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Re: Our Top 10 of 2009

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:29 pm
by koook160
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. An Education
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Up
6. Moon
7 In the Loop
8. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Saphire
9. District 9
10. Crazy Heart

Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:33 pm
by Hollywood Z
1. Inglorious Basterds
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Up in the Air
4. Up
5. Moon
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. District 9
8. (500) Days of Summer
9. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
10. Avatar

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:26 pm
by Damien
My Take On 2009:

4 Stars:

1. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
3. Flame and Citron (Ole Christian Madsen)
4. The Sun (Alexander Sukorov)
5. (500) Days Of Summer (Marc Webb)
6. The Beaches Of Agnes (Agnes Varda)

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3½ Stars:

7. Il Divo (Paolo Sorentino)
8. The Road (John Hillcoat)
9. Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)
10. Up In The Air (Jason Reitman)
11. 35 Shots Of Rum (Claire Denis)
12. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
13. New Moon (Chris Weitz)
14. Me And Orson Welles (Richard Linklater)
15. Two Lovers (James Grey)
16. Séraphine (Martin Prost)

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3 Stars:

17. The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
18. Mammoth (Lukas Moodysson)
19. Song Of Sparrows (Majid Majidi)
20. The Young Victoria (Jean-Marc Vallee)
21. Bruno (Larry Charles)
22. Bright Star (Jane Campion)
23. Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire (Lee Daniels)
24. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
25. A Single Man (Tom Ford)
26. The International (Tom Tykwer)
27. Sin Nombre (Cary Joji Fukunaga)
28. The Men Who Stare At Goats (Grant Heslov)
29. World’s Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwaite)
30. The Messenger (Oren Moverman)
31. Rembrandt’s J’Accuse (Peter Greenaway
32. Brothers (Jim Sheridan)
33. The Yes Men Fix The World (The Yes Men)
34. Invictus (Clint Eastwood)
35. Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron)
36. Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper)
37. Rudo y Cursi (Carlos Cuarón)
38. Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Betty Thomas)
39. He’s Just Not That Into You (Ken Kwapis)

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2½ Stars:

40. The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson)
41. Hunger (Steve McQueen)
42. Inglourious Besterds (Quentin Tarantino)
43. Avatar (James Cameron)
44. Duplicity (Tony Gilroy)
45. Paris (Cedric Klapisch)
46. Is Anybody There? (John Crowley)
47. An Education (Lone Scherfig)
48. The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh)
49. Gomorra (Matteo Garrone)
50. Julia (Erick Zonca)
51. The Last Station – Michael Hoffman
52. Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
53. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)
54. Coco Before Chanel (Anne Fontaine)

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2 Stars:

55. Staten Island (James DeMonaco)
56. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
57. Lorna’s Silence (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
58. Coraline (Henry Selik)
59. A Haunting In Connecticut (Peter Cornwall)
60. Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
61. Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi)
62. Gigantic (Mark Aselton)
63. Notorious (George Tillman)
64. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (Paul Weitz)
65. Moon (Duncan Jones)
66. A Serious Man (Coens)
67. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Steve Carr)
68. Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani)
69. Nine (Rob Marshall)

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1½ Stars:

70. The Blind Side (John Lee Hancock)
71. Where The Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
72. That Evening Sun (Scott Teems)
73. Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
74. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)

Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:56 am
by Precious Doll
Film Comment ran their annual readers poll of the best films of the year. Here are the results for 2009:

1. The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow, U.S. (1) 1398
2. Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino, U.S./Germany (7) 1230
3. A Serious Man Joel & Ethan Coen, U.S./U.K./France (8) 929
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson, U.S. (5) 861
5. Summer Hours Olivier Assayas, France (3) 724
6. The White Ribbon Michael Haneke, Austria/Germany/France/Italy (12) 682
7. Up Peter Docter & Bob Peterson, U.S. (23) 664
8. Up in the Air Jason Reitman, U.S. (28) 657
9. The Headless Woman Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Spain/France/Italy (2) 587
10. Where the Wild Things Are Spike Jonze, U.S. (22) 488
11. Bright Star Jane Campion, U.K./Australia/France (15) 484
12. Avatar James Cameron, U.S. (—) 459
13. Hunger Steve McQueen, U.K. (42) 446
14. 35 Shots of Rum Claire Denis, France/Germany (4) 441
15. Coraline Henry Selick, U.S. (19) 440
16. District 9 Neill Blomkamp, U.S./New Zealand (41) 425
17. Public Enemies Michael Mann, U.S. (21) 423
18. An Education Lone Scherfig, U.K. (24) 408
19. Adventureland Greg Mottola, U.S. (32) 385
20. Antichrist Lars von Trier, Denmark/Germany/France/Sweden/Italy/Poland (20) 376
21. Police, Adjective Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania (6) 369
22. In the Loop Armando Iannucci, U.K. (17) 355
23. The Limits of Control Jim Jarmusch, U.S./Japan (13) 341
24. (500) Days of Summer Marc Webb, U.S. (—) 340
25. Two Lovers James Gray, U.S. (16) 311
26. Lorna's Silence Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France/Italy/Germany (10) 304
27. Star Trek J.J. Abrams, U.S. (—) 303
28. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Werner Herzog, U.S. (34) 302
29. The Beaches of Agnès Agnès Varda, France (9) 301
30. Drag Me to Hell Sam Raimi, U.S. (45) 293
31. Broken Embraces Pedro Almodóvar, Spain (30) 291
32. Sin Nombre Cary Fukunaga, Mexico/U.S. (—) 286
33. Gomorrah Matteo Garrone, Italy (—) 279
34. A Single Man Tom Ford, U.S. (47) 251
35. The Road John Hillcoat, U.S. (—) 250
36. Goodbye Solo Ramin Bahrani, U.S. (50) 238
37. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire Lee Daniels, U.S. (48) 235
38. Sugar Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, U.S. (—) 229
39. The Informant! Steven Soderbergh, U.S. (35) 216
40. Still Walking Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan (26) 204
41. Tokyo Sonata Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong (44) 201
42. Moon Duncan Jones, U.K. (—) 197
43. Tulpan Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany/Switzerland/Kazakhstan/Russia/Poland (18) 173
44. You, the Living Roy Andersson, Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark/Norway/Japan (40) 166
45. Crazy Heart Scott Cooper, U.S. (—) 159
46. Thirst Park Chan-wook, South Korea/U.S. (—) 156
47. The Messenger Oren Moverman, U.S. (39) 152
48. Julia Erick Zonca, France/U.S./Mexico/Belgium (—) 148
49. 24 City Jia Zhangke, China/Hong Kong/Japan (11) 145
50. Invictus Clint Eastwood, U.S. (—) 139

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:44 pm
by abcinyvr
Ten Favorite Films, 2009

1 Avatar
2 At The Edge Of The World
3 Quiet Chaos
4 Welcome To The Sticks
5 Adoration
6 A Single Man
7 Waltz With Bashir
8 Red Cliff
9 Up
10 C'est Pas Moi, Je Le Jure

Top Ten Vancouver International Film Festival 2009 viff.org

1 At The Edge Of The World
2 Quiet Chaos (Italy)
3 Home
4 Shameless (Czech Republic)
5 Facing Ali (Canada)
6 Cow - China
7 Cedar Boys (Australia)
8 Eyes Wide Open (Israel)
9 Mammoth (Sweden)
10 Mother (South Korea)

Best Screenplay: Adoration

Best Performances:
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Julianne Moore - A Single Man
Emma Thompson - The Boat That Rocked
Mo"Nique - Precious
Marion Cotillard - NINE
Hal Holbrook - That Evening Sun

Biggest Waste of My Time: The Hangover

Best non-2009 Movies:
"The Apu Trilogy"
Bicycle Thieves
Talk To Her




Edited By abcinyvr on 1263690251

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:43 am
by Eric
alphabetically; not necessarily the best, but most "notable" ...

Antichrist
The Beaches of Agnes
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglourious Basterds
Julia
Silent Light
Summer Hours
The Sun
Tetro
Two Lovers

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:30 am
by Franz Ferdinand
So far and definitely not definitive.

1. The Hurt Locker
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Goodbye Solo
4. District 9
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Avatar
7. Coraline
8. Up
9. Star Trek
10. Up in the Air

Whoa, that filled up quicker than I expected....

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:57 pm
by Zahveed
That golden era of animated shorts was fantastic. You don't get that kind of director-driven work these days.



Edited By Zahveed on 1263477993

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:46 pm
by OscarGuy
I was meaning Animated Features. I mean Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline and The Princess and the Frog, all with flaws, but all among the best films of the year...it's not a common occurrence.

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:25 pm
by rain Bard
Restrict it to feature-length films and I might be convinced. But if you open it up to short films as well, it's pretty hard to compete with the cartoons made in practically any given year of the World War II era, when the Warner Brothers, MGM, and Walter Lantz studios were at their peak, and Disney, the Fleischer Brothers, and even the low-budget Terrytoons were turning out quality work. George Pal was making great stop-motion Puppettoons (with the help of Ray Harryhausen), and folks like Oskar Fischinger and Harry Smith were experimenting with avant-garde forms of animation.



Edited By rain Bard on 1263407152

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:06 pm
by Zahveed
OscarGuy wrote:I'm not above declaring this the greatest year in animation history.
I'll have to agree with you there. I wouldn't say these are the best films animation has to offer but there is so much variety and the excellent:horrible ratio leans towards the former that it gives some credibility back to a whoring artform. Traditional animation makes a modest comeback, PIXAR releases another gem, mainstream CG blockbusters veer toward the odd and somewhat original, and two cult-inducing stop-motion films were released with critical adoration.

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:20 am
by OscarGuy
So far...made it halfway through Summer Hours and got interrupted and haven't had time to get back to it yet. Maybe this weekend. And, as always, subject to change.

1. District 9
2. (500) Days of Summer
3. The Messenger
4. Up
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. The Stoning of Soraya M
7. Up in the Air
8. Coraline
9. Where the Wild Things Are
10. A Serious Man (the world has indeed come to an end)

Honorable Mentions:
The Princess and the Frog, The Hurt Locker, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Avatar

I'm not above declaring this the greatest year in animation history.

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:38 am
by ITALIANO
Mmm... Maybe it's me, but when a movie makes BOTH Sabin's and Big Magilla's (very respectable) Ten Best lists, how shall I put it, I feel like there's something very wrong there. I also feel like, unfortunately, a Best Picture Oscar might be closer than I thought. And no, I'm not talking about In the Loop or Summer Hours.

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:08 am
by Zahveed
I wouldn't say that these characters, or caricatures, were exactly the kind of people I've been around, but that I've lived with bizarre people I can relate them too in some way. Me and my wife have a one year old, almost two, so her pregnancy is still fresh in our collective memory. We both have families that are dysfunctional in some way (mine divorced, hers hate each other) and parental "role models" that come off as too preachy or too lenient.

I found the ending to be less isolation and more, "this is the family we were looking for all along. They just don't happen to alive anymore," which is more bittersweet than full on happy ending but it isn't entirely negative either.

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:37 pm
by FilmFan720
My wife and I just finished this, and I'm going to fall somewhere in the middle here. I agree that the other couple ring false a lot, and there is too much cardboard writing going on around the couples, and how their lives are so wrong (are any of those lifestyles horrible? no).

We both had a strong emotional resonance with Krasinski and Rudolph's characters, although this could be one of those examples of the right film at the right time. The fact that we are in the exact same state of life (down to the month) as this couple meant that everything the two of them went through had that extra moment of truth. We have had many of these same conversations, and I think the screenplay captures their emotional journey perfectly, even if it can't seem to get their physical journey right.

As for the ending, I thought it was much more positive than Sabin makes it out to be. They aren't choosing a life of isolation (I can't imagine them shutting the world out), but instead realize that they do not have to rely on others to show them how to be parents. They spend the whole film looking for people to model themselves after, but the truth is that they have already found them. All they have to do is use what they have in them and that is all they need. All of these parents are merely raising their kids through their own ethos, and whether right or wrong their children will mirror their parents to an extent. Rudolph obviously had a wonderful childhood, and by returning to where she was raised they can start their own wonderful parenthood.