Top Ten Films 2009
1. Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire ****
Okay… sometimes titles are ridiculous. I have no idea if the publisher required this title or if there is just a deference from Daniels towards the author, but the title almost drove me away from this movie. What else almost drove me away was the melodrama. Obviously this film is melodrama in that there is an absurd abundance of tragedy all put on one young girl, Precious. That being said, no movie moved me more this year and I credit the actresses in this film for grounding this movie in reality so that the melodrama functions and heightens this film into true tragedy.
Gabourey Sidibe is a revelation in the lead role of Precious. She is a young woman who has been abused her entire life. First by her father who rapes her, then by her mother who doesn’t believe her. She has AIDS and is pregnant through incest. She is pour and overweight. Nothing is going right in her life. Under normal circumstances this could play out like a bad Hallmark movie, but it is gritty and real, partially because of the vicious nature of the abuse as seen when he mother attacks her. Mo’Nique turns in one of the great performances I have ever seen as the mother. She is not a monster in the sense that she is simply evil. She too is the victim of abuse and uses her power over her daughter to give her control over her life since she has none. She’s a real monster because she is unable to stop and unable to find meaning in another way.
Into Precious’s life comes Ms. Rain (Paula Patton) and Ms. Weiss (an extraordinary Mariah Carey) who demonstrate to Precious that loving herself is the first step in finding who she is. This is a powerful film.
2. Where the Wild Things Are ****
Spike Jonze can create worlds like almost no other director. Working for the first time in years on a film not written by Charlie Kaufman, his visual instincts are as strong as ever. Adapting a beloved childhood book that is only a few pages into a full length film seems like a bad idea, but not in the hands of these filmmakers. Max is having trouble growing up. His sister, who he used to be close to now only hangs out with her teenage friends. His mother is attempting to date again after a divorce. Max lashes out and decides to run away into his imagination. He goes to where the wild things are. At first, it’s great. A child often fantasizes about a utopia where the problems of their lives are gone. The Wild Things all live together and sleep in a giant pile showing their camaraderie. But eventually outside friends in the form of birds whom no one can understand come into the community. These are his sister’s friends and the idyllic world he’s created falls apart. Rarely has a movie captured the way a child thinks.
3. 500 Days of Summer ****
When Tom is happy because a girl he likes is returning his signals, he’s on top of the world. When he looks in a mirror he sees Han Solo (young Harrison Ford) staring back. Animated animals from “Snow White” come to join him in a musical dance sequence. God, it feels good to be in love. But as the Bible and famous song say, “For all things there is a season.” “500 Days of Summer” shows the cycles of life, shows the cycles of all relationships. In one of the best written screenplays of the year, it moves between the present and the past so that you see Tom making decisions in the present, but go back into the past to see their consequences because he keeps making the same decisions. This movie is up there with “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” for some of the best films about dealing with ending relationships.
4. The Hurt Locker ****
Kathryn Bigelow deserves the Oscar for this film. “The Hurt Locker” is one of the most suspenseful films I’ve seen in sometime. Nothing in the movie is original in terms of ideas. This is the story of a bomb expert who is addicted in many ways to defusing bombs, the adrenaline rush. What sets this movie apart is how the film is shot, edited, and designed so we feel that adrenaline at the same time he does. It is an incredible ride.
5. The Fantastic Mr. Fox ****
Wes Anderson is one of the most stylistic directors of our time. Give yourself just a couple frames and you probably know that this is a Wes Anderson film. With the “Fantastic Mr. Fox” he has created his first “children’s film” and yet retained his sense of humor, glorious use of music, and even the underlying melancholy that is so familiar in all of his films. Mr. Fox cannot help but be himself, however in doing that he puts everyone else in danger and now must bring everyone together to save themselves from an angry farmer. It is in this film that I finally had the incredible revelation that all of Wes Anderson’s films (even those that are live action) are in fact animated.
6. Avatar ****
James Cameron is a visionary. His career has been built like Lucas’. There is a style and repetitiveness to the stories he’s interested in, but, what sets those stories apart is his desire to use technology to push what is possible in film. Here he creates the first completely realistic CGI world. The Navi are an extraordinary achievement. A world of Gollums. Some have criticized the movie for being “Pocahontas” in space; other for being “Dances with Wolves” in space. You’re not reading the movie the way Cameron sets it up. The first image of the film is two eyes opening. This Jake Sully who watches his identical twins body being burned. He in essence watches himself die. The Navi have a belief that you are born twice. The first time you are born is for yourself; the second time is for your people. The last shot of the film is Jake opening his eyes now as a Navi. He has been reborn. This film is about being reborn.
7. Ponyo ****
After a princess of the sea comes to land and decides to take human form, befriending a young boy and discovering the joys of ham, the world begins to lose its balance and harmony. She must return to the sea to save the world. Reading that synopsis to “Ponyo” makes it sound like a serious fantasy, trust me, it is not. “Ponyo” is a joy, a movie inspired by the love of being a child. It is the most similar film to Miyazaki’s masterpiece “My Neighbor Totoro". This is a film that is silly and wonderful, joyous and funny; not a film to analyze and I love it that way.
8. Goodbye Solo ****
Ramin Bahrani is one of our great new filmmakers. I missed his “Man Push Cart” the year it came out, but loved it. Here, he has another small but brilliant movie. Perhaps not as small as “Man Push Cart”, but still an intimate movie. Solo is an immigrant cab driver trying to make ends meet. In his latest fare, he picked up an old man, William, who wants a one way ride. The journey they take together is real and moving.
9. Up ****
When Pixar announced the plot to “Up” about an old man who using balloons takes his house to South America accompanied by a boy scout and a talking dog, I said, count me out. Pixar had finally gone too far. This is just a silly idea for a movie. Then I got dragged to the film. The opening five minutes made me tear up, one of the few films I have seen to do that. I was hooked. This story demonstrates what Pixar is so great at. Taking an idea and making it emotional and real by creating real characters. What a profound and funny movie - Squirrel!
10. Gomorrah ****
One of the best mafia films since “The Godfather”. Gomorrah follows five people who try to connect with the modern mafia in Sicily. A tense drama with human connection and shocking violence. The movie that I think best creates a place in our mind this year and makes that place real.
Runners up: Up in the Air ****, A Single Man ****, In the Loop ****, Me and Orson Welles ****, Star Trek ****, An Education ****, Broken Embraces ****, Anvil: The Story of Anvil ****, Food Inc ****, A Serious Man *** ½, and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince *** ½
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
Runner Up: Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Runner Up: Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Best Supporting Actor: Christian McKay, “Me and Orson Welles”
Runner Up: Christopher Waltz, “Inglorious Basterds”
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Runner Up: Mariah Carey, “Precious”
Best Cinematography: Lance Acord, “Where the Wild Things Are”
Runner Up: Eduard Grau, “A Single Man”
Best Score: Carter Burwell and Karen Orzolek, “Where the Wild Things Are”
Runner Up: Abel Korzeniowski, “A Single Man”
Best Animated Film: “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Runner Up: “Ponyo”
Best Documentary: “Anvil: The Story of Anvil”
Runner Up: “Food Inc”
Best Original Screenplay: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, “500 Days of Summer”
Runner Up: Pedro Almodovar, “Broken Embraces”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, “Where the Wild Things Are”
Runner Up: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Best Director: Spike Jonze, “Where the Wild Things Are”
Runner Up: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Best Independent Film: Ramin Bahrani, “Goodbye Solo”
Worst Film of the Year: Rob Marshall, “Nine”
