BEST FILMS OF 2009

THE HURT LOCKER – There’s a breed of combat film that makes grand statements about the nature of war and the human condition. And then there’s Kathryn Bigelow’s HURT LOCKER that just puts you smack in the middle of the action and lets you figure it all out for yourself. Following the exploits of Bravo Company – an elite bomb disposal unit in Iraq – and it’s volatile new Sergeant (Jeremy Renner) as they follow him further and further out on the edge of what most of us would consider sanity. Bigelow’s film completely eschews politics and presents Iraq as a chaotic and surreal death-scape that proves to be unmanageable for some and irresistibly addictive for others. The Hurt Locker is tense, immersive, and completely breath-taking; an instant classic of the combat genre and maybe the first great film about the Iraq War.


INGLORIOUS BASTERDS – Pound for pound, the year’s top film. Clever, unexpected, and - for a genre picture - utterly original. Quentin Tarantino’s finest film since Pulp Fiction and possibly his smartest. Read my full review and see Inglorious Basterds.


FOOD, INC. – I do not tend to like activist documentaries, but this one – directed by Robert Kenner – is a doozy. Lifting the veil off food conglomerates, if this film doesn’t blow your mind on some level, you may not have one. From its clever opening titles to its ‘organic manifesto’ closing credits, Food, Inc. is a tight, beautifully shot documentary and a real ‘must-see’ for anybody who eats.


12 – Nikita Mikhalkov’s re-working of Sydney Lumet’s 12 ANGRY MEN is nothing short of brilliant. Mikhalkov transplants the action to modern Russia and achieves results that easily rival the quality and impact of the original. Putting his ‘cross-section of society’ jury in a school gymnasium, and intercutting the men’s various takes on the crime with flashbacks to the accused boy’s childhood in the Chechnya war, the film is startling in its currency and completely original in spite of being a re-make. A great film by a true master.


(500) DAYS OF SUMMER – By presenting a young couples’ doomed relationship using William S. Burroughs’ “Cut Up” technique, first time director Marc Webb may not re-invent the romantic comedy, but he certainly breathes unexpected new life into it. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel play the charming couple whose 500-day relationship gives the film its title, and they both give wonderful, grounded performances that elevate the movie even higher. Like young love, 500 Days Of Summer breaks your heart a little, but it also fills it with joy and hope.


UP IN THE AIR – I’m not going to go on and on about how good this Jason Reitman film is: you’ve heard all the hyperbole. I will say it’s a smooth, funny, very well acted picture that’s both classic in feel and current in theme. An excellent comedy/drama; sharply written and expertly directed.


DISTRICT 9 / AVATAR – I’m combining these two very different sci-fi films because they have something significant in common: they are both extremely flawed, yet still have enough going for them to earn a place among the year’s top movies. District 9 starts out brilliantly, as a ‘mockumentary’ about alien refugees in a Johannesburg ghetto. The first hour is as original a film as you’re likely to see and its political metaphor is both biting and smart. Sadly, the film abandons its own gimmick, settles into standard action flick territory, and loses a huge amount of weight. By the final showdown with a giant robot suit, I got the feeling that I was watching a film that’s been almost completely compromised.

And speaking of giant robot suits, the ending of AVATAR is very similar both in terms of hardware and in terms of undermining some of its preceding brilliance. In Avatar, the brilliance comes mainly in the visual variety; this is one of the most stunning films I've ever seen... especially in 3D. Unfortunately, the characters and the story are not in 3D. There’s no denying James Cameron’s incredible technical achievement; he really has ushered in a new era in filmmaking. And beyond that, Cameron has a deep understanding of how to integrate special effects in ways that are organic to the story. Sadly his writing skills have grown incredibly stale. The film moves from one cliché to the next until it becomes almost laughable. Add some hokey use of music and a total lack of three-dimensional characters and you end up with a severely flawed film. Yet, as pure movie going experiences, both District 9 and AVATAR are amazing and deserve acknowledgement.


STAR TREK - Almost a direct opposite of Avatar and District 9, JJ Abrams’ STAR TREK re-boot offers very little by way of originality, but serves it all up with high energy, humor and excitement. Recasting the original Enterprise crew with a sharp, charismatic young cast, Star Trek accomplishes something very rare in big Summer movies: it nails its target perfectly. Sure, the plot makes very little sense (especially anything having to do with the Romulans), but none of that matters because virtually every moment of the film is filled with wonder, adventure and optimism. And that’s exactly what Gene Roddenberry intended. The years best ‘Popcorn Movie’.


A SERIOUS MAN – The Coen Brothers’ most personal film and their funniest in years. Closest in tone to Barton Fink, but with an autobiographical, Yiddish twist. A Serious Man plays out the biblical story of Job in a deadpan, Buster Keaton style. It’s funny, thoughtful stuff with a typically Jewish punch line: If you think you have it bad now?, it could always get worse.


THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG – After years of increasingly bad CG Animation, seeing this was like a breath of fresh air. I loved every minute of this classic 2D retelling of the old fairy tale. If you’ve been waiting for a film to sit on the shelf next to Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast… the wait is over. Here it is. Vintage Disney animation and a new classic.


GOMORRAH – A cross between City Of God and Traffic, Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah tracks the poisonous effects of institutionalized crime on modern Neapolitan society. The film, shot in a dead-pan neo-realist style, is unlike any traditional gangster film; completely sidestepping the intrinsic romanticism of the genre in favor of showing the corrosive power of crime and the blurring of lines between criminals and citizens. Don’t expect satisfying resolutions, but this film will stick in your brain for a long time.


LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – May be the best film I’ve seen all year: this Swedish vampire flick makes all the other vampire movies this year seem silly by comparison. Director Tomas Alfredson creates a creepy landscape around Oskar, the brutalized 12-year old protagonist who falls in love with Eli, an ancient bloodsucker in a body of a 12-year old girl. Original, austere and genuinely disturbing LET THE RIGHT ONE IN infuses new blood into a genre that has been (ahem!) undead for decades. A must see.


Better Than You Were Led To Believe:

THE WATCHMEN – The extended DVD cut is the way to go here. A longer, more detailed version improves on many of the problems I had with the theatrical release (read my full review). It’s still far from a perfect adaptation, but it holds up well on repeated viewings thanks to the density and the minutia Director Zack Snyder brings to the table. And though it’s wildly uneven, Watchmen has moments of movie magic and pure brilliance that I’d put up against anything I’ve seen this year.


I LOVE YOU MAN – 2009’s best comedy. This ‘bromance’ starring the always reliable Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, is very funny, but also balanced and true to its characters. I liked the way director John Hamburg actually tells a story instead of piling jokes one on top of the other. I Love You Man works as a film and that’s not an easy task to pull off. I loved it.


PUBLIC ENEMIES – Michael Mann’s take on the depression era folk hero John Dillinger is tight, engaging, and has a sense of immediacy very rare in most action films these days. Johnny Depp gives a solid performance and I was surprised by how effective the digital cinematography was to the overall experience. A good film that’ll hold up very well on home video, though as far as Dillinger bio-pics go, I still prefer the John Milius DILLINGER with Warren Oats from 1973.


IN THE LOOP – I was initially put off by the shaky-cam aesthetic of this broad political satire from director Armando Iannucci. But as it progressed, I got hooked by the sharply profane script and the terrific cast that includes David Rasche, Steve Coogan, and the always awesome James Gandolfini. Sure it feels a bit like the British Office, but the inside look at the political jockeying in the run-up to the Iraq War is completely original and relentlessly clever. And one more thing: In The Loop is consistently hilarious, especially if you enjoy English ‘humour’ of the driest variety.


FUNNY PEOPLE – There was so much to like about Judd Apatow’s character study that I can almost forgive a weak 3rd act, in which Apatow basically creates a trite and unnecessary subplot for his wife. Both Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen do some of their best work here and the writing is often hilarious, but that 3rd act really sabotages the picture and the whole thing (like most Apatow’s films) is about 30 minutes too long. Good rental.


TERMINATOR: SALVATION – I had no desire to see this prequel to the Terminator films and judging by the weak box office, few people did. So going in with extremely low expectations, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story of how John Connor met Kyle Reese. The action is solid and intense, the references to the previous Terminator films are clever, and the performances (especially by Avatar’s Sam Worthington, who’s the literal ‘heart’ of the story) are uniformly strong. Most surprising of all though, is the degree to which Director McG succeeds in making this post-apocalyptic combat film, feel like a real Terminator movie.


CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE – Mark Naveldine and Brian Taylor’s sequel to a wacked out original from ’06, is one of the stupidest, most offensive films I’ve seen in a long time. But if one is willing to accept the fact that that’s exactly what it means to be, Crank 2 can be a whole lot of fun. Watch it with a big grain of salt.

GI JOE – The epitome of brainless fun. I won’t waste your time with faint praise, but if you ever catch this on cable, you may be surprised by how goofily enjoyable this cartoon adaptation actually is.


PUNISHER: WAR ZONE – Ignored by audiences and crucified by critics, this 3rd attempt to bring Marvel Comics’ vigilante psycho to the big screen is easily the best; though that’s not saying much. What I can say is that PUNISHER: WAR ZONE is a surprisingly solid shoot-‘em-up that harkens to the genre’s ‘80s glory days. Director Lexi Alexander isn’t trying to re-invent the wheel here, but she succeeds admirably at making a solid B-level action film that also gives us The Punisher that feels right.


BRUNO – Is it as good as Borat? No. Does it replay the same joke over and over again? Sure. Did I laugh my butt off? You bet.



Not As Good As Should Have Been:

WOLVERINE - If it is possible to consider fictional characters as personal friends, then Wolverine and the original crew of the starship Enterprise would certainly qualify. It’s an interesting coincidence that two of this summer’s biggest films, released within a week of one another, highlight these exact characters and their origins. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is an example of how not to do it. I’ve always liked Hugh Jackman as an actor, but he’s a weak Wolverine and this is a weak film; giving an origin story to a character least in need of an origin. The comic book Wolverine always worked best as a mysterious figure with a shadowy past. Now that they’ve given him a back-story, Wolverine’s mystique has been completely drained, leaving nothing but an empty tank top.


THE BAD LIEUTENANT: N.O. - First of all, why is it called The Bad Lieutenant?, since it has nothing to do with the Abel Ferrara original from ’92. Second, the Lieutenant, as played by the predictably wacky Nicholas Cage, is not actually that bad, just severely drug crazed. Director Warner Herzog brings some surrealist touches and stages several very strong scenes, but none of it really adds up to anything and the film plays like a much too basic crime drama. I did like the ending, though, and would strongly recommend this film to anyone who has ever liked the work of Warner Herzog.


THE HANGOVER – Not bad, by any means. I just didn’t laugh all that much. Maybe it was me or maybe it was a generational thing (though my parents loved it). Either way, I judge my comedies on how much I laugh, so here we are.


UP – Don’t hate me, but I just wasn’t that enamored with this latest bit of Pixar ‘critic nip’. Sure I wept like a baby in the first 10 minutes, but once the film settled into its main storyline, I found myself strangely disconnected from the characters and the action. It’s probably better than Cars, but not by much.


ADVENTURELAND – One would think that a movie about a Lou Reed obsessed Liberal Arts geek coming of age in the mid ‘80s would be right up my alley. Not so much, actually. Greg Matolla’s follow-up to Superbad isn’t a bad film, just a very bland one; light on both ideas and laughs. And it feels slight even on the small screen.


THE INTERNATIONAL – Another example of a film that’s not aggressively bad, just inconsequential. Director Tom Tykwer tries to tap into our anti-Big Bank sentiment with this spy thriller, and comes up way short on thrills. Clive Owen broods a lot, but never finds a character that I related to, and the film just lumbers along without ever finding a voice or even a single sequence that stayed with me for more than 5 minutes. And the big action set piece at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, that’s supposed to be so impressive, is actually just plain silly; a transplant from the Transformer movies, plopped in the middle of what’s - up to that point - a ‘serious’ geo-political drama.


 
Crap:

THE PROPOSAL – Considering that I like both Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, I was actually surprised by how much I loathed this cliché ridden piece of hokum. Not funny, romantic or even a little amusing, you should turn this proposal down.


2012 – Another serving of ‘apocalyptic porn’ from the genre’s reigning king, Roland Emmerich. And if you thought The Day After Tomorrow was lame, wait until you see this turkey. Not even the usually crowd-pleasing scenes of mass annihilation make any sense here… and all the performances are uniformly terrible. I was actively rooting for everybody to die and, in this too, I was disappointed.


PLANET 51 – A one-joke movie. And the joke isn’t funny. This is the kind of computer animated garbage that our kids are subjected to on a monthly basis, and I’m just sick of it.


TWILIGHT – Simplistic, predictable, and painfully boring; Twilight made tons of money but brought nothing new to the vampire genre. On top of that, I felt zero chemistry between stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, whose longing glances compiled a solid 20 minutes of the film’s running time. By the time it reached its silly final showdown, I wanted to drive a stake through my own heart.


DUPLICITY – I hated this film so much, that I had to stop watching it. That’s right! I admit that I didn’t watch the whole thing. And I don’t care. It’s almost stunning that a collection of talent like director Tony Gilroy, stars Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, and Paul Giamatti (!), can end up with a film this awful, but they did. How? Well, first of all the script sucks. Second, the pacing is way off: this should be a snappy battle of wits instead of a repetitive collection of scenes strung together with no feeling for a greater whole. Third, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen have zero chemistry. Zero (I know, I know… CLOSER was great, but that film was not about chemistry). And I’ll even go a step further and ask: what the hell is wrong with Julia Roberts, anyway? She’s been consistently terrible lately and I’m sick of her half-baked performances in film after film. And based on her recent track record, I’m not the only one who feels this way. But back to Duplicity… did I mention that I hated it?


