2009 IN REVIEW PART TWO: My TOP TEN Favorite Films Of The Year

I have to tease you a little bit more folks as I will begin this section with what I call "NUMBER 11." These are the few short films that I awarded four stars to yet ultimately did not make it to the final ten. If I could have a slot for 11, then these films would all be there.

NUMBER 11

"THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS" Directed by Terry Gilliam
Gilliam's long overdue return to great filmmaking form also served as a loving tribute to Heath Ledger who died midway through this film shooting schedule. This is a fantastical ode to time, mortality and the endless power and art of storytelling filled with Gilliam's trademark visual skill and featuring terrific performances from Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer and the trio of Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law who graciously came to Gilliam's aid in friendship and tribute.

"WATCHMEN" Directed by Zack Snyder
This adaptation of the classic and still heavily influential graphic novel had long thought to be unfilmable. While many of those who saw this grim three hour film probably still think it is unfilmable, I was very surprised with how faithful and visionary it turned out to be. Unlike many superhero themed movies, "Watchmen" was not an immediate experience. It is a dark film for dark times and meant to be re-visited and savored. I must give special mention to Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley who provided the film's best performances as Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach, respectively.

"MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT" Directed by Kenny Ortega
What an honorable tribute this film is! Beyond that, it was a great window into Jackson's creative spirit as we caught a two hour glimpse of the artist at work, and an artist he definitely was. While watching this film, I became reacquainted with someone who has been a part of my life since birth even when I spent years not listening to a single note of music he recorded. It made me re-evaluate his vast musical legacy as he has inspired ore people than any of us could possibly realize. I think the richness and quality of his talent and art are things we just may really be beginning to take notice of as he was so much more than a pop star and this excellent film vibrantly leads the way to a newfound perception and understanding of this extremely complicated figure.

"STAR TREK" Directed by J.J. Abrams
Now, this one hurt to leave off of the Top Ten as it was a top-of-the-line summer movie going experience. Abrams and his excellent team of writers, cast and crew schooled all of Hollywood with how to make a big budget science fiction film work beautifully. It also somehow accomplished something nearly impossible: it made a film that could appeal to the life long fans and complete novices equally while simultaneously making the entire...ahem...enterprise feel revitalized and fresh again. I could not have asked for anything more...except for the sequel to begin immediately after the end credits scrolled!

...and now...

MY TOP TEN FILMS OF 2009

10. "THE SOLOIST" Directed by Joe Wright
I think I am the only one who loved this movie and I still stand by it! Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. gave terrific performances in a film that offered no easy or trite answers to the current societal tragedy of our homeless population and the mental health care of the forgotten. It also focused strongly on the death of the newspaper, the healing power of music and the precarious steps of friendship between two men--a friendship that provides the truest solace and tether to the world. This film's humanity spoke volumes to me and again, it probably contained the single best visual representation i have ever seen in any film of how one connects spiritually to music.

9. "A SERIOUS MAN" Written, Produced and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Inscrutable, uncompromising, witty, unnerving and that ending! I applaud the Coen Brothers greatly for not resting on their creative laurels by refusing to pander to mass audiences and in this case, forcing us to explore the meaning of our own existence...if there's any meaning to it at all. This is one nihilistic ride that contains uncomfortably huge laughs. It is written as a screwball comedy and directed like a psychological thriller. I am still wondering about it months after having seen it.

8. "INVICTUS" Directed by Clint Eastwood
This is an inspirational sports movie that inspires profoundly and the masterful Eastwood again shows why he is one of our greatest cinematic storytellers working today. I was excited that the story of Nelson Mandela's attempts to unify South Africa after apartheid through the 1995 Rugby World Cup focused on Mandela, the politics and the people rather than Matt Damon's rugby player and his team. It took what would have been a standard cliched sports movie and turned it into a stirring experience of how, during a country's most divisive state, unity can still be discovered and achieved.

7. "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS" Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Revisionist history, revenge fantasy and a treatise on the power of cinematic propaganda are all set into brilliant play in this hugely entertaining World War II epic. Tarantino again shows why when he makes a film, people pay strict attention as his peerless writing depicted five staggeringly well written short stories banded together into an incredible whole while his direction should be a lesson to all new filmmakers in our "Transformers" world when discovering how to create real tension. The first sequence, 25 minutes of crackling dialogue, set in a farmhouse and beautifully delivered in part by the amazing multi-lingual Christoph Waltz as the insidious Col. Hans Landa was supreme.

6. "ADVENTURELAND" Written and Directed by Greg Mottola
The spirit of "American Graffiti," "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" and "Dazed and Confused" lives on in this melancholy ensemble comedy set in a dilapidated theme park at the dawn of the early '90s recession. The plight of overly educated college students grappling with graduating into a dead-end job world and numbing their pain of compromised and sometimes lost dreams with drink and pot was deeply empathetic and highly perceptive, insightful, funny and heartbreaking. Having lived through this exact experience myself as I spent four years toiling away at a bookstore after college, it got everything just right!

5. "HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE" Directed by David Yates
This soulful and sorrowful penultimate chapter in the saga of teen aged wizard Harry Potter was the finest cinematic entry to date as it showed the heavy, aching steps towards childhood's end.

4. "PRECIOUS" Directed by Lee Daniels
This was a steamroller of a movie yet it never descended into histrionic melodrama. The story of an overweight, illiterate, abused teenage girl discovering a newfound sense of self worth in a world that does not want her to have it was an excruciating experience. Yet the powerful performance of Gabourney Sidibe and the volcanic performance of Mo'Nique gave this film an ocean's worth of humanity

3. "CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY" Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Moore
Arriving 20 years after his debut feature "Roger And Me," Moore presents what seems to be a cumulative statement of everything he has protested so far. Delivered with satirical passion and fury, Moore delves beyond partisanship to rally against a world that has already sailed over the cliff into one of economic, humane and spiritual decay. While the effect was often overwhelming and sometimes left me feeling hopeless, Moore then gave us two stories meant to inspire and ignite a flame within us all as people definitely do have the power.

2. "WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE" Co-Written and Directed by Spike Jonze
This film has already earned a spot on my favorite films of the decade as it is a watershed experience in films designed for children. This is a sad, gorgeous, and stunningly poetic movie that truly understands what it means to be a child and never for a moment treats its intended audience like commodities. If any filmmakers are wondering just how to take a ten minute book and turn it into a two-hour movie, start here.

1. "UP IN THE AIR" Co-Written and Directed by Jason Reitman
The one that reached me the deepest. This film, about a traveling corporate hatchet man, purposely adrift from all human connection, had the surest of Directorial control as the tone remained light yet contained the proper gravity and tragedy of this exact point in our country's history. It is completely in tune with the current pulse of economic anxiety, devastating layoffs and mass firings and how our communal spirit is slowly being eaten away in our increasingly disconnecting electronic age. George Clooney gives his finest performance to date while Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick should be applauded for each giving excellent performances and true depictions of 21 century career women. Yet, the bulk of the credit falls on the shoulders of Reitman, who brilliantly adapted the screenplay from the novel, performed his finest direction to date and created a film that speaks to its time yet remains timeless. The highest achievement of the year.

There you have it, dear readers! My favorites of the year and after a short break, I will begin to chart my new cinematic escapades of 2010.

Thank you all for reading, as always!!