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:
- The Awful Truth (1937)
- Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
- Phantom Thread (2017)
- Being There (1979)
- Detective Story (1951)
- The Turning Point (1952)
- Angel Face (1953)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
- Barry Lyndon (1975)
- Cold War (2018)*
- A Star Is Born (2018)**
- A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
- Dodsworth (1936)
- My Fair Lady (1964)
- A Star Is Born (1937)
- A Star Is Born (1954)
- The Last Picture Show (1971)
- Blow Out (1981)
- The China Syndrome (1979)
- The Player (1992)
- Bull Durham (1988)
- Being John Malkovich (1999)
- All That Jazz (1979)
- La La Land (2016)
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
- Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
- Day for Night (1973)
- Do the Right Thing (1989)
- Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)**
- Mad Love (1935)
- Gun Crazy (1950)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)*
- Nightmare Alley (1947)
- Mildred Pierce (1945)
- White Heat (1949)
- Pillow Talk (1959)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- Sunday in New York (1963)
- The Freshman (1925)
- The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
- Romance on the High Seas (1948)*
- Bigger Than Life (1956)
- The Virgin Suicides (1999)
- Cabaret (1972)
- Desert Hearts (1985)
- The Heiress (1949)
- In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- Juliet, Naked (2018)
- Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Jubal (1956)
- 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
- Frances Ha (2012)
- Lady Bird (2017)
- The Mortal Storm (1940)
- A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
- The Nun’s Story (1959)
- The Band Wagon (1953)
- The Big Clock (1948)
- The Best of Everything (1959)
- A Place in the Sun (1951)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- Klute (1971)
- An Affair to Remember (1957)
- On the Town (1949)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
- Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
- Jackie Brown (1997)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- The Black Cat (1934)
- Curse of the Demon (1957)
- The Uninvited (1944)
- The Haunting (1963)
- Seconds (1966)
- Notorious (1946)
- The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
- Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
- Design for Living (1933)
- Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
- Detour (1945)
- Johnny Eager (1941)
- The Godfather: Part II (1974)
- Midnight Cowboy (1969)
- To Have and Have Not (1944)
- The Big Sleep (1946)
- Dark Passage (1947)
- Key Largo (1948)
- The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
- Kansas City Confidential (1952)
- The Irishman (2019)*
- Out of the Past (1947)
- When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
- Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
- 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):
- Vice
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Mary Queen of Scots
- On the Basis of Sex
- Destroyer
- The Well
- Detective Story
- The Turning Point
- Angel Face
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Cold War
- A Star Is Born*
- My Fair Lady
- Capernaum
- Never Look Away
- Apollo 11
- Captain Marvel
- Us
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
- Merrily We Go to Hell
- Sleeping Beauty
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
- Day for Night
- Do the Right Thing
- When Worlds Collide
- Father Goose
- Star Wars: A New Hope
- Mad Love
- A Woman of Affairs
- The Dolly Sisters
- Booksmart
- Avengers: Endgame*
- Gun Crazy
- Mildred Pierce
- The Maltese Falcon
- Double Indemnity
- The Lady from Shanghai
- Rocketman
- Aladdin
- Late Night
- Toy Story 4
- Spider-Man: Far from Home
- Midsommar
- Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- The Farewell
- It Chapter Two
- Hustlers
- Ad Astra
- The Irishman*
- The Grapes of Wrath
- The Hard Way
- Pain and Glory
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire
- Leave Her to Heaven
- Judy
- Joker
- Parasite
- The Lighthouse
- Jojo Rabbit
- The Godfather: Part II
- Ford v Ferrari
- Frozen II
- A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
- Marriage Story
- Knives Out
- When Harry Met Sally…
- Meet Me in St. Louis
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Little Women
- Uncut Gems
*watched twice in theaters
List of New Releases I Saw (ordered by release date):
- Apollo 11
- Transit
- Captain Marvel
- Gloria Bell
- Us
- High Life
- Under the Silver Lake
- Avengers: Endgame
- The Souvenir
- Booksmart
- Aladdin
- Always Be My Maybe
- Rocketman
- The Last Black Man in San Francisco
- Late Night
- Toy Story 4
- Spider-Man: Far from Home
- Midsommar
- Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- The Farewell
- It Chapter Two
- Hustlers
- Ad Astra
- Judy
- Joker
- Pain and Glory
- El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
- The Lighthouse
- Parasite
- Jojo Rabbit
- Dolemite Is My Name
- Image Makers: The Adventures of America’s Pioneer Cinematographers
- Ford v Ferrari
- A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
- Frozen II
- The Irishman
- Knives Out
- Atlantics
- Marriage Story
- The Two Popes
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- Uncut Gems
- Little Women
- 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!