This year I went to see 192 different movies in theaters, plus one rewatch. That's up from 162 in 2018, 140 in 2017, 9 in 2016, and 5 in 2015. I usually go 3 or 4 times per week, mostly on weekends. I keep track of dates/theaters/movies/ratings for fun and save all of the stubs.My ratings are what I give the movie right after seeing it, with no real 'checklist' or anything, mostly just initial thought/enjoyment/opinion. It's not meant to be taken super seriously, I'm not a professional reviewer.This is my full ranking for the year, from favorite to least-favorite, with a few small reviews/thoughts thrown in:Monos - 10/10 - Hands-down my favorite movie of the year and honestly high on my all-time list. It's Apocalypse Now meets Lord of the Flies, with some Beasts of No Nation thrown in. It builds a unique, lived-in world that's believable and brutal. Beautifully-filmed, some of the best shots of the year (the ending shot gets seared in your mind). Modern and grounded look at a militia/cartel fighting against an unnamed enemy in a Colombian jungle. It almost feels post-apocalyptic instead of 'cartel vs government', which I really loved. You get to imagine your own backstory as the story unfolds. Unforgiving and gut-wrenching, but hopeful too. Got a lot out of its cast. Can't recommend this movie enough. Really disappointed this didn't make the Best Foreign Language Film shortlist. "Masterpiece" gets thrown around a lot, but in my mind this is the only one this year.Marriage Story - 10/10The Farewell - 10/10Journey to a Mother's Room - 9/10 - Biggest surprise of the year, came out of nowhere. Deeply-personal story between a mother & daughter. It's very basic on the surface, and there's not much story (you start at Point A, and end at Point A), but it's the most emotional movie of the year. If you don't cry at least 3 times during this, you're probably not human. It's all about the unbreakable connection you have to your parent(s), from the day you're born until the day you die. It only takes place over the course of a few months, but feels like lifetimes. Beautiful little movie about separation, loss, and human connection.Waves - 9/10 - I could write 20 pages on how much I loved this movie. To keep it short, it's got a perfect soundtrack, perfect setting, awards-worthy performances (from Kelvin Harrison Jr., Sterling K. Brown, and Taylor Russell). Visceral story that grips you from the first minute and doesn't let go until the closing shot. Unique use of colors and aspect-ratio. It takes a huge risk structurally that pays off. It's also the only movie I went to see twice this year. Really worth it too, picked up on a lot of stuff on the second viewing. Would've went a third time if theaters kept it playing longer. Every tiny decision/action has a huge impact. Just watch this.Last Black Man In San Francisco - 9/10Birds of Passage - 9/10Apollo 11 - 9/10 - The best documentary of the year. Probably the best editing (and use of sound) I've ever seen/heard in a documentary. It's unique because they don't use interviews like most documentaries do, it's real sound the whole through. Impressive use of archival footage/audio.Uncut Gems - 9/10 - This movie wasn't on the Best Original Score shortlist for the 2020 Oscars. This aggression will not stand.The Mustang - 9/10Wild Rose - 9/10 - If this doesn't win the Oscar for Best Original Song ('Glasgow'), I've lost all faith in the Academy. The ending concert scene had me crying like a baby. Jessie Buckley is gonna be big. Best music-drama since A Star Is Born.Transit - 9/10Ad Astra - 9/10 - Top-notch acting, great atmosphere, world-building, existentialism, beautiful VFX, engaging score. Best opening scene of the year. Thoughtful commentary on modern society all wrapped in a Heart of Darkness blanket. If you're into space/exploration movies, then I recommend this. Surprised at the backlash this movie has gotten on /r/movies.The Report - 9/10 - This was a really good year for legal-thrillers and The Report was the cream of the crop. Tight, Sorkin-like script with top performances from Adam Driver & Annette Bening. Could change a lot of minds about the war on terror and use of torture.Parasite - 9/10Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - 9/10Midnight Traveler - 9/10 - If you feel like life is unfair and the odds are stacked against you, watch this movie. It puts everything in a different perspective. Every problem you have is going to seem minuscule compared to what this family went through. It's eye-opening and should fill you with anger.Luce - 9/10 - It's Kelvin Harrison Jr's world and we're just living in it.The Irishman - 8/10Mickey and the Bear - 8/10 - Camila Morrone puts in the best breakout performance of the year. PTSD, drug-addiction, alcoholism, rural Montana, toxic relationships, James Badge Dale, following your dreams. What's not to love?The Art of Self Defense - 8/10 - The best dark-comedy of the year. So many great one liners. It's like Yorgos Lanthimos directing Death of Stalin, set in a karate studio. Surprisingly violent and depressing, but in all the right ways. Jesse Eisenberg's best movie since.....The Social Network?Peanut Butter Falcon - 8/10 - "Am I going to die?" "We all do, it's only a matter of time, now stop being a little bitch." - Favorite line of the year, really stuck with me.Everybody Knows - 8/10Mary Magdalene - 8/10Knives Out - 8/10 - Well-crafted whoddunit with an ensemble cast. Just a genuinely fun time at the movies. Ana de Armas with well-deserved leading role for once. A few of the characters are a tad bit unrealistic (and basically caricatures), but the movie doesn't take itself seriously enough for that to be a problem. Daniel Craig hamming it up with a Southern accent was fun. Old school film with a modern twist.The Lighthouse - 8/10The Dead Don't Die - 8/10 - This movie really isn't for everyone, but I loved the dry humor and purposefully-bad chemistry/dialogue. The line delivery was off-putting but hilarious. Everything is extremely on-the-nose and it works. I could watch 10 hours of Tom Waits talking to himself.Us - 8/10Villains - 8/10Ford v Ferrari - 8/10Midsommar - 8/10Jojo Rabbit - 8/10Official Secrets - 8/10 - Keira Knightley with one of the most underrated performances of the year. Another really good legal/political-thriller that exposes the dark side of government bureaucracy.Pain & Glory - 8/10John Wick 3: Parabellum - 8/10Queen & Slim - 8/10Amazing Grace - 8/10 - Great concert-documentary. Some of Aretha Franklin's performances in this should give you insane chills. I actually had this one rated higher right after watching it, but then looked up some of the people shown on screen and it turns out some were real pieces of shit, while preaching to people like hypocrits. Felt gross and took a lot of the magic out. One of my few revised scores this year.A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood - 8/10Joker - 8/10Non-Fiction - 8/10 - It's very French (talky and sexual) and the writing seems impressed with itself, but it's a good adult-drama that surprised me. I'm a big fan of Olivier Assayas and this is some of his best work.Rocketman - 8/10Stan & Ollie - 8/10Hustlers - 8/10Avengers Endgame - 8/10Doctor Sleep - 8/10 - It gets bloated and probably needed to be 20-30 minutes shorter (there's a shit ton of side-characters), but it was a worthwhile sequel to The Shining. Didn't feel like a cash grab and carries its own weight.Booksmart - 8/10Little Monsters - 8/10 - I'd recommend watching this based just on Josh Gad's character. So over-the-top and hilarious. When he starts chugging hand sanitizer might be the most I laughed in a theater this year. Also Lupita Nyong'o playing & singing on the ukulele to a bunch of kids is exactly what I needed in my life. Cute zombie-comedy with a ton of heart.Spider-Man: Far From Home - 8/10A Hidden Life - 8/10Never Look Away - 8/10Toy Story 4 - 8/10Pavarotti - 8/10The Biggest Little Farm - 8/10- If you're really into the inner-workings of a Californian farm, then this is the documentary for you.Abominable - 8/10The Current War - 7/10Artic - 7/10 - Well made, solidly-acted. I loved the small details about survival that this movie brings up, makes it very grounded and realistic. I'm kinda bored of survival movies in general so this didn't blow my mind or anything.Bombshell - 7/10Honey Boy - 7/10 - Pretty big letdown because I had really high expectations for this one. Lacked the emotional punch I hoped for. Didn't land for me at all, kind of like Boy Erased last year. I appreciate