20 Favorite Horror Movies

Stacie Ponder at Final Girl put out a call for this year's SHOCKTOBER for people to submit their 20 favorite horror movies. Now, "favorite" does not necessarily equal "best" and that was what was so fun (and challenging) about putting my own list together.

So here's my twenty, for now at least, in chronological order.

PEEPING TOM (1960)

If you watched Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO and though “hm … is that it?”, may I humbly present Michael Powell’s PEEPING TOM, which debuted five months *before* Hitchcock’s suspense masterpiece and shares a lot of its DNA. It’s a tragedy to me that this movie basically ruined Powell’s career and he was never allowed to make a mainstream movie again. While nothing can touch PSYCHO’s place in the genre, PEEPING TOM tends to be the film I’d rather revisit. The grimy streets of seedy 1960 London shot in brilliant technicolor, the unsettling feeling of the murderer being our protagonist, and the fact that I want to be BFFs with Anna Massey’s Helen are just a few reasons why.

ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

If you can’t bring yourself to watch this because of who directed it, I wouldn’t dare advise you otherwise. Roman Polanski is a bright red line for many, and that’s fair. If you *can* do it, however, what you’ll find is a pretty much perfect movie. It’s easy to see why it made him the hottest director in the business in the late 1960s. It is very easy to misread Mia Farrow’s Rosemary as weak, but she is truly beset on all sides, even within her own home -- even within her own body! There’s no gore here, nor are there any jump scares, but there is plenty of creepiness, as well as use of one of my favorite horror tropes EVER (and there are at least two more examples of it on this list): the one-two punch of paranoia plot and conspiracy plot. Am I just being paranoid or is this real? Okay, shit, it’s real, now what? How far does this thing reach? Who’s in on it? Is there anyone I can trust? (*happy sigh*)

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971)

Before there was SEVEN, there was this movie. Only instead of basing his murders on the seven deadly sins, Phibes (Vincent Price) designs his based on the biblical plagues of Egypt (all the kills are great, but the frog one is … (*chef’s kiss*)). It’s more stylish than scary, and there’s plenty of dark humor (THAT UNICORN), but there’s plenty to creep you out. It’s a shame that Vincent Price doesn’t get to talk much here, but that vocoder he uses is one of the most disturbing things in the movie for me. I love the look of this film. It’s like if DANGER: DIABOLIK were a gothic horror movie; both protagonists have exquisite lairs. Like SEVEN, this movie gives the audience an unsettling compulsion to see all of the planned murders unfold, making you almost rooting against the police so they don’t catch him before he can see his project through to its completion. I love everything about this movie, especially Phibes’s diabolically stylish assistant, Vulnavia.

THE WICKER MAN (1973)

One of the great British horror films, and one of the great British films period. It fits into a lot of genres -- it’s even a musical! -- but I see it having a lot in common with hillbilly horror. An outsider comes to a community in the middle of nowhere and immediately clashes with the locals, disrespecting them and their customs, and eventually realizes he’s in way over his head. There’s more to it than that, but I don’t dare spoil it if you haven’t seen it. The ending is extraordinary, not just the fact of what happens but the tone the movie strikes as it leaves you with a terrifying sense of not knowing how you’re supposed to feel. Sumer is icumen in!

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN is pretty much the accepted official birth of the “slasher” genre, but there were several films that preceded it that helped codify it and the tropes it’s so well known for. Bob Clark’s BLACK CHRISTMAS is one of them, preceding HALLOWEEN by four years. And it was already bucking the most famous slasher trope -- the virginal final girl -- as its heroine was pregnant and had decided to have an abortion (in fact, the virginal good girl in this movie is the first to die!). This movie also really leans in on the killer POV, so much that aside from one shot of the guy’s eye in a doorway, you never see who it is! CREEPY!

THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)

This movie sat at the top of my “never gonna watch it” list for quite some time. Something about the idea of power tools and human flesh made it something that felt very taboo and something I could never handle. Now that I *have* seen it, it still feels taboo and unsafe, and that’s what I love about it. There’s some beautiful filmmaking on display here, but you’ll hardly notice because it doesn’t feel like a movie; it feels like something that’s really happening. The dinner scene is one of the most upsetting things I’ve ever seen (at least partly because of the horror stories I’ve heard about the filming), and it’s wild to me that there’s so little blood in the movie, yet it’s remembered as being one of the goriest films of all time.

CARRIE (1976)

I didn’t rank these, but CARRIE is straight-up my favorite horror movie. Horror movies don’t always get a lot of respect (and let’s face it, a ton of the genre is garbage -- garbage that I almost unfailingly adore, but garbage), but CARRIE is a Good Movie. Anchored by two incredible performances (both Oscar-nominated), with a script that takes its time building actual characters. No matter how many times I’ve seen this, I watch Carrie at the prom -- happy for perhaps the first time in her life -- and hope against hope that things will turn out differently for her. They never do. I still vividly remember the first time I ever saw this and how much I screamed at the end. This movie still legit scares me.

HAUSU (1977)

Teenage girls go to house and house eats them. Pretty basic premise and you can see the bones of it in a whole lot of horror movies. It’s the “I came here to have a good time and honestly I’m feeling so attacked right now” of movie plots. But HAUSU is so much more and truly one of the most bazonkers movies I have ever seen (in the very best way). You will see a girl eaten by a piano. You will see a girl smothered by bedding. You will see a man turned into a pile of bananas (yes, that’s right -- this shit is literally B-A-N-A-N-A-S). A phenomenal movie to experience with an audience, especially if there are at least a few people who’ve never seen it and don’t know what they’re in for.

