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A couple of British WWI soldiers stationed in France have themselves a harrowing time in 1917, a war action/drama from Director Sam Mendes that amounts to one of 2019’s greatest technological achievements in cinema. It’s also one of the past year’s best movies.

Mendes, along with his special effects team, editing crew and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins (an Oscar winner for Blade Runner 2049), designed the film to look like one continuous “real time” shot. They do a seamless job, to the point where you stop looking for the places where edits might be happening and you just take the whole thing in. The story never suffers in favor of the filmmaking stunt.

Lance Corporals Schofield and Blake (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) are seen napping at the beginning of the movie. Blake is ordered to wake up and report to command and takes Schofield along with him. The two pals figure they have some sort of nothing assignment coming their way involving food or mail delivery.

Not long after, in a plot that owes a little to Saving Private Ryan, Schofield and Blake get their unusual assignment: go beyond a recently abandoned German front line and reach the next British battalion before they mistakenly advance into a trap set by the enemy. It’s up to them to save the lives of 1,600 soldiers, one of them being Blake’s older brother.

The movie is set in motion and never really stops. Schofield and Blake venture out into a body-riddled, fly-infested battlefield with very little time to spare. Deakins’ camera follows them as if you were a third party along for the mission. This results in a completely immersive experience. Lesser talents might’ve had this one come off as hollow filmmaking with a first person shooter video game feel, but Mendes gives us something that feels hauntingly authentic and very real. He paces his film masterfully.

Some familiar faces show up along the way, including Colin Firth as the no-nonsense general who must use two soldiers to deliver his life saving message because the land lines were cut by the exiting Germans—and cellular service was shit back in those days. Other officers along the way, played by the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Strong, display varying degrees of regimental disgust and, understandably, only mild compassion. The actors all do a fine job of showing the frustrations that must’ve been grinding on these men.

As Mendes’ film clearly displays, it was an awful, horrifyingly nasty war. Captains stand in trenches weeping furiously as their officers try to advance. Unconscious soldiers are propped up in trenches, sleeping in such a way that makes you wonder how anybody could’ve survived these conditions. Crashed pilots lash out at their rescuers. Rotting corpses float in every body of water the soldiers come across, be it a large pond or raging river. Large rats cause all types of mayhem beyond simply being a gross nuisance.

Huge credit to Chapman and, especially, MacKay, for crafting two well-rounded, deep characters within this spectacle. Mendes and his performers achieve a nice balance of dramatic heft and technical wizardry. The story the film is telling is a straightforward and uncomplicated one, but it feels big and important (helped by a magnificent score by Thomas Newman). Mendes, who co-wrote the film, dedicated the movie to his grandfather, Alfred, a WWI veteran. It was the stories Alfred told his grandson that birthed the idea for this movie. 1917 stands as a worthy and late addition to my Top 10 for 2019, which was published last week (See “Grimm Speaks,” Jan. 2). For those three or four of you keeping track, go ahead and slot this one in at number six after Marriage Story. It’s a mammoth achievement and a fine tribute to the men who fought the Great War. Ω

“No way, dude. maybe you should be the one to ‘just poke your head out.’”

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3Bombshell Charlize Theron is uncanny as Megyn Kelly in this hit-and-miss take on the sexual harassment scandals that plagued Fox News thanks to the deplorable Roger Ailes, played here by John Lithgow under lots of makeup. The movie is propped up by terrific work from Theron, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and Margot Robbie as a composite character representing the many women who were assaulted by the likes of Ailes and Bill O’Reilly. Director Jay Roach is all over the place with his tone, with the film veering back and forth between dark comedy and serious drama. It never finds the balance that happens in great films, but it is often a good one, especially thanks to Theron, who is amazing in every second she spends on screen (and the makeup work is Oscar-worthy as well). Roach blows it with his portrayals of Bill O’Reilly (Kevin Dorff) and Rudy Giuliani (Richard Kind), who come off as bad impersonations rather than true characters. What should’ve been an important film comes off as partial failure.

1Cats So, when this thing started, I was actually liking it a bit. It looked weird as hell, and I could tell the cast was singing live on set, which I admire. But, after about five minutes, a malaise sinks in that doesn’t lift. That malaise is due mainly to the fact that this musical sucks to begin with. No amount of CGI wizardry (which, sadly, this film doesn’t have) can save this blight on humanity. The music is god awful, excepting for a brief interlude where something resembling a beautiful melody sticks out like a sore thumb. That would be “Beautiful Ghosts,” a song cowritten by Taylor Swift that is actually good. They should’ve let Taylor rewrite the whole damn thing. She actually shows up for a brief stretch toward the end of the movie, a life preserver in a sea of shit that, unfortunately, is snatched away before you can really grab onto it. Judi Dench stars as the apparent overseer of some sort of America’s Got Talent for felines. (I really have no idea what was going on in this movie.) The weirdness of the visuals, combined with the slog pacing and shitty music, will have you thinking you have a bad case of cat scratch fever. I saw the original version. Apparently there’s a new version out there with some fixed visuals. Readers, I love you, but there is no fucking way I am subjecting myself to this a second time.

