It’s hard to judge what the absolute best film of the year is, because if you’re like me, you spend most of your free time watching movies and tend to forget exactly which ones were new releases in 2019 and which ones were rewatching Timecop for the 50th time. Also, art is subjective, and what I think is a great movie may not necessarily be the same thing as what you think is a great movie. Luckily, I have never been wrong, so if you disagree with the inclusion or exclusion of any film on my list, the problem is firmly yours.

2019 has been a pretty surprising year for me in terms of movies. There were several films I was expecting to love that left me feeling disappointed (Knives Out, Doctor Sleep, Brightburn), a few I was expecting to hate that turned out to be pretty okay (the biggest surprise here was Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin), and a bunch of other films that were mostly fine. There were also a slew of movies I watched and then immediately forgot about, including Men in Black International and, tragically, Spider-Man: Far From Home. I have also become an unexpected apologist for Neil Marshall’s Hellboy reboot. That movie is bonkers and I love it.

Now, I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to see before publishing this piece. At the time of this writing, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Uncut Gems have yet to be released. I still haven’t seen 1917, and I’m literally counting the minutes until I’m able to experience whatever mescaline-induced spasm of brain death Cats turns out to be. Also, due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to see The Lighthouse or Jojo Rabbit, and the odds are good that one or both of those movies are extremely my shit. Also, decorum prevents me from making every single entry “Mufasa’s Death Scene in the Lion King Remake”.

So, with all of that in mind, here are my top 10 films of 2019. And for more of Collider's Top 10 lists, check out Matt Goldberg's list and Vinnie Macuso's list.

10. Velvet Buzzsaw

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Image via Netflix

Velvet Buzzsaw had an inauspicious debut on Netflix way back in February and then sort of dropped off the map, which is a shame, because it’s one of the best satirical horror films I’ve seen recently. Writer/director Dan Gilroy offers up a sharp indictment of the Los Angeles art-world - following a hyper-competitive group of critics and dealers who make their living off of artists without actually creating anything themselves. They’re all wholly insufferable and nakedly superficial, so you don’t feel the least bit sorry for them when a series of haunted art pieces starts killing them one by one.

Boasting an amazing ensemble cast featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, and John Malkovich, Velvet Buzzsaw is like a zany episode of The Twilight Zone, with a few scenes of bloody horror thrown in to punctuate its message. Gyllenhaal is especially delightful as art critic Morf Vandewalt, whose volcanic outbursts of indignant outrage at anyone who challenges his status or opinions are like solar flares of over-the-top comedic fury. Gilroy obviously has an ax to grind with professional critics and the power they hold over the perceived value of art (the man did write Freejack), but the film still reads like sharp, fun satire rather than a bitter revenge fantasy.

9. The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot

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Image via Epic Pictures

Ok, this one took me completely by surprise this year. You might go into a film titled The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot with Sharknado-level expectations, but this movie is the exact opposite of Ian Ziering killing a flying shark with a chainsaw. It’s a shockingly profound drama about mortality and making peace with regret. It explores the idea of folklore, both the stories you collect about the world over the years and the way we all tend to self-mythologize. And it’s also about Sam Elliott killing Hitler and then the Bigfoot.

Told in two timelines covering Calvin Barr’s life as a young American soldier in World War II and as an old man living out his retirement in solitude, The Man Who Killed Hitler’s already strong script is elevated by the performances of Elliott and Aidan Turner as the elder and younger Barr, respectively. Despite the epic nature of Barr’s titular exploits, the film is told on a small, personal scale. It also features surprisingly good practical effects, thanks to the involvement of Douglas Trumbull, who created the effects for Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, among others. (In addition, Trumbull serves as an executive producer.) It’s a shockingly poignant film considering its eye-catching title, and one that is very much worth your time.

8. Rocketman

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Image via Paramount Pictures

The long-awaited Elton John biopic was initially going to star Tom Hardy as the famous singer, and there’s a part of me that wants to see that version of the film, with Hardy performing all of the musical numbers in his Bane voice. But Hardy left the project several years ago and was replaced by Taron Egerton, and Egerton’s performance is one of the best of the year. Breezily moving between heavy dramatic scenes, surreal musical numbers, and numerous physical transformations as the film progresses through John’s life, Egerton maintains a credibility and pathos that’s hard to deliver in a movie of this scope.

