Best of 2009, The Top 10 (err, 11)

This has been a phenomenal year for film, especially films in what are thought to be the "lesser" genres. As always, this is a somewhat personal list, made up of films that I enjoy, not films that I think fit in with other people's lists or films I think will be Best Picture nominees. Some are fun escapist films, others are more emotional or cerebral. I think most of you know by now how eclectic my tastes run. :)

Anyway, enough blathering. Here is zee list.

Special Mention (i.e., I saw this very recently and need to ruminate on it some more before I can figure out where it ranks against the rest)



The White Ribbon - This could very well move up into the top 10 over time, as Michael Hanake's films tend to grow on me the more I watch them, but even after just one viewing, this is an incredibly powerful and painful film. Shot in color, but washed out so that it appears to be in black and white, this is possibly Haneke's greatest film to date. Horrible and disturbing things happen in a small German village in the months leading up to WW1. The children responsible will grow up and become elites in the Nazi party, and the way the village covers up and even denies their treachery speaks volumes about the evils that would later be perpetrated. The last scene of this film is understated and absolutely bone-chilling, without anything really having to happen. This one will be with me for a while.



And, if Draco should fail, will you yourself carry out the deed the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?
10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - The first Potter film since Chamber of Secrets to give me much the same sensation that I feel reading the book, and this one is a much better film. I don't want to think about how many ways they've shot themselves in the foot for Deathly Hallows, but this movie balances fan service and filmmaking better than any previous installment. Yes, even the critical darling Prisoner of Azkaban. Exceptional performances this time around - most notably Tom Felton, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, and Jim Broadbent - and if I wasn't already a Steve Kloves fangirl, the fish story would have made me so. I always cringe when people who aren't J.K. Rowling try to invent magic in her world, but the lily!fish sounds just like something she would write (so much so that I still wonder if she, in fact, did write it). And despite my concerns about how much catching up they'll have to do with the next film, this is an excellent penultimate chapter in the film series.



If people die the moment that they graduate, then surely it's the things we do beforehand that count.
9. An Education - An excellent portrait of a young woman seduced by her own lust for experience and sophistication, at the potential cost of her future. Carey Mulligan walks a very fine line between schoolgirl and woman of the world as our heroine, Jenny, and Peter Sarsgaard (sporting an impressive English accent) is impossibly charming as the charlatan who "educates" her. This movie is a real actors' playhouse, and Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, and Emma Thompson give some of my favorite supporting performances of the year.



Let me ask you something - how much did they get paid to storm Normandy, how much did King Arthur get paid to kill Merlin, how much did they get paid to invent Television? Nothing. They did it because they knew it was right.
8. Observe and Report - This movie is everything Paul Blart: Mall Cop is not, and I mean that with the highest esteem imaginable. A real comedy, not just dark but pitch-black, that kind of hurts to watch, but that you'll be thinking about long after you've left the theater - whether you like it or not. Seth Rogen is thoroughly unlikable in a role not too dissimilar from famous movie misanthrope Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. No, really. He's full of rage and violence (the scene where he fights his way out of the 'hood is the stuff of legend) and the hope of catching a flasher who's been harassing the people at the mall is the only thing he has going in his life. This may not be a movie many people like right now, but it's definitely going to go into the books as one of the great modern comedies.



When the truth is found ... to be lies ... and all the joy ... within you dies.
7. A Serious Man - Even when the Coen brothers are not at the top of their game, they're miles ahead of most other filmmakers, but this is one of the best films they've made, period. Starting with a short vignette that I think sets up how people of faith, particularly Jews, see the issue of fortune and fate, this is a Job story, heaping disaster after disaster onto our poor protagonist (played by the wonderful Michael Stuhlbarg), until in the end, when a real natural disaster looms, it's almost a relief. If there's a message in this film, I think it's that stuff happens, and there's nothing you can do about it, no matter how scrupulously you live your life. Good things don't happen because you're nice, and bad things don't happen because you're a jerk. The world has never been and never will be that simple.



Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream.
6. Avatar - I know the hype beforehand and the geek-gasms afterward are annoying to people who just don't respond to this film, but this really, truly has changed filmmaking. To think that Cameron (and the amazing technical geniuses at WETA) created this entire amazingly detailed world out of Cameron's head and a bunch of computers is really phenomenal. And despite what detractors, and even some supporters, are saying, the script is not that bad. No, it isn't - you go watch Titanic again and see if you still think so. It's a solid, if basic, story. And there's nothing wrong with basic, especially when you're reinventing the wheel in such a jaw-dropping manner in other aspects. These are characters you care about, not because they say cool things but because they feel absolutely real - even when they CAN'T be, because they're freakin' ten foot tall blue cat-monkey-people.



Could you go a bit slower with the clicks there, it sounded like you said three years.
5. District 9 - In a year chock full of breathtaking sci-fi, this was the most original bit of storytelling and one of the most moving human (and non-human) dramas of this or any other year. The documentary style adds a significant amount of authenticity, and the bookend commentary from the other characters really sets up how you see the main character in the beginning versus how you see him in the end. Neill Blomkamp made real magic with a budget 1/10 the size of Transformers 2 and made a much better movie with it. It consistently confounds your expectations and, thanks in no small part to the brilliant work of first-time actor Sharlto Copley, it gives you a hero who defies expectations as well, in both good ways and bad ways. Definitely one of the high points of the year and the sci-fi genre as a whole.



Within your 'purview'? Where do you think you are, some f***ing regency costume drama? This is a government department, not some f***ing Jane f***ing Austen novel! Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up your s***ter with a lubricated horse c***!
4. In the Loop - This is the Bizarro version of The West Wing. Here, idealism is only to be found among the useless failures who don't know the relative whereabouts of their anus and a hole in the ground. Many have said this film is what politics is really like, and I desperately want to believe that's not true, but I fear it is. The story begins with an ill-conceived comment to a reporter by a nobody of an MP, which is used by various British and American political insiders to wage literal war. As funny as this is, it's quite frightening to think how accurate it might be. A gloriously profane script, based on the television series The Thick of It, and a phenomenal British and American cast, led by Peter Capaldi as my fake government crush Malcolm Tucker.



This is the face of Jewish vengeance!
3. Inglourious Basterds - I've said far too much about this film already. I still don't think it topples Kill Bill in my affections, but this is possibly Tarantino's greatest cinematic achievement to date. A film with much more scope than he's ever attempted before and probably his most accessible film. It takes cojones to rewrite World War 2, and this is one "remake" I wholeheartedly endorse.



You sit there and you judge me, and you write them notes on your notepad, about who you think I am!
2. Precious - Again, I've said a whole lot about this movie elsewhere. It's one of an endless string of stories about troubled children, but this time it's told not from the point of view of the hero who swoops in and saves the day but the child herself. We see firsthand what she goes through each day of her life and we root like hell for her to get out of it somehow. A bold vision of a film with two of the best performances of the year.



Adventure is out there!
1. Up - No contest, and I knew it would be in my top spot as soon as I saw it. This film is, I feel, timeless in a way that no previous Pixar endeavor has been. The film begins with a friendship struck between two children and follows with five minutes of wordless images that many would argue are the best part of the film. What I think it does, though, is set up a lens through which you see the rest of the film. Carl is not your average hero; he's not someone you would even notice. But the opening of the film makes you care about him in a way you wouldn't have before. Carl and Russell and (despite the collar which enables him to talk) Dug are ordinary shlubs like most of us are, which is a huge part of what makes their adventure so exciting for us to watch. But the ultimate point is that you don't have to go to an exotic unchartered wilderness to have an adventure. Life is an adventure in and of itself. What a beautiful and vibrant film. Very possibly my favorite of the last few years together.

Best of 2009, Honorable Mentions

Before I get to my Top 10, there are several films I want to give a shout-out to (and a few which are on seemingly everyone else's lists, but I feel the need to explain why they aren't on mine) before I say goodbye to what has probably been the best year of the decade for movies.


HONORABLE MENTIONS, SCREENWRITING
500 Days of Summer - A much needed breath of fresh air in the romantic comedy genre, and a movie that isn't afraid to break your heart a little.

Brothers Bloom - Such great twists and turns, but more importantly, a fantastic relationship between the titular brothers.

Bright Star - Not an easy feat to make an interesting and sexy film about poetry, but this one certainly is, and it's at least partially thanks to Campion's script.

The Informant! - (pictured above) I can't believe this script is not on the Oscar short lists, or at least any that I've seen. It's really amazing structure-wise, peeling away layer after layer of its protagonists lies, and gives Matt Damon some epic stream-of-consciousness monologues.

Me and Orson Welles - Spectacular coming-of-age movie from the king of conversational pictures. Another heartbreaker, but not really because of the romance. Oh Welles, you heartless bastard!



HONORABLE MENTIONS, PERFORMANCES

Sam Rockwell in Moon - It is CRIMINAL that the studio has given up on trying to get Sam Rockwell some awards love, because his performance in this dual role was truly stellar.

Mya Rudolph in Away We Go - I love John Krasinski, but he's basically a bearded Jim Halpert here. Mya Rudolph is the one who really shines, and she gets bonus points for singing a Bob Dylan lullaby.

Stanley Tucci in Julie & Julia and The Lovely Bones - His Bones character is definitely the showier part, and it will probably be the one that gets him to the Oscars, but as wonderful as Meryl Streep was in Julie & Julia, Tucci was the heart of that film.

Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies and Nine - She was the best thing about both these movies, and that's no small feat, considering the company she kept in both.

Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air - People seem to be in either the Vera Farmiga camp or the Anna Kendrick camp with this movie. I definitely think Anna was the standout in this film. I would love to have seen an entire movie centered around her character.

Colin Firth in A Single Man - A career best at this point. I love Darcy as much as the next gal, but this is the most nuanced and elegant performance I've ever seen from him. And oh my, heartbreaking.

Paul Schneider in Bright Star - The absolute best thing about this movie. His admission to failing his best friend was one of the greatest acting moments this year. Period.

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart - I say this as someone who *HATES* when people overdo the Oscar buzz and jinx whoever they're setting up as an inevitability ... Jeff, meet Oscar. Seriously. The role he was made for.

Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker - Renner's adrenaline-junkie bomb dismantler is the real juice of this film, in my opinion.

Viggo Mortensen in The Road - Not everyone likes this performance, but it takes guts to play someone who's starting to lose his humanity, thereby making him less relatable to audiences.

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side - The main thing that made this movie a hit and an above average sports-themed inspirational film. Possibly her shot at an Oscar nomination.

Tilda Swinton in Julia - (pictured above) A tragically overlooked gift of a performance and why Tilda is one of the gutsiest actors working right now.

Matt Damon in The Informant! - One of the more complex characters he's ever played and the definition of an unreliable narrator. I loved watching this guy unravel.



VERY GOOD, LIKED A LOT, BUT DIDN'T LOVE AND AM BORDERLINE SICK OF HEARING ABOUT:

The Hurt Locker - (pictured above) A fantastic movie, no doubt. But, and I'm just going to say it, I wonder if it would be on so many top 10 lists if it hadn't been directed by a woman. Jeremy Renner gives an amazing performance, and it's refreshing to see a movie about the Iraq war with zero political agenda. But for some reason it feels a bit empty to me, and it's a bit baffling that it's the one film that is most consistently appearing on everyone's top 10 list (except, God bless them, Harry Knowles and Drew McWeeny).

Up in the Air - Festival audiences and many, many critics fell hard for this movie, but I just ... didn't feel it. It's a great bit of writing and has a lot of heart, and I can't tell you how great it is to see Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga treated as George Clooney's equals instead of "the girl"s. But I don't relate to this movie at all. Maybe because I don't travel for work, I almost always travel to see other people, so I don't get the alienation of frequent travel. I do love the scene where Clooney and Farmiga console Kendrick over her breakup, but I'm not sure what the movie is trying to tell me that I'd be an utter failure as a human being for not already knowing.



MOVIES THAT I WISH I COULD PUT ON THIS YEAR'S LIST BUT WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR 2010:

Shutter Island - Some have called this lesser Scorsese, but I think it's one of his strongest. Wonderful puzzle of a film, and if you weren't an admirer of DiCaprio's work already, you will be after this film.

Kick-Ass - (pictured above) You are not ready for this level of awesome, especially in the form of little Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. I cannot WAIT for April.



MOVIES I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED, BUT CAN'T IN GOOD CONSCIENCE PUT ON A TOP 10 LIST:

The Hangover - (pictured above) Maybe my low expectations helped, but this was the most purely frothy fun movie of the summer for me.

My Bloody Valentine 3-D - A horror movie that (*gasp*) actually gave me characters to care about. Loads of horror movie cliches, but also loads of great kills. And my love, Tom Atkins.



MY ALMOSTS, OR, IF I WERE DOING A TOP 15 INSTEAD OF 10:

15. Star Trek - I know a few purists who feel that their Trek canon was totally raped with this movie, and I obviously can't really argue much with that as I was never terribly familiar with any incarnation of the series to begin with. But this film did what I feel any franchise film should do - first and foremost, entertain, and secondly, make the brand accessible to the huge swaths of potential viewers who aren't a part of the rabid fanbase, while still paying as much respect as you can to the original canon. This film succeeds on all three of those points, I think, and while watching it, I could literally feel the affection for the series dripping off the screen. Loved Zoe Saldana (who, between this and Avatar, will surely be the new icon of fanboy lust). Loved Zachary Quinto. Loved Chris Pine and his swaggering Kirk. And above all, LOVED Karl Urban as Bones. One of the great character reveals in any movie ever.

14. Drag Me to Hell - It's not entirely original (it bears more than a passing resemblance to the 1957 film Night of the Demon), but it's not a franchise horror film and is Sam Raimi doing what Raimi does best - scaring and grossing the crap out of you. And he manages to do it with a PG-13 rating. This is an ENORMOUS amount of fun, a great movie to watch with a group, and there's an inevitability about the whole story that just adds an extra layer of terror on the whole business. In addition, having the main character be an anorexic and hallucinating about her food calls the reliability of her POV into question - is this really happening or is she having delusions brought on by her body-hatred?

