The "Unofficial" Best Films of 2019 (Take One)

Despite the fact that 2019 wasn't a very good year for me on a personal level, it was still an interesting year for the world of film even though I didn't get to see a lot that had come out that year. Still, there were a good number of films that I saw but there's also so many that I missed out so here are the following films of 2019 that I haven't seen along with the ones that I haven't seen in their entirety: A Hidden Life, Uncut Gems, 1917, Shazam!, Long Shot Parasite, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, The Irishman, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Vast of Night, Little Joe, Saint Maud, Waves, Color Out of Space, Honey Boy, Ford vs. Ferrari, Les Miserables, Atlantics, Platform, Pain & Glory, Platform, First Love, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, Vitalina Varela, Swallow, The Laundromat, The Report, Queen of Hearts, Luce, Light of My Life, Piranhas, Late Night, Tomasso, The Farewell, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Lux Terna, The Souvenir, The Beach Bum, Blinded by the Light, Hail Satan, Booksmart, The Art of Self Defense, First Cow, Good Boys, Motherless Brooklyn, To the Stars, Matthias & Maxime, Furie, The Golden Glove, The Truth, Midsommar, Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, A Rainy Day in New York, The Staggering Girl, Sorry We Missed You, J'Accuse, Wasp Network, Velvet Buzzsaw, The King, Native Son, I'm Still Alive, The Fall, High Flying Bird, Varda by Agnes, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese & The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. Now here are the best films of 2019 that I have seen so far:

1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2. Jojo Rabbit

3. Marriage Story

4. Avengers: Endgame

5. Knives Out

6. Little Women

7. Us

8. Diego Maradona

9. The Lighthouse

10. Ad Astra

11. Toy Story 4

12. Kitbull

13. Spider-Man: Far from Home

14. Purl

15. David Bowie: Finding Fame

16. Smash and Grab

17. Joker

18. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

19. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

20. At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal

21. Happy Death Day 2U

22. Muhammad Ali: What's My Name?

23. Captain Marvel

24. John Ford: The Man Who Invented America

Honorable Mentions: Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Descendants 3, Men in Black: International, & Little

© thevoid99 2020

The Year-End Reflections of 2019

Fuck 2019. If anyone is going to come to me, my mother, or my sister about the year and how good it was, we’re likely to kill you where you stand. It fucking sucked. Despite the fact that I gained a nephew in Mateo whom I’ve grown fond of, the passing of my dad at the end of June killed the year for me, my mother, my sister, and everyone who knew my dad. The first half was tough considering that he was going through esophagus cancer as we thought he was doing fine but because of complications involving the recovery of the surgery. Things went to shit as my dad became miserable in his final days about not having to eat the food he loves or drink a beer every once in a while. That’s not life and what’s the point of life if you can’t enjoy the little things? In some ways, my sister, my mother, and I are glad he’s gone because he didn’t have to suffer in not having to enjoy those things. Still, it is tough not having him around as it’s something I know have to deal with until my mother passes. Even as I’m dealing with an awful flu as I’ve been vomiting for the past few days, I just hope things can’t get any worse.

Due to the events of the year as it was filled with so much bullshit and people acting like idiots to the point that I stopped going to certain websites and places on the net that I used to go to because I have no more patience for that bullshit. My dad’s passing forced me to look at some of the good things in life and as a result, I decided to step away from the shit that made me miserable and also clean out my closet of all of that bullshit. With Mateo being a joy in my life now, it has given me some kind of distraction as I also felt the need to not watch films for a while as my overall output has dwindled. In the year of 2019, I saw a total of 342 films in 161 first-timers and 181 re-watches with 17 of the first-timers being films directed by women as part of the 52 Films by Women pledge with 15 films that I saw in the theaters which was similar to the number of films I saw in the theaters last year. Not bad considering the circumstances as I’ll maybe go for 350 films for the next year. The highlight of the year have been my Blind Spots as here are the final ranking of the films of the 2019 Blind Spot Series:

1. Shoah

2. My Neighbor Totoro

3. The Gleaners and I

4. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

5. In the Realm of the Senses

6. To Sleep with Anger

7. This is Not a Film

8. Weekend

9. All About Eve

10. Gilda

11. Marketa Lazarova

12. Gone with the Wind

One of the joys of film-watching is getting the chance films from different genres and different places that have been made with some new discoveries along the way. Here are my top 35 pre-2010 first-timers that I saw for 2019:

1. Mamma Roma

2. The Passion of Anna

3. Medium Cool

4. Branded to Kill

5. Kuroneko

6. Bullitt

7. Two or Three Things I Know About Her

8. Magnet of Doom

9. An Autumn Afternoon

10. Death of a Cyclist

11. Alexander Nevsky

12. The 39 Steps

13. The Face of Another

14. Young Mr. Lincoln

15. My Night at Maud's

16. Midnight Express

17. King of New York

18. Mostly Martha

19. The World

20. Eating Raoul

21. The Green Ray

22. Mysterious Object at Noon

23. The End of Summer

24. Secrets of Women

25. Ghost in the Shell

26. Unknown Pleasures

27. The Man Who Knew Too Much

28. Oliver Twist

29. Querelle

30. Claire's Knee

31. Madeleine

32. Love in the Afternoon

33. Pitfall

34. La collectionneuse

35. River of Grass

That is all for 2019 as other joys involve the Atlanta Braves winning another division championship to spite the critics who say they weren’t going to win another one. The Atlanta United despite changes in management still won me over as they’ve been solid while All Elite Wrestling, NWA, and New Japan Pro Wrestling have become great alternatives to the dumpster fire that is WWE. It’s been a strange decade that began with me going through a severe depression and now ending on a down note as I’m suffering from the flu and missing my dad. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off and wishing those who are good people a Happy New Year and a Happy New Decade and as for everyone else I don’t care about…. Here’s what you get…

© thevoid99 2019

Blog News: Blog Plans for 2019

2018 is now coming to an end as it's been a crazy though fruitful year as I've managed to do a lot though not everything has been fulfilled. There has been a few things that I've been unable to achieve and do while there's a lot of others around me that's also preventing me from fulfilling these goals. Still, there's a lot that I want to do but I'm once again going to take a step back further and not do as much. Largely because I'm going to be an uncle next year and that's going to be much more important though I still hope to have the time to watch films and such.

On the music front, The Void-Go-Round is still alive but it's been dormant for a while as I do plan on finishing up the entire Nine Inch Nails discography as well as related work from NIN. After that, I hope to do more into the works of such bands/artists as Radiohead, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, XTC, Joy Division/New Order, Led Zeppelin, and many others of groups/acts that I really love. That is pretty much it as it's just something I'm going to every once in a while.

In the world of film, I didn't fulfill everything I wanted to do though I did see a lot of great films in 2018 as I hope to see much as I can based on my never-ending DVR list as well as what is on TV, my local library, and the Internet. Now that the 2018 Blind Spot Series has been fulfilled and the time is once again ready for the next Blind Spot Series for 2019 as I have more than half of the films available right now. There is still a lot that I hope to do based on the following:

Finish up on a few unfinished projects such as Twin Peaks and The Story of Film.

Finish up on certain period of filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, and several others.

Do more films by women based on the 52 Films by Women pledge and reach the goal of 52 films.

Watch an array of different films and genres from all sorts of place to diversify.

That is pretty much it as I'm trying to take on smaller things but also fulfill some long-gestating goals as there's some things I still want to do but it's likely I'm going to do another time. I'm still going to do the Cannes Marathon from May 14-25 during the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as well as contribute to the Thursday Movie Picks series and my traditional horrors/suspense month in October. I'm still unsure about the Favorite Film series as my attempts to restart it hasn't gone well as I'm just waiting to really be inspired so that is on hold once again. One possible project I might do is again outside the box for me as I'm thinking of doing a summer-based marathon relating to the works of Andy Sidaris who is known for these B-movies with Playboy Playmates and such. I have a DVD box set of most of his work though I'm unsure if I plan on doing the project.

Then there's the Auteurs series as I'm once again scaling back this time around due to the extensive work I did on Orson Welles. I've covered some major figures and giants but no one was as challenging as Welles where it was supposed to be finished in October but it ended up being much longer than that. I'm glad the Welles piece is finished but the next person that was supposed to be the next subject of the Auteurs series in David Lean is now being pushed to November/December of 2019. Doing two titans in a row is too much and extremely demanding for me as I'm likely to not have the time to do that. Pushing Lean towards the end of next year can give me a chance to breathe and more time to seek and watch a few of his films that aren't widely available. For 2019, I'm going to do six filmmakers as it's going to be a bi-monthly thing from now on as I can have more time to work on the essays and explore a filmmaker's body of work. Here are the six filmmakers I will be discussing for 2019:

January/February-David O. Russell

March/April-Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck

May/June-Kelly Reichardt

July/August-J.C. Chandor

September/October-Michael Mann

November/December-David Lean

That is all for what is ahead in 2019. Let's just hope it'll be a good year.

© thevoid99 2018