Top Ten, 2009

For awhile now I have been creating top ten lists for each year. What I should explain is that these lists are not set in stone but more like living documents. I can’t even come close to viewing everything that is out there and many times I don’t even have the opportunity, primarily with world cinema, only hoping to catch up when it becomes available on DVD. I know for sure I missed some key films (Limits of Control, In the Loop, The Sun, A Serious Man, Tetro, Anvil! and A Letter the Uncle Boomee to name a few) and will try to catch up as soon as possible. I decided this year to add some comments for each choice. I know there are "better" films out there but I usually go with gut over the academic. Oh, and I count Julia and Afterschool as 2008 or this list would be hella stronger.
5/12- Seen Limits of Control and respect it more than like it, even as I watch Hsiao-hsien. Found Uncle Boomee and for no good reason I've been putting it off. See below for Serious Man.

1. Fanatic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)- Generally passed over and actual Anderson fans dismissed it. WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!! Not only is it hilarious and drop dead gorgeous, but through extreme overdeterminism Anderson actually freed himself. Instead of tight-ass composition the film is literally bursting at the seams. Number 1 film in a walk.

2. Public Enemies (Michael Mann)- Almost subverts the entire gangster genre but levels out after awhile. Still, it’s clear Mann isn’t listening to anyone anymore and there is no one working better with digital video. He came close in Miami Vice and if he could just throw out this pesky little thing called story he would really be onto something.

3. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)- Speaking of throwing away story, first half is near perfect with characters being developed through their responses to the imminent. Loses its footing and momentum slightly when it focus on Renner exclusively, but Oscar hype aside this is still one damn fine film.

And now an auteur double, double

4. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (Werner Herzog)- No this isn’t a Lynchian pastiche, Herzog doesn’t do surrealism. Grounded in suburbia, he explores the human mind to ask who’s crazier- a single man or everyone else for rationalizing his behavior.
4b. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call- New Orleans

5. The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh)- This is film that has the pulse of our times, that is the economic downfall and early Obama era, not Up in the Air.
5b. The Informant!

6. Sutro (Jeanne Liotta)- In the recent trends department, interesting that many artists are directly dealing with the ‘death’ of film by taking video down with it. Specifically dealing with analog TV Sutro goes from the figurative, past fragmentation, and straight into abstraction. Phenomenological? Yes. Disagree? Watch it four or five times and get back to me.

7. I literally have no seventh film. It’s a bit sad but a can’t see raising the status of the final three and giving the tenth spot some kind of kiss off. Vacancy to the filled, applications welcomed.
5/12- (7) Serious Man (Coens)- After learning a bit about Christian allegory vs Jewish parable I've come to terms with my main complaints; that is, that the text can hold multiple interpretations that are at odds with each other with both being equally vaild and in the end nothing is resolved. This is the Coens doing Kafka.

8. Star Trek (JJ Abrams)- Now I'm no die hard but thank god for Abrams. This is exactly how a mainstream blockbuster should be.

9. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Robert Schwentke)- I’m going out on a limb and assume that I underrated this at the time. A film that deals with temporal and spatial relationships can’t be all bad.

10. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)- This film suffered from it’s own misrepresentation and I’m specifically talking about the trailer. Parents quickly figured out it was way too dark for kids and everyone else didn’t know what to make of it (do hipsters even know who Lacan is? mirror stage?). Instead of a lighthearted affair Jonze and Co. give us a more serious look into development, one that actually struggles with the psychological complexities of childhood. Hopefully it will find a better life on DVD.

Honorable Mention
Avatar (James Cameron)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
Fighting (Dito Montiel)
the diversity of animation this year- Up!, 9, Coraline, Ponyo, Fox, Wild Things, Avatar, Monsters v. Aliens, $9.99, need I say more?
opening credits of Watchman
Just Dance (Melina Matsoukas)

Films That Everyone Else Likes But I Just Can’t Get Behind
The Hangover (Todd Phillips)
Duplicity (Tony Gilroy)
The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)
Inglorious Bastards (Quentin Tarantino)