Anyways, here’s the format, almost entirely unchanged from the
last few years. I’m going to run through a bunch of categories and give my top
five for the year (which I’ve termed “contenders”) and then give a winner. Many
of the categories are copied from standard awards categories, plus a few of my
own creation and minus a few I don’t like or didn’t see enough to judge—maybe
one day I’ll watch newly-released documentaries, but that has not yet come. As
always, I barely know what I’m talking about, so your indulgence is greatly
appreciated
So without much further ado…the Pauls!
Best Visual Effects
The Contenders:
1917
Ad Astra
Avengers: Endgame
John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Spider-Man: Far From Home
The new Godzilla movie might have made it in there if was even
just a hair less stupid, but in recent years I’ve started instituting an
informal movie quality penalty in this category because I was embarrassed that I
put not one but two Transformers movies in here earlier in the decade.
Meanwhile Ad Astra is certainly a good enough movie to make it, and it
might even have been my winner except maybe the two most spectacular visual
effects sequences also happen to be the two really dumb scenes that hold the
movie back (the moon pirates scene and especially the space baboon scene).
Which leaves us with Avengers: Endgame, a worthy finale to
everything Marvel’s been doing for the past decade+, with the visual fireworks
to go with it.
Best Film Editing
The Contenders:
The Irishman
Little Women
Midsommar
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Parasite
There wasn’t a movie with especially gaudy or flashy editing this
year, but there were two really great films that jumped around in time to great
effect, and the editing of which were major reasons for their success. Neither,
however, is the winner, and instead I’ve been lured in by Tarantino’s
intercutting of old fake tv shows and ads and movies into the narrative, which
is a cheap trick that totally worked on me. Our winner, then, is Once
Upon a Time...In Hollywood.
(I kid of course, it’s not a cheap trick at all and works great in
the context of the movie)
Best Costume Design
Avengers: Endgame
Knives Out
Little Women
Midsommar
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
A bizarrely strong category this year. There are categories I
agonize over some years (Best Scene is always tricky), and some that trip me up
from time to time (the various acting categories wax and wane in strength) but
I’m not sure I’ve ever had genuinely hard cuts from this one. Jojo Rabbit,
for one, should definitely be in here, if for no other reason than the brief
shot at the end of Sam Rockwell’s fabulously flamboyant Wehrmacht uniform.
And even with hard cuts, I’m pleased to announce that, for once,
the winner here is a contemporary movie, which are always the hardest to
recognize in this category. It’s easy to reward period pieces or sci-fi/fantasy
works, but it’s tough for films set in the real world of more-or-less right now
to have impressive costuming. Unless, of course, you’re Rian Johnson and his
sweater supplier in Knives Out.
Best Cinematography
The Contenders:
1917
Ad Astra
Midsommar
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Parasite
Some hard cuts in this category too, though that’s not nearly as
unusual. And...you know what, I’m not even going to pretend to filibuster this
one. The winner has been obvious since at least the first trailer, if not,
like, the minute it was announced. 1917 had the best
cinematography this year.
Best Scene
As noted earlier, this is easily the hardest category both to cull
down and pick, for a bunch of reasons, and so it’s the one I just can’t bear to
cut down to less than ten contenders. As always I try to keep the “title” of
the scene as specific but non-spoilery as possible, hopefully if you’ve seen
the movie you know what I’m talking about. The no two scenes from the same
movie rule is in effect this year—it may or may not have mattered, but once I
picked a scene from a movie I didn’t consider another.
The Contenders:
Night in Ecoust-Saint-Mein—1917
From Jupiter to Neptune—Ad Astra
The Finale—How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
The Award Acceptance Dinner—The Irishman
The Knife Museum—John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Beth Plays Piano—Little Women
The Home Visit—Marriage Story
Attestupa—Midsommar
Filming Lancer—Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The Flood—Parasite
Typically, the best scene from a given year comes from one of the
top handful of movies in that year, and there are definitely a top handful of
movies from 2019 (if the specific members aren’t already clear, they will be
shortly). To be sure, the group is well-represented in the list above, but this
year, for the winner I’m going to pick a movie that I was overall only kinda
lukewarm on. The Home Visit from Marriage Story is just a
perfect five-minute setpiece, and it’s the hardest I’ve cringed watching a
movie in years.
Best Art Direction
The Contenders:
1917
The Irishman
Knives Out
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Parasite
Another strong category, man there were some really well-made
movies last year. Neither of them is the winner here, but I want to shout out
two really memorable movie houses, and whoever put together the main locations
in both Parasite and Knives Out should be extremely proud of
themselves. Our winner, though, is the movie that captures the visceral horror
of the late Western Front in startling clarity: 1917, thanks for
reminding us that the past sucked.
