Otter's 2019 Movie Roundup

Spoilers below, proceed with caution. Updated to include Little Women, which I hadn't seen at the time of the original posting. 

14. What Men Want
To paraphrase an opinion about this movie I saw somewhere on the internet: "Some movies are just meant to be watched in economy class on a United airlines flight."

13. Rise of Skywalker
This movie didn't take any time to breathe, with our band of adventurers hurriedly running from one MacGuffin to the next. It did teach us that the best way to survive in the Star Wars universe is to be thrown down a bottomless pit. How else to explain the survival of Luke (falls down a pit in Ep 5), Kylo (falls down a pit at the end of this movie), Darth Maul (falls down a pit after being chopped in half in Ep 1) and, of course, the Emperor (after falling down a pit in a Death Star that promptly explodes in Ep 6.) 

12. The Lion King
It's strange to watch a movie that I practically had memorized as a child with entirely different animation and ever-so-slightly changed dialogue and songs. Still might have been worth it to hear Beyonce say "Lions, attack!" 

11. Captain Marvel
Earlier this year, I reluctantly watched quite a few Marvel movies to give myself much-needed context for when I would reluctantly watch Avengers: Endgame. After this marathon, I decided that I do not enjoy Marvel movies with outer space. Captain Marvel supports my theory, with the earthbound bits being far more entertaining than the (deliberately but annoyingly) incomplete and ambiguous memories of Captain Marvel's time on some mystery planet.

10. Late Night
There is a better movie in here somewhere with interesting things to say about women in the upper echelons of male-dominated industries and dealing with a boss who is excellent at their profession but horrible to their subordinates. However, this is a movie that features not just one, but two, scenes where our plucky protagonist is fake-fired only for her domineering boss to be impressed by her talent and grit and immediately re-hire her.

9. Yesterday
This movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a rom-com, a satire of the music industry, or a delightful fantasy. If you're going to give a movie such a wonderfully bonkers premise, lean into it and explore it for all its worth. 

8. El Camino
Did Breaking Bad need a sequel? No, honestly. But this movie was an interesting continuation of Jesse Pinkman's story and very much in the spirit of the show. 

7. Motherless Brooklyn
A little overlong and convoluted, but an interesting mystery. Plus, I enjoyed trying to recognize some landmarks since this movie was partially filmed in Troy, NY, not too far from where I grew up. 

6. Avengers: Endgame
Yes, it's pretty much impossible to do time travel without plot holes. There was some outer space and some not entirely convincing (or necessary) de-aging. But, I will admit to tearing up at the Cap's long-awaited dance.

5. Spider-Man: Far from Home
This has the least outer space of the 2019 Marvel movies. Thus, it is the best.

4. Uncut Gems
This movie drops you right into a frantic few days in the life of Adam Sandler's Howard Rather without any context or background and proceeds to show you every nerve-wracking, impulsive, short-termed decision he makes. I'm surprised he didn't get the "critically derided comedian goes serious/gritty" Oscar nomination. He would have deserved it. 

3. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
As my number one pick shows, I love a movie that has movie stars acting like movie stars. Leonardo DiCaprio is immensely fun as a fading celebrity, and Brad Pitt brings charm and pathos to his role as Leo's stunt double / driver / handler / only real friend. 

2. Little Women
I was only mildly excited when I first heard that Greta Gerwig would be helming a Little Women remake. Sure, I loved Lady Bird, but did we really need yet another Little Women adaptation? Gerwig takes this and makes it into one of the best elements of the movie: We all know what's going to happen, so why not find an entirely new way to tell the story? The exceptional cast helps this story feel new, and I'm especially exited to re-read the book with a new vantage point on Amy March.

1. Knives Out
I spent a few middle school summers reading every Agatha Christie novel I could find, so there was no way I was missing this movie. This was a wonderfully enjoyable and modern update to the "whodunit." Only complaint is that it suffers a little from the "Law and Order: SVU" rule (the most famous person did it!)