JR Late Night Blogs: JR Late Night Blogs: Movies of the Year 2019

2019 gave birth to many great and so amazing films. Making this year's movie list was, for me, really difficult. Too many films to mention but it all comes to which 10 have the most impact and, well, are the best for the past year. With narrative movies buzzing to zeitgeist, allow me to present my selection for Movies of the Year 2019.

Word of mouth can make great impact thereby influencing what people would line up in the cinemas. While Avengers: Endgame seems like last year's movie blockbuster, buzz was more on how superb the story, as well as the acting and direction, of the movies Joker and Parasite, two of some of my picks as the best of 2019, the later being my #1 Movie of 2019. It didn't take long for these two movies to be the talk of the world, through social media and box office and even the awards season circuit which rarely recognizes films of foreign nature and films based on comic books. The same two movies I highly recommend due to the messaging it evokes to the viewer. Some of this generation's greatest, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, also released movies last 2019 which may be long but still worth the watch. Martin would release his magnum opus on Netflix where I would also watch The Two Popes and Marriage Story. That's three entries from Netflix this 2019, in addition to last year's Roma. 2017 had 3 horror films. 2018 had 2 horror films. 2019 dwindled to just one horror film on my list. It was a battle between The Lighthouse, Midsommar, and Us for the last place but Jordan Peele's social commentary gets it. Comedy is dominant this 2019 and occupied much of my list. For the second year in a row, no animated film (yes, even Toy Story 4) makes the cut.

JR's MOVIES OF THE YEAR - 2019 METHODOLOGY:

Films included in the list must have been released on an international scale including the Philippines. Films that saw their release on an online streaming platform (such as Netflix) have also been included in this year's edition of the list, provided they are accessible in the Philippines. The selection of movies must have been released in the Philippines between 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 regardless if the film was released within the year 2018 in the United States or in any other country. To be qualified as a feature film, the length of the movie must be greater than an hour. No movie re-releases on HD or IMAX were included in the list (such movies had already been premiered in the past). Remakes of old films are allowed.

JR's Movies of the Year - 2019

Rank	Movies of the Year	Movie Genre	Month of PH Release

1	Parasite	Comedy	Aug 2019
2	Joker	Drama	Oct 2019
3	Once Upon A Time In Hollywood	Comedy	Aug 2019
4	Avengers: Endgame	Action	Apr 2019
5	The Irishman	Biography	Nov 2019 (Netflix)
6	Marriage Story	Drama	Dec 2019 (Netflix)
7	The Favourite	Comedy	Feb 2019
8	The Two Popes	Comedy	Dec 2019 (Netflix)
9	Knives Out	Mystery	Nov 2019
10	Us	Horror	Mar 2019

Get back to previous JR Late Night Blogs' Movies of the Year lists:

2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010

#1	PARASITE (August 2019)

Movie Genre:	Comedy
Director/s:	Bong Joon Ho
Producer/s:	Young-hwan Jang \| Bong Joon Ho \| Sin-ae Kwak \| Yang-kwon Moon
Writer/s:	Bong Joon Ho \| Jin Won Han
Distributors:	Neon
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	R R-13
Total Running Time:	2 hours, 12 minutes
Cast Overview:	Kang-ho Song as Kim Ki-taek, Sun-kyun Lee as Park Dong-ik, Yeo-jeong Jo as Park Yeon-kyo, Woo-sik Choi as Kim Ki-woo

"Korean Satirical Masterpiece on Social Classes"
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#2	JOKER (October 2019)

Movie Genre:	Drama
Director/s:	Todd Phillips
Producer/s:	Bradley Cooper \| Todd Phillips \| Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Writer/s:	Todd Phillips \| Scott Silver \| Bob Kane \| Bill Finger \| Jerry Robinson
Distributors:	Warner Bros.
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	R R-16
Total Running Time:	2 hours, 2 minutes
Cast Overview:	Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin, Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck

"Empathy for the Famed Comic Book Villain"
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#3	ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (August 2019)

Movie Genre:	Comedy
Director/s:	Quentin Tarantino
Producer/s:	David Heyman \| Shannon McIntosh \| Quentin Tarantino
Writer/s:	Quentin Tarantino
Distributors:	Sony Pictures Releasing
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	R R-16
Total Running Time:	2 hours, 41 minutes
Cast Overview:	Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate

"Welcome To The Golden Age of Hollywood"
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#4	AVENGERS: ENDGAME (April 2019)

Movie Genre:	Action
Director/s:	Anthony Russo \| Joe Russo
Producer/s:	Kevin Feige
Writer/s:	Christopher Markus \| Stephen McFeely \| Stan Lee \| Jack Kirby \| Joe Simon \| Steve Englehart \| Steve Gan \| Bill Mantlo \| Keith Giffen \| Jim Starlin \| Larry Lieber \| Don Heck
Distributors:	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	PG-13 PG
Total Running Time:	3 hours, 1 minute
Cast Overview:	Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk Chris Hemsworth as Thor

"Epic In The Grandest Proportions"
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#5	THE IRISHMAN (November 2019- Netflix)

Movie Genre:	Biography
Director/s:	Martin Scorsese
Producer/s:	Gerald Chamales \| Robert De Niro \| Randall Emmett \| Gabriele Israilovici \| Gaston Pavlovich \| Jane Rosenthal \| Martin Scorsese \| Emma Tillinger Koskoff \| Irwin Winkler
Writer/s:	Steven Zaillian \| Charles Brandt
Distributors:	Netflix
Netflix Rating:	16+
Total Running Time:	3 hours, 29 minutes
Cast Overview:	Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino

"Next Big Thing After The Godfather, Goodfellas and The Sopranos"
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#6	MARRIAGE STORY (December 2019 - Netflix)

Movie Genre:	Drama
Director/s:	Noah Baumbach
Producer/s:	Noah Baumbach \| David Heyman
Writer/s:	Noah Baumbach
Distributors:	Netflix
Netflix Rating:	16+
Total Running Time:	2 hours, 17 minutes
Cast Overview:	Adam Driver as Charlie Barber Scarlett Johansson as Nicole Barber Laura Dern as Nora Fanshaw

"Dramatic Look At The Complicated Process of Divorce"
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#7	THE FAVOURITE (February 2019)

Movie Genre:	Comedy
Director/s:	Yorgos Lanthimos
Producer/s:	Ceci Dempsey \| Ed Guiney \| Yorgos Lanthimos \| Lee Magiday
Writer/s:	Deborah Davis \| Tony McNamara
Distributors:	Fox Searchlight Pictures
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	R R-13
Total Running Time:	1 hour, 59 minutes
Cast Overview:	Olivia Colman as Queen Anne Emma Stone as Abigail Rachel Weisz as Lady Sarah

"An Exuberance of Treachery and Jealousy"
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#8	THE TWO POPES (December 2019 - Netflix)

Movie Genre:	Comedy
Director/s:	Fernando Meirelles
Producer/s:	Jonathan Eirich \| Dan Lin \| Tracey Seaward
Writer/s:	Anthony McCarten
Distributors:	Netflix
Netflix Rating:	16+
Total Running Time:	2 hours, 5 minutes
Cast Overview:	Anthony Hopkins as Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio / Pope Francis

"When Two Extremes Collide, Change and Compromise"
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#9	KNIVES OUT (November 2019)

Movie Genre:	Mystery
Director/s:	Rian Johnson
Producer/s:	Ram Bergman \| Rian Johnson
Writer/s:	Rian Johnson
Distributors:	Lionsgate
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	PG-13 PG
Total Running Time:	2 hours, 10 minutes
Cast Overview:	Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc Ana de Armas as Marta Cabrera Chris Evans as Ransom Drysdale

"Everybody Is A Suspect..."
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#10

(March 2019)

Movie Genre:	Horror
Director/s:	Jordan Peele
Producer/s:	Jason Blum \| Ian Cooper \| Sean McKittrick \| Jordan Peele
Writer/s:	Jordan Peele
Distributors:	Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: MTRCB Rating:	R R-16
Total Running Time:	1 hour, 56 minutes
Cast Overview:	Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide Wilson / Red Winston Duke as Gabe Wilson / Abraham Elisabeth Moss as Kitty Tyler / Dahlia

"The Duality of the Human Experience"
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2020 begins the new decade and with it, comes several movies worth anticipating. Marvel is set to begin post-Endgame with the movies Black Widow and Eternals. Several animated films that might finally break my list are Disney Pixar's Soul and Onward, Warner Bros.' Scoob or Nickelodeon's The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. On a more professional note, we see Christopher Nolan with his next movie Tenet, Steven Spielberg with West Side Story, and Denis Villeneuve with Dune. 2020 is bombarded with horror flicks such as The Invisible Man, Candyman, The Woman In The Window, the sequel Halloween Kills and the Jordan Peele produced movie, Antebellum. Maybe, Birds of Prey would be the next big thing after Joker. We will see how movies go this 2020.

This has been the 2019 Edition of JR Late Night Blogs' Movies of the Year.

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DATA SOURCES

All data used in the details of each film used in this blog are from the following sites: