Editor’s Note: Some of these articles contain spoilers for the films they discuss. Those that do will have a spoiler warning before the article begins.

Matt Taylor, Film Editor – ‘Assemble,’ Avengers: Endgame

Contains spoilers.

In truth, there are many moments from this year’s movies that could have taken the top spot, as despite what many have said, 2019 has been a fantastic year for cinema. The beautifully subtle-yet-devastating ending of The Irishman could have done it, as could the heartbreaking ending of Queen & Slim, or the riotous revelation at the end of Ready or Not. The scene in the Troubadour from Rocketman is up there, as are the swimming pool scene from Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart and the utterly traumatising beginning and ending of Ari Aster’s much-misunderstood Midsommar, as well as the transcendental final few minutes of Claire Denis’ vastly underrated High Life. But, to be completely frank, none of these moments come quite as close to the portals scene from Avengers: Endgame.

Even choosing this particular scene was a difficult task. This one film is a goldmine of spectacular moments, starting as soon as Thor goes for the head and not ending until that beautiful final shot of Steve and Peggy finally getting their dance. Between these two moments are a plethora of others, but, again, none are quite as perfect as that portals scene.

The scene begins at perhaps the lowest point of the film: despite regaining the Infinity Stones from the past, the Avengers are yet again at a loss, Thanos having returned with a vengeance. All team members are incapacitated with the exception of Captain America. His unbreakable shield shattered by Thanos’ weapon, Cap has nothing left to give in the fight, yet he stands up anyway, without even needing to say it: of course he can do this all day. Here, things begin to turn: we hear the voice of Sam Wilson in Cap’s earpiece, cutting to silence as Alan Silvestri’s magnificent score disappears for a moment. Sam begins with a tongue-in-cheek callback to the first time he and Cap met: ‘On your left.’

And now things really start to get going; Silvestri’s score starts to come back in as a portal opens behind Cap and the previously-deceased Black Panther walks through, accompanied by sister Shuri and bodyguard Okoye. At this point we realise that the Avengers’ plan worked, and everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago has returned. Importantly, we’re barely given time to breathe, as directors Anthony and Joe Russo dial everything up to eleven to never stop building momentum until the scene’s glorious climax. The consistent cuts back to Cap serve to ground the scene in what the audience feels; Cap is our surrogate here, and the look of joy on his face, barely holding back tears, matches ours perfectly.

Silvestri’s score keeps building, too: the track (aptly titled ‘Portals’) is the standout piece of an already-brilliant score, and suits the scene perfectly. It has six key changes. Six! In one track! The audacity of this is barely comprehensible, but it works like a charm. The score moves up a key every time a new set of heroes are introduced, and the devastation audiences felt at the end of Infinity War is here turned into pure elation as every dusted hero is returned, along with thousands more warriors, all ready to fight.

Just when we think the scene can’t get any bigger, Silvestri’s score then travels back down the octaves as those oh-so-familiar horns crank up the adrenaline that’s pumping through our veins, getting us ready for the theme we’ve been waiting for over two hours to hear. These shots are pure perfection: seeing all our heroes ready to fight to the death as the score builds yet again never, ever fails to put a smile on my face and leave tears running down my cheeks. From beginning to end the scene never stops building, and right at its climax we hear the words we’ve been waiting to hear for eleven years and 22 films. Audiences never thought we’d hear them, but here they are. ‘Avengers!’, Cap shouts, before summoning Mjolnir to his hand … ‘assemble.’ A battle cry for the ages: the team runs into battle as Silvestri’s now-iconic Avengers theme comes crashing in, and the relief we feel is overwhelming. Finally, we have hope – hope that they may at last prevail over the only villain who ever really beat them. I know I won’t be alone when I say that I can’t help but cheer and cry and fist-pump when I watch this scene, because it is truly the best movie moment of 2019. Pure, unashamed cinema.

Avengers: Endgame is available now on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and 4K UHD, and is currently streaming on NOW TV.

Read our original reviews here and here.

Image courtesy of Marvel Studios. All rights reserved.

Sam Denyer, Film Critic – Goodbye, The Farewell

Contains spoilers.

Amy O’Neill, Film Editor – ‘Look at me!’, The Favourite

If I could, I’d pick the whole of The Favourite for my moment of the year. Its stunning, bizarre signature directing and cinematography, bold costuming and score and frankly genius performances put it at the very top of UK releases this year. However, as just under two hours of film hardly counts as a moment, Olivia Colman’s performance takes the top spot for me this year.

The complexity of Queen Anne, played by Colman, is flooring. We are in one moment laughing at her, then sympathising with her as she is ailed with many illnesses and tragedies. She stuffs her face with cake then takes a crying baby like it was her own – a vulnerable, grieving, overlooked monarch who we see taken advantage of by those around her vying for power.

One scene in particular encapsulates the vulnerability, vanity, and instability of Queen Anne in a few short seconds. Colman as Queen Anne and Rachel Weisz as Lady Malborough are in a hallway, after Lady Marlborough has just told Anne she looks like a badger with her new makeup on.

‘Did you just look at me?’ Queen Anne snaps at a poor, flinching doorman, then, ‘look at me! How dare you, close your eyes!’ It was this moment in the trailer that most made me want to see The Favourite, providing a sneak peek into the troubled character of Queen Anne. The Queen is visibly upset, defensive, and paranoid after Lady Marlborough’s comments, taking it out on someone who didn’t deserve it. These few seconds of acting show such depth and range of emotion it is at once comical and, when you look deeper, heart-breaking. What makes it such an effective moment is that it is relatable – we have all lost our temper over something small when we are really upset about something else, but for a Queen, someone meant to be stately and poised to act in such a way is a shock, though in line with much of the film, a small but perfect snapshot of the grieving, ill, lonely monarch.

It really is a testament to Olivia Colman’s talent that she managed to convey so much in effectively ten seconds of speech. The whole film is filled with such gems, and I hope that 2020 brings similar opportunities for Colman’s talent to shine.

The Favourite is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Image courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.

Alex Green, Gaming Editor – The Drowning, Monos

Contains spoilers.

Often the things that stick out as memorable moments are quotes or endings. Anything from The Dark Knight is endlessly quoted, and many of this year’s greatest cinematic moments are embedded in the ending, with Hustlers, Avengers: Endgame and Knives Out firmly in this category. However, Monos, directed by Alejandro Landes, was able to form the most visceral scene of the year and be separate from both dialogue and an ending. This isn’t surprising to anyone. After all, Monos’ premise of following a group of Colombian child soldiers working as part of a group known only as ‘The Organisation’ isn’t one that particularly looks to be full of brightness.

But that is the fabric which Monos embraces with open arms, resulting in a rather bleak but also entrancing film that often is a hard watch, the nature of which gives us the moment in question where one of the soldiers, Swede, is drowned by the group’s American hostage, Doctora. When Swede allows the hostage to bath in a nearby lake in the jungle, Doctora uses the chains to hold Swede underwater and escape the group.

Make no mistake, this is truly depressing and shocking, and few films would dare to venture into this kind of content. However, what makes this moment truly excellent is a number of other key details that provide the substance. Firstly, we have to consider the direction and editing. Landes doesn’t shy away from the terror and tension involved, keeping the camera underwater and barely moving away from Swede. On the technical side, the scene does not resolve quickly; there is nary a cut, even the score takes a step back and this all maximises the horror and brutality, causing an immense sense of discomfort in the viewer. There are supposed horror films that aren’t able to match this level of fear with 90+ minutes of screen time.

Narratively this is extremely potent as well. Monos thematically looks at the loss of innocence and the devastating effects of children involved in war but the key to this is Doctora, the hostage in the group’s care. Her relationship with Swede is key :a connection forms from the events as the kids find themselves in ever-increasing danger, and as they stray further from humanity, these two seem to understand each other, and Doctora’s empathy feels like an opportunity for the film to have a character who escapes with some semblance of themselves. That doesn’t happen. Instead, Doctora forgoes all understanding in favour of survival and commits an act that feels sadly inevitable despite it being unbelievable.

This is the true brilliance of this moment is embedded in how it propels the film into the final act where none of the characters will ever have anything close to a life ahead of them. Monos continues with a final 20-30 minutes that do feel terrifying and desperate as a result, following through with the drowning’s thematic low with which all morality slips away. This moment is a perfect bridge between Monos’ second and third act and in a film full of harsh ideas, it produced one of the most shocking and well-handled moments of the year that wasn’t done for the sake of a moment, but for the need to tell a story about innocence and morality in a world devoid of it.

Monos is available to pre-order now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Image courtesy of NEON. All rights reserved.

Antonio Aguila, Film Critic – The Staircase, Joker

There is no doubt that Joker was a divisive film. Whilst some praised it for its deep and thoughtful commentaries on the lack of funding in mental health services and lack of sense of community in modern society others were distraught with its meaningless and strange nature. It is for this very reason I chose the sure-to-be-iconic staircase scene as my favourite movie moment of 2019. This particular scene in the movie is when Arthur finally steps into the role of the Joker; something we all saw coming. Although, only half of us felt satisfied to watch his transformation come to fruition.

Contrary to how some people complain about its divisive nature, it is where I actually give my applause. Joker is well-constructed in the sense that it intentionally aims to divide its audience. The experience of the film is highly dependent on the viewer’s empathy. Some people are locked in from the start, whereas others did not see anything past the screen in its entirety. The staircase scene can represent Arthur embracing anarchy by losing all the things that make him human and moving forward with that in a deluded, narcissistic rage. Alternatively, it may not even represent anything. It was just some mental lad on some stairs that can’t even dance properly. On one hand, it is rich and meaningful, and on the other it is nonsensical garbage. To have a film that can provide or not provide something so very bad and very good is fascinating. People do not talk about this quality in a positive light enough.

What is particularly interesting about the film is how, in the build-up to its release, people were genuinely worried it would encourage violent attacks inside cinemas. Instead what actually happened was that the Joker became a meme and started a viral trend of people videoing themselves dancing on staircases to mimic Joaquin Phoenix. In fact, the public treated the actual filmed Joker staircase as if it was a tourist landmark. The discrepancy between whether Joker was terrible or fantastic, hilarious or stale, meaningful or meaningless, enigmatic or stupid, displays the vast range of human empathy, which is quite interesting. As much as we were conflicted or pleased about each other’s responses, we did learn something about each other in spite of the media’s claims that this would incite violence. From a movie that aimed and succeeded to divide, instead of anarchy it brought us videos of silly dancing in a world wrought with anxieties of climate change and political events. Its calming absurdity, maybe even satisfaction, is what makes Joker dancing on his now iconic staircase my favourite movie moment of 2019.

Joker is available to pre-order now on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.

Read our original review here.

Image © 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What was your favourite movie moment of 2019? Let us know in the comments!