The Years According to Grouchy

[Grouchy]

On this thread, I will post my Top10s for different years. The thing that will distinguish this from me doing the same or very similar things every once in a while is that I will only be allowed to post about the years from which I've seen 100 films. So far there are only three of those years, soon there will be a couple others.

As a bonus track, the worst film from every year.

Let the nastiness begin.

2004 (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?p=378148&posted=1#post378148)
2008 (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?p=377992#post37 7992)
2009 (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?p=380057#post38 0057)

[B-side]

Cool.

[MadMan]

I'm down.

[Grouchy]

2008

http://www.blogdecine.cl/wp-content/themes/blogdecine.cl/images/2009/01/425_clooney_mcdormand_burn_aft er_reading_050708.jpg

10. Burn After Reading
Joel & Ethan Coen

I'm a huge Coen Brothers fanboy. I simply adore and gush over the way they tell intrincate stories that defy every normal perception of conventional plotting. This is not one of their finest projects and yet it's so singular and uniquely funny it still stands out tall amongst any other comedy produced in 2008. Shot in DV (with Emmanuel Lubezki filling in for Roger Deakins) it's a small parody of XXIth century spy cinema that works on several levels. The scenes with J.K. Simmons are a delight, and Brad Pitt's fate gets me everytime.

9. WALL-E
Andrew Stanton

Probably the most ambitious thing Pixar has attempted so far. It has a premise worthy of Arthur Clarke and a silent first act that's simply a master of storytelling. I was in awe for entire duration of that. After that it lowers the quality just a tiny bit, but it's still fucking great. Scenes like the dictionary definition of dancing set to WALL-E's crazy bouncing around space are a feat for the eyes and the heart of any reasonable moviegoer.

8. Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood

You know, when the first trailer for this came out, I remember laughing my ass off. I kind of remember most of Match-cut did too. The Eastwood as a cranky racist old man who learns the value of having Korean friends seemed like the starting point for a so-bad-it's-good movie. I am so glad I was wrong. Gran Torino is a honest, human drama with excellent writing and pacing. If Clint is really not going to do another movie as an actor, this was the exact right note to retire on. I'd much rather see him act again and again than watch J. Edgar, though.

7. Let the Right One In
Tomas Alfredsson

If nothing else mattered, this is the best vampire drama I've seen in my life. I'd like to read the original novel and see how it compares. No desire to see the remake, obviously - this film is just very good. Oskar and Eli are a couple the cinema shouldn't forget. Their story is sad, bittersweet, and sinister to the max. Other than a bit of funny-looking CGI during a particular scene, this film is fucking perfect. Alfredsson, previously a director of comedies, has crafted a memorable Horror love story.

6. Transsiberian
Brad Anderson

You know how every movie with classic suspense gets compared to Hitchcock? Every once in a while one comes along that really deserves the comparison. What Anderson does here is create a claustrophobic and psychological ride that really stands on its own. The cast is uniformly great (Kingsley, Harrelson, Mortimer, even Noriega is better than his usual self) and the story, set in a train ride in cold Russia, will surprise you from the start. Plenty of twist and turns and unexpected character motivations. I enjoyed every second of this.

http://filmsmell.com/wp-content/uploads/Hunger-movie-i02.jpg

5. Hunger
Steve McQueen

This visually amazing film by newcomer McQueen just floored me on first viewing. The way he told the story of Bobby Sands, fully using the power and impact of still images and audio, still resonates with me. And the scene between Fassbender and the priest, which interrupts a long stretch of movie with no speaking, is simply an amazing dialogue. This film is well aware of how good it is and it's not afraid to show it. By the time it ends it's like you just walked out of a devastating experience.

4. Martyrs
Pascal Laugier

And speaking of devastating experiences. I think this might be the most controversial pick - I don't know how's the consensus here. I do know that surrounding the sadism, violence and cruelty of the material I see a story that touches on several themes, specially relationships between prisoner and master, revenge and social classes. If someone asked me to show them a movie that would both mentally scar them for life and yet provide food for thought, this is one of the few non-Eastern films I'd name.

