The Best of 2019: 39th Shadows Awards

As always, hacking down the list of some 500 movies I've seen this year to just 10 is tricky business. But it feels like a discipline that specifically goes with this job. I keep a running set of lists each year, and it gets seriously out of control - usually there are around 100 on each list! Note that each film listed here played in a UK or US cinema to a public audience in 2019, although some are yet to go on general release, if ever.

There are longer lists (top 50 films, for example) and a lot more on the website at 39TH SHADOWS AWARDS. My number one movie this year is one of the most bracingly original films I've seen in years - gripping, genre-defying and pointedly timely. Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho has made some great movies in his career, and this one is masterful, breathtaking cinema. It definitely deserves the attention it's getting in mainstream awards categories this year....

BEST FILM:

1. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)
2. Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodovar)
3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma)
4. Wild Rose (Tom Harper)
5. Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov)
6. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
7. 1917 (Sam Mendes)
8. Queen & Slim (Melina Matsoukas)
9. Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
10. I Lost My Body (Jeremy Clapin)

BEST FILM OF THE 2010s:

1. Leviathan (Zvyagintsev, 2014)
2. A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)
3. Boyhood (Linklater, 2014)
4. The Act of Killing (Oppenheimer, 2012)
5. Parasite (Bong, 2019)
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Ramsay, 2011)
7. Inception (Nolan, 2010)
8. Fire at Sea (Rosi, 2016)
9. Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016)
10. A Fantastic Woman (Lelio, 2017)

DIRECTOR:

1. Pedro Almodovar (Pain and Glory)
2. Alma Har'el (Honey Boy)
3. Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)
4. Celine Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)
5. Sam Mendes (1917)
6. Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim)
7. Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale)
8. Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood)
9. Ladj Ly (Les Miserables)
10. Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro)

SCREENWRITER:

1. Celine Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)
2. Lena Waithe (Queen & Slim)
3. Pedro Almodovar (Pain and Glory)
4. Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won (Parasite)
5. Agnes Varda (Varda by Agnes)
6. Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman (Booksmart)
7. Anthony McCarten (The Two Popes)
8. Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski (Dolemite Is My Name)
9. Charles Randolph (Bombshell)
10. Joe Talbot, Rob Richert (The Last Black Man in San Francisco)

ACTRESS:

1. Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose, Judy)
2. Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Little Women, Fighting With My Family)
3. Renee Zellweger (Judy)
4. Liv Hill (Jellyfish)
5. Sarah Bolger (A Good Woman Is Hard to Find)
6. Baran Kosari (Permission)
7. Lupita Nyong'o (Us, Little Monsters)
8. Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit, Avengers: Endgame)
9. Awkwafina (The Farewell, Jumanji: The Next Level)
10. Charlize Theron (Bombshell, Long Shot)

ACTOR:

1. Adam Driver (Marriage Story, The Report, The Rise of Skywalker, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote)
2. Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory, The Laundromat)
3. George MacKay (1917, Ophelia)
4. Tom Burke (The Souvenir)
5. Choi Woo Shik (Parasite)
6. Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote)
7. Daniel Kaluuya (Queen & Slim)
8. Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse, High Life, The King)
9. Lucas Hedges (Honey Boy, Waves, Ben Is Back, Mid90s)
10. Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Laura Dern (Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, Marriage Story, Little Women)
2. Julie Walters (Wild Rose)
3. Taylor Russell (Waves)
4. Karen Gillan (Avengers: Endgame, All Creatures Here Below, Jumanji: The Next Level, Stuber)
5. Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite Is My Name)
6. Allison Janney (Bad Education, Bombshell, Ma)
7. Tilda Swinton (The Souvenir, Avengers: Endgame, The Dead Don't Die, The Personal History of David Copperfield)
8. Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit, The King)
9. Riley Keough (Earthquake Bird, The Lodge)
10. Idina Menzel (Uncut Gems)

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. Noah Jupe (Honey Boy, Ford v Ferrari)
2. Bruce Dern (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Mustang)
3. Swann Arlaud (By the Grace of God)
4. Jamie Bell (Rocketman, Skin)
5. Wesley Snipes (Dolemite Is My Name)
6. Al Pacino (The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
7. Baykali Ganambarr (The Nightingale)
8. Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Out of Blue)
9. Richard Madden (1917, Rocketman)
10. Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

WORST FILM:

1. Rambo: Last Blood (Adrian Grunberg)
2. Black and Blue (Deon Taylor)
3. 6 Underground (Michael Bay)
4. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Joachim Ronning)
5. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Michael Dougherty)
6. Escape Plan: The Extractors (John Herzfeld)
7. Killers Anonymous (Martin Owen)
8. Ecco (Ben Medina)
9. Triple Frontier (JC Chandor)
10. Cats (Tom Hooper)

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N O N - F I L M   D I V I S I O N

TV SERIES: 

1. Fleabag (BBC)
2. Schitt's Creek (CBN)
3. The Mandalorian (Disney)
4. Years and Years (BBC)
5. Special (Netflix)
6. Call My Agent (Netflix)
7. Chernobyl (HBO)
8. Killing Eve (BBC)
9. Jane the Virgin (ABC)
10. The Good Place (Netflix)

SINGLE: 

1. Juice (Lizzo)
2. Circles (Post Malone)
3. Slide Away (Miley Cyrus)
4. Play God (Sam Fender)
5. Bad Guy (Billie Eilish)
6. Giant (Calvin Harris, Rag'n'Bone Man)
7. Own It (Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Burna Boy)
8. Watermelon Sugar (Harry Styles)
9. Orphans (Coldplay)
10. Harmony Hall (Vampire Weekend)

Critical Week: A pie in the face

I caught up with a bunch of films opening this week in the US and UK, including some high-profile ones. Written by Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy is an autobiographical drama about the actor's relationship with his father (whom he plays on-screen). It's seriously gorgeous filmmaking. Last Christmas is a holiday comedy-romance from Paul Feig and Emma Thompson, starring (cool casting alert!) Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. It's charming, funny and ultimately thoughtful. The Good Liar is a guilty pleasure about two old folks (Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren) caught up in a con. The wobbly plot is fun, riding on the actors' charisma. Roland Emmerich directs Midway, an entertaining special-effects action adventure about the pivotal WWII battle, with a strong cast manfully grappling with wooden dialog. And the animated feature Klaus looks a little too digital, but its derivative Christmas origin story is told with spiky humour and some enjoyable twists.

In the arthouse department, Terrence Malick's latest wonder is A Hidden Life, based on a true story, so it has a more forceful narrative than his films usually do, even with minimal dialog. It's the powerful story of a man who quietly stood by his principles in Austria under Nazi rule. From Senegal, Atlantics is a haunting drama about a young woman in love with the wrong guy. And it has a supernatural wrinkle that deepens its themes. From Ecuador, The Longest Night (La Mala Noche) could have been a cliched tale of a hooker with a heart of gold, but it becomes much more than that with its gritty plot and complex characters. And there's a restored rerelease for the 1985 drama Buddies, a beautifully made story of friendship that was one of the first films to address the Aids epidemic.

This coming week is another collection of contenders and other releases, including Greta Gerwig's new take on Little Women, Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, the Hamlet riff Ophelia, the British black comedy Kill Ben Lyk, the dance-musical Romeo & Juliet: Beyond Words, and the acclaimed doc For Sama. I also have a few stage shows to watch, just for some fresh air!