Well, another year has passed, and like many before I spent probably too much time being distracted by movies and music - time that I probably should have spent working on my thesis project or trying harder to save the world from climate change or something like that. But to many of us that truly love film and music we know that consuming these mediums is not just a distraction but rather a practice that helps to distill truths about the world for us in an emotionally impactful way. So in order to to preserve the truths I have come across through film and music in the past year I feel compelled again to record the movies and music that meant the most to me.
Of course the end of 2019 brings not only the end of a year, but an entire decade of countless great movies and musical releases. I'll always remember the 2010's as the decade that I came of age both literally and in terms of my taste in movies and music. From my high school days when my knowledge of music expanded exponentially after I got my iPod Classic to my college years when I discovered the world of independent cinema and fell in love with film as an art form, the 2010's were undoubtedly formative years for me that held many memorable movie and music releases. If I had the time I would love to list out all of the releases that meant the absolute most to me during these years. But to be brief, I'll focus on the releases that have been most on my mind recently, those of 2019 (though if you know me well you can probably guess that Arcade Fire had my favorite album of the 2010's with The Suburbs and Boyhood would come in as my favorite movie of the decade).
Read on to learn my top film and music releases of 2019.
Movies
2019 was a pretty solid year for movies for me. There were two in particular that I found to be outstanding.
My favorite film of the year was The Last Black Man in San Francisco. This is an underrated gem of a movie that probably would've slipped under my radar if it didn't happen to be playing at an indie theater in Columbia, Missouri as I was traveling through with my family. The film tells the story of a young black man who is trying to protect a house in San Francisco that has been in his family for generations, after gentrification in the city has driven out almost all of the black community there. The film's beautiful cinematography and score and heart-wrenching narrative create an affecting tale that reveals how our society excludes, and erases the cultural history of, racial minorities. But it is much more than a film about race. As a story about a particular place that is both deeply rooted in a love for that place and mournful for what it has become, the film gets to the heart of the ultimate paradox of being an American: that for every ounce of love and pride we have for the place we call home comes an awareness and sense of shame for the evils that have been committed against certain groups of people throughout its history and that continue today. We love it but we hate it, and hate it even more because we love it.
My second favorite film and other movie that I loved of 2019 was Parasite. This South Korean black comedy and thriller leaves you absolutely entertained and captivated from start to finish while instilling a powerful message. Telling the story of a poor family who attempt to con their way into a better life by infiltrating the household of a wealthy family as trusted workers, the film is both stinging satire of the logic of capitalism and the oppressive class system it creates as well as a heartfelt exploration of the bond created by family ties. It is also the latest and likely best work of director and co-writer Bong Joon-ho who is emerging as a master of enthralling anti-capitalist thrillers.
My third favorite film of the year was A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , the moving Mr. Rogers sort-of-biopic which, like 2018's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, did a wonderful job of revealing the iconic children's show host's brilliance and the wisdom he transmitted that we didn't realize we still need. I would give my forth best film slot to Little Women. Though this was not my favorite film adaptation of the classic novel, I give props to writer-director Greta Gerwig for her boldness in crafting a modern feminist reworking of the story (and for completely forgoing a linear narrative structure, whether or not this worked to the film's advantage). At number five I would place Uncut Gems, the Safdie Brothers' scintillating and chaotic portrait of addiction to profit embodied by a surprisingly stylish Adam Sandler as a conniving jeweler.
My sixth favorite film of the year was 1917, which was a groundbreaking achievement in immersive cinema, capturing the essence of World War I warfare within seemingly a single shot and near real time. I would give seventh place to Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach's tender and charming ode to family love told through the lens of a divorce. My eighth favorite film was Midsommar. Though I'm not usually a fan of horror and this film was pushing it on the amount of despair and misery I can tolerate to watch in a movie, I found it to be thematically interesting and a highly compelling entry in the horror genre in the way that it built a sense of dread through a slow-moving narrative and within bright, open spaces. My ninth favorite film of the year was Jojo Rabbit. This film achieved the impossible, turning a story about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into one of the most delightful and hilarious films of the year, but it is also an incisive satire of nationalist fanaticism perfectly crafted for the age of Trumpism. Rounding out my top ten favorite films of 2019 is Under the Silver Lake, which technically was released in 2018, but I will count it since it premiered theatrically in the United States this past year. Although this film polarized critics and audiences for its confusing and off the wall story of a man stumbling upon a world of conspiracy when taking it upon himself to investigate the disappearance of a neighbor, I found it to be a captivating delight. Though I still don't understand all/most of what occurred, the film felt like a puzzle that you could watch again and again and find new things in it each time. It also struck a nerve with me for its exploration of the human desire to find meaning and understand the world at all costs and its suggestion that the reality behind the facade of what we see in our everyday lives is much stranger than we could ever fully comprehend.
