Music & Films for
Common People
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BACURAU
Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
10
The smartest part of Bacurau is how it slowly sets the ground, in a dystopian tale of a town that suddenly is being erased from maps, for leashing a mordent criticism for one of the most pressing social issues of modern day, but it is not until the end when you realize what the film is targeting, and the shock of finding out is huge.
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It is difficult talking about this film without stepping in spoiler zone, but it certainly keeps you intrigued for its whole length. A social film that takes the whole town of Bacurau as its main character, it is insane and daring, and it's packed with a lot of action along with heavy social and political comments.
BOOKSMART
Dir. Olivia Wilde
9
This year, Joker's director, Todd Phillips, declared that woke culture killed comedy. We're certain that he didn't watch Booksmart, since it is the best film to prove that comedy is not only compatible with woke culture, but it is highly improved by it.
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Olivia Wilde's first shot at directing is explosive, a hilarious unchain of absurd situations that kicks patriarchy in the balls while keeping us laughing at smart adult comedy. Booksmart proves that sophisticated woke screenplays work way better than the macho bully jokes of Phillips's comedies like The Hungover.
KONA FER I STRIð
(Woman at War) Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson
8
In a year that Greta Thunberg's fight for the planet was one of the most important stories, a film like Kona Fer I Strið comes as a beautiful fictional complement to Thunberg's quest, with a character that is as endearing in her fierceness.
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A smart fable that is part comedy and part action film, Erlingsson's story is a call to action against climate change, but not through small acts like avoiding straws, but by starting a revolution on big corporations. The precious cinematography is crowned with a glorious final scene that works as an impressive symbol of what is in store for our new generations if we don't take immediate action.
DOLOR Y GLORIA
(Pain and Glory) Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
7
Although many of Pedro Almodovar's films have had something of autobiographical, none of them has been as intensely personal as Dolor y Gloria, a film that explores both the present and the past of the filmmaker.
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The visual style that is unique to Almodóvar himself is very present to beautifully frame the woes of his alter ego, masterfully played by an Antonio Banderas that never has been this good. A beautiful letter to himself, to proudly share with us the moments that have shaped his identities as a man and as a filmmaker, Dolor y Gloria is an immediate addition to the collection of best Almodóvar films.
MARRIAGE STORY
Dir. Noah Baumbach
6
Quite possibly the best film of Noah Baumbach up to today, Marriage Story is a brilliant dual character study that opposes a husband and a wife's versions of a separation and how the process brings out the worst of both of them.
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Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are exceptional and offer the performances of their careers, and take advantage of the long dramatic dialogues to show all their acting skills. If the style is just correct, Baumbach knows that story and actors are the main focus of the film, and positions himself as a worthy successor of Woody Allen's films that explore the emotional anxieties of the upper intellectual class.
VO BA
(The Third Wife) Dir. Ashleigh Mayfair
5
From the beginning of Vo Ba, it's clear that this is a film made by a woman. Rather than focusing in the intrigue and fights between the wives of a rich man (like Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern), Mayfair choses to approach their relationship from sorority, exposing how these women are only objects for the patriarchy, and the only humanity they can find will come from the love and kindness of each other.
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A sad tale that exposes the urgent needs of intersectional feminism, Vo Ba is powerful, beautiful and delicate, with a pastel-colored cinematography and a slow contemplative rhythm that brings Sofia Coppola's films to mind.
PÁJAROS DE VERANO
(Birds of Passage) Dir. Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego
4
A modern tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions that ties the pride in the indigenous groups in Colombia with the suffocating narco culture, Pájaros de Verano is unique in its portrayal of how the vortex of western society is destroying ancestral groups.
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A full reinvention of genres, not quite a western or a thriller, but with heavy influences of both, Guerra and Gallego explore the roots of fragmented identities of Colombia, and the roles that family, tradition and violence played a role in the rise of the cartels.
MONOS
Dir. Alejandro Landes
3
Something really good is happening in Colombian cinema. Monos is a sort of Lord of the Flies within the Colombian guerrilla. A sick trip to the middle of the jungle where a group of teenagers are given guns and a hostage to take care of, a dangerous mix that only can lead to tragedy once the first wrong decision is taken.
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But Monos is not only brilliant in the character development it offers; the stylistic dark approach that Landes takes to his story is raw and feral, with a very careful cinematography, a superb rhythm given through editing, and an unsettling music score composed by Mica Levi. All designed to give you the chills.
PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU
(Portrait of a Lady on Fire) Dir. Céline Sciamma
2
Delicate, subtle and with an astonishing pictorial beauty, Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu is a serious contender for the best romantic film of the decade. Sciamma understands the power of furtive glances and measured dialogue and contact to inflame the passion of her characters. If the fact that it's two women is no major issue in the romantic front, it is in the feminist subplot that finds the understanding and sorority that is stablished in the household.
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An exquisite cinematography that recreates classic styles of painting in the use of light and composition, it's a film as rewarding in the from as it is in the substance.
GISAENGCHUNG
(Parasite) Dir. Bong Joon-Ho
1
Not only a film that bends cinema genres and twists the plot several times defying all our expectations on what this story is about, Gisaengchung also makes an important point on one of the key topics of the end of the decade: the huge distance between social classes.
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If Joon-Ho has been very critical of class division in his previous films, he has never been as effective and merciless in his social analysis as now. The subtle ways in which he analyses the bubble privilege of the rich and the cunning strategies of the poor to get a better life lead to dangerous consequences that once are set into motion won't stop unfurling in this mad screenplay that keeps shocking you with each turn in takes.
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