A lot of films are released every year. There’s always something to write about. However, as some films occupy more attention than others, there’s always a lot of great movies that are overlooked. Here’s 20 of the Best Movies of 2019 that you might have missed and why you might have missed them.
Disney’s Dominant year a worrying sign?
2019 was Disney’s year. 6 of their films grossed over $1 billion internationally (7 if you include the latest Star Wars which is almost at $1 billion after 3 weeks) and they dominated the domestic U.S. and international box office. The latest Avengers film even managed to *just* surpass James Cameron’s Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time. Also, outside of the box office, Disney acquired Fox to increase their firepower for the next decade (so they actually own Avatar now anyway) and launched the Disney+ streaming service which already has approximately 20 million subscribers. They obviously haven’t settled for box office domination; they’re taking on the tech companies that are eating their potential streaming profits.
The problem with Disney’s monster year, as Martin Scorcese pointed out, is that “franchise films are now your primary choice if you want to see something on the big screen.” Instead of taking chances on original films, Disney continue to make films which fit the mold of films they’ve already made: remakes and sequels. In 2019, it has given them a record-breaking year financially, but at the expense of original films which have largely been overlooked by cinema-goers and movie theater chains worldwide.
So, here’s 5 Best Movies of 2019 that you might have missed because the latest franchise film was dominating Screens
- The Farewell – JustWatch
- Harriet – IMDb
- Waves – IMDb
- A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – IMDb
- A Hidden Life – IMDb
Each of these 5 films received decent to strong releases in the U.S, meaning that most people living in a city could have watched them. However, they all had to face off against remakes and/or franchise films.
Firstly, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell opened in a franchise sandwich: a week after Spiderman: Far From Home and a week before Disney’s Lion King remake. Secondly, Harriet, the biopic of Harriet Tubman featuring the underground railroad, had to battle with the latest Terminator sequel.
The limited release of Waves opened against the latest remake of Charlie’s Angels and a week before the highest grossing animated film of all time, Frozen II. Whilst A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood actually had the privilege of opening alongside Disney’s Frozen II.
Lastly, A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick’s latest film, faced a bunch of challenges. Firstly it was held back from a substantial release by Disney (who now owns Fox, the studio that produced the film). Plus, it also had to open alongside the latest Jumanji film as well as a week before the latest Star Wars film.
Big franchise films and remakes limited the opportunities for these 5 original films (and many others) to succeed.
netflix to the rescue? here’s three of the best movies of 2019 you might have missed that featured on the streaming platform
- Atlantics – Netflix
- The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open – Netflix
- Happy as Lazzaro – Netflix
- High Flying Bird – Netflix
One way of seeing Netflix is as a possible salvation for independent films from around the world. They made The Irishman with a huge budget, a film that arguably wouldn’t have been made at your traditional film studio because it’s a high budget original. They also made a lot of original films that probably wouldn’t have been wide releases (and seen by a lot of people) considering the dominance of franchise films. Marriage Story and The Two Popes are two examples of this, that have benefited from Netflix’s reach to become serious awards contenders. Netflix makes films that the studios don’t and gives them an opportunity to be seen by over 100 million people.
However, on the flip side, Netflix is also a business. Whilst it does make independent films from around the world that the studios avoid, they’re not created equally. Your Netflix home screen will only show films that it thinks you want to watch based on your usual viewing patterns. As a result, you might have missed the four films above because Netflix deemed that they’re outside of your usual viewing patterns (maybe it kept telling you to watch The Irishman). You’d have to search for them to find them.
The films Netflix make and acquire that do not match the viewing behavior of their current users are in danger of never getting seen. Just as you might have missed these four great films, I’ve missed a bunch of other great films on Netflix because they’ve been lost in the recommendation algorithms. As a result, I encourage you to watch the three films above and try to discover new, obscure, original films that appear in the depths of streaming platforms. You could also check out some of the films we’ve reviewed on Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Kanopy, Tubi, Vimeo, Vudu.
the best movies of 2019 that you probably missed if you don’t live in a ‘major’ city
- Pain and Glory – IMDb
- Tremors – IMDb
- Monos – JustWatch
- By the Grace of God – IMDb
- Honeyland – JustWatch, Hulu
- The Cave – IMDb
One problem with the theatrical film industry is that specialty releases are often confined to the largest film markets: New York and Los Angeles. If you live in a small town anywhere in the U.S. your local movie theater will most likely be a chain cinema and therefore most likely to show only the biggest releases of the year. They probably wouldn’t have risked showing any of these 6 international films over the latest franchise film.
Streaming services help specialty film fans living outside the big cities of the U.S. but unfortunately they don’t pick up every independent film that gets a limited release to make it available somewhere for everyone with an internet connection. That being said, do look out for these 6 on VOD, streaming services, Kanopy (it might be free with your local library), or elsewhere in the upcoming year.
5 of the best movies of 2019 from the film festival circuit that might be coming to streaming or art-house cinemas in 2020
- Talking About Trees – IMDb
- God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya – IMDb
- Koko Di, Koko Da – IMDb
- Flesh Out – IMDb
- Systeme K – IMDb
I’m not sure if these films will be distributed and released or live their lives waiting in silence. Whilst international films can cross over from the film festival circuit to U.S. domestic and international box office success (see Parasite), most don’t. Therefore, go check out the nearest film festival to you and support the future of independent film-making in 2020.
P.S.
These are just 19 of my favorite films from 2019 that you might have missed. As with covering music or literature, I was only exposed to a small sample of all the films that were created and screened in 2019, therefore I have missed out many films myself. Here’s to watching more films in 2020.
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