Ron's Popcorn Reviews.com

It is December 30, 2009, with only two days left to go in the year, so I thought it'd be appropriate to finally name the best movies of 2009. First, let me say that 2009 was a particularly balanced year in movies. There were the astonishingly great ones and the absolutely terrible ones, with too many in between. Was it a weak year? No. Was it a strong year? No. But almost every movie on my list of the best of 2009 would have been here even if it was one of the best movie years. Some of these are practically ties. I’ll begin my list from #10 down to #1, with #1 of course being the best.

10. Moon- With this brilliant little science fiction movie, first time director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) rediscovers hard sci-fi. There are no big action sequences and no epic battles, just heartbreaking and nuanced storytelling with a tour de force from Sam Rockwell. A second viewing is required to recognize just how carefully crafted it is. This is a movie for people who love to think during a film, instead of just stuffing their faces with popcorn.

9. The Informant!- This modest and intelligent comedy was being marketed as a ridiculous farce with Matt Damon as a caricature. But Steven Soderbergh’s much more complex human drama pulls at your heart or at least mine, since no one seems to agree with me. I found it to be an examination of the human psyche and ego. Matt Damon shines here as a bizarre but never cartoonish whistleblower. Soderbergh also delivers some very good shots using my favorite “coffee stain” look to give the movie a dreamlike texture. One of the most entertaining and thought provoking movies of the year.

8. Inglourious Basterds- When Quentin Tarrantino’s jaw dropping World War II epic came out, I was mesmerized. After rewatching my favorite films of the year, I'm enamored. This is a deliciously twisted and insane movie from the likes of the master of audacity himself, Quentin Tarantino. Christoph Waltz delivers one of the most memorable performances of the year as a completely bizarre SS Colonel, but the movie also features memorable performances from Brad Pitt and Melanie Laurent. The scene at the beginning validates Waltz’s praise and he deserves an Oscar. There was a scene or two I found unnecessary initially, but after seeing the film again I realized how smoothly it all went.

7. The Road- The most heartbreaking and powerful film of 2009 has been criminally underrated by all critics. I was shocked when it didn’t receive a nomination for Best Drama at the Golden Globes and when Viggo Mortensen barely received any praise for his Oscar worthy performance. I can’t understand how people were not touched by this harrowing and raw film. The performances are unbelievably authentic and the images are hauntingly beautiful. Definitely the most powerful film of the year.

6. Up- Perhaps Pixar’s best film, and when considering the pantheon of superior animated features from them, that’s really saying something. But shockingly, Up isn’t the best animated movie of the year. This is a gorgeous and visually stunning movie that, despite its fantastical premise, is one of the most authentic films of 2009. The montage at the beginning of the film chronicling the life of the main character and his beloved wife is simply one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in a movie. It has no dialogue and is only set to the lovely score from Michael Giaccino. Most romantic comedies can’t even get us to care about the characters for the entire movie, but Up does it with no dialogue in only a few minutes. What an achievement.

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox- In a year when Pixar has made their best film yet, it was still not better than Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. This is a beautiful film, but not in the same way as Up. This movie achieves its beauty because of its rough-hewn and retro simplicity. It perfectly captures the hipster/artsy/vintage charm. Done through the tedious process of stop-motion, every frame of Fantastic Mr. Fox bares the labor of love. This is a particularly funny and dark animated film that not only stands as the best animated film of 2009, but one of the best family films ever made.

4. An Education- Carrey Mulligan deserves an Oscar for her witty and memorable performance as Jenny, a schoolgirl in 1960’s London who begins an affair with a much older man. Though Mulligan is terrific, Alfred Molina, Peter Sarsgard, and Rosamund Pike all turn in fantastic work. For a while I was pretty sure An Education would stand as my favorite film of the year, but November and December delivered films that surpassed this one. Still, my love is unshaken for this perfect mixture of observant comedy and melancholy, thanks to a great script from Nick Hornby and vibrant direction from Lone Sherfig.

3. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans- The most bizarre and insane movie of the year and it’s genius. My first exposure to the work of Werner Herzog left an impression and I am eager to start watching his films. Nicholas Cage is mesmerizing as a corrupt and sadistic cop. On paper, you would never believe a man could be so cruel, but watching Cage is a true experience. He never goes too far even in a scene where it seems no one could pull it off convincingly. No clichés to be found here. This is unpredictable and brilliant and entertaining all the way.

2. The Hurt Locker- Kathryn Bigelow's tense and unbearably suspenseful war epic is not only the best film yet about the war in Iraq (not that there's much competition), but one of the greatest war films ever made. It is authentic and intelligent, showcasing the paranoia involved with going to war and the sense that you can lose everything in a second. There are some amazing and nerve racking action set pieces. No sentimentality. No clichés. Nothing but raw and poweful storytelling, aided by jaw-dropping filmmaking and powerful performances. Kathryn Bigelow deserves to stand up there on Oscar night to accept the Academy Award for Best Director. I was hesitant to name it the best movie of the summer when it came out, but after rewatching it, I have no doubt that is just that. If The Deer Hunter is the definitive war film about Vietnam, The Hurt Locker is that to the war in Iraq. This is the perfect action film.

1. Up in the Air- For anyone who reads my blog and reviews, this should come as no surprise. Up in the Air is the best movie of 2009, one of the best movies of the decade, and one of my favorite movies ever. It is perfect in every way. This is a movie of and for its time. Years from now when people want to experience what it was like to live in 2009, Up in the Air will be their time capsule. The acting, the soundtrack, the characters, the direction, and the screenplay…all perfect and developed and brilliant. I admit I may love this movie so much because I understand it so much on a personal level. No one can comprehend my insane love for it, but not everyone can understand the movie the way I can. I sensed the character and his emotions even when the audience isn’t supposed to. This is the movie of 2009 that I hold dear to my heart and obsess over for months. Nothing beats Up in the Air for me on a personal level. It is perfect, and I can’t imagine there being a better movie, maybe because a better movie just doesn’t exist.

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Making this list was a tedious process because most of these came down to coin flips. How could I chose between Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox? Almost impossible. Up in the Air is solidly #1 and nothing comes close and the top 5 films were all easy to chose between but #6-10 were very difficult to pick and there were so many other great movies I wanted to include (Star Trek, Adventureland, (500) Days of Summer, Watchmen, I Love You, Man) but this is the list, and what a year it’s been. Sure it wasn’t great but this list, especially the top 5, qualify as superior motion pictures no matter what year they came out in. You'll notice some differences from my list of the best of the summer (Star Trek and Moon were tied for #1, Watchmen was #2, but Star Trek and Watchmen aren't even on this list), but after seeing them on DVD and seeing all the other great films this year, I couldn't find space for them and realized they weren't as good as I originally percieved. I hate when movies I love have to slip out, even if it means a better one comes in, and I hate when my opinion weakens about a movie. I want to honor all the great movies of any year. And yes, even though The Road is the most powerful movie of the year, I still think #6-1 are better. Being the most powerful movie of the year doesn't qualify it to be better than, oh say, an animated movie like Up.

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I’ve been spoiled with movies so great as Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker, so if seeing the next ten terrible ones is the price I had to pay for seeing Up in the Air, it was worth it. Nevertheless, there are still the ten worst movies of the year. The format of this list is just like the one for the best movies of 2009, but that’s the only similarity.

10. Monsters vs. Aliens- 2009 has been a particularly magical year for animation, with Pixar releasing its best feature yet and an even better animated movie still came out, along with small animated films (Sita Sings the Blues and Mary and Max). Both Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up made my list of the best of 2009, and I guess for those two I had to sit through Monsters vs. Aliens, the worst animated movie of the year. This is a clichéd, generic, boring, and stupid exercise in mindless animation. The voice acting is uniformly bad, with Reese Witherspoon’s initially high voice being tweaked to inaudible squeakiness. And it was in 3D, so DreamWorks got to rip you off for the price of a regular ticket and the 3D glasses. Bravo. They made one of the worst movies of the year but got a nice check.

9. The Ugly Truth- A formulaic and particularly sexist romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl (and she said Knocked Up was sexist?!) and Gerard Butler in two strained and witless performances. It seems 2009 was a year when generally tired genres were reinvented, like animated films and romantic comedies and sci-fi. For animated there was Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Sita Sita Sings the Blues, and Mary and Max. For sci-fi there was Star Trek, Moon, and District 9 to an extent. For romantic comedies (500) Days of Summer, Adventureland, and Away We Go. But one has to still stick with the old trend. For animated there is of course Monsters vs. Aliens, for sci-fi there is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and for romantic comedies there is The Ugly Truth.

8. The Unborn- I guess it’s appropriate for one of the first movies of the year to be one of the worst movies of the year. The Unborn was one of the first movies I saw in 2009 and it was terrible. It features laughable set pieces intended to be scary, tired clichés like a face popping out in a mirror, and an awful script. Instead of being scared by this movie, I found myself laughing through it.

7. Fast and Furious- Loaded with clichés. The lame premise and the ludicrous action is all on display here. The performances are so bad it’s almost hard to believe that Michelle Rodriguez is capable of giving a decent performance. This is a movie made for the ignorant dumbass who will say, “hey man, at least the girls were hot.”

6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen- Of course! From Fast and Furious to Transformers. How appropriate. Every single adolescent boy is orgasmic at the sight of Megan Fox and looks at you like you’re crazy if you say the movie is horrible. You should hear the replies I get. “Dude, Megan Fox is sooooooooo hot.” Michael Bay injects this dopey piece of shit with sexism, racism, and of course tons of explosion for the adolescent boy to cum in his pants. If Megan Fox didn’t do it, those explosions sure will.

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine- As bad as it was, everyone forgets about X-Men Origins: Wolverine in favor of naming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen the worst movie of the summer. C’mon people, at least we all realized that the Michael Bay boom fest would be a piece of crap. We actually had expectations for this one. Wolverine conveniently stops aging when he looks like Hugh Jackman and makes the worst badass face possible. The ending is predictable and the story is clichéd. Notice a trend. Almost every movie on this list clichéd.

