Stephen’s Top 10 of 2009

Posted by Stephen Jannise

1. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
What can I say about director Spike Jonze? He has made only three feature-length films in the past ten years, and all three have been masterpieces well worth the wait. Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers have done an amazing job at extending Sendak’s original work for the screen, and you will continue to find little details to love each time you watch the film. By the end of the film, I get that heavy feeling in my chest that happens on those rare occasions when a film has affected me not with easy sentimentality but with genuine sadness, some kind of longing.

2. BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS
After all these decades spent in jungles, deserts, and arctic tundras, director Werner Herzog has finally found the one example of a contemporary urban landscape that accomodates the themes that have captured his imagination throughout his career, the one place within modern human civilization where, at least for a brief moment, the realities of nature became inescapable: post-Katrina New Orleans. Nicolas Cage takes control of what could have been a run-of-the-mill crime procedural and explodes scene-after-scene with sometimes head-scratching humor. I hope to see this new partnership with Cage continue…”till the break of dawn, baby!”

3. SUMMER HOURS
This film deals tenderly with the increasing indifference with which newer generations treat the possessions of their dying ancestors. After their mother dies, three siblings ultimately decide to sell her estate and all the valuable works of art and decor contained therein. Having essentially fled the nest and not seeing much value in retaining a house in France filled with inherited vases and sketches from dead painters, the three choose to capitalize on these items instead. In one particularly moving scene, the maid that had served the household for decades asks if she might keep a small vase that reminds her of the deceased matriarch. The three siblings are happy to let her have it, unaware that the appraiser had just declared the vase to be the most valuable item in the house. To the maid, however, the memories contained within the vase are priceless. The film does not judge the changing values represented by these three siblings but does go so far as to shed a tear for the lost connections between generations and the commodification of personal inheritances.

4. ANTICHRIST
Antichrist is sure to encourage debate among fellow moviegoers regarding the historically poor treatment of women’s mental health, the increasingly ugly nature of sexual conduct in a relationship gone wrong, and one’s individual beliefs regarding gender dynamics themselves. And as with any Lars von Trier movie, there will also be plenty of post-film discussion concerning the art of cinema and filmmaking technique, even though this is arguably one of his most accessible films, stylistically speaking. In a year in which many good films did not necessarily encourage thought or conversation days, hours, or even minutes after being seen, Antichrist has stayed with me, haunted me in fact, for weeks. That has to count for something.

5. CORALINE
The debate over best animated film of 2009 continues to rage between supporters of Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Am I the only one who remembers Henry Selick’s gem, Coraline, released way back in February? Not only does Selick best his popular 1990s hit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, but he attempts the unthinkable: he tries to convince the children in the audience that they should be content with their sometimes lame, never perfect parents. As the film’s heroine soon realizes, everyone is imperfect, including herself. When the obnoxious kid next door, Wybie, whom Coraline had written off as annoying, has his mouth sewn shut in Coraline’s imaginary world of perfection, Coraline quickly realizes that a friend who goes along with everything you say and never expresses an opinion of his own is not really a friend worth having. If you were lucky enough to see this film during its theatrical release, chances are you had these themes delivered to you in stunning 3-D animation. This was, in my opinion, 2009’s most visually stunning film, Avatar be damned, and it was coupled with the year’s best score, composed by Bruno Coulais. See it on Blu-Ray, if you can.

6. BRIGHT STAR
Considering how hard it is these days to find a decent romantic drama, especially one that doesn’t have “From the author of The Notebook” printed on the poster, Bright Star came as a much needed breath of fresh air. Abbie Cornish, as poet John Keats’s great love, joined An Education’s Carey Mulligan in that group of actresses worth keeping our eyes on, and young Ben Whishaw does a noble job of keeping up with Keats’s romantic language. The real revelation, though, is Paul Schneider, who appears weekly on NBC’s Parks and Recreation as a bemused cad. In this film, he is an outright scoundrel, declaring his undying loyalty to best friend Keats in one breath and trying to steal Keats’s girl in the next. His final lines are heartbreaking. Along with The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow and An Education’s Lone Scherfig, director Jane Campion made this a banner year for our filmmakers of the fairer sex. More, please.

7. A SINGLE MAN
The film’s success derives from its remarkable ability to make you feel genuine grief for this fictional character, thanks in large part to Firth’s subtly persuasive performance as George Falconer. I’m not sure if Firth was drawing on some tragic experience from his own past, or if he’s just that good, but from the first moment he appears on screen, you get the sense that you are observing a truly desperate man in mourning, not an actor playing a man in mourning. This is a fine debut from Tom Ford, and a reminder that Colin Firth’s career has been somewhat disappointing, considering that the talent he clearly demonstrates as an actor has really only been put to good use here and in a BBC miniseries a long time ago.

8. THE ROAD
This is a film that contains a number of horrifying images, events, and characters. Taking place in an ashen, post-apocalyptic landscape, Mortensen’s father character and the son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, are trying to make their way to the coast through a seemingly never-ending assortment of robbers, murderers, and cannibals. However, as frightening as these scenes are, they are merely there to illuminate what is the father’s ultimate fear: that he will die before he is able to provide the son with whatever he needs to distinguish right from wrong, to be a good judge of character, and, most importantly, to survive. See it with your parents if you want to realize their greatest fears, and should you have children of your own some day, see it again to realize your own.

9. UP
Something tells me you have already seen this movie, so I won’t waste your time trying to convince you of its greatness. Just one question: did you see this story of an old widower clinging desperately to a houseful of memories that are slowly floating away as an allegory for Alzheimer’s disease? Watch it again; it’s all there.

10. THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
At its core, this is a film that will never grow obsolete thanks to its frank portrait of sexual relationships in an age of materialism. However, this is also a film adorned with particularly timely elements, regarding the 2008 presidential election, the economic downturn, and films released in 2008 like Man on Wire. This film is, in many ways, Soderbergh’s 20th anniversary revisiting of the human sexuality he first considered in 1989’s sex, lies, and videotape. And, like that film, certain aspects of the The Girlfriend Experience depreciate in value with each passing day. So see it now, before it’s too late.