10 Overlooked 2019 Films That You Really Need To See

Whenever a new year rolls around, the public rushes to see what spectacles await the next 12 months of cinematic goodness. In this day and age the 'event' movie has become such a regular occurrence that it practically dominates the box office on a bi-monthly basis.

In 2019 alone, we've seen Avengers: Endgame break every record imaginable and there has already been 5 movies (under Disney's banner alone) that have eclipsed $1billion at the box office - Frozen and Rise of Skywalker haven't been released, as of writing.

2019 has also seen its fair share of Oscar/critical buzz around independent and original big-budget flicks aplenty. Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood scored well with the critics, while the likes of The Lighthouse and The Joker have performed admirable on the festival circuit.

Sure, these films are all worthy of their praise and success, but what about the features that slip through the cracks?

Every year there will be a multitude of awesome releases that either have the unfortunate task of opening up at the same time as a mega-movie, or sadly just don't generate enough buzz to get people into theatres. That doesn't mean they don't deserve another look...

There was understandable buzz around the Israeli remake of The Kindergarten Teacher coming out of Sundance 2018, The Guardian giving the indie a 5 star review and hailing Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance as 'one of the best' of her career.

It's unfortunate then that, by the time the film was theatrically released in the UK in February 2019, much of that fanfare had died off.

Reviews were excellent for the film depicting a kindergarten teacher (in crisis) who happens to stumble across five-year-old poetry prodigy, Jimmy, in her class and aims to shed light on his undeniable talent. However, this wasn't enough to stir up a following for a film that deserved to be seen for the conflicting and heart-wrenching implosion of Gyllenhaal's, Lisa Spinelli, alone.

With the film's initial US release being scooped up by Netflix in 2018, it appears that the flick has the best chance of being exposed to the general public via a gander through the streaming service on a rainy week-night.

If you want to laugh (Lisa's passing off of the young Jimmy's work at her own poetry class is shockingly hilarious) or simply want to question where you draw the line between teacher and stalker, this film has more to offer than first meets the eye.