10 Best Movies of 2009… So Far
I’ve done the math and I’ve seen 125 new movies, either on big screen or home video, so far in 2009. Not as many as some critics, but as far as calling the first half of the year so far, I’ve seen enough. So here presented are my 10 Best of the year, and the 5 candidates for the worst.10) (Tie) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead and Watchmen
While not exactly getting a 4,000 screen release nation-wide, this film has been one I haven’t been able to shake out of my conscious mind. An independent film from New York-based musician and filmmaker Jordan Galland, RAGAU is a hilarious, though loving send up of theatre, vampires and camp, not necessarily in that order. Sure, the film is technically missing a few spokes, but the tremendous energy and humour is difficult to get over, even months later.
The tying film, Watchmen, is also difficult to get over. Perhaps the most seminal adaptation of a graphic novel, and perhaps the most controversial, one has to admire how well Zack Snyder held all the elements together and let them fly in a completely different medium while holding true to the intentions and themes of Alan Moore’s original story. He may not have like it, but I did. Visually, it’s a masterpiece and while the narrative structure could have been stronger by not using the novel so much as a crutch, Snyder’s loyalty to the source one over many doubters, regardless.
9) Coraline
Sure, all the rage is 3-D, but the CG animated films make it look way too easy. Filmmaker Henry Selick did the seemingly impossible and gave a stop-motion film the same kind of grand vision, complexity and detail as any computer-made movie, if not more so. Adapted from the story by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is an imagination-filled world brought to life with ghoulish charm as only the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas can. It’s the type of animated effort we don’t get very often, which is both sad and elating, but a rare treat is still better than no treat at all.
8) State of Play
Although it works as a satisfying whodunit and political conspiracy thriller, the real reason to see this movie is because it may be the last, real newspaper man as hero story, and it knows it. Since Hollywood’s Golden Age, the newspaper reporter has always been as dogged a hero as any cop or private eye, but is seen as all the more gallant because danger isn’t their normal everyday business (unless your name’s Lois Lane, of course). Who’s going to replace the newspaper reporter hero, the blogger? Well, State of Play proves that unlikely, as Russell Crowe’s old school Cal takes Rachel McAdams’ new school Della under his wing to show her how real reporting is done. And what about hard nosed editors like Helen Mirren’s Cameron Lynne? Well, let’s just say that in cyberspace, no one can hear the boss yell at you. That’s what e-mail emoticons are for.
7) Gomorrah
Everybody loves The Godfather and Goodfellas, by far two of the greatest gangster films every made, but it was an Italian film named Gomorrah that took the genre to a whole new level. With a documentary-look and shocking bursts of violence, Gomorrah is a complex film with numerous tangents and numerous characters, yet it’s compelling and enthralling, taking us back to the heart of the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. When not catching you off guard with the violence, Gomorrah catches you by simply surprising you at how easy seemingly innocent people fall into the web of criminality and suffer because of it. And the biggest surprise of all is that the original book was apparently so close to life that author Roberto Saviano needs round the clock protection.
6) Best Worst Movie
The giddy and highly bizarre thrill of a group of fans enjoying a really terrible movie is translated beautifully in this choice pick from Hot Docs. From being named the Worst Film of All Time to garnering a Rocky Horror like following in small screening rooms and revival houses from one end of the globe to the other, the joy of Best Worst Movie, and Troll 2 for that matter, is recognizing the truth and wisdom in the axiom that you rarely get a second chance to make a first impression. Touching, funny and offering fascinating insight into filmdom and fandom, I’m not sure what’s more affecting about Best Worst Movie: the rock star like fame of dentist and Troll 2 leading man George Hardy, or director Claudio Fragasso umbrage at people calling his movie bad, even if they still like it.
5) Star Trek All they asked for was just a good Star Trek movie, but what they were given was one of the best popcorn movies of summer. J.J. Abrams did the impossible on a couple of counts, he made Trek standout amongst a tight field of competition and kept bring in new and repeat viewers based on word of mouth and the surprising phrase, “Damn, Star Trek was cool.” It’s a vindication for Abrams who took his lumps as cynics called his film “Trek 90210.” But he made them a believer, and so did Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who ably and expertly played the iconic roles of Kirk and Spock and made them their own. Top-notch effects, a tight script filled with drama and action and a lot of great actors working in tandem to make what might be the best film of summer, and one of the brightest of the year.
4) Hunger
Steve McQueen’s first feature film is a stark and deeply realistic look inside the Maze, a prison that held a number of men accused of being involved in the IRA during a period in Irish history euphemistically referred to as “The Troubles.” Shot in a vérité style that’s as much documentary as drama, you can practically smell the squalor these prisoners voluntarily lived in as they protested for political status. The make-up done on Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, who died during a hunger strike in 1981, is utterly and completely believable, and is probably the most factual huger-related death ever shown on the big screen. Much more an art piece or an experimental film rather than a strictly narrative one, Hunger is an enthralling example of the power of the medium.
3) Pontypool
Like 28 Days Later, a visionary director gives the zombie genre another swift kick in the rump, rattling expectations to create something familiar and original. Expertly directed by Bruce MacDonald, Pontypool manages to evoke dread, fear and isolation without ever really giving you a good look outside at either the desolate winter landscape of the eponymous small Ontario town, or the approaching zombie hordes. At the centre of it all are the husband and wife acting team of Stephen McHattie and Lisa Houle, whose indelible chemistry and quality of being relatable sell you on the possibly implausible concept of a language virus turning people into zombies. Not many horrors can create tangible thrills these days without a lot of production design, but MacDonald proves that minimalism still works in the right hands.
2) Anvil: The Story of Anvil
This was a surprise, a rock band documentary that’s utterly unconventional thanks to the subject matter, and offering a type of access that would never be afforded in a million years by any of the biggest rock bands of the age. Canada’s Anvil should have been huge, but they weren’t. Not that they stopped trying of course. Anvil, the film, is inspiring and sobering, at once proof that rock star dreams are nearly impossible to reach and are occasionally sometimes tangible. The best part though of seeing Anvil at Canadian Music Week was seeing the band when they won a life time achievement award the next night, and talking to them afterward and being in that glow of the moment. No band’s worked so far, to get this far. They earned it, and Anvil earned second place.
1) Up
It’s no secret that Pixar makes great films. Of course, anyone can get bored if success comes too easily all the time, so the studio’s gotten more ambitious in the last few years, and the gambles have paid off with consistent successes and Up is no exception. On the surface, it’s the slightly implausible story about an old man that takes flight in his house suspended by hundreds of thousands of balloons, but the emotions run so much deeper. Carl Fredricksen’s story is a bittersweet one, it can make you laugh and bring you to the brink of tears. True, Up is an adventure film, but it’s grounded in true character work and relationships that most films with live-action humans in them can never achieve. Pixar just raised the bar, again.
The Worst 5
5) An American Carol
Although it was released in something like six theatres in ’08, that doesn’t stop this right-wing spin on A Christmas Carol from being patently insulting. Consider it further proof that the right isn’t funny, at least when they’re trying to be anyway. I would say that a great deal of Obama’s victory last fall is owed to this picture. That is if more than 10 people had seen it, that is.
4) Dragonball: Evolution
Speaking of patently insulting, there’s this Japanimation adaptation that was in theatres barely long enough to make a blip, which goes to show you that the public still sometimes knows when something stinks like the crapola it is. Anime characters sure do look great when they’re being animated, but transfer them to live-action and it just looks ridiculous; especially when they’re working without anything resembling a coherent script.
3) Pink Panther 2
Remember when Steve Martin used to be funny? Yeah, neither does he. Broad nationalist stereotypes bog down this Panther even more than the less as unfunny first film. It says a lot of the strength of Martin’s take on Clouseau that the filmmakers had to stack the deck with the likes of Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina and Aishwarya Rai. Not even the 11th hour inclusion of John Cleese could save this mess.
2) Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
’m not sure when people started clamouring for the next Street Fighter movie, and I’m actually still not sure. With a little over-the-top acting, this might have been somewhat watchable. But instead we’re stuck with Kristen Kreuk and her doe-eyed stare trying fiercely to look like someone who’s revenge minded and dangerous. And for a movie called “Street Fighter” there’s actually very little STREET FIGHTING! 1) Bride Wars
Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson did themselves, and all womankind, a disservice with Bride Wars, reinforcing a tired, old cliché that weddings make women crazy in a literal sense. Combined with Rene Zellweger’s haughtier-than-thou executive in New In Town and Nia Vardalos’ whine with cheese tour guide in My Life in Ruins, it’s been a spectacularly crumby year in romantic comedies. Like a stale wedding cake two battling brides would fling at each other in a food fight, speaking of cheese.
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