10 BEST FILMS OF 2009

10 Best of 2009 by Michael Muniz

10. BROKEN EMBRACES-Pedro Almodovar’s best stories are about simple, primal desires. A man and a woman meet and want each other. A man goes insane with jealous wrath. All the seven deadly sins and then some are on display here with complex characters weaving this intricate narrative fabric Almodovar has a gift for creating so effectively. Penelope Cruz gives a wonderful performance as the vulnerable Lena and the film overall is a very strong rebound for Almodovar from 2006’s lackluster and dull Volver.

9. DISTRICT 9-A smart action thriller with a terrific cast, plot, and remarkable special effects? This is it! It starts out a bit slow, but once things get going, it is a true adrenaline shot filled with high octane intensity and raises some surprisingly moralistic questions that don’t often arise when people are getting blown to bits by plasmic blasts. Director Neil Blomkamp did a terrific job of creating the story world and throwing the viewer right into the fray of things in the beginning alongside Wikus and keeps us clinging tight until the end.

8. FANBOYS-It was great to see a film that paid such a poignant and endearing homage to Star Wars fans because the franchise’s interstellar success stems directly from them. Star Wars changed the way audiences looked at movies and its popularity has remained so strong through the years because of its fans’ undying love for Wookiees, lightsabers, and Jar Jar Binks…well, maybe not Jar Jar. With a cleverly written script and fun performances it made this comedy a standout throughout the galaxy.

7. THE HANGOVER-Few comedies ever live up to the hype and this one not only delivered, but excelled. This was stomach-hurting hilarity at its best. Casting was definitely the key here and the awesome ensemble cast played off each other with tremendous timing and precision. Zach Galifianakis stole the show and how could a movie with Baby Carlos not make the Top 10 of this year?

6. DRAG ME TO HELL-The perfect horror movies not only scare us, but make us laugh and Sam Raimi has always had a great understanding of this throughout his career. The character development was also great here, which is a rare thing in horror films or actually most films of 2009! Alison Lohman and Justin Long were fun to watch, but how awesome was Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush? You have to love when a working professional like her takes this kind of role and just runs wild with it, leaving the viewer terrified, but dying to see more!

5. UP IN THE AIR-It’s hard to make a good movie about protagonists who don’t know what they want, but it’s even harder to make a great one. Mike Nichols did it with The Graduate and Jason Reitman did it here. This is a painful story about awakening. George Clooney gives an inspiring performance as Ryan Bingham, a guy who thinks he has things all figured out until two women enter his life and change his entire scope. Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick both turned in marvelous performances alongside Clooney, who is truly the Cary Grant of our generation.

4. WATCHMEN-Superhero action films used to be a mindless affair, but in recent years with the Batman franchise reboot, audiences demonstrated a need for substance to go with the flash. Sure, action enthusiasts will chide Watchmen for its lack of it and being forced to stare at a blue penis for so long, but that is not the audience director Zack Snyder was going after. Michael Bay can have them. Instead, Snyder delivered an intelligent, riveting, character-driven story that redefined the superhero genre just as Alan Moore did in comics with his famed series. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was brilliant as The Comedian.

3. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS-Quentin Tarantino makes a return to his form of yore with brilliant dialogue, harnessing top notch performances and building suspense like a pressure cooker. You almost have to get up and pace at some points! What works well here is the finely researched screenplay that felt very authentic with the vintage Tarantino humor. However, the driving force of the film is Christoph Waltz. Hans Landa is one of the best movie villains in years. The beautiful Melanie Laurent also shined here. It was nice to go into this expecting Kill Bill with Nazis, but instead seeing a smart, edgy foreign thriller (it is essentially a foreign film because so much of it is sub-titled) that cements Tarantino’s status as still one of the finest filmmakers of our generation.

2. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER-This was an amazing film and actually, technologies aside, the best film of 2009. With a wonderful screenplay penned by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel played the kind of young couple we all are, were, or will be one day. We have all had to endure these kind of relationships at some point where we do all the couple things without actually being exclusive and it becomes a test of how long each person goes before they begin to break. Set to an awesome soundtrack, Marc Webb’s amazing direction brought an innovative eye and his subtle odes to classic film genres made this a pleasure for other filmmakers to watch. The scene that contrasts expectation to reality? Painfully beautiful and brilliant. The ironic ending was the capper on absolute cinematic perfection.

1. AVATAR (3D)-Notice the 3D is notated? The reason for this is because people have to understand James Cameron shot his 14-year passion project in 3D so that’s specifically how he wanted you to experience the film. If the three dimensional effects were stripped away, would this film still be in my top spot? Absolutely not. However, while this was a pretty good movie even for normal standards, it’s the experience of seeing it in 3D that makes this an amazing, transformational experience. I felt when I was watching Avatar in 3D IMAX the way I’m sure those people felt watching The Lumiere Brothers’ classic silent film, Arrival at a Train Station, in 1896 nickelodeons. It was such a tremendous sense of awe, spectacle, and bewilderment, things you rarely get out of just going to the movies no matter how good they are. I see far more movies than probably the average person, but was still totally immersed and enthralled by Cameron’s vision. It’s an experience every man, woman, and child should have. Those don’t come along too often so that is why Avatar (3D) soundly takes the top spot of 2009.