1.) Up In The Air. Up until last week I thought my #2 had this in the bag, and then Jason Reitman had to come along and be brilliant and shit. Way to go, Jason Reitman, fucking up my list and making me have to juggle shit around! Anyway, George Clooney (who is undoubtedly the Actor of the Decade, incidentally – there just isn’t any goddamn competition for the title and you have to recognize that fact sooner rather than later) leads off a collection of nigh-perfect performances strung together by a narrative that shouldn’t work but in context seems not only believable but indeed natural. Illuminating and thought-provoking, and underrated by many critics simply because Reitman is comfortable with comedy and most critics have issues with that.
2.) (500) Days of Summer. I get that this is a polarizing picture and that there are people who absolutely hate this movie, or at the very least don’t understand what its proponents see in it. However, I am one of its proponents, so if you are one of those hating people, tough shit, this is my list. I adore how this movie plays with time in clever ways, how it builds a narrative out of barely connected moments by gradually building a web, how it’s not afraid to take a dumb risk now and again, how the performances are so damned strong. And it still has the best final line of a movie since The Apartment.
3.) The Hurt Locker. Winning a shitload of critical acclaim, because Serious Movie Critics, deep down, love to see shit blow up like everybody else, but this is finally the movie they’ve been waiting for all along: a movie that blows shit up but does so to assist the development of complex characters. A limited budget gave Kathryn Bigelow the perverse freedom to avoid name actors and instead hire Jeremy Renner, who delivers a blistering performance as the lead bomb tech/thrill junkie, but it didn’t stop her from blowing shit up real good. Making an Iraq war movie seems like an invitation to disaster with all the terrible ones that have come out in the last few years; this movie is proof that it’s not the setting that’s the flaw.
4.) Up. It’s Pixar. What the fuck did you expect? And it’s not just that it’s Pixar, but that Pixar have been on a real hot streak the last few years (ever since Ratatouille).
5.) Fantastic Mr. Fox. In a non-Pixar world, this would be the best animated film of the year without question: a Wes Anderson film, translated to all-ages stop-motion animation. The kids in the audience when I went loved it; so did their parents. It’s a fascinating fusion of Anderson’s style with Dahl’s source material, resulting in something that’s equal parts of both and incredibly entertaining; it’s almost weird to see Anderson go for running gags as he does in this movie with such gusto, but he pulls it off so well that you wish all his movies were stop-motion.
6.) The Cove. Quite simply, this doesn’t feel like a documentary; it feels like a thriller, a very nasty dark thriller with extremely bad guys, and you can be forgiven every once in a while for forgetting that this is really real – especially considering that Hayden Panettiere, of all people, shows up on the side of the good guys. (For which, I might add, she gets a lifetime pass from me, no matter how many shitty movies she makes.) Intense, gripping, and one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years.
7.) Adventureland. Jesse Eisenberg seems prepared to star exclusively in movies that end in “-land,” but so far they’ve all been good; Zombieland was highly entertaining for what it was, and Adventureland just about perfect for what it attempted to be: a nostalgic reflection on growing up in the mid-80s that also serves as a classic examination of young-man-at-crossroads syndrome. Gets everything just about exactly right, and serves as confirmation that, Twilight aside, Kristen Stewart can actually act really well.
8.) The Lovely Bones. This currently has a low rating on Rottentomatoes, and the gripe from the critics disliking it is almost uniformly the same: they hate that Jackson shifts gears in mood and tone from horror to fantasy to drama to light family quickly. These are the exact same complaints that were made about The Frighteners; they were wrong then and they are wrong now. The Lovely Bones works precisely because it never stops being a horror film, in a way; even the family-friendliest of scenes are overlaid with the murder that exists at the heart of the film, which is the entire point. When I read the book, I thought it was unfilmable; I should have remembered that Jackson can make a movie out of anything.
9.) District 9. Questionable racial politics aside, this is a brilliant sci-actioner, with real and genuine emotion pushing it to its climax – the transformation of Sharlto Copley’s hapless government servant, both emotional and physical, never stops being immersive and powerful. Also, it has big alien gun that go ZWAAAAAM. It’s the perfect mix of the deep well of drama combined with high-quality FX pyrotechnics.
