Top 10 Movies of 2009

These are my favorite narrative movies released in 2009.  In Descending Order:

10. District 9

9. Humpday

8. Broken Embraces

7. Inglorious Basterds

6. Drag Me To Hell

5. In the Loop

4. Black Dynamite

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox

2. The Class

1. Goodbye Solo

Some other movies I really liked, in no particular order are: Hurt Locker, Moon, Humpday, Bruno, Antichrist, Star Trek, Precious, Big Fan, Bronson, An Education, A Single Man ,The Imaginarium of Doctor Panassus, World’s Greatest Dad, Avatar, Observe and Report, Paranormal Activity, Precious, Up, Where The Wild Things Are, The Informant, The Girlfriend Experience, Funny People, Sin Nombre, Adventureland, Watchmen, Coraline, Extract, Away We Go, Rudo y Cursi, Whatever Works, A Serious Man, Whip It, Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans, 500 days of Summer, Nine

2010 Academy Award Predictions

Bold is who will win and italicized is who should win.

Best Picture

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

A Serious Man

Up

Up in the Air

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

George Clooney in Up in the Air

Colin Firth in A Single Man

Morgan Freeman in Invictus

Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Helen Mirren in The Last Station

Carey Mulligan in An Education

Gabourey Sidibe in Precious

Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Best Director

Avatar for James Cameron

The Hurt Locker for Kathryn Bigelow

Inglourious Basterds for Quentin Tarantino

Precious for Lee Daniels

Up in the Air for Jason Reitman

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon in Invictus

Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Christopher Plummer in The Last Station

Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz in Nine

Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air

Mo’Nique in Precious

Best Animated Feature Film

Coraline

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Princess and the Frog

The Secret of Kells

Up

Best Foreign Language Film

Ajami form Israel

The Milk of Sorrow from Peru

Un Prophete from France

El Secreto de Sus Ojos from Argentina

The White Ribbon from Germany

Best Adapted Screenplay

District 9

An Education

In the Loop

Precious

Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The Messenger

A Serious Man

Up

Best Art Direction

Avatar

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Nine

Sherlock Holmes

The Young Victoria

Best Cinematography

Avatar

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The White Ribbon

Best Costume Design

Bright Star

Coco Before Chanel

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Nine

The Young Victoria

Best Documentary Feature

Burma VJ

The Cove

Food, Inc.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Which Way Home

Best Documentary in Short Subject

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner

The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

Music by Prudence

Rabbit a la Berlin

Best Film Editing

Avatar

District 9

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

Best Makeup

Il Divo

Star Trek

The Young Victoria

Best Original Score

Avatar

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Hurt Locker

Sherlock Holmes

Up

Best Original Song

“Almost There” in The Princess and the Frog

“Down in New Orleans” in The Princess and the Frog

“Loin de Paname” in Paris 36

“Take It All” in Nine

“The Weary Kind” in Crazy Heart

Best Animated Short Film

French Roast

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty

The Lady and the Reaper

Logorama

A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live Action Short Film

The Door

Instead of Abracadabra

Kavi

Miracle Fish

The New Tenants

Best Sound Mixing

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Star Trek

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Sound Editing

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Star Trek

Up

Best Visual Effects

Avatar

District 9

Star Trek

Best Movies of the Decade

10. Cache

9. The Man Who Wasn’t There

8. Talk To Her

7. Grizzly Man

6. There Will Be Blood

5. Far From Heaven

4. City of God

3. Punch Drunk Love

2. Y Tu Mama Tambien

1. The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Here is a list of the movies that I absolutely adore, but did not quite make the cut:

Oldboy, Adaptation, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, The Squid and The Whale, Almost Famous, Children of Men, Kill Bill Vol. 1, No Country for Old Men, The Triplets of Belleville, Hedwig and the Angry inch, Goodbye Solo, The Aviator, The Fall, Battle Royale, Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, The Royal Tenenbaums, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mysterious Skin Amelie, Sideways, The Class, Half Nelson, Knocked Up, Man Push Cart, Brokeback Mountain, Once, Man on Wire, Chopper, Ghost World, Primer, Ratatouille, Requiem For A Dream, Lost in Translation

Upcoming Movies

These are my most anticipated movies of late 2009.  In a ascending order.

The Boat that Rocked

By the Director of Love Actually.  This looks very fun with the likes of Billy Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Nick Frost.

