Films in 2019 Review

2019 was a fantastic movie year for me. For one, I attended the TCM Classic Film Festival for the first time; that alone makes my whole year and would’ve made the past year incredible on its own if that was the only great movie-related venture I made. But I was very lucky to see and attend some other cool things around California, in Washington State, and New York City, all of which I’ve mentioned in past months. I rounded up a few photos of my movie adventures in my last Instagram post of 2019 here (not included there are the TCM Movie Locations Tour in LA and my visit to the Criterion office in NYC). I’m excited to see what this next year has in store for me, though 2019 may be hard to top. Though one thing’s certain: I will be back at TCMFF in April! As for the movies themselves, it was another wonderful year of discoveries, which you can take a look at on my Letterboxd here, or go through my monthly entries here. As I have in my previous film in review posts, I’ll be breaking down my viewing habits and listing all the new releases I saw, the movies I revisited, and everything I watched in theaters in 2019.

New-to-Me: 365

Re-Watched: 108

Total: 469*

*4 of my re-watches were also films I discovered in 2019, so they weren’t counted again in the grand total.

New-to-Me Films by Decade:

  • 1920s – 10
  • 1930s – 56
  • 1940s – 53
  • 1950s – 58
  • 1960s – 34
  • 1970s – 21
  • 1980s – 21
  • 1990s – 23
  • 2000s – 16
  • 2010s – 73

The number of movies I watched for the first time in 2019 ended up being equivalent to watching a movie a day, though there were many days that I’d go without watching a movie, so I definitely wasn’t doing that the whole year. This past year was also the first time my re-watches reached the triple digits! That’s partly due to me actually watching more of the movies in my personal Criterion collection, and attending TCMFF, among other things.

List of Re-Watched Films:

  1. The Awful Truth (1937)
  2. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
  3. Phantom Thread (2017)
  4. Being There (1979)
  5. Detective Story (1951)
  6. The Turning Point (1952)
  7. Angel Face (1953)
  8. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
  9. Barry Lyndon (1975)
  10. Cold War (2018)*
  11. A Star Is Born (2018)**
  12. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
  13. Dodsworth (1936)
  14. My Fair Lady (1964)
  15. A Star Is Born (1937)
  16. A Star Is Born (1954)
  17. The Last Picture Show (1971)
  18. Blow Out (1981)
  19. The China Syndrome (1979)
  20. The Player (1992)
  21. Bull Durham (1988)
  22. Being John Malkovich (1999)
  23. All That Jazz (1979)
  24. La La Land (2016)
  25. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
  26. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
  27. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
  28. Day for Night (1973)
  29. Do the Right Thing (1989)
  30. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)**
  31. Mad Love (1935)
  32. Gun Crazy (1950)
  33. Avengers: Endgame (2019)*
  34. Nightmare Alley (1947)
  35. Mildred Pierce (1945)
  36. White Heat (1949)
  37. Pillow Talk (1959)
  38. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
  39. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  40. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
  41. Double Indemnity (1944)
  42. Sunday in New York (1963)
  43. The Freshman (1925)
  44. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
  45. Romance on the High Seas (1948)*
  46. Bigger Than Life (1956)
  47. The Virgin Suicides (1999)
  48. Cabaret (1972)
  49. Desert Hearts (1985)
  50. The Heiress (1949)
  51. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
  52. Juliet, Naked (2018)
  53. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
  54. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
  55. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
  56. Jubal (1956)
  57. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
  58. Frances Ha (2012)
  59. Lady Bird (2017)
  60. The Mortal Storm (1940)
  61. A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
  62. The Nun’s Story (1959)
  63. The Band Wagon (1953)
  64. The Big Clock (1948)
  65. The Best of Everything (1959)
  66. A Place in the Sun (1951)
  67. Some Like It Hot (1959)
  68. Klute (1971)
  69. An Affair to Remember (1957)
  70. On the Town (1949)
  71. Goodfellas (1990)
  72. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
  73. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
  74. Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
  75. Jackie Brown (1997)
  76. The Exorcist (1973)
  77. The Black Cat (1934)
  78. Curse of the Demon (1957)
  79. The Uninvited (1944)
  80. The Haunting (1963)
  81. Seconds (1966)
  82. Notorious (1946)
  83. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
  84. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
  85. Design for Living (1933)
  86. Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
  87. Detour (1945)
  88. Johnny Eager (1941)
  89. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
  90. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
  91. To Have and Have Not (1944)
  92. The Big Sleep (1946)
  93. Dark Passage (1947)
  94. Key Largo (1948)
  95. The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
  96. Kansas City Confidential (1952)
  97. The Irishman (2019)*
  98. Out of the Past (1947)
  99. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
  100. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
  101. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)
  102. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)
  103. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
  104. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  105. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
  106. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
  107. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
  108. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

