In the spirit of the award season, I was thinking about what my favorite movies were in 2009. Some of them have won Globes and are nominated for Oscars. Who would get my Sly award? Let’s see….
1. Watchmen: I loved this movie. Like 300 before it, it was a grown up graphic novel adaptation. Spiderman and Xmen are great and all, but this was a little more interesting. The “superheroes” in this movie are really just normal people, complete with flaws, crude language and behavior. Dr. Manhattan is my kind of blue guy, The Comedian is my kind of messed up hero and Rorschach is my kind of detached from humanity vigilant.
One of my favorite lines in this movie is when the Night Owl asks The Comedian, after having taken out a group of protesters in the night,
“What happened to the American dream.” The Comedian points to the chaos and destruction surrounding them and responds, “You’re looking at it” It doesn’t have a generic superhero happy ending either, which makes it that much better. When you think you know what’s going on, you find out you had no clue whatsoever.
2. 500 Days Of Summer: This is not your typical love story. It’s not really a love story. It’s more of a boy meets girl who isn’t really all that into him, then she kind of gives in and dates him with the understanding that she’s not looking for anything serious. Regardless, he thinks she’ll change her mind and fall for him anyway. She doesn’t, they break up, he wants her back….etc..It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s fantastic.
There’s singing. There’s dancing and cartoon birds. There’s the amazing, highly underrated Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I love him so, so much and he doesn’t get enough recognition. Like Gary Oldman (also underrated) he gets lost in the character and you barely even recognize him. He can convincingly play anything. I’ve seen everything he’s been in and feel confident in my statement. He’s one of the few actors today who can actually act. There are way too many people out there getting movie roles just because they’re pretty. Joseph is not only pretty damn adorable, he’s also good. Really good. This somehow turned into a Joseph Gordon-Levitt love fest. Sorry.
3. The Hurt Locker: I didn’t care to go see this movie. Thankfully, my husband, who loves war based movies, heard about it and wanted to see it. I read a review in my EW and figured I should check it out. It was awesome. I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s not really a war movie. It’s about a bomb squad unit in a war torn city, sure. But it’s mostly about the main character William James.
He’s a true soldier. He believes in what he does and he’s really good at it. It has it’s light moments as well as incredibly tense ones. So all in all it’s an enjoyable movie that made me care about the characters in it. It would be easy to dislike someone who would rather do a second tour diffusing bombs than spend time with his wife and kid. But I couldn’t bring myself to. I liked him and I respected him. I loved the fact that the main actor was not a big name, which made him and the movie all the more believable.
4. District 9: Another movie I was persuaded to go to because my husband wanted to see it and I read in my EW that it was a must see. I’m such a push over. When the Halo movie (which I was very much looking forward to) failed to come to fruition, the people behind it decided to make this instead.
An alien race finds themselves stranded above the South African city of Johannesburg and the inhabitants are then forced to live in the slums. They are treated like third class citizens and are considered vermin by most. It’s an incredibly interesting concept and the movie was very well done. Just like The Hurt Locker, the actors are relatively unknown, so it was easy to separate the actor from their role and get lost in the story. The fact that it is filmed in documentary style adds to it’s appeal and originality. It made me sad. For me, that was an accomplishment and I’m happy I saw it.
5. Inglourious Basterds: I’m a pretty big Tarantino fan. I own all his movies and have watched them all many, many times. He has a great mix of action and humor that I really enjoy. So this was a must see for me. I loved it. If Christopher Waltz doesn’t win the Oscar, I will be very surprised. He played that role so well. You hated him, but you kind of liked him too. He was too charming to just dismiss as a monster.
I’m a fan of the “fantasy” behind it. There have been many WWII movies made and I’ve seen t0ns of them. We know what happened. Now why not switch things around to what we wish had happened? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that maybe the movie could’ve done without Mr. Pitt. He was used to sell the movie because he was the biggest name in it. Most of his interesting scenes were in the previews however. I used to like him so much. He made interesting movies and chose interesting roles (12 Monkeys,Fight Club, Snatch etc..). But since he’s become Mr. Jolie (I used to be in love with Angelina until she became whatever she is now) he’s been in few movies and his roles have left something to be desired. The most interesting thing he’s been in is “Burn After Reading”. He was funny in it and made the movie a little more interesting. But for that to be the most interesting thing he’s done in the last 6 years? Not good.
6. The Road: I loved the book, and the movie was a very good adaptation. I love Viggo Mortensen, and I’m kind of disappointed he didn’t get recognized for his role. He brought a face to this character who would do anything to protect his son. And the emotion in his face was heart wrenching. I believed him. I didn’t feel like I was watching a performance at all. He WAS that father.
The movie is a little slow going. It’s a flat out drama. There are no light, funny moments. Which, considering the story, is fitting. I don’t think that people who are starving and struggling to survive on a desolate planet are likely to crack jokes.
I’m happy they stayed true to the book. There’s nothing I hate more than when they alter a crucial part of a book or the ending. “I am legend” was made into 3 movies, and none of them stayed true to the story. Of course Will Smith and Moses couldn’t die without a hero end. They couldn’t just be murderers. Movie goers can’t accept that apparently. But “The Road” stayed true, and for that and Viggo, I am making it my number 6 favorite movie of the year.
There they are. Of the movies I saw in 2009, these were the ones I liked the best. Now I need to come up with an original looking metal statue to give out.