Ten hits from the first half of 2019
A new tradition has started in recent years whereby movie critics rate the best films of the first half of the year.
Is it because we can’t wait until Dec. 31 to start choosing our Top 10 favourites? That may be part of it. There are a lot of us who want to speak our minds, as Jordan Ruimy found with his poll of 150 critics at worldofreel.com
I think, though, the urge to list and celebrate comes from a realization that all too often, many great films get released in the early part of the year, only to be forgotten as the rush of summer blockbusters and fall Oscar contenders that arrive in the second half.
So here I offer up my own list of the Top 10 best movies of the first six months of 2019 — and I’m cheating a bit, because a couple of these opened in the first week of July.
Unless otherwise indicated, most of these films are now on the second-run circuit or soon to be available via streaming and/ or DVD:
Amazing Grace (Sydney Pollack): A glorious remembrance of the power and glory of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul who left the planet last year. This long-thwarted 1972 documentary places us in a L.A. church filled with the singer’s friends, family and fans who, over two hot January nights 47 years ago, were elevated to the heights. Franklin and her fellow musicians and testifiers are shown recording her classic album, also called “Amazing Grace” — a live gospel platter that nevertheless sold like a pop hit. The film’s all about music, praising the Lord and loving Aretha and her incredible voice, best known for such roofraisers as “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Aretha’s father describes his daughter as a “stone singer” who has “that intangible something that’s hard to describe.” So true!
Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller): The historic first moon landing of 1969 unfolds in cinéma vérité reality and reveals, with IMAX size and thunder, not just the bravery of the three astronauts, but the skill, ingenuity and tenacity of the thousands of people back on Earth who contributed to the moon landing’s success. So many things could have gone wrong — as fatal NASA accidents before and after this mission show. But this time, almost everything went spectacularly right. What comes through in “Apollo 11,” as much as the boldness of achieving JFK’s moon-race challenge, is the teamwork and dedication that made it happen. And it raises a question, in the words of author Tom Wolfe’s astro lingo: Do we still have the right stuff ?
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde): It makes good — and also bad, but in a good way — on its advance billing as a girl-powered “Superbad.” Kaitlyn Dever and “Lady Bird’s” Beanie Feldstein star as disillusioned A-students Amy and Molly, who regret having spent their high school years studying and sucking up to teachers. They set out to set things right, by doing a lot of things wrong in a single night. If this was all “Booksmart” was about, it wouldn’t be much more than a gender-flipped version of the testosterone-fuelled male comedies
that normally dominate this genre. But this directing debut by Olivia Wilde, who hasn’t always had the best acting gigs (“Life Itself,” anyone?), is clever about playing the fool and wise to the ways of teen girls. There’s a lot of heart to “Booksmart.” (Still in regular theatres.)
Carmine Street Guitars (Ron Mann): A doc like this might normally be a eulogy for fading analog traditions in digital times. In the hands of Toronto’s Ron Mann (“Grass,” “Altman”), though, it’s another of the filmmaker’s affectionate takes on alternate modes of existence. Mann acquaints us with Rick Kelly, a custom guitar maker (the technical term is luthier) whose Greenwich Village music shop has long been a shrine for musicians and other six-string savants. Gentrification is happening all around, as a visitor laments, and the once-vibrant neighbourhood music scene is retreating into memory. But Kelly, a youthful and cheerful 70ish, holds his ground and transfixes our attention. The film may be more about yesterday than tomorrow, but it feels as fresh as today. (Now available on AppleTV —formerly iTunes — with additional music.)
