BEST FILMS OF 2009

As it happens just about every year I get the misfortune of not getting to see all the films I want and esspecially the ones around this part of the year. I get tired of waiting for extended January release dates and searching for uploaded for your consideration DVD versions of the movies, so I write my best list without a few films. But as I see them I do still review them, so in the early 2010 months you can expect a number of 2009 reviews for films I sadly missed. Now with all that said I do still have a certain love for this list. And that is because most of these films were made within the mainstream Hollywood curcuit. Meaning that despite what it often feels like, many people in that town DO get what's wrong with a lot of mainstream films and attempt to change it and better it. Hell even the ones I haven't seen were, but think I'd like were made that way so 2009 was maybe the best mainstream year in long time. Now enough gabbin' time for the list.

10. "The Informant!"
Matt Damon gives his funniest and maybe strongest performance as a whistleblower for a corn company. Steven Soderbergh's perfect direction and photography give the film this 70's cinema glow about it and the complex, twisty and engrossing screenplay never slows or bores. There's always something going on, even if at first glance you don't see it in this picture.

09. "Funny People"
Rarely can I find a movie about people treating each other like shit for two and half hours entertaining let alone funny, however Judd Apatow has crafted something weird and awesome; that makes it all work. I think it has to do with how fleashed out these characters are and how they make us buy into them. Adam Sandler makes up for another long stretch of shit movies and the reign of Rogen/Apatow/Mann comedic supremacy continues.

08. "Public Enemies"
Gangster flicks are a fun genre and 30's & 40's gangster flicks are sometimes even more fun because it's like the wild west, but with cars and tommy guns. Michael Mann is someone who knows crime and characters thus a story about John Dillinger is right up his alley. Mann's digital eye is at it's very best here as is his ability to pull great performances out of his actors. Depp and Cotillard being the two shinning examples that impressed me far more than I expected. Also FBI agent Stephen Lang... all kinds of badass.

07. "Avatar"
Hard pressed is it for a movie to live up to hype, let alone James Cameron created hype, but 'Avatar' does. It's an epic 3D sci-fi action picture that's not particularly an original concept (by Cameron's own admissions) but it's based off of classical science fiction literature that he grew up reading and got him interested in movies in the first place. This is one of those labor of love feeling movies too that despite his created hype isn't pretenious yet feels like a lot of it's creator is on screen. The animation is flawless and the action sequences are as exciting as anything I've seen all year. I'd say this was one of the more fun movie watching experiences I had this year.

06. "(500) Days of Summer"
A fantastic love story! Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel have terrific chemistry even during heated scenes and Marc Webb's direction was creative and fresh without becoming another pretenious indie romance with only a soul for blarring unsigned folk rock artists and displaying clothes you can get from Urban Outfitters. I loved this when I saw it and I still very much love it now.

05. "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans"
Best Nic Cage performance in years and one of the best contemparary noir pictures I've seen this decade. Cage displays that manic side that he got famous for in Terrence, the junkie cop who's in deep with everyone from politcians to fellow cops to drug king pins and only getting in deeper. Something to remember while watching it though is that it's okay to laugh at the darkness and enjoy some outlandish drug induced rants throughout the film. In truth the film is a dark comedy hidden in a crime drama. Director Werner Herzog gives New Orleans the full foreboding noir treatment; every skyline shot feels like something bad is just around the corner... and often in the film that's the case.

04. "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
I now think that I can fully and bravely say this, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is Wes Anderson's best film. The casting was perfect, the writing was brilliant and the stop motion animation was detailed to no end and looked great. There are dozens and dozens of moments in this film that made me burst out laughing as well as impress me for all it's maturity. Finally here is a kids film that hits all the right marks, doesn't talk down to kids and is really directed towards them as an audience. Remarkable work.

03. "District 9"
This one has ran up and down my list about a dozen times, but fact of the matter is this is one hell of a sci-fi picture. Impressivly made for around $30,000,000 you don't just get some highly impressive action sequences, but you get ideas. You get several holy shit moments, characters you actually care about and the best presentation of mockumentary filmmaking I've seen in a long time. This one has all the marks to become a sci-fi classic.

02. "A Serious Man"
Definitly one of the Coen brothers best comedies and best films to date. And this is really only a film they could have made. A dark comedy about a Jewish professor whose life is about to spin completely out of control in about every way it can. Michael Shulbarg is hilarious as this doomed man and the Coen's use of Jefferson Airplane throughout the entire film is almost a tell-tell sign of bad things to come. Furthermore the final scene of this movie is one of the best I may have ever seen. It sums up the tone and concept of the film in several grim and unpleasent ways and yet is somewhat funny still. It's really a Coen film to it's nitty gritty.

01. "Inglourious Basterds"
Quentin Tarantino's World War II. It's rare to see someone brave slings and arrows in name of creativity and entertainment anymore. To take such a risk as QT did with certain parts of this film and yet without those risks the film would've still been fantastic... but with those risks, it's a masterpiece. There are tons of larger than life feeling characters throughout the whole picture and yet all of them feel like had the war ended as it does in the film, all of these people feel like ones we could have read about in history books. It's funny, dark, dangerous and very original... everything we've come to expect and love about Tarantino films.

SPECIAL GENRE & PERFORMANCE PRIZES (top 10 excluded from these)

Best Sci-fi: Star Trek
Best Action: The International
Best Drama: Watchmen
Best Horror: (TIE) Drag Me to Hell & Paranormal Activity
Best Mystery or Thriller: The Box
Best Comedy: Duplicity
Best Underrated Performance: (TIE) Sam Rockwell-Moon & Jeffery Dean Morgan-Watchmen
Breakthrough Performance: Sasha Grey-The Girlfriend Experience
Best Score: The Arcade Fire & Owen Pallette-The Box
Best Effects: Star Trek
Best Ensemble: Star Trek
Best Film I Haven't Seen: The Hurt Locker
Biggest Suprise: Disney's A Christmas Carol