3. In Bruges
Martin McDonagh

Overrating it? Nah. I think In Bruges has the potential to be a cult movie for generations to come. It just needs more exposure. I see nothing about it I don't love, from the coke-snorting midget to the Mexican stand-off between Farrel and Fiennes. Speaking of which, this might be his best creation in a long list of cold-blooded villains and hitmen. I've actually been to Bruges and remembered this movie fondly most of the time I was there.

2. The Wrestler
Darren Aranofsky

A departure and a turning point for Aranofsky. Another jewel in Mickey Rourke's battered crown. The resemblance between Rourke's chaotic, disaster-ridden career and the misadventures of The Ram is always present watching this film. You could argue that this (and Aranofsky's spiritual follow-up Black Swan) are films that speak about show business, and about the lives of those who live and die for it. It's not a subtle film, but it hit me with an astounding power and it still does every time I catch the ending on TV. Marisa Tomei, also. She's so juicy.

http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/15813/The_Dark_Knight_5.jpg

1. The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan

Too predictable? Whatever. I've been expecting this kind of live-action Batman movie for most of my adult life. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Bruce Timm's version in general is hard to beat, but this is as good as the Caped Crusader is ever gonna be on the big screen with actors of flesh and blood. What Nolan does with the character that Burton and Schumacher absolutely missed is to give his world a sense of reality and urgency. Batman fights crime. And that crime feels and sounds realistic even if it really isn't. It renders the previous saga moot as far as thrills go.

And of course, we have Heath Ledger's performance, which is even better than the movie as a whole. His Joker is genuinely menacing and random. We sense that there has been a lot of work in Ledger's mind behind this performance - the script doesn't really cover it or explore the Joker behind his actions, but we as an audience sense there's madness beyond the limits of the writing.

I dislike only two things about this movie. And they are:

1. James Gordon's fake death. I thought it was lazy writing. I also don't think it's in character for Gordon to hide the ploy from his family. I always got this sense that Gordon stands in comparison to Batman as a common family man who's driven but not obsessed by crime-fighting.
2. The scene where the big black con throws the detonator through the window. Hollywood bullshit and just a moment that wasn't earned all-around.

If you think that's enough to step it down from #1, you don't understand how Batman-obsessed I've been through my entire life. I understood this movie as a personal gift from the filmmakers to me.

[Grouchy]

Worst of 2008

http://sobrecomic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/the-spirit.jpg

The Spirit
Frank Miller

I hope whoever thought giving Miller full reigns on a feature based on Will Eisner's work was a good idea was fucking canned. Frank Miller is a creator who went the opposite way of most people in life. He started out a narrative genius and he ended up a blabbering fool too in love with himself to realize how juvenile and idiotic he is. Sin City is cool and all, and it's his creation - I don't really dislike that. But to ruin Will Eisner for the cinema is a crime that can't be forgiven.

That without mentioning how fucking bad this movie is. And it really is very, very bad.

[Lucky]

Dear Zachary and Vicki Cristina Barcelona definitely would have made my list. Transsiberian and Let the Right One In would not have. I am reminded that I want to see Hunger...

[EyesWideOpen]

The Spirit > The Wrestler

[Irish]

Good list to kick off the thread. Particularly like the write ups on In Bruges and Gran Torino (never understood the disdain for the latter by some folks here).

I think I might have seen Burn After Reading. If it's the same movie I'm thinking of, you are crazy.

Everything you said about Frank Miller needs to be quoted and shouted from the rooftops.

[Grouchy]

Dear Zachary and Vicki Cristina Barcelona definitely would have made my list. Transsiberian and Let the Right One In would not have. I am reminded that I want to see Hunger...
Even though I've seen more than 100 movies from 2008, Dear Zachary isn't one of them. I'll fix that.

The Woody Allen would be in a Top 30.

[Lucky]

Even though I've seen more than 100 movies from 2008, Dear Zachary isn't one of them. I'll fix that.

I believe it's still on Netflix instant watch if you have that.

[Lucky]

I think I might have seen Burn After Reading. If it's the same movie I'm thinking of, you are crazy.

Crazy in that he thinks it's good, or something else he said about it?

It's my favorite Coens movie behind Fargo.

[MadMan]

I've seen your Top 3 and also 10, 8, and 7. I thankfully avoided The Spirit, and everything I've been hearing makes me not regret that decision. Funny enough my #1 of 2008 is actually The Wrestler, with my #2 being TDK, so its switched around.

