Well, let’s continue my weirdly structured 2019 movie retrospective. As a reminder, this is a retrospective dedicated to the movies I saw in 2019, not just the movies that came out in 2019, so next we’re looking at 2018 Movies I saw in 2019. As we all know, so many of the best movies of the year come out right at the end of the year, so I didn’t get to a lot of the prestige 2018 movies until 2019 had begun. And this is where we slow to a crawl because I’ll be looking at the top ten in three categories, Best Male Performances, Best Female Performances and Best Film, so we’ll take a post for each of those. First off:
Top 10 Male Performances
Sam Claflin – The Nightingale
That’s just the way, isn’t it? You don’t want trouble, but sometimes trouble wants you.
Lily Franky – Shoplifters
Lily Franky is a lot of fun as the father; he masks his desperation and fear in good humored playfulness, but the darker side leaks through around the edges of his smiles and laughs.
Brian Tyree Henry – If Beale Street Could Talk
White man’s got to be the devil. He sure ain’t a man. Some of the things I saw, baby, I’ll be dreaming about until the day I die.
Nicholas Hoult – The Favourite
You are in favour. But favour is a breeze that shifts.
Stephan James – If Beale Street Could Talk
I’ve never been more ready for anything in my whole life.
Jyo Kairi – Shoplifters
He gives a performance that belies his age, a performance filled with reservation about the life of small-time crime he’s leading and uncertainty about where exactly his life might be going.
Sebastian Koch – Never Look Away
It so happens space and resources on this earth are limited. Who should have them? The healthy or the sick?
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
You know, my father used to say, whatever you do, do it 100%.
Tom Schilling – Never Look Away
Not random. Real, coherent, consistent. Only reality is consistent. Every reality is consistent. Everything that’s true is beautiful.
Steven Yeun – Burning
Steven Yeun is pitch perfect as the slick, somewhat sociopathic Ben