SHOCK (1977)

There are other Mario Bava films I love more but as a horror movie, this one left a lasting impression on me. It’s unlike his other films (though perhaps that’s because it was arguably co-directed by his son Lamberto) and there’s something about it that unsettles me more than his other movies. Its star, Daria Nicolodi, gives what I believe to be her best performance in a role, like Mia Farrow’s Rosemary, that’s easy to misread as weak until you learn just how much she’s being manipulated. It has a really great jump scare near the end (which was ripped off in ANNABELLE) and one of the all-time great evil children in horror.

THE BROOD (1979)

David Cronenberg has always been considered the king of body horror, which reached its apotheosis in 1986 with THE FLY but his earlier films were a touch more subtle (though more subtle than THE FLY is a low bar indeed). This movie centers around a woman who is undergoing experimental psychotherapy which is causing her to literally give birth to physical manifestations of her rage. Like a lot of pre-80s horror, this is a slow burn and it takes a while to get to the blockbuster shocks, but the time is not wasted. The reveal of how these children are born is breathtaking and repulsive. I do wonder what this film would look like if it were made by a woman, but this is definitely my favorite Cronenberg.

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986)

IT’S MILLER TIME! Stacie Ponder once said of this movie that it’s the kind of movie John Hughes might have made if he’d ever tried his hand at horror. There’s loads of teen angst and unrequited romance and jocks-versus-nerds drama in addition to an amazing B-movie about killer slugs from outer space that turn people into zombies. I really love how this film is constructed and how it doesn’t lay out its premise from the very first moment, preferring to unfold everything organically. It’s horror icon Tom Atkins’s greatest role (“Thrill me!”) and has the greatest tagline, which Atkins also gets to deliver in the film itself -- “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news, girls. The good news is your dates are here.” (“What’s the bad news?”) “They’re dead.” All of the heart eyes for this movie.

THE LOST BOYS (1987)

I recently watched a YouTuber's reaction to this movie and realized that it’s not exactly scary (though there are some frightening sequences). But it’s not really designed to be. It’s a teen movie above all else and an excuse to look at hot 1980s guys. At least that was the appeal for me when I was 12 or 13 and saw it for the first time. I absolutely buy that Michael is drawn to these bad boys (and not just because he wants to get closer to 1980s Jami Gertz). This movie took all the classic vampire lore and gave it a younger, more modern spin (I’m fairly sure this was the first time I ever heard of the significance of inviting a vampire into your home). And what the movie lacks in terror it more than makes up for in gore. The vamp deaths in this are GRODY. I adore this movie. Not least because it gives us an entire scene that seems to only exist to show a shirtless and sweaty saxophone-playing Tim Cappello absolutely Working. It.

SOCIETY (1989)

Another example of my favorite trope (see ROSEMARY’S BABY), the paranoia-conspiracy two-step. The way this movie handles it is to make us doubt even what we see through our protagonist’s eyes by setting up that he has genuine hallucinations and can’t always trust what he himself sees. Is the metaphor for the rich sucking the life out of the poor a whole lot on the nose? Sure. But the way it’s visualized in the movie’s unforgettable, has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed “shunting” sequence is truly stunning and like nothing anyone would ever attempt today. And it seems so perfectly suited for the 1980s, the Greed Decade. Please, no one ever remake this movie. Everyone should just see this one. It’s great. There is no way a remake would be a ballsy and wackadoo as this is. 

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)

My favorite movie, period. I don’t consider it a horror movie myself, but I know many do and I don’t argue with it. Ted Tally wrote a perfect adaptation of the original novel, distilling it down to just the essentials. The cast is phenomenal, from top to bottom -- from the irreplaceable Jodie Foster as Clarice (sorry, Julianne Moore) to the perfectly slimy Anthony Heald as Chilton to the kind-faced Frankie Faison as Barney. It feels incredibly grounded and yet lets itself veer into the operatic and grand guignol when it wants to. And it has one of the most brilliant “oh shit” reveals in any movie ever that still wows me every time I watch it.

TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL (2010)

Good horror comedies are much more than just spoofs and parodies. They actually engage with the genre and say something about it. There are countless movies about teens going into the woods and encountering murderous hillbillies. This movie makes the hillbillies our heroes, makes them a pair of sweet yokel BFFs, and makes the scary cabin in the woods their dream vacation home that they’re working to spruce up. And our teens get themselves killed through their own misunderstandings and prejudices. Love a horror movie with heart.

THE LOVE WITCH (2016)

There’s a ton of horror and B-movie iconography that this movie will remind you of, but director Anna Biller would insist that this movie isn’t an homage or a pastiche. This isn’t a genre exercise for her; she’s simply crafting her own story in the style of movies that she likes. And she does a ton of the work herself -- not just writing and directing, but designing and sewing the costumes and designing the sets. The movie has style oozing out of its eyeballs (Elaine’s look, in particular, is so iconic that I’ve seen many a Love Witch cosplay and Halloween costume in the years since) but it also has some stuff to say, particularly about misogyny and the patriarchy.

RAW (2016)

It’s a lot to stomach (ba-dump-bump-chhhhh), but RAW is a richly rewarding take on body horror via cannibalistic fairy tale. Justine’s descent from strict vegetarian to cannibal, doubling as a metaphor for her sexual awakening, is fascinating to watch and director Julia Ducournau shows it to us with zero judgment, cleverly placing us squarely on her side in early scenes of school hazing humiliation. Great horror should show you something you’ve never seen before, and this movie has many of those somethings (including the most horrifying bikini waxing you will EVER see). I can’t wait to see what Ducournau does next.

