. A profound contemplation on a life of crime, and on a career making violent cinema, the result is a late great masterpiece from America's finest living filmmaker. - JM

Read Christopher’s review

4. The Lighthouse (dir. Robert Eggers)

Robert Eggers' sophomore feature is equally as idiosyncratic as The Witch, and twice as funny. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give Shakespearean level performances as two marooned lighthouse keepers slowly going insane. It's a shame these two are being overlooked this awards season. Too many bodily fluids, perhaps? Stellar sound design complements gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, immersing the viewer and making this one of the more unique filmic experiences in recent years. If you got the chance to see it in the theater, you witnessed something special. - JC

Read Teresa’s review

3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir. Céline Sciamma)

At once sensuous and unsentimental, enrapturing, yet logical in its perception, Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a study in the act of looking, the looking that leads to love, and the love that leads to both understanding and pain. It tells not only a heartbreaking love story, but the story of women across classes, who must each bear the social and economic burdens of their time. It is a film about faces: those we show to the world, those we show to our lovers, and the question of which, if either, is true, and if, when it comes to love, we can ever truly be free. - SR-L

Read Shelagh’s review

2. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (dir. Quentin Tarantino)

Yes, Tarantino has achieved moments of sheer beauty throughout his filmography - the perfection of Surf Rider by The Lively Ones signaling the finale of Pulp Fiction,, the dignified middle-aged chemistry of Jackie Brown’s heroes - but, with Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood, the golden boy film-lover-extraordinaire has finally delivered his first straight-up beautiful film.

There are countless things to love about Once Upon A Time, but ultimately it’s the film’s own deep love for its tapestry of subjects that one walks away bowled over by; love for the city, as oft-represented by long drives - to Van Nuys or Spahn’s Ranch - full of passing period eye-candy; love for the once-in-a-lifetime energy of T’s favorite bygone era (perhaps the crowning offering of the ‘Once Upon A Time In’ genre at large); love for a culturally shapeshifting industry as a living organism that ebbs and flows as much as anything else in Joni Mitchell’s Circle Game; love for the faces and personalities that inhabit this uniquely celestial community and feed the dream machine; love for Sharon Tate as a radiant representation of the promise and spirit the dream inspires; love for the dream machine itself as a medium capable of providing live-action fairytales to the world; love for lesser, pulpier appropriations of said fairytales that, in the hands of underdog voices, rewrite the world’s harshest realities and instil in them perversely satisfying helpings of frontier justice, perhaps the guiltiest pleasure of B-movie magic.

But for all these thrills, cheap and rich alike, the film’s greatest virtue lies in its wistful acknowledgment that cultural significance, even for these seemingly important touchstones, will fall victim to the transience of an inevitable changing of the guard. With Tarantino’s bombastic penchant for entertainment, Once Upon A Time… in Hollywood lets its love burn brightly before pontificating upon the setting sun, falling over the objects of our deepest affection. - ZG

Read Zach’s review

1. Parasite (dir. Bong Joon-ho)

After spending most of the decade working on ambitious international projects such as his sci-fi opus Snowpiercer and his Netflix eco-adventure drama Okja, Bong Joon-ho finally returned to Korean filmmaking this year - and what a return it was. A tense, hilarious and endlessly surprising tale of have and have-nots, Parasite finds Bong at the top of his game. With superlative technical specs and one of best ensemble casts you’ll find anywhere this year to boot, it has understandably become the director’s most universally adored film. - PC

Read Pierce’s review

So close…
11. Joker
12. Pain & Glory
13. Dolemite is my Name
14. Little Women
15. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
16. JoJo Rabbit
17. Knives & Skin
18. Us
19. First Love
20. Dogs Don't Wear Pants
21. Bacarau
22. The Long Walk
23. In Fabric
24. I Was at Home, But...
25. Knife + Heart
26. Swallow
27. An Elephant Sitting Still
28. John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum
29. Ad Astra
30. Asako I & II

And the rest…

Diego Maradona, Hustlers, The Art of Self-Defense, The Beach Bum, Captain Marvel, The Mountain, Varda by Agnes, Beanpole, Daniel Isn't Real, High-Life, Paris is Us, The Innocent, A First Farewell, A Hidden Life, Alita: Battle Angel, Culture Shock, I Lost My Body, Talking About Trees, The Forest of Love, The Wild Goose Lake, Vitalina Valera, Waves, 1917, Come to Daddy, Bombshell, Capernaum, Children of the Dead, It Must be Heaven, Last Sunrise, Queen of Hearts, 17 Blocks, Adolescentes, De Patrick, His Master's Voice, Jallikattu, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Sunset, Aamis, Balloon, Blood Machines, David Crosby: Remember my Name, Fast Color, Glass, Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce, Les Miserables, Sons of Denmark, Sophia Antipolis, Sound & Fury, Suburban Birds, Summer of 84, The Lodge, The Wandering Earth, An Old Lady, Arrest, Crawl, Dragged Across Concrete, Honeyland, Memory: the Origins of Alien, Nakorn-sawan, Ready or Not, Tigers are not Afraid, 12 Suicidal Teens, Avengers: Endgame, Babyteeth, Freaks, The Farewell, The Forest of Love, The Great Hack, The Mule, A Hidden Place, Captive State, Cleaners, Climax, Heroic Losers, Horror Noire, Master Z: the Ip Man Legacy, Seven Years in May, Shadow, So Long, My Son, The Dead Don't Die, The Souvenir, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Bait, Deerskin, Polar, Swing Kids, Synonyms, The Climb, The Incredible Shrinking Wknd, The Lonely Island Presents: The Unauthorised Bash Brothers Experience, Toy Story 4, Dark Waters, Deadwood: The Movie, Greener Grass, Greta, Harley Queen, Just Don't Think I Will Scream, Last Night I Saw You Smiling, Long Day's Journey into Night, Mosquito, The Death of Dick Long, The Guilty, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao, The Old-Timers, Tone-Deaf, White Snake