Your 2019 movies unpopular opinions..

No, that's not what I said. What I find annoying is the guys on here speaking of them (ad nauseam) in the same vein as, say, Charlize Theron.  

Saoirse Ronan needs to do something other than a period film or coming of age. A thriller, horror, science fiction, something different. I've been sick of seeing her every year playing a fearless young woman, her performances are always good but she needs to vary a little.

Invisible Life is fine and the four main actresses are all fantastic, but having read the novel seriously diminished my appreciation for the film, because Aïnouz and his co-writers completely altered the tone of Martha Batalha's work and stripped it of all of its joy and irony, instead replacing them with an overpowering sense of tragedy that is so torturous and relentless it ultimately dulls the story's impact.

The women in the novel aren't just victims; Eurídice, Guida and Filó are all remarkably resourceful characters who manage to take some control of their lives within the narrow confines of the society that surrounds them. They start lucrative businesses from inside their homes, they create art, they develop skills and learn trades, they provide safe havens of happiness and comfort for one another— AND MOST FUCKING IMPORTANTLY, are fabrications from the screenwriters that only serve to push the film further into unabashed melodrama. Which is a stylistic choice I have no problem with in theory, except Aïnouz and co. do it by sacrificing everything that made the women three-dimensional and interesting on the page. Batalha is a lot more successful at painting a realistic portrait of everyday life because she instills all of her female characters with loads of warmth, personality and individuality, and she's much more attuned to the ways that happiness and misery coexist side by side, which makes both the gleeful and the sorrowful moments land with much more poignancy. 

Maria Caú laid this out better than I could: reducing once richly layered women to the condition of perpetual victims, removing their agency and then treating us to 140 minutes of them getting humiliated, spat on and raped non-stop without any of the novel's countless counterpoints crosses the threshold from compassion into exploitation. And again, I don't think I would've been quite as bothered by this if I hadn't seen this same story told elsewhere in much richer fashion.

(Also, Gregório Duvivier as Antônio is the worst, most head-scratching casting decision of the entire year for me. I have nothing against him as a comedian and his HBO show is damn great, but I can never see him as anything other than himself. He plays Antônio like he's in a YouTube comedy sketch, and he basically ruins all the scenes he's in.)

I imagine that Invisible Life works much better to foreign audiences than Bacurau because it requires a lot less historical and political context (both of the country at large and of their filmmakers' personal lives), so it makes sense that it was submitted for the Oscars; but Mendonça Filho and Dornelles win this one quite handily for me. Poderoso psicotrópico >>>

Saoirse has the most beautiful face in the world, IMO. Sounds like you're not seeing what I'm seeing so you're missing out. 


I don't want her doing a big franchise because these days those can really swallow your whole career and keep you from doing anything interesting. Wouldn't mind more contemporary set stuff or something that's a bit of a thriller. I know there was the early talk of her doing that Ron Howard spy movie with Ryan Gosling, but I haven't heard anything about that for a while so IDK what's going on. She said one time (I believe a little after Brooklyn) that she didn't want to do coming of age stuff and specifically parts where her character lost her virginity anymore, but then came right back with Lady Bird, which was an even younger part than Brooklyn. So maybe that stuff is just what she gets offered. 

S. Craig Zahler should retire.

A Beautiful Day in the Neoghbourhood is one the year's worst films.
 

Right there with you friend.

Ana de Armas gave a better performance in Knives Out than any of the other Best Actress nominees in their respective films. 

Ad Astra is a much better film than it gets credit for.

The Irishman is nothing special, and I believe that when the dust of the hype finally settles, people are going to start realizing that and noticing its flaws. 

Everyone yet to watch Rolling Thunder Revue is a blithering idiot.

And anyone that didn't like it is an even bigger idiot.

Go out and make it for your own eternity.