Better late than never, here is my list of my five favorite movies and movie performances from the past year. Discuss, complain and enjoy! :-)
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BEST MOVIES
1. Avatar - written and directed by James Cameron. See my earlier review for complete details and the total review. Needless to say, this was the most impressive movie of 2009 and it is not just about the special effects. Cameron brought awe and spectacle back to the movies.
2. The Hurt Locker - Directed by Katheryn Bigelow. Written by Mark Boal. Jeremy Renner plays Staff Sargeant William James, a man brought in to lead a unit of American soldiers charged with discovering and disposing of IED's in and around Baghdad. Renner is brilliant as a man who is good at his job and addicted to the adrenaline of cheating death every day. Problem is, he's not much good at anything else. The best adult drama of the year. (Fun subplot that's not in the movie--should both Bigelow and Avatar's James Cameron pick up Oscar nominations for Best Director, which seems likely, it will be the first time in Academy Awards history that a divorced couple will compete against each other in the same category. Juicy!)
3. Up in the Air - Directed by Jason Reitman. Written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a man who is a parttime motivational speaker and full time expert at being "a hired terminator", a guy firms bring in to lay people off when they don't have the balls to do it themselves. (This is an actual job.) He is joined by fresh-out-of-college Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick, sharp) who has an innovation to Bingham's job that might ironically put him out of work. They go on the road together so that Bingham can show her how it's done and the result is a tragicomic tour of how the American workplace has been ravaged in 2009-10, with some life lessons learned along the way. Vera Farmiga is on hand as Clooney's mature and sexy love interest. The screenplay is crackerjack and always manages to avoid maudlin sentimentality even when you think it's going there. "A-"
4. Precious - Directed by Lee Daniels. Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher. Searing, remarkable performances by all of the principal actors elevate this dark melodrama above the level of ghetto porn. Precious (played by first-time actor Gabourey Sidibe) is a pregnant, 15-year old, overweight, African-American high school student who has an infant son with Down's Syndrome and an abusive, manpulative mother (Mo'Nique) who uses her for welfare checks. Oh, and Precous is pregnant by her father. Did we mention she gets kicked out of school? There's more, so much more, but it's not all inner city horror as Precious tries to make something of her self and figure out her mess of a life with the help of a kindly, passionate teacher named Blu Rain (played by Paula Patton). Wisely eschewing a trite happy ending and using both humor and dream sequences to lighten the mood at key points, Precious is the kind of movie that you can't believe got made but wind up being glad that it did. Heavy, but worth it for the brave moviegoer. (Bonus trivia: key funding for the movie came from Denver heavyweights Gary and Sara Siegel-Magness. Without them, it may have never been distributed.)
5. Inglourious Basterds - Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. A gleeful tribute to and sendup of all the classic World War II films, Tarantino's Basterds packs more cinematic homage, clever dialogue and lush cinematography into it's 2 hours and and 40 minutes than any other movie this year. Does it make sense? Well...kind of. Does it rewrite history? Yes, but this ain't a documentary and that's partially the point. Standout performances include Christoph Waltz as a charmingly sadistic SS officer and Brad Pitt as Nazi hunting American soldier Aldo Raine. Not as groundbreaking as Pulp Fiction or as poetic as the Kill Bill movies, this still ranks as one of Tarantino's strongest overall efforts.
Worthy of Very Honorable Mentions: The Hangover, (500) Days of Summer, Star Trek, Public Enemies, Brothers.
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Fave Five Lead Actress *
* - I am limited to what I've seen, so take these with a grain of salt
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Fave Five Lead Actors
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
George Clooney, Up in the Air/The Men Who Stare at Goats
Brad Pitt, Inglourious Basterds
Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, (500) Days of Summer
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Super Six Supporting Performances (Male or Female)
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen
Mo'nique, Precious
Zach Galifinakis, The Hangover
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Peace...
(NOTE: This post has been edited since it's original posting on 1/10/2010)
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