There are still plenty of films from 2019 that I haven't seen but may have made my list if they did. Most notably, I am very interested to see Terrence Malick's drama about an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II, A Hidden Life. However, this list represents the best of what I saw and I think the films on it are all pretty exceptional.
Music
2019 was also a good year for music for me with some of my favorite artists releasing great new works and several artists that I wasn't familiar with before releasing music I loved as well. The following details my favorite albums and songs of the year. As usual, my lists are fairly limited to the genre of music I most commonly listen too, indie rock, and I'm sure there were many fantastic albums and songs beyond this genre that fell outside of my radar because of this.
My favorite album of the year was Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend. The band's first release since 2013's highly acclaimed album Modern Vampires of the City (and my favorite album of that year), I had high expectations for this album but luckily it didn't disappoint. Unlike Modern Vampires's tightly woven tracks based around a spiritually probing narrative about coming of age within a cruel world, Father of the Bride is a sprawling double album that dips into many themes and musical genres. Some of these genres are entirely new to the band's repertoire, such as a set of country-inspired duets between Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and singer Danielle Haim. In many ways it is like their White Album, brilliant and artistically crafted but far-ranging and diverse. However, there is an important motif that ties the album together - that of marriage. Lyrically, the songs form a subtle arc towards the ending of a marriage that wasn't meant to be. A bittersweet progression to be sure, but one that feels somehow reassuring, as if to say that although all good things must come to an end, the beauty that has been created will remain eternal.
My next two favorite albums of 2019 were both by the band Big Thief, a group I discovered by chance late in the year when I woke up to them playing on the radio one morning. The alternative-folk band had a massive year, releasing two astonishing albums that were both hailed by critics. The first, U.F.O.F. (which is short for "UFO friend"), is a collection of songs that despite exuding an otherworldliness in tone and theme simply explore the beautiful and terrible magic of everyday life. Their second album of the year, Two Hands, is more grounded and raw, the songs visceral documents of the pain yet wonder of life, carried through lead singer and lead songwriter Adrianne Lenker's emotionally laid-bare lyrics and delivery. I would give the edge to Two Hands as my second favorite album of the year, as the songs feel slightly more consistent in quality to me, but both are spectacular albums.
Two Hands also features my favorite song of the year, the emotive six-minute rocker "Not" which lyrically is literally a description of all the things that something is not. Though it could be considered a song about nothing, my take is that it is more so about something so profound that it is easier to describe what it is not than to try to put what it is into words, and therefore is a song about something that means everything. Take a listen here:
My sixth favorite album of the year was Sharon Van Etten's mature take on synth pop, Remind Me Tomorrow, that finds the singer reflecting on her new role as a mother among other topics. I give seventh place to Doja Cat whose playful, sex-positive rap-pop tunes were perfectly showcased on her sophmore album Hot Pink. My eighth favorite album was Deerhunter's eclectic futurist rock record, Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? Rounding out my top ten list of albums of the year were In the Morse Code of Break Lights by The New Pornographers at number nine and Reader as Detective by Generationals at number ten, albums by two bands that have been among my favorites for years that though weren't among their very best showed that they're each still going strong and doing their thing.
Read on to learn my top film and music releases of 2019.
Movies
2019 was a pretty solid year for movies for me. There were two in particular that I found to be outstanding.
My favorite film of the year was The Last Black Man in San Francisco. This is an underrated gem of a movie that probably would've slipped under my radar if it didn't happen to be playing at an indie theater in Columbia, Missouri as I was traveling through with my family. The film tells the story of a young black man who is trying to protect a house in San Francisco that has been in his family for generations, after gentrification in the city has driven out almost all of the black community there. The film's beautiful cinematography and score and heart-wrenching narrative create an affecting tale that reveals how our society excludes, and erases the cultural history of, racial minorities. But it is much more than a film about race. As a story about a particular place that is both deeply rooted in a love for that place and mournful for what it has become, the film gets to the heart of the ultimate paradox of being an American: that for every ounce of love and pride we have for the place we call home comes an awareness and sense of shame for the evils that have been committed against certain groups of people throughout its history and that continue today. We love it but we hate it, and hate it even more because we love it.