10.) Anvil! The Story of Anvil. The second-best documentary of the year is about some washed-up rockers who never stopped believing in rock, and who as a result of this movie suddenly found they had a career again. Personally, the music is not the best I’ve heard, but you can’t help but get dragged along with these lovable loser/freaks who keep pushing for their dreams even if they might not make it. Documentary as inspirational tract.
11.) Inglourious Basterds. I wanted to dismiss Basterds, but I just can’t – there’s too much art here to dismiss it. There’s not enough to put it into a top ten when the questions of substance (the lack of action, for one thing) are so numerous, but nobody has better style than Tarantino – absolutely nobody – and nobody makes his films as distinctively his own without sticking to a formula. The only movie in the top twenty I am still not sure if I actually liked on its own merit, but… it lingers, in the right ways, and that’s always a sign of greatness.
12.) Drag Me To Hell. Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots and it is fucking great. That is all.
13.) Summer Hours. Devastatingly honest family drama which asks penetrating questions about the nature of family and home, and permanescence of same. I know “it makes you think” is a horrible cliche, but this one really does make you think – it’s not a comfortable film to watch but it certainly qualifies as an important one.
14.) Mystery Team. Virtually ignored in theaters, which is a shame because Derrick Comedy’s first big-screen foray is goddamned hilarious – easily the best gutbuster of the year for me in a year where there were quite a few quality comedies. I nearly choked at many points during the flick, and just as importantly it’s not simply a stalking horse for a bunch of funny quips but instead a story (with a surprising amount of dramatic heft to it).
15.) Moon. Extremely smart sci-fi movie of the sort that makes you wonder how it even got made. Almost entirely a one-man show, and Sam Rockwell finally puts up the bravura performance we’ve always known he could manage but never really brought to the fore. Also, Kevin Spacey is a surprisingly convincing beneficient robot overseer, and I say that with all due respect.
16.) Coraline. Henry Selick is the fucking shit, yo.
17.) The Brothers Bloom. Maybe the idea of a movie about cons being in many ways a con itself isn’t new, but the execution here is refreshing and the lack of determinate resolution for much of the picture even moreso. Special recognition is due to Rinko Kikuchi for making Bang Bang a completely engaging and original character without saying a single word, which in a movie about lying is especially merited.
18.) Away We Go. Many people complained about the “smug hipster” vibe of this movie, because, I dunno, David Eggers wrote it and John Krasinski had a beard or something like that. But it’s not about smug hipsters; it’s about being terrified in the face of the awesome responsibility of parenthood, and coming to terms with that fear. The entire movie is a collection of pre-parental fears (partner abandonment, child death, becoming one of those horrible couples you always justifiably hated) and coming to terms with it; it’s travelogue as therapy.
19.) The Invention of Lying. Incredibly underrated movie – it’s frequently extremely clever and goes places one wouldn’t expect it to go. (Hint: religious satire of the most vicious variety imaginable, which likely has something to do with its abject box-office failure.) It’s very, very funny, and has a lot of good performances in it, and deserves to be slotted up with Ricky Gervais’ other accomplishments; it stands alongside them very well.
20.) Star Trek. All of the other films on this list merely had to be – nobody had any expectations for them beyond the hopes of a good time out at the theatre. Star Trek came with a horde of baggage: it had to satisfy fanboys and newbies, classic Trekkers and new-skool Trekkers, people wanting a good entertaining adventure flick and people wanting a good blow-up-shit-with-space-lasers movie (these are not necessarily the same thing). JJ Abrams managed to satisfy pretty much everybody beyond a few nitpickers and complainers, and delivered one of the most thoroughly fun blockbusters to come along in a good long while. And sometimes that’s all you need.
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the best part of (500) days of summer was the punchline at the end, which was fantastic. i get what you’re saying about the non-sequential presentation, but the story itself was kind of flat. i rate it a solid “meh.”
Mystery Team already came out? Man, must have skipped Phoenix entirely…
I felt Invention of Lying treated the ‘ability’ somewhat inconsistently at times, and that took me out of it a bit. I just found it jarring that he could literally change someone’s reality at the start (changing his name for instance) but by the end there were people who could imagine lying. Was there something I missed there? Nonetheless quite enjoyable.
Great list, I agree with all of them (except for the ones I haven’t seen yet.)
Speaking of: I haven’t seen Up In The Air yet, so (500) Days of Summer still sits on top of my list.
My dad doesn’t like George Clooney. It’s how I know I was adopted.
What? No Avatar? I would have thought a dozen “whoas” would have been enough.
