Zoë Rose Bryant has written 414 reviews for films during 2019.
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Gone Girl 2014
Finch really dropped one of the top 10 best films of the decade on us in 2014 and then awards season said “Gone Girl, who?” so I do not blame him for a SECOND for abandoning us these past 5 years
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2014 Ranked
Favorite Screenplays
David Fincher Ranked -
La La Land 2016
Every time I rewatch this, I’m worried the magic will wear off.
And yet... as soon as “Another Day of Sun,” begins, I’m reminded that this is one of the most enduring examples of purely transporting, classical cinema ever put to film.
Best of the decade.
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2016 Ranked
Best Director Winners Ranked
Best Actress Winners Ranked
Favorite Screenplays -
A Hidden Life 2019
Though the film is obscenely overlong - especially when considering how simplistic its story truly is - Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life nevertheless contains enough raw emotional resonance to ultimately offer an enlightening (if exhausting) cinematic experience.
Terrence Malick is most certainly an acquired taste, and I’m not even sure I’m ever fully on his wavelength either. No matter, as A Hidden Life is by far and away his least esoteric and most accessible feature in years, centered around August Diehl’s…
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Her Smell 2018
In spite of its heller-skelter structure, Her Smell manages to be harrowingly hypnotic throughout most of its 135-minute runtime, deriving almost all of its energy from Elisabeth Moss’s lyrically live-wire lead performance.
Taking cues from 2015’s Steve Jobs, writer-director Alex Ross Perry structures his story as a series of five separate vignettes, all separated by “home videos” which are shot to preface each vignette and filmed to appear as an insight into/prologue for the specific events and relationships explored in…
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Diane 2018
Kent Jones’s small-scale script causes this character study to drift a bit too much at times, but Mary Kay Place demands every last inch of your attention as the titular Diane, with a fully textured and thought-provoking depiction of a beleaguered middle-aged woman just trying to get by all while simultaneously atoning for past mistakes. No one else is quite on Place’s level (with Jake Lacy turning in sub-standard work in the first third as her drug addicted son), but Place’s and Jones’s empathy for this endlessly endearing individual keeps your interest nonetheless.
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Spies in Disguise 2019
While it never fully decides whether it wants to be a full-blown deconstruction of spy films or just a pleasant and polished entry in the storied genre, and it may lack the greatest inventiveness and emotional resonance of the best animated features, Spies in Disguise is still an amiable and amusing adventure for all-ages. It might not have you bowled over with laughter, but it’s continuously charming throughout its brisk 102-minute runtime, primarily due to the charisma of its commendable…
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Atlantics 2019
Though occasionally too aimless in its ambitions, Atlantics weaponizes this languor to deepen its dreamlike details and lull viewers under its seductive spell. The plot can feel a tad repetitive in the middle stretch, but the story’s startling supernatural secrets sneak up and surprise you by the film’s finale, and above all else, Mati Diop perpetually proves herself to be a dynamic directorial voice on the rise in this gorgeous, genre-bending exercise.
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Parasite 2019
“She’s rich, but still nice.”
“Not ‘rich, but still nice.’ She’s nice because she’s rich. Hell, if I had all this money, I’d be nice too!”Watching this movie with my thriller-adoring mother and hearing her gasp every two minutes is truly the best (belated) Christmas gift I could ever receive
Favorites
2019 Ranked
Best Picture Winners Ranked
Best Director Winners Ranked
Favorite Screenplays
Bong Joon-ho Ranked
Neon Ranked -
Little Women 2019
Little Women is a lovely, light, and leisurely lark that ravishingly reconciles the past with the present in a way that the best trips down memory lane do thanks to Greta Gerwig’s audacious adaptation and the terrifically timely yet still timeless portrayals of these classic characters by its capable cast, led by the sensational Saoirse Ronan and the fantastic Florence Pugh.
This year, we’ve seen countless films that center around characters who grapple with their pasts and reflect on previous…
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Les Misérables 2019
Les Misérables is a terrifically tense and gloomily gritty analysis of the anger that has accumulated between Parisian police and the citizens they control, brought to life by Ladj Ly’s appropriately agitated astuteness and the morally murky performances from its three lively leads.
Ly effortlessly and expertly establishes the powder keg-esque nature of these Parisian suburbs with opening scenes that paint both the environments of the police and the city’s citizenry with palpable pain and petulance. There is a general…