From scheming strippers to fractured families these are the Top 10 films of 2019

Devious murder mysteries.Scheming strippers fleecing their Wall Street clients.Cross-cultural connections and class warfare writ large. Those are just some of the themes projected on the big screen in 2019.

Behind the scenes, it was a year of disruption in the film industry.But, as is often the caseintimes of change, great stories emerge.Here aremy picks for the best of 2019:

10. Knives Out

Thereis much to admire with director Rian Johnson's murder mysteryKnives Out Daniel Craig's bourbon-soaked accent,Chris Evans's devilish turn (and, yes, the sweaters are glorious).But Knives Out saves its sharpest point for the politics of this family in mourning.

• Watch Eli's Knives Out video review here

9.Hustlers

Yes, watching Jennifer Lopez prowl the nightclub for her next catch gives a giddy thrill, but what's been overlooked in the award season race is Constance Wu as the conscience of this Wall Street morality tale. There's a sweetness to the dancer who just wants to support hergrandma and go shopping. Stepping in after Martin Scorsese passed on the project, writer and director Lorene Scafaria brings the storyto life with style, swagger and the cameo of the year.

• Watch Eli's Hustlersvideo review here

8. Motherless Brooklyn

A love letter to New York City and a portrait of power run amok,Motherless Brooklynis an intoxicating mix of music andmood that begins as a detective story.Writer and director Ed Norton stars as the underestimatedhero, Lionel, wrestling with his tics brought on by Tourettesyndrome.

If you want to see what Alec Baldwin thinks of U.S. President Donald Trump, skip the cartoonish impressions on Saturday Night Live and savourhis performance as the domineering city developerMoses Randolph.

• Listen to Eli's Motherless Brooklynreview here

7. The Farewell

When Billi's life is in turmoil, her grandmother Nai Nai is her rock.But when the family discoversNai Nai has cancer, they rush home to Changchun, China, to see her, while keeping the diagnosis secret from Nai Nai herself.

Inspired by her own true story, director Lulu Wang has created a cross-cultural exchange that challenges assumptions with humour and grace.

• Watch Eli's The Farewell video review here

6. Parasite

Set in Korea, no movie more finely expressedthe toxic effects of economic anxietythan the latest thriller from director Bong Joon Ho.One moment you're rooting for a family of social climbers, the next you'recovering your eyes as Bongreminds us there's always further to fall.

• Watch Eli's Parasitevideo review here

5.The Cave

The Cave is a searinglook at conditions in an underground hospital in Syria back in2016. The documentary places us in an operating room where nurses flinch as fighter jets thunder by. But the real power comes fromAmani Ballour, the young doctor battlingcultural andpolitical obstacles.

4. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

A chance encounter between two Indigenous women is the inciting incident for this intimate film fromCanadian co-directorsKathleen HepburnandElle-Mij Tailfeathers. Rosie is barefoot and bruisedwhenila first discovers her. ila quickly offers her shelter, but each step is a difficult negotiation between two women fromvery different backgrounds.

Privilege and perspective are just part of the terrain thatBody Remembersexplores with longcontinuous shots that place us in the moment.Actor and directorElle-Mij Tailfeathersmade the film in part to explore an encounter she experienced. The result pulls you in and doesn't let go.

• Watch Eli's The Body Remembers When the World Broke Openvideo review here

3.Booksmart

It probably won't surprise you that John Hughes movies were a big part of my upbringing. You could look at Booksmart as a much-neededupdate of theteen film, but there's much more to enjoy in this impressive first feature from Olivia Wilde.

At its heart,Booksmart is about two friendswho think they know each other and the high school students around them. It's a film about assumptions, built on the bond between now-real-life friends Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever.

• Watch Eli's interview with Booksmart's Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever here

2. The Irishman

Ok. It's long.

Some 3 hours long.

You know why?Because The Irishman forces you to spend time with Frank Sheeran, a hit man navigating his world of gangsters and teamsters.

But, at the end, after all the talk and the blood, what it's aboutis time. The ticking of the clock as the man who took so much from othersreckons with the end.

• Watch Eli's video review of The Irishman here

1. Waves

Waves is a story of a family packed with potential.

The father-son bond seems strong, but toomuch is left unsaid.In those empty moments, in slips utter destruction.

• Waves star Kelvin Harrison Jr. on toxic masculinity and the pressures of being 'the best'

With a roving camera, ablistering soundtrack and actors at the peak of their emotional range, directorTrey Edward Shultsshows us a family torn apart by trauma. But then the story shifts into the hard part, the healing.This is a cinematic symphony structured in two parts.First ruin, then redemption.As the father played by Sterling K. Brown says,"All we have is love."

• Watch Eli's video review of Waves here