Best Sound Editing
As always, my reminder for the two sound awards, which I
considered combining into a “best sound effects” category this year, and may
yet in the future: editing is the process of actually creating the sound
effects that go into the movie, while mixing is the process of inserting sound
effects with music and dialogue and stuff.
The Contenders:
1917
Avengers: Endgame
Ford v Ferrari
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Godzilla makes it in even through the quality deduction,
though it’s not our winner. Instead, I’m going to circle back to the real
amazing technical achievements of Avengers: Endgame, which looked
and sounded (and, really, was) just fantastic.
Best Sound Mixing
The Contenders:
1917
Ad Astra
Avengers: Endgame
Midsommar
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
For this one, there’s just no way I’m giving it to anything other
than than Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood. The movie’s spookily
dead-on recreation of old tv shows and radio from the late 1960s is part of
what makes it work so damn well, and the mix is a pretty crucial part of that.
Best Use of Music
The Contenders:
1917
Booksmart
Jojo Rabbit
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood (hell yeah I’m
keeping that ellipsis in there this whole time)
Us
I can’t believe a Scorcese movie that I liked a lot didn’t make
this list, but I just don’t really remember the music in The Irishman
the way I do the others. That’s always the problem with this category, and it’s
only a moderate improvement over the category it’s replacing (Best Original
Score); I just don’t remember movie music very often. But one that I definitely
do remember is our winner, Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood.
Tarantino and Scorsese are maybe the two best soundtrack aggregators ever, and
if Marty somehow didn’t make this list you’d better believe Quentin did.
Best Animated Feature
The Contenders:
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Toy Story 4
I was veeeeeery close to just not including this category this
year. Not only did I only see three qualifying movies I thought were any good,
but even those were pretty marginal, and the two American ones both represent
the worst entry in their respective series. The winner is How to Train
Your Dragon: The Hidden World by a hair, but I’m not excited about it.
Most Enjoyable Movie
Simple category that seeks to answer a simple question: What’s the
most fun I had watching a movie from 2019?
The Contenders:
Avengers: Endgame
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Knives Out
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Our winner this year featured Keanu Reeves killing Boban
Marjanovic with a library book and had a long fight scene set in a knife
museum. Like, I don’t know what else you would even want from a movie. A toast
to the majesty that is John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
(interestingly, no comedies this year. Long Shot was
pretty good and not that far off this list, but it’s the only one even
close. Was this yet another sign of the death of the American big-screen
comedy, or just me not seeing/appreciating what was out there? Who knows).
Line of the Year
This one’s making another appearance this year, hey two in a row!
The Contenders:
“Down to Gehenna or up to the throne, who travels fastest who
travels alone”—1917
“I am Ironman”—Avengers: Endgame
“It is what it is”—The Irishman
“We live in a society”—Joker (just kidding)
“A donut hole in the donut’s hole”—Knives Out
“That was the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life”—Once
Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Man I’m very tempted to give this to Endgame, which capped
off eleven years of movies with that single line. But there’s no really getting
around the fact that the line of the year is Russell Buffalino’s sad,
fatalistic line that condemns Jimmy Hoffa to death. Our winner is The
Irishman.
Best Screenplay
A reminder that I’ve combined best adapted and best original
screenplay because the distinction annoys me and seems unnecessary.
The Contenders:
The Irishman
Knives Out
Little Women
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Parasite
Five very different movies but five very, very strong screenplays.
This category was fairly easy to get down to five but very difficult to choose
from within the contenders. Ultimately though I’m going with Greta Gerwig’s
compellingly meta adaptation of Little Women, which adds exactly
the right amount of new material to keep the story fresh.
Best Performance by an Animal, Idea, or Inanimate Object
The goofiest category of this awards show (replacing Best Original
Song, the goofiest award at the actual Oscars). This is a recognition of
non-humans that leave a particularly strong impression in a movie.
The Contenders:
The Rings of Neptune—Ad Astra
Futility—The Irishman
The Coffee Cup—Knives Out
Brandy the Pitpull—Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood
The Stone of Good Luck—Parasite
Again, a demerit for movie quality holds back the opal from Uncut
Gems here, but it’s still a good group. There’s also an informal “one per
movie” policy for this category or Parasite could have had a couple
other contenders, like the idea of class or the house itself. Still, I don’t
think the winner could be anything else this year except the two-scene wonder, The
Coffee Cup from Knives Out, a second movie for which I easily could
have had the house as a contender. Good use of houses in film this year
Best Vocal Performance
The Contenders:
Kristen Bell—Frozen 2
Jay Baruschel—How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Victoire du Bois—I Lost My Body
Tom Hanks—Toy Story 4
Christina Hendricks—Toy Story 4
I usually love doing this category but man, as a corollary of the
weak year in animated movies generally I’m not at all excited about any of
these. I guess I’ll go with Christina Hendricks from Toy Story 4
but it’s a pretty unenthusiastic selection
Scene Stealer of the Year
The Contenders:
Billie Lourd—Booksmart
Martha Kelly—Marriage Story
Julia Butters—Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Margaret Qualley—Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Park Myung-hoon—Parasite
Now that’s more like it! This group had some tough cuts too, like
Andrew Scott/Hot Priest from 1917, Chris Cooper from Little Women,
and Maja from Midsommar. A couple of these strain the definition of the
category (there is not and never will be an exact distinction between a
supporting performance and a scene stealer), possibly including our winner, the
amazing gonzo performance from Billie Lourd in Booksmart
(very mildly spoilery note because I will absolutely forget who
the two non-famous people here were if I just rely on their names: Park was
Basement Man in Parasite and Kelly was Home Visit Lady in Marriage
Story)
Best Ensemble
The Contenders:
Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
Knives Out
Little Women
Parasite
This is essentially the award for the deepest cast and overall
acting, and man was I tempted to go with Endgame—very possibly the
greatest (or, at least, most expensive) collection of English-language acting
talent to ever appear in a single movie—here. But instead I’m going to go with
a slightly different movie, the stupendously well-acted Little Women.
Best Supporting Actor
Before we get into the main acting categories, my usual note that
I completely disregard the official lead/supporting designation and opt to
decide myself, using the following criteria: was the movie, at least in large
part, the particular character’s story? If the answer is “yes,” they’re
probably a lead, regardless of screentime.
The Contenders:
Robert Downey Jr.—Avengers: Endgame
Al Pacino—The Irishman
Joe Pesci—The Irishman
Song Kang-ho—Parasite
Jack Lowden—Fighting With My Family
In real life you rarely see two nominees from the same movie, and
even more rarely see one of the two win because of vote splitting. Fortunately
for The Irishman, however, there’s exactly one person who decides
these and his single vote is difficult to split. And as great as Pacino was,
I’m going with Joe Pesci. Pesci gives a great performance regardless of
circumstances, but it also really feels the weight of his career in a way that
works fabulously for both the performance and the movie generally.
Best Supporting Actress
The Contenders:
Ruth Negga—Ad Astra
Florence Pugh—Little Women
Laura Dern—Marriage Story
Margot Robbie—Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Park So-dam—Parasite
This is a weak category this year (lead, as we’ll see in a moment,
was much stronger) and honestly I’m only really happy about two of them.
There were another six or seven sort of halfheartedly contending for the other
three spots, and I might have a different mix if I wrote this yesterday or
tomorrow [editor’s note: I finished writing this tomorrow and did indeed switch
it up].
That aside, there were two really, really dynamite supporting
actress performances this year, from Margot Robie (who I think I really
underestimated for her first few roles) and our winner, the inimitable Florence
Pugh from Little Women. This isn’t the last time you’ll see
her name in this piece and, I expect, future installments as well.
Best Actor
The Contenders:
George McKay—1917
Brad Pitt—Ad Astra
Joaqin Phoenix—Joker
Adam Driver—Marriage Story
Leonardo DiCaprio—Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
In case you’re wondering, yes this is the category for which I
considered Pitt in Once Upon a Time. He was a lead, not supporting,
actor in that movie, official Academy categorization be damned. And he was very
good in that movie, and in a weaker year would absolutely have made it, but I
thought he was better, if only just, in Ad Astra. De Niro was another
tough cut for The Irishman.
Other than that I’m pretty happy with this five, and hey I even
found a non-sarcastic way to get Joker represented in this piece.
Phoenix was legitimately amazing in that movie, and I even considered going
with him as the winner. Ultimately, though, I’m going with Pitt’s running mate,
an actor I once (privately) thought was pretty overrated but have really come
around on. Leonardo DiCaprio is just so goddamn good in Once Upon
a Time...In Hollywood.
Best Actress
The Contenders:
Kaitlyn Dever—Booksmart
Saoirse Ronan—Little Women
Charlize Theron—Long Shot
Florence Pugh—Midsommar
Lupita Nyong’o—Us
This was a brutally competitive category to pick this year,
and that’s even without me seeing three of the movies from which the actual
Oscar nominees came from (although in my defense, I think you could count the
people who saw Judy on one hand). Among other tough cuts, I’m so sad I
couldn’t quite find a place for Ana de Armas, especially given how much de
Armas stock I bought after Blade Runner 2049 (a movie that let’s just
say is gonna show up in my best of the decade piece). Also notable that two of
these are for leads in horror movies that I somehow managed to get myself to
watch.
Speaking of horror movie leads, we also have a double nominee, Ms.
Florence Rose Pugh, who absolutely burst onto the scene in 2019 in a way I
can’t remember an actor doing since Jessica Chastain’s incredible 2011. Hell, I
wasn’t that far from putting her as a triple contender with her leading
role in Fighting With My Family. And, actually, for the first time not
only do we have a double nominee, but we have our first double winner. That’s
right, not only did she give the best supporting performance of the year in Little
Women, but Florence Pugh gave the best lead performance as well, in Midsommar.
The revol-Pugh-tion has begun.
Best Director
The Contenders:
Sam Mendes—1917
Martin Scorcese—The Irishman
Greta Gerwig—Little Women
Quentin Tarantino—Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Bong Joon-ho—Parasite
As has maybe become clear over the course of this piece, for me
2019 was a year that, by coincidence, had five films—the same number that is,
by custom, used in most awards nominees—that were really in a tier above the
rest. There were other good and very good movies in 2019, which was a strong
movie year generally, but to me there were five that stood out; you could rank
these five in any order and I wouldn’t really disagree even if I do have a
fairly clear favorite (see below), but I think there’s a fairly significant gap
between the five and next tier.
This dynamic makes the Best Director and Picture contenders about
as easy to pick as they possibly could be, and as I saw them over the course of
the second half of 2019 (the first I saw chronologically was Once Upon a
Time, the last 1917) they all became pretty firmly entrenched. So,
spoilers, this group of Best Director contender films is going to be exactly
the same as the Best Picture contenders below. But I am going to have a
different winner; again, there really isn’t a huge separation between any of
these movies, and all were superlatively directed. But I think that, by a hair,
the best director of 2019 was Bong Joon-ho of Parasite.
His ability to juggle tones in that movie is incredibly impressive, and it’s
just a masterfully directed movie.
Best Picture
The Contenders:
1917
The Irishman
Little Women
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Parasite
As hinted above, though Parasite was, for me, the
best-directed movie of 2019, I don’t think it was the best overall even if it
(and the others in that top tier of 5) aren’t really that far behind. Instead,
I’m going to go with the most recent opus from the oldest of the old masters,
Marty “Superhero Movies Aren’t Cinema” Scorcese’s The Irishman.
To explain why, here’s what I wrote on Letterboxd when I saw it:
“Scorsese parlays one of the greatest casting flexes in movie
history into a deeply sad, contemplative, but also incredibly entertaining
capstone to and eulogy for the entire genre of gangster movies. The final hour
in particular hits like a ton of bricks, but the whole thing is, if not a
masterpiece, very close to it, and it's almost shockingly propulsive for a 3.5
hour movie.”
Well said, me
Before we wrap up, a few words on the year in movies overall. 2019
was a very good year, especially at the top, and I didn’t even get to as much
as I wanted to. It had strong blockbusters (especially Endgame and John
Wick 3) and prestige movies, and had some unusual middle-budget successes,
especially Once Upon a Time and Knives Out. It had a cerebral
outer space movie (Ad Astra), which always makes a film year seem more
complete to me, and some outstanding foreign films (Parasite and The
Farewell at least, and probably others I didn’t get to). A couple more
quality comedies would’ve been nice, though Booksmart and The Long
Shot were both good, but the only real notable weakness for 2019 was it’s
pretty abysmal slate of animated movies; How to Train Your Dragon 3 was
good but the worst in the series, Toy Story 4 did some interesting
things but in a tired franchise, Frozen 2 made no sense, Missing Link
was a disappointment from Laika, and nothing from overseas made much of an
impression.
And that’ll do it. See you in 2021!
The Final Tally:
1917: Eleven contenders and two Pauls (Best
Cinematography, Best Film Editing)
Ad Astra: Seven contenders and zero Pauls
Avengers: Endgame: Eight contenders and
two Pauls (Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing)
Booksmart: Three contenders and one Paul (Scene Stealer
of the Year for Billie Lourd)
Fighting With My Family: One contender and zero
Pauls
Ford v Ferrari: One contenders and zero Pauls
Frozen 2: One contender and zero Pauls
Godzilla: King of the Monsters: One contenders
and zero Pauls
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World:
Five contenders and zero Pauls
The Irishman: Eleven contenders and three Pauls (Best Line,
Best Supporting Actor for Joe Pesci, Best Picture)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum:
Three contenders and one win (Most Enjoyable Movie)
Jojo Rabbit: One contender and zero Pauls
Joker: One contender and zero Pauls
Knives Out: Seven Contenders and two Pauls (Best Costume
Design, Best Performance by an Animal, Idea, or Inanimate Object for The Coffee
Cup)
Little Women: Nine contenders and three Pauls (Best
Screenplay, Best Ensemble, Best Supporting Actress for Florence Pugh)
Long Shot: One contenders and zero Pauls
Marriage Story: Four contenders and one Paul (Best Scene for
The Home Visit)
Midsommar: Six contenders and one Paul (Best Actress for
Florence Pugh)
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood: Seventeen
contenders and four Pauls (Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Use of Music,
Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio)
Parasite: Twelve contenders and one Paul (Best Director
for Bong Joon-ho)
Spider-Man: Far from Home: One contender and zero
Pauls
Toy Story 4: Three contenders and one Paul (Best Vocal
Performance for Christina Hendricks)
Us: Two contenders and zero Pauls
That’s twenty-three movies with contenders and twelve with at
least one win of the forty-seven I’ve seen as of this writing, which is down
four and identical respectively compared to last year. For a complete list of
what I’ve seen from 2019, in totally fluid and arbitrary order of overall
preference, click here: https://letterboxd.com/teddroe/list/2019/ . Note that the list is updated as I see more movies, if
there’s more than forty-seven there, I’ve seen stuff since writing this.
Now, just for fun:
Most Overnominated: Probably Marriage Story, which got four
Contenders despite me only kinda liking it except for one absoutely fantastic
scene. Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood is up there too; it was my (as of
this writing) second-favorite movie of the year, but still probably doesn’t
“deserve” to set the all-time Contender record with seventeen. It was just
really really good at a lot of different film-y things.
Most Undernominated: The Farewell, a top 15 movie for me
that just didn’t quite make it into the top 5 of any category
The Inside Llewyn Davis Award for Most Contenders Without a
Win: Ad Astra with seven. Feels about right.
Best Movie You’d Never Know I’d Seen By Reading This: Again, The
Farewell. It’s really good.
Movie I Promise I saw But Just Couldn’t Find Anywhere On Here For:
The Farewell again. Hey that’s three whole mentions! Also Rocketman,
which I liked well enough.
The Cats Award for Cats: Cats
Worst Movie Represented: Close call between Godzilla: King of
the Monsters, which was stupid, or Frozen 2, which made no sense. I
had higher expectations for the latter, so I’ll go with it.
The The Last Jedi Award for The Insanely Polarizing Movie
That I Thought Was Basically Fine: Joker. It was...fine.
Worst Piece of Crap I Saw From 2019: Serenity. The tunafish
named Justice one, not the Firefly one.
Movie I Should Be Most Ashamed Of Not Seeing Before Writing This:
Probably either The Lighthouse or A Hidden Life. There’s some
others too, I didn’t do a great job this year
The “I’m Not Sure Why I Didn’t Like It More” Award: I mean,
I kinda know (there were some weird out of place scenes) but more like I wish
I liked it more: Ad Astra. Maybe The King too.
The “They’re Wrong” Award: I know it was acclaimed in certain
circles, but there was also a lot of extremely unearned dismissal of what 1917
accomplished.
The “I’m Wrong” Award: Did I see a different version of Hustlers
and/or Uncut Gems than everyone else seems to have seen? I didn’t think
either was even particularly close to being good.
The Irritating Backlash Award: Joker had one of the
strangest backlashes I’ve ever seen (it’s...fine), but I’m going with the dual
“lack of dialogue” backlashes to Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood and The
Irishman. If that’s someone’s takeaway from either movie, I’m sorry but
they just didn’t understand what they watched.
The The Artist Award for Main Promotional Image That Comes
From Latest In the Film: Midsommar. Huh I wonder why Dani is wearing a
crown and sobbing???
Hardest Cut: I didn’t dwell on it in the piece but De Niro from The
Irishman. It was the best movie of the year, and he was great in it.
The “Are Cats Dogs?” Award for Most Profound Question: Asked and
answered in the negative by Cats.
That’ll do it folks, you next year!
(I hope)
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