But the film is mostly an exploration of a film industry that changed amid a transforming (counter)culture.
Cliff, Rick’s former stuntman, is now his driver and “gofer.” Rick lives next door to Hollywood’s new cool kids, the director Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) and his wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), in the house that would become the tragic site for the Manson murders. Rick, the former star of a cowboy show, now guest-stars on shows as the villain-of-the-week. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), are two washed-up Hollywood types. The story interweaves two days in the lives of Sharon Tate and two fictional protagonists, during 1969. Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is about the apex of cultural unrest that was 1969. But it’s also, in the words LitHub Assistant Editor Aaron Robertson, “fable-like”-a new entry into a canon of African American folklore, beautifully and brightly lit hauntingly written. But as they are chased down, a video of their encounter goes viral, turning them into national symbols for black rights. But after this ill-fated moment, the two know what lies ahead for them (Queen is a lawyer), so they go on the run together. The incident unfortunately escalates, leading to Slim’s shooting the policeman in self-defense. But the film turns all of this on its head, plotting a creative, extremely smart story that constantly shifts expectations.ĭirected by Melina Matsoukas, with a screenplay by Lena Waithe, Queen & Slim is about two young people (respectively, Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya in the eponymous roles) whose lovely first date goes horribly wrong when they are pulled over by an unscrupulous policeman. And so a brilliant detective (Daniel Craig) shows up on the scene to help the police investigate the crime-a crime which is, at this point, totally unsolvable. There is no way anyone could have made it into his chamber to do the deed. All the guests at his estate (his various relatives and housekeepers) have reasons for wanting him killed. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, this clever whodunnit begins when a wealthy patriarch, a mystery novelist (Christopher Plummer) is found in his study, dead of a knife wound to the throat. It’s a scathing, brilliant class-study, and a gripping film with one of the most impressive dramatic arcs I’ve seen. Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, this film won the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival (making this the first Korean film every to do so)! It’s the story of an unemployed family, the Kims, who grows very intrigued by the wealthy Park family, and scheme to integrate themselves into their lives. Most of these films are still in theaters-wishing you a very cinematic holiday season! Our list also exclusively considers fictional films, which means that it doesn’t count masterpieces like Petra Costa’s The Edge of Democracy or Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra’s The Infiltrators. It does not include war films, which means that movies like Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables and Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit and Sam Mendes’s 1917 are excluded.
“Crime” is defined rather broadly, to include all illegal activity from theft, to murder, to cons, to gangster stuff, to on-the-lam stories. This list considers international films as well as domestic ones. Here are the rules for our selection: all films considered all had to be full-length feature films, released in theaters in the United States during the 2019 calendar year. Please note that this list is not ranked.
This is a list of the ten best in this category, picked mostly by me after lots of hand-wringing and with lots of input from our office and my friends. This was an excellent year for crime films-both in terms of quality and variety.