What If I'm... IN The Movie? - the 2019 ILX Film Poll Results Thread

A lot of movies came out in what might be the last year that movie theatres ever existed, and some people on this board saw a bunch of them. The ballots received for the 2019-or-thereabouts film poll saw 635 votes cast for 220 different motion pictures.

Mainstream publications, specialist film journals and Big Award all piss away their best-of lists on hastily-made decisions and compromises. The ILX film polls are the only ones that use HARD SCIENCE to determine the absolute incontrovertible best flicks of the year. This thread will run down the bestest fifty of those, after a few short subjects.

For those who came in late: previously, in the voting thread

who will get to be May Queen of the poll

Seven voters were moved enough to expel poison as well as bestowing praise this year, though there was little consensus. Only four films received multiple votes for Worst, and three of those were also balanced out with placings on other voters' Best lists. We'll note the latter as we go, but free and clear with only hate remarked is:

ILX WORST FILM OF 2019

Bombshell (d: visionary auteur Jay Roach)

https://i.imgur.com/irPU2iH.jpg

Bombshell received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising the makeup and hairstyling but some criticizing its screenplay and inaccuracies.

"some"

woop woop woop

IN MEMORIAM REEL

Let us take a moment to salute fallen comrade Frederik B, who valiantly suicided in a grim 51-way shootout yesterday, that the poll rollout might be spared any disagreement whatsoever.

✊

honestly not gonna be the same without him.

Amongst 28 voters, three recipients of first-place ballot positions have not made the top fifty, and one received no other votes.

Three movies received one point each. A single-digit quantity of films received over 300 points. The lowest score for a film voted on by more than one person is 9; that film was a remake.

Eight per cent of the winners are documentaries. Six per cent are based on novels.

Last year's Marvel Studios Avengers Assembled movie was commended by one fewer voter than the 2018 instalment.

Only one film that received votes both this year and last failed to place - and it also fell outside the cut last year.

popcorns hot join the movies

vote for a stay on proceedings until fred back

or at least one of us roleplays as his sock

didn't know about the Danish Troll! likely the best news in this thread.

^ magnificent work, managing to swipe at one specific person and also the opinions of every other voter, before any of their ideas even get unveiled

Morby Say Relax

In 2017, it took 40 points to make the top fifty. Last year, that moved up to 70.

lotta stats, let's see some flicks

https://i.imgur.com/nv35b7R.jpg

50. The Art Of Self-Defense
w/d: Riley Stearns
US 2019 digital
72 points, 3 votes

i thought the filmmaking and the script for Art of Self Defense were so immediately, egregiously bad that I turned it off shortly after he went to the dojo.

― ulysses, Friday, 6 December 2019 20:26

thought I would hate the art of self-defense but it was good

― flappy bird, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 05:55

I’m on the board!

I enjoy Jesse Eisenberg more than is dignified but I don't care

so hey, i turned the film off but let's see how predictable it was: are the guys in the mask who beat him up at the start of the film the sensei and the other guys from the dojo?

because that's absolutely what i recall the film was telegraphing at high volume.
flappy, no shade but if you dug this, you might also dig Buffaloed? They felt like similar films to me
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/movies/buffaloed-review.html

I mean yeah ulysses of course but there's other stuff that happens, I don't think the movie plays off of that being a surprise

Really good stats and hard science in this poll so far!

https://i.imgur.com/hXoQgqj.jpg

A joke post this early?

― cryptosicko, Tuesday, June 25, 2019 7:02 AM

lol

xp to silby, i dunno: "this singular black comedy balances off-kilter humor with an unexpectedly thriller-esque undercurrent, to the extent that audiences will find it tough to anticipate either the jokes or the dark, “Fight Club”-like turn things eventually take — all to strikingly original effect."
https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/the-art-of-self-defense-review-1203159671/
in any case it wasn't for me.

I have yet to try Joker, perhaps another month of COVID quarantine will do it.

who reads reviews?

I prefer to become aware of movies by vague rumor.

Hoping all the images are for films other than the ones making the poll.

jk

https://i.imgur.com/OpMVsuY.jpg

49. Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool
d: Stanley Nelson (doco)
US 2019 archival & digital
74 points, 3 votes, 1 #1

i did not see the joker film but the 'joker is too dangerous for the masses to see' was a real nadir of an already dreadful discourse

Thought Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool was excellent. I saw it at Hot Docs today; it's an American Masters production, so it might have played PBS already. It's a very conventional photos/footage + talking heads affair, and I don't think I'd want it to be anything else. (The Coltrane documentary from a couple of years ago was offbeat and intermittently annoying.) I liked every one of the interviewees, especially describing Davis's music--they really tried to find the right words to convey what effect it had on them (with lots of excerpts to help them along). Frances Taylor's self-regard is charmingly hilarious the first few times she's in the film--you enjoy it--then her story turns very sad, and you understand why she needs that. "Flamenco Sketches" at the end is an especially moving rebuke to anyone who decides they're not going to listen to someone's music anymore because they've done horrible things. (I'm differentiating between a sincere reflexive revulsion from such music--I don't have a problem with that--and, something else I've encountered here and there, a more self-conscious "I refuse to listen to such-and-such" because you think you're making the world a better place by not doing so.)

― clemenza, Sunday, May 5, 2019 4:23 PM

One thing that's crucial, I think, is how good Carl Lumbly's voiceover narration as Miles Davis is. They don't clarify anything at the beginning, so it's almost like they intentionally leave some ambiguity in place--is that actually Miles Davis's voice, something he left behind for future use? I knew that was highly unlikely, but Lumbly's that good. Looking at his filmography, he's been around a long time but I've seen next to nothing he's been in. He was in To Sleep with Anger, which I've never seen; I think I remember his small part in Pacific Heights.

― clemenza, Sunday, May 5, 2019 11:48 PM

I can't say Joker is a "good" movie but my wife and I discuss and reference it all the time so I guess we've been jokerfied.

jk

― donald failson (sic),Wednesday, April 15, 2020 4:41 AM

only about the placing though, it really did get three votes

https://i.imgur.com/H5xT1cm.jpg

i don't want to see this but i have some thoughts.

i think it's very possible the movie is sympathetic to joker, in some twisted way, just like todd phillips' first movie was sympathetic to its subject, GG Allin. america is soft on self-pitying narcissists who are willing to hurt others to get attention, especially if they're white men. or in any case, it encourages the behavior (cf. the current president, whose name escapes me).. in the trailer the joaquin phoenix voiceover mentions that he "didn't even know he existed" and felt like he needed validation in the mass media to feel "real" and this seemed -- not like an original idea at all -- but like an extremely american pathology. it's very possible the movie does end up saying something illuminating about why we're so broken.

i think the question of whether it will "inspire" violence seems a little alarmist. it's not like you can predict what will set people off.

― treeship., Thursday, 3 October 2019 11:04

Just saw this tonight.

Easily the most important movie ever made about how crazy the Joker is. You will not leave this movie thinking he’s just a normal guy. It’s a much-needed message in this day and age.

― latebloomer, Friday, 4 October 2019 04:39

it's almost as if sic is the true joker

The Joker strikes again!

i thought roach did a nice job w trumbo so had some non-zero level of expectations but bombshell was truly brutal

Oscar sure had his work cut out this year!

The most intensely challenging, daunting role that any actor can play is that of the clown who fights Batman.

— 𝖇𝖎𝖌 𝖇𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖓 𝖆𝖉𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊 (@NickPinkerton) January 22, 2016

okay, there weren't really any #1 votes for Joker

https://i.imgur.com/wiPQT8l.jpg

48. Bacarau
w/d: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles
BZ 2019 digital
75 points, 3 votes

I went into Joker with very low expectations and I dunno, it was ok.

Saw Birth Of The Cool at the arts picturehouse as part of a film festival, everyone else was a drunk old jazz freak, they were heckling interviewees, good experience.

Well this is awkward. Would have been my #9 or #10 or something if I didn't decide to put it off until 2020. I enjoy how it waits an hour before introducing some of the most convincingly terrifying (if still quite comical) baddies I've seen in recent film

nothing but love sic
and yes, i got the hernandez joke. I swear to god, I would buy a beto bacurau book tomorrow

I would submit for your watchlist the two movies from my top 10 that will not appear in this poll -- Abel Ferrara's Pasolini (finally released in the US, hence the best Willem Dafoe film of the year) and the fine Mexican film The Chambermaid, a debut feature by Lila Aviles:

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-the-chambermaid-vigilantly-regards-how-the-self-is-diminished-by-routine/

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, April 17, 2020 6:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'm on it!

I'll try and see The Irishman and Uncut Gems asap.

Knives out more like stay in
Tarantino more like quarantine oh
Uncut gems more like uncut germs
The Irishman more like the feverish man
Parasite more like parasite

more like dogshitino

dogshittarantinodogshittino

quentindogshit

thanks for running the poll sic!

Nailed it xp

list #26-50?

sorry I mean #51-75

It’s Joker 25 times in a row.

Thanks to sic and anyone else responsible for the rollout.

Wish I'd qualified to vote here, but I live about 2 years behind current releases (caught 7 of these, might vote for 4, perhaps only budging Aniara below the cutoff).

yes, thanks again sic!

is there a list available, fornthose of us about to torrent

Yes list pls

1 Parasite
2 Uncut Gems
3 The Irishman
4 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
5 Knives Out
6 Little Women
7 Portrait of a Lady on Fire
8 Midsommar
9 The Lighthouse
10 Marriage Story
11 High Life
12 Souvenir
13 Transit
14 Honeyland
15 Beach Bum
16 Pain and Glory
17 Us
18 Atlantics
19 Ash is Purest White
20 Long Day’s Journey Into Night
21 High Flying Bird
22 Ad Astra
23 Birds of Passage
24 Dolemite is My Name
25 The Image Book
26 Apollo 11
27 Monos
28 One Cut of the Dead
29 Three Faces
30 The Wild Pear Tree
31 Last Black Man in San Francisco
32 (tie) Booksmart
32 (tie) Rocketman
34 Bait
35 Hustler
36 An Elephant Sitting Still
37 Diamantino
38 Dragged Across Concrete
39 John Wick 3
40 A Hidden Life
41 Waves
42 Peterloo
43 Greener Grass
44 Climax
45 Diego Maradona
46 Joker
47 Our Time
48 Bacurau
49 Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
50 The Art of Self Defense

thks!

going to re-watch Ash is Purest White again at some point, not being a challop but I thought it was better than everything above it there.

sorry I mean #51-75

Yes, please?

darragh, lemme know if a ilplex playlist is welcome

bubbling under:

51 1917 (Deakins, 2019) 69 pts, 4 votes
52 Vitalina Varela (Costa, 2019) 68 pts, 2 votes
53 Alita: Battle Angel (Keane, 2019) 66 pts, 2 votes, 1 #1
54 Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit (Heise, 2019) 64 pts, 2 votes, 1 #1
55 Un couteau dans le cœur [Knife+Heart] (Gonzalez, 2018) 62 pts, 4 votes
56= Dark Waters (duPont, 2019) 60 pts, 4 votes
56= Toy Story 4 (Andrew Stanton, Stephany Folsom, Josh Cooley, Valerie LaPointe, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Martin Hynes, at least one serial sexual harasser, 2019) 60 pts, 4 votes
58 Jojo Rabbit (Waititi, 2019) 59 pts, 3 votes (also received 3 votes for worst, a winner on both votes and points)
59 A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Aardman, 2019 56 pts, 3 votes
60= Gräns [Border] (Abbasi, 2018) 55 pts, 4 votes 2 votes last year, would be #32 on combined votes
60= Shadow (Yimou, 2018) 55 pts, 3 votes
62= Under The Silver Lake (Mitchell, 2018) 54 pts, 3 votes
62= End of the Century (Castro, 2019) 54 pts, 2 votes
64 A Netflix Original (Sono, 2019)
65 The Two Popes (McCarten, 2019) 53 pts, 3 votes
66 The Laundromat (Sodes & Burns, 2019) 52 pts, 3 votes
67= American Factory (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, 2019) 47 pts, 3 votes
67= Benjamin (Amstell 2018 or Saget 2019 or Deville 1968, if both voters were thinking of the same movie) 47 pts, 2 votes
67= By the Grace of God (Ozon, 2018) 47 pts, 2 votes
67= Sorry Angel (Honoré, 2018) 47 pts, 2 votes
71= Little Joe (Jessica Hausner & Géraldine Bajard, 2019 45 pts, 2 votes
71= The Other Maradona Movie (Kapadia, 2019) 45 pts, 2 votes
73 Synonyms (Lapid, 2019) 43 pts, 3 votes
74 Fast Colour (Julia Hart, 2019) 41 pts, 3 votes
75= Ford "v" Ferrari / Le Mans '66 (Mango, 2019) 40 pts, 2 votes
75= Avengers: Endgame (Houseroy, 2019) 40 pts, 2 votes
77= Mister America (Rosetti, 2019) 39 pts, 3 votes
77= Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (Scorsese, doco 2019) 39 pts, 2 votes
79= Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Friedstein, 2019) 38 pts, 2 votes
79= The Dead Don’t Die (Jarmusch, 2019) 38 pts, 2 votes (Also received two votes for worst.)
81 A TV Movie (Milch, 2019)
82 So Long, My Son (Xiaoshuai, 2019) 36 pts, 3 votes

52 Vitalina Varela (Costa, 2019) 68 pts, 2 votes

my number two, assume most people haven't seen yet or saw calendar 2020 so hopefully will do better next year. astounding filmmaking that rendered much of what else i saw at lff trivial

Alita: Battle Angel (Keane, 2019) 66 pts, 2 votes, 1 #1

a) excellent work here from sic should not be passed by b) would like a short interview doc with whoever picked it as the #1.

71= The Other Maradona Movie (Kapadia, 2019) 45 pts, 2 votes

what's this?

54 Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit (Heise, 2019) 64 pts, 2 votes, 1 #1

Guessing the no 1 was from Fred. I missed this at the cinema :-( but hope to catch it someday

Heimat was beginning its NY run just as the shit hit the fan, is available for US streaming for $10

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/heimattime

cheers forks but ive already plucked what looks most promising from the usual sites, will add to my library later

Alita was my #1 ask me anything

how much cum is in your rainbow dash jar

the coveted pvmic/excelsior/zing triple threat there

Har har

lol at "a tv movie"

can i assume #64 is Forest of Love?

Voted for - Toy Story 4, Border, Shadow, Synonyms, Fast Color, Deadwood
Saw, liked, didn't vote for - Alita: Battle Angel, American Factory, Avengers Endgame
Saw, didn't like - Laundromat, Dead Don't Die
in the queue - Vitalina Varela, Knife and Heart, Dark Waters, Under the Silver Lake, End of the Century, The Two Popes, Little Joe, Linda Ronstadt
no thank you - 1917, Farmageddon, Ford v Ferrari, Rolling Thunder
? - Benjamin, By the Grace of God, Sorry Angel, Maradona Movie, Mister America, So Long My Son

So wait, where did Jojo Rabbit place again? Was the poll placement a "joke"?

Anything that didn't have this sort of business would be a joke:

13. Transit
d: Christian Petzold s: Christian Petzold a: Anna Seghers
DE 2019 digital
237 points, 10 votes

ah. missed me.

can i assume #64 is Forest of Love?

you can assume what you'd like!!!

hooboy
MAY i PRESUME that #64 is you know what never mind

71= The Other Maradona Movie (Kapadia, 2019) 45 pts, 2 votes

what's this?

― or something, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 09:58 (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Like does it even exist

just joshing around forks - if non-theatrical films had made it into the top 50 I wouldn't have balked, but it's fun to piss about a bit in a part of the poll that matters even less

oh whoops duh @ me - that Maradona should be (Narayan, 2018)

Ah right you are, been googling for an alternative director's cut of the doc or something

sic, you so sick

still nothing for give me liberty :(

go see it, folks!

moved it up on my netflix dvd cue

of the 51-75, I voted for Dark Waters, Border, Under the Silver Lake, The Two Popes, Little Joe, Synonyms, and The Dead Don’t Die (which I liked way more than I’ve ever have liked a zombie film before)

Give Me Liberty was an interesting movie to see at this moment, it was good I thought. I liked that it shifted focus several times during its course, also its momentary slip from color to black & white at the end

hadn't seen A Hidden Life before now and wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did

I’m glad you liked GML, and I agree that the tonal shift (and shift from color to b+w) at the end pics a wallop.

Thinking back, I’m surprised about how similar the film is to uncut gems—use of first-time actors, relentless momentum, exploration of the mini-communities that make up a city.

really liked Jan Komasa's Corpus Christi

I finally saw Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Recency bias, perhaps, but I might put it above everything I've seen from 2019 except The Lighthouse.

One of the most interesting things to me was when the mother leaves the daughter and painter with the servant girl and, for a few days, the three of them subtly form a little society without normal patriarchal hierarchy: they treat the servant girl as basically equal, she stops wearing her servant clothes and they all eat together. Sort of a feminist class argument that women, left to their own devices, would order themselves in a more equal and just way.

The scene with the local woman singing around the fire was amazing.

Loved the final scene but also thought the movie could have ended immediately after the scene where Heloise says, "turn around", and the artist sees her in the wedding gown.

One minor complaint; the title seemed too on the nose in that the painter is painting A Portrait of a Lady on Fire (with spirit, whatever) and then the literal portrait of the lady catches on fire, and then the lady catches on fire.

complaint denied