4Knives Out Director Rian Johnson, maker of the divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but also maker of the brilliant Looper, takes a crack at the whodunnit genre and comes up mostly aces. Daniel Craig stars as private investigator Benoit Blanc, mysteriously hired by somebody in a rich family after the strange, supposed suicide death of their patriarch, mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer still going strong). There’s something fishy about his death, and his personal nurse Marta (the awesome Ana de Armas) knows something the rest of the family doesn’t know. What transpires is a solid mystery with a fun set of characters featuring a stellar cast, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield and Chris Evans. Craig is especially good in a role that allows him to show his comic side, with Shannon and Johnson also impressive as a couple of paranoiacs. Above all, it gives the talented Armas a chance to really shine.

4Little Women This is the umpteenth adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel, and it’s safe to say this one is in the running for best adaptation of the story—ever. Directed by rising directorial juggernaut Greta Gerwig (the magnificent, ultra-fantastic Lady Bird)—who has a vision with her films that declares, “Hey, we aren’t screwing around here!”—her third feature effort is an acrossthe-board stunner. It’s also chock-full of tremendous performances, and it’s written and directed by Gerwig, whose vision makes this an admirable update of a precious work. The incredible Saoirse Ronan, who also starred in Lady Bird, headlines as Jo March, eldest sister of the March clan, which includes three others: Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Beth (Eliza Scanlen). Ronan, not surprisingly, makes the intrepid character of Jo her own, a budding writer who is trying to get her ideas past a crusty editor (Tracy Letts, who had a damn fine 2019). Gerwig, in a departure from past adaptations, focuses more on the girls as adults, with flashbacks to their younger days. In doing this, she has chosen not to cast Amy with two different actresses. Pugh, who is well into her 20s, plays Amy at every stage, even falling through the ice as a pre-teen. I’d say that was an odd choice, but the other choice would be to have less screen time for Pugh, and I say a big no to that. Yes, she doesn’t look like she’s 12, but who cares? She’s a master in every scene. Timothée Chalamet steps into the role of Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, and there couldn’t have been a better choice for the role.

1Star Wars: Episode IX-The Rise of Skywalker Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a disastrous, soulless squandering of the good will built up by The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy should’ve stepped back after producing this rancid turd and realized that this franchise deserved a better sendoff. Sadly, the money has got to get made, so here it is, the last chapter in the Skywalker Saga on time for holiday moviegoing. The first hour is virtually unwatchable, fast and furious but with no editing flow and no sense of purpose other than to simply get you to the next part. It’s pretty clear that Abrams and friends had no real plans when they laid out this latest trilogy. They are making this crap up as they go along. Force Awakens, also directed by Abrams, was a promising start. Heck, I’ll call it a classic. Then, The Last Jedi happened, with Rian Johnson getting permission to go off the reservation with his storytelling, and he most certainly did. Some of the plot choices in Jedi were odd, but at least that movie was a decent film that felt like a Star Wars movie, peppered with some laughably bad moments. The Rise of Skywalker is a laughably bad movie peppered with the occasional moments that don’t suck as much as the rest of them.

5Uncut Gems Adam Sandler is having a pretty good year in 2019. He’s made a triumphant return to Saturday Night Live as host, and he reteamed with Jennifer Aniston for the actually fairly watchable Murder Mystery on Netflix. And, oh, yeah, he has just made what is, by far, the greatest film of his beautifully erratic career. With Uncut Gems, Sandler joins forces with directors Benny and Josh Safdie, makers of the excellent Robert Pattinson vehicle Good Time, and delivers the kind of dramatic performance—fully committed and thoroughly proficient—that he’s hinted at in the past with strong efforts in Punch-Drunk Love and The Meyerowitz Stories. As Howard Ratner, a New York City jewelry store owner and gambling addict, Sandler catapults himself into the upper echelon of today’s fine actors—not bad for the creative force behind Grown Ups 2. The film doesn’t just thrive on performances; it’s bursting with style and originality in its overall approach. The Safdies adopt a visual and sound style that makes Howard’s crazed adventure a swirling trip. It’s edited with the sort of electricity that keeps you riveted, with psychedelic trips inside opals, and even Howard’s colon, to boot. Apart from being one of the year’s best films, it’s also one of its most original.