With how low 2019 set expectations not just for its art but
for its world at large, it’s a matter of basic probability that there were
going to be a few pleasant surprises to make it to theatres and home streaming.
Not only that, but what made for pleasant surprises were quite varied, from
films that I had given hope on being any good to films that had potential value
that very few other contemporary releases could ever hope to carry, right down
to a couple that pretty much defy description. So, as we ease ourselves out of
the thick haze of frustration of the last couple lists, let’s take a look at
the top 10 most surprising films of 2019.
This film lands at the bottom of the list because it’s
pretty much the only ‘objective’ surprise on this list. It’s a surprising
effort by design, offering the audience a deliciously B-movie title and then delivering
a left-hook with a quite sobering and contemplative look at the very notion of
high-concept labelling, both fictional and factual. Aside from giving Sam
Elliott a major career highlight as the titular Man, who just lets woe and
regret hand on his shoulders in every single frame, Robert D. Krzykowski’s
examination of the man-made myth and how it ends up blurring reality makes for
the kind of cinema that’s worth thinking about. I mean, one of the bigger moods
of the 2010’s was how it felt like the pop culture icons we hold so dear are
not only still human but incredibly flawed humans at that, so this popping up in the final leg of the decade felt like it was the right message at the right
time.
Between the dog’s breakfast of an adaptation Crooked House,
the throbbing dullness of The Chaperone, and the fact that I have never had any
interest in checking out the original show this film follows up on, I had zero
faith in this film being anything close to watchable. And admittedly, owing to
my lack of enthusiasm about most costume dramas, I can’t say that I especially
loved this.
However, going in as a newcomer who didn’t think that highly
of Michael Engler’s direction and Julian Fellowes’ scripting especially, I had
at least some fun with it. The performances were engaging, the story was
a little ‘first-class-problems’ but still worked with its numerous subplots, and
even without having seen the source material, the vibe I got from it was quite
warm and celebratory, the kind of cinematic finale that I could actually see
fans of the show getting into.
Horror remakes tend to suck as a general rule. Being able to
take famous fictional murderers from their heavily era-dependent introductions
into the modern era is something that very few filmmakers can pull off; one
need only look at how hideously ratioed the efforts from Platinum Dunes have
been to see this in action. So when a film like this comes out, one that feels
like it’s actually taken a look around and seen what the current mood of the
audience is and what qualifies as ‘scary’, it’s extremely refreshing.
Yeah, it doesn’t carry all of the kitsch of the original
films, and I can easily see people missing Brad Dourif’s performance in the
main role too much to give this one a chance. But as a more tech-savvy take on
the initial murderous doll idea, and bringing in incredible villain voice actor
Mark Hamill to boot, it made for a very fun and spooky offering. It’s probably
making Charlie Brooker’s teeth itch that he didn’t try this take himself first,
and there’s definitely some head-tilting on the logistics of the toy itself,
but for a gambit that rarely sees positive returns, this is that rare success
that I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing turn into a new series.
The year of Peak Disney had basically killed my enthusiasm
for any of their live-action takes on their more classic material. Even beyond
the unholy trinity of Dumbo, Aladdin and The Lion King, films like Mary Poppins Returns showed that the cracks in the foundation were only starting to spread. Admittedly,
I am a pretty staunch defender of 2014’s Maleficent (the whole ‘true love’s
kiss’ flip was done better there than in Frozen, plain and simple), but that
still wasn’t enough to make me look forward to this thing.
In the face of all that, this film being merely watchable
would’ve been a minor miracle, so it actually being quite entertaining was an
even bigger triumph. While I somewhat get the other takes I’ve read up on this,
how it tries to ‘both side’ racial genocide and how its attempt to incorporate
fake news rhetoric into a fantasy setting was a little tone-deaf, I also think
that this film deserves at least a little more credit than that. As a
furthering of this new Maleficent and Queen Aurora’s characterisation, it holds
up pretty damn well, and their respective places in the larger war story at
least feel honest in how war is hell and while the higher-ups may want to push
for it, the rest of us would rather not. And considering we’re not even a week
in the new decade and we’re already in fear of another war breaking out, I’d
say it’s got enough merit to be given a pass.
