TOP FILMS OF 2009--updated 3/1/10

1. PRECIOUS--Nothing this year cut so deep, had so much raw tension and intensity, and yet became, in a strange way, a feel good movie. Six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress and Screenplay.*Please see my earlier PRECIOUS blog for more comments.*

2. A SERIOUS MAN--Takes Jewish angst to new and hilariously "everyman" heights. Now nominated for Best Picture and Screenplay Oscars. *See earlier A SERIOUS MAN blog for more comments.*

3. CHERRY BLOSSOMS--A smash hit during the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) session where it won best picture, this German/Japanese film by director Doris Dorrie played a short run earlier this year in Seattle. An aging couple with preoccupied adult children scattered around the world decide to visit them all with the final destination being Tokyo where their furthest flung son now lives. Of course, things don't go according to an ideal plan, but this moving film shows us how even in disappointment and tragedy and loneliness, life has many pleasures to offer us. A beautiful celebration of life.

4. SUMMER HOURS, a French film about the emotional and intellectual impact of executing the estate of a loved one.

5. DEPARTURES, a Japanese film about a young man who becomes a preparer of dead bodies, much to his shame and ultimate satisfaction in helping the living appreciate life--the preceding three films very happy and sad at the same time--watch these with a box of Kleenex handy. Please see March 1 blog for more info on SUMMER HOURS and DEPARTURES.

6. THE COVE--One of the best documentaries shown at the SIFF this year, this film plays like a very intense, very serious MISSION IMPOSSIBLE episode, but with a very powerful political agenda. A diverse group of skin-divers, camera men, advocates and politicos attempt to expose the wasteful and cruel slaughter of innocent dolphins in THE COVE in Japan--a world wide scandal being suppressed by the Japanese government with the cooperation of other nations. A very empowering film, and hopefully now that it has a well deserved Oscar nomination for best Documentary Film, this issue will receive greater world wide attention.

7. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS--Filled with many fine intense scenes that keep building to something--you don't know what is going to happen, or how it is going to happen, but the dread and suspense keep coming, and keep you riveted, and satisfy you, finally, with horrible violence or a shocking moment or a big laugh. Director/writer Quentin Tarintino's best film yet. This totally creative "anti-Nazi fantasy film" has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay.

8. UP--Creative, delightful and emotionally textured 3-D (although non-3-D is just as good) animated film from Disney and Pixar, this lovely, wacky gem has been nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Animated Picture, Screenplay, and for the likable musical score.

9. THE HANGOVER--Crude, lewd, and very funny, this adult comedy has the best laughs of the year, along with a wacky plot that unfolds like a murder mystery: What exactly, did happened last night?--with each revelation weirder than the last. What!!!!--no Oscar Nominations??!!???

10. A SINGLE MAN--Now nominated for Best Actor (Colin Firth), a moving and thoughtful "day in the life of" film with a lot of style and intrigue. *Please see my recent earlier blog of A SINGLE MAN for more info.*

11. BRIGHT STAR--A sensitive, subtle story of the unrealised and tragic love affair between poet John Keats and a neighbor woman, beautifully acted and filmed.

12. INVICTUS--Nominated for Best Actor (Morgan Freeman) and Best Supporting Actor (Matt Damon), this is an engrossing "based on true events" story by director Clint Eastwood. *See earlier blog of INVICTUS for more info.*

13. AVATAR--An unofficial remake of DANCES WITH WOLVES, except now set on another planet and featuring blue creatures instead of the Red man. The film impresses with thoughtful and wondrous special effects, and excellent technical achievements. Nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and 7 technical nominations. *See earlier AVATAR blog for more comments.*

14. BRONSON--Played at SIFF this year, but yet to open in Seattle, this is a stylish, actor driven, fascinating film based on a real life habitual criminal in Great Britain who has spent most of his adult life behind bars for various violent crimes including murder. Lead actor Tom Hardy is stunning. Watch for this film to play (probably briefly) this year.

15. UP IN THE AIR--Nominated for 6 Oscars included Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress X2 and Best Screenplay. *See previous UP IN THE AIR blog for more comments.*

16. EVERY LITTLE STEP--A suspenseful and entertaining documentary about the recent casting experience for a new Broadway version of A CHORUS LINE. It plays like an adult version of AMERICAN IDOL with drama, tears, twists, music and dancing.

17. DISTRICT 9--A sensational and lurid science-fiction film with many blood splattered moments, laughs, thrills and haunting themes including racism, prejudice, discrimination and political abuse. Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture(!?!), Adapted Screenplay and Best Visual Effects.

18. AN EDUCATION--Now nominated for 3 Oscars, including Best Picture, Screenplay and Actress (Carey Mullingan). *See previous AN EDUCATION blog for more comments.*

19. 500 DAYS OF SUMMER--A wacky, funny, quirky romantic comedy, it's a lot of fun to watch.

20. THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX--Now nominated for 2 Oscars--Best Animated Feature Film, and best Original Score. *See previous THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX blog for more comments.*

21. CORALINE--Based on a twisted Neil Gaimen "children's novel," this also makes for clever and witty adult entertainment. Nominated for 1 Oscar--Best Animated Feature Film.

22. MOON--A low budget wonder, this deceptively simple science-fiction film has one set (a moon digging operation) and one actor (a very good Sam Rockwell) but manages to cast a haunting and disturbing spell when a second character appears

23. HURT LOCKER--There's excruciating tension created by strong direction and acting, but where's the plot and the point? Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, Actor and Director.

24. --32.--ADVENTURELAND, AWAY WE GO, YOUNG VICTORIA, NICK AND NORA'S INFINITE PLAY LIST, I LOVE YOU MAN, TAKING WOODSTOCK, IN THE LOOP, STAR TREK, LITTLE ASHES.

Also loved Oscar nominated Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART, the Oscar Nominated set direction and costumes in SHERLOCK HOLMES and NINE, Oscar nominee for Animated Feature The PRINCESS and the FROG, the docu Oscar nominated FOOD INC and possibly more TBA.
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worst films.......Lovely Bones, Observe and Report, Bride Wars, Cold Souls and G-Force.

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A Single Man

I can easily make room on my Top Films of 2009 for a film I finally caught up with this past weekend----A SINGLE MAN (not to be confused with the excellent and funny A SERIOUS MAN--also a top film from this past year.) It is always a relief to know that the last few films that straggle into Seattle from any given year are worth the wait. A SINGLE MAN is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood (best known as the author of the BERLIN STORIES that inspired CABARET), and although it was many years ago that I read the book, I remember feeling how resonant the mood and story struck me, how the author created a most universal and sympathetic character out of a middle-aged gay man struggling to process the sudden and recent death of his long time companion, during a time (1963) where it was impossible to come out to society and family--he was an invisible man in so many ways. The novel is mostly an internal narration of the main character's thoughts and feelings, but the film sucessfully gives us his inside and outside world. The director of the film, Tom Ford, is a well know fashion designer, and this is his first directorial effort, yet he infuses the story with a great deal of stylish melancholy and subtle flourishes, in both his camera movements, costume and set designs and music choices. In an obscure way, it felt like you were watching a runway show from one designer who was taking you on a journey of discovery through his life--in this case George (a beautifully cast Colin Firth), who we find out early on, is wanting to "tie up" all the loose ends of his life in one day because he is tired of loneliness and living "invisibly." One might think that this is a depressing prospect, yet as we learn to understand George, we find out all sorts of intriguing contradictions in his life. He is a respected English professor, well liked professionally, open to his students, compulsively organized, a devoted friend to an ex-girlfriend (Julianne Moore) who still carries a flame, and in one amusing scene, we realize that he is too obsessively and compulsively tidy to leave the mess of a suicide. Still, the film carries a lot of tension throughout as we follow his life for that one paramount day, for we know that something important is going to happen. Will it be renewed interest in life?, the finality of death?, a new found love?, some epiphany of meaning?, a purging of the past?, or something as mundane as a quick sexual experience with a stranger? As these themes all parade the runway of the movie screen, we revel in the fine actors, the fabulous stylish clothes, the unique and ironic "window house" and furnishings, the modish yet appropriate 1960's music score, the moody, evocative cinematography, and the humor that creeps into these proceedings, and we feel grateful that the creative forces behind this film know how to move and entertain us. When the surprise (!) ending does occur, we might feel cheated for a moment, but the film has been honest from the start, and what more can we ask for but to say that we've witnessed life on a grand, if modest, cinematic scale. It is always a PLEASURE for me to see a great film.

Not exactly great, but an oddly entertaining "film noir" from 1954 is BLACK WIDOW, a DVD selection that features Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner and Reginald Gardiner--a strong ensemble cast in the twisted story of a young woman who tries to destroy the lives of several innocent people to achieve her goals, even after her murder..... This is an enjoyable curiosity that has a couple of unexpected turns.