Top Ten Films of 2009

The Oscars were last night, so I thought I’d finally put together a list of my favorite films of the past year. These are the top ten films I’ve seen, mind you, and there are a lot from last year I’ve yet to see. For example, I haven’t seen Crazy Heart, An Education, A Single Man, Precious, or Fantastic Mr. Fox, to name a few.

Here’s the list.

1. Inglourious Basterds:  Inglourious Basterds was the best film of 2009 and it should have cleaned up at the Oscars. I think that sometimes people forget what movies are, and man, this is a fucking movie. It’s got Nazi-killing, badass people saying badass things, and stuff getting blowed up real good. Tarantino is the man and he knows it.

2. Avatar:  Avatar has become the highest grossing movie of all time, eclipsing Cameron’s own Titanic. Because of this distinction, many people have already begun to hate on it, and in ten years it may become the joke in many people minds that Titanic has become. Best movie ever made? Of course not. Great cinema? Absolutely.

3. (500) Days of Summer:  Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are excellent in this chronologically confused love story. A great script+ fine acting+ hilarity+ Hall & Oats dance number=third best movie of the year. There’s more to this movie than many have given it credit for, and it’s a crime it wasn’t nominated for Best Original Screenplay by the Academy.

4. Watchmen:  Remember the awesome trailer that was attached to The Dark Knight? It turned out to be an awesome movie too, though many wouldn’t know it because it failed to turn any heads at the box office. What a darkly comic, 21st century noir. Zak Snyder did the graphic novel justice and then some, turning in a movie far superior to his previous graphic novel adaptation, 300.

5. The Hurt Locker:  The big winner on Oscar night, The Hurt Locker has the distinction of being the only good movie that takes place during the current Iraq war. Though it starts to drag near the end, it is nevertheless an emotional look into man’s addiction to war.

6. Drag Me to Hell:  So, there was a salute to horror films during last night’s ceremony. You have to give props to the Academy for its intentions, even if they failed to execute. It went like this: Kristen Stewart reads from the teleprompter, admitting that the Academy often fails to recognize horror films, stating that not since The Exorcist has a horror film been nominated for Best Picture. And then one of the first clips is from The Silence of the Lambs, which won Best Picture in 1991. And then there’s a clip from New Moon? Seriously? The irony is that Drag Me to Hell kicked so much ass it should have been nominated for Best Picture this year. Sam Raimi, welcome back. But Spiderman 3 still sucks.

7. Star Trek:  Star Trek exceeded everyone’s expectations, save for maybe Star Trek fans. J.J. Abrams delivered an updated version of the classic series pumped full of special effects and an end-of-the-world scenario in every other scene. Awesome.

8. A Serious Man:  The Coen Brothers always throw something a little different into the mix, and this film’s no exception. It’s funny and absurd. I still don’t know what it means.
9. Sin Nombre:  Nobody really saw this movie, but I had the good fortune of catching a screening when I was attending the University of Chicago. One of the studio execs from Focus Features introduced the film, touting first-time director Cary Fukunaga as the next best thing. It tells the story of Central American immigrants riding on the tops of trains, desperately trying to get to the U.S. Based on the quality of the film, expectations are high for Fukunaga’s next film, an adaptation of Jane Eyre.

10. Moon:  It’s crazy Sam Rockwell wasn’t nominated for Best Actor, considering he carries the movie by himself and plays more than one version of his character. He is Astronaut Sam Bell, who's finishing up a tour of duty for a fuel company stationed on the moon. He only talks to his computer Gerty, voiced by Kevin Spacey with more than an homage to Hal in 2001. It’s 2001 meets Soderbergh’s Solaris. Check it out.



Well, that wraps up the list. It was a pretty good year at the movies, but not a great one. There were only a handful of truly great films. It’s time to start looking forward to 2010, so pretty soon I’m going to make a list of my most anticipated films for 2010. Stay tuned.