I also was looking forward to Mystery Team
My thought coming out of Up In The Air was “This is Fight Club if Tyler Durden never punched anybody, went insane, and rebelled, but just let his soul get crushed instead.”
I’m just putting that out there because I want to hear reactions to it.
I’ve not seen all of the films you list, but of the ones you do I mostly agree with you – with two exceptions:
1. Basterds – I can dismiss it. It’s got some good scenes, but it’s not a film. It’s a collection of scenes, some good, some not so good. It never comes together as a whole. And the death of Hitler is an anti-climax. Which should be impossible, but QT found a way. Because his film has no overall narrative. I’ll stop there, because Mark Kermode does it so much better:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2009/08/5_live_review_inglourious_bast.html?page=11 (UK only, but it’s probably out there somewhere for you international types).
2. Star Trek: I’d have put it higher. But I’m a massive Trekkie, so that might just be fanboy love
Come on, Flapjacks, it’s your turn now!
(PS: Basterds, overrated. Hurt Locker, meh. George Clooney, I can’t take him serious since ever. Not even in Syrianna)
Dude I’ve wanted to see the following Up In The Air, (500) Days of Summer, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moon, and Mystery Team for some time now because I thought they looked really, really good.
Now that I have confirmation, it just makes me want to see them so much more.
“Sam Rockwell finally puts up the bravura performance we’ve always known he could manage but never really brought to the fore.”
Ooh, yay! Hadn’t heard of this movie until now but the above is reason enough for me to look it up. In the movies I’ve seen with Sam Rockwell he always feels underused. (Which will probably happen again in Iron Man 2. Where IS he in the trailer??)
@Andrew, as you wish: I would watch that movie only if it had the Edward Norton voice-over (the best part about watching his soul get crushed was hearing his flat ranting about the support groups and his IKEA-furnished apartment). But Up In The Air looks like a lighter movie than that (although that might just be the trailer).
Lots of movies I like on this list, but I’d quibble with the placement. I guess the Basterds backlash is in full swing at this point, but its easily Tarantino’s MOST substantial movie (it’s not an action movie, so I’m not sure why the lack of action is an issue) and it’s actually incredibly tight–the only scenes that get a little flabby are in the Operation Kino segment. Everything else is there for a reason.
On the flipside, I thought Up In The Air wasn’t really much to get excited about. It’s a solid enough movie, but it’s really just a collection of very good performances wrapped around a really predictable, uninsightful script. Does anyone watch the opening scenes of Clooney bragging about how unencumbered his life is and not expect that he’ll have a new understanding of the value of human relationships by the end of the movie? I mean, hell, the big climactic “run out of the speaking engagement” scene was already parodied in “Intolerable Cruelty”. After “Thank You For Smoking” Reitman seemed like a director who was going places, but each subsequent movie he’s made has been just a little less interesting.
And this is literally the first time I’ve heard anyone say anything nice about The Lovely Bones. I desperately want this to be good, so I’m glad of the reassurance, but MGK is standing more or less alone here…
Delighted to see Brothers Bloom, Coraline, and Drag Me To Hell on the list.
Can anyone answer this question?
I know that (500) Days of Summer will be playing on my flight(s) tomorrow: should I watch it on those tiny seat-back screens, or should I wait for a more comfortable/more immersive viewing experience?
Absolutely loved The Brothers Bloom! Picked it up on a whim because it looked interesting and never regretted it.
District 9 is also an educational film, as it teaches the world South African profanity. Turn on the DVD subtitles to pick up some nifty fresh cussin’ material.
I just watched (500) Days of Summer over the weekend – I liked it but didn’t love it, my girlfriend HATED it. I think we were both dissatisfied that Summer was so doggedly, irredeemably unlikable and was never really forced to face the consequences of her life, and the last scene at the park just sort of enabled her to get off with a clean conscience despite having essentially ruined this guy’s life. Rarely in my life – not since at least High Fidelity – have I so wanted to see one character in a movie physically assault and maim another – at least then it would have felt real. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I talk myself out of liking the movie at all. Hmmm.
@Jonathan: It requires a bit of attention paid to it to get the ‘full effect,’ but even when I was tired and in a theatre with an uncomfy seat I was completely into this. MGK is if anything underselling it. Probably my favorite romantic comedy of all time.
I really don’t understand how anyone can think that Summer was a bitch. It is just completely beyond me.
