2019 Ranked

A+
10/10
In a way, this film hits the same beats as The VVitch, but is done even better. The grainy black and white color pallet, narrow aspect ratio, and smooth cinematography perfectly evoke the time period and characters' bleak outlook on the purgatory-turned-hell situation. Dafoe delivers a career best performance, the score is the most inspired of the year, and the dialogue perfectly shifts between comedic, dramatic, and terrifying in tone. A second watch is beneficial for piecing together everything that seemed vague on first viewing. Like Eraserhead, the world the film creates is so immersive, I can't really imagine a crew having worked on this, all I see is the final product.

A
9/10
Climax is the most transfixing film I’ve seen in a theater in a long time. After a while you start feeling like you’re one of the characters (the fact I saw a late screening and I was tired may have helped). The dancing: incredible. The direction/cinematography: incredible. I’ve never tried LSD so I can’t attest to the accuracy of their behavior, but the mystery aspect helps them turn on each other and for non-professional actors everyone did a great job. There are 15-20 minute unbroken takes that just boggle my mind. There were several small things that bothered me. The plot was predictable in places and I don’t know why Omar couldn’t just come through the front door. The characters lack dimension and for a film called Climax there wasn’t really much of a climax.

A-
8/10
A beautifully shot comedic thriller with some top-notch performances of these manipulative characters hindered by some implausibility in certain events.

A-
8/10
A passionately crafted film whose first half of setup leads to a satisfying, engaging, and emotional second half. We should consider ourselves lucky we live in a time where a famous filmmaker of this caliber is still going strong and consistently cranking out great films.

B-
6/10
Endgame feels like a movie where the runtime is sretched to 3 hours just for the sake of it being 3 hours.

B-
6/10
The most competent entry in the DCEU so far (with the exception of the epic "Aquaman" of course). Shazam! Lays on the Christian themes and family drama on thick. Acting is good across the board but everything from the humor, story, and presentation are pretty standard.

C
4/10
I like to think the most important aspect of the filmmaking process is the story since its the foundation on which you build your film. Hellboy (2019) is another example of an action film that despite its creative design and fight scenes, is let down by its sloppy story, underdeveloped characters, and the fact its simply too long. A lot of the CGI was pretty bad too.

D+
3/10
Unbreakable and Split were both solid mystery thrillers but Glass fails to deliver a satsfying conclusion to the Shamalamadingdong cinematic universe. MacAvoy is good but his performance isn't as well directed here; instead of the gradual shifts between personalities from Split, he just changes Willy nilly, and though his condition was never meant I be super realistic, it's plain bonkers here. Samuel L. Jackson was decent but Bruce Willis just sleepwalks through his performance. Besides being about 30 minutes too long, there's a million logistical plot holes like how all security disappears from the institution as soon as the plot needs it, how they found out David Dunn's weakness is water, and how the SWAT team handled Dunn.