how honest and revealing it was, took a lot of guts for Shia LaBeouf to put this out there but it's forgettable. Lucas Hedges' Shia impression was reallllly on point though, that was worth the price of admission right there. Mid90s last year was a 10/10 for me and I expected the same for this. It was good, not great.American Woman - 7/10 - Sienna Miller's performance in this is awards-worthy. The accent she does is perfect and it might be the most underrated role of the year. The movie gets way too tearjerky at the end though. It's basically 2 hours of bad shit happening to a good person, which gets a bit overwhelming.The Beach Bum - 7/10Captain Marvel - 7/10Spies In Disguise - 7/10 - Looked pretty generic based on the trailer, but was actually pretty funny.Cold Pursuit - 7/10Tolkien - 7/10 - Not much happens but it felt really comfortable. Solid performances all around and they handled the WW1 scenes better than I thought they would. Expected to be bored out of my mind based on the reviews and trailer but it flowed well. As far as "Nicholas Hoult Biopics of Famous Writers" go, it's miles ahead of Rebel in the Rye 2 years ago.Jumanji: The Next Level - 7/10Sauvage/Wild - 7/10Detective Pikachu - 7/10Maiden - 7/10Dark Waters - 7/10 - . Good performances and an okay script, even though it beats you over the head sometimes. Total waste of Anne Hathaway. She's way too good of an actress for a boring, generic, 'supporting wife' role with just a few lines. Not even sure why she was in this. Overall, a solid legal-thriller, which is a genre I really enjoy and I've been missing since its late-90s heyday. Pretty crazy story too, scummy and evil corporate greed is always interesting to explore on film (like The Insider). Should've been 20 minutes shorter and less on-the-noseAdopt A Highway - 7/10The Wedding Guest - 7/10The Hummingbird Project - 7/10Motherless Brooklyn - 7/10The Lion King - 7/10Last Christmas - 7/10 - It's really easy to bash this movie, a lot of the humor falls flat and the twist is ridiculous, but I couldn't help walking out with a smile. I love how committed Emilia Clarke was to the character, and her interactions with her boss and family were legitimately heart-warming at times. Also did I mention how ridiculous that twist is?Richard Jewell - 7/10 - This was decent. Even though it's clearly Clint Eastwood's personal crusade (and thinly-veiled propaganda piece in some regards) against the FBI & the Spooky Media™, it still told the story effectively/semi-believably. Some of the characters (Hamm/Wilde obviously) were pretty ridiculous caricatures though, was hard to take anything they said seriously, I mean come on. You just roll your eyes at most of what they say. Some of the situations and encounters are too-conveniently set-up but that's easy to overlook. It had very solid performances (Hauser was great, especially when he finally let's his emotion show, in that scene where he kicks the table). Much better than The Mule, and 20x better than 15:17 To Paris.Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker - 7/1021 Bridges - 7/10Before You Know It - 7/10Hobbs & Shaw - 7/10 - This is peak "Stupid Summer Popcorn Movie" and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's The Meg of 2019.Fighting With My Family - 7/10Pet Sematary - 7/10Downton Abbey - 7/10 - Never saw a single episode of the show before watching the movie, but it still felt familiar/safe to jump right in.Yesterday - 7/10Greta - 7/10 - It's a cheesy, predictable, non-scary horror film but I liked it. Sometimes you just need Isabelle Hupert to play a psychopathic serial killer. Felt very old-school, a movie straight out of the 1980s.Judy - 7/10 - It's the definition of Oscar bait and is emotionally manipulative, especially towards the end, but it does a great job at humanizing a Hollywood legend.Frozen 2 - 7/10Aladdin - 7/10The Souvenir - 7/10Zombieland 2: Double Tap - 7/10 - Nowhere near as memorable/iconic as the first one, but it still got a bunch of laughs from me (especially the Thomas Middleditch/Luke Wilson scene). Above-average for a comedy-sequel, but I could see this one not aging well.The Two Popes - 6/10 - Two solid performances but underwhelming overall, too many cheap-looking flashback scenes, not enough Pryce/Hopkins. Reminded me of Can You Ever Forgive Me? last year, depending on the 2 leads to carry a weak movie/premise on their back, to disappointing results. Highly-overrated movie.Ready Or Not - 6/10Anna - 6/10 - It's basically Red Sparrow but slightly worse.Saint Frances - 6/10Hotel Mumbai - 6/10Shazam! - 6/10 - Low-stakes, formulaic, superhero movie clearly made with strict budget limitations. It hits all the notes you'd expect a movie like this to hit. It was decent.Alita: Battle Angel - 6/10Loro - 6/10 - One of the more disappointing movies of the year. On paper it sounds amazing, a sprawling biopic of an infamous/corrupt Italian politician/mogul by Paolo Sorrentino who's not that far removed from a masterpiece? Sign me the fuck up. But nah, this was a shallow, surface-level (like my reviews), pointless dull knife of a biopic. Too much shoehorned religious imagery too. Tone is all over the place. It can't decide whether it's serious or funny and gets lost in-between. It looked nice at least. It also wins this year's "Most Nudity" award, easily beating the rest of the field.Teen Spirit - 6/10The Upside - 6/10Gloria Bell - 6/10 - Great performance from Julianne Moore but this just felt like "Middle-Aged Crisis: The Movie". Just couldn't connect to it. I imagine the original is a lot better.On The Basis Of Sex - 6/10Stockholm - 6/10Give Me Liberty - 6/10 - This is an example of a movie that has its heart in the right place but bites off a lot more than it can chew. There's a beautiful, emotional story in here somewhere, but it's too muddled with ineffective editing tricks and too many side-stories. It's sweet in some ways and the true-life characters bring a lot of charm, but it didn't do that much for me. A lot of 'year-end' lists have this as one of the most overlooked movies of the year, but I don't see it. Rough editing, bad soundtrack.Child's Play - 6/10Good Boys - 6/10 - Just watch Booksmart instead.Styx - 6/10Woman at War - 6/10The Lego Movie 2 - 6/10Missing Link - 6/10Long Shot - 6/10 - The chemistry between Charlize Theron & Seth Rogen was great but the jokes couldn't really match it. It's a unique mix of politics & humor, but fell short of being an actual crowd-pleaser.Echo in the Canyon - 6/10Cyrano, My Love - 6/10Dora the Explorer - 6/10Brittany Runs A Marathon - 6/10IT: Chapter 2 - 6/10 - Way too long. Felt like a never-ending series of fetch-quests. Good CGI & acting though.Mister America - 6/10Crawl - 6/10Trial By Fire - 6/10 - Great performances by Laura Dern & Jack O'Connell get overshadowed by an overly-preacy script. It doesn't let the audience make up its own mind.The Third Wife - 6/10Godzilla: King of Monsters - 5/10 - This needed less humans, more monsters.Glass - 5/10Escape Room - 5/10Terminator: Dark Fate - 5/10Dumbo - 5/10All Is True - 5/10Brightburn - 5/10The White Crow - 5/10 - One of those biopics where the movie doesn't do justice to the story. Reading the Wikipedia page on this guy's life, you'd except a masterpiece. It was okay. Watch Cold War instead. It's basically this movie but better.High Life - 5/10 - Unpleasant.Where'd You Go Bernadette? - 5/10Scary Stories to Tell Dark - 5/10Her Smell - 5/10 - This movie made me physically nauseous. The tight, claustrophobic, haze-filled shots in the first 2 acts really threw me off. It's temporarily redeemed by a reallllllly good third act and a solid performance from Elisabeth Moss. But then deflated by a terrible final scene.By the Grace of God - 5/10 - Based on the critical acclaim, director, and subject matter, I walked in expected to be blown away. Basically expected Spotlight, but this movie completely derails at the halfway point. Hard to sit through.Blinded by the Light - 5/10The Best of Enemies - 5/10The Aeronauts - 5/10 - This is mis-marketed as an intense survival story but it's really just a boring biopic with too many flashbacks.Fall of the American Empire - 5/10Family - 5/10The Goldfinch - 5/10 - It turns out an unfilmable novel really is unfilmbable, who would've thought? Shoutout to Jeffrey Wright & Finn Wolfhard for actually trying.Angel Has Fallen - 5/10Gemini Man - 5/10Late Night - 5/10Black and Blue - 5/10Diane - 5/10 - This was just depression-porn. Sometimes it works (Mungiu/Zvyagintsev), sometimes it doesn't (this movie). It's such a bummer. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone but Mary Kay Place's performance makes it watchable and engaging sometimes.Destroyer - 5/10How To Train Your Dragon 3 - 5/10Rafiki - 5/10 - I feel bad for this score because I get that this is a really important/significant movie for African Cinema, but I just couldn't get past the terrible acting, bad (like baaaaaad) dialogue, and lackluster story. Again, pretty big achievement that this got made and reached a global audience, but yeah, in a vacuum, it's undoubtedly a bad movie. Felt like an amateur movie on a shoestring budget.Captive State - 4/10Wild Nights With Emily - 4/10 - This movie is what happens when someone asks the question "hey, what if we turned Emily Dickinson's life into an SNL skit?". I get what they were going for, and Molly Shannon is great, but this was extremely unfunny and probably the longest 84-minute movie I've ever seen.Dark Pheonix - 4/10The Addams Family - 4/10Midway - 4/10To Dust - 4/10Rojo - 4/10 - The only memorable thing about this movie is that there was a power outage about 90 minutes in so they comped my ticket and gave me a free drink. So that was cool, I guess.The Kid Who Would Be King - 4/10MIB: International - 4/10The Kid - 4/10 - There's a 98% chance that this movie is some kind of tax write-off or money laundering scheme. It somehow got 2 big names (Pratt & Hawke), co-starring the son of the producer in his first movie ever. Directed by Vincent D'Onofrio for some reason (???). Was dumped by Lionsgate in a few hundred theaters with 0 marketing/promotion, and flopped hard. It's dated, boring, and unoriginal. Cheesy dialogue. Literally a story that's been told a million times before, usually in much better ways. No reason for this to exist. Chris Pratt has the worst fake-movie-beard of all time in this, that's kinda worth checking out.Ramen Shop - 4/10The Good Liar - 4/10- The most convoluted, needlessly-complicated plot of the year. Helen Mirren & Ian McKellen both phone it in (I don't blame them, they were given trash to work with). I hate when movies try to crowbar "WW2 flashbacks" into their movies when it's not needed.Climax - 4/10Harriet - 4/10Lucy in the Sky - 4/10 - Once or twice a year, a movie comes along that has such a frustrating/stupid/anti-climactic ending it makes me actually angry. This is that movie. Natalie Portman had another movie like that last year (Vox Lux). Hey Noah Hawley, what the fuck?Freaks - 4/10 - This movie would fit well in the "Good Idea But Bad Execution" subreddit.Tel Aviv On Fire - 4/10Ma - 4/10Frankie - 3/10Stuber - 3/10Serenity - 3/10 - In a year full of batshit-crazy twists (looking at you, Last Christmas), this easily had the batshit-iest twist. It's something you actually have to experience yourself, and be fully-immersed in it, to appreciate how mind-numblingly crazy it is. How they got A-list talent for this script is a total mystery, but it probably involves of a lot of favors and cocaine. It's almost "so bad its good". Almost. I can't wait for the sequel, Free Guy, next year.Maleficent 2: Mistress of Evil - 3/10 - More genocide than I expected for a live-action Disney fairy tale movie.Donnybrook - 3/10The Photograph - 3/10 - Zzzzzzzzzz...Charlie's Angels - 3/10Hellboy - 3/10 - This movie is like that annoying kid in middle school that tries way to hard to be edgy. It's gory and vulgar just for the sake of being gory & vulgar. It reminded me of the Predator reboot last year, had the same kind of dated/forced humor that seems to have no real target audience (except for the aforementioned middle school edgy kid I guess). Bad CGI and a boring villain. iirc it also had a lame sequel-bait ending which I hate.Happy Death Day 2U - 3/10 -The Sun Is Also A Star - 3/10 - It's filmed like a generic music video and has the emotional depth of a puddle.Don't Let Go - 3/10The Invisibles - 3/10Playing with Fire - 3/10 - This was just like Mark Wahlberg's Instant Family last year, except that it was worse in every imaginable way. No lie, the end-credits bloopers were by far better than anything else in the movie. It was the only time I even chuckled or felt any type of emotion.Cats - 2/10 - There's not much more I could say that already hasn't been said. Yes, it was bad. No, it