GET OUT (2017)

The third in the paranoia-conspiracy trifecta, along with ROSEMARY'S BABY and SOCIETY. It’s hard to overstate how significant this movie has been to horror, a genre that has not had the greatest track record with Black characters and the few stories in the genre that have revolved around them. There are others far more equipped than I to talk about the movie’s portrayal of the theft of Black lives and bodies. But what I do feel equipped (and in fact compelled) to talk about is the way it portrays White privilege and how not one White person is exempt from it. The fact that there is not one White savior in this movie is more than a conscious rejection of a trope. It’s a reminder that, no matter how woke you might be, if you’re White you don’t get to be excused from your privilege or the responsibilities it entails.

MIDSOMMAR (2019)

This movie just plain knocks me out. Every time. If all you see in this movie is a retread of THE WICKER MAN, you are not looking closely enough. Florence Pugh is superb, perpetually on edge and occasionally spilling over into outright despair (in at least two of the most emotional scenes I saw in any movie in 2019). The fact that so much of the movie takes place during the day, including its most horrific scenes, adds a layer of audacity to that horror. And the conclusion is such a beautifully disturbing opera of mixed emotions that it’s impossible to pinpoint an appropriate reaction. Which is horrifying in and of itself.

ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2019)

On the one hand, I’m not a big believer in sticking with something when it’s not working for me just because it supposedly gets better at some point. On the other hand, you HAVE to stick with the first half of this movie. It’s not especially compelling or entertaining the first time out, but without it, the second half -- which is all extremely satisfying payoff -- doesn’t work. Each half of this movie gives the other meaning, and that’s what makes it special. Well, that and the fact that it’s an absolute love letter to the chaos of independent filmmaking and the joy of creative collaboration. 

Exploitation Sampler, Part II

It's been a minute since I've done a post, and once again, I'm just cribbing from an episode of Pure Cinema Podcast. The categories are slightly different this time, but here's another "Five Because" of various flavors of exploitation cinema. It should be said that the PCP guys always do a bunch of extra watching of new-to-them stuff trying to make their picks, but I usually just go with what I've already seen, and I've done that here as well.

Ozploitation - There are some fairly obvious picks here (Brian Trenchard-Smith's filmography alone could make its own list -- Stunt Rock, BMX Bandits, Dead End Drive-In, etc.), but perusing a list of widely accepted Ozploitation canon, I just couldn't pass this one up.

HARLEQUIN (aka DARK FORCES) (1980)
I've written about this one before, from BNAT 15 (the "Wolf of Wall Street" year), but I'll take any excuse to talk about this movie. Robert Powell (best known for playing the title role in Jesus of Nazareth) plays Gregory, a Rasputin-type and a role originally written for David Bowie. You'll have to squint pretty hard to tell this is Australian (not uncommon for Australian films, as I understand), especially as the cast features the British Powell, fellow Brit David Hemmings and American actor Broderick Crawford, who's not even pretending to act like he's not from Philadelphia. It's a basic Rasputin narrative -- Gregory is a faith healer and advisor who insinuates himself into the powerful Rast family, and shenanigans and strage magicks ensue. Some fabulous costumes (for Powell, at least) and some amazing 80s-TV-movie-level special effects, along with some occasionally very strange dialogue ("Strip poker, anyone?"), make this more entertaining than it probably should be. And that last shot is to die for.


Blaxploitation - Again, a lot of options here, and while I'd love to just do Putney Swope again, this is an underseen gem from an icon of the subgenre.

FRIDAY FOSTER (1975)
Pam Grier had already played her most iconic characters (save Jackie Brown, of course) when she made this movie. Based on the early 1970s comic book character of the same name, Friday Foster doesn't very closely resemble the comics, but is more like the filmmakers plucked Ms. Friday out of the comics and dropped her into a blaxploitation movie. Which is still entertaining. Foster is a former model turned fashion photographer who witnesses an assassination attempt and ultimately finds herself targeted. Foster is a great character, and it's great to see Pam Grier in a role like this that relies less on the ass-kicking (though there's still a bit of that) and more on other resources. And while Grier is the main attraction here, there are a bunch of legends in this movie, including Yaphet Kotto, Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus and Ted Lange.


Hicksploitation - I went a bit unconventional last time with The Wicker Man, but I'm going back to American hicks for this list.

POOR PRETTY EDDIE (1975)
Hoo boy, here's a movie that feels tragically appropriate right now, as repulsive as it is. And make no mistake, it is repulsive, even though I love it. Leslie Uggams plays a character not unlike her real-life persona, a crossover superstar, straddling the worlds of music and acting. On her way to get off the grid for a two-week vacation, she *really* gets off the grid after her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and she's forced to take refuge in a small town that is ... not exactly hospitable. This is a rough one -- even the trailer might be too much. Brutal rape and harassment, cock fights, dog murder, and a climax where our protagonist is genuinely trapped, with no hope of rescue. It's a tough watch, but it's so well made (with some of the best editing in 1970s cinema, seriously) and compelling, especially the balls-to-the-wall finale. What really puts this in the hicksploitation hall of fame, though, is the presence of not only Slim Pickens but also Dub Taylor -- the Jupiter and Saturn of hillbilly stars. The cast also boasts Shelley Winters and Ted "Lurch" Cassidy. This has always been a sterling example of grimy, nasty rural cinema, but with everything going on right now, the story of a Black woman who is harassed relentlessly with no authority in this town to look after her interests -- most especially not law enforcement -- feels frighteningly relevant.


Drugsploitation - Loads of pot movies to choose from, but I'm going to go with an LSD flick (sort of).

