Geoff's Top Ten Movies of 2009

The Oscars are coming up on Sunday evening, and the ten (that's right ten!) films nominated for Best Picture are in alphabetical order:

• Avatar
  
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

 My list isn't completely different. Five of the films nominated for Oscars are also on my Top Ten List below. I have seen all ten Oscar movies and they are all good, well, I had a few issues with Inglorious Basterds. I resisted seeing Precious and The Blind Side as long as I could but I went to see them because I knew they would get Oscar nominations. And they were both good, but they didn't make my list. Avatar should get a special Oscar for visual effects, but it certainly isn't the Best Picture of 2009. It doesn't even make my Top Ten. Up was OK, but I didn't think it measured "up" to previous Pixar films.

 Here is my Top Ten List for 2009:

1. The Hurt Locker

My number one film of the year, which may in fact win the Oscar, is The Hurt Locker. Unfortunately, very few people have seen this movie. I think it is suffering because it is an Iraq War film, and apparently no one wants to see a movie about Iraq. But you have to see this movie. Director Katherine Bigelow has made a perfect edge-of-your-seat thriller about a bomb disposal team in Baghdad. This is an intense movie from beginning to end, and it just keeps ratcheting up the tension. The cast is mostly unknowns ( afew recognizable faces appear only to get blown up), but the lead, Jeremy Renner and the supporting cast are great. He is nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. It's almost out of the theatres but go see it if you can. Otherwise, put it on top of your Netflix list.

2. Up in the Air

I really loved this movie. I will be just as happy if Up in the Air wins Best Picture as I would be if Hurt Locker wins. I know there are people (like me) who love George Clooney, and people who don't, but this is his perfect film. He is nominated for an Oscar, and so are his supporting cast members, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. In Up in the Air, Clooney's character lives in airports as he travels the country firing people, and trying to avoid any personal relationships. But eventually he has to put something in the backpack. This movie was directed by Jason Reitman, who also directed Juno. He really knows how to make a good movie. Up in the Air is great all the way through to the the very non-Hollywood ending. For more, look at my review of Up in the Air....

3. Star Trek

I was looking forward to the rebirth of Star Trek but at the same time, I was  dreading what they might do it. But my fears were unfounded. The new Star Trek is a great movie, both for people like me who saw the original "classic" Star Trek live, and for people who actually don't know James T. Kirk's middle name. The director, J. J. Abrams managed to hit the multiverse button for a fresh restart without losing the essence of Star Trek. The new cast, playing the same old characters, do it very well. My personal favorite is Simon Pegg's joyful portrayal of Scotty. It was also great to see Leonard Nimoy. But poor Winona Ryder. Was that her comeback?



4. District 9

District 9 came out of nowhere with huge buzz and it did not disappoint. It's nice to be able to put two SciFi films in my Top Ten in one year! This South African movie does a wonderful job of being great SciFi, as well as making a nice political statement. There are echoes of movies like The Fly, Robocop and Enemy Mine, but District 9 explores the time-honored plotline of a thoughtless all powerful person, who is suddenly forced to walk in the shoes of someone he has oppressed and looked down on. Director, Neill Blomkamp and lead actor Sharlto Copley have re-made Apartheid in a way that no one can forget. And there is clearly going to be a sequel. I can't wait.



5. The Messenger

The Messenger is the other Iraq film in my Top Ten. I saw both The Messenger and The Hurt Locker at the Nantucket Film Festival. This one is set mostly in the States, following two officers (Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson) as they inform people that their loved ones have been killed. This is a small movie of short vignettes full of horrible emotion. The one exception is one young widow (Samantha Morton), who Foster's character befriends and then falls in love with. Both Foster and Harrelson are dealing with their own ghosts as they try and do their jobs which wear them down a little more each day. Woody Harrelson is nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.



6. An Education

An Education is a wonderful film about a teenage girl growing up in 1960's England. This could have been a very creepy movie given its Lolita-esque plotline, but it is saved from that by a wonderful cast led by the effervescent Carey Mulligan who plays the girl who wants to get out and experience life now, and Peter Sarsgaard, who plays the much older, charming but very smarmy con artist who promises her just that. Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson and Olivia Williams round out the great supporting cast. Mulligan gets a well deserved nomination for Best Actress for this role. For more, look at my review of An Education....



7. Crazy Heart

I really love Jeff Bridges, and he has more than earned his reputation as the most under-appreciated actor in Hollywood. Until this year, he had never won an Oscar or a Golden Globe despite doing movies like Tron, Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys and The Big Lebowski. Bridges has been nominated for an Oscar four times previously, but this may be his year. He already won the Golden Globe for his role in Crazy Heart as a washed-up, alcoholic country singer, who decides his life isn't really over after meeting and falling for a young reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Besides the great performances, the thing that makes this such a great movie is the music, composed by T-Bone Burnett, and performed by Bridges, himself. For more, look at my review of Crazy Heart....

8. Nine

Nine is yet another Broadway musical adapted to the screen. It didn't get much in the way of good reviews and it didn't last long in the theatres. But I really loved it. With a cast featuring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Fergie, a pair of sunglasses,  and a beautiful little blue sportscar, I ask, what's not to like? The music is great and Daniel Day-Lewis can read from the phonebook as far as I'm concerned. Everyone in the cast, even Judi Dench, has a great boffo musical number. Like I said, I was blown away. For more, look at my review of Nine....




9. A Serious Man

What can I say about the Coen brothers? They are amazing. They make strange, compelling, sometimes repelling, films that are from another dimension. I don't like all their films but I really want them to keep making them. Last year they won Best Picture for No Country for Old Men about a serial killer with a bad haircut. A Serious Man couldn't be more different, and at first it doesn't really seem to be about anything. It just follows the day-to-day minutiae of the life of a Physics professor. But bit by bit, we see how every aspect of his life is beginning to fall apart, apparently because of bad karma. I found that this film just sucked me in and wouldn't let me go, which I assume is just what the Coen brothers had planned all along. For more, look at my review of A Serious Man....

10. The Road

The Road is a very good adaptation of yet another Cormac McCarthy novel (he wrote No Country for Old Men too). Maybe the subject matter was just too depressing when the real world seems to be falling apart around us but The Road sank without a trace. It is nominated for exactly zero Oscars. But you should see it. It is really good, and, yes, depressing. But Viggo Mortenson as the father and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the son with a few flashbacks of Charlize Theron as the mother make for a very atmospheric and beautiful film. For more, look at my review of The Road....






Some other movies I really liked last year: Julie & Julia, A Single Man, Public Enemies, Bright Star, Precious, 500 Days of Summer.