The Ten Best Films of 2019 – Kyle Smith

8. A Hidden Life. Terrence Malick’s grave, pensive, impressionistic, interior-oriented films are not for everyone, and this one runs nearly three hours. But this true story of a Catholic Austrian farmer named Franz Jägerstätter who refused to bend the knee to Adolf Hitler and was taken prisoner for it is a towering work. Among movies dealing with deeply felt Christian apologetics, Malick’s latest is a companion to A Man for All Seasons, and church groups ought to see it. Jägerstätter’s unblinking courage in the face of evil resulted in his beatification in 2007.

2. Ford v Ferrari. Old-school movie-star charisma and beautiful machines make for a thrilling combination in director James Mangold’s rousing story of how an ill-tempered car mechanic and an auto designer joined the Ford Motor Company in its quest to prove America could win in one of the last areas claimed as sovereign territory by the Europeans — the exacting, exhausting 24-hour race at Le Mans, France. Screenwriter Jason Keller and the brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth have crafted one of the smartest and wittiest scripts of the year.

1. Never Look Away (on Starz). Never heard of it? German movies don’t get promoted much in this country, but Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who previously made another of the century’s best films, The Lives of Others (2007), has topped that one with an epic about art’s persistence in the face first of Nazism, then of the post-war socialism of East Germany. A fictionalization of the life of the photo-realistic painter Gerhard Richter, it deals with the biggest themes imaginable with a level of emotional commitment to which few filmmakers even aspire anymore. It’s a rich, beautiful masterpiece.

The Ten Best Films of 2019, by Kyle Smith