2019 in Movies: Mid-Year Review

How the hell is it already July? It feels like only a month or two ago I was finishing up my 2018 year-end lists and extensively ripping Roma anytime some poor soul happened to mention the Oscars in my presence. Now that we're six months into 2019, it's time to look back at the best and worst the world of cinema has delivered thus far.

For the most part, 2019's opening act has been quite good. The letdowns and/or complete piles of shit have been minimal, and a handful of titles are strong contenders to not only rank among my favorites of this year, but my place highly on my decade-end best list. While the back half of the calendar doesn't feature an exorbitant amount of titles I'm super excited for, the quality of both the theatrical and streaming releases to-date has me relatively optimistic that the year will close out on a strong note. Below you'll find a list of everything I've seen from January-June ranked from worst to best (w/grades) as well as an array of mid-year awards. Hope you enjoy and as always, I encourage you to share your best/worst of lists in the comment section below.  

41.Arctic (D)
40.Velvet Buzzsaw (D+)
39.Miss Bala (D+)
38.Glass (C-)
37.Pokemon Detective Pikachu (C)
36.The Kid Who Would Be King (C+)
35.Hellboy (C+)
34.Murder Mystery (C+)
33.Serenity (B-)
32.Five Feet Apart (B-)
31.Alita: Battle Angel (B-)
30.Shazam! (B-)
29.Someone Great (B-)
28.The Dead Don't Die (B-)
27.Men in Black: International (B-)
26.Godzilla: King of the Monsters (B-)
25.Fighting with My Family (B)
24.Climax (B)
23.Isn't It Romantic (B)
22.Escape Room (B)
21.The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (B)
20.Shaft (B)
19.The Dirt (B)
18.The Upside (B)
17.Polar (B)
16.Happy Death Day 2U (B)
15.Captain Marvel (B+)
14.Dark Phoenix (B+)
13.Us (B+)
12.Cold Pursuit (B+)
11.Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (B+)
10.Child's Play (B+)
9.Rocketman (B+)
8.Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (B+)
7.Triple Frontier (B+)
6.Toy Story 4 (A-)
5.Booksmart (A-)
4.Avengers: Endgame (A-)
3.The Beach Bum (A-)
2.Long Shot (A)
1.John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum (A)

Haven't seen yet, but plan to watch in the future:
A Vigilante
Aladdin
Always Be My Maybe
Anna
Beats
Brightburn
Captive State
Donnybrook
Dragged Across Concrete
El Chicano
Family
Gloria Bell
Hail Satan?
High Flying Bird
Hotel Mumbai
I Am Mother
Late Night
Little Woods
Lords of Chaos
Ma
Paddleton
Pet Sematary
Replicas
Teen Spirit
The Best of Enemies
The Curse of La Llorona
The Highwaymen
The Hustle
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
The Mustang
The Perfection
Triple Threat
Under the Silver Lake
Unicorn Store 
Wild Rose
Wine Country

Mid-Year Awards:
Best Performance: Matthew McConaughey, The Beach Bum
Best Direction: Chad Stahelski, John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum
Best Script: Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah, Long Shot
Best Ensemble: Booksmart
Worst Ensemble: Velvet Buzzsaw
Top Breakout Performance: Billie Lourd, Booksmart
Best Cinematography: George Richmond, Rocketman
Best Score: Michael Abels, Us
Best Visual Effects: Pokémon Detective Pikachu 
Biggest Surprise: Child's Play
Biggest Letdown: Velvet Buzzsaw 
Most Underrated Movie: The Beach Bum
Most Overrated Movie: Shazam!
Best Piece of Overacting: Tom Bateman, Cold Pursuit
Worst Piece of Overacting: Mark Strong, Shazam!
Best Performance in a Bad Movie: James McAvoy, Glass
Worst Performance in a Good Movie: Jude Law, Captain Marvel
Movie I'm Most Excited to See in the Second Half of 2019: Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood