A number of brilliant movies have been released this year but only one can be crowned IMDb’s ‘best movie of the year’, and the movie database has awarded that coveted title title to Joker.
The gritty crime drama was released in October and quickly took the world by storm, becoming the first R-rated movie in history to break $1 billion in the box office.
Despite being part of the superhero world, Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime appealed to a wider audience as an origin story detailing the series of events that led Arthur Fleck to become the villain.
Joker has been hailed as an incredible portrayal of deteriorating mental health as Arthur continually suffers at the hands of emotional and physical oppression. UNILAD described the film as a ‘terrifying, harrowing, volatile triumph’ and its achievements just keep on coming, as it finished the year as IMDb’s number one movie, ScreenRant reported.
The ranking is based on actual page views and the popularity of the films, which is determined by data provided by IMDbPro.
Joker beat out numerous Marvel films as well as some Disney remakes for the top spot, though Disney still got a lot of recognition in this year’s top 10 list.
Jordan Peele’s horror film Us was judged to be one of the most popular films of 2019, coming in at number 10 on the list. The film was the second directed by Peele, who made his debut with Get Out in 2017, and tells the story of the Wilson family, who are on vacation when their doppelgängers show up and try to kill them.
Disney’s live action remake of Aladdin just made the cut in ninth place, proceeded by Alita: Battle Angel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and The Lion King.
It Chapter Two made it in to the top five, along with Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, which came fourth and third respectively.
Though Marvel featured heavily in this year’s most popular films, second place was awarded to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood; the latest film from Quentin Tarantino starring Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The drama-comedy was hailed as Tarantino’s best since Pulp Fiction and while it obviously went down well with film fans, it wasn’t quite enough to take the crown.
Joker’s ranking at number one suggests the film will perform well throughout the upcoming awards season. It has already been nominated for four Golden Globes, so it may well have many more achievements to come.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.