Sherlock Holmes

Directed By Guy Ritchie  I do not love his films but the ones I have seen are all very enjoyable.  Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law look perfectly cast.

Ninja Assassin

Directed By James McTeigue The director of V for Vendetta and the first assistant director on all the Matrix movies.  This movie will be a fun little bit of ultra-violence.

An Education

Just because of the Oscar Buzz, but I also like Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

The book this is based on is written by a contributor to This American Life, Jon Ronson.  And with George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges this is a must see for me.

Precious

I have heard this is a lock for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress  Nominations.  And Oprah likes it.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Directed By Wes Anderson,  He’s trying something new with a stop-motion animated movie.  A haven’t read the Roald Dahl book it is based, but Wes has a great track record.

Up In The Air

Directed by Jason Reitman of Juno & Thank You For Smoking.  Just based on those two movies this will be good.

Bright Star

Directed By Jane Campion the director of the Piano one of the very best films of the 90s.  This also has some Oscar Buzz.

Broken Embraces

Directed by the Spanish Auteur Pedro Almodovar,  early reviews have been mixed, but even mediocre Almodovar is better 90% of other movies.

Where The Wild Things Are

Directed by The Phenomenal Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich and Adaptation).  The Book is pretty good too.

Nine

By Rob Marshall the Director of Chicago.  If Rob Marshall was doing another musical I’d automatically see it, but a musical with Daniel Day-Lewis Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman this looks amazing.  Check out the trailer.

Antichrist

Directed By Danish Provocateur Lars Von Trier.  I do not think that this will get a wide release, but watch the trailer it looks incredible.

Avatar

James Cameron’s doing a Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie.  This is supposed to be a game-changing movie.  Count Me in.

The Lovely Bones

Directed By Peter Jackson.  He is doing a Heavenly Creatures type story.  And the book is great and this seems like perfect material for Him.

The Road

Directed By John Hillcoat of the great movie The Proposition.  The Book is only the the best book written in the last 25 years.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Directed by Werner Herzog one of the Best Directors Ever.  An unfortunate title and not a remake of the 1992 Film.  This will be immensely entertaining.

A Serious Man

Written and Directed By Coen Brothers  This is going to be Amazing, just see it no matter what.

Best Movies of 2009 So Far

It’s July and I wanted to do a roundup of my favorites movies of the first half of 2009.  In descending order:

Top 10 Documentaries of 2008

I have a few things to say before I start the list.  First, I am unsure of all of these movies were released theatrically in 2008, but if I saw them on someone else’s list I included them on mine.  Also, I never got around to watching Dear Zachary.  From what I hear, it is a truly special movie and I am waiting for the perfect time to watch it.  Lastly, there were some documentaries that I did not have access to such as I.O.U.S.A, Trouble The Water, Second Skin and others.  I highly recommend all of the movies on the list, but the top three are especially near and dear to my heart.  In descending order:

Some honorable mentions include Religulous, American Teen, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Confessions of a Superhero, Young @ Heart.  I would recommend everyone of these movies also.

The Class

I do not know quite what to say about this.  I saw it with my Mom & Dad and they seemed kind of apathetic to it.  Well I lurved.  Truly a great, great movie.  I am still thinking about the Movie a week after I saw it.  It is a MUST SEE in my book.  I also saw Wendy and Lucy and I Love You Man.  They are both mildly recommended.

Weekend, Watchmen, Breaking Bad

This is a recap of my last few days. Saw Watchmen on thursday. It was great, go see it. Then I watched Fast Food Nation, one word sucked. Next, Standard Operating Procedure, Roman Polanksi: Wanted and Desired, and Gonzo. I’m watching a lot of documentaries for my Top 10 Documentaries of 2008 post. That should be coming in a few weeks (Seen 13, want to watch about 5 more). And tonight Breaking Bad Season 2 premiere. I am super excited. I am expecting great things.

Top 11 Movies of 2008

The reason I have 11 movies instead of 10 is because I watched The Edge of Heaven after I wrote my Honorable Mentions post, but I didn’t want to bump a movie off my top ten list to make room for it so I decided to do a top 11.  So anyways, these are my favorite movies of 2008 and I advise everyone one of you to watch at least a couple of these movies.  In Descending Order.

Which Oscars Did I Get Right?

So I ended up with 20/24 correct.  I missed Best Foreign Film, Best Sound Editing, Best Documentary Short and most embarrassingly Best Actor.  I still can’t believe Sean Penn beat Mickey Rourke.  Have a good night.