15 Best Movies Of 2019 (So Far)

4. Paddleton

Paddleton Mark Duplass Ray Romano
Netflix

Netflix's output this year has been a bit of a mixed bag, but their best was easily one of the most profound, touching and devastating movies of the entire year. Hell, maybe even the decade.

Paddleton had a running start thanks to the casting of Ray Romano and Mark Duplass as a pair of long-time best friends who together deal with a fatal diagnosis of cancer and Duplass' decision to end his life to pre-empt any suffering. But instead of this being a hand-wringing journey to moralise the right to die, it's a quiet, intoxicating meditation on life and friendship.

There's no romanticism either: it's a fairly stark but deeply charming story of two people unified by this awful, impending thing and their attempts to hastily to get through what amounts to a bucket-list. It's bound to be sad, obviously, but by the end, you feel something like you've had your soul wrung out.

[SG]

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WhatCulture's former COO, veteran writer and editor.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.