The best films of 2019 1. Little Women

Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel – the story of four Massachusetts sisters coming of age during the American Civil War – may be a period piece, but there is nothing staid or stuffy about it. The girls, played by Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen, talk and clamber over one another, their hair messy, their dresses scorched, their ambitions unfettered. It is a lively, profound adaptation. Alexandre Desplat provides the exuberant score, and Yorick La Saux’s cinematography is lush and textured. “I didn’t want it to be beautiful at the expense of being real,” said Gerwig. “But I did want it to feel like you wish you can jump inside and live in there or eat it. I remember trying to explain that to the gaffer, who was like, ‘You want what?’ I was like, ‘I want them to want to eat it.’” And how delicious it is. Alex Pollard

Sony Pictures Entertainment