10. Dragged Across Concrete, S. Craig Zahler
9. Wine Country, Amy Poehler
8. Uncut Gems, Benny & Josh Safdie
7. High Flying Bird, Steven Soderbergh
6. Her Smell, Alex Ross Perry
5. High Life, Claire Denis
4. Queen & Slim, Melina Matsoukas
3. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese
2. The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers
1. Dolor y gloria [Pain & Glory], Pedro Almodóvar
Where Almodóvar's camera is far more concerned with secondarily allowing a narrative play out in colorfully set medium shots and lingering close-ups, it is the director's driving passion for his craft that seeps through every last moment of "Pain & Glory" and makes for such a deeply affecting experience. Almodóvar's is a story of life's chances coming full circle - a deeply relatable reflection on the simultaneous love and agony that both feed and suffocate our endeavors, all projected in the eyes of a tender Antonio Banderas. It includes hardly any depiction of the actual production process, yet this is one of the greatest films about filmmaking.
When a film needs a theatrical disclaimer assuring there has been no mistake, that "it's actually supposed to look this way," you know it's going to be worthwhile. Eggers came to us with one of the very best horror films of the new millennium in "The Witch", and has now gone further to deliver an exponentially singular vision. Like heavy metal Carl Dreyer, like Béla Tarr's horse fucked Luis Buñuel's dog, "The Lighthouse" is a thorough nightmare of torment and insanity. Willem Dafoe is a titan, and the starkly elegant framing beholds him as such, while Robert Pattinson descends into a madness that further solidifies the must-see status he's earned.
An inspiriting feature debut for music video director Matsoukas, "Queen & Slim" brings the cinematic soul of the rebellious late '60s and the invigorating early '70s to a deceptively complex folk tale based upon today's still-open civil rights wounds.
The marriage of grounded personal quandary with symbolic exploration of the vast unknown is always ripe. Denis' first English language outing "High Life" brings a more specific scientific understanding of the cosmos' mysteries than is oft seen, resulting in bold imagery and affecting moments that remain long after the credits have rolled.
Like a punk rock Cassavetes with Elisabeth Moss as Gena Rowlands with a guitar, the raw "Her Smell" is a new artistic and emotional zenith for the versatile Perry.
"High Flying Bird" is yet another Soderbergh masterclass in awe-striking precision, and perhaps one of the mathematical genius' greatest navigations of script through lens to date.
As Ted Nugent plays his own feedback, the Safdies utilize traditionally excised background noise to create a sense of natural chaos that outweighs their apparent interest in elaborate insignificance. "Uncut Gems" steadily orchestrates a pressure that increases to a point well past what even its most hopeful fans could have anticipated. If Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo had raised a son instead of, y’know, [the plot of “Midnight Cowboy”], that son would have been Adam Sandler’s Howard Ratman.
Though not perfectly even all the way through, Poehler's directorial debut "Wine Country" warmly reunites beloved "Saturday Night Live" cast members for that light comedy that seems to come every few years - the one that rises above its decided role as a technical softball through its humorously resonant truths. With laughs via reality-based observation and tongue-in-cheek reaction in nearly every character moment, like 2015's similarly cast "Sisters" this will be inviting to return to just for the fun of it.
The forebodingly titled "Dragged Across Concrete" is provocateur Zahler's most stripped-down yet most cruelly indulgent work yet - the marvelously manipulative amusements of a creator tooling with their audience before repeatedly punching them in the nose.
Complete 2019 rankings on Letterboxd (subject to change).
