Michael’s Top 10 of 2009
Posted by Michael Thielvoldt
Drag Me To Hell (Dir. Sam Raimi)
I have been making Top 10 lists for some time now. My good friend John talked me into it when I was an undergrad, but little did I know I was signing up for a lifetime of list making. Normally I go with the traditional approach: the ten best films of the year (albeit, in my personal opinion, not in the grandeur canonical sense). This year, however, I have allowed viewing experience to weigh heavily in my ranking assignments. While I readily admit that I enjoyed every film on my list, the singular experience of that first viewing factored significantly into my ranking decisions. So, with that in mind, my Top 10 Films of 2009:
Top 10
1. Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi)
Looks like a film for babies, right?
My viewing of Drag Me To Hell, was quite simply one of the most exhilarating experiences of my film going life. I won’t go into to details here, but let’s just say it involves two families, three babies, police officers, cinema managers, and flying fists of fury. If I’ve adequately peaked your interests, you can read more about it here.
2. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
An ode to Cara
As a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, anything he puts out is likely to grace my top five. His latest excursion into Nazi occupied France is no exception. I watched the film in Houston with my brother Steven, wife Cara, and a packed theater on opening weekend. And, I don’t think any of us were disappointed. In the films climactic theater scene the crowd erupted into applause. Cara, who is a bit fixated on Holocaust narratives, was particularly elated at Tarantino’s bloodthirsty rewriting of history. As we were scuttling out of the theater she proclaimed, “I think he made that specifically for me.”
3. Whatever Works (Woody Allen) / I Love You, Man (John Hamburg)
The dynamic duo in action
Like Tarantino, I will watch anything Woody Allen puts out. And for the most part, I enjoy it—even the not so good stuff. (I’m looking at you Scoop.) With Whatever Works, though, I think Woody has something really special. The narrative is nothing new of course, but his pairing with Seinfeld funnyman Larry David is. And, in my humble (albeit skewed) opinion I think the cynical coupling is comedic gold.
Similarly perfect is the pairing of co-stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel in I Love You, Man. The Apatow-style bromance that developed between Rudd’s awkwardly amusing Peter Klaven and Segel’s man’s man Sydney Fife had me tearing-up with laughter. And having seen it with two male (and hypermasculine) AustinCinephile contributors made the screening an unforgettable male bonding experience.
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (David Yates)
I’ve been watching the Harry Potter films since the beginning, and have loved every installment. Not originally a fan of the books, I took on the task of reading the series the summer leading up to film five. I have to say, the viewing experience before the books is much different than those after them. And, while many times film adaptations of beloved books tend to fall flat on the screen, the Harry Potter series is a pleasant exception. For this film I prepared by recruiting the wifey and our friend Amanda into the series. Leading up to the film’s release we watched the first five installments in a cram session marathon. The payoff: an opening night screening at Alamo South Lamar complete with butterbeer.
5. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
Nick Cage sucked me in. His over the top antics paired with Herzog’s curiously traveling camera made Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans the most surprisingly enjoyable film of the year. Bundled together with a pair of 1970s Cajun music documentaries brought a bit of Louisiana heat to a cold Austin night.
6. Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli) / District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
Inspiringly effective uses of limited budgets are the unifying factors pairing these two films. Paranormal Activity’s director Oren Peli got more jolts out of a camcorder than any filmmaker since The Blair Witch Project’s (1999) Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. Similarly District 9’s Neill Blomkamp, shows us that it doesn’t take Hollywood money to make a Hollywood film. Here’s to a future of ingenious filmmaking over inflated filmmaking. Cheers!
7. The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)
Rian Johnson continues his anachronistic agenda reinventing classic genres. First it was the hardboiled detective noir Brick (2005), which brought the prototypical murder mystery plotline into high school. In The Brothers Bloom, Johnson infuses the con man-heist film with a touch of Wes Anderson aesthetics and quirk. Now, you may be asking yourself how this film is available for 2009 consideration when the be all end all for film info, IMDb, has it listed as a 2008 film? Simply put, I’m going off the May 2009 limited release schedule, which marked the film’s first non-festival screenings.
8. UP (Pete Docter & Bob Peterson)
What can I say: Talking dogs! Talking dogs!! Sold. And, the aging montage is perhaps the most touching piece of cinema ever produced by Pixar.
9. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)
The most fun I’ve had with a film in a good, long while. And, from the opening credits, which overlay the driving rock cords of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” on top of slow-motion imagery of citizens fleeing from the undead breaking through glass and credits alike, I think the filmmakers were having just as much fun making it as I did watching it. I love genre films, horror flicks, and zombie movies specifically. So, to see a group of filmmakers take on this genre with such levity and earnest affection really warmed my still beating heart.
10. Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Jason Reitman brings the same charming character devotion that he did in Juno (2007). And, while Anna Kendrick is no Ellen Page, the two share a similar oxymoronic innocent maturity. Some of the best cinematography and superb editing, Up in the Air is a fitting last minute addition to my Top 10.
Runners Up
A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Away We Go (Sam Mendes)
Coraline (Hanry Selick)
The Road (John Hillcoat)
Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb)
*Note: Obviously, most people do not make it out to see every film released in any given year. I believe Stephen and Daniel are the exception to this generality. I, on the other hand, am not. Therefore, a number of quality pictures are undoubtedly absent from my selection pool. Three of the more notable films excluded from my selection, because I just didn’t see them, are: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, staring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg; Duncan Jones’s sci-fi picture Moon, staring the much beloved Sam Rockwell; and Katheryn Bigelow’s war film Hurt Locker, which is already proving to be an awards show favorite.