BLUE SUNSHINE (1977)
It only takes about 10 minutes for this movie to go from bland, white 1970s mush to flat-out crazypants. This movie follows a bunch of late 20- to early 30-somethings who took a bad strain of LSD in college in the 60s and find themselves, ten years later, losing all their hair and turning into homocidal maniacs. The worst delayed trip ever. This is a pretty cool conspiracy plot as our main character tries to track down the original person who sold the drug (the titular "Blue Sunshine"). There are some truly outrageous sequences -- notably one where a babysitter tries to kill the children she's watching with a butcher knife for asking for soda (to be fair, the kids are exceedingly annoying). There's a political subplot, as the drug distributor in question is now running for Congress, which adds some more drama (and fun campaign paraphernalia). And for no reason I can figure out, there is a significant chunk of the movie that features celebrity puppets, including puppet Sinatra, and puppet Streisand.

Wild Card - I had a blurb on 1973's The Baby all typed up until I remembered that I used it for another Five Because a couple years ago. Which is good because now I can talk about...

LUCKY SEVEN (1986)
Part of a disturbing number of children's martial arts films in the 1980s, Lucky Seven stands apart from a lot of kidsploitation like Bugsy Malone, where you have a world consisting entirely of kids, who all do adult things with no actual adults to be found. Lucky Seven has plenty of adults, most of whom are at odds with our charismatic youngsters. Lucky Seven has a pretty messy plot (that actually reminds me a lot of BMX Bandits), but plot isn't the point here. There's a lot of goofy kid stuff with terrible disguises and pranks, but there's also a shocking amount of violence for a movie like this, including several scenes of these children getting absolutely destroyed. It's quite startling to see these children fighting (and frequently having their asses handed to them by) the adults in this movie. I mean, it's BRUTAL. This is a KIDS MOVIE. And this is the 1980s -- not as wild as the 1970s, by any means, but still not an era known for filmmakers taking great pains to keep people safe on set. There's a shot of a little girl who can't be older than 10 going slo-mo through a glass window and landing face first on the concrete. No way she didn't spend some time in the hospital after that.

2019 "Top 10" (Categories)

I'm increasingly starting to feel like Top 10 lists are stupid. Why is 10 inherently a better number than 11 or 9? Because it's round? I've done some sort of “Top 10/20/25” list every year since 2007, and narrowing it down to a round number interests me less and less. Recently I’ve ended up writing about everything new I’ve seen in a particular year because I don’t do as many reviews anymore and I like to say at least a little about everything I’ve seen. And this year, I've done that again ... with a twist.

With so many movies (I saw 108 new movies this year), it’s natural that they fall into categories and that’s true for this year as well. But instead of categories based on subject matter or distinguishing characteristics, I’ve just gone with categories of my own reactions and impressions — what I loved, what everyone else loved but I didn’t, what I recognize as great but didn’t fall in love with, what was just okay, etc. So bear with me (or not) as I go through my “Top 10” (Categories) of 2019 Movies.

And to spare you scrolling through everything, I've linked to each category below, plus listed all the films in all but the top two categories (which might be all you care about anyway), if you want to pick and choose that way.

10. The Hyperbole-Breaker (Cats, natch)

9. Just Not My Jam (But Others Seem to Like Them and That's OK) (Brightburn, Hagazussa, The Mustang, The Souvenir)

8. Not as Bad as You May Have Heard (Aladdin, Dumbo)

7. Loved These More Than I Probably Should (Aquaman, Charlie's Angels, The Good Liar, Greta, Richard Jewell, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker)

6. Didn't Knock My Socks Off, But It Was Still Pretty Good (Blinded by the Light, Deathcember, First Love, Frozen II, Glass, Harriet, Honey Boy, The Hustle, It Chapter Two, Joker, Judy, Pet Semetary, Ready or Not, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Toy Story 4, VFW, VHYes, Why Don't You Just Die!)

5. I Love You but I'm Not *in* Love with You (Ad Astra, American Factory, Ash Is Purest White, The Beach Bum, Dragged Across Concrete, Fast Color, Gloria Bell, High Life, The Long Walk, The Nightingale)

5A. That Was Great, Babe, But Can We Never See Each Other Again? (Climax, Uncut Gems) (same link as above)

4. Delightful Surprises (1917, Apollo 11, The Art of Self Defense, Atlantics, Bacarau, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Bombshell, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Crawl, The Farewell, Hail Satan?, Hustlers, Jumanji: The Next Level, Long Shot, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, Shazam!, Waves)

3. Crank These Up to Eleven and Roll Down the Window! (Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Daniel Isn't Real, Doctor Sleep, Dolemite Is My Name, Extra Ordinary, Fighting with My Family, Ford v. Ferrari, Good Boys, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, In Fabric, John Wick 3: Parabellum, Knife + Heart, The Lighthouse, Ma, Queen & Slim, Rocketman, Us, You Don't Nomi)

2. The Gold Standard (A Normal Year's Top 10 15)

1. These Movies Changed My Life

2019 "Top 10" (Categories) - #1

1. These Movies Changed My Life

There aren't many years where there is even one of these. Speaking plainly, there hasn't been one since I've even been doing lists like this (probably the closest were Drive and Inside Out). But there were two this year and you can probably credit/blame them for my complete inability to rank things this year. These transcend rank, and I'm so obsessed with both of them that I'm certain they'll end up as all-time favorites, not just best of a year or decade. Again, in alphabetical (not ranked) order.

I was raised by a community that doesn’t bicker over what’s theirs

and what’s not theirs. That’s what you were given. But I have always felt

held by a family. A real family. Which everyone deserves. And you deserve it.

I tried to write something about Midsommar just after I saw it and failed utterly. I have 13 or 14 paragraphs of three different started attempts that I never published because I couldn't get my head around the enormity of my love for this movie. So let's see how well I do with this. This is a movie that is essentially about a bad breakup, with the trappings of folk horror. It reminds most people of The Wicker Man and it should, and I think Ari Aster wants you thinking about that because what he is ultimately doing is quite different. Dani (played by Florence Pugh) takes a trip with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his friends to Sweden and the community where one of these friends, Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), was raised. The community is going to be celebrating a midsummer festival that only happens every 90 years (which means, according to what we learn in the movie, that no one alive in the village has seen it). The American visitors witness some disturbing practices, made all the more disturbing because most of them occur in broad daylight, but these practices are mostly swept under a cloak of culture until one by one the visitors start disappearing (slasher-style, in case there's any question this is a horror movie), and eventually only Dani and Christian remain. 