Firecrackers (Jasmin Mozaffari): An elemental story, with washed-out hues, restless camera work and sandpaper grain reminiscent of Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey,” which had a similar trajectory of seeking freedom from stifling lives. Yet Mozaffari’s film boasts far stronger characters and performances, especially from its two leads: best friends Lou (Michaela Kurimsky)
and Chantal (Karena Evans), who desperately want to trade their blinkered existence in small-town Canada for New York’s bright lights. Lou, flamehaired and impulsive, and Chantal, dark-haired and reckless, both on the cusp of 20 and quick to cuss, have saved up the cash they earned as chambermaids in the rundown motel owned by Chantal’s aunt. Just one night to go before they hit the road, but even though time is on their side, fate doesn’t appear to be.
The Fireflies Are Gone (Sébastien Pilote): A rebel without a chord finds music in unexpected places. So much happens almost subliminally in this simmering small-town Quebec character study, it makes you want to watch it again immediately to check your reactions. Such as the eyeblink moment between restless teen Léo (Karelle Tremblay, rocking) and her older musician friend Steve (Pierre-Luc Brillant, rolling) where we realize the story isn’t following the usual coming-of-age path. The film’s a metaphor not only for growing up but also of a changing world, transformations mirrored in the music: Philippe Brault’s lush original score suggests romance and drama; eclectic pop selections from Rush, Arcade Fire and Tommy James & The Shondells seek to set the mind as free as those elusive title fireflies. (Opens July 5, TIFF Bell Lightbox)
High Life (Claire Denis): With nods to the space epics of Kubrick, Tarkovsky and Nolan, French auteur Denis boldly goes into a popular movie genre in a way that now looks like prophecy.
In the months since the film’s première at TIFF 2018, the world has had its first glimpse of a cosmic black hole, which resembles the one being chased by “High Life’s” astral voyagers. Boldface talents Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth and André Benjamin (alias OutKast’s André 3000) star in this English-language debut for Denis, which is set on a spaceship in some nottoo-distant future. Few films capture the isolation and wonder of space travel the way this one does, especially its sublime evocation of what entering a black hole might do to a human body and mind. As always with Denis, look for intensity rather than clarity from her storytelling. The Last Black Man in San
Francisco (Joe Talbot): An affecting ode to San Francisco and the universal urge to find a place to call home. Director Talbot and actor Jimmie Fails, besties since childhood, poetically co-write drawing on Fails’ family memories, blending images and music for a bittersweet tribute to their hometown via the disputed ownership of a Victorian house. Jonathan Majors co-stars as Jimmie’s only real friend, an artist and aspiring playwright who wants to capture the sound and soul of the city, at a time when gentrification threatens equating “old” with “bad.” The winner of two major prizes at Sundance 2019, the film also has one of the year’s best lines about everybody’s love-hate relationship with their personal geography: “You don’t get to hate it unless you love it.” (Opens July 5, TIFF Bell Lightbox). The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg): A relationship drama titled for an enigmatic painting that fascinates the film’s central couple, Julie and Anthony (Honor Swinton Byrne and Tom Burke), as it does British writer/director Hogg. Her use of long takes and unspoken secrets bring to mind the novels of Patricia Highsmith (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”), who had a similar affinity for menace behind facades. “The Souvenir” is a masterful portrait in its own right, depicting love as an addiction. We gradually learn, via the insinuation of the decade-older Anthony into filmmaker Julie’s world (and her bed), that selfawareness is not her strong suit. Swinton Byrne and Burke make for one of the year’s most intriguing screen couples, although this is a romance based on anxiety, narcissism and opportunism rather than genuine affection.
Us (Jordan Peele): Long-suppressed American underclass resentment has finally been unleashed — and with murderous intent. The movie’s shadowy marauding doppelgangers are dressed in working-class overalls coloured for blood, but also for the U.S. red states that vote against so-called “elites.” Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke are affluent Adelaide and Gabe Wilson, who, along with their offspring Zora and Jason (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex), are anticipating a beach holiday in Santa Cruz, Calif. However, before two hours have passed, there will be a survival battle that will chill the blood, boggle the mind, send rabbits scattering and forever alter your take on the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and NWA’s “F--k Tha Police.” You might also want to rethink faddish home-listening devices.