2019 in Film: Miscellaneous Important Data

2019 in Film: Miscellaneous Important Data

Based on my own research. Films included only if they played theatrically. Corrections and additions are welcome (@ me). For comparison’s sake, here are the 2018 and 2017 editions.

Total wide releases (600+ theaters):

  • 146

Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and franchises:

  • 40

Based on a true story (BOATS):

  • 19

Based on novels:

  • 16

Based on comic books or comic strips:

  • 6

Based on TV shows:

Based on toys:

Based on plays:

Based on games:

Wholly original, not based on anything:

  • 56

Documentaries:

  • 2

Animated:

  • 15

Wide releases with colons in their titles:

  • 18

Wide releases directed by women:

  • 21, including two co-directed by men

Longest wide release title:

Shortest wide release title:

Longest wide release:

Shortest wide release:

  • Penguins (77 minutes)

Movies about real events that show pictures or film of the real people at the end:

Movies whose titles are never referenced or explained in the movie itself:

Movies that make a specific song pop into your head when you hear the title:

Movies that start with a young woman waking up outdoors:

Movies about sinister Hungarians:

Movies set in the past about Germans who will get in a lot of trouble if anyone finds what they have stashed in the hidden rooms of their houses:

Movies in which a two-tape VHS copy of The Right Stuff is visible on someone’s shelf:

  • Captain Marvel; Us

Movies whose first image is an extended shot of a TV surrounded by videotapes or DVDs, the titles of which hint at the movie’s themes:

Superhero movies with Djimon Hounsou in a supporting role in which the protagonist’s superhero name is never spoken but if it were spoken it would be “Captain Marvel”:

Movies in which Captain Marvel appears but is not mentioned by name:

  • Captain Marvel; Avengers: Endgame

Movies in which Captain Marvel is mentioned by name but does not appear:

Movies about people trying to bring back dead family members:

Movies that are remakes of foreign films, remade by the same guy who made it the first time:

  • Cold Pursuit; Gloria Bell

Movies in which someone in modern times pulls King Arthur’s sword Excalibur from a stone:

Movies written by Tina Gordon Chism that take a fantasy premise from an earlier comedy, reverse it, and also make it about black women:

Movies in which a selfish career-minded woman changes her tune after an encounter with a tween girl:

Movies in which Rebel Wilson’s F-words are drowned out by a horn to preserve the movie’s PG-13 rating:

  • Isn’t It Romantic; The Hustle

Movies in which a woman pretends to be blind to distract or hustle someone:

  • Happy Death Day 2U; The Hustle

Movies set largely in New York City whose plots revolve around dead dogs:

Movies with scenes set in Grand Central Station:

Movies in which secret groups use old-fashioned technology, including carrier pigeons, to avoid detection:

Movies about lonely middle-aged women who use trickery to befriend young people and become dangerously obsessed with them:

  • Greta; Ma

Movies in which a main character, a black man, is staunchly opposed to guns but ends up being required to use one (and is good at it):

  • The Intruder; Shaft

Movies in patriarchally named franchises in which someone awkwardly asserts that the title organization should be given a more inclusive name:

Movies in which an English person gets a phone call from a celebrity (appearing as himself) who wants to help with their career, but they hang up because they think it’s a prank:

  • Fighting with My Family; Yesterday

Movies in which there are villains who can make themselves look like anyone:

  • Captain Marvel; Men in Black: International; Avengers: Endgame; Spider-Man: Far from Home; Dark Phoenix

Movies in which the new occupants of a house are annoyed by a former resident’s constant returning to do minor repair, and in which racial tensions are a theme:

Movies in which the villain intentionally hits a jogger with his or her vehicle:

  • Ma; The Intruder

Movies in which Brad Pitt deals with painful memories while on an antenna-fixing mission:

Feline movies:

Elton John-based musicals:

  • The Lion King; Rocketman

Movies narrated by dogs:

Movies about pets:

  • The Secret Life of Pets 2; Pet Sematary; A Dog’s Way Home; A Dog’s Journey; Arctic Dogs; The Art of Racing in the Rain; How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World; Cats (questionable)

Movies that sound like they’re about pets but aren’t:

Movies loosely inspired by Hamlet:

Movies released on Aug. 9 and based on pre-existing kids’ properties in which someone runs face-first into a spider web and frantically hollers, “Get it off! Get it off me!”:

Movies in which people must solve puzzles to escape from deadly rooms:

Movies in which teen girls are living in the jungle with parents who are exploring Mesoamerican ruins:

Sci-fi police procedurals in which cops use time travel to solve murders:

  • Don’t Let Go; Synchronic; In the Shadow of the Moon

Movies in which a man sings a Stephen Sondheim song:

  • Joker (“Send in the Clowns,” Wall Street bro on the subway, one of the few recorded instances of a Sondheim song being used as a taunt); Marriage Story (“Being Alive,” Adam Driver at the piano bar); Knives Out (“Losing My Mind,” Daniel Craig to himself while waiting in the car).

Movies with an emphatic hatred of hippies:

Zombie movies in which Bill Murray appears:

Movies in which Scarlett Johansson lovingly ties someone’s shoe:

  • Jojo Rabbit; Marriage Story

Movies whose titles trip us up:

  • Knives Out and Knives and Skin and Knife + Heart
  • The Hustle and Hustlers
  • We Die Young and Too Late to Die Young
  • A Dog’s Journey and A Dog’s Way Home. How are these not the same movie??

Movies whose titles are just a woman’s first name:

Movies whose titles are just a woman’s first name, and she’s played by Isabelle Huppert:

Movies whose titles are just a man’s full name:

  • Richard Jewell; Brian Banks; John Wick Chapter 3 — Parabellum

Men’s last names:

Royal movies:

  • The King; The Lion King; The Kid Who Would Be King; King of Thieves; The King’s Letters; Kingdom; The Kingmaker; Long Live the King; Queen & Slim; Queen of Hearts; The Miracle of the Little Prince; Cinderella and the Secret Prince; Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Little movies:

  • Little; Little Joe; Little Monsters; Little Women; Little Woods; The Biggest Little Farm

Long movies:

  • Long Shot; Long Lost; Long Day’s Journey into Night; Long Live the King

Good movies:

  • Good Boys; Good Girls Get High; The Good Liar

Dead movies:

  • The Dead Don’t Die; One Cut of the Dead; Chain of Death; The Death & Life of John F. Donovan; The Death of Dick Long; Happy Death Day 2U; An Affair to Die For; Every Time I Die; We Die Young; Too Late to Die Young

Documentaries that start with the subject asking Alexa about themselves:

  • Ask Dr. Ruth; The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (via @thefilmcynic)

Movies in which a socially awkward, gun-toting loner lives in a shabby apartment with his mother, who is infatuated with a TV personality who discusses on-air a burst of public violence to which the son was adjacent:

Movies in which a young woman calmly sits and lights up a cigarette while a home is destroyed:

Movies in which someone sings “I Got Five on It”:

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Eric D. Snider

Eric D. Snider has been a film critic since 1999, first for newspapers (when those were a thing) and then for the internet. He was born and raised in Southern California, lived in Utah in his 20s, then Portland, now Utah again. He is glad to meet you, probably.