Top 10 Films of 2009

If you know me you know i love film. I appreciate all mediums of art and expression but i believe that film has the power to convey more feeling and emotion than any other form.

So i thought it only fitting since its awards season and what not and we just left the year 2009, that i should do a top ten list for last year. So here it is, excuse the writing, i know it changes tone a lot but i suck at writing reviews.

Honorable Mentions:

Bruno, Extract, The Hangover, Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, State of Play, The White Ribbon, Zombieland.

10. The Limits of Control

Jim Jarmusch has always been hit or miss for me. While I loved Dead Man and Broken Flowers, I couldn't stand the minimalist feel of Stranger than Paradise or the little bit of Night on Earth that I managed to sit through. Going into this I had mixed expectations. I heard many many bad things from most critics and forum-posters, saying that the film is slow and has no story. Isaach De Bankole plays a hit man who is sent to spain to assassinate an american capitalist. On the way he meets with a small group of random people he's never met and each hand him a small piece of paper, as well as philosophize on a certain subject, both of which the lone assassin uses to complete his mission. While I agree it is slow, and therefore not for the average movie-goer, i disagree that there is no story. The story itself is presented in an allegorical form for the destruction of capitalism (that's right fellow anarchists, they finally made a movie to appease us). And if that doesn't tickle your fancy so to speak then hear this: Bill Murray has a cameo/supporting role in it as the american capitalist that the main character is charged with killing.

9. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Where the cuss did this come from? I never would have guessed Wes Anderson would venture into the realm of stop motion animation, let alone pull it off. But when you think about it, it's a perfect fit, his quirky stlye mixed with the quirkyness of the medium makes...a very quirky movie. Voiced by George Clooney, Mr. Fox is a retired bird thief who moves his family into a nice redwood tree so they can have a better life...or so we think, his plans all along were to move near the factories of the three biggest farmers in town. Think the Oceans series.

8. District 9

Shot for a very low budget, by an unknown director and a cast of unknowns, District 9 goes to show that you dont need hundreds of millions of dollars and the invention of new technology to create a science fiction masterpiece. No one knew much of the plot going into back when it was first released in the summer so I'm not going to say anything plot wise, because the best part about this unknown is not knowing, just see it, you will not regret it. Only down side being the "gee I wonder if there's going to be a sequel" ending, learn from The Matrix, the first is always the best.

7. Up in the Air

I don't think I've ever related to a character as much as I did when I saw George Clooney portray the character of Ryan Bingham. He's a middle aged man going around the country firing people that corporations don't have the guts to fire themselves. That part isn't what i related to. While he's on

the road he leaves nothing behind... because he has nothing to leave behind. He has no wife, no kids and is very distant from the family he does have. I myself have no one outside of my mother and a distant sister, and I don't know whether i want kids or marriage or any of that wonderful stuff. At one point during the film he tells a room full of people a metaphor. He says that life is like a backpack. You start out with an empty one on, and then you throw in the small things, your furniture, books, computer... and it starts to get heavy, then take the big things, your house...heavier, then you take the biggest things, your relationships, your wife, your kids, your family etc... and suddenly it becomes impossible to walk... I'm not sure it would be a widley acceptable thing to say you associate with such a character, much less one twice your age, but I do, and that's why I loved this film, and i think George Clooney deserves the Oscar, hands down.

6. Inglourious Basterds

Witty dialogue, stylish transitions and montages as well as over the top violence... yet another of the same from Tarantino. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way but it's getting a bit over played. It's one thing for directors to have their own style, but when it's as over the top and in your face as Tarantino's is then something has to change at somepoint or he's eventually going become a gimmick. Take the band KISS for example. If it wasn't for their leather suits and make up would they really be that popular? If Tarantino doesn't make a change soon then thats all he's going to be, a gimmick. That being said i thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Brad Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Rain, a man who assembles a troop tasked with with scalping nazis. He wants a hundred nazi scalps, and he'll get a hundred nazi scalps. On the other end of the story is Shosanna, a young jewish woman who narrowly escapes death and takes refuge as a the proprietor of a movie theatre. Of course their paths cross...but not really as the two sides never technically meet. The best part of the movie is the man who wedges himself in between the two story-lines...Colonel Hans Landa, amazingly played by Christoph Waltz. He's funny, intense and scary all at the same time and deserves the supporting actor award come oscar day. All in all a great movie, the only down side being the bit of disappointment I felt when I realized the two separate story-lines were never going to come together as one massive story.

5. Star Trek

I've never been a fan of the Star Trek universe. I guess you can say I was more of a star wars guy, even though the only one i really enjoyed was The Empire Strikes Back. But after seeing the reboot of the Star Trek series i can safely say I've been turned into a fan. The main reason being...the cast. JJ Abrams managed to bring together an amazingly young and talented group of actors to breath life back into the once pronounced dead series. I was shocked by the level of chemistry, not so much that it existed but more so that it was present in all character interactions. Everyone plays well off of one another, especially between Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, and Simon Pegg and...every character he interacts with... which isn't a surprise since he's such an amazing comedic actor. But the good isn't just in the cast. JJ Abrams and the Writers came up with a very unique way of bringing all the characters together with...a rip in time. Which means that they can do whatever they want from here on out since it's essentially in an alternate universe than that of the orginal series. I can't wait for many many sequels from this cast.

4.Coraline

More cannon fodder for those high school drama kids eh? It may in fact be but it's still a very fun time. It's from the creator of Nightmare Before Christmas (no, not tim burton, but Director Henry Selick). I'm actually not quite sure what Tim Burton's role was on NBC aside from the initial story idea. This film is more straight-foward than NBC, there are no sing along part like NBC had and it's not as wild of a story. But what it does have over its predecessor (i got tired of writing NBC) is that it's creepier. The story centers around A girl name coraline who moves to a new town, and one day while bored decides to explore the house, and discovers a door that leads to an alternate world where here "other" mother and father await, and the "others" will do anything they can to keep Coraline from leaving their world. The amount of symbolism in this movie for birth and vaginas is awe inspiring.

3. Moon

I think that if it weren't for (500) Days of Summer, Moon would have been the breakout indie movie of the year. A mind-bender of a story line, a one-man show by Sam Rockwell, and the best talking robot movies have seen since Hal from 2001, voice by the great Kevin Spacey. But for whatever reason there can only be one mainstream indie movie each year. All that aside, Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an astronaut who has been on the moon for the last three years harvesting and harnessing energy to be sent back to earth as a clean and efficient way of powering the world. He's close to finally going home to be reunited with his family when he discovers a crashed mining vessel that contains the body of a man who looks like his twin. I won't ruin the end but it's a really nice and subtle twist that isn't over done like it would be in the hands of M. Night Shyamalan.

2. (500) Days of Summer

The breakout indie flick of the year, the Juno and Little Miss Sunshine of 2009. This incredibly original take on love on the rocks single handily rejuvenated a film genre that has suffered one horrible Matthew McConaughey film after another. With a wonderful performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who manages to blend humor and sadness together almost effortlessly, as well as a unique first trip to the directors chair by Marc Webb, 500 Days of Summer transcends the cliches that get thrown at this genre. Tom Hansen is an aspiring architect who works as a greeting card writer to make ends meet. One day a new secretary is hired and he falls in love as they bond over a Smiths' song. It's presented in a non-linear format, but with a format that (as far as i know) has yet to be done. Towards the end of the movie there is a sequence in which we see what Tom's expectations are on split screen with what the reality of the situation is. For that alone Marc Webb should've been nominated. Some might fin the end cliched, but in the context of the film itself it was a perfect fit.

1. Adventureland

A perfect example of false advertisement. "From the creator of Superbad" was posted on all the posters, bus stop ads, billboards, and even uttered by the announcer in the trailer. This of course lead everyone to believe that it was going to be some sort of raunchy comedy set in a theme park in the 1980's. Because of this all i heard from friends and online posters was that it was not what they expected, not that funny and certainly not enough raunch. In actuality Adventureland is a masterful blend of Almost Famous' coming of age story and Caddyshack's situational comedy (more so the former). Jessie Eisenberg plays James, a recently graduate college student on his way to Europe for his summer vacation, when the news is dropped on him that his father got demoted and he has to get a summer job to pay for grad school. And thats where Adventureland comes into play. There he meets a Russian lit major/pragmatic nihilist, a sleazy repairman (who else but Ryan Reynolds) and the girl he falls in love with, Em (Kristen Stewart). I never thought it possible, but Kristen Stewart actually Acts. More so then you think when your first see it. She plays a girl who's clearly got some problems in her life and has a bad past with guys. And sure we see that in a few scenes, but the real way we know it is through the mannerisms that Kristen Stewart uses in her portrayal. The best movie of 2009 and arguably the decade.