Actual Best Movies of 2009

Here are MY picks. These were definitely the best 10, but the order of the list is approximate.

10. Avatar - Yeah, it's kind of dumb. But the experience of watching it is amazing. And you don't realize it's dumb until you've seen the first 2 hours and 15 minutes.

9. Up - I was so moved after just 10 minutes of this movie. Admittedly, the rest was uneven, but it was always either loving told, or dopey but with funny talking dogs.

8. An Education - A very smart story, that pits school learning against life experience, without easy answers. Oh, and it turns out it's a true story--including the most implausible parts.

7. A Serious Man - A Coen Brothers movie that doesn't really have any point or ending, but it was very smart and very very funny.

6. District 9 - Realistic and smart Sci-Fi.

5. Precious - Impressively unmanipulative. Superb acting. You start to feel what it's like to be hopelessly uneducated.

4. Inglourious Basterds - Brilliant script. A real nail-biter, though. Has you cheering (uncomfortably) for vengeful Jews to inflict atrocities on the Nazis.

3. Up In The Air - Very smart script. Sort of romantic comedy. But sort of something deeper, in the spirit of American Beauty.

2. Hurt Locker - Masterfully crafted film about bombs defusing in the Iraq War. The script was written by a guy who was embedded with such a bomb defusing squad. The movie was shot just a few miles from the Iraq border, and the film crew was actually shot at during production. The whole thing is super intense, and incredibly real. One of the movies that tells you its message in the first 4 words of the film, and then makes you forget it completely until the last couple minutes.

1. (500) Days Of Summer - A very enjoyable, very funny, very heartbreaking, insightful look at a troubled relationship. I know it doesn't feel like a best picture, but it's definitely my favorite of the year.


Still haven't seen: A Single Man, Crazy Heart, Invictus, Moon, Good Hair.