Previously, in 2019...

2019: A Look Back

We are going to head right back into the Oscar Viewing Project with a new season (I'm genuinely really excited about how we were able to stick to a twice-a-week schedule for the 2005 Oscars, and we'll continue that this year).  We do these in the order I completed seeing all of the nominees in a year, and thus we're heading into 2019, rather than our missing 2006, 2018, and 2017 (the latter of which I shamefully have two titles left to view so that'll be next year before we hit it).  That's enough housekeeping, so let's think back to 2019, a time where we left the house, went to movie theaters, and Trump was still president (I'm putting "still" here in hopes that when I read this in January that will also feel like a distant memory).  It wasn't a great year, but if you recall, it was better than the front-half of 2020.  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Box Office

This is what the Top 10 at the (Domestic) Box Office looked like:

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. The Lion King
3. Toy Story 4
4. Frozen II
5. Captain Marvel
6. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
7. Spider-Man: Far From Home
8. Aladdin
9. Joker
10. It Chapter Two

Yikes-forgetting for a second how depressing it is that every single one of these films was a franchise or remake, it's seriously disconcerting that Disney was able to have the entire Top 8 highest-grossing movies under their umbrella, right?  The highest-grossing non-franchise film was Us at 12, though there were a couple of other ones (Knives Out, The Upside, Ford vs. Ferrari, Hustlers, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) that hit $100 million and were originals.  Of these films, I've seen all but Aladdin and It Chapter Two, and I'll be real-I will likely never see those two films (I am opposed to Disney's lifeless remakes, and It isn't in my wheelhouse).

The Films I Missed

While I've seen all of the Oscar nominees, I haven't seen every film in 2019.  In addition to Aladdin and It Chapter Two, I missed a couple of films that got cited by precursors.  Looking at the Globes, they found room for Dolemite is My Name and Motherless Brooklyn, while the BAFTA's got really behind For Sama.  This is also where I confess that I have not seen Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which for me I'll be considering a 2020 film for my year-end lists (I didn't have different qualifiers than Oscar), but because it was in contention for AMPAS and both the Globes/BAFTA's cited it for Foreign Language Film, I'll include it as a contender here.  I will be seeing that in the next week, before we get to any contenders where it's an obvious threat like Costume or Art Direction, but otherwise-if you have any recommendations from this list that you think I should catch, I'm all ears.  Otherwise, we'll begin with Makeup & VFX later this week!