The Year 2019 in Movies

Matt Lynn Digital maintained a strong focus on reviewing movies in 2019. In taking a cinematic look back at the films we reviewed this year, we’ll provide a look into 48 distinct movie. We’ll additionally look into the concept of remakes and sequels as a bonus look into the field of movie making.

(The best movie Matt Lynn Digital saw in 2019 was Vertigo as directed by Alfred Hitchcock. We reviewed this film in April).

Atop our list of movies is the one film that received a perfect rating, that of 5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 stars on the movie rankings list. Alfred Hitchcock‘s Vertigo (1958) is a film that uses a narrative style mixing in mystery, thriller, romance, and psychological illness to suggest that a character isn’t guilty. Vertigo is the first of two Alfred Hitchcock movies reviewed this year.

(Matt Lynn Digital reviewed 2001: A Space Odyssey as directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. We reviewed this film in January).

Our second best film for the year introduced us to space tourism and a future of what traveling in space might look like in Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The rating of 4.75-stars reflects the quality in innovation, storytelling, science fiction and genre creation. This is also the first of six movies reviewed this year associated with space travel.

(Three films rated at 4.50-stars included 1980’s Ordinary People, 1992’s Glengarry Glenn Ross and 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. The films were reviewed in January, April and July, respectively).

Four Academy Awards awaited the film Ordinary People (1980), a sad, moving, and emotionally satisfying film. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) offers the colorful language of full-throated criticism of the modern American business culture. The first of six films produced, directed or both for Steven Spielberg happens to be the first of three films starring Tom Hanks in our review this year. The film Saving Private Ryan (1998) shows a highly realistic depiction of the human cost of war, culminating in the central stories of a group of soldiers tasked with saving one soldier whose brothers died in that same war.

(Three of six films rated at 4.25-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 2019’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, 1999’s The Matrix and 1988’s Big. The films were reviewed in August, May and November, respectively).

The film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019) provides a fictional retelling of the time, the place, and an fact-adjacent place of Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. A winner of four Academy Awards, the film The Matrix (1999) offered a groundbreaking dystopian movie-going experience. The film Big (1988) made a splash with the whimsy of a 13-year-old boy in a grown man’s body.

(The remaining six films rated at 4.25-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 1988’s Rain Man, 1989’s Field of Dreams and 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The films were reviewed in October, June and December, respectively).

Another winner of four Academy Awards in our reviews this year was the serious yet comedic film Rain Man (1988). The second film, Field of Dreams (1989), while being perhaps the best baseball film ever made is the first of three movies reviewed this year to star Kevin Costner. The film How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) offers an irrepressible portrayal of an aggrieved Grinch who does not care for the holiday of Christmas.

(Four of eight films rated at 4-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 2019’s Joker, 1961’s A Raisin in the Sun, 2016’s Hidden Figures and 1995’s Apollo 13. The films were reviewed in October, June, November and July, respectively).

The film Joker (2019) tells a gritty, physically demanding, emotional gut punch of an origin story of a would-be foil of the comic book character Batman. A Raisin in the Sun (1961) is a film adaptation that reviews the value and purpose of dreams, the need to fight racial discrimination and the importance of family. The film Hidden Figures (2016) focuses on three African American women fighting society and culture placing the obstacles of indignity, prejudice, and institutional obstruction in their way in service of the space race. The blockbuster film Apollo 13 (1995) tells a triumphant story of human ingenuity and tragedy averted.

(The remaining eight films rated at 4-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 1992’s A Few Good Men, 1993’s The Remains of the Day, 1993’s The Fugitive and 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The films were reviewed in July, February, March and September, respectively).

A Few Good Men (1992) is a film that tells the fictional tale of a Navy lawyer who has never seen the inside of the courtroom while defending two reticent Marines accused of murdering a colleague in Cuba. The film The Remains of the Day (1993) explored how to waste your life emotionally and politically. The preceding two films garnered a dozen Academy Award nominations between the two of them. In the film The Fugitive (1993) you see the story of a man unjustly accused of murdering his wife who gains his freedom through a train accident then sets to establish his innocence. In Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), a partially live action and animated film offers an adult sensibility filled with lurid details, gags of a lighter nature, and an all around good time.

(Four of fourteen films rated at 3.75-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 2019’s Motherless Brooklyn, 2019’s Knives Out, 2017’s The Darkest Hour and 2012’s Looper. The films were reviewed in November, December, April and June, respectively).

The film  Motherless Brooklyn (2019) sets itself against the backdrop of 1950s New York City with a puzzle for lead character and private detective with Tourette’s Syndrome. Knives Out (2019) as a whodunnit works for not being based on anything. The film The Darkest Hour (2017) follows the trying days of the Dunkirk Evacuation with Operation Dynamo. Rian Johnson, with his second film in this paragraph in Looper (2012), gets creative with two characters battling each other through time in an interesting science fiction plot.

