I had promised myself I was going to restore my habit of doing end-of-year media lists for 2019. This is one of what was supposed to be four posts in the series but became only two: movies, music, television, and games. Spoilers ahead.
When I think back on the movies of 2019, here are the moments that stand out:
The opening dance sequence, from Climax.
The lake house scene with Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss, from Us.
Wondering how, at the end of Detective Pikachu, Tim Goodman never realized that Detective Pikachu sounded just like his father.
The final half hour of Booksmart, which stuck the landing perfectly.
Reaching the end of Always Be My Maybe and reflecting, in the kindest way possible, “That was great, but…he was Doctor Miracles!” (I will always take the opportunity to reference Channel 102 shows.)
Having that ping of NYC-location-recognition every time Late Night showed the building the show was allegedly produced out of, since it’s my actual office building.
The “twist”, if I can call it that, right before the credits in The Farewell.
Nineteen minutes from the end of Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood, when the needle drops on the Vanilla Fudge version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and the movie transitions from breezy hangout to the sort of escalated madness that you usually expect out of a Tarantino flick. (Brad Pitt’s LSD-laced performance seals the deal here.)
The sun coming up in Ready Or Not.
When the filming starts in One Cut Of The Dead and the conceptual framework for the whole movie finally clicks into place.
The butcher shop fight in The Night Comes For Us.
Katie turning to me during Jojo Rabbit (my second watch, her first) as Jojo chased the butterfly and quietly asking “We haven’t seen his mother in a while, where is she?”, and me not being able to hold a poker face for the two seconds needed for the film to answer that question.
The few minutes of tension during Parasite when the fired housekeeper comes back and begs she just needs to check on one thing – and then begins uncovering the secret passage.
Knives Out. Genuinely the whole thing.
Bob Odenkirk’s first line of dialog in Little Women.