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.
I've read a couple of great books lately, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And it just so happens that I also saw the movies based on these books within weeks of reading them. It's often hard for me to like films based on books that I've read. I much prefer movies based on books that I haven't read! But I was interested to see how these two excellent books were adapted into movies. Both movies are OK, but neither holds a candle to the original book. In both cases, much of complexity in the story is lost because of the constraints of fitting into a 2 hour movie format. When adapting books for the screen, two things usually happen. First, films tend to concentrate on the main storyline of the book and delete subplots that are deemed not to be central to the plot. Second, the director and the screenwriter adapting the book usually cannot resist making big changes even to the main storyline. In the case of The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first thing to go was the romantic subplots. And both films change the endings as well. 
When Jeff Bridges got up at the Golden Globes to accept the award for Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Crazy Heart, he may have started to shed his reputation as the most underappreciated actor in Hollywood. It was his first win at the Golden Globes after three previous nominations. He has also been nominated four times for an Oscar (The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman, and The Contender) without winning. He wasn't even nominated for some of his great signature roles like Tron, The Fabulous Baker Boys and The Big Lebowski. In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges plays a down and out country singer, Bad Blake. He is down on his luck, to say the least, and is driving from town to town playing at bars and drinking. In one small town, he is interviewed by a local reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is divorced with a small son. A rocky romance ensues. Meanwhile, Bridges tries to get his life together with help from his best friend (Robert Duvall) and a younger performer (Colin Farrell) that he helped on the way up.
On paper, this plot of this movie is a hackneyed stereotype of the hard-drinking, hard-living country singer with has lots of talent but has become an old-broken down alcoholic who is performing at bowling alleys. But Crazy Heart rises above the stereotype, thanks to Jeff Bridges, the rest of the wonderful supporting cast, and some great music composed by T-Bone Burnett. Bridges performs the songs himself. The director of Crazy Heart is Scott Cooper, yet another first time director. This film certainly has the feel of an indie movie despite the A-list cast.
I love, love, love Jeff Bridges. He is one of my favorite actors. He really inhabits a role and gives it a life with energy. His characters are always struggling with setbacks in life and are tinged with some sadness, whether it is an alien in a human body in Starman, The Dude in The Big Lebowski, or one half of a brother pianist act in The Fabulous Baker Boys. In Crazy Heart, he has found another such role and he handles it perfectly. 
Crazy Heart is a tale of redemption, but also of realism. His character is struggling to get his life back together, and he makes some progress, but by the end of the movie the jury is still out on whether he will succeed. Crazy Heart involves a May-September romance like so many of movies do. But Bridges' relationship with Maggie Gyllenhaal seems very real, and it founders on the rocks as it must. Robert Duvall is good as always as Bridges' down-home best buddie, in a role almost as small as he had in The Road. And Colin Farrell does a nice almost cameo as Bridges' protege who has gone on to stardom but still remembers his roots. Farrell is Irish, but he fits into the British tradition of big stars doing character roles and doing them very well. 
Crazy Heart is the story of a musician and it never would have been believable if it didn't have his music. So, T-Bone Burnett composed a whole bunch of songs that become the 30-year repertoire of an Bad Blake. And it all works because Bridges can play the guitar and sing the songs. I'm not a country fan but the soundtrack is great. And so is Bridges' performance which may win him his first Oscar. This movie is still in the theatres. You should see it if you can.
The plot of An Education sounds like it is just a remake of Lolita but it is actually based on the true story of a high school girl (Carey Mulligan) growing up in England in the 1960's who is seduced by a con artist (Peter Sarsgaard) in his early thirties who is passing himself off as an art dealer. He and another couple (Dominic Cooper & Rosamund Pike) live high off the hog while leading a life of crime. Sarsgaard meets Mulligan by chance and is soon seducing not just her, but her parents (Alfred Molina & Cara Seymour) as well. The naiveté of the family is such that Mulligan's father, who originally doesn't even want her to date another high school boy for fear of hurting her chances of getting into university, urges her to go away for a weekend with Saarsgard. Mulligan is in cahoots with him because she has fallen for him hard and she is scamming her parents without realizing that Saarsgard is doing the same to her. 
Mulligan, who was Kitty in the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice is perfect as the 16 year old (she is actually 24) who wants her life to begin now. An Education is her movie and she carries it off very nicely. Peter Sarsgaard (Rendition) is always very good and he is very believable as the smarmy con artist. I really like Dominic Cooper (The History Boys) who plays Saarsgard's sidekick with panache and Rosamund Pike who was Jane in the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice is good as his blonde bimbo girlfriend. Alfred Molina who plays the father gets to speak in something like his real accent here. In most of his movies (Frida, Spider-Man 2, The Da Vinci Code), he is not even British. He is a classic British character actor and is fantastic at whatever role he plays. Emma Thompson also shows that all British actors are character actors at their core. She does a nice turn in An Education as the dowdy, hard, bitter, principal at Mulligan's school who considers her to be damaged goods. Olivia Williams (Rushmore, The Sixth Sense) has a nice but small part as the teacher who turns out to be the opposite of Thompson.
The direction and the art direction in An Education are really fab. The setting of the film in 1960's middle class England looks perfect. The story moves right along and An Education feels like it has a lot of action for a film that is mostly just people talking. The thing that makes this story more interesting than just Lolita is the involvement of Mulligan's parents in the seduction and how they are totally taken in by. There are still some very Lolita-esque parts of An Education so it does have its creepy aspects. The film is just very well done with a bunch of great British actors so it is a joy to watch them in action. And Mulligan shows that she belongs with the likes Thompson and Molina. 
In his new film, Wes Anderson has moved into animation; not just animation but stop-action animation. This is a little used technique these days outside of the classic Wallace and Gromit movies. The making of Fantastic Mr. Fox involved puppets and tiny sets, with each puppet painstakingly moved a tiny fraction and then filmed and so on over and over until you get a movie. One of the charms of Fantastic Mr. Fox is that the animation really doesn't look that good. This movie has a Wallace and Gromit feel to it. The makers of Wallace and Gromit concoct a complex plot about something very silly, usually involving cheese and sheep, and Wes Anderson has done something very similar involving foxes, chickens and cider. The film is based on a book by Roald Dahl. In the story, Fantastic Mr. Fox (George Clooney) decides to settle down and raise a family. He marries Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep). But he can't quite settle down and he is always wanting to raid the chicken coops of the nearby nasty farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. The Foxes have a son (Jason Schwartzman) who is a chip off the old block and before long he and another young fox (Wallace Wolodarsky) are planning raids of their own. 