(Four of fourteen films rated at 3.75-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 1999’s October Sky, 2018’s Ready Player One, 2010’s Inception and 2018’s Widows. The films were reviewed in May, February, January and September, respectively).

The film October Sky (1999) tells the tale of a difficult father son relationship and the formation of a career in the early days of the space race. The science fiction, fantasy, and action film Ready Player One (2018) offers clever mixes of graphic and reality set in the hypothetical year 2045. Winning four Academy Awards, the film Inception (2010) offers a decent science fiction story line with an entertaining if dreamy cinematic experience that works well in movie or home theaters alike. The film Widows (2018) offers political intrigue, a corrupt local crime boss, and a broken relationship between a husband and wife that gives this story some punch.

(Six of fourteen films rated at 3.75-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 1988’s Bull Durham, 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1983’s Terms of Endearment, 1982’s Poltergeist, 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1954’s White Christmas. The films were reviewed in October, August, February, August, June and December, respectively).

The film Bull Durham (1988) is the film of a rookie, a veteran, an experienced fan seeking a love triangle and baseball.  Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) tells a comedic high school version of the message stop and smell the flowers. Winning five Academy Awards, the film Terms of Endearment (1983) tells of the family problems of an independently spirited daughter and her hard to please mother. The original film Poltergeist (1982) gains momentum as random occurrences in the home begin to introduce themselves and grow into outright disturbances that scare the audience. An alien-themed film with a lyrical bent gives a glimpse into the wonder that is the move Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). White Christmas (1954) is the romantic movie for Christmas that quite honestly inspired the genre.

(Four of ten films rated at 3.50-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 1996’s Fargo, 1998’s Fallen, 1985’s The Color Purple and 1941’s Dumbo. The films were reviewed in February, March, March and March, respectively).

Fargo (1996) won an Academy Award for screenplay written for the screen while playing in the genres of crime, drama, and possibly thriller. Most correctly, the film should be characterized as a dark comedy in small town America. The film Fallen (1998) mixes the genres of supernatural with police thriller in tackling a clever telling of aiming to defeat the supernatural. The film adaptation of The Color Purple (1985) could have been harder hitting in getting into some of the upbringing and forcibly separate lives of sisters Celie Johnson and Nettie Harris. Brutal truths in the lives of the sisters are explored nonetheless with dignity. The fifth movie released by Disney was the animated film Dumbo (1941). The 64-minute feature gets into the story of a baby elephant forced to work in order to survive.

(Three of ten films rated at 3.50-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 1963’s The Birds, 1990’s Arachnophobia and 2018’s Brian Banks. The films were reviewed in May, June and August, respectively).

The sudden and unpredictable attacks of birds form the premise of the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds (1963). Arachnophobia (1990) just might be the film for you have a fear originating in childhood that you’d like to have comically challenged for two hours. The film Brian Banks (2018) recounts much of the story of a man sent to jail unjustly in what appears to be a clear case of injustice.

(Three of ten films rated at 3.50-stars by Matt Lynn Digital included 2019’s The Secret Life of Pets 2, 2019’s Gemini Man and 2010’s The Town. The films were reviewed in July, October and December, respectively).

The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) is an animated film that follows the lives of pets in an apartment in New York City as pet owners leave for the day with the added mixture of a circus, a farm, and an airplane flight. The film Gemini Man (2019) deserved better than the box office gate the film received in theaters.  The Town (2010) offered a film looking into the notion of burglary, armored trucks, banks, and Fenway Park serving as places just as distinctly as there were funny notions of love and loyalty.

Movies landing with a rating of 3.25-stars included The Jackal (1997) reviewed in May,  The Running Man (1987) reviewed in August, The Mule (2018) reviewed in August, Welcome to Marwen (2018) reviewed in September and Ad Astra (2019) reviewed in October.

Addressing the theory of remaking movies or offering sequels that keep a franchise going, we offered why this can work to assist storytelling and cinema in a look we made in March. We looked into A Star is Born (1937), A Star Is Born (1954), A Star Is Born (1976) and A Star is Born (2018). We looked into The Wizard of Oz (1939) and The Wiz (1978). Then there were Little Orphan Annie (1932), Annie (1982), Annie (1999) and Annie (2014). The films The Godfather (1972) led to sequels The Godfather: Part II (1974) and The Godfather: Part III (1990). Batman Begins (2005) led to The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The film Jaws (1975) led to three sequels, namely Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983), and Jaws: The Revenge (1987).