 |
| The Last Black Man in San Francisco |
My second favorite film and other movie that I loved of 2019 was Parasite. This South Korean black comedy and thriller leaves you absolutely entertained and captivated from start to finish while instilling a powerful message. Telling the story of a poor family who attempt to con their way into a better life by infiltrating the household of a wealthy family as trusted workers, the film is both stinging satire of the logic of capitalism and the oppressive class system it creates as well as a heartfelt exploration of the bond created by family ties. It is also the latest and likely best work of director and co-writer Bong Joon-ho who is emerging as a master of enthralling anti-capitalist thrillers.
 |
| Parasite |
My sixth favorite film of the year was 1917, which was a groundbreaking achievement in immersive cinema, capturing the essence of World War I warfare within seemingly a single shot and near real time. I would give seventh place to Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach's tender and charming ode to family love told through the lens of a divorce. My eighth favorite film was Midsommar. Though I'm not usually a fan of horror and this film was pushing it on the amount of despair and misery I can tolerate to watch in a movie, I found it to be thematically interesting and a highly compelling entry in the horror genre in the way that it built a sense of dread through a slow-moving narrative and within bright, open spaces. My ninth favorite film of the year was Jojo Rabbit. This film achieved the impossible, turning a story about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into one of the most delightful and hilarious films of the year, but it is also an incisive satire of nationalist fanaticism perfectly crafted for the age of Trumpism. Rounding out my top ten favorite films of 2019 is Under the Silver Lake, which technically was released in 2018, but I will count it since it premiered theatrically in the United States this past year. Although this film polarized critics and audiences for its confusing and off the wall story of a man stumbling upon a world of conspiracy when taking it upon himself to investigate the disappearance of a neighbor, I found it to be a captivating delight. Though I still don't understand all/most of what occurred, the film felt like a puzzle that you could watch again and again and find new things in it each time. It also struck a nerve with me for its exploration of the human desire to find meaning and understand the world at all costs and its suggestion that the reality behind the facade of what we see in our everyday lives is much stranger than we could ever fully comprehend.
There are still plenty of films from 2019 that I haven't seen but may have made my list if they did. Most notably, I am very interested to see Terrence Malick's drama about an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II, A Hidden Life. However, this list represents the best of what I saw and I think the films on it are all pretty exceptional.
Music
2019 was also a good year for music for me with some of my favorite artists releasing great new works and several artists that I wasn't familiar with before releasing music I loved as well. The following details my favorite albums and songs of the year. As usual, my lists are fairly limited to the genre of music I most commonly listen too, indie rock, and I'm sure there were many fantastic albums and songs beyond this genre that fell outside of my radar because of this.
My favorite album of the year was Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend. The band's first release since 2013's highly acclaimed album Modern Vampires of the City (and my favorite album of that year), I had high expectations for this album but luckily it didn't disappoint. Unlike Modern Vampires's tightly woven tracks based around a spiritually probing narrative about coming of age within a cruel world, Father of the Bride is a sprawling double album that dips into many themes and musical genres. Some of these genres are entirely new to the band's repertoire, such as a set of country-inspired duets between Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and singer Danielle Haim. In many ways it is like their White Album, brilliant and artistically crafted but far-ranging and diverse. However, there is an important motif that ties the album together - that of marriage. Lyrically, the songs form a subtle arc towards the ending of a marriage that wasn't meant to be. A bittersweet progression to be sure, but one that feels somehow reassuring, as if to say that although all good things must come to an end, the beauty that has been created will remain eternal.
 |
| Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend |
Two Hands also features my favorite song of the year, the emotive six-minute rocker "Not" which lyrically is literally a description of all the things that something is not. Though it could be considered a song about nothing, my take is that it is more so about something so profound that it is easier to describe what it is not than to try to put what it is into words, and therefore is a song about something that means everything. Take a listen here:
My fourth favorite album of 2019 was the Karen O and Danger Mouse collab Lux Prima, a gorgeous album that centers around humans' innate desire for and dependence on love. Coming in at number five is Billie Eilish's sulking minimalist hit album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, an album that plays out like a nightmare infused with the fears of today's youth but one that is somehow also impossible to turn your ears away from. Billie also gets my award for album cover of the year for the perfectly fitting though slightly-terrifying picture that fronts this album.
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| When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish |
*****
That sums up my favorite movies and albums of 2019. A new decade brings with it vast expanses of new movies and music to explore. Hopefully some of it will be as meaningful as the best releases from the last ten years, or at least provide something to pass the time while we all wait for Richard Linklater's adaptation of the musical Merrily We Roll Along to be shot over the next 20 years.