4. Bride Wars- The first movie I saw of 2009, and for a while I was pretty sure it would be the worst. But no. If you can believe it, there were actually worst movies to come out in 2009. This cartoonish and loud screwball comedy never rings true and features some of the most despicable characters of the year.

3. Old Dogs- I was pretty sure after the summer, the absolutely shitty ones were done with. Nope. Hollywood saved Old Dogs for the end of the year. Lucky for Friday the 13th, my hatred for Old Dogs is still fresh in my mind. Terrible acting from the kids, stupid slapstick, underdeveloped relationships…must I continue? The story is unbelievably sitcomish and cartoonish. After seeing it, I wanted to name it the worst movie of 2009. I put it into perspective and if you can believe it, it wasn’t that bad. But pretty close.

2. Powder Blue- No one saw it. Good for them. Powder Blue was the first movie of 2009 that beat Bride Wars as the worst of the year. But another came along. Still, this is the worst drama of the year, with two-dimensional characters and a terrible performance from Jessica Biel. It seemed like it was trying to be Crash, but there we actually cared about the characters. Here, everything is embarrassingly contrived and predictable. Contrivance was the only consistent thing throughout Powder Blue.

1. All About Steve- The worst of the worst of 2009. All About Steve beat out every movie this year for this spot. This is the loudest and creepiest movie of the year with an overwhelmingly annoying and creepy performance from Sandra Bullock. I hated this character and rooted against her instead of for her. Tornados? Three-legged babies? Deaf kids falling into mine shafts? Wtf? Everyone is over-the-top in this cartoon about a stalker meant to be seen as a plucky heroine in the worst movie of 2009.

Now for the smaller things…

Performance of the year: It comes down to Mo’Nique and Viggo Mortensen but I think I will go with Mo’Nique for her heart wrenching performance in Precious. The reasoning behind this is simple: Though both gave complex and memorable performances, Mo’Nique was dealt a tougher task. She had to be a horrible human being while still being convincing and not taking it overboard. She did this flawlessly. She was chilling and terrible, but at the same time painfully human.

Best Score: Tough one. There is Marvin Hamlisch’s for The Informant!, Hans Zimmer’s for Sherlock Holmes, among others, but I think the best is Carter Burwell’s score for Where the Wild Things Are, mostly because it is the most memorable out of all of these.

Best Original Song: It comes down to “Help Yourself” from Up in the Air and “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart (the guy who actually wrote and performed the song "The Weary Kind" is named Ryan Bingham, which is the name of the main character in Up in the Air). Sure, Up in the Air is my favorite movie of the year, but “Help Yourself” isn’t the best original movie song of the year because of that. It’s offbeat and memorable, as is “The Weary Kind.” But there is something special about “Help Yourself.” And yes, it belongs to my favorite movie of the year.

Best Action Sequence: I might be Avatar’s harshest critic, but I give credit where credit is due. The epic finale of the movie was breathtakingly exciting, especially in real IMAX 3D.

Most Disappointing Film: I want to say District 9 (it was actually a good movie, I just think it got conventional in the final act) but without a doubt it’s Avatar. So much money was put into making such a predictable and corny movie with mediocre special effects. I don’t get what all the hype is about. The Na’vi look extremely computerized, unlike the aliens in District 9, which was made on a modest budget of $30 million. Avatar wasn’t bad, but it comes down to everything you imagined it to be and everything it turned out not to be. Groundbreaking? Not even close.

Most Overrated Movie of the Year: Avatar again. Everyone is talking about this movie and calling it a groundbreaking and innovative achievement. I’ve argued again and again that the special effects look too computerized and the story is overwhelmingly corny. They communicate with trees and dragon with their ponytails! The movie had its strengths, but nothing to merit such high praise.

Most Underrated Movie of the Year: How anyone can not be moved by The Road is beyond me. This is a heartbreaking and powerful movie that received mediocre reviews.

WTF?! Movie: The Coen Brothers have made some weird ass films but nothing beats A A Serious Man. I still don’t know what it was about and my theory as to the craziness in the movie is probably not even correct (I’ll return to that when the movie has been out for a while).

Best Compilation Soundtrack: Up in the Air without a doubt. You can accuse me of favoritism but there are so many songs on this terrific soundtrack that you just want to listen to over and over again. “Angel in the Snow” by Elliot Smith, “Genova” and “The Snow Before Us” by Charles Atlas, and of course “Help Yourself” by Sad Brad Smith. And sure, it’s my favorite movie of the year.

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2009 was also a year of healthcare debates, growing anger towards Fox News (thank god), the Yankees, Tiger Woods (who gives a shit?), Octomom, Michael Jackson’s death, balloon hoax boy, Avatar, and iPhones. And of course Up in the Air (I wish). In a few days, we’ll be in 2010, and we’ll be here next year reviewing it. There’s a sense of melancholy, breeziness, happiness, liberation, and closure associated with something like this. You look back, reflect, and give your opinion. It’s sort of a way of saying goodbye to 2009 and living in the now while looking back at the past. See you next year.