We’re nearly halfway into January 2020, so it feels like the perfect time to sit down, relax, and enjoy yet another recap of 2019! I know you’ve been read plenty of top 10 lists already, so I’ll spare you another list with the usual suspects, examining the class warfare of “Parasite” or the tragic self-reflection of “The Irishman.” Instead, I decided to take a look back at some of the most unforgettable or soon to be iconic moments from 2019. This gave me a chance to not only examine some of the best scenes of my favorite films of the year, but also just ones that were absolutely bonkers and hard to shake, regardless of the film’s end result. Proceed with caution though, as there are plenty of spoilers ahead!
READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2019 You Didn’t See
And for those looking to see a compilation of my favorite films of the year, you can watch a video countdown that finally brings the worlds of Ellie Goulding and “Uncut Gems” together.
“6 Underground” – Magnets
It’s hard to think of a more politically backwards, morally egregious film released this year than Michael Bay’s “6 Underground.” Bay’s first foray into streaming saw him operating on a “Transformers” size budget, but with the hard-R freedom of his 2013 satire “Pain & Gain” and his 2003 masterpiece of mayhem and carnage, “Bad Boys II.” But who wants to watch a Michael Bay movie for political correctness or you know, basic understanding of what a government coup is, when instead you witness the most creative on-screen deaths since the “Final Destination” franchise (a bullet shot through a man’s cigar before blowing his brains out is hands down one of the most bonkers things I’ve ever witnessed in a mainstream action movie). The film is stacked with classic Bay set pieces, including a 20 minute car chase through the streets of Florence and a base jumping foot chase on scaffolds, but it’s the films climactic gravity and logic defying sequence on board a billionaires ship that gives us the director operating at peak Bayhem. If you’ve ever watched a Michael Bay movie and thought “this movie needs a giant fucking magnet that can attract all the nameless henchmen money can buy,” then this is your movie. In all seriousness, Bay is derided for his uninspired top 40’s music supervision and casual racism, but he’s also one of the best action directors alive. Michael Mann, John Woo, and Kathryn Bigelow can concoct an action set piece with masterful precision and balletic technical skill, but nobody sees the world like Michael Bay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq8ke7Bqau0
“Ad Astra” – Father/Son Reunion
Even though “Ad Astra” suffered a poorly marketed release at the beginning of the fall, inevitably being lost in the shuffle of other awards friendly films, it’s still seen its fair share of praise for aspects like Brad Pitt’s haunting, remarkably subdued performance, Hoyte von Hoytema’s gorgeous cinematography, and Max Richter’s evocative score. One thing that seems to get left out a lot is the film’s secret weapon: Tommy Lee Jones. One of the most consistently reliable and effortlessly interesting actors we have, Jones appears only in flickers of memory and photos throughout most of the film, until his father/son reunion in the last act. It’s a scene that could have been many things (too maudlin, too creepy), but in the hands of director James Gray, it’s a delicate tightrope of suspense and emotional catharsis. There’s something so wonderfully detailed about Jones throughout the scene. It’s the only true glimpse we’ll get of the unstable astronaut gone AWOL, and Jones gives us just enough to tell a lifetime’s worth of information. The shiftiness in his eyes keeps us guessing, and when we see where the scene is building to, it’s all the more devastating as we’re left with a man who’s really lived in isolation his whole life and is too far gone to ever rebuild the life he left behind.
“Ash Is The Purest White” – YMCA
Jia Zhangke’s heartbreaking, sprawling tale of loyalty and love lost set against the backdrop of China’s past and ever-changing present was one of the most criminally underrated films of 2019. There are countless scenes in the film that could be mentioned here, from the former lover’s hotel reunion to the bone-crunching street brawl, but for me it’s the “YMCA” dance scene that really lingers. It’s a surprising moment of reprieve early on in the film that sees the film’s central lovers (Liao Fan and a sorely overlooked Zhao Tao) at their romantic peak, blissfully unaware of the downfall ahead of them. It’s a classic calm before the storm moment, except this time it’s set to one of the most globally recognizable, culturally significant songs of the 20th century. On the surface, it’s fun and brimming with life, but in hindsight, it’s one of the most devastating scenes in the film. The pure ecstasy of being in love and feeling untouchable becoming a memory of a person you once were and the love you once felt, now a numbness that’s turned you cold.
“Her Smell” – Heaven
Two of the most difficult films to make are films about musicians, and films about addicts. They both can fall into any number of clichés, and even at their most authentic, often feel overly familiar. Alex Ross Perry decided to tackle both stories over the course of a sprawling runtime told through five intimate chapters that feel increasingly claustrophobic and emotionally devastating. While really all five of these sequences could constitute as a single long scene that would qualify for this list, it’s the films fourth chapter and one moment in particular that cemented the film as Perry’s finest film to date. If the first three chapters of the film showed us the self-destructive side of increasingly unstable rockstar Becky Something (a career-defining performance by Elisabeth Moss), then the fourth chapter offered us and her a sigh of relief. No longer in the confines of a concert’s backstage halls or a particularly tumultuous studio session, we’re with Becky Something in the wake of her sobriety. We finally get to see the real Becky Something. We see her uncomfortable in her own skin, ashamed of herself, but still unwilling to fully accept responsibility. I’ve honestly never seen the painful discomfort of an addict sitting vulnerably with themselves for the first time in their adult lives, portrayed so authentically. Growing up with an alcoholic mother, I’ve witnessed those moments too many times to recall, but I had never seen it honestly embodied like this. A woman whose life was once defined by chaos and a ferocious, untameable energy has to start over. She has to open herself up to people without the aid of anything to make her feel more comfortable in her own skin. It’s a painful sequence, and this excerpt with her daughter at the piano, is one of the most moving moments of the year.
“A Hidden Life” – Sacrifice
The first 45 minutes of Terrence Malick’s so-called “return to form” “A Hidden Life” plays out for the most part like classic Malick, or at least the Malick we’ve come to know so well this decade. That’s not a slight, as I think Malick is, even at his most tedious, one of our most innovative and important directors. But it’s really the film’s second half that reminds you how fucking great Malick can be. Maybe we took him for granted because we weren’t used to seeing him work at such a fast clip as we did these past few years. Maybe “The Tree of Life” was so influential – arguably the most influential film of the decade – that seeing his work repurposed and adapted by so many other filmmakers created an unearned resentment towards Malick himself. Whatever the case, “A Hidden Life” isn’t the return to form so many critics lazily labeled it as. Malick didn’t go off the rails for decades, making impersonal films for a check, he just discovered digital and realized he could shoot the way he always wanted to on a much smaller budget, resulting in a suddenly prolific stage in the notoriously unprolific director’s career. “A Hidden Life” is maybe his most personal film to date – a continuation of his own internal battle with faith and war – that saw him operating at the same level of epic mastery as “The Thin Red Line.” The scene isn’t available online – and honestly shouldn’t be, as it would be a major spoiler – but the ending is an absolute knockout. If you can see it in theaters, seek it out on the biggest screen possible.