We finally offered our Top 20 Movies in ranked order (with reviews) in April. I recommend taking a closer look, as there are movies that we didn’t specifically review in 2019 that are worth your time. 2019 was a good year for reviews with us. Invite your friends to follow us if you agree.

Matt – Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Erik Larson and ‘The Devil in the White City’

Erik Larson offered us an intertwined narrative of the Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, the architect of the exposition Daniel Hudson Burnham, and the infamy of a contemporaneous serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett (aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes) in his 2003 book The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.

(Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City).

The two biggest stories of The Devil in the White City included were the fact of the world’s fair in Chicago, Illinois as well as the contemporaneous operation of a serial killer in the same region. The era of the exposition story began following the American Civil War, in the aftermath of Reconstruction Era yet before the before the economic Panic of 1893 began to capture its legs.

(Daniel Hudson Burnham).

The awarding of the 1893 was decided largely by the United States Congress around 1891. Other cities in the running for the Columbian Exposition included New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. After a series of votes by Congress that ultimately witnessed the serious contention being between Chicago and New York City, the Midwestern city won the prize. Daniel Hudson Burnham ultimately was named the chief architect for the exposition.

(Herman Webster Mudgett (aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes)).

Before getting too far into that story and the telling of how Burnham became the architect, we did learn about his schooling and his architectural business partner, John Wellborn Root. We also learned of the background of one Herman Webster Mudgett, a confidence man who we first learn could not pass pharmacy school. Mudgett, who we later learn is skilled at forming fictitious individuals, supporting documentation, and the gaining of trust from bankers, employees, and ladies in Chicago, both established and new to the city. One of Mudgett‘s prominent aliases was as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes.

(Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893).

The larger story introduced us through Burnham and Mudgett was the planning and growth of the notion of city from a largely agrarian background. Both shared a certain degree of ambition pointed in different directions. Burnham wanted to grow something that surpassed The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889). The Paris Exposition drew magnificent crowds and demonstrated the new fangled Eiffel Tower, which stands today. The Chicago Expostion’s answer to this was the first ever Ferris Wheel.

(The Ferris Wheel).

George W. Ferris invented the Ferris Wheel, which took the principle of two concentric circles with a load of passenger-carrying vehicles between them to new heights. Placed on the midway of the fair, the notion of a midway with a Ferris Wheel (or Eiffel Tower) at one extreme became the standard of Amusement Parks, Theme Parks, and carnivals that would follow in the next century. The father of Roy Disney and Walt Disney, Elias Disney, helped build Chicago’s Columbian Exposition.

(The Ferris Wheel).

While much of the effort of building the grounds of the exposition were experiencing their starts, stops, and complications, we witnessed Herman Webster Mudgett use less than ethical means to acquire a pharmacy from a widow. We saw the explanation of her disappearance fabricated by Mudgett. Other ladies and children would disappear at the hands of Mudgett, with little in the way of suspicion being cast his way in terms of suspicion until such time as the life insurance companies pressed their cases. Herman Webster Mudgett used his falsely made wealth to build a death house that led multiple murders at his, Mudgett‘s, hands.

(The Palace of Fine Arts – now The Museum of Science and Industry).

The official opening of the Columbian Exposition occurred in the fall of 1892, to coincide with the actual date of Christopher Columbus‘ arrival in the new world. The actual event ran from May through October of 1893. The exposition included many temporary built in an ornate Neoclassical style and painted white. It was the white painting at the fair site that led to the Exposition being called the White City.

(The Grand Basin).

L. Frank Baum, writer of The Wizard of Oz book, was said to have been inspired by the grandeur of Chicago Exposition when creating his series of books. The use of Westinghouse alternating current incandescent light bulbs was proven at the fair. Shredded Wheat as a product was introduced at the fair.

(The Court of Honor).

Herman Webster Mudgett would be caught and found guilty of some of his crimes after having taken at least two of his victims to the Columbian Exposition. Daniel Hudson Burnham helped plan the cities of Cleveland, San Francisco, and Manilla before having influence upon the ribbon of lakefront parks and the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue within Chicago. Burnham Park became a thing after the exposition, in part to honor the architect. Modern day Solider Field and the Field Museum are located within that park. The Palace of Fine Arts became the modern day Museum of Science and Industry.

The narrative style of The Devil in White City made for the telling of non-fiction in a means familiar to fiction readers. The stories were compelling, if not falling into the macabre when discussing the Murder Castle of Herman Webster Mudgett and such. Erik Larson depicted two of Mudgett‘s murders following research at libraries. I enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to those interested both in true crime as well as tales of the Chicago Exposition. My grade is 4.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 stars.

Matt – Saturday, January 19, 2019