wasn't the worst movie in history. For me, it was just so boring. Forgettable songs (except Beautiful Ghosts), no story/plot, nonsensical ending. Just wanted it to end. Jennifer Hudson just floating into space for no reason, Judi Dench giving me unwarranted lessons about raising cats, Ian McKellen slurping milk from a bowl, Extremely-Hairy-And-Naked-Idris-Elba, Cockroach Genocide, etc. These things all happened and we can't change them, and for us to grow as a society, we need to just move on and learn from our mistakes.Rambo: Last Blood - 2/10The Sound of Silence - 2/10 - More like The Sound of Boredom, amirite? No but seriously, that's all I got. This movie was the closest I got to falling asleep in my seat this year.Synonyms - 2/10Black Christmas - 2/10 - Extremely cheesy dialogue, cop-out violence, boring/predictable jump scares, low production value (bad even for a low-end Blumhouse movie), some of the worst one-liners you've ever heard, unrealistic/2D characters. Shitty ending. Wayyyyy too heavy-handed with the message. About as subtle as a flying brick to the forehead. Amateur acting, cutaway for every death, etc etc.After the Wedding - 2/10 - Overacted, muddled garbage.47 Meters Down Uncaged - 1/10Shaft - 1/10 - Crude, unfunny, soulless, grating, pointless. There's a million adjectives I could use to describe this reboot, and none of them are positive. This is one I'm surprised I didn't just walk out of. Probably didn't have anything better do do that day.Jexi - 1/10 - This year's worst movie. It's just the kind of movie that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, like you need to watch something else to get the stink of this one out of your mind. It was just so mean-spirited, from start to finish. Not a single joke landed, you just hated all of the characters. There are no redeeming factors. On the technical side, it was very basic, looked like a cheap music video. No memorable scenes, no good lines of dialogue, no originality in any way. None of the "cheerful"/"pick-me-up" moments earn any kind of emotional reaction. If you had a freshman high-school film student remake Her as a shitty comedy, this would be it. The fact that I paid money to see this is something I will never live down.Movies that I saw outside of theaters, not included in the list:The King - 8/10 - NetflixPaddleton - 8/10 - NetflixEl Camino: A Breaking Bad Story - 8/10 - NetflixHigh Flying Bird - 7/10 - NetflixDolemite Is My Name - 7/10 - NetflixTriple Frontier - 6/10 - NetflixThe Boy Who Harnessed Wind - 6/10 - NetflixThe Laundromat - 5/10 - NetflixThe Highwaymen - 5/10 - NetflixVelvet Buzzsaw - 4/10 - NetflixBird Box - 4/10 - NetflixSix Underground - 2/10 - NetflixMovies that I saw in theaters in 2019, but are not included in the list due to original release date:If Beale Street Could Talk - 9/10Cold War - 9/10Capernaum - 9/10Mary Poppins Returns - 7/10The Charmer - 6/10Movies that I haven't seen yet but will see in the next few weeks:Little Women1917In FabricTremorsJust MercyMidnight FamilyA Million Little PiecesThe Earthquake BirdAmerican SonPortrait of A Lady On FireClemencyBeanpoleThe KingmakerThe Song of NamesHere is the distribution of theater visits by day of the week:https://ift.tt/2tbv4oL the year, I've gone to 13 different theaters. 9 at major chains, and 4 at indie theaters. Here's the distribution of visits by theater:https://ift.tt/2ZAwkhy is the distribution of theater visits by month:https://ift.tt/2ryTW9s longest stretch I went without going to the movies was from July 21st thru August 20th, without a single trip to the movies. Partially due to an out-of-country trip and personal stuff. During this time I "missed out" on The Kitchen, The Nightingale, Brian Banks, and Honeyland. Mostly caught up to the rest.The most theater visits in a one-week span was November 1st thru November 8th, with 8 movies that week.The most in one day was 3 movies in theaters on March 15th, 2019 (Styx, To Dust, and Captive State).There were 26 double-headers this year (two movies in theaters during the same day, usually back-to-back).Solid year, not as many surprises as 2018 though. Going to try to break 200 in 2020.Here is last year's ranking:https://ift.tt/37u7ra3 via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2F5d2ak
