As is tradition around these parts, the final newsletter before the calendar flips consists of my top 10 movies of the year. We did this last year, and I think that list holds up pretty well. If you would like to hear my top 10 (and Grierson’s Top 10) in podcast form, the annual Dorkfest 2019 podcast is posted and available for you right here. It is one of our most popular shows of the year and the continuation of a tradition Grierson and I have had going for, Christ, 28 years now. You should listen to that show first.
But if you’re not a podcast person—and you should be a podcast person!—here’s this year’s top 10.
The Lighthouse, directed by Robert Eggers
I was not a huge fan of Eggers’ debut feature The Witch, but this is much more self-assured, confident and impressively weird. It’s terrifying in spots but also hilarious. I’m pretty sure of all my top 10 movies of each year of the last decade, this one has the most farts.
Ford v. Ferrari, directed by James Mangold
I have a noted soft spot for movies about work, about people who combine expertise, experience and good old-fashioned elbow grease to overcome impossible challenges. But Ford v. Ferrari is about more than just that, including a quiet argument for making great art for its own sake, even if the monsters of commerce don’t care and will just devour and digest it indiscriminately anyway. And yes: It’s also the ultimate Dad movie.
Marriage Story, directed by Noah Baumbach
I’ve never been divorced, my parents have been married for 50 years and honestly, I don’t have a lot of experience with those close to me being divorced. But boy does this movie ever feel true. It’s also big-hearted in a way that both belies its material and also is a welcome move forward for Baumbach, whose movies have a lot less bile than they used to. Also, Laura Dern’s going to win the Oscar, and she’ll deserve it, but Alan Alda is basically a warm bath in this movie.
Climax, directed by Gaspar Noe
Gaspar Noe is always in danger of going into Lars Von Trier snuff-film land, but Climax is a welcome turnaround, both because it has some truly incredible dancing but also because it’s the first film of his in a while that actually seems to have some heart to it. Not that it’s any more pleasant to watch. Put it this way: Gaspar Noe shouldn’t be allowed to cast any more children in his movies.
A Hidden Life, directed by Terrence Malick
It has been fascinating the last couple of years to see how great filmmakers like Spike Lee and Paul Schrader and Wes Anderson have stepped up to meet this current moment in American and human history: Suddenly, everything feels a lot more urgent. Terrence Malick’s film about an Austrian who refuses to fight or pledge fealty to Hitler, and how this simple act destroys his life and the lives of everyone around him, plays like a direct response to the universe as it exists right now. You can do the right thing and have it tear apart everything you care about … but that still doesn’t mean you were wrong.
Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho
Yes, it’s about the haves and the have-nots, and it’s about the class struggle, and it’s about inequality. But it’s also about the individual people who are caught up in all of it, and how late-stage capitalism can force us to eat each other alive. It’s also incredibly entertaining. If Joon-ho needed to get Okja out of his system to make this, we’re all the luckier for it.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood … , directed by Quentin Tarantino
As mature and empathetic as it might be possible for Tarantino to get, this is him in Jackie Brown mode, a character study of three people intersecting at a specific moment in American history and, as in Inglorious Basterds, maybe able to make the world a better place in a way only movies can. Man, what a blast.
Apollo 11, directed by Todd Douglas Miller
Both an indictment of what we can no longer accomplish together and document of the wonders we are capable of at our best, Apollo 11 feels like it was sent from the past to save us poor wretches in the future before it’s too late. Though it might be too late.
The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese
A career capper for Scorsese in every way, the movie becomes something truly transcendent in its final half hour, which becomes about regret and loss and the pain you’ve caused and how in the end you’re just alone with the choices you have made. I’m very fortunate to have seen this in a theater, but you don’t have to.
Uncut Gems, directed by the Safdie brothers
A nerve-thresher of a film, just on a basic story level it’s a gas to watch this guy squirm himself deeper and deeper into trouble but still pedal fast enough to get out of it. But as it goes along, it becomes about more than just this guy, and Howard Ratner begins to represent the con game at the heart of the American Dream, a symptom and victim of the rot that tells us all if we just hustle hard and fast enough, there will be a reward for us. He thinks it’s all going to work out for him because it always has in the past. But life doesn’t work that way. This movie gets me vibrating just typing about it. It’s the movie I’ll remember most from this year.
Grierson and I also did our top 10 movies of the decade podcast. That was also incredibly fun. Here are my 10 top movies of the decade (2019 movies were not eligible), without commentary because I am on vacation and everyone in my house is sick.
Moonlight, directed by Barry Jenkins
Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuarón
OJ: Made in America, directed by Ezra Edelman
Mad Max: Fury Road, directed by George Miller
Before Midnight, directed by Richard Linklater
Inside Llewyn Davis, directed by the Coen brothers
Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater
You should listen to both podcasts — Dorkfest 2019 here, and the best of the decade here — for further explanation. But these are the movies that kill me.
Here is a numerical breakdown of all the things I wrote this week, in order of what I believe to be their quality. (This is an attempt to have an objective look at the value of my work in a way that I suspect will be difficult to sustain.)
The Ten Biggest Baseball Stories of the Decade, MLB.com. I caught myself watching random old baseball highlights the day after Christmas and I realized that it’s possible I miss baseball already.
Unsung Heroes of the Last Decade, MLB.com. Pete Kozma forever.
Debate Club: The Worst Genre Movies of 2019, SYFY Wire. Had we seen it when we filed this, The Rise of Skywalker might have cracked this list.
MLB Legends We Lost This Decade, MLB.com. I wanted both Bob Forsch and Oscar Tavares to be on this list.
Meryl Streep Performances, Ranked and Updated, Vulture. Updated with Little Women.
The Thirty: One Gift on Every Team’s Wish List, MLB.com. This old trope, always works.
PODCASTS
Grierson & Leitch, it’s the big Dorkfest 2019 show, I may have mentioned this.
Waitin' Since Last Saturday, no show this week, we tape the Sugar Bowl preview on Sunday night.
Seeing Red, no show this week.
MAILBAG
This week’s question comes to us from Mary A Brown.
Hi Will,
So you may have covered this before but what do you think of Infinite Jest? I started to read it and got fed up. I read David Foster Wallace's short essays on the Illinois State Fair and about traveling in central IL for tennis tournaments which I felt were accurate and amusing but I just found IJ too overblown and probably not worth my time. I read Are We Winning and felt it was much closer to my experience, and definitely more enjoyable.
I look forward to your response.
Mary A Brown
This is where I confess I’ve never finished it. I love David Foster Wallace and read Consider the Lobster every couple of years. (The essay about right-wing radio predicted our future.) But Infinite Jest is definitely too brilliant for me. I know it is great. I know I will be happier and more enriched if I make it through it. I love every word I’ve read. But man, I haven’t even had time to watch Succession yet.
You should definitely read Infinite Jest before Are We Winning? though.
GET THIS LUNATIC OUT OF HERE 2020 POWER RANKINGS
To be honest, it has been kind of nice not to think much about the Presidential race this holiday. There’s plenty of time for that in 2020.
1. Elizabeth Warren
2. Joe Biden
3. Bernie Sanders
4. Amy Klobuchar
5. Cory Booker
6. Pete Buttigieg
7. Julian Castro
8. Michael Bloomberg
9. Deval Patrick
10. Michael Bennet
11. Andrew Yang
12. Tom Steyer
13. William Weld
14. John Delaney
15. Marianne Williamson
16. Tulsi Gabbard
17. Joe Walsh
ONGOING LETTER-WRITING PROJECT!
You people have the best holiday cards.
Will Leitch
P.O. Box 48
Athens GA 30603
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO
“Get Me,” Dinosaur Jr. Every year brings a new-old band I deep dive into so I can pretend it’s 1997 again. Two years ago it was Pavement. Last year it was Uncle Tupelo. This year, it’s Dinosaur Jr. None of this has steered me wrong.
Everyone in this house is sick, seriously. It’s the perfect week to be unable to leave the house. Bring it.
Have a great weekend, and a great New Year, all.
Best,
Will