*also a first-time watch in 2019
**re-watched twice in 2019

List of Films I Saw in Theaters (in italics marks a re-watch):

  1. Vice
  2. Bohemian Rhapsody
  3. Mary Queen of Scots
  4. On the Basis of Sex
  5. Destroyer
  6. The Well
  7. Detective Story
  8. The Turning Point
  9. Angel Face
  10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  11. Cold War
  12. A Star Is Born*
  13. My Fair Lady
  14. Capernaum
  15. Never Look Away
  16. Apollo 11
  17. Captain Marvel
  18. Us
  19. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
  20. Merrily We Go to Hell
  21. Sleeping Beauty
  22. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  23. Day for Night
  24. Do the Right Thing
  25. When Worlds Collide
  26. Father Goose
  27. Star Wars: A New Hope
  28. Mad Love
  29. A Woman of Affairs
  30. The Dolly Sisters
  31. Booksmart
  32. Avengers: Endgame*
  33. Gun Crazy
  34. Mildred Pierce
  35. The Maltese Falcon
  36. Double Indemnity
  37. The Lady from Shanghai
  38. Rocketman
  39. Aladdin
  40. Late Night
  41. Toy Story 4
  42. Spider-Man: Far from Home
  43. Midsommar
  44. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
  45. The Farewell
  46. It Chapter Two
  47. Hustlers
  48. Ad Astra
  49. The Irishman*
  50. The Grapes of Wrath
  51. The Hard Way
  52. Pain and Glory
  53. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  54. Leave Her to Heaven
  55. Judy
  56. Joker
  57. Parasite
  58. The Lighthouse
  59. Jojo Rabbit
  60. The Godfather: Part II
  61. Ford v Ferrari
  62. Frozen II
  63. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
  64. Marriage Story
  65. Knives Out
  66. When Harry Met Sally…
  67. Meet Me in St. Louis
  68. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
  69. It’s a Wonderful Life
  70. Little Women
  71. Uncut Gems

*watched twice in theaters

List of New Releases I Saw (ordered by release date):

  1. Apollo 11
  2. Transit
  3. Captain Marvel
  4. Gloria Bell
  5. Us
  6. High Life
  7. Under the Silver Lake
  8. Avengers: Endgame
  9. The Souvenir
  10. Booksmart
  11. Aladdin
  12. Always Be My Maybe
  13. Rocketman
  14. The Last Black Man in San Francisco
  15. Late Night
  16. Toy Story 4
  17. Spider-Man: Far from Home
  18. Midsommar
  19. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
  20. The Farewell
  21. It Chapter Two
  22. Hustlers
  23. Ad Astra
  24. Judy
  25. Joker
  26. Pain and Glory
  27. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
  28. The Lighthouse
  29. Parasite
  30. Jojo Rabbit
  31. Dolemite Is My Name
  32. Image Makers: The Adventures of America’s Pioneer Cinematographers
  33. Ford v Ferrari
  34. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
  35. Frozen II
  36. The Irishman
  37. Knives Out
  38. Atlantics
  39. Marriage Story
  40. The Two Popes
  41. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
  42. Uncut Gems
  43. Little Women
  44. Portrait of a Lady on Fire*

*While this film was screened at several film festivals throughout 2019, it won’t get a proper theatrical release until Valentine’s Day (mark your calendars and go see it!).

That’s about it for my 2019 in film, though the movie year isn’t quite over until the Oscar for Best Picture is handed out, so we still have about one month left until awards season wraps up. Of course that all kicks off with the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards tonight! As usual, I’ll make some sort of post about past Oscar favorites, along with my picks and predictions for this year’s Academy Awards before the ceremony. Until then, here’s to a terrific 2020 in movie-watching!

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