Thursday Movie Picks: 2019 Releases

This week Wanderer asks to reflect on 2019. I decided to pick releases that I don't feel like were talked about nearly as much as they deserved to be.  Here are three films released last year that were wonderful, and you should see them if you haven't

1) Luce

This film is about a family coming to terms that son they adopted from a war torn country isn't as perfect as they think. The actors are great and I think this film asked a lot of interesting questions. I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this. 

2) Waves

Of these picks, this is the one I was sure would get at least some Oscar love. Mostly from Sterling K Brown. This is the story of a father who puts so much pressure on his teenage son (Kelvin Harrison Jr, who also stars in Luce) until his life implodes, then we follow his sister and how she deals with the aftermath. I hated the camerawork in this movie but the way the story is crafted feels very fresh.

3) Official Secrets

There were two whistle blower type films this year, this and The Report and neither are as popular as they should be. I went with Official Secrets because it's the lesser known of the two and Keira Knightley is wonderful in it. 

Comments

  1. Yes, well, I haven’t seen any of these..big surprise. The first and last one appeals to me though and I marked them down to see this year.

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  2. Great to see Official Secrets here! It's so underappreciated

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    1. It really is. Sad it didn't make more of a splash.

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  3. I haven't heard of any of these movies, I feel so out of the loop! I'll have to look into them more.

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  4. These are 3 films that I do want to see as I've heard good things about them. I hope to see them soon. Especially Waves as I have the score by Trent/Atticus (which I have yet to hear as I'm still re-organizing my music library).

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  5. I'm 0 for 3 this time out but Official Secrets sounds right up my alley. I'll have to make a point to catch it.

    There was a time when I used to go to the movie theatre almost every week, sometimes twice, but those days are gone I'm afraid. Proof being I saw exactly three films in the theatre this year, which made this extremely easy, but between the outrageous cost and the at least extra half hour of "pre-show" entertainment that isn't and endless previews (when I saw Knives Out they showed the same one twice!) it's just not the same. Anyway those three were:

    Rocketman-Chronicle of Elton John’s early life, rise to stardom and semi fall and rise from the ashes all set to his music. Shot very much in the fashion of The Who’s rock opera Tommy and anchored by a brilliant turn by Taron Egerton who does his own singing and who was absolutely robbed of an Oscar nomination!

    Knives Out-Fun, stylish mystery in the Agatha Christie fashion with an eye-popping cast, though both Jamie Lee Curtis & Toni Collette are underused, and amazing production design. Does it make a great deal of sense? Not particularly but an enjoyable ride.

    A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood-Bitter Esquire writer Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) who has major daddy issues it grudgingly assigned to do an interview and brief article on Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks). Dead set against believing anyone could be as pure of heart as Mr. Rogers appears to be he initially sets out to expose him only to discover that in this case he was mistaken. He comes away from their time together a better man. Rhys is good in the lead but this film is owned by Tom Hanks who though he doesn’t necessarily look or sound like Mr. Rogers captures his humanity.

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    1. I love Knives Out, easily one of my favorites of the year. A Beautiful Day was great too and Marielle Heller should be getting way more credit for directing that. I Liked Rocketman too, I didn't see that in theaters but Egerton was wonderful.

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  6. I haven't seen any of these yet, will be adding them on my watch list.

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  7. Great picks, Brittani! I haven't seen Luce yet but I like the other two. I was surprised that Waves and Sterling K Brown didn't get any awards love, I thought he was excellent, as is the girl who played his daughter.

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  8. Hmmm...I haven't heard of either of these movies. I like the sound of Luce and Waves though. I need to give these films a try!

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  9. Luca and Waves are already on my watch-list. I think I'll give a Official Secrets a chance too.

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  10. I haven't seen any of these but I'm interest in all three. I'm not excited about the lousy camera work tho... is it really bad in Waves? :D

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    1. There's a lot of spinning shots, which were my biggest issue. I know those don't bother everyone, but in excess they make me dizzy. lol. When the camera is still the shots are gorgeous.

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  11. I haven't heard of the first two at all. Vaguely remember hearing of both Official Secrets and The Report without knowing too much of the premise.

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