MY 5 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2019!

I'm late! Let's jump into it.

5. PARASITE
I opened up Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer on Netflix my freshman year expecting for a decent action/thriller headed by Chris Evans. What I got was a spectacular action thriller that stated no matter where you are in life there will be a class system separating the poor and rich. Building off that theme we are treated to the foreign darling of the year, the Palme d'Or winner and possibly even Best Picture winner by next month, Parasite. Difficult to review without revealing too much, just know through a single connection Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) begins to weasel his entire family into the wealthy Park brood's mansion. The rest, as every BuzzFeed article you see scrolling through Facebook announces, will shock you. Startlingly original, most films on this list ranked higher I have seen some version of. To Parasite's credit, there is nothing like it. Find your local arthouse theater and go see it!

4. UNCUT GEMS

After having recently worked at a daycare center for all of a week, the Safdie Brothers' manic chaos didn't faze me too much. Both the daycare and Uncut Gems both feature about 3-5 people talking at the same time while you're trying to make sure one particular kid (if you know, you know) doesn't get killed. I can't tell you why but after the bizarre opening shot of the film I felt like I understood it perfectly. It's too good to spoil here, but to me it said everything about Adam Sandler's Howard that I needed to know. How far can one man spiral in the course of a few days, you may ask? The Safdies are here to answer. Howard is every impulsive decision, every negative trait you could feel about yourself rolled into one, and I think the casting of Sandler in a career-best performance may be the only reason why I still was rooting for him in the end. Between all the editing, overlapping dialogue, brain-breaking club music and perfectly utilized shaky cam by Darius Khondji, this one of the best examples of commiting to a vibe in cinema and squeezing every drop out of it. Also, KG has some promise on the screen. Kazaam this is not.

3. BOOKSMART
Why does no one talk about the pool sequence in Olivia Wilde's coming-of-age comedy romp? It was one of my favorite moments of the year. Kaitlyn Dever's Amy dives in after an hour and a half of hilarious high school hijinks with her best friend Molly (the Golden Globe-nominated queen Beanie Feldstein), looking at her surroundings to euphoric electronic music. It helps capture the feeling of the age: feeling completely underwater but still gaining perspective at every turn. Since Apatow-esque movies died off this past decade, this zany comedy gives us all the raunchy puberty laughs we've been missing, and tying up every single one of its loose ends to an almost perfectionist degree, surely making Molly and Amy proud.

2. MARRIAGE STORY
It's been fun to punk on Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, especially on Film Twitter, as pretentious and the leads overacting. I think it's a natural backlash to a movie predominantly released on the biggest streaming platform on the planet. Curiously called Marriage Story when it focuses on the agonizing process of divorce, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver play two well-meaning parents with an iceberg's worth of problems emerging that sinks them. This is an actor's movie, and even Ray Liotta as Driver's divorce lawyer and Merritt Weaver's bumbling sister get chances to shine amidst the strong performances that've been nominated for slews of awards this past month. There's a scene where Driver and ScarJo attempt to split up Halloween, as if their child wouldn't be exhausted by the end of the first part. It highlights the futility and frustration of trying to make splitting up easier on the child. It's going to hurt regardless, but that doesn't mean there can't be some hilarious moments peppered in.

1. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Mr. Rogers would be disappointed with me. I went into this film expecting to be...pleasantly amused. I thought I'd already seen the movie in my head, or maybe I saw it six years ago with Saving Mr. Banks, a film based on a true story where a miserable person meets Tom Hanks (playing an American icon) and their frown gets turned upside-down. Fred would've sat me down and said, "Travis...do you know the word cynicism? Can ya tell me what that means?"

I'm sorry Mr. Rogers. I should've realized Marielle Heller, who helmed the brazenly original Diary of a Teenage Girl would apply her talents and knack for story-supporting animation to a very fresh take on America's favorite neighbor. Hanks actually plays second banana to Matthew Rhys' Lloyd, a world-weary reporter dealing with his ailing father (an underrated Chris Cooper) coming back into his life. He's assigned to profile Rogers, missing out on his wife and newborn baby in the process. Since making Rogers himself the main character wouldn't be as dynamic (having kind of a temper isn't exactly a fatal flaw), you need a cynical foil to play off his messianic image. Everything in this movie worked for me, how it was framed (the title makes perfect sense and isn't just an allusion to the show), how Lloyd came to his realization, and absolutely how Rogers is portrayed. Instead of trying to parrot his inimitable voice, Hanks is comfier in his own vocals, emitting a warmth only found from Hollywood's most trusted dad. When you look back at all the R-rated, profane and violent entries on this list, ABDITN actually makes a lot of sense at the top. Sometimes I just wanna feel like everything will be okay at the movies.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Horror movies that broke the one-hit-wonder curse. Jordan Peele wowed with his race-tackling social horror zeitgeist Get Out, and Ari Aster's satanic grief study Hereditary haunted its way to my number one spot last year. With their respective films Us and Midsommar spooking up box-office gold with original, terrifying premises and strong female leads, I've never been so optimistic for the horror genre. Or petrified of scissors. And flower crowns.
• The MCU movies from the summer on. Brie Larson blandly smirking her way into an okay origin story didn't do much for me, but Endgame provided the sweetest closure to Marvel nerds who played right into Disney's hands showed up to every MCU movie since 2008. It's easy to forget Far from Home which had to follow suit, but easily ranks in my top five of the twentysomething superhero blockbusters. An adorable teen romance masquerading as a sci-fi Spidey sequel, perhaps my favorite since Spider-Man 2.

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS:

• The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. Perhaps this movie didn't stand a fair chance. After the first one was one of my favorite moviegoing experiences of all time, we were served Batman and Ninjago helpings of the poppy franchise, and by 2019 we all felt like we were stepping on Legos. Part 2 was about as clever as its subtitle, and I think my body executed a defense mechanism because I slept for about 30 minutes of it.
• Ma. A fun, pulpy exercise of a concept got muddied by a movie that doesn't know whether to be over-the-edge bonkers or deadly serious stalker flick. Tate Taylor directed Octavia Spencer to Oscar glory earlier this decade in The Help...but Ma feels like a generous helping of Minnie's famous pie.
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. After Rogue One boring me to numbness, Last Jedi leaving me confounded, and Solo going places no one asked for...I had to ask myself if the joy I felt seeing my first Star Wars in theaters with The Force Awakens was a fluke. It was. Kylo Ren and Rey commit one of my most despised movie sins at the very end of this exhausted franchise. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.