Obama’s favorite movies of 2019: ‘Little Women,’ ‘Parasite’ and 4 from Netflix - MarketWatch

Obama’s favorite movies of 2019: ‘Little Women,’ ‘Parasite’ and 4 from Netflix - MarketWatch

Obama’s favorite movies of 2019: ‘Little Women,’ ‘Parasite’ and 4 from Netflix - MarketWatch

Posted: 29 Dec 2019 02:35 PM PST

Safe to say, Barack Obama is a fan of Netflix Inc.

The former president shared his favorite movies and TV shows of 2019 on Sunday, with four Netflix NFLX, -1.76%   original movies — including one he and his wife co-produced — and a Netflix series among them.

"This year's list includes everything from explorations of class dynamics and relationships, to an inspired reboot of a classic graphic novel, to a portal back to one of the most special places in history — an Aretha Franklin concert," Obama said in a Facebook post.

His favorites included "American Factory," a Netflix documentary from the production company Higher Ground, which he and his wife, Michelle, run. The film details the plight of working-class Americans, and is among the shortlisted frontrunners for the 2020 Oscar for best documentary. In April, the Obamas announced a slate of projects for Netflix.

Three other Netflix movies made the list — Martin Scorsese's mob epic "The Irishman," Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story" and the Africa-set romance "Atlantics" — along with the rape-investigation miniseries "Unbelievable."

Overall, the movie list skewed away from Hollywood blockbusters and was heavy on critically acclaimed indie films, such as "Booksmart," "Parasite" and "The Last Black Man in San Francisco."

Here's the whole list:

Movies

• "American Factory"

• "Amazing Grace"

• "Apollo 11"

• "Ash is Purest White"

• "Atlantics"

• "Birds of Passage"

• "Booksmart"

• "Diane"

• "The Farewell"

• "Ford v Ferrari"

• "The Irishman"

• "Just Mercy"

• "The Last Black Man in San Francisco"

• "Little Women"

• "Marriage Story"

• "Parasite"

• "The Souvenir"

• "Transit"

TV series

• "Fleabag: Season 2"

• "Unbelievable"

• "Watchmen"

Obama said his year-end lists have become "a fun little tradition" that he hopes people enjoy.

"Because while each of us has plenty that keeps us busy — work and family life, social and volunteer commitments — outlets like literature and art can enhance our day-to-day experiences. They're the fabric that helps make up a life," he said on Facebook.

On Saturday, he revealed his favorite books of 2019:

• "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power" by Shoshana Zuboff

• "The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company" by William Dalrymple

• "Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee" by Casey Cep

• "Girl, Woman, Other" by Bernardine Evaristo

• "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present" by David Treuer

• "How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy" by Jenny Odell

• "Lost Children Archive" by Valeria Luiselli

• "Lot: Stories" by Bryan Washington

• "Normal People" by Sally Rooney

• "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson

• "The Yellow House" by Sarah M. Broom

• "Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" by Patrick Radden Keefe

• "Solitary" by Albert Woodfox

• "The Topeka School" by Ben Lerner

• "Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion" by Jia Tolentino

• "Trust Exercise" by Susan Choi

• "We Live in Water: Stories" by Jess Walter

• "A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney's Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule" by Jim Rooney

• "The Sixth Man" by Andre Iguodala

As well as "a reminder of books that I recommended earlier this year:"

• "American Spy" by Lauren Wilkinson

• "The Education of an Idealist" by Samantha Power

• "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang

• "Finding My Voice" by Valerie Jarrett

• "Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth" by Sarah Smarsh

• "How to Read the Air" by Dinaw Mengestu

• "Inland" by Téa Obreht

• "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren

• "Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive" by Stephanie Land

• "Men Without Women" by Haruki Murakami

• "The Moment of Lift" by Melinda Gates

• "The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead

• "Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee

• "The Shadow of Sirius" by W. S. Merwin

• "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr

• Toni Morrison's collected works

• "Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For" by Susan Rice

• "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson

• "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel

His list of favorite songs will likely be unveiled in the coming days.

Star Wars tops box office, but Little Women holds its own - The Straits Times

Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:00 PM PST

NEW YORK • For moviegoers, the holiday weekend was a choice of extremes.

