DrogeMiester's Top 10 BEST Movies of 2019

We have come to the end of another year, which means it's time to reveal my favorite list I do each year. My personal favorite movies of the year. No room for objectivity here. There's no system or formula for how I rank these. This is just my completely biased, subjective favorites. And as I've said when I've come to the end of the last several years, this list was hard to make because there were so many good movies that came out. Although what made this year a bit unique is that it was the last three months where we got bombarded with a whole ton of quality movies. Prior to October, I had only given out one perfect score and things were seeming like they were pretty quiet. There were still plenty of good movies from the first nine months, but the flood gates opened in the final three months and it almost became too much for me to handle. Because of this, there were a lot of unfortunate movies that got left on the chopping block. You'll be quite shocked at some choices that I was raving about that didn't make it. There were around 50 movies I considered for this list and well over 25 that deserved a spot in the top 10. My list of honorable mentions would make a solid top 10 on its own right. But there could only be 10 and after much deliberation, here are those final 10.

10- Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

The Academy loves movies about movies, which is why "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" walked away with 10 Oscar nominations and is one of the two or three movies with a legit shot at actually winning best picture on February 9. And I will admit that the retro 60s Hollywood vibe was rather entertaining, led by great performances from Leo and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom is about to win an Oscar for essentially being himself in a movie, which I'm cool with. But despite all this, it's not the retro 60's Hollywood stuff that caused me to fall in love with this. It's a bit of a hard thing to describe without it sounding a bit strange, but I have a fascination with studying serial killers and "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" is all about the Manson Family. The more you know about them and what they did in the late 60s, the better this experience will be. I've talked to a lot of people who were confused about why Brad Pitt was hanging out with hippies or who Sharon Tate even was and thus a large portion of this movie was lost on them. Meanwhile, I was sitting back in my chair, loving every minute of it. I was more than a bit nervous about how Tarantino was going to handle all of this, but the final 30 minutes of this movie was absolutely phenomenal and even therapeutic.

9- Rocketman

After getting burned hard by "Bohemian Rhapsody" in late 2018, I was not ready for "Rocketman." Even when the movie started getting a lot of hype, I wasn't sold because "Bohemian Rhapsody" just got nominated for best picture and that movie was a smelly pile of overrated junk. Yet it didn't take me long at all to be completely won over by "Rocketman." It had nothing to do with any sort of attachment I had to Elton John, which is honestly not very much. I know and love Queen a whole lot more. I think what it comes down to here is narrative structure. This wasn't some sort of generic highlight reel of Elton John's life. This was a fascinating film with a lot of depth and emotion. It's a movie where you can know nothing about Elton John and walk out being very moved as the movie chooses to focus on specific themes from Elton John's life rather than choosing to do a two hour synopsis of everything that happened to happen. It's also one of the most entertaining and unique films I've seen. Yes, it is a musical biopic, but it's also equally a musical fantasy as well as a straight-up musical at times. In a strange way, it reminded me more of "Mama Mia!" than "Bohemian Rhapsody" as it built a musical around the songs. Elton John just happened to be the subject matter.

8- Shazam!

After a rough start to the DCEU where DC spent their entire focus trying to copy Marvel rather than do their own thing, DC is now on fire. The key moment here is when DC stopped trying to set up a cinematic universe and started simply making movies. Yes, their timeline is now all sorts of screwed up, but I don't even care because the individual movies are stellar. I hope they continue to simply hire directors who have a vision to make individual movies and are given the creative freedom to do so. Because then we get wildly entertaining movies like "Shazam!," a character whose history is too long and complicated for me to go over right now, but is nevertheless one of the earliest superheros created. And this film adaptation is absolutely hilarious, led by an excellent performance from Zachary Levi, who perfectly encapsulates what it would feel like if a young teenager was given superhero powers and could transform into the body of an adult male in the process. With that comes a lot of honesty with Billy Batson acting in a very immature way as he's forced to learn the hard way what life is like and what his priorities should be like. The movie cuts deep when it delves into themes of family, making it emotional powerful while also being off-the-wall hilarious.

7- Avengers: Endgame

You all know that "Avengers: Endgame" was going to be on this list. The big surprise here is how high it isn't. "Avengers: Infinity War" was easily my favorite movie of 2018 and this finale was the perfect cap to a 10-year, 22-movie story arc with this Infinity Saga. "Avengers: Endgame" is the ultimate fan experience as it rewards people like me, and thousands of others, who have been on the bandwagon from day one. Because of this, the movie has some of the best moments in cinema history, or at least in comic book movie history, with the likes of the "Avengers Assemble!" moment, Iron Man's heroics and Steve Rogers' dance. It also gave us some emotional farewells to characters we have come to absolutely love. But in ranking this movie among the movies of 2019, I had a hard time placing it because I'm not ranking and rewarding the entire Infinity Saga. I didn't want to do a lifetime achievement award. I'm just ranking the final movie in said saga. And if I'm being bluntly honest, it's not as polished as an individual movie as the likes of "Avengers: Infinity War" or even "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" or the original "Avengers." It's a very long movie that can drag at times and has no idea how to properly do time travel. But it still belongs on this list.

6- Jojo Rabbit

On the surface it might seem like a movie that makes light of Hitler and Nazi Germany is inappropriate and uncalled for. Which is why I was a bit skeptical going in because I didn't even know what this movie was. Now I'm no German or Jew, but in my American perspective, I think Taika Waititi has created one of the most genius pieces of film that approaches the subject of Nazi Germany. Obviously Hitler was one of the worst men to walk this Earth, but would a brainwashed 10-year-old boy know that? The reason why this movie is so genius is that it looks at Nazi Germany from the perspective of this young boy who has been raised up thinking that Nazis are the good guys and Hitler is the ultimate hero. And instead of taking a dark and dreary tone like most Nazi Germany movies,  the tone in this movie parallels that of what the boy is going through. It's not afraid to be lighthearted and comedic when the boy thinks Hitler is his hero. But Taika Waititi has proven time and again that he knows how to properly shift tones drastically. When our young protagonist takes an honest does or reality, the movie takes a dagger and jabs it into the hearts of everyone watching this movie as it suddenly becomes one of the most heart-wrenching films of the year.

5- Little Women 

If you had told me at the beginning of 2019 that I would end up putting "Little Women" ahead of "Avengers: Endgame" on this year-end list, I would tell you... duh. This is Gretta freaking Gerwig and she's brought my girl Saoirse Ronan along with her yet again. The combination of the two elevated the 2017 film "Lady Bird" above every movie that year in my eyes. So of course I was excited for this follow-up. And I knew absolutely nothing about "Little Women" as I had not read the book or seen any of the 10,000 adaptations. And as of this moment, this is still the only "Little Women" exposure I've had, but it was a phenomenal ride. I saw this in a sold-out screen wherein 99 percent of the people were female and they were all sobbing the entire time. And so was I along with them. Based on this movie and this movie alone, "Little Women" is not a girly chick flick about four sisters searching for their husbands. It's a movie about life wherein Greta juxtaposes the fantasies of childhood with the reality of adulthood in a beautifully edited and directed film that takes the two timelines and scrambles them together in a way that squeezes out every drop of emotion. With "Lady Bird" and "Little Women," Greta has proven herself to be a powerful force to be reckoned with.

4- Marriage Story

Scarlett Johansson had quite the year in 2019. Without giving too much away, between this, "Avengers: Endgame" and "Jojo Rabbit," let's just say I'm ready for Scar-Jo to be in a movie where she's given a happily ever after. And that's absolutely not the case here in "Marriage Story" as this is one of the most traumatizing films of the year. Starring right alongside Scar-Jo is Adam Driver himself and the two of them are the absolute perfect couple who know and love each other so well. And I wanted nothing more than for them to talk things out and become a happy family. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I like marriages to work out. I want people to be happy, especially when their oozing in positive chemistry. But that's just not the reality of life sometimes and "Marriage Story" is one of those films that decides to tread down the honest and brutal part of life as Adam Driver and Scar-Jo are going through a bitter divorce. Now I haven't gone through a divorce before. I haven't even done the marriage thing yet. But I imagine that this might be a bit too real for those who have gone through a divorce. Even without that experience, I finished this movie feeling absolutely shaken. I was a complete emotional wreck. For accomplishing that, of course I give this major props.

3- 1917

Here's a movie that exploded onto the scene last second. Due to it getting a limited release in December, I didn't even see this until the year was already 2020 and it was an absolute surreal experience. There's been nearly a countless number of war films, but "1917" immediately puts itself into the top echelon of this genre as it delivers a surreal experience like none other. There's been a few movies that have used the camera trick of stitching scenes together to give the illusion that it was filmed in one shot, but "1917" might be the most effective use of this as doing so immediately inserts the audience into the film. You're not just watching these two young men sneak their way through enemy territory during World War I to deliver an important message, you're walking along with them in a movie that feels like it's done in virtual reality. And that adds a whole new level to the horrors of war, especially when it comes to how brutal that first world war was. But "1917" is not only a movie with wizardry camera work, magical editing and stunning cinematography, it's also a movie that gives you a deep emotional connection to our two leads, which I think is a key element to a successful war film. All in all, this is a movie that deserves to be seen. Preferably on the biggest screen possible.

2- Parasite

When Bong Joon Ho, director of "Parasite," won the award for best foreign language film at the Golden Globes, he gave a speech that I think is one of the most memorable speeches I've heard at an awards show. And his message is very simple. If you can overcome the one-inch barrier of subtitles, then you'll be introduced to a whole new world of opportunity when it comes to cinema. As crazy as it may seem, the United States isn't the only country making movies. If you're sick of that status quo here, then you need to go outside your comfort zone and watch some of these foreign films. If you absolutely refuse to read subtitles, one of the experiences you'll be missing out on is "Parasite," which is an absolute stunning work of art with so much to say and so many different elements to it. The movie starts out as a heist film or a con film with a poor family taking advantage of a rich family in a very amusing and entertaining way. But halfway through, the tables turn in an extreme manner that I don't even want to get into. I was on the edge of my seat for nearly the entire second half of the movie as it became a super intense thriller, excellently acted and perfectly paced. I don't know if this is about to make history at the Oscars for a foreign film, but if it does, it's well deserved.

1- Joker

As I said before, DC is on fire. And as one who's always been more of a DC fan when it comes to the comic book world (although I don't know why we can't enjoy both), this has made me extremely happy. The concept behind this film was an extremely risky one. The Joker is arguably the most iconic villain in the history of comics. Part of the reason why he works so well is that is past is shrouded in mystery and he's just an agent of chaos in Batman's world. Yet we're going to take this and give the Joker an origin story? Yep. That's what they did. In this case, high risk becomes high reward as Todd Phillips created a beautiful and haunting picture of a man who was completely rejected by society, despite trying his hardest to fit in and make things work. Yet time and time again, he gets completely betrayed and thrown to the curb that he just snaps. And as he snaps, he gains a level of confidence and poise that he hadn't previously attained, turning him into the monster that is the Joker while inspiring a whole new level of crime and violence in Gotham. But in this case, is it really his fault? As one who loves psychological movies and DC comics, this was the perfect blend for me. In an extremely competitive field in 2019, "Joker" rather easily took the crown.