The other standout is director Dexter Fletcher, who played Soap in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Pinky the condescending scientist in the 2005 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson vehicle Doom. Rather than make Rocketman as a standard biopic, Fletcher turns the whole thing into a dream-like fantasy spectacle that’s almost meta in its treatment of space and time. Egerton, as John, literally floats off into space in one sequence, and much like a stage musical, everyone in the world is seemingly ready to join in on a song-and-dance number at a moment’s notice. It takes several liberties with its sequence of events and its characterizations of real people, and while that could be perceived as self-serving on John’s part, the movie never presents itself as being completely true-to-life. It’s a unique film with a strong performance at its center, and that’s refreshing in a genre that tends to be dully formulaic.

7. John Wick: Chapter Three - Parabellum

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Image via Lionsgate

Keanu Reeves murders Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanović with a library book in the opening minutes of John Wick: Chapter Three - Parabellum, and things only get more delightfully shithouse crazy from there. The John Wick franchise has stealthily become the best action series of the past few decades, focusing on tightly choreographed stunts, beautiful cinematography, and an ever-expanding mythology that’s simultaneously ludicrous and compelling.

Chapter Three picks up right where Chapter Two left off, with John Wick rushing to escape an entire world of assassins coming to blast him out of this plane of existence for killing a high-ranking member of the underworld on sanctified grounds. A huge part of the appeal of this series is how game Reeves is to do the majority of his own stunts, and Chapter Three ups the ante with some truly amazing action sequences. Also, Halle Berry shows up as a summoner-class character with two penis-devouring dogs, and she proves herself to be just as capable an action star as Reeves. Here’s hoping Berry gets her own spin-off, and that we keep getting John Wick sequels until the Earth crashes into the sun.

6. Ready or Not

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Ready or Not is a blast. It’s been sort of an anemic year for both comedy and horror, with a few standouts among a forest of smoldering garbage. Ready or Not firmly straddles both genres with the confidence of Khal Drogo riding his horse into the Nightlands. I stand by that analogy and I refuse to delete it or come up with something that makes more sense. Featuring a standout performance by Samara Weaving (who has previously demonstrated her formidable horror-comedy chops in Ash vs Evil Dead and the surprisingly good The Babysitter), a down-for-anything Henry Czerny, and the delightful presence of the never-not-great Adam Brody, this bloody hide-and-seek romp through the mansion of a bunch of uber-wealthy devil worshipers is a hell of a lot of fun.

It’s similar in premise to Adam Wingard’s 2013 film You’re Next, in that it’s a home invasion film about a bunch of murderers stalking a potential victim who turns out to be more resourceful than any of them expected. But it differs wildly in tone, because Ready or Not never, not for one second, takes itself seriously. Its over-the-top violence and characters only serve to enhance the ultimate punchline of the film, which is “rich people are from another fucking dimension.”

5. Under the Silver Lake

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Image via A24

David Robert Mitchell’s follow-up to the indie horror hit It Follows is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen, and I sincerely, truly love it. It’s a neo-noir mystery that occasionally dips into horror and broad comedy. I suspect that Mitchell, in an effort to avoid being pigeonholed as a horror director, deliberately sought to make this project as many different genres as he possibly could without being arrested for domestic terrorism.

Andrew Garfield stars as Sam, a persistently-unwashed lunatic living on the ragged edges of Los Angeles who finds himself in the center of a vast conspiracy. Or, at least, he thinks he’s in the center of a vast conspiracy. All I can say for certain is that he definitely projectile-vomits on a woman while dancing to "What’s the Frequency Kenneth" in a mausoleum. It’s a more satisfying mystery than any mainstream movie that has been released this year, including Knives Out. And I’m a huge fan of any film that explores the creepy side of Los Angeles, which Under the Silver Lake does in impressively unexpected ways. Also, Andrew Garfield absolutely beats the unholy shit out of two 12-year-olds, and to me, that’s worth the price of admission.

4. The Nightingale

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Image via IFC Films

Ok, let’s get something out of the way right up front - The Nightingale is easily the darkest film I saw this year, and might be one of the darkest I’ve ever seen. Director Jennifer Kent’s follow-up to the cult hit The Babadook is a grim period revenge drama set in 19th century Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land), which was a British-occupied penal colony at the time. It stars Aisling Franciosi as Clare Carroll, an Irish convict working as a servant for the violent Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin). After a series of brutal events, Hawkins and his men depart for another post. Carol enlists the aid of an Aboriginal guide named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) to track them down and kill them.

Kent’s film is bleak but gorgeously photographed, with excellent performances and particularly strong chemistry between Franciosi and Ganambarr. The film’s themes of systematic oppression and dehumanization are present in virtually every scene, predominantly in the casual cruelty inflicted with a grotesque air of entitlement by the fiendishly odious Hawkins and his men. Claflin’s performance would come across as almost cartoonishly evil if the horrors of colonialism weren’t so thoroughly documented. Kent rarely gives us a chance to breathe, but the few reprieves she does allow are profound moments of quiet dignity. It is not a film for everyone, but true to its title, The Nightingale is a beautiful song sung in the dark.

3. Us

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Image via Universal Pictures

Jordan Peele’s evil twin movie was one of the earliest films of 2019 and I haven’t stopped thinking about it all year, so that’s saying something. Anchored by an incredible performance from Lupita Nyong'o, who expertly handles the dual role of a protective mother and a deeply unsettling psychopath, Us slowly suffocates you with a persistent feeling of dread that crescendos in a spectacular second act of home invasion zombie violence that is equal parts gruesome and unnerving. The final showdown between the two Lupitas eerily juxtaposes their discordant childhoods with the savage violence they have grown up to inflict on each other.

Peele makes simple but unobvious choices throughout the film and executes them perfectly, like having Red stalk Adelaide by walking backwards towards her through a maze of classroom desks. It’s well-crafted too, with so much packed into virtually every shot that you can still discover something new after several viewings. Also, the use of “I Got 5 on It” as the main theme of the movie’s creepy score works astonishingly well.

2. Tigers Are Not Afraid

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Image via Videocine

Ok ok, technically this came out in 2017. But it spent most of the past two years touring small festivals, and has only recently seen limited release in the U.S. this year. So it counts, dammit.

Not many people saw Tigers Are Not Afraid, and that’s a goddamn shame. Part of that could be the fact that it initially saw wide release in 2019 as a Shudder exclusive, but I feel that every person should have a Shudder subscription. It should be considered a public good. Tigers is part horror, part dark fantasy, part crime drama, and part Peter Pan, and it is without question one of the best films I have seen in the past decade.

Directed by Issa López, the film follows a little girl named Estrella living in an unnamed city in Mexico, whose mother is abducted and murdered by human traffickers working for a cartel kingpin named Chino (who is also a powerful local politician). But Estrella has three wishes granted to her in the middle of a violent shooting, and she uses the first one to wish for her mother’s return with some macabre results. What follows is a surreal fantasy drama about living in the shadow of the Mexican Drug Wars. It’s reminiscent of Pan’s Labyrinth, another severe fantasy film about a child retreating into a make-believe world to survive the horror of a bloody ongoing conflict. It’s a movie that sticks with you long after the end credits roll, and I can’t think of a better recommendation than that.

1. Parasite

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Image via NEON/CJ Entertainment

Bong Joon-ho’s film about class warfare is easily my favorite film of 2019. Parasite follows a family living in poverty in South Korea as they grift their way into employment at an absurdly wealthy household. That’s as much as I can say without giving away the film’s extremely wild twists. At times deeply hilarious, poignantly dramatic, and legitimately chilling, it’s a difficult film to classify. It’s everything you want an instant classic movie to be, with gorgeous cinematography, resonant themes and symbolism, and dynamic, memorable performances.

Bong Joon-ho had already established himself as an exciting filmmaker. He’s the kind of director whose movies I look forward to like summer vacation, and Parasite might be his best film to date. I’m having trouble thinking of anything else I saw this year that so strongly resonates on both a personal and universal scale and emotionally hits as hard as a damn cannonball to the stomach. It’s funny and sad and horrifying and unforgettable. I want to say more, but honestly the best way to see Parasite is to know as little about it as possible going in. Just watch it, ya jabroni.

Honorable Mentions: Booksmart, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Avengers: Endgame, Hobbs and Shaw, The Irishman, Lords of Chaos, Captain Marvel.