Also, MGK, I think you made a little mix-up. Shouldn’t Drag Me To Hell be on your Worst Movies of 2009 list?
I never said she was a bitch, I think I define a bitch as someone who goes out of their way to be mean or petty. Summer is just . . . well, borderline sociopathic, I guess? It doesn’t help that we’ve all known people like that at some point in our lives, so the movie brought back rafts of unpleasant associations with all the worst kinds of oblivious and unthinking people.
@SmR: If you go into Up In The Air expecting something light, you’re in for a rude shock. It’s a DARK comedy. With a capital Dark.
I loved the movie, but yeah, I think you’re right there. And is not just this movie: every character played by Zoe Deschanel is exactly the same character. At first it was kinda cute, but now is just freaky.
Granted, it’s been a few months since I’ve seen the movie, but what exactly did Summer do to make her “borderline sociopathic”?
‘Up’ would be my number one. Any movie that has me crying at simple montage sequence 5 mins into the film is pretty special. I can’t remember the last movie that actually made me cry before this one came along. And I ended up teary again when the old man finally goes through his wife’s scrapbook.
It doesn’t even surprise me anymore that people say stuff like , “meh”, “boring” or “overrated” when they talk about Inglorious Basterds. That’s generally the reaction all of Tarantino’s movies get when they first are released. Even Pulp Fiction when it came out didn’t really get much of the praise it gets now. His movies generally get a wider audience as they age. What surprised me was how well it actually did at the box office. Even though I love it, it’s probably not Tarantino’s best (both Kill Bill’s is still his best work IMO) but at this point it’s his most financially successful
I’m surprised that you characterize 500DoS as movie that takes risks, since what bothered me about it was the way that it felt so contrived: the wise-beyond-her-years kid sister, the karaoke scene (both romcom staples), and the easy-target greeting cards company as a shorthand for the shallowness that the movie wallows in but pretends to transcend. Beyond that, every choice of clothing and every cut on the soundtrack seemed meticulously and mercilessly chosen to appeal to the target demographic. I didn’t just feel manipulated, I felt manhandled.
That said, I didn’t have a problem with Summer as a character. I certainly found Tom’s obsession with her much more troubling.
What, are you kidding? Critics came all over themselves when Pulp Fiction came out. Oscar noms galore, topped many year-end-best-ofs, freakin’ Palme d’Or…
If it’s true that his subsequent films have had lesser reactions (although I honestly am not sure if they have), well, it’s because they have been lesser films.
Yes, pound for pound, Kill Bill is probably his most entertaining, but it has no depth. Jackie Brown has its vocal fans, but it bored me too much to remember a thing about it. Deathproof was slighter than slight. (Planet Terror was much better.) And I haven’t seen Basterds.
Russell from “Up” was the best character of 2009. I shall not be convinced otherwise.
And “Anvil: The Story of Anvil” was both the most heart-breaking and uplifting documentary I’ve seen since “The King of Kong”
How dare you invoke The Apartment to shore up your case for (500) Days Of Summer! Ok, I am one of 500’s detractors – not necessarily the most strident, based on some of the vehement denunciations I’ve seen here and elsewhere. For me the thing that tipped the movie to solid thumbs down territory was the smug, sonorous voiceover that had to explain the story every 15 minutes. The cut-up narrative was fine by me, but the voiceover really ruined the movie
On the other hand, I do like that you acknowledged the underappreciated The Brothers Bloom. I don’t personally know anyone who saw this, which is too bad
“Hint: religious satire of the most vicious variety imaginable, which likely has something to do with its abject box-office failure”
I’d disagree with that. It didn’t really attract controversy at all, probably because not enough people were interested/saw it initially. If anything, a bit of indignation on the part of the Catholic League or whatever might have drummed up a bit more interest in it.
On “(500) Days of Summer”, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It has a lot of clever parts (the opening intro to why the male lead has such incorrect expectations, the fantasy/reality split-screen, the final line), but I never really came to care all that much about the characters. “Adventureland” worked a lot better for me.
My favourite movie of the year would probably be either “Basterds”; “Up in the Air” and “Star Trek” were also favourites.
I’m glad to see someone else love Adventureland. And 500 Days of Summer turned out to be pretty damn brilliant, yes.
Quibbles: I found Star Trek to be a soulless spectacle; Drag Me to Hell was a disappointment.
Most of the rest are waiting on my Netflix queue.
