Retrospective 2019- A Year in Film

December

The Holiday Hangover

Image sources: Sony, Netflix & Universal

A typically slow festive month for UK releases, December once again threw up a mix of sterling indie and small studio fare like like Alma Har’el’s portrait of a young Shia LaBeouf ‘Honey Boy’, Edward Norton’s period detective adaptation ‘Motherless Brooklyn‘, and Greta Gerwig take on classic 19th century American literature ‘Little Women‘—not to mention another two memorable award season contenders from Netflix in Noah Baumbach’s nuanced divorced drama ‘Marriage Story‘ and Fernando Meirelles’ charming papal two-hander ‘The Two Popes‘.

They were balanced out however by bigger and far more underwhelming releases like classic slasher remake ‘Black Christmas’, adventure gaming sequel ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’, and Tom Hooper’s notorious headline-grabbing, CGI-heavy Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation ‘Cats’, proof perhaps that some musicals are better left on the stage. But the month would inevitably be dominated by another disappointing blockbuster, set in a world much further away . . .

“Let the Past Die”

Image sources: Lucasfilm

Kylo Ren wasn’t kidding when he uttered those words in Rian Johnson’s divisive ‘The Last Jedi’, and even though Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams took several steps back to pay homage to a monumental industry-changing saga—getting caught in between fan expectations and their vision for wrapping up a 42-year-old cinematic voyage—December 2019 marked the end of the Skywalker saga and perhaps the greatest family drama in film history with the release of the ninth and final instalment of the series ‘The Rise of Skywalker‘.

Although this latest divisive chapter in the Disney-era ‘Star Wars’ franchise certainly had major narrative issues and incurred the wrath of plenty a critic and fan alike, it was always going to be a daunting task to wrap up one of the most beloved and influential projects in film history, and perhaps its greatest legacy will be to move this franchise onto a bold risk-taking path—so bring on all new adventures in a galaxy far, far away….

Those We Lost

Image source: Warner, Pathé, Paramount & Universal

2019 had one final sting in the tail when it took from us the final industry figures of the year, bringing the loss among others of American American screen veteran Ron Leibman (82) (Friends, Garden State), Danish French New Wave star-turned-filmmaker Anna Karina (79) (Pierrot le Fou, Alphaville), and veteran American character actor and ‘Star Trek’ favourite Rene Auberjonois (79) (MASH, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)—plus French screen siren Claudine Auger (78) (Thunderball, Triple Cross) and New York acting legend Danny Aiello (86) (Moonstruck, Do the Right Thing).

So that’s it for 2019! A strong year at the box office in the UK and worldwide made it both a prosperous and eclectic year of releases, with surprises and disappointments galore and with independent film and smaller studio pictures once again largely leaving a more lasting mark than the blockbusters. Ultimately though 2019 will go down as the year of the mouse, as Disney blitzed the competition and consolidated its dominance of the industry, as they head towards a $12 billion twelve months.

Let’s hope 2020 will be at least as productive and lucrative, but a bit more daring, competitive and varied. Please let us know what were your highlights and lowlights of 2019 . . . and we wish you all a happy new year!

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