Ford v Ferrari/Queen & Slim/Honey Boy/Waves

2019 is really making a late push to be the best movie year of the decade. One good movie after another of late.

Ford v Ferrari is just a terrific kind of throwback to a big budget, big star, non-Oscar baiting crowd pleaser that just rarely ever gets made anymore. And hey, it may even contend for some Oscars. Matt Damon is really good, but Christian Bale as usual is the best thing in the film. He's so charming and funny. Loved the racing scenes.

Queen & Slim, also very good, is a great example.of taking topical issues(police violence, racism, poverty) and mixing them into a cool genre film. This feels destined to be name dropped in rap lyrics for years to come. The film has a ton of energy and style, and a couple terrific lead performances. Not sure it needed to be over 2 hours though. 

Honey Boy is an autobiographical film written by Shia LaBeouf about his own rocky childhood in which he plays his own dad. Something like this would seem destined to be self-indulgent tripe, but this film is actually very sweet and funny and nostalgic, often all at once. LaBeouf is excellent, but the standout is Noah Jupe as essentially young Shia (the film uses different names). Jupe, also great as Bale's son in Ford v Ferrari, gives easily one of the best child performances I have ever seen. The film also has a second storyline following a slightly older Shia, played by Lucas Hedges, but this stuff, while fine, can't match the main event with LaBeouf and Jupe.

Best of all in this batch is Waves, which is one of the very best things A24 has ever put out. From the director of It Comes At Night, of all things, this is a very emotionally raw drama about a family that goes through a traumatic event. It's kind of two short films back to back. The first follows the son(Kelvin Harrison Jr.,  probably the newcomer of the year with this and Luce) up until said event. The second half of the film follows the daughter (Taylor Russell, from Escape Room, who is just endearing as it gets) in the aftermath. This film is just outstanding. Visually rich, great music, splendid performances, and some of the most genuinely emotional scenes in a long time. It's really raw stuff. There was someone a few rows in front of me who was in just constant cry mode.