Movies I watched in 2019
Here are the movies I watched at the cinema/on the big screen in 2019. All films in English except for those indicated.
- Holmes & Watson
- The Favourite
- Sorry to Bother You
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- My Queer Career (Mardi Gras Film Festival short film collection)
- When the Beat Drops
- Lez Bomb (Mardi Gras Film Festival short film collection)
- Captain Marvel
- What Men Want
- Girl (French/Flemish)
- Your Name (Japanese)
- Les Garçons Sauvage (French)
- Dilili in Paris (French)
- Genèse (French)
- Chedeng and Apple (Tagalog/Filipino)
- Fighting with my Family
- Shazam!
- Burning (Korean)
- Avengers: Endgame
- Hidden Pulse
- Rocketman
- Men in Black: International
- Dark Place (Sydney Film Festival Indigenous Australian short film collection)
- Detective Pikachu
- John Wick Parabellum
- Yesterday
- Parasite (Korean)
- Princess Mononoke (Japanese)
- Spider-man: Far From Home
- Booksmart
- The Farewell (Mandarin)
- The Cordillera of Dreams (Spanish)
- Push
- The Grand Bizarre
- Hi, AI
- The Bamboo Bridge (Khmer)
- Hustlers
- Last Christmas
- Charlie’s Angels
- Knives Out
- Terminator: Dark Fate
- Gorillaz: Reject False Icons
- Jojo Rabbit
- Frozen 2
- Marianne and Leonard
I didn’t get to as many film festivals as I usually do – notably I missed the Japanese Film Festival, which would’ve boosted the number up to a film a week.
Generally speaking, there were a lot of meh Hollywood mainstream films this year. Nothing was as terrible as the loudest smegheads made out (e.g. Captain Marvel was a solid three stars) but I didn’t find anything particularly scintillating. Knives Out and Jojo Rabbit came in late to save the year on that front, but I think I’ll tip my proverbial hat to the two films that surprised me in a good way: Sorry to Bother You and Detective Pikachu.
About a quarter of the films I saw were in languages other than English (go see Parasite!) and a tad fewer were documentaries (Push is fantastic).
The small screen
I continue to not own a TV, so all the other screen content I consume is from streaming and some DVDs.
Series:
- Red Dwarf (Seasons 1-13)
- Steven Universe (Seasons 1-5 + the movie)
- Avatar: The Legend of Aang (Books 1-3)
- Avatar: The Legend of Korra (Books 1-4)
- Jane the Virgin (Season 4)
- The Good Place (Seasons 3-4)
- Archer (Seasons 4-9)
- Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!
- Queer Eye (Season 4)
- Derry Girls (Season 1)
- Cowboy Bebop (Volume 1)
I started Catch-22, which is one of my favourite books, but it didn’t grab me. I might re-read the novel and see if I can rustle up some time to finish it.
The smaller screen
The other place I consume a a large volume of audio-visual content is on aeroplanes. Took a return flight to Japan (ANA) and a trip to Ireland (Qatar Airways). I like flying on non-western airlines because it then exposes me to movies I don’t have access to in Australia.
En route to Japan I watched Hibiki, a film about a girl who wins a novel-writing contest but is socially problematic, plus Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura, a favourite I wanted to see again because I missed the first 10 minutes when it screened as part of the 2018 Japanese Film Festival. I can’t remember what else.
For my journey to Ireland (a 48-hour round trip), I flew Qatar Airways. It had every Marvel movie up to Captain Marvel plus a selection of classic Hollywood. I did a marathon of classics (The Philadelphia Story, National Velvet, Singin’ in the Rain) and then I watched every Spider-Man film on offer outside of Tom Holland: three Tobey Maguires, two Andrew Garfields and Into the Spider-verse. Also caught up on the new Hellboy and On the Basis of Sex.
What’s the one series or film from 2019 you’d recommend?