Best Movies of 2019 so far

[Chris Knipp]

Best Movies of 2019 so far

This list from the NYTimes today inspires me to begin a thread on the year's best. They give eight. I know as one who makes best lists of my own, I ought to have seen these. But three, Her Smell, Gloria Bell and The Edge of Democracy, I have not seen. I was frankly a bit put off by Alex Ross Perry's title. Didn't see the point of seeing a remake of such a great film as Gloria, even with Julianne Moore. The documentary The Edge of Democracy I haven't heard of before. I hate Booksmart. It so disappointed me as a reminder of how crude and lacking in wit today's youth comedies are.Rolling Thunder Review - yes, I enjoyed that; hardly something new, though! The Last Black Man in San Francisco didn't grab me as much as it did many, though I can see it has a fresh local flavor, which as a former San Francisco resident I am well placed to appreciate - and see the limitations of. The Souvenir is where I and Manohla and Tony come together. It seemed an amazing find, because Joanna Hogg was new to me. It bowled me over. It's my favorite movie of the year so far. As for Transit, I like Christian Petzold's films very much, though I have some reservations about [I this one. I don't think it's his best. I also saw it last year so tend not to think of it as "2019. The rest, below, is lifted directly from today's Times.

The Best Films of 2019 (So Far) from the New York Times (June 28, 2019).
Want to catch up on your moviegoing? Here’s what our chief critics say is worth checking out.

THE SOUVENIR (Joanna Hogg)
THE STORY Based on an episode in the life of its writer-director, Joanna Hogg, this drama follows a British film student (Honor Swinton Byrne) and her relationship with a boyfriend (Tom Burke) who may or may not work for the Foreign Office but is certainly a heroin addict.
A.O. SCOTT’S TAKE This is “one of my favorite movies of the year so far, but I almost want to keep it a secret. Partly because it’s the kind of film — we all have a collection of these, and of similar books and records, too — that feels like a private discovery, an experience you want to protect rather than talk about.”

THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (Joe Talbot)
THE STORY In this quiet tale that touches on issues of race, class and gentrification in the Bay Area, Jimmie Fails (played by the actor of the same name) is determined to take possession of the Victorian house that was once his family home.
MANOHLA DARGIS’S TAKE In this film from the director Joe Talbot, “the desire for home is at once existential and literal, a matter of self and safety, being and belonging. This is of course part of the story of being black in the United States, which perhaps makes the movie sound like a dirge when it’s more of a reverie. Or, rather, it’s both at once and sometimes one and then the other.”

HER SMELL ( Alex Ross Perry).
THE STORY Elisabeth Moss is Becky Something, a rock ’n’ roll singer who bears more than a passing resemblance to Courtney Love in this tale of art and dysfunction from the writer-director Alex Ross Perry.
A.O. SCOTT’S TAKE “Moss is deep in Becky’s skin, and Perry is steadfastly on her side. Not that he condones or forgives. She is gleefully cruel and monstrously inconsiderate to everyone around her, daring them to fight back or flee.”

GLORIA BELL (Director Sebastián Lelio's English language remak starring Julienne Moore e of his own Chilean Spanish original, GLORIA.
THE STORY This character study follows Gloria Bell (Julianne Moore), middle-aged and divorced with grown children, as she seeks to connect and find fulfillment in Los Angeles. It’s a remake of the Chilean film “Gloria,” by the writer-director of that movie, Sebastián Lelio.
MANOHLA DARGIS’S TAKE Working with “a transcendent Julianne Moore,” the director “is acutely sensitive to the absurdities of everyday life, including the comedy of humiliation, both petty and wounding.”

BOOKSMART (Olivia Wilde)
THE STORY Headed to the Ivy League in the fall, Molly and Amy are dismayed to learn that their far less studious peers are going to top colleges as well. On their last day in high school, the best friends (Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever) decide they need to gain a reputation for partying before they graduate.
A.O. SCOTT’S TAKE “Infusing some familiar situations with an exuberant, generous, matter-of-factly feminist sensibility,” this comedy directed by Olivia Wilde is “sharp but not mean, warm without feeling too soft or timid.”

ROLLING THUNDER REVUE (Martin Scorsese)
THE STORY Subtitled “A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” this documentary chronicles the free-form concert tour that Dylan and assorted colleagues began in 1975 and blends scenes shot at the time with new, fictionalized episodes.
MANOHLA DARGIS’S TAKE “It’s at once a celebration and a rescue mission (it draws heavily on restored film footage), as well as another chapter in Scorsese’s decades-long chronicling of Dylan.”

THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY (Petra Costa).
THE STORY This documentary examines Brazilian politics — two recent presidents in disgrace, the current one leaning toward authoritarianism — from the outraged point of view of the filmmaker, Petra Costa.
A.O. SCOTT’S TAKE Costa’s take “is by turns incredulous, indignant and self-questioning.” Her film is “a chronicle of civic betrayal and the abuse of power, and also of heartbreak.”

TRANSIT (Christian Petzold)) (In German).
THE STORY Set in an indeterminate time when soldiers are invading Paris, a German émigré (Franz Rogowski) there flees to Marseille, where he meets other refugees as he awaits the papers that will let him leave the country.
MANOHLA DARGIS’S TAKE The director Christian Petzold “doesn’t over-explain the trickier plot entanglements, confident in his audience’s ability to sort through its thickets. He embraces ambiguity as a principle but also sometimes gives the movie the accelerated pulse of an action flick.”