Favorite Movies of 2009

The Hurt Locker

What can you say? Cinematic brilliance and one of my two five star candidates of the year*. It took a while, but Iraq movies are really starting to come into their own. I think the genre became much more effective when directors realized that the politics are still really messy and the best way to tell this story is to leave them out completely. The lack of politics and the portrayal of soldiers as actual people, rather than toys being manipulated by politicians, is why The Hurt Locker works and horrible pieces of trash like In the Vally of Elah don't.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Certainly the funniest movie I've seen all year. I wrote:

"This is a damn funny movie. Very intellegent and very qwirky with the natural Wes Anderson flair. The stop motion technique was a great choice and well executed, especially for a directer who doesn't really do that sort of thing."

This is one of those movies that makes me wonder if the fuddy duddies at the Academy will ever catch on and start awarding voice over Oscars. This is my second five star candidate.

A Serious Man

Life's a bitch and then you die. Does anybody say that better than the Coen brothers? Not quite the Fargoesque level of brilliance we've seen in the past, but certainly better than Burn After Reading, which I liked more than most people.

Inglorious Basterds

What I liked most about this one was the pure originality, it's not something that is big in Hollywood these days. I really fascinating alt-history that's much more satisfying than the original. Morally, this is a very complicated movie. The Basterds are war criminals, pure and simple, but because their motives are considered "good", does that somehow make it ok?

Up in the Air

This is the story of our times. Two things stick out in this one: first, the unformulaic happy times ending and second, George Clooney. He was just perfect for this role.

Sin Nombre

The story of an immigrant family trying to reach the United States and the MS 13 members who try to rob them. An interesting look at gang life in central America.

500 Days of Summer

Not breathtakingly original, but a much needed update of one of my all time favorites, Annie Hall. I think the fuzzy chronology is really well done, and presents a much more realistic take of a relationship than something done linearly. This movie contains what I think is the best individual scene I've seen all year, the split screen of how he wishes one of his encounters with Summer went versus how it actually did.

Ok, so about the five star thing: I award really good movies 4.5 stars out of five (that's how facebook does it). To get 5 stars, the movie has to be good on repeated watchings.