Here’s my 10 favorite movies from last year. As always I have this disclaimer: there are quite a few movies from 2009 I haven’t seen yet that have potential to make this list (a few that come to mind: Passing Strange, A Serious Man, Up in the Air, Precious, Invictus…should I go on?) If I feel this list needs major revision, I’ll post a second version later on – probably by June. Click on the movie title to read my original review.
1. The Hurt Locker
Kathryn Bigelow’s action meditation on the thrills and perils of war is perhaps the first Iraq War film you really ought to see. Eschewing the politics of the conflict and the conflict of politics, Bigelow instead focuses on the work of a bomb unit, whose job it is to find, identify and defuse all the improvised, cleverly placed, sloppily constructed, incredibly dangerous roadside, suicide, and sundry bombs that make this war different from any other. Jeremy Renner plays the team leader, a confident – some would say reckless – bomb defuser who can’t imagine anywhere he’d rather be more than inside a blast suit. His interactions with his team – the careful, by-the-book Sanborn, and the scared, eager to please Eldridge — are never trite or predictable, making this a character study as much as an action flick and war movie.
2. Up
Pixar does it again. I’m not sure how it is watching “Up” as a child, but as a grownup, it is all the right kinds of heartbreaking. The story of a crotchety old man who embarks on a crazy adventure mostly because he is nearly driven mad with grief over the death of his wife (wait – this is a kid’s movie?) “Up” mixes the zany and adventurous (talking dogs, exotic birds, South America) with the heartfelt, warm, and endearing in nearly perfect porportions. Your kids will beg you to watch this one with them, and then you’ll beg your kids to watch it with you.
3. An Education
This one caught me by surprise. A fairly simple story – about a wide-eyed young girl who finds herself seduced by a worldly wise older man – is made rich, profound and deeply enjoyable by nuanced performances from Alfred Molina(as the girl’s father) and Peter Sarsgaard (as her suitor.) In the end, I think it’s more about were family intersects with society than it is about seduction or betrayal. “A young girl gets wowed by an older man, that happens all the time, but you, where were you? You should know better!” she yells at her parents. All they can do is look at their shoes.
4. Coraline
Henry Selick’s stop motion animation feature was the first movie that really begged to be seen in 3-D. The creator of “Nightmare Before Christmas” brought us a creepy, profound, deeply layered and absolutely gorgeous picture about a prickly girl who finds a portal to another world, where her parents are everything she ever wanted them to be…and want more from her than she’s willing to give. True, it’s no “Cinderella,” but don’t underestimate your kids’ ability to parse its creepiness… I think writer Neil Gaiman successfully taps into the deeper, quieter fears and insecurities of kids at the age when they discover their parents are actual human beings, warts and all.
5. Julia
Erick Zonca’s crime thriller turns the whole genre on its head, by giving us a heroine/villain who really needs a plan, but doesn’t have one. Good thing Tilda Swinton’s in the title role, or this would be a hapless train wreck. Instead, it’s absolutely riveting. Swinton plays a recovering alcoholic who dives headfirst into a kidnapping plot, making everything up as she goes. This could easily play as comedy; a sure handed director and stunning star make it fascinating, engaging and entertaining. There are few movies any more in which I don’t have some idea what’s going to happen next; “Julia” was full of surprises.
6. Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus is an essay about film, entertainment, history, and wish fulfillment. Like most Tarantino films, the more you know about film, the more you’ll enjoy it, probably. This alternate take on World War II, in which the Jews win (forget the Allies,) is uneven in pace, messy in plot and all over the place in tone, but it’s so brimming with ideas, statements, great little scenes, perfect shots, and intimate and terrifying moments that it is worth watching twice – or ten times – just to see what you missed last time around.
7. Goodbye Solo
Ramin Bahrani makes nearly perfect little films about people on the edges of society, and “Goodbye Solo” is his best yet. Red West is a dour old man looking to end his life, and Souleymane Sy Savane is the ebullient taxi driver he hires to take him for his final ride. The amazing things about Bahrani’s films are that, while they are about marginalized people– almost always immigrants in big city settings – they are never the least bit sentimental, overly serious or pretentious. “Goodbye Solo” is a vivid portrait of two men, at two different stages in life, and the peculiar relationship that evolves between them. It is a joy to watch film this closely observed and perfectly handled.
8. The Informant!
I don’t think Steven Soderbergh or Matt Damon realized just how much this film would be a perfect document for the times we’re living in. The story of a mid-level corporate executive who turns informant on his multinational corporation, “The Informant!” just grows darker and funnier as it goes. Damon’s character starts as a do-gooder and conscience-stricken whistle blower, but turns out to be so engaged in unethical practices that his testimony is worthless to the FBI. In this age of golden parachutes, bank bailouts and million dollar corporate exec vacations, Soderbergh shows us who our “heroes” are: men with such a confused sense of ethics and morality that they hardly even know anymore when they’re doing wrong. Hooboy.
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
As grand and funny and wonderful as they can be, there’s always been something slightly off about Wes Anderson’s films, and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” shows us what that something is: the characters have been played by real people, when they should have been portrayed by puppets. Finally, Anderson’s terse and verbose dialogue, conflicted and comical characters feel natural and believable. “Fox” is Anderson’s best movie to date, an antic rumination on family, community, marriage, and chicken thieving.
10. Duplicity
Believe it or not, the funniest scene of the year wasn’t in a Judd Apatow comedy, wasn’t played Seth Rogen or Michael Cera, and didn’t involve battery-operated underwear. It was the opening credits sequence of “Duplicity,” where we watch–in hyper slow motion — as Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson throw down on an airport tarmac. The rest of the movie — about corporate spies Clive Owen and Julia Roberts playing and getting played by each other — wasn’t nearly as funny as that first few minutes, but it was nonetheless clever, fast-paced, ironic, and utterly entertaining. Director Tony Gilroy is responsible for the scripts to all three Bourne movies, “Michael Clayton” (and…um, “Armageddon.” Ok, we’ll give him a pass for that one.) With the sly and sharp “Duplicity” he adds his name to my “must-watch” list.
A few that just missed the cut:
-Star Trek
-Moon
-Sugar
-Drag Me to Hell
91. The Band’s Visit
It was the decade of the documentary, and while Michael Moore may have grabbed more attention pseudo-sports flicks about lovable losers like “Spellbound” and “King of Kong” proved themselves more watchable — and, ultimately, memorable. Following eight kids from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, as they prepare for the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C., “Spellbound” gives us plenty to love — you might find yourself rooting for a different kid every time you watch it. And director Jeff Blitz recognized that the somewhat pedestrian act of spelling a word correctly becomes a nail-biting affair when done in competition. “Spellbound”’s certainly one of the best documentaries of the decade, and it might be one of the best sports movies of the decade as well.
“Battle Royale” may well be the ultimate cult movie of the decade; for years, there was incredible buzz about it: it was referenced in Quentin Tarantino films and Flaming Lips concerts, but it was impossible to see, outside of secret midnight viewings, illegal bootleg copies, and occasional film festival viewings. There was even a (false) rumor, for a while, that it was banned in the United States.
Rating: 
I don’t think anyone had as much impact on the way action movies were made in the 21st century as Paul Greengrass did. (Okay, maybe Michael Bay. But I’m talking about positive impact.) And his many imitators have shown that his style is anything but easy to duplicate: the action scenes in the last two Bourne movies are both smart and frenetic, immediate and intense without ever being confusing or bewildering. You always know where you are in a Greengrass action sequence, and given that he films primarily with handhelds, that’s saying something. Something I can’t say about Michael Bay’s action sequences.