But no Crank 2? I’d rank it up there. For realsies.
I agree with Bill on two points. One, ‘Star Trek’ wasn’t that good (fun movie, but among the best Star Trek films, much less the best of 2009? I don’t think so). Two, ‘Crank 2’ was so brazen, crude, and audacious it became some sort of hyperactive masterpiece. Right after I saw it, I wasn’t sure if I had seen either one of the worst movies of all time, or one of the best. It took me awhile to fully process the experience.
It’s weird how I’m so in tune with MGK on comics, yet not on movies. I can’t stand so many of the movies on this list. I hate everything Jason Reitman’s ever done, the new Star Trek was dull and had no style- same for District 9 – and the only thing that kept me going through Away We Go was the hope that Jim Gaffigan would be back at some point.
Basterds was a bunch of variations on the same structure. Surface-level pleasant conversation -> building tension -> uncontrollable violence. I get that Tarantino’s basically filming an equivalent of Golden Age war comics, where it’s just escapist fantasy, so let’s just kill Hitler and feel better, but I didn’t get a sense of catharsis from it.
There’s a special place in my hatred reserved for 500 Days of Summer, although it was a compelling portrait of one filmmaker’s infatuation with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The whole film is a series of impotent gimmicks. That’s not the Apartment, that’s Family Guy, you know? The way it plays with time doesn’t tell us anything insightful about Tom’s perception of relationships, all it does is withhold information until it feels like rewarding us with what we already figured out. Plus, the main characters are obnoxiously twee. (And I don’t understand everyone’s love of the final line. Seriously? I cringed.)
Adventureland was great, though. Lot of people overlooked that one. I think it’s actually much more insightful and accurate than most of the 80s teen/coming-of-age flicks that everyone remembers so fondly, save maybe Say Anything and Pump Up the Volume. I’d easily put it in a class with those two films – the John Hugues teen stuff is pretty self-absorbed, and no one seems to have noticed yet that Ferris Bueller is a total sociopath destined for a scandal-ridden political career.
Drag me to hell? Really?
*crawls away and hides in a hole somewhere* That has to be the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I almost hurt something suffering through it in the theater, and I went in wanting to like it.
But alas, to each their own I suppose!
So happy reading your thoughts on The Lovely Bones. Saw it yesterday, and still mulling over my thoughts…but it’s definitely better than critics have made out.
I haven’t seen most of these movies, although I’m a big fan of Ricky Gervais and kind of bummed that I didn’t get to watch Invention of Lying. The Lovely Bones looks beautiful, but I was warned against (500) Days of Summer, and am too young to be nostalgic for Adventureland. Sorry.
Up was sweet, and very nice to look at, and the montage in the beginning made me cry like a baby; it just didn’t live up to the hype I’d been hearing, which always sucks. I mean, I’d rather watch Kung Fu Panda again, it definitely wasn’t up to the usual Disney/Pixar standards. Basterds, like some of Tarantino’s other work, was an interesting concept with some good moments, excellent visuals, and a kickin’ soundtrack, that was dragged out for far too long. I feel like if he could self-edit and cut or shorten scenes without botching the story, Tarantino’s movies could be far more entertaining.
Coraline was awesome, and is better every time I watch it. Star Trek was great the first few times, but isn’t as good under scrutiny even though it’s a lot of fun; there’s a lot of underutilized talent in that movie. I adored District 9, and I thought it was a really clever decision to set the whole thing in South Africa to avoid the kind of white-vs-brown racial politics and colonial attitudes that plagued Avatar, even if that makes the plot’s politics messier overall. But it was a ballsy move only because South Africa’s human racial politics remained intact. I thought one of the best things about the movie was that it took a lot of standard-issue sci-fi tropes (bio-weapons, vivisection of the aliens, farming them up for segregation, etc.) and put the PoV of the story on a human level within those structures.
Amazing list of movies, Coraline was one of my favorite animated movie of last year, yes better than Up. Moon is pretty good too, but some place boring.
@AJ: “Right after I saw it, I wasn’t sure if I had seen either one of the worst movies of all time, or one of the best.”
The beauty and genius of Crank 2 was that it was both.
“He was dead … but he got better.”
I had two gripes about Coraline.
1. F*&)ing musical. Who asked for that shit?
2. The way the other mother became rather inorganic/mechanical at the end. Really took the edge off the autonomous severed hand.