Best of 2019: The Year in Movies

The year comes to a close tonight, but before it does I'm sharing my Best of 2019. In this final post, I offer my 10 favorite movies, and five least favorite from the year. Here's to 2019 and a banner 2020.

Top Movies:
10. Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
About: It was a banner year for animated films, as in fact it was animated films that dominated a lot of my favorites list from the first half. We got sequels to "How to Train Your Dragon," "Frozen," and "Toy Story," among other new offerings. But it was the sequel to "The Lego Movie" that really stuck in my heart. I loved the original, so it's no surprise I flocked to the first screening I could find for the sequel. I built my little toy and watched in wonder at a story that was funny and moving in equal parts. We've seen a lot in 2019, but this remains my favorite animated experience.

9. Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
About: It was a big year for endings for our big Pop Culture franchises. Some have been disappointed with the latest "Star Wars," but I loved it. It's not my favorite all time, and it's different from "The Last Jedi," which I had atop my list in 2017. But this is a good film, one that pays off a lot of what we've seen in this franchise and does so in a satisfying way. I liked it a lot.

8. Avengers: Endgame
About: Speaking of endings, this brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we had known it to a close, and was one of the most anticipated films of the year. And it delivered. It was epic, it was grand and it was emotional. What more could you possibly want as these heroes we've journeyed with for more than a decade and more than 20 films brought their story to its conclusion.

7. The Farewell
About: Awkwafina is fine comedic actress, but in this film, based on a true story, she got to show her serious side. And it, too, is beautiful. This was a little film in summer that didn't draw big crowds, but it did produce big emotional responses. I thought it was engrossing and beautifully told, and film that stuck with me well after I left the theater.

6. Little Women
About: This tale has been told many times, but never quite the way that Gretta Gerwig offered it. The cast here was amazing, as was the way this story was told. If you haven't seen this film, it's well worth checking out. The cast and performances are amazing, and the way this story is told is quite emotional and packs a punch. I believe it will do well this award season.

5. Ford v Ferrari
About: This is another true life tale, this one about the friendship and work partnership between Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. It features great performances from Matt Damon and Christian Bale, and director James Mangold does a great job of bringing the story to life. The racing scenes work well and are engaging, but this is ultimately a tale of friendship that delivers.

4. Motherless Brooklyn
About: This Noir tale about greed and murder isn't probably the typical film you'd expect. Edward Norton, who directs and stars here, plays a different kind of hero. And it's the type of character whose tics could easily have verged on making it unwatchable. But Norton deftly walks that line, and delivers a star-studded cast that really hums on this story.

3. Marriage Story
About: It was a banner year for Netflix, which has three Best Picture nominations at the Golden Globes and could easily grab a few at the Academy Awards. Many have flocked to "The Irishman," and while I enjoyed that film, it didn't hit me with the weight of "Marriage Story." Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are simply incredible and this story, while tough to watch, is beautifully told. This was one of the most emotional theater-going experiences of the year, and it really worked.

2. Jojo Rabbit
About: You don't often think of a light-hearted take on Adolf Hitler in 2019, and yet this story gives us one, and so much more. Johansson, who had a FANTASTIC year is also great in this film, but it's director Taika Waititi who is the real star. He's great in crafting this story and does great in the role of Hitler. This entire film is breathtakingly funny, and at times packs an incredible emotional wallop. It was, simply put, beautiful.

1. Knives Out
About: What to say about Rian Johnson except he's incredible at his craft. He gave us the best "Star Wars" movie and in a year where the final chapter in that adventure seemed to double as a repudiation of his efforts, he gave us my favorite film of 2019. It is a great whodunnit, one I've seen in the theater twice so far and loved it even more the second time. This is a great cast, with some great work from Chris Evans and Daniel Craig, among others, and one that is satisfying from the opening moment until its conclusion. It was the best theater-going experience I had.

Bottom Five Films:
5. Glass
About: This was the conclusion of a set of films that began with "Unbreakable" in 2000, and was a hotly anticipated follow up. But what we got was boring, strange and a film that left me unsatisfied.

4. Hobbs & Shaw
About: I love Jason Statham and The Rock, and this team up that was supposed to prove a viable expansion of the "Fast & Furious" world seemed like a great idea... until you watched it. It was long, dry and just didn't work. One of the biggest blockbuster misses in a summer full of them.

3. Detective Pikachu
About: I love Ryan Reynolds, and I thought this hard potential. It didn't. It wasn't funny or compelling, it just sort of existed. And I wish I hadn't seen it.

2. Men in Black: International
About: Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are great, and were great together in "Thor: Ragnarok." So I was excited about this team up, which would re-boot the franchise. This movie was incredibly dull, to the point I wondered if I was seeing the same actors.

1. Hellboy
About: It wasn't so much that this was bad, but it was, as the fact this is a re-make of a decent film that was so ill-conceived that lands it atop this list. This was the worst of the films I saw in 2019.