December 29, 2009

Armand's Top 10 Movies of 2009, Seen in 2009

Since it seems everyone and their Aunt Sally is making end of the year lists, I figured I'd throw one up here (see, we're not dead, we're just on breaks of varying lengths). By April my list might look very different. Inevitably I don't get around to seeing a lot of the best films of a year until the following year. And of course being a moody fellow my list might look somewhat different next week. But as of the end of 2009, I'd rank the top 10 of 2009 this way:

10. Julia. Tilda Swinton gives the best performance of any actor this year in this tense, disturbing thriller.

9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The ending is disappointing, but the first two-thirds of it are excellent. It looked beautiful, and it was one of my two favorite blockbusters.

8. Il Divo. This is the only foreign-language film on the list as I haven't seen many of the better ones of '09 yet.

7. The Brothers Bloom. Charming. Zany. Fun. Both sweet and dark. Naturally I liked it, and it's one of the films I'm most looking forward to revisiting.

6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Everything I said about The Brothers Bloom applies here too (though it's obviously not as dark).

5. Avatar. The blockbuster of the year. Are there other blockbusters I liked more? Sure. But there's no denying just how impressive this film is.

4. The Hurt Locker. So good. Mackie is great. Renner gives the best lead actor performance I've seen this year. The direction is great. Loved the supermarket scene. Loved the sniper scene. A fine film.

3. Up in the Air. Honestly, I'm still thinking about this one. Well written. Much better directed than some are giving it credit for. A movie for our times? Sure. But it's a movie for a lot of times. And Vera Farmiga will deserve the Best Supporting Actress nomination I assume (or at least hope) she is going to get.

2. (500) Days of Summer. Honestly, when I started writing this I really didn't think this film would rank this highly. But the more I thought about it I think it's the film that's improved the most with some distance from it. What seemed to be its flaws seem awfully minor with some distance, and there's so much to love about it, starting with the script and the performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

1. Coraline. Nearly perfect as far as I'm concerned. On its own terms I think it's flawless.

Posted by armand at December 29, 2009 10:49 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies


Comments

Since the Oscars are 1 week from today I thought I'd note that of all the '09 movies I've seen since '09, the 1 that I think is the "best" is probably District 9.

Posted by: Armand at February 28, 2010 09:38 AM | PERMALINK
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