Another year has come and gone and with it some great movies and as always some real crap. 2009 brought us mutants, space travelers, heroes, aliens, ninjas and even normal people all trying to tell their story for your enjoyment. Recently the box office enjoyed the best weekend it’s ever had and all of this in the midst of a recession. When Crave Online asked me to drum up my best and worst movies of the past year it took some real effort to whittle down both lists. It seems for every incredible movie that came out there were two absolute suckfests right behind it.
Before we get started let me set a few things straight. These are the movies I felt really were really special or especially bad this year. Some will be shocked that Avatar and Sherlock Holmes aren’t on there, same with Harry Potter or The Lovely Bones. It wasn’t that I didn’t consider them but at the end of the day they didn’t really generate any reaction from me at all. These weren’t good or bad films; I have no real interest in things that don’t inspire me with either love or hate.
So without further ado here are my picks for the ten best movies of 2009.
10. Star Trek:
I am not by nature a Star Trek fan however this look back at the first run of the USS Enterprise from JJ Abrams kicked a lot of ass. Abrams managed to remove all of the silliness of the original series and make this new vantage on Star Trek both exciting and dramatic. The casting was spot on, especially Chris Pine who was able to do the first Captain Kirk we could take seriously in….well…ever. I didn’t even mind the time travel sub-plot and those usually drive me insane. A great film all around and proof sci-fi films don’t have to rely only on effects.
09. Coraline:
A lot of people slept on this movie and a lot of people were dead wrong. This charming fairy tale involving a young girl who thinks she’s found another world that’s better than hers was the best stop motion animation film of its type since Nightmare Before Christmas. Using dark imagery without losing a whimsical nature Coraline showed the pains of being different without condescension and even managed to make the heavy actually scary. Mix that in with music by They Might Be Giants and you’ve got a film that blows The Corpse Bride right out of the water.
08. The Cove:
If you ever want to watch a film that will make you question our humanity then this is it. The Cove has been advertised as a documentary about the merciless and horrific slaughter of thousands of Dolphins each year within the walls of a cove in Taiji, Japan but in reality it’s so much more. The Cove also touches on the life of Ric O’Barry a dolphin trainer on the Flipper show who turned hardcore activist as well as an elite group of filmmakers who plan and execute a life and death nighttime mission to tape what goes on the cove. Within those three stories we also get a glimpse into the politics that are destroying our oceans as well as how all of this is poisoning humans in a way we didn’t expect. Riveting, well edited and informative The Cove will not only outrage you but may get you to give up seafood altogether.
07. 500 Days Of Summer:
I’m not usually one for romantic comedies mostly because they’re usually silly, sappy, stupid or all three. Not so with 500 Days Of Summer a film that plays out more like a Woody Allen movie back when he was still making good ones. I say that because while 500 Days is based in reality it allows just enough of the surreal to bring to life those feelings and images we all get when we’re in love that are usually reserved for our imagination. I loved how the film jumped around in time without becoming convoluted and I also felt the end was hopeful without being pandering. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s portrayal of lovesick Tom Hansen is both hysterical and melancholy while Zooey Deschanel’s flakey Summer is actually endearing instead of annoying. Some will write 500 Days Of Summer off as a silly chick flick but that’s their loss.
06. Up:
It was so nice to see Pixar return to form after the lackluster Cars, Ratatouie and the abysmal Wall-E (yeah I said it, sue me). Up had a great story, wonderful characters and a script that held the interest of both kids and adults. Pixar was also smart enough to allow Up to be a sweet and simple story instead of throwing in some kind of shtick like a talking rat that cooks or a robot based on Charlie Chaplin. Ed Asner’s elderly Carl Frederickson was funny, cranky and yet you loved him instantly. I dare anybody to watch the opening of story of Carl and his wife and not get teary eyed, or not to laugh at Wilderness Exlporer Russell or Dug the talking dog. This is going to be a Pixar film that falls in league with its classics like Finding Nemo or The Incredibles.
05. World’s Greatest Dad:
How I ended up being in love with a movie directed by Bobcat Goldwaith and starring Robins Wiliams (two performers I loathe) is beyond me but I’d be a damned liar if I didn’t say World’s Greatest Dad is one of the best black comedies I’ve seen in years. Just the premise of the film is so dark that I had to love it. Williams is really understated as the long suffering dad whose dreams of being a writer come to life after his fake suicide note catapults his dead son into the spotlight. It’s good to see Williams acting again instead of being “Robin Williams”. World’s Greatest Dad also features a first rate performance by Daryl Sabara’s as William’s horrible, sex-obsessed son. It also impressed me that Goldwaith kept the tone dark right until the end and never gave in to some kind of middle ground morality.
04. Where The Wild Things Are:
Where The Wild Things Are is a fascinating work because it succeeds even when it fails. In other words the failures of the film are like the holes in a boy's imagination so it plays right along with the entire fable by making it all seem like a story made up as it went along. Director Spike Jonze has created a film that doesn't feel like some adult movie wizard reproducing a child's fantasy nor does it feel like childhood remembered through the eyes of adults who tend to get overly nostalgic for it. This is childhood entirely through the eyes of a child with all the bumps, bruises, incredible creatures and confusing dark times that come with it. Though filled with monsters and forts Where The Wild Things Are is a more realistic movie about being a kid than any film in the last ten years.
03. The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus:
What makes Parnassus so good is how the script, direction and performances string together to form an unbreakable rope that weaves this elaborate tapestry and never let's it get out of control. Gilliam is so restrained in this film that when he does get to go off it becomes brilliant instead of over-the-top. This restraint allows him to place layer on top of layer from the script with out Parnassus becoming confusing or convoluted. With so much going on there is always a sharp focus on story so you never begin scratching your head wondering what the hell is going on. The performances here are also spot on, especially by the late Heath Ledger (Tony), newcomer Andrew Garfield (Anton) and Christopher Plummer (Doctor Parnassus). The Imagniarium of Doctor Parnassus announces in a big way that Terry Gilliam has back, not that he ever really left.
02. The Road:
I've heard some critics say that The Road is too bleak and too unforgiving and that there is no hope in the movie and still others balk that there's too much humanity at the end because of a dog (yep, that's what they said). While they argue for snob points they've missed the point. The Road is exactly what an adaptation should be, the perfect blending of the written word and the visual medium. This movie could not have been the book simply because it's a movie so all liberties taken were more out of necessity than marketing. The Road manages to keep all the intimacy and humanity of the novel against this visual backdrop that would swallow lesser material. The Road is the first film in a long time that reminds me how once upon a time film was an artistic medium that had the power to change the world.
01.The Hurt Locker:
It was hard for me to choose between The Hurt Locker and The Road as the best film of 2009 but in the end originality had to win over adaptation. Director Kathryn Bigelow’s stunning portrait of a young solider that becomes addicted to the drug of “war” while working as the team leader of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal is one of those movies that wastes nothing. No line of dialogue, not one scene, not one camera angle is wasted in telling this story. The Hurt Locker has the kind of edge-of-your-seat tension horror movies only dream of as well as a rich and deeply moving human story that pretty much blows all the other dramas this year out of the water. I wasn’t expecting this film to be a favorite because I don’t much care for war movies however this isn’t a war movie; this is the story of what war can do to the human soul told from a new and fresh vantage point. I applaud everybody involved with this movie and thank them for it.