Michael Bay, the filmmaker that has become the punching bag
of basically anyone who regularly talks about movies in any capacity,
closed out his most memetic decade on what is honestly his strongest note. This
is the kind of film that was always going to be heavily divisive, as the reason
to like it and the reason to hate it are one and the same: It’s Bay minus any
semblance of a leash. It’s chaotic, it’s juvenile, it zooms through the
audience’s eyes at ludicrous speed… and it’s the most fun that the man’s work
has been in a long time.
Teaming up with Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
had to have been a contributing factor to that, as not only did they give Michael
a loose but stable narrative framework that he could stick to without much
issue, their pre-existing chemistry with star Ryan Reynolds made for one of Michael
Bay’s most likeable action leads of his entire career. But I think the main
reason I wound up liking this film overall is that, unlike basically all
of his Transformers movies, I can actually recall individual scenes and action
beats from this film weeks after watching it. And not just “I’m directly below
the enemy scrotum” type shit either, like stuff I actively want to
recollect.
I was way too kind to this film in my official
write-up. I freely admit that I took its production talent and story too much
at face value, looking at this story about a domineering amusement park owner
trying to buy out competing circuses and seeing a big allegory for the Walt
Disney Company itself. However, it really hasn’t held up that well in my memory
since doing that write-up, as the extent of Disney’s monopolising only grew as
the year went on, it made me realise just how mercenary this entire situation
is.
So why is this film on this list? Because, while I’m
pulling back my own entertainment that I got out of it, I honestly think this
film could end up serving another purpose with all this real-world context in
mind. This is a Disney film, where a Walt Disney analogue is the main villain,
meaning that Disney released a movie basically ribbing on themselves that they
themselves see all the profit from. This is what put the Peak in The
Year Of Peak Disney.
I see this as less of a film and more as a cultural artifact,
a Rosetta Stone of sorts for just how fucking weird the cinematic landscape
was at the turn of the decade. I genuinely believe that for future generations
trying to figure out what in the shit happened in 2019, this film could prove
quite valuable insight. Not as film, but as Disney pulling some capitalist
Emmanuel Goldstein shit.
#4:
Love Death & Robots: Beyond The Aquila Rift
Have I mentioned that I don’t watch that much television
these days? Like, a TV show really click with me, it has do something truly
exceptional, something that can grab my stunted attention span and hold onto
it. And holy shit, Love Death & Robots is absolutely one of those
exceptions, with this episode serving as the paragon for just how masterful
this series can get.
A revival of old-school Heavy Metal animation aesthetic,
this space-faring psycho-thriller is what every short film should aspire to be:
Quick, to-the-point, and packed with enough visual flair and textual resonance
to make it apparent why it exists just as a short feature. The familiar
but amazing visualised story on offer here is right in my wheelhouse, and as
far as showing what modern CGI is capable, it ranks up there with Inception,
Interstellar and Doctor Strange in terms of the greatest showcases of the
entire decade. I also fucking love the final act, with mind-blowing
reveal after mind-blowing reveal that, on re-watching it, actually turns the
extremely gratuitous sex scenes into a genuine mindfrag once it sets in just
what the main character is sticking his dick into.
I’ve probably rewatched that final act more than any other
TV episode I have ever seen, and it hits me like a brick every
single time. And in case all of this isn’t enough to explain this episode’s
place on this list, I’ll put it like this: For the majority of 2019, this sat
on my shortlist for my favourite films of the year. Yes, films of the
year, because I genuinely think this is strong enough to hold its own alongside
its cinematic siblings. I wound up seeing 20 films over the course of the year
that just managed to inch it out of the running, but the fact that any episode
of a show could win me over that hard just had to be recognised in some way.
Hence, its inclusion on this list.
Speaking of what Tim Miller got up to in 2019. Terminator
for me had already struck out three times between Rise Of The Machines,
Salvation and Genisys, and I had given up all hope of there ever being another
great or even decent entry in the series. Yeah, they brought back
Schwarzenegger again and Linda Hamilton was returning as well, but that wasn’t
nearly enough to raise my hopes for a worthy follow-up to two of the greatest
sci-fi films of all time. And then I actually watched the thing.
