Top 10 Films 2009

Now that the entire year is in the books, let's look back on the 10 best films that came out in 2009. It was a solid year for a films both big and small, featuring some top-grade stories and leaps in visual technology that could usher in a new era in digital filmmaking. Here's a list of the best releases of the previous year....

10. 'Watchmen'

Somewhat forgotten due to impossible fanboy demands and a lack of mainstream awareness of the source material, Zach Snyder's faithful and extremely ambitious adaptation pulled off the feat of presenting a cohesive, thoughtful, and striking film based on Alan Moore's graphic novel. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, but to be honest neither was Moore's book, and this film boasts some sequences of bravura filmmaking that are as good as anything produced this year (the Dr. Manhattan creation story) and a gale-force performance from the resurgent Jackie Earl Haley as masked sociopath Rorschach.

9. 'District 9'

Not quite as original or intellectual as some expected before its release, but it turned out to be an explosive and jaw-dropping action piece that stands up there 'Aliens' and 'Terminator 2' as a gem of the scifi/action genre. That those two films are both Jim Cameron flicks is not a mistake. Debut director Neil Blomkamp could indeed be the next Cameron and flashes some serious filmmaking chops in the movie's fantastic set-pieces, notably in a climax where the hero controls a walking mech-warrior suit that can deal a serious punch. Top-tier visuals and an incredible debut performance from Sharlto Copley make the whole thing an exciting breath of fresh air. That this film was made for $30 million is astounding.

8. '500 Days of Summer'

Good romantic comedies are hard to come by, and great ones are damned near impossible. But this quirky yet restrained film hits all the right notes in it's honest portrayal of a love that just won't work. By shirking and even attacking the grating heartlessness of modern romantic cynicism, and even indulging in some earnest and honest sentimentality, it's both classical and new-era at the same time. It's observant and clear in its observations of modern 20-something romance, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt should be a bigger star than he is.

7. 'Up'

Seriously, Pixar might one day go down as the greatest movie studio of all time. It's certainly the most consistent. Their latest is at once more oddball and more mainstream than their other films, and the first 10 minutes might be the best I've ever seen in an animated feature. When their teasers come out a year before each release, I worry that every one might fail, and this one was no exception. But by placing the emphasis on storytelling over visuals (though the animation is always the best around), the people at Pixar have put out another masterpiece.

6. 'Public Enemies'

Many just can't get into Michael Mann's style. They need more back story. They need more consequence. They need more affirmation. Mann doesn't deal in those things. In his razor-precise story of John Dillinger's epic crime spree, he gives you another existential meditation of a character and his moment in time. Dillinger existed purely for the now, with no regard for the future, and this film treats his illicit adventures the same way. The high-def camera gives every frame a stunning immediacy, and Johnny Depp fully inhabits the soul of man willingly hurtling toward oblivion. Toss in some vintage Mann shootouts and a blood-pumping soundtrack, and you've got another excellent entry in the director's obsesso-masculine canon.

5. 'Inglorious Basterds'

Perhaps no film will split audiences this year like this one, but to my eye Quentin Tarantina has produced his greatest piece since 'Pulp Fiction.' If the film was only the first 25-minute scene at the farmhouse, I'd feel like I'd gotten my money's worth. Christopher Waltz should bag himself an Oscar for his performance as Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, one of most mesmerizing and watchable cinematic creations in recent memory, and the Tarantino knack for tense, dialogue-driven stage pieces and blood-spattered insanity is on full display. Every scene, every character, every plot device fits together so perfectly that just watching these people talk is a cinematic joy as only Tarantino can deliver, and it feels as though his whole career has been working toward something like this.

4. 'Moon'

Once upon a time, science fiction was about ideas. In his stunning feature debut, director Duncan Jones has crafted an old-fashioned sci-fi in the cerebral tradition of '2001' and the original 'Solaris,' with a terrific one-man show from Sam Rockwell and incredibly realistic visuals made more impressive when you know that the whole film cost a mere $5 million. But the heart of this one is it's focus on some heavy intellectual cargo, dealing with nothing less than what it is to be human. It's too bad that pure science fiction like this is such a rarity these days.

3. 'The Hurt Locker'

In a male-dominated Hollywood system, you'd be hard pressed to find a ballsier filmmaker than Kathryn Bigelow. Here she's put together the best war film in quite some time and certainly the greatest dealing with current world conflict, crafting the most intense, genuine tension I've seen on screen all year. The idea of following bomb squads at work in the deadly streets of Iraq sounds nail-biting enough, but Bigelow and her excellent breakout star Jeremy Renner make every step, every click, every glance down a dusty alley an excruciating exercise in survival, as well as a fascinating character study of a man born to do this job and nothing else. Top-notch realist filmmaking.

2. 'Avatar'

This isn't just a 'visually impressive' movie as some throw out as half-hearted praise. Film is a visual medium, and the way in which we view them is as integral to the art form as any other element. What Cameron has done here is completely shifted the manner in which audiences view films. He's altered the way we are transported to new worlds and introduced to new characters we never thought we'd see in a realistic or believable way (Zoe Saldana's alien princess Nyteri is a profound leap forward in motion-capture character creation). Complaints about the simplistic, old-fashioned story are sometimes pointed but often completely miss the goal of the cinematic experience. This is a high-epic pulp novel in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs transported to an alien world that has been visualized like nothing else ever on a movie screen. Jim Cameron in an unabashed populist, more concerned with thrilling and wowing and moving large audiences than catering to the cynical, irony-starved sensibilities of his critics. This is classical filmmaking on the grandest scale ever achieved and done so with a grace and beauty of vision that will shape the way films are made from this point forward. It will become a classic, and once again Cameron has proved his doubters wrong. 'King of the World' he remains.

1. 'Up in the Air'

Just as in literature, there are occasionally stabs at the 'Great American Film', a movie so well made, thematically balanced, interpretive of its time, and timelessly universal that it represents a capsule of American art that will stand amongst the canon until this nation is no more. It's about as daunting a task as it sounds, and though I would surely slip into hyperbole if I claimed right now that Jason Reitman has accomplished that with this film....damned if he doesn't come really, really close. In his graceful portrait of a modern America dealing with some troublesome economic and cultural shifts, he lets a pitch-perfect George Clooney capture the screen in a role reminiscent of the movie stars of Old Hollywood. As a disenchanted hatchet man sent to fire other companies' employees, he exhibits all the flaws and qualities and eventually the hopes and dreams of our age, where technology and 'efficiency' replace humanity and decency all too often and with ever greater speed. The film hits every note with both an austere maturity and a beautiful sense of goodwill that leaves any hint of cynicism on the cutting room floor. We can change, if we choose to, and for all the heartache and tragedy present in this airborne tour of the turbulent American landscape, you'll leave the theater feeling good about what we could create at the end of the tunnel. Just slow down and look at each other. Live with each other. When all is gone, job or money or all those other constructs, that's all we really have left.

A gorgeous, genuine, and nearly perfect film at the close of the first decade of the new millennium, and the best film of 2009.