2019's Best Screen Animals

Different lists each for our "Year in Review"

We had hoped to put the entire cast of Cats on this list of the big screen's best animal characters but alas... very few of them are worthy to ascend to the Heaviside Layer let alone our year end list of the best big screen animals! This list is dedicated to bunnies as those beady-eyed cuties had a rough year at the movies. They were used solely for unsettling mood, multiplying sybolism and raw meat (gross) in Us and later popped up as an instrument of toxic masculine shaming in Jojo Rabbit. Bunnies deserve better in 2020! Which filmmaker will answer the call and treat them well onscreen?

Without further ado let's talk the screen animals we fell hardest for at the movies this year.  

11 Dumbo (elephant)
Here's the thing. Tim Burton and Screenwriters and (presumably) Disney corporate were so intent on expanding the movie (it's 48 minutes longer than the original Dumbo!) that it keeps pointing to everything but the star mutant attraction. Dumbo is as adorable as his ears are big but he's a supporting player in his own movie. They lost the thread or Dumbo could've topped the list.

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Seven Stocking Stuffers!

Our year in review continues. A new list daily.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, HAPPY KWANZAA to our beloved readers! 

For this festive morning of gift-giving, here's a list of some treasures from this year's movies that would make some lucky recipient smile from ear to ear. Which of these 7 would you most want to kiss Santa Claus for stuffing in your stocking this morning? Do tell in the comments.

(We wanted to include JLo's Hustlers fur or Tom Mercier's mustard Synonyms coat but we've never seen a stocking big enough to include either so we decided clothing was not allowed for this particular list) 

• The 'Scholar's Rock' from Parasite. You'd have to be more careful with it than the Kims were but it did bring them sudden success as advertised. 

• A Sith wayfinder from Rise of Skywalker. They are very rare so they're valuable. Though why would you want to go to Exegol? What a (surreal) dump...  

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Looking back at 2019 Filmmaker Interviews

by Murtada Elfadl

2019 gave me the chance to speak to a few filmmakers about their films, their process, what they think their art contributes to the world. These filmmakers came from all over the world, and the breadth of their experiences and the topics they tackled is astounding. As the year comes to an end and we look back at the moments that stood out, here are some of the most fascinating insights I heard.

Recently The Farewell was not allowed to compete in the main film categories at the Golden Globes, and accepted only as a “foreign” film when its story is quintessentially American. After all the United States is a country of immigrants. Some people’s insistance on calling The Farewell foreign when it's so American just indicates that they don't think anyone whose 1st language isn't English is American enough despite their contributions to this country. When I talked to Lulu Wang during the summer, I asked her if she thinks her film being not entirely in English might limit its appeal...

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Year in Review: Jason's Fave "Horror Actressing"

by Jason Adams 

It's been easy to say this for several years running now but it's been a pretty darn good year for Horror Movies. There are filmmakers out there taking risks and big swings with the genre, from art-house oddities (Midsommar) right on up to the mainstream ones (Us). And once you really dig deep -- the Horror Genre has almost always been one where the most interesting stuff has been a dirty secret whispered between likeminded folk -- the beautiful freaks really come out to play.

For the past five weeks in our "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series I've covered five of my favorite female performances in the genre in 2019, so first let's recap those before we get to the other five -- click their names to read those earlier posts.

Sofia Boutella in Climax

Rebecca Ferguson in Doctor Sleep

Fatma Mohamed in In Fabric

Lupita Nyong'o in Us

Florence Pugh in Midsommar

And now let's round out our top ten...

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Year in Review: Mainstream Box Office (feat. Lupita, Queen Elsa, and lots of Superheroes)

Our Year in Review party is getting off to a bit of a slow start (we launched with 50 biggest documentary hits) but we hope to speed up now and what better festive topic during the holiday moviegoing season than an audience participation one? Herewith six "top ten-to-twenty" box office hit lists regarding various subgenres of the mainstream and what we can learn from them... at least in terms of moviegoers today.

We're starting with female-led pictures because this should not be regarded as a minority or special interest topic given that half of the world's population is female! Little Women was a major late-breaking success in this arena but it wasn't the only success from 2019. Let's look at that chart first.

🔺= the movie is still in over 100 theaters. Figures are as of February 23rd

1. TOP GROSSING (LIVE-ACTION) FILMS WITH A FEMALE LEAD
(Excluding films where a male lead is just as prominent as his female co-star)

Captain Marvel

01 Captain Marvel $426.8 (Disney/Marvel, March 8th) starring Brie Larson
02 Us $175 (Universal, March 22nd) starring Lupita Nyong'o
03 Maleficent Mistress of Evil $113.9 (Disney, Oct 18th) starring Angelina Jolie
04 Little Women $107.1 (Columbia, Dec 25th) starring Saoirse Ronan
05 Hustlers $104.9 (STX, Sept 13th) starring Constance Wu & Jennifer Lopez...

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