There are so many different factors that can be used to determine success. The most obvious is financial. But the most popular movies aren’t always the “best” movies. In fact, quite often one has nothing to do with the other. Below, you will see the best-reviewed genre movies of 2019. There will be some familiar entries– Disney knows how to please audiences– but some I am willing to be you’ve never heard of! Luckily all are available to view, either on home video or streaming. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to check out more highbrow entertainment, this should serve as a good head start.
Ratings are based on aggregate scores from Rotten Tomatoes.
Check them out below:
10. Spider-Man: Far From Home
RT Score: 91%
There aren’t many popcorn flicks on this list, but it’s hard to deny the charm of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, which delivered more of the fun elements that made ‘Homecoming’ so delightful. The one major flaw, not nearly enough Ned!
This movie is available on all forms of home video and is available to stream on Netflix.
9. The Lighthouse
RT Score: 92%
Definitely a head-scratcher and not a film for everyone, ‘The Lighthouse’ wowed critics. Rising horror director Robert Eggers (‘The Witch’) continues innovating with unconventional frights, while Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson deliver manic but perfect performances.
It has just been released on most home video formats.
8. Us
RT Score: 93%
Jordan Peele scored again with his second film, the creepy “nature versus nurture” examination ‘Us’, which was largely carried by Lupita Nyong’o’s chilling performance. (How did she do that with her voice?!)
It is available on most home video formats and can be streamed on HBO Go and HBO Now.
7. In Fabric
RT Score: 94%
A recently divorced woman decides to indulge in some retail therapy and buys a gorgeous dress that she would never have previously spent so much money on. Unfortunately, this frock gives new meaning to the term “killer dress.” (Hey, isn’t that the plot of ‘Venom’?)
It is available on Amazon Prime Video, Youtube, Vudu, and Google Play for $6.99.
6. Avengers: Endgame
RT Score: 94%
Screw Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Copolla! Even cynical critics weren’t immune to the exhilarating finale of the first eleven years-worth of Marvel Studios’ storytelling. And audiences made it the #1 highest-grossing movie of all time!
‘Avengers: Endgame’ is available on most home video formats, and can be streamed via Disney+.
5. Love, Antosha
RT Score: 96%
Not fiction, but still of interest to genre fans, ‘Love, Antosha’ explores the short life of ‘Star Trek’ actor Anton Yelchin who hid his struggle with cystic fibrosis from even his closest friends, and died after a freak accident after wrapping ‘Star Trek Beyond’. Among the friends featured in this documentary are J. J. Abrams, Sofia Boutella, John Cho, Willem Dafoe, Joe Dante, Ben Foster, Jodie Foster, Bryce Dallas Howard, Frank Langella, Jennifer Lawrence, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Kristen Stewart, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jon Voight.
It is available on Amazon Prime Video, Youtube, Vudu, and Google Play for $3.99.
4. Tigers Are Not Afraid (Vuelven)
RT Score: 97%
This brutal war movie mingles in fairy tale elements as a young girl is given three wishes after her classroom is shot up by warring Mexican drug gangs. She also experiences strange dreamlike visions, as she and other presumed orphans fight for survival in their wartorn town.
It is available on Amazon Prime Video, Youtube, Vudu, and Google Play for $3.99, or for free with a subscription to Pantaya.
3. Toy Story 4
RT Score: 97%
This was also a box office smash grossing $1.073 billion worldwide. As I mentioned in the listing of the Top Grossing Movies of the year, I also didn’t like it. But hey, critics did!
It is available on most home video formats.
2. Apollo 11
RT Score: 99%
This isn’t science fiction, but science fact. ‘Apollo 11’ uses archival footage, including much that has never been released to the public, to transport audiences back to the 1969 space mission of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. There is no narration, interviews, or recreations. Just raw footage woven together to recreate the original Apollo mission.
It is available on Amazon Prime Video, Youtube, Vudu, and Google Play for $3.99.
1. One Cut of the Dead (Kamera o Tomeru na!)
RT Score: 100%
Wow. This tiny indie flick from Japan was made for ¥3 million which equals roughly $25,000 U.S., mostly shot in an abandoned water filtration plant over the course of eight days! It initially played in ONE theater for SIX days! But from there, it began making the rounds of film festivals and was released in theaters worldwide, including a reissue in Japan, and went on to make $30.5 million worldwide, setting a record for the first and only movie to ever make one THOUSAND times its budget!
So what is it? ‘One Cut of the Dead’ was written and directed by Shin’ichirô Ueda and is a zombie comedy, in which a director Hamatsu (Takayuki Higurashi) clashes with the cast of his low-budget zombie movie when a real zombie outbreak occurs much to his delight as he keeps filming. The story also flashes backward to his efforts to put the project together and the trouble he encounters.
It is available on Amazon Prime Video, Youtube, Vudu, and Google Play for $3.99. What are you waiting for?! Start streaming!
How many have you seen? And did you like them? Will you be checking any out that you missed?
