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.