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1. The Absent Connection

What else is there to say about the movie that won Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes? Whether it earned the prize or not, Laika’s most recent animated production is a delightful journey through some of the most ambitious stop-motion scenes ever shown, complete with endearing characters and some nice chuckles.

2. The Light Is Blinding

You don’t need to be a fan of Bruce Springsteen or even know who he is to appreciate this touching story of a Pakistani boy attempting to navigate adolescence in 1987 England, and you also don’t need to know much about Pakistani culture to be moved by the story of Javed’s father, Malik, attempting to reestablish a relationship with his teenage son as he feels him drifting further away from the only life he has ever known. Here, Gurinder Chadha truly went above and beyond, and I hope to see more from her in the near future.

3. The Child Who Would Rule

An action-packed fantasy that is undoubtedly one of the best family movies in recent memory (at least one that isn’t called Paddington) and provides young boys with an action hero to aspire to that doesn’t need a Marvel or DC brand name right away. The action scenes themselves are very thrilling and ingenious; the performances each have their own distinct tastes of wit and charm, and Joe Cornish’s distinctive approach may be exactly what we need to bring the family action adventure genre back to its greatest potential. If you can, try this one out.

4. The Good Liar

At this point, we begin to discuss the movie, which could require a bit more context before their suggestions can be confirmed. Expect to read some lengthy paragraphs for these top six because the entire list from this point on can be categorized as previously undiscussed on this blog. And at number six is a movie that, in my opinion, not many people saw, even though director Bill Condor and a strong cast in Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren managed to turn what might otherwise be a respectable but otherwise unmemorable Saturday afternoon white noise into a truly entertaining movie. The main enigma at the center of the whole thing does give way to some fairly solid moments in the film’s climax, and while it is undoubtedly the kind of movie your grandma would swoon over for months after seeing it at the theater, that is precisely part of its beauty. They don’t make them like this anymore for a reason, but occasionally it’s nice to see one of them return.

5. The Wild Rose

This story of Jessie Buckley’s attempt to succeed in country music as a deadbeat alcoholic mother is so high on my list because I only recently learned about it and could only see it because it was available on Hulu. Buckley’s performance is undoubtedly poignant, though, and if A Star Is Born didn’t fully restore your appreciation for country music, listen to “Glasgow.” Perhaps it will inspire you enough to allow Wild Rose to try their hand at it. However, that Scottish dialect can be difficult to understand, so you may need to switch on the subtitles.

6. Late at night

The Office’s Mindy Kaling costarred with Emma Thompson in one of the year’s most fun comedies, and despite its overwhelmingly positive reaction at Sundance in January, nobody has discussed it since it came out in theaters in June. That’s a shame since there are some truly funny parts in the movie, and Thompson and Kaling have a really strong relationship that lets them both play the characters they’re greatest at. Even though it’s not the best comedy of the year—in fact, it’s not even the best on this list—I would still suggest watching it if you have access to Amazon Prime Video because it will make every effort to earn your time.

7. Brittany Participates in a Marathon

Brittany Runs a Marathon is a poignant film about an overweight woman living a dangerously unhealthy life and trying, in whatever small way she can, to get just a little bit better. While many of the inspirational sports films that have been released in the latter half of this decade—some of which even rank among my all-time favorites, like Creed or James Mangold’s Ford v. Ferrari—take a more realistic approach. Please understand that while the other films mentioned above are excellent, Brittany’s sensitivity and genuineness make it the ideal companion to them. It is about someone whose life has gone apart attempting to piece even a small portion of it back together and the perseverance required to do so. It is not only about someone who is really talented at a sport striving to grow better at that activity. We all know someone like Brittany, so it makes us feel like we know her. She suffers with self-doubt, self-patience, and insecurity in her self-betterment, just like most people do, especially when they have as many obstacles in their way as she does. One of the most poignant, realistic, sincere, and inspirational movies of 2019, it is led by Jillian Bell, who gives one of her greatest performances to date.

8. Self-Defense Techniques

It is quite unfortunate that no one was discussing this film even when it was released in theaters, if no one was discussing The Good Liar or Late Night after their initial week or two was done. I appreciate The Art of Self-Defense even more since it’s one of the most quirky, eccentric, and just plain bizarre and strange films of 2019. For anyone who has even a small amount of its sense of humor, this thing is hilarious, but it also gets so dark that you can’t see through it with a flashlight. But more significantly, the central theme of toxic masculinity—that it is both our destruction and the catalyst for discovering and accepting one’s own femininity—which essentially encapsulates the main arc of Jesse Eisenberg’s lead character—is handled with such grace and skill that, unless one is looking for it, one might hardly notice it exists at all. People sometimes complain that Hollywood and filmmaking in general “don’t have any original ideas anymore,” yet The Art of Self-Defense may be the best film released in 2019 that challenges that claim.

9. Crawl

There seems to be at least one film released each year (typically in the middle of summer) that takes a straightforward but powerful idea, does it nearly flawlessly without any window dressing, and then quickly fades into obscurity, seldom to be considered again. That’s crawl this year. The idea of two people trapped in a flooded house during a hurricane and having to flee without being eaten by invading alligators seems like it shouldn’t work even on paper, but Crawl is as tense, well-performed, well-executed, and entertaining as you want it to be without requiring you to do any heavy lifting to get there. No, it’s not the best movie of 2019 or even the best horror movie of 2019. While director Alexandre Aja doesn’t always deliver (see you, Piranha 3D), this modest but satisfying thriller shows that he’s still a director worth sticking with for a while. Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper both give really strong performances that give the B-movie material exactly the kind of flavor it needs.