Of the top five films at North American theatres, two were live-action franchise behemoths (Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, Jumanji: The Next Level).

Two were genial animated films with obvious appeal to families assembled for the holidays (Frozen 2, Spies In Disguise).

And one was a reimagining of a beloved but 150-year-old Louisa May Alcott book.

Alcott held her own.

Little Women, an adaptation by Greta Gerwig of Alcott's 19th-century novel, sold an estimated US$16.5 million (S$22.3 million) in tickets over the weekend.

That placed it in a dead heat for third place with Frozen 2, now in its sixth weekend in theatres.

Final counts yesterday were set to determine which film placed third.

Regardless, it was a good outing for Little Women, which opened on Christmas Day and finished the weekend with US$29 million in estimated cumulative sales.

An all-star cast doubtlessly helped hook audiences - Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Timothee Chalamet and Meryl Streep are in it - and the movie received terrific reviews.

It currently holds a 95 per cent fresh rating on movie portal Rotten Tomatoes.

Reviews are not everything, though. Just consider Star Wars.

Adapted from Louisa May Alcott's book, Little Women boasts a star-studded cast, including (clockwise from top left) Saoirse Ronan, Laura Dern, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen.
Adapted from Louisa May Alcott's book, Little Women boasts a star-studded cast, including (clockwise from top left) Saoirse Ronan, Laura Dern, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen. PHOTO: SONY PICTURES

Despite being the most poorly reviewed entry in the most recent Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker easily held on to first place over the weekend, with an estimated US$72 million take.

The movie is leaving its second weekend in theatres with an estimated US$724.8 million in total global ticket sales.

Second place went to Jumanji: The Next Level, an action-comedy sequel with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and others that made around US$35.3 million in its third weekend in domestic theatres.

But Cats went to the dogs, collecting just US$4.83 million.

Pundits expect the movie to incur a massive US$100 million loss for movie studio Universal.

NYTIMES

What are Obama's top movie and TV picks of 2019? - CNA

Posted: 29 Dec 2019 11:02 PM PST

Lifestyle

These are the movies and TV shows that the former US president enjoyed this year.

Barack Obama
Former US President, Barack Obama. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images North America / Streeter Lecka)
(Updated: )

Bookmark

Former US President Barack Obama has released his top screen picks of 2019, which included a documentary he and wife Michelle Obama produced for Netflix called American Factory through their production company, Higher Ground. 

He announced his list on social media on Sunday (Dec 29), a day after he revealed his top books of 2019.

In the accompanying caption, he wrote: "This year's list includes everything from explorations of class dynamics and relationships, to an inspired reboot of a classic graphic novel, to a portal back to one of the most special places in history – an Aretha Franklin concert."

Several other Netflix titles made the list: The Irishman, Marriage Story and Atlantics. He also included South Korean film Parasite; teen comedy Booksmart; The Farewell, starring Awkwafina; Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace, Apollo 11, Ford V Ferrari, legal drama Just Mercy, The Last Black Man In San Francisco and Little Women, which stars Emma Watson.

Olivia Wilde, who directed Booksmart, reacted to the news with a gif of Booksmart actress Beanie Feldstein and the words, "OH MY GOD."

His TV list is much shorter, with just Netflix's Unbelievable, HBO's Watchmen and Amazon's Fleabag season two.

View this post on Instagram

Over the next few days, I'll be sharing my annual list of favorites — books, films, and music — with all of you. This has become a fun little tradition for me, and I hope it is for you, too. Because while each of us has plenty that keeps us busy—work and family life, social and volunteer commitments—outlets like literature and art can enhance our day-to-day experiences. They're the fabric that helps make up a life—the album that lifts us up after a long day, the dog-eared paperback we grab off the shelf to give to a friend, the movie that makes us think and feel in a new way, works that simply help us escape for a bit. To start, here are the books that made the last year a little brighter for me. Most of them came out in 2019, but a few were older ones that were new to me this year. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

A post shared by Barack Obama (@barackobama) on

His list of favourite books, which he released a day earlier, featured 19 new titles and 19 others that he'd shared earlier in the year. In the post, he said that these books "made the last year a little brighter" for him. 

Some of the titles include Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli, Solitary by Albert Woodfox and Trust Exercise by Susan Choi.

Obama will share his top music picks next.
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