Tim Miller’s approach to CGI/live-action melding held true,
making for some very eye-popping sequences and fight scenes, aided even further
by how the writers had pretty much the perfect approach to rebooting the
series yet again. It retcons basically everything after Judgment Day out of the
canon, and yet it doesn’t entirely abandon the more intriguing ideas that the
interim films came up with; it resisted the urge to throw out the cyborg baby
with the irradiated bathwater.
Add to that how it tapped into the low-key feminist vein
that helped make Judgment Day so fucking brilliant, and how the risks it took
with the story only ended up bringing up legitimate questions about what makes
the franchise what it is, and you’ve got a film that may have been badly
marketed but genuinely worth checking out.
Okay, let’s get a few things out of the way first. Yes, the
bulk of the film is still underwhelming. Yes, it did backstep a lot of the bold
moves that The Last Jedi made, to the point where it follows The House That Jack Built for films that were seemingly designed solely to appeal to people
who frequent the seedier subreddits out there. And yes, the backlash towards it in
the short time since it came out has reached legit Justice League territory in
how much denial is wrapped around the audience’s reactions to it.
But I’d honestly consider all of that mess to be part of the
reason why this film is on the list this high. For the film to get anything
right at all in the face of all this, even in retrospect, is nothing short of
miraculous, and I genuinely think that this film did work at points.
Specifically, once it reaches the final act, where the tension and stakes go to
unprecedented levels and the visual imagery of the Jedi and the Sith gives the atmosphere
that this is something truly climactic. Even with how underwhelming most of the
film is, once it hits the final showdown between Rey and Palpatine… honestly,
it made me realise that I might have actually been a fan of the series this
whole time, despite my protests.
I grew up in the era of the prequels, and I watched and
rewatched them to almost embarrassing extents, and I definitely vibed with the
original trilogy as well. I always chalked up my fringe status of the series as
a whole to me not being as die-hard as everyone else, but with this film, it
finally dawned on me: Why is it a bad thing that I don’t outright loathe a
piece of cinema?
Why is it a bad thing that I don’t need hindsight to stop beating up on the prequels, which I still maintain aren't that bad? Why is it a bad thing
that I applauded Rian Johnson trying to take the series into new directions
with Last Jedi? And why is it a bad thing that, when Kylo Ren’s character arc
reached its conclusion with this film, I recognised how it mirrored the arcs of
Luke and Anakin Skywalker before him to the point where it made this feel like
a proper conclusion to all three trilogies?
There’s also the sequel trilogy’s main mood of how
banding together and holding onto hope in the face of oppressive odds is how we
can finally win the day felt especially poignant, as the end of 2019 found me in
a myriad of existential crises to do with my life, my family, my country, and
even this blog’s continued existence. It may have taken a while to get to the
good stuff, but with how much I needed it at that time, I can’t deny how
much it won me over in the end.
How do you top one of the biggest cinematic fiascos of the entire
decade? Well, how about a film that breaks any semblance of a scoring system?
Yes, this movie is legitimately that fucking bizarre, which is already quite
surprising since no-one expected anything out of this movie after the quite tepid
reception to the first one. And it’s definitely a marked improvement over that
original in almost every conceivable way, from its visuals to the performances
to the music to the sense of humour.
But it also resulted in one of the single biggest mindfrags
I’ve ever experienced, to the point where to this day I still can’t figure out
if this film is legitimately good or if it’s so-bad-it’s-good. It’s like my
reaction to Volcanion And The Mechanical Marvel times a thousand, where it
engaged with me through being genuinely funny as well as being so goddamn tacky
that it’s impossible not to laugh at it. I mean, they actually included Baby Shark in
the soundtrack; that’s the level of not-giving-a-shit we’re dealing with here.
It’s like a trash movie Trojan Horse’d as an animated kids’
film, and as someone who loves advocating for watching movies ironically, I can’t
help but admire just how strange this is. No matter how wonky or cringey or
baffling it got, it was never not entertaining and I spent the entire running
time with a big goofy grin on my face. I have equal confidence in recommending
this film to my younger siblings and to my more subversive mates who want a
flick to put on and laugh at over a few drinks, and it’s extremely rare for a family
film to fit that criteria, especially nowadays when family fare is less likely
to be as unintentionally nightmarish as it could get back in the 80’s and 90’s.
It is truly a film that has to be seen to be believed, and being able to
recommend this in good faith at all is easily the most surprising reaction I
had all year.
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