It’s a few months into 2020, so it’s time for my Top 10 Movies of 2019 list. I meant to get this up earlier, but there were a few reasons for the delay, some good and some bad (some technically difficulties unfortunately). So let’s just get cracking on the 10 best movies I saw in 2019, and one that was released in 2019, but it took me a few weeks into 2020 to watch one of it. I was surprised to see the number of new movies was a little lower than normal. I signed up for the AMC Theatres A-List ($20 a month to see 3 movies a week), and thought I was going to see a ton of movies, but I guess I was busy with other things. I am going to make a solid effort to make up for that in 2020, although I am off to a slow start with one month in.

The majority of films are on the list below are compelled to put a halt to something. That something can be anything, but it’s the driving force that makes some of these films approach greatness. The impulse to avoid something or to alter an emotion have consumed the films in my top 10. An aging director in Pain and Glory desperately tries to avoid the bleak fact that his best years, personally and creatively, are well behind him by avoiding drifting into creative obscurity. In Portrait of a Lady on Fire, two ravishing young women must avoid the passionate feelings they have for each other, no matter how difficult such a task is. Quentin Tarantino ruminates extensively on the concept of altering time. His Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood envisions a world where Charles Manson and his disciples get the ultimate comeuppance. In Uncut Gems there seems to be an inevitable ending that its main character cannot avoid, no matter how tirelessly he tries. And in The Irishman an aging gangster wants so badly to avoid his inner conscious that he tries to avoid his true emotions at all costs, but sometimes trying all your might just isn’t enough.

Below are my Top 30 Movies Of 2019…

It’s that time of the year again where writers from various film blogs start to post their top ten favorite films of the year. Given that we see over 100 films a year, it is hard to narrow it down to a top ten list. Of course, not all lists are the same, and all of them are subjective. One list doesn’t necessarily define an entire year. Still, you are likely to find a similarity of choices of films on these lists. Looking back at the year, there have been plenty of movies that could have made the list from the blockbuster favorites like Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War to indies like Lulu Wang‘s The Farewell, and even some really great foreign films like Bong Joon-ho‘s Parasite and originals like Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out. Below I run down my top ten favorite movies of 2019.

Overall I thought 2019 was a great year for film all around and horror did not disappoint. There was great horror everywhere you looked in 2019. Mainstream horror hit the theaters and the indie horror scene continued to grow and improve. The streaming world made amazing contributions to horror with Netflix producing several great movies and Shudder continuing to dominate the genre with their Shudder Exclusives and foreign imports. And I need to shout out Hulu and Blumhouse for their spectacular Into the Dark series, in which the streaming service puts out a new seasonal horror film every month. So let’s jump in and see which horror films made the cut…

Now that we’re in September and the summer blockbuster season had ended, I am well overdue for compiling my Top 10 Movies of 2019… So Far. I got a little side tracked with life and wanted to see a few last movies before I made this list. The summer movie season is over, and as we begin Oscar season, it is time to see which of those movies will be still on the list at the end of 2019. Thanks to finally signing up for the A-List* at my local AMC Theater, I have been able to see a few more movies in 2019, and I think I should hit a new high for new movies seen in a year. Now onto the list, which includes many sequels (some of which were #1 movies in the previous installments), as well as a few independent films and one from that small company Disney/Marvel, you may have heard of them. We have a flashback to one of man’s greatest achievements, a wrestling movie, a high-powered action movie, and on a different note, a few movies about family and friends. So no matter what you’re in the mood for, I think I got your covered.

Now that we’ve seen Part I (#50-26) of my list of Top 50 Films of the Decade, it’s time to take a look at the remainder of list with #25-1.

Ten years are gone just like that. I have been doing my Best Films of the Year list for Geeks of Doom for the last decade. Now it is time for my Top Films of the Decade list. I can remember where I saw all of the films on my list. It’s like my last ten years are bookmarked by the films that I saw. Almost like milestones if you will. I can immediately recall where I was mentally and existentially when I watched The Master in 2012, or the feelings I was enduring when in 2011 I saw Melancholia. It’s truly amazing how re-watching movies can thrust you back in time.

Ten years are gone just like that. I have been doing my Best Films of the Year list for Geeks of Doom for the last decade. Now it is time for my Top Films of the Decade list. I can remember where I saw all of the films on my list. It’s like my last ten years are bookmarked by the films that I saw. Almost like milestones if you will. I can immediately recall where I was mentally and existentially when I watched The Master in 2012, or the feelings I was enduring when in 2011 I saw Melancholia. It’s truly amazing how re-watching movies can thrust you back in time.

On this week’s The Drill Down podcast, we put aside current news in order to review the year that was 2018. And this time around, as we did last year, instead of merely having a stack-ranked list of top news of the year, we’re going to make tech news compete for awards, affectionately called The Drill Bits.

So put on your tuxes, get in the limo, and roll out the red carpet, ’cause the show’s about to begin!

This past year was one of the best for horror. In the world of film there were big-budget blockbusters and critical and financial successes. On TV and the various streaming services we were treated to a bevy of soon-to-be classic series. Eli Roth hit it out of the park with his phenomenal History of Horror on AMC. Netflix went back to the Mike Flanagan well and struck gold again with The Haunting of Hill House. Hulu is releasing new horror films every month as part of their Into the Dark series, along with the Stephen King-inspired Castle Rock. Shudder is dominating the horror streaming world providing the horror fan the closest experience to walking the video store aisles (you’ll hear the words “Shudder Exclusive” a few times in this list). Speaking of Shudder, we got the epic return of Joe Bob Briggs, who did three separate Drive-In marathons for the network, breaking the internet with his first. We even got the return of horror-staple Fangoria magazine!

Compiling my top genre (horror/sci-fi/thriller/etc.) list of 2018 proved difficult. The original idea of a Top 10 quickly spiraled out of control and ballooned into a Top 20, plus Honorable Mentions. In an amazing coincidence, a ton of these films were done by first-time feature directors. So without further ado, let’s get to my list of Top 20 Horror & Genre Films of 2018.

Another year has come and gone. 2018 is a year I wish wouldn’t have ended simply because of the plethora of cinematic pleasure that it offered. The majority of the films on my best of the year list possessed an unceasing pursuit to locate and dissect deflated masculinity, crushed egos, and saying goodbye to the thing one loves most. Surprisingly, female directors had an enormous year in 2018 and they were at the forefront at perceiving that masculinity was in peril. Films such as Western, The Rider, You Were Never Really Here, Zama, and Private Life, all of which were directed by women, gave us a glimpse at what happens to a man when their masculinity is wounded. Egos were also susceptible to directors’ probing cameras this year, ripe for endless rumination. How can a priest continue to maintain a strong image when he’s slowly loosing his faith in First Reformed? The women in The Favourite care tremendously about their image and position, and will do whatever it takes to maintain it. An aging director in The Other Side of the Wind does things only his way, hardly listening to anyone within his circle, and the results are catastrophic. And the madman at the center of The House that Jack Built has the biggest ego of all, which eventually paves his way to enter Hell.

Here are my Top 30 Movies of 2018…