On DVD:

TRANSSIBERIAN – Director Brad Anderson (The Machinist) brings his inner Hitchcock to a tightly wound thriller set (and shot) on the Trans Siberian railway. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play an American couple using travel to save their marriage. Obviously things go very bad, but in a unique and fairly shocking manner. In fact, there was very little I was able to predict in this suspenseful story where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem. And while we’re in Russia…


1612 – I found this Russian historical epic/ fantasy adventure charming and highly entertaining. Director Vladimir Khotinenko is playing comfortably in a ‘Hollywood epic’ sandbox, but he also imbues 1612 with a wild sense of adventure and a good deal of humor. Ultimately, the film is too much of a mixed bag; trying to cram history, fantasy, homage to everything from Lord Of The Rings to Zorro, and a good deal of nationalistic propaganda into a film that feels bloated and overly long (even though it’s only a little over 2 hours). Still, 1612 is a very fun ride and, in its own way, as exotic as all those Chinese period pieces seemed a decade ago.


THE WOLVES –From 1971, Hideo Gosha’s little-seen gangster masterpiece should be appreciated for two reasons. First, it stars the great Tatsuya Nakadai at the height of his game. Second, The Wolves with its 1920’s setting and the blending of the Samurai and the Yakuza genres is one hell of an entertaining picture. Surprisingly witty, brilliantly convoluted, engaging and beautifully acted. And though I know it represents a popular sub-genre of the Yakuza cinema, and contains most of its conventions, The Wolves feels fresh and original. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.


LA HAINE – French director Mathieu Kassovitz’s stylish and sharp socio/political diatribe from ’95 is easily his best film. A story of 3 ‘multi-cultural’ friends out to avenge their buddy’s brutal murder at the hands of the police feels like a cross between Jim Jarmusch and Gillo Pontecorvo; and the cast, that includes Saïd Taghmaoui and Vincent Cassel, is uniformly excellent. Sure, its politics are often silly and dated, but La Haine is a raw and wonderfully artistic film I was glad to discover.


BODY OF LIES – A fairly sobering and occasionally breathtaking spy film that focuses on the Terror War’s secret battlefields. Director Ridley Scott knows how to direct both the action and the actors and here, he creates a Middle Eastern environment that’s far more believable than in films like The Kingdom. Leo DeCaprio and Russell Crowe are both terrific, but Mark Strong as the head of Jordanian intelligence, steals the movie. A good action flick as well as a smart and even insightful examination of a conflict most of us don’t fully understand.


KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (THE DIRECTOR’S CUT) - I had some major issues with the theatrical release of Kingdom Of Heaven. With its 'thin' hero, an excessive attention paid to political correctness, and a plot that barely made sense, Ridley Scott's film was a choppy mess. Now we know why. The studio forced him to cut a whole hour of the sprawling epic, and this basically destroyed the film's integrity. Thankfully, Scott seems to be one of the few directors in Hollywood who has the pull to 're-visit' his old films and release them on DVD in a form that he finds satisfactory. And while I'm often critical of re-editing existing art, in this case the second-guessing is both justified and worth the effort. The Director's cut of Kingdom Of Heaven is so much better than the theatrical cut, it basically represents another film altogether. Addressing almost every problem I had, this 3-hour version is thoughtful, sprawling and genuinely epic. And though it's still hard to categorize Orlando Bloom's performance as a success, it's filled out in ways that certainly give his character motivation and gravity he was sorely missing before. Of course, the real star here is Ridley Scott with his amazing visual style and attention to period detail; given room to breathe, the film delves into plot-points and ideas that work to shore up gaping holes in the narrative that essentially destroyed the theatrical cut. Kingdom Of Heaven, in this new version, is a movie that engulfs you in its beauty and majesty and demands to be re-evaluated. It's a terrific film!


MIAMI VICE (THE EXTENDED CUT) – Again, when revisiting Michael Mann’s ’06 film version of his ‘80s TV series in this ‘extended edition’, I found a lot I liked about the film. This cut, of course, is not nearly as extensively different as Kingdom Of Heaven, just some extended scenes and a new opening. Yet the new, more leisurely pace works very well here; accentuating the detail of Mann’s very specific vision and creating a sense of place and paranoia that struck me with far more impact. Or maybe it just plays better on the small screen. Either way, Miami Vice is a better film than I originally gave it credit for.


I’d also like to give a special note of thanks to Netflix for making sure I’m unable to complete my list in a timely fashion. Since I’m a non-professional film critic and have neither the time nor the finances to see every film that hits the screen, I’m aware that there are several fine films that I have not included on this list (The Hurt Locker for example). And though some of these pictures have been on DVD for at least a month, Netflix refuses to ship them to me without subjecting me to a “long wait” or even the dreaded “very long wait”. Thanks again, Netflix; I guess my 8 years of loyal membership doesn’t entitle me to timely rental.





ã Andre Shane 2010