Well, not really.
Initially, I was so inspired by a post by Daesol on books he read in 2018 that I decided to create a version of my movies for 2019 (it is a great post by the way). Not even halfway through, I realized (1) I watched too many movies to write them all down, and (2) there are some movies I have no recollection of what happened during that 1.5–2-ish hours of my life. Still, it’s worth taking stock of all the movies that have paved their way to my soul this year (also big thanks to CGV and BHD for keeping track).
Some thoughts:
We all know movies are important but I don’t think people, at least my people (friends, relatives, and the likes) appreciate movies enough. We talk about books all the time because it’s easier. We pick up a book, either by chance or through recommendations, then we can carry on or put it back on the shelf for days, months, or even years. Books that stick make the review list. Books make us look smart.
(Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE books, probably too much sometimes).
Movies are a bit trickier. We buy tickets to movies and once we step into that dark crowded room full of hopeful people like us, there’s almost no turning back: we paid for the tickets and wanted to finish whatever story being told, hoping it would turn out to be meaningful and/or at least, entertaining (loss aversion and sunk cost fallacy alert). At the same time, most of the trailers I’ve watched rarely do justice to the movies themselves: they are either too shallow or too flashy. In the end, you watch too many bad movies and miss too many good ones. If the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true, then like me, you’ve probably wasted millions of words on bad pictures. That’s like reading 8,917,492 bad books.
So why bother?
For a year full of bad pictures and some good and then very good ones, and while trying to stop and reflect on 2019, I dearly wish that everyone can take a step back and assess what we’re seeing, to cherish the movies, their all sorts of messages being conveyed, and all the hard work people put into story-telling, acting, visuals, sounds, etc.
At the same time, may 2020 and this new decade bring us some more bravery and clarity to step right out of the movie theater the moment we know this/that movie’s anything but joy.
Good luck and great movies to us all.
Here’s my two cents for this year’s movie list, first with my top 5:
1. Ford v Ferrari
It takes (extreme) hard work and teamwork to beat the odds, and in the end, it’s all about the journey, not the destination.
2. Us
Everyone’s fighting a battle we know nothing of and it’s best to put our more-often-than-not jumping-to-conclusion stupid judgments behind.
3. Toy Story 4
The world might be pretty daunting out there, but your friends, near or far, are going to make it a lot easier to take in.
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
There’s a superhero in every dimension and as imperfect as he/she is, all you have to do is look.
5. Parasite
Being poor and rich feel very different, and sometimes, people do very weird things to insinuate into the kind of life they dream of.
Down the hall of shame/fame.
Bad movies
Charlie’s Angels: as much as coolness and appearance and fancy trailer appeal to you, don’t fall for it.
Zombieland: Double Tap: if you count on Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Emma Stone for a good movie, like me, think twice.
Glass: Split all the good-ness of the Split movie in 8,917,492, you get Glass-es.
Entertaining enough
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu: Detective Pikachu has the same initials as DeadPool.
Avengers: Endgame: Captain America blah blah too much, Thor was fat and dumb, then they killed off our Iron Man.
Captain Marvel: finally one female kickass movie from Marvel, and cats are both cute and scary.
Deep movies I don’t get
Weathering With You: how can people cry when the song was played at the end of the movie?
Knives Out: why didn’t anyone think of investigating the handwriting of the letter sent to the Detective?
Joker: if Joker became Joker because of his dramas and psychological issues, isn’t it true that we should have had so many more Jokers?
I love cartoons
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: The weakest out of the trilogy (which I love) with a quite cliche and cheesy storyline, HTTYD was still worth watching over and over for its visual effects, soundtrack, and friendship between Hiccup and Toothless.
The Secret Life of Pets 2: Too many stories were told together which is quite distracting, but I came mainly for Snowball and was satisfied.
Frozen II: The movie was too beautiful, far from my imagination, music too good, and Olaf was overly cute.
Beautiful movies
The Farewell: a very genuine movie, and as a person growing up in an Asian environment while being exposed to Western culture, you’ll relate so much to the storyline.
Kim Ji Young, Born 1982: being a girl/woman, I was feeling uneasy for the whole movie, but finally happy at the end.
A Rainy Day in New York: classic Woody Allen film with so many conversations, so much talking but you will never get tired because it’s Timothée Chalamet after all (biased again).
Random
Godzilla: King of the Monsters: I remember the visual effect was very good.
Alita: Battle Angel: there were some real humans and some cyborgs, living not really in harmony with one another.
Shazam: the superhero was a kid in disguise, and I came to see his friend (the naughty smart-looking kid).
Furie: the first Vietnamese movie on Netflix turned out to be a pretty good action movie.
Angel Has Fallen: Die Hard in disguise with non-stop actions and a can-never-die protagonist.
Yesterday: I mean it’s the Beatles and Ed Sheeran, not genius but very engaging for fans like me.
Wrapping the decade with this one:
