The Emmie Awards - Best Surprises of 2019

The biggest surprise for me this year was a set of films that led to a massive change of opinion. Actors I'd never really liked before were all of a sudden... good, we also had some swapped genre and it was a revelation to me. Take a look at my highlights below.

Adam Driver's roles have never really appealed to me. I was really looking forward to The Dead Don't Die this year and I had hoped that it might have been then turning point... it wasn't the film I'd hoped for and it was another bland role that did nothing for me. But then we got Marriage Story, while I wasn't necessarily a fan of the film his performance was so powerful with the one particularly heartbreaking moment that I finally saw what everyone was on about when they raved about him. I also thought his performance in Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker was good, that one very nearly earned him a spot in the Daaaaaaamn Award.

Next up is Matt Damon. I like several films he's in but he's not usually the reason behind it. In Le Mans '66 his role is much more serious than I'm used to and he was fantastic up against Christian Bale. If I go through the list of his films I remember seeing they're probably all going to be comedy of some description, his performance as Caroll Shelby is probably going to give me a push to see others films in his repertoire... not Bourne.

Oh, Eddie Redmayne. I fear this might be a one hit wonder kind of thing, I really don't like him in Fantastic Beasts and it actively put me off seeing him in anything else. The Aeronauts was so engaging though that I found myself enjoying his role and along with Felicity Jones it made for an engaging film. This probably means that I won't be turning my nose up at any of his new offerings but it wasn't quite good enough to make me want to go into his back catalogue.

As I made this list I wondered if there were actually any male actors I ever liked. Timothée Chalamet popped up as well, I'd forgotten he was in Lady Bird and I didn't like him in Beautiful Boy, but Netflix brought us The King and I was Team Chalamet. He also hit our screens at the end of the year in Little Women, another great performance to turn the tide on my opinion.

Jessie Buckley, the only thing I had seen her in was Beast... I was not a fan, so seeing her in the trailer for Wild Rose was a big conflict in my head. I shouldn't have worried because... wow. Her singing was magnificent. If studios are making musicals and not trying to cast her I think they're doing a terrible job.

Melissa McCarthy's comedy appeals to me, I think she's very funny, so seeing her appearing in quite a serious looking drama made me pause. But I thought she was excellent in Can You Ever Forgive Me? It was a great change of pace and I really hope we see more of a mix of genres in her future.

The Kitchen also came out this year starring McCarthy, she was good in this too but it was actually Tiffany Haddish who surprised me here. I enjoy her comedic films but her roles tend to toe the line of over the top, sometimes they just stomp all over that line. She was really strong in the role of Ruby and I'm hoping this is the start of more dramatic choices for her.

This year was also a good one for some surprising foreign films, my main hope for 2020 is that more cinemas pick them up, while Cineworld do a good selection they don't make it to all their locations. Everybody Knows was a wonderful surprise with a performance from Penelope Cruz that blew me away, I also lucked out by getting The Shiny Shrimps at my local and went to it knowing absolutely nothing about the plot, it turned out to be one of the best films I saw this year.

That one scene in Judy and Punch, you know the one!

Having never seen a whole episode of Downton Abbey I was surprised how much I enjoyed the film. Even for a complete novice like myself it made sense, they did a really good job of filling in the story for us without ruining it for the die hard fans... bravo.

All in all this has been a year filled with nice little bonuses, here's hoping that 2020 will do us the same honour.