Movies of 2009

Now, it's movie time. No, not the seminal video rental store in the Village of Oak Creek where pretty much all my high school friends worked at, but time to bust out my top movie list. I'll keep this simple -- ten that missed the cut (alphabetized), then top 10 proper (ranked). Again, no times for write ups now (probably when I finish this damn thing). Enjoy.

Near Misses
(500) Days of Summer
The Brothers Bloom
Drag Me to Hell
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Moon
A Perfect Getaway
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Up in the Air

My Top 10 Movies of 2009
10) Adventureland
9) District 9
8) Pandorum
7) Watchmen
6) An Education
5) The Hangover
4) Zombieland
3) The Hurt Locker
2) Avatar
1) Inglourious Basterds




Finally, and because I can't make this point clear enough, The Single Worst Film of 2009, Bar None:

Where the Wild Things Are

I had no expectations -- literally, none -- and I was floored at how godawful it was. I spent much of the last 35-40 minutes staring at the ceiling and waiting for it to be over. Just completely uninvested. The technical achievements were notable, and I think no worse of the (considerable) talent behind it, but let this be a lesson in hubris to filmmakers -- some things are unfilmable... and first and foremost among these things is a children's book with less than 15 sentences TOTAL between its pages. Just not enough story. It would've been better to go avant-garde and abandon any pretense of narrative (and you know Jonze could pull it off). Instead, 100 minutes of temper tantrums of the quality you can find at any toy store in America. They should've just called it Angst: The Movie or The Invention of Emo. Rant over.

Again, thanks for reading!