13. House of the Devil - I have never been more terrified of more nothing than I was during the first hour of this movie. One of the most genuinely scary movies I've seen in a long, long time. No gimmicky scares - zero - just a well-crafted film and a setup that brings its own dread without all the bells and whistles. It's because of this movie that I'm afraid to wear headphones in my apartment. And the attention to detail in setting this film in 1981 is pretty impressive. You could literally be watching a fright flick that was made in that year, it's that well done.

12. Adventureland - This movie hit a lot of my nostalgia buttons. Between the eighties fashions and music and the memories of working in a theme park with some awesomely quirky characters, I connected with this movie much more than most films this year, even many in my Top 10. Jesse Eisenberg has that thing people used to love about Woody Allen, and thank goodness someone gave Kristen Stewart an actual character to prove she's more than the pale face of a dull, vampire-obsessed teen (harsh, but true).

11. The Princess and the Frog - (pictured above) Better than anything Disney has done without Pixar since their 2D heyday. A medium that looks more like a storybook than a video game, songs (oh, how I've missed Disney songs!) that lift your heart, and a heroine whose dreams don't revolve around falling in love. And some of the best supporting characters you could ask for (Ray + Evangeline 4EVA!). This absolutely belongs in the pantheon with Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi, and Pinocchio. It is that good, and kids will be falling in love with it for generations to come.

Movie Suspense - The "Don't Show Me" State

Film is a visual medium, a "show don't tell" enterprise, and as such the prevailing wisdom is that if you can show something instead of saying it, you should. But showing can be a wrong decision, too.

For example, I recently watched Jacques Tourneur's Night of the Demon, a great piece of 1950s British fright that bears more than a passing resemblance to Sam Raimi's recent Drag Me to Hell. Tourneur, who also made classics such as Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie, had a reputation for using subtle suspense techniques instead of special effects, which made his films genuinely haunting and effective. And both Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie had a certain level of ambiguity about their scarier elements, leaving it up to the viewer to decide if what was happening was supernatural or not. Night of the Demon might have been along those same lines as well, but for an interfering producer, who insisted on adding a drastic special effect to the beginning and end of the movie. Namely, the sight of this guy.



Now, I like a good monster flick as much as the next gal. But I can't help thinking what the movie would have been like without seeing that bad boy. Especially as this is what Tourneur wanted to begin with, wouldn't it have been awesome to have to think about whether the demon was real or whether the two deaths that bookend the film are tragic coincidences? That's a much better fit for the skeptical protagonist and the line at the end about how it's better not to know - a line which, may I add, is utterly worthless coming as it does right after the monster effect (because even if the characters don't know for sure, WE do because we've been shown it).

Drag Me to Hell, of course, is set up very differently and seeing the horrible things that happen to that movie's heroine is the payoff, not something that spoils it. But it got me thinking about other movies where success or failure rests largely on whether we, in effect, see the devil. And how what we bring to a movie can be used to affect how we see it and what we believe it to be about. Night of the Demon, without the demon, is about a skeptic who is investigating a bunch of cultists, and the head cultist who tries to put the whammy on said skeptic as punishment for his disbelief. Is it for real? Or is it all in the cursed person's head? And aren't we better off, as Dana Andrews says in the end, not knowing?

Harvey is an excellent example of this, though the word "devil" doesn't apply, obviously, unless you have an irrational fear of rabbits. Harvey is supposedly a six-foot tall white rabbit, but we never see him (except in a painting). He's real enough to Elwood (James Stewart), eventually Dr. Chumley, and even occasionally Elwood's sister Veta. But we never get real confirmation that he actually exists, since everyone who claims to see him could be seen (by some) as unreliable reporters. This premise worked tremendously well on stage, which is where Harvey was first produced, and possibly even better on film, where the limited effects capabilities of films in 1950 would have made it difficult to use much more than a tall guy in a costume.

I have to wonder, though, what a modern filmmaker would do with such a character. Of course, I won't have to wait much longer, since Steven Spielberg is doing a remake of this movie. I find the very idea of Spielberg doing a remake a travesty, but a remake of Harvey seems even more of a crime. And my biggest fear for this project is that they're going to decide to show us the rabbit. It's more than just the fact the we don't need to see it. Seeing it literally spoils the magic and spoils the fact that two people can walk away from this movie having seen two completely different films. One about a crazy but endearing man who thinks he sees a giant rabbit, and one about a guy who has an amazing imaginary friend that no one else believes in.

We often call the movies magic, and a lot of that magic has to do with the wonder of what we see on the screen. But when it comes to showing real magic or the supernatural on film, sometimes the real trick is to present it to us without literally showing it. To pull the imaginary rabbit (*cringe* I know, I know) out of the hat, and instead of showing it to us, ask us if we see it or not.