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)

34th Shadows Awards: Happy New Year!

After much agonising, I've finally assembled my annual best of the year lists. As much as I resisted, I was unable to deny that Boyhood was my film of the year. I hate going along with the mob, but this really is one of the most extraordinary movies ever made - it's far more than a 12-year filmmaking experiment. These are just the highlights: there's rather a lot more on the WEBSITE.

FILM:

1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
3. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
4. Selma (Ava DuVernay)
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
6. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
7. Rosewater (Jon Stewart)
8. Pride (Matthew Warchus)
9. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
10. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)

DIRECTOR: Ava DuVernay (Selma)

SCREENWRITER: Andrey Zvyagintsev & Oleg Negin (Leviathan)

ACTRESS: Julianne Moore (Still Alice, Maps to the Stars)

ACTOR: David Oyelowo (Selma, A Most Violent Year, Interstellar)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Emma Stone (Birdman, Magic in the Moonlight)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For)

WORST FILM:

1. Tammy (Ben Falcone)
2. Bad Johnson (Huck Botko)
3. Pudsey the Dog: The Movie (Nick Moore)
4. Endless Love (Shana Feste)
5. Annie (Will Gluck)
6. Hector and the Search for Happiness (Peter Chelsom)
7. Earth to Echo (Dave Green)
8. Sabotage (David Ayer)
9. Jimi: All Is by My Side (John Ridley)
10. Dumb and Dumber To (Peter & Bobby Farrelly)

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CRITICAL WEEK

I only saw three films this week: James Franco and Seth Rogen in media-storm comedy The Interview, which was about half of a very funny movie; Jake Gyllenhaal in the clever but fiercely artful doppelganger mystery Enemy; and the stunningly well-observed Swedish Oscar-contending family drama Force Majeure.

Critics' screenings don't begin until Monday - with Liam Neeson in Taken 3 - but I have a few more discs I want to catch up with between now and then, as year-end voting continues.

Abu Dhabi 5: Politics and religion

In addition to a range of films from the Arab world, the 8th Abu Dhabi Film Festival has been showcasing award-winning movies from other festivals, including Cannes winners Winter Sleep and Leviathan (above); Venice winners A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, The Look of Silence and Hungry Hearts; Berlin winners Black Coal Thin Ice and Stations of the Cross; Sundance winners Whiplash and 20,000 Days on Earth; plus the likes of Two Days One Night, 99 Homes, Return to Ithaca, The Homesman, '71, Men Women & Children, Miss Julie. It's impossible to see everything, but I've given it a good try!

Meanwhile, the festival is winding down, but the parties haven't let up. The food has been pretty awesome, with a lavish breakfast buffet in the hotel (St Regis) and another buffet for lunch in the press area at Emirates Palace. Each evening's dinner party has been themed, with minor variations of food in even bigger buffets spread out in various areas outside the palace. A Jordanian pop star turned up for Jordan's party, Bollywood Nights offered music and dancing, and there have been Lebanese and even French themed parties. Last night's was the best so far: Arabian Nights, with carpets and kiosks scattered around the palace's beach. A high bar has been set for tonight's closing bash. Here are films from Wednesday and Thursday...

Leviathan has been winning awards since it premiered at Cannes (and won best screenplay) in May. I missed it at the London Film Festival (where it won best film), but knew I'd have a chance to catch up with it here. Worth the wait, this is a staggeringly clever exploration of power, specifically the church and state, with a plot that is clearly inspired by the biblical story of Job. Lyrical photography and open performances make it utterly gripping as the story of a man who calls in an old friend to help when the local mayor decides to demolish his family home. Plot wrinkles abound, making no one heroic. Everyone is deeply flawed, but not everyone pays the consequences. And the themes resonate far beyond the rural Russian setting. It's a stunner of a film that's sure to scoop more accolades before the awards season wraps up.

El Ott, from Egypt, is a noir thriller with a rather aloof sense of plotting. Global star Amr Waked (most recently seen in Lucy) plays the title character, a mysterious thug who takes on a preening gangster who is grabbing street kids and selling their organs on the black market. The film is edgy and grubby, with a plot that should be darkly compelling, but the characters and situations are deliberately undefined, which makes it difficult to get a grip on why anyone does anything. And several scenes feel so oddly set up that they give the film a corny and contrived tone. On the other hand, there's a fascinating undercurrent about power and belief - glimpses of ancient ruins, synagogues, churches, mosques and rave culture - all of which plays into a story about the blurry lines between politics, capitalism and crime.

The Man From Oran, from Algeria, is a period drama set at two points during the nation's struggle for independence. In the late 1950s two friends become involved in the fight against the French colonial rulers, which turns both of their lives upside-down as they rise to positions of power in the new government: one begins making morally dubious decisions while the other struggles to live with past events. This story is involving and complex, but later events set in the mid-1980s are a bit more muddled, partly due to how the screenplay requires previous knowledge of Algeria's culture and history and partly because the timescale is badly handled (apart from some iffy make-up, a child born in 1958 appears to be a surly teen in 1987). But the film is well-acted and shot in a vivid '70s noir style.

Pirates of Salė documents the first circus school in Morocco through the eyes of four young students who come from rough backgrounds. For them, this is clearly a potential path out of poverty, and as they prepare for their first big performance they discover the first sense of their own worth, finding joy in artistic expression, physical fitness and the camaraderie of the company. So it's frustrating that the film feels somewhat simplistic in its approach, showing the setting vividly without ever quite cracking the surface of either the students or their teachers. Only one of the teachers emerges as a fascinating character, and he simply vanishes along the way. In addition, the filmmakers oddly opt to chop the colourful circus performances into tiny pieces, never letting us get a feel for the work. This is a real shame, because the snippets we see are pretty amazing.

Critical Week: Riding the rails

London critics got to see Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman in the true story The Railway Man this past week - a deeply relevant, perhaps too-emotional drama about reconciliation and understanding. Another highlight was Denis Villeneuve's haunting, exquisitely well-made Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal as men who react very differently to a child kidnapping. We also had a chance to see the fractured JFK assassination drama Parkland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in the smart and mature rom-com Enough Said and DeNiro and Pfeiffer going all Besson on us in The Family.

Screenings began this week for the upcoming 57th London Film Festival. The first two were James Franco's bleakly artful but rather off-putting Faulkner adaptation As I Lay Dying and the surehanded but extremely low-key Aussie thriller Mystery Road. More on those soon. We also saw the sequel to an animated film we'd forgotten about, the goofy but engaging The Reef 2: High Tide, the super-pretentious arthouse hit Leviathan, and the talky, intriguing Argentine gay drama Solo.

This coming week we'll catch up with Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck in Runner Runner, Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, Shailene Woodley in The Spectacular Now, Sheridan Smith in The Powder Room, Francois Ozon's Jeune et Jolie, the British immigration drama Leave to Remain, the quirky festival film Floating Skyscrapers and Alex Gibney's doc The Armstrong Lie. We were also supposed to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, but the distributor has uninvited most critics from the press screening for some reason. Finally, the Raindance Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday and runs until 6th October in Piccadilly. Updates to come!