There is so much to say about this movie — about gaslighting, about the emotional labor that women are often required to do (I could write for hours about the little moment when Dani wrestles with whether to call Christian, weighing how much the conversation is going to cost her in the relationship), about academic ethics, about the subtle and (I've heard) realistic portrayal of drug use, about the power of sharing someone else's pain, about how great this movie is at making you unsure how to react and whether you should laugh, about how deeply upsetting that thing that happens 10 minutes in is (to the point that many people have had to walk out at that point), and about how freakishly talented Florence Pugh is. But I'll limit myself (after all that) to this. I am LIVING for this new breed of the Final Girl, seen in this movie, as well as The Witch and the Suspiria remake. These ladies don't just react to being stalked by a masked killer. They step up and claim their power and agency. And yes, most of them arguably become villains in their own right, but only because they reject the stale dichotomy of good versus evil. Because hey, if you're going to call us witches, we might as well be witches. 

Jay Sebring: Sounds like you had a hell of a night.

Rick Dalton: You have no idea.

Kill Bill, I will always love you, but I think I've found a new life partner in the Tarantino-verse. I did manage to post something about this movie several months ago, but sadly, it was a War-and-Peace-length plot summary on crack and full of spoilers (ergo, useless to anyone who hadn't already seen the movie). When it was announced that Quentin Tarantino, a director famous for hyper-stylized violence in his movies, was making a movie about the Manson murders, most of the culture reacted with a "yeah, but can we not?". No one could imagine how such a thing could not be grossly exploitative. As it turns out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (ellipses optional) is an incredible deep dive into a very specific era of Los Angeles, specifically Hollywood. Tarantino uses his encyclopedic knowledge and memory of being a kid in LA in the late 1960s (not to mention old KHJ radio broadcasts) to immerse us so fully in this world, and create an entire place for his main characters within it, that you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is all real and Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth really existed.

Boiled down to its essentials, this is a hangout movie. We spend two and a half hours hanging out with Rick Dalton, Cliff Booth and Sharon Tate, most of which occurs over a day and a half. We watch Rick shoot a couple of scenes of a TV pilot, we watch Cliff drive around and drop a hitchhiker off at Spahn Ranch, and we watch Sharon Tate running errands and going to a movie theater to watch herself in The Wrecking Crew (and I'll forever love that Tarantino uses the real movie, not recreated, with the real Sharon Tate, not Margot Robbie digitally inserted). And I would gladly watch another two hours of Cliff driving around, with another hour watching Rick and Cliff watch that episode of The FBI. The last half hour of the movie is serious spoiler territory and hugely controversial, but I think it's brilliant and the sweetest and most heartfelt Tarantino has ever been. In the end, you don't come away from the film thinking about Manson; you're thinking about Sharon. That said, I would highly recommend (either before or after seeing the movie) checking out Karina Longworth's podcast series on "You Must Remember This" about Charles Manson's Hollywood. Especially if you're not that familiar with the events and names.

2019 "Top 10" (Categories) - #2

2. The Gold Standard

(A Normal Year’s Top 10 15)

In another year, without the number one category, these would be my top 15. Like all the other categories, these are not ranked, but simply in alphabetical order.

Molly: Nope.

Amy: No.

Molly: Not acceptable.

Amy: This is not okay.

Molly: Who allowed you to be this beautiful?!

Amy: Who allowed YOU to be this beautiful?!

Molly: Who allowed you to take … my breath … away?!

Amy: Call the paramedics. Call the police. Because there has Been. An Emergency.

Molly: I can’t look right at it.

Meet your new favorite sleepover movie. Just say no to the strawberries and keep away from the stuffed panda. The lazy way to describe this is “Superbad, but with girls.” But it’s so much more than that. The two central characters love each other so much that it’s impossible for us not to adore them too. There are details in here that will probably feel dated in 10 years (many of the political references, for one thing), but that’s true of all the best teen comedies. There are some truly gorgeous visuals that you wouldn’t necessarily expect in a movie like this — one of the most beautiful scenes I saw in a movie this year was the underwater pool scene, where Amy is trying to find her crush. The stop-motion sequence is incredible. The writing is fantastic, including some great foreshadowing when Amy says someone always gets arrested the night before graduation. But most of all, I love how much this movie loves ALL of its characters (even the wanted criminal, a little bit). There has been a great trend in a lot of movies this year where people are forced to reexamine their prejudices about other people, especially women's prejudices about other women, and this is the crown jewel of that trope among this year's movies.

You want to play it as good guys and bad guys. And I'm one of the bad guys. But I give these men respect, and as much dignity as I can, all the way through.

