Parasite is directed by one of the greatest directors of his generation, Bong Joon Ho. He’s directed some of my favorite films of the last 20 years including Memories of Murder, Mother and The Host. He also directed 2013’s Snowpiercer, which is one of my top 10 favorite films of the decade. I wasn’t a big fan of his previous film Okja, so I was really looking forward to Parasite and it did not disappoint.

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Even if you hate subtitled films, you should give Parasite a chance. Like Snowpiercer, Parasite deals with class distinction. The film chronicles a poor family that will do anything to scrape by. When the oldest son gets a job working for a rich family, things start to unravel from there. I don’t want to give much more away because I truly urge you to check this one out.

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The major theme of Parasite is highlighting the differences between the haves and the have nots. The rich and affluent literally live high above those who are poor, who essentially live below ground in apartments that are barely ground level. Unlike many films that depict the rich as smart and the poor as dumb, Parasite does a nice job of showing that wealth does not necessarily equate intelligence. In fact, the rich family in the film is blinded by their wealth. Their extravagant lifestyle has opened them up to danger and they have accidentally let the wolves in among the sheep.

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There are so many layers to this film that I’m just barely scratching the surface here. Parasite is one of the best films of 2019 and one of the very best films of the decade.

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Midsommar is directed by Ari Aster who directed last year’s fantastic Hereditary.  Like Hereditary, Midsommar deals with grief after a tragic loss. The other major theme of the film is the slow decay of a relationship.  Unlike his previous film, the horror in Midsommar takes place in broad daylight. The film is impossibly bright and beautiful to look at. The highlight of the film for me is Florence Pugh’s performance.  It’s hard to take your eyes off of her. Pugh had an amazing year. She was great in one of the more underrated films of the year Fighting with My Family and she is also currently starring in Little Women. Midsommar held the #1 spot on my list for most of the year and it was close between it and Parasite as my favorite for 2019.

Jojo Rabbit is an absolutely delightful film. Taika Waititi is one of the more unique filmmakers working today.  What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople are two of my favorite films of the decade. We can also thank Waititi for making Thor interesting in the recent Avengers films because before Waititi directed Thor: Ragnarok, Thor was a complete bore.

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In Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi manages to balance satirical humor with powerful dramatic moments to perfection.  The film is a mix between Tarantino, the Coen Brothers and a healthy dose of Wes Anderson. In short, Jojo Rabbit is about a young boy in Hitler’s army who discovers his mother is hiding a Jewish girl.  Did I mention that Hitler is his imaginary friend? Waititi also plays Hitler and his performance is wonderful. Despite the heavy subject matter, the film is light and fun, until about halfway through where we are hit with one of the most brutal gut-punches I've seen in a film in years. With Jojo Rabbit, Waititi has solidified himself as an elite director with a unique voice.

You can say what you want about Quentin Tarantino, but the man loves film and that has never been more on display than with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The film is his love letter to Hollywood and actors. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a soon-to-be washed-up actor at the end of Hollywood's Golden Age when the industry was about to go through major changes. It's fitting that Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is being released at another pivotal moment in Hollywood. Directors like Tarantino are the exception and not the norm in an industry that is seeing more and more control from the studios. It's also a climate where we are getting more sequels and big-budget franchises as opposed to original films. DiCaprio and Pitt are fantastic and I had a blast just hanging out with them the entire film.

Joker, or as I like to call it, Much Ado About Nothing.  I’m convinced that all the hysteria about the violence in Joker was a PR stunt by the studio.  It’s the only thing that makes sense. I’ve seen more violence on an episode of NCIS than what was depicted in Joker.  Anyway, Joker is a fantastic character study piece. It’s an arthouse film wrapped up in a comic book movie. Joker does a great job of portraying mental illness and the methodical manner in which it can eat away at who a person is.  As usual, Joaquin Phoenix gives a performance that’s on another level.

Us is the second effort from Jordan Peele after he loudly announced himself as a director with 2017’s Get Out.  While Us doesn’t quite match Get Out, it’s still an original film that had me guessing the entire time. In fact, Us was my favorite film of the year for the first part of 2019, I actually saw it twice in theaters, which I rarely do.  Watching Us twice is almost a requirement, there’s so much going on, it’s hard to absorb everything on one viewing. The end is going to divide people, but I didn’t have a problem with it. Like Get Out, Us is packed with themes. Some might argue too many themes as the film will leave many viewers pondering what was Peele actually trying to say. Regardless, it’s one of the more original films of the year, something we need more of.

Uncut Gems is directed by the Safdie Brothers, who burst on the scene with last year’s Good Time. Their films have a unique feel and look to them, something very rare to find with directors.  Uncut Gems is different than any film Adam Sandler has ever made. It’s also probably the best performance of his career and easily deserving of at least an Oscar nomination. Uncut Gems isn’t for everyone though.  The film is exhaustingly exhilarating to watch. Many scenes feature overlapping dialogue and just pure chaos in general. The film has a raw, realistic feel to it. I guess you could say it feels uncut. I’m not sure there are any directors working right now that have a better feel for urban grime than the Safdie Brothers.  I’m interested to see what the future holds for them.

John Wick is one of the rare new franchises that we have gotten in recent years.  It’s also impressive that the quality of the films hasn’t fallen off with the sequels.  Some would argue that they’ve actually gotten better. Keanu Reeves is easily one of the better characters in recent film history.  He’s endlessly enjoyable to watch as he dispatches a constant stream of foes. Parabellum features more than one standout fight scene, the highlight for me was a knife fight like nothing I’ve ever seen.  After I saw the first John Wick, I proclaimed that I would like 4 more of those films. That means we would only be getting 1 more Wick film in the franchise. That’s like four less than the Fast and the Furious franchise.  That’s unacceptable. Bring on more John Wick.

Rian Johnson directed the much-maligned Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  I get it, when Disney dollars start calling, it’s kind of hard to say no.  Johnson has made some fantastic films like Looper, Brick and now Knives Out.  Although I had no problem with his take on the Star Wars universe, there’s no pleasing Star Wars Fanboys and I’d much rather he stick to making films like Knives Out, which is easily one of the more refreshing films of the year.  We just don’t get many whodunit films and the fact that Knives Out is an original property not based on a book really enhances the film for me. The film features an all-star ensemble cast highlighted by a really fun performance from Daniel Craig.  Knives Out is one of the more crowd-pleasing films of the year and needs to be seen.

After Toy Story 3, I thought they really did a nice job of bringing the franchise to a satisfying finish.  I didn’t think there was anything more to say. I was wrong. In Toy Story 4, our favorite toys are faced with a very real-life concern that many of us experience as we get older and that’s whether or not we are still relevant. That’s some pretty serious subject matter for what many would consider to be a kid’s movie.  That being said, anybody who has ever seen a Toy Story film knows that it’s the adults that probably get more out of the films than the children. Toy Story 4 brings back some favorite characters from previous films, but it also introduces a number of new really fun characters. The end of the film is even more satisfying than Toy Story 3, but the thought of not getting anymore Toy Story films is kind of sad for me.

Lighthouse director Robert Eggers certainly took his sweet time to direct his follow-up to 2015’s The Witch.  Well, it was more than worth the wait. The Lighthouse is a slow burn arthouse film, just in case you couldn’t tell by the black and white and the 1.19 : 1 (square) aspect ratio.  Both of those choices aren’t just the result of a director trying to be cute. The aspect ratio adds a claustrophobic feel to the already tight quarters of the lighthouse and the black and white really enhances the dreariness.  I’m a sucker for films that take place in one place, so The Lighthouse is right up my alley. The highlight of the film is clearly the outstanding performances by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. With The Witch and The Lighthouse, Eggers has proven to be one of the more exciting young filmmakers working today.

Good Boys is easily the most fun I had at the movies this year.  I can’t remember another R rated film that features children, so it was quite a unique experience.  The three leads, lead by the always great Jacob Tremblay, did a fine job and had really great chemistry.  Good Boys did a great job of showing that no matter how adult children try to be, they are still just kids and don’t know or understand half as much stuff as they think they know.  Comedies of this nature are really becoming fewer and farther apart, so it’s encouraging that Good Boys performed well at the box office.

I’m not sure if there's anything else that can be said about Endgame.  It might just be the biggest film of all-time. The degree of difficulty was seemingly impossible.  To pull together over a dozen films that spanned a decade and produce a coherent, satisfying ending seemed like something that could never happen, but they did that and much more.  That’s a credit to Marvel and Disney who have been so diligent in mapping out every detail of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m not sure they can ever top Avengers Endgame in terms of scope, but I know they are sure as hell going to try.

Marriage Story is directed by Noah Baumbach, a filmmaker that has made a few films that I have enjoyed, but none that I’ve ever completely loved, until Marriage Story.  While the film didn’t hit in all the ways I had hoped for, it’s clearly a well-made film that features two of the very best performances of the year by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.  Speaking of Johansson, if you’re keeping score at home, this is her third film to make my list, the other two being Avengers Endgame and Jojo Rabbit. Marriage Story does a great job of showing divorce from both perspectives.  The film also succeeds in showing that just because two people are getting a divorce, doesn’t necessarily have to be the result of one of them being a terrible person who has done terrible things. Sometimes two people just end up not being right for each other.

Netflix continues to flex their muscles when it comes to their films with The Irishman and Marriage Story.  For a studio like Netflix to land a director like Martin Scorsese was kind of game changing. Then you add in the fact that they gave him a budget of $160 million and let him deliver a final cut of three and a half hours long and it’s no wonder directors are lining up to work with Netflix.  For The Irishman, Scorsese returns to his gangster film roots bringing Joe Pesci out of retirement and (shockingly) directing Al Pacino for the first time in a film. Pesci plays against type here as a soft spoken, yet equally dangerous mob boss. Pacino’s performance as Jimmy Hoffa is the highlight of the film and Robert De Niro completes the Holy Trinity of gangster movie gods.  Obviously, the runtime of the film is going to be an issue for some, but I thought it moved along at a very brisk pace. You can tell from the opening scene that you are watching a Scorsese film, but unlike his other films, mob life is not glamorized. In The Irishman, it’s made very clear that being a real-life gangster was bad for your health.