My Top 10 for 2008 looks somewhat different from yours. In Bruges barely misses the cut, but I imagine a second viewing would probably elevate it. I'll admit that the trailers did not prepare me for how funny and intelligent that movie really was. And yes Ralph Fines is both sinister and hilarious, but let's not forget that Collin Farrell was the most underrated of the three (the other being Brendan Gleeson, who is usually amazing no matter what, at least from what I've seen).

[TGM]

The midget in In Bruges was actually Jordan Prentice, not Peter Dinklage.

[Irish]

Crazy in that he thinks it's good, or something else he said about it?

I completely forgot the movie existed, and didn't remember a single thing about it until Grouch mentioned that thing with Brad Pitt in his write up.

That stirred a vague kind of memory ... suffice to say I'm surprised it made his cut, especially considering most of the other picks are much, much stronger.

[Robby P]

I'm pretty sure Burn After Reading would make most match cut posters' lists for best of 2008.

[Kurosawa Fan]

It's on mine. Love that movie.

[Glass Co.]

Yeah, it's slowly creeped up into being one of my top five Coen films (still yet to see a few like Blood Simple mind you).

[Grouchy]

The midget in In Bruges was actually Jordan Prentice, not Peter Dinklage.
You are right. Could've sworn it was Dinklage.

[Dukefrukem]

These are great lists so far! the Spirit I have at the bottom of 2008 as well, next to Saw 5 and Shutter.

And I LOVE seeing Martyrs on your list!! very surprising!!!!

[Grouchy]

2004

http://thegspotgirls.files.wordpress. com/2010/10/shaun_dead-12-inch-talking.jpg

10. Shaun of the Dead
Edgar Wright

The greatest thing about Shaun (and this is a common place by now when talking about this) is that it not only parodies the zombie genre, it's also a great example of it. It's as thrilling an apocalyptic aventure as anything actually serious that came out inmediately after or before it. Simon Pegg came out of the sitcom Spaced and reached international fame with his role here as Shaun, a British man who faces a zombie apocalypse the same way he faces everything else in life - by going to the pub.

9. Kung Fu Hustle
Stephen Chow

While Chow has been around making slapstick kung fu comedy for a while now (I'm also a fan of God of Cookery and Shaolin Soccer) this is the film that made him reach out to the Western world. It's heavily influenced by the Looney Tunes and it cleverly combines skilled wire work fighting and CGI. This film may not make everyone's cup of fucking tea, but if you are on its zany wavelenght, then there's not much you can do to resist it. Even if you think you wouldn't watch a kung fu film for the world, I dare you not to be amused by this one.

8. The Incredibles
Brad Bird

This is my favorite Pixar creation so far. Why? Well, maybe it's because I'm a comic-book nutjob and I appreciate well-told superhero stories, specially the ones that analyze the genre. And Bird's film is a clever deconstruction that tackles the problem of a family of supes (I guess Fantastic Four and Marvel Family references are mandatory) trying desperately to fit inside normal Americana suburbia type of living. Or maybe it's just because it's a rousing adventure with splendid characters and more than one grown up scene. It's also very James Bond-ish, which also suits my tastes.

7. Before Sunset
Richard Linklater

In this sequel to Before Sunrise, made nine years later, Linklater takes back the characters of Jesse and Celine, and reveals that they did not really meet in the train station after all. I spent a long time thinking that the first film was by far the superior one. Now after recently rewatching both I'm not sure. Sunrise has a way of being very exciting because it's about young people living in borrowed time - an adventure. This sequel's tone, despite the similar format of long conversations, is completely different. Jesse and Celine have gone on living, made commitments with different people, and their talk has turned bittersweet because it hides the constant wondering about what could've been.