This was the last new film I saw this year, and I was floored. And I think it made an even bigger impression on me than it would have if I hadn't seen the Last Week Tonight segment on lethal injection. (Side note: I cannot believe that it never occurred to me before that aired that a doctor cannot be involved in administering a lethal injection, or even designing the device, because OF COURSE their oath prevents them.) Alfre Woodard plays a prison warden who has had to supervise a dozen executions by lethal injection in her tenure and you can see that it has taken a toll on her. The movie begins with number eleven, which goes very badly. This attracts the attention of the media and puts more focus on the upcoming twelfth execution, that of Anthony Woods (played by Aldis Hodge). There's an inevitability to where this movie is headed, but you can't look away because there's this tiny sliver of hope that something will change the course of fate. Alfre Woodard is as incredible as she has ever been (which is saying something), and her character looks at her job as a profession and does it to the best of her ability. She's not on a power trip. She treats those under her care with as much compassion and consideration as she can, within the rules and regulations. She doesn't take sides or give special treatment. And with very few exceptions she doesn't betray any emotions she might feel at what she has to do. This catches up to her when she leaves work, as she frequently gets a drink (or several) on the way home, can't sleep at night, and when she tries to sleep she has nightmares. Director Chinonye Chukwu was the first black woman to win the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance with this film earlier this year, and I hope its late release doesn't mean critics and awards bodies sleep on this. It's truly a great film. (In theaters.)

What’s happened to our country? We’re killing innocent people, raiding other countries, preying on the weak… 

The movie begins by telling us that all Austrians called up to serve in the military in the 1930s were forced to pledge their loyalty to Hitler. I'll just leave that there, since that clearly doesn't resemble anything at all that's happening right now. August Diehl (who you might recognize the Gestapo officer in Inglourious Basterds who makes Michael Fassbender's cover) plays Franz, a peasant farmer who lives a simple life with his wife and children. They are important members of their little community, but Franz dreads every day the possibility of being called up to serve, because he simply can't do it. He keeps this mostly to himself, though he seeks the advice of priests, but before he even gets the letter he declines to give a donation to the army, which leads people to start asking questions and start treating him and his family differently. When he gets the letter, he does report in order to make things less hard on his wife and children, but when he stands in a line and is expected to raise his arm to salute, he will not. And so begins his punishment. This reminded me a lot of A Man for All Seasons (though with far less dialogue). In three key scenes, people try and convince Franz that the loyalty pledge isn't that big a deal and that he is not helping anyone by resisting. That he is actually hurting his family back home whose guilt is assumed by association (this part is true) and that he could be making things worse for anyone he might hope to help, since someone else will just take his spot. Still, he remains steadfast. The ending is inevitable, but not hopeless, as we are reminded in a closing title card what the point of the film's title is: a passage from George Eliot's Middlemarch that says, "for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." I sincerely hope things don't get as bad for us in the coming years as the era we so frequently compare our current one to. But a film like this feels not just necessary but urgent right now. (In theaters.)

When I was young, I thought house painters painted houses. What did I know?

I was a working guy. A business agent for Teamster Local 107 out of South Philly.

One of a thousand working stiffs ... until I wasn't no more. And then I started painting houses ... myself.

I'm sure Scorsese has many more years of filmmaking left in the tank, but if this were his swan song, it could hardly be more fitting. Based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses, by Charles Brandt, the film follows Frank Sheeran, who, after being discharged from the army, became a meat driver and eventually started working for the Buffalino crime family, including doing work for the powerful Teamster leader (and World's Most Famous Missing Person) Jimmy Hoffa. This movie is one of several this year in which an auteur reflects on his work through the act of making a movie. Almodóvar has one this year too, as do Tarantino and Varda. Scorsese's film is filled with moments that I think he intends as reminders of previous films, and that's largely due to the cast. When Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci sit down with Harvey Keitel, anyone who's seen Mean Streets or Taxi Driver or Raging Bull or Goodfellas is going to experience a sense memory that I think is absolutely intentional and essential to fully experiencing this movie. And then there's Al Pacino, playing Hoffa in his first role for Scorsese, which seems insane. He uses the baggage of all his previous iconic roles — Michael Corleone, Frank Serpico, Sonny Wortzik, Tony Montana, and even the Devil — to reinforce how larger-than-life Hoffa was. A lot has been said about the limited roles for women in this movie, to which I first say that I don't expect a lot of insight into the female experience in a Scorsese movie. I don't mean to be flip about that, but his movies are generally about men, usually violent men, and I'm accustomed to that and don't really expect anything else. That said, some of these women, even with not much screen time, are pretty badass. The simple act of Russell's wife lighting a cigarette in the car, when she knows how strongly he feels about it and she knows he is a dangerous person to piss off, is kind of amazing. Speaking of violent men, though, the violence in this movie is another area where Scorsese is clearly reexamining and commenting on his previous work. The violence in this movie is very matter of fact, without fanfare. It's like the opposite of Goodfellas, where a violent sequence is like a guitar solo in a rock song. Here, when someone signs your death warrant, it's not operatic; "it's what it is." (Available on Netflix.)

Jojo: What did they do?

Rosie: What they could. 

The story of a Hitler Youth whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler and who discovers that his mother is sheltering a Jewish girl in their attic was bound to be polarizing, but I'm continually amazed at the backlash to this film. I mean, not everyone has to like everything, but there are people who CANNOT WAIT to tell you how much they hate this movie and how garbage it is. Clearly, I am not one of those people. I love everything about it, perhaps especially the fact that it never forgets the two most significant things that it is: a movie about a child, from a child's point of view, and a movie about a totalitarian regime in which anyone who resists finds themselves hanged or shot. It walks the line between those two very different worlds exceedingly well, I think. The cast is uniformly great, starting with Roman Griffin Davis as the titular Jojo, who is obviously not cut out to be a Nazi and only aligns himself with them, as another character points out, because he wants to belong to a club. My absolute favorite person in the movie, though, is Archie Yates, who plays Jojo's friend Yorki and is so adorable I can't take it. There are some really incredible moments in this -- the letters from "Nathan," the mystery of Sam Rockwell's character's loyalties, the absolutely ridiculous "Heil"-a-thon scene with Stephen Merchant, and maybe most of all, a scene where Jojo's mother lets him speak to his father, which is just a perfect and sweet picture of their little family and this mother's dedication to her son. This movie is such a great (and unintentionally timely) reminder of the importance of being kind, and how powerful that can be. (Still in a few theaters.)

But we must look a little closer. And when we do, we see that the donut hole has a hole in its center — it is not a donut hole but a smaller donut with its own hole, and our donut is not whole at all!

I'm sure there are flaws in this movie, but I see none. It is such a tightly crafted, well-executed, and ultimately satisfying murder mystery the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time. People keep calling this a "whodunit," but that seems to miss the point pretty spectacularly. The question isn't "who"; the question is what was done in the first place. This is an especially rich movie for rewatches, as you'll catch so many things (like scorch marks on letters) that were staring you in the face the whole time. I've already written a bunch of rambly thoughts on LJ about this movie (major spoilers at link), but the most enduring thing about this movie to me, even more so than the delicious stand-out performance of Daniel Craig, is Ana de Armas as Marta, especially her relationship with Christopher Plummer's Harlan. They only have one scene together, but it's the heart of the movie. (Side note: I'm also looking forward to seeing Ana de Armas reunited with Daniel Craig in the new Bond movie in 2020.) (In theaters.)

Women, they have minds and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. And I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it! But I’m so lonely!

All of the adaptations of Alcott’s novel have their charms, and I’m still quite fond of the Gillian Armstrong one, but this one might be the best. It’s as much an essay about the novel as an adaptation and you can see director Greta Gerwig working through some things, most notably the ending. I do wonder how this plays for viewers not familiar with the story, because it’s clearly assuming most people have, but not getting bogged down in the ABCs of introducing characters as if they’re entirely new creations helps Gerwig get to her more meta aims with this movie. Starting and ending the movie with Jo the professional writer is brilliant. Also brilliant is the decision to let us see grown-up Amy with Laurie before we ever see him with Jo, as well as the movie spending so much time with Amy and Laurie (easily as much as, maybe more than, Jo and Laurie), so that it’s easier to root for them and not get too attached in another direction. I’ve been meh on Saorsie Ronan in the past (I don’t deny she’s a great actor, but it feels like she gets ALL the roles, and I wish some other women of her generation got some of her share), but she’s really phenomenal in this. Florence Pugh (who will show up again in my number ones) is literally the best Amy, and I love that they had one actor play the younger and older version. Laura Dern is great, as always, and Meryl is Meryl. Human Eyelash Timothee Chalamet is wonderful. But my MVP is actually Chris Cooper, who plays Mr. Laurence. His relationship with Beth is my favorite thing about the movie. (In theaters.)

Nicole: The only reason we didn’t live here is you can’t imagine desires 

other than your own, unless they’re forced on you. 

Charlie: Okay, you wish you hadn’t married me. You wish you had a

different life. But this is what happened. 

I often think of Noah Baumbach as this kind of chilly purveyor of schadenfreude whose movies are emotionless intellectual exercises. Then I remember he made one of my favorite movies of a few years ago, Frances Ha, and I have to concede that his movies are chock full of emotion. They're just also full of uncomfortable realism in his characters and their relationships, which I frequently find hard to watch. Marriage Story is sort of the apotheosis of all of that. "A love story told through divorce" is how he describes it, and that's about as good a pitch as you can get. We begin with essays Nicole and Charlie have written about what they love about each other, which turn out to be the first step in what they hope will be an amicable separation and eventual divorce. Things don't quite work out that way, though, and this movie follows all the complications of divorce, with the added complications of a child in the mix, as well as the difficulty of each party to the divorce living on opposite coasts. This is a beautiful movie, with tons of moments that have really stuck with me (I still can't think of the "knife trick" without reflexively grabbing my arm). It also has two full numbers from Sondheim's Company ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy" and "Being Alive"), which puts it among the many films this year that have used a Sondheim song in a key moment (like the John Denver trend two years ago). (Available on Netflix.)

KEEP ON SHOOTING! KEEP ROLLING!

This pure cinnamon roll of a movie is an utter delight from start to finish, but the first time you watch it you might wonder what the fuss is about for the first half. Because what makes this movie special is the way it pays off every strange or awkward first-half moment in the second half. The whole cast in this is really great, from the mom-dad-daughter trio that is the heart of the movie, to the tiny network executive woman who’s so excited about everything, to the crew member blowing fake blood through a tube to imply an ax hitting a body. This is such a love letter to scrappy, independent filmmaking that my heart burst and I am speaking to you now from the Beyond. The image above is part of a particularly great moment that is a perfect portrait of creative collaboration, so much so that it brought me to tears. It will have you shouting “POM!” to random strangers on the street. It will have you almost as on edge as when you watch Uncut Gems. And it might make you want to go out and make your own movie. (Available on Shudder and for rent on other streaming services.)

I believed that the strength of my love would overcome his addiction, but it did not. Love is not enough. Love may move mountains … but it’s not enough to save the person you love.

Like The Irishman, Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory is a reflection on a career. Our protagonist, Salvador (played by Antonio Banderas in what could be a career-best performance), is a filmmaker in decline, physically and to some extent creatively. We jump around between a few different periods in his life -- his childhood, the end of a relationship with the love of his life, and his caring for his ailing mother. Salvador has essentially surrendered to the constant pain in his body and all but given up on making films (mainly because his physical difficulties make the demands of a film shoot all but impossible) — apparently inspired by a prominent fear of Almodóvar's, that he would eventually no longer be physically able to make films. But after a series of encounters that bring him perspective on his life and career, he takes steps to improve his health and is inspired to start making films again. This film is gorgeous, and much more subdued and contemplative than you might expect from Almodóvar. Incidentally, I did love that what we see of "Sabor" (the fictional film of Salvador's that has been restored and rereleased) looks like peak Pedro. And there is a reveal in the final scene that recontextualizes most of the rest of the film in a beautiful way. (In theaters.)

Ki-taek: They are rich but still nice.

Chung-sook: They are nice because they are rich.

A lot of Bong Joon-Ho's films have been about class, most overtly Snowpiercer, but here he takes that theme and gives it a Hitchcockian spin. On a tip from a friend, Ki-woo gets himself hired as a tutor for a young girl in a wealthy family who lives in a beautiful modern two-story architectural marvel of a home. Ki-woo's own family is poor, living in a tiny basement apartment and struggling to make ends meet with low-paying temp gigs like folding pizza boxes. Ki-woo's sister, father and mother all manage to con their way into working for the wealthy family in various capacities, but the class disparity creates uncomfortable situations and resentment, and eventually much worse. This would make a perfect triple feature with Knives Out and Us, as all three of these films deal with class and people's willingness to do horrible things to preserve what they perceive is theirs. It's an immaculately constructed film that, every once in a while, lets you feel like you have a feel for what's happening and what's going to happen, only to pull the rug out from under you and topple your expectations a few minutes later. Which is why the less I say about it, the better. (In theaters.)

When will you marry?

I don’t know if I will.

You can choose. That’s why you don’t understand me.

This movie, like its subject, is a work of art. More than a story about an illicit romance, it is a film that examines women's lives and the options and choices available to them, and how they rebel when they bump up against society's limits on them. This movie celebrates women and their desire for independence — financial and professional independence, independence from marriage, independence from forced child-bearing, and independence from a life that revolves around men. The burgeoning romance between the painter, Marianne, and her subject, Héloïse, is obviously the centerpiece of the film, but this movie also strongly emphasizes the friendship of the two women and the young maid, Sophie, who is in the house with them. In particular, there is a sequence with this lady trio, while Héloïse's mother is away, that is so audacious (at least to my American eyes) that I could hardly believe it (in the best way). (Opening in the US in February.)

Aren’t you tired of checking your phones all the time? Wondering if someone’s trying to reach you when no one ever is? How many times a day is there nothing?

I’ve seen a lot of teen romcoms in my day but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so sex-positive and non-judgmental. (The characters do plenty of judging, but the film doesn’t.) This Quebec-made film follows three young women who take jobs at a toy store because their heads are turned by the cute guys who work there. One of the girls, Charlotte, has recently had her heart broken and rebounds many times over with most of the male staff. After finding out the guys have made a sort of game of it, and drawing the ire of most of her female coworkers, she decides to start a fundraiser for charity, wherein she will take pledge money for abstaining from "romance." She is quickly joined by the other female workers, while the guys, upset at the disruption to the social network of the staff, eventually start their own pledge drive. This is a charming examination of the complicated emotions and relationships between young people, as well as the double standards facing women when it comes to sex. There’s a bit of Lysistrata, some A+ usage of Maria Callas, and it even closes with a Bollywood dance number. It’s fairly formulaic on its face, but it uses the well-worn romcom tropes to say some important stuff. (Available on most streaming platforms.)

Once upon a time, there was a Tiger Prince… 

This is a very different kind of horror movie, a rare "tear-jerker" in this genre, and I wasn't surprised when it showed up on Shudder and some people were disappointed with it. It's not your typical horror flick and is much more along the lines of a Guillermo del Toro movie (most closely resembling The Devil's Backbone), where the story and stakes are much more serious and grounded. The movie takes place in a city in Mexico that has been decimated by the drug cartels. The city is essentially a ghost town and our heroine, Estrella, is on her own after her mother disappears and classes at her school are suspended indefinitely. She soon joins up with a group of boys under similar circumstances, and they all try to survive together. One of the boys, Shine, steals a cell phone and a gun from one of the drug dealers who is too drunk to do anything about it, and this sets up the conflict for the rest of the movie. This is tough to watch, but strangely beautiful and unfortunately timely, with some truly brilliant and devastating child performances. There is literally a shot of a child in a cage that absolutely destroyed me. If you watch horror films expecting gory deaths every five minutes, you should check your expectations at the door, but this is well worth seeing regardless. (Available on Shudder and for rent on most streaming services.)

There’s a saying: God always corrects one Pope by presenting the world with

another Pope. I should quite like to see my correction.  

This movie was a complete surprise to me (I'd never even heard of it before I saw the trailer in front of The Irishman), and I didn't expect to fall for it like I did. I'm not a Catholic but I was raised Southern Baptist (and the child of someone who was a sort of religious leader, though he would laugh at being called that), so while the pomp and ceremony is something kind of alien to me, there are still remnants for me to latch onto. The movie is sort of bookended by the election of the two titular Popes, and what comes between is a fascinating interaction between them. The two Popes in question being the current Pope (for most of this film, Cardinal Bergoglio, played by Jonathan Pryce) and his predecessor (for most of this film, Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, played by Anthony Hopkins). They clash frequently, due to their different personalities and Bergoglio's more progressive stances, but they have some common ground. Bergoglio has specifically come to visit Pope Benedict to announce his intentions to retire, but the Pope won't hear it and eventually announces his own intention to resign from the papacy, a move unheard of and not taken in 600 years. The Cardinal begs him to reconsider, saying that resignation will damage the papacy, and rebuffs the Pope's suggestion that he might be a successor, saying that he is unfit to be Pope due to mistakes in his past (shown to us in flashbacks). This was a remarkable film, with discussions of these two men's faith that reminded me a lot of Silence. In particular, there's a long sequence in a recreated Sistine Chapel that's remarkable to look at even without the dialogue. I wonder how this plays for people who aren't religious (especially for people who understandably can't help tuning out anything to do with the Catholic Church). But I found it beautiful and moving. (Available on Netflix.)