6. Birth
Jonathan Glazer

French-Bulgarian philosopher Todorov describes the Fantastic genre in literature as "any event that happens in our world that seems to be supernatural. Upon the occurrence of the event, we must decide if the event was an illusion or whether it is real and has actually taken place". I wonder if he ever saw Birth, which stars Nicole Kidman as a widowed lady who is confronted by a 10-year-old kid claiming to be her dead husband. This is an unusual and psychologically heavy movie which raised a lot of talk because of a scene where the kid and Kidman seemingly have sexual contact. But the scene is tasteful and cleverly blocked by framing and, stupid controversy aside, the film is very interesting.

http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/705/705286/dead-mans-shoes-20060509003805848-000.jpg

5. Dead Man's Shoes
Shane Meadows

The Meadows/Considine team delivers an amazing, brutal revenge drama. I remember watching this film for the first time and sensing there was something special about it from the moment Considine enters the frame. Indeed, whereas most revenge dramas are merely wish-fulfillment fantasies (and I thank them for that, don't get me wrong) Dead Man's Shoes is a cold analysis of the mind of a disaffected soldier who stands up for what he thinks is right.

4. Downfall
Oliver Hirschbiegel

Now here's a film which I don't think is very enjoyable. It's certainly very long. It has Bruno Ganz in a brutal, uncompromising and depressing performance as Adolf Hitler in his last days. Most of it consists of a bunch of Nazis realizing the war is ending and offing themselves. But while it might not be the best evening's entertainment, it's really unmatchable in terms of ambition and quality of reconstruction. While watching most Hollywood films about the Holocaust, I'm constantly aware that I'm inside a movie set. Watching this I'm stuck in the middle of 1945 Germany.

3. Spiderman 2
Sam Raimi

After watching Spiderman 3 on IMAX my first thought was that this movie was probably not all that I thought it was. The third part was so lackluster, so bad, frankly, that I had to admit that maybe I was overrating this one. But no, 2 and 3 are isolated incidents and Raimi was either overrun by the studio or didn't know when to quit. Spiderman 2, in my opinion, is the masterpiece of the superhero genre so far. Nothing comes even close to it in terms of sheer entertainment. Secondary characters, camerawork, storyline... everything conspires to make this movie a compulsive watch.

2. Kill Bill Vol. II
Quentin Tarantino

'Nuff said. The first half of Quentin's grindhouse revenge saga was pure action. It started out with a bang and ended up with a nuclear blast. Vol. II is deliberately slower - anticlimatic, even. Instead of picking up on the fast pacing of the wuxia and the chambara, it channels Sergio Leone and Walter Hill. Even the final duel with Bill is a duel of idiosincracies, a gender battle for custody, and not an elaborate martial arts set piece. Highlights of this second part are, obviously, the buried alive scene and Pai Mei.

http://www.dimensionfriki.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Eternal-Sunshine.jpg

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Michel Gondry

I remember the first time I watched this, in the theater with my grandpa of all companions, I didn't like it. I don't remember why. It was subsequent viewings on TV, DVD and even online streaming that really sealed it in my brain that this film was something special. It combines the best parts of Kaufman's writing with the most delicate visual trickery Michel Gondry is capable of.

It also has two quality actors such as Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in memorable performances as two lovers who messed up their relationship and now seek to forget each other. The originality of the metaphor and the intelligence of the script really are unmatched, specially for an American movie which might even pass as a romantic comedy of sorts.

This is a movie that endeared itself to me as the years went by and that now I hold as an example of how diverse and poignant the cinema can be.

[Dukefrukem]

I don't know why I've never noticed it before but I think Grouchy and I have the same taste.

[Grouchy]

Worst of 2004

http://www.glogster.com/media/4/16/11/41/16114113.jpg

Troy
Wolfgang Petersen

At this point I'd like to make a distinction. I've seen other movies from 2004. I've seen a DTV Modesty Blaise movie, for example, and The Day After Tomorrow. I'm aware those are worse than Troy. But I'd like to give this prize every year not exactly to the movie that's the most technically inept but to the one that's the easiest to hate.

And I really hate Troy. Why? It takes what could have been a notorious spectacle movie based on the Iliad and turns it into lame network TV stuff. In the middle of hilariously gratuitous money shots of greased bodies we have horrible dialogue and the fakest looking ancients I've ever seen in my life. I already mentioned in my Downfall capsule how difficult it is sometimes to believe in Hollywood when it comes to period movies - well, nowhere was it more difficult for me than here.

[MadMan]

Grouchy and I have the same #1 for 2004. Awesome :pritch:

[Irish]

Really enjoyed these write ups, even though I don't agree with some of their conclusions.

Not a fan of Kill Bill. It's probably QT's most bloated work and exhibits some of his most self indulgent writing. (The final monologue by Bill is one of the most ridiculous things he's ever done, both in that it's completely off character and on the nose).

I hated Eternal the first time I watched it too, and never went back for a second look. In my mind, the premise is dramatically flawed. The emotional reaction people have to it seems to come mostly from their own sense of nostalgia, and not from something the movie's writing actively supports.

Given your review, though, I just may see it again.

[Dukefrukem]

Really enjoyed these write ups, even though I don't agree with some of their conclusions.

Not a fan of Kill Bill. It's probably QT's most bloated work and exhibits some of his most self indulgent writing. (The final monologue by Bill is one of the most ridiculous things he's ever done, both in that it's completely off character and on the nose).

I hated Eternal the first time I watched it too, and never went back for a second look. In my mind, the premise is dramatically flawed. The emotional reaction people have to it seems to come mostly from their own sense of nostalgia, and not from something the movie's writing actively supports.

Given your review, though, I just may see it again.

Hehe. I actually feel the same way about Vol 2 and the final monologue but in my head I just replaced it on the list with Vol 1.

I also hated Eternal the first time i watched it and I still hate it.

[Grouchy]

I guess the first time I saw Eternal I thought it was pretentious. I don't know if it was the same with you guys. I thought it gave itself too much credit just for being original while being like every other movie about romance behind the surface. I was 17 years old at the time, though. Now I see much more depth in Joel and Clementine's story.

The only beef I have with Bill's monologue at the end of Vol. 2 is that it doesn't apply to post-Crisis Superman. But I don't think it's fair to ask for QT to be a comic book nerd on top of all the other nerd fields his mind covers.

[MadMan]

I've only seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind twice. The first time I viewed it I was in high school and it had just come out on DVD. Despite not having any serious relationships at the time, I did know two friends, one male, one female, who broke up three times and after each time came back and tried it again. In the end they remained broken up, but the fact that two people would be so willing to put each other through the ringer and try to make something that clearly wasn't working be effective and last was fascinating to me. I've never had that experience. If I broke up with a girl, I'd be done with her. At least I hope so-if it didn't work the first time, chances are its not going to work again. So the movie was funny, touching, emotional, and slightly wonderful-yet it was only until I revisited the movie this year did I realize how depressing it actually is. Especially the ending, which is insanely bittersweet on so many levels. Whether or not you prescribe to the film's thoughts on love and dating and other things (and I will continue to believe it is a love story with merely some sci-fi thrown in), you can't deny its also very well acted, directed, and that its more than just some dumb rom-com.

Which reminds me that at some point I should revisit I Heart Huckabees again, seeing as even though I didn't quite understand most of the film's philosophical musings I still thought it was fantastic. Now that I've actually taken some philosophy and have grown up a bit, I think the movie would be more clearer to me.

[Lucky]

2004 was a good year. Freshman year of college for me and one of my heaviest film watching years.

I would also acknowledge The Aviator, House of Flying Daggers, Collateral, Closer, and The Dreamers. Can't argue with your picks, either, although I didn't care for Kung Fu Hustle and Spiderman 2. I can understand the appeal though.

[Grouchy]

2009

http://img.blogdeblogs.com/cinetelia/uploads/2009/03/drag-me-to-hell_l.jpg

10. Drag Me to Hell
Sam Raimi

I went back and forth over putting this on my list a few times. Ultimately, I think it deserves a spot. I've already seen it more than twice on TV and it's amazingly entertaining. Raimi is at his best playing with the archetypes of Horror to make goofy slapstick comedy. There's not even one second where this movie is actually scary, but it's enough for me that the set pieces are so inventive and over-the-top and that it has some of the feel and the innocence (strange use of that word) of "Tales from the Crypt".

9. Coraline
Henry Selick

With so many films out there made for children that subestimate their intelligence and try to mold them into happiness and conformism, it's a relief to know that something like this can still be made. Neil Gaiman's story of a girl finding a bizarre paralell universe where there are twisted versions of his friend and family is a movie that, in my humble opinion, opens children's minds instead of surrounding them with fences.

8. Where the Wild Things Are
Spike Jonze

Here's another film about the world of children, although, to be fair, I think this is more of an arty drama for parents rather than something directly intended for kids. Regardless, Jonze's comeback film is a keeper - it looks and feels like no other film I've ever seen through a seamless combination of puppetry and CGI. It also has a great cast, both in and out of monster costumes.

7. Moon
Duncan Jones

I probably should rewatch this to see if it's as good as I currently thing it is, but it's good enough for me. This is hard, brainy sci-fi that takes the genre and its implications seriously. And this kind of genre film is one that hasn't been regularly made in a long time. Sam Rockwell is the man to sell this film, too. I don't think watching many other people alone with themselves (literally) in a spaceship would be so entertaining. Duncan Jones's follow-up, Source Code, is more cookie cutter but still very entertaining. A good companion film for this? Silent Running with Bruce Dern.

6. Mother
Joon-ho Bong

South Koreans are a crazy folk, like so many of their filmmakers spend their lives showing us. This crime drama focusing on a woman desperate to prove the innocence of her mentally challenged son in a murder case starts out one way and then undergoes not so much a twist as an expansion of its story. Elements that we had overlooked or not analyzed properly enter the film to make it something else, greater and more complex than the already challenging thriller we'd been watching before. Few feature films even attempt things like that and, really, the only reason I keep watching cinema so compulsively is to find the ones that do.

http://vivedigital.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/a_serious_man1.jpg

5. A Serious Man
Joel & Ethan Coen

I probably would enjoy (and understand) this one a lot more if I was Jewish. As a "goy", it's still a pretty adventurous ride. I suspect a director gets to make a film as independent as this in Hollywood once they have won an Oscar. The Coens direct this anarchic comedy of paranoia with no stars, a script that's rich in observations but completely meandering an a supernaturally good reconstruction of its time period. It's a movie that's frustrating, bittersweet and more than a little cynical and that feels completely authentic.

4. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Werner Herzog

I have a pretty strong stance against remakes, and specially those of films that I already love and cherish. Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant is such a film. But really, how can you accuse Werner Herzog of anything? He hadn't even seen the original film but found the script an interesting excuse to shoot a movie in New Orleans post-Katrina and to work with Nicolas Cage. The result is the darkest comedy that has ever had me laughing in stitches, something completely different and unrelated to the drama starring Harvey Keitel. I'm very happy that both movies exist.

3. A Prophet
Jacques Audiard

This French prison drama covers the life story of Malik. He stars the movie as the victim of circumstances, a guy who attacked a cop and who has no family or anything to hold on to so he's thrown into prison. The system works him, wrings him but doesn't quite defeat him, as he begins scaling positions inside the joint until he becomes a wrongdoer rather than a victim. This is all told with an amazing realism and sense of inmediacy. A Prophet is not a movie that has a story that's never been seen before, but I think the world it takes place in, with its constant clashes of culture and power structures, hasn't been shown like this to my knowledge.

2. The White Ribbon
Michael Haneke

This is just an astounding film. It has the best black and white cinematography I've seen in at least a decade. It introduces us into the world of a small German village which is as dense and multi-layered as any universe I've seen in cinema. What's worse, it disturbs and shocks us purely because of its incredible atmosphere, without resorting to any parlor tricks. And it raises a number of questions few filmmakers have asked before. What are the limits of control we can have over society? How does fascism originate in the minds of the people? Is it possible to get at the truth when the whole social structure is founded in lying?

http://www.colisito.com.ar/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/inglourious-basterds-poster-official.jpg

1. Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino

You gotta hand it to QT, he's definitively not a conformist. I mean, the guy could be sleeping on his well-earned reputation, making a new film every few years out of the talent that falls out of his pocket. Instead, he seems to make a genuine effort to outdo himself with each new film, or at least to make something different and provocative that keeps him in the map of the great directors.

This WWII adventure finds its inspiration on the classic ensemble films of old Hollywood, specially The Dirty Dozen - I find something very similar in at least the basic premise of the two films. But in typical Tarantino fashion, the film is about something else entirely other than its premise and soon we find ourselves completely involved in a doomed romance and a revenge story, while the heroes of the title and poster serve as background comedy.

One more thing - the movie stars with a sequence so strong that it could've been directed by Sergio Leone himself.

[Qrazy]

You know I didn't make the connection that the Michael Stuhlbarg from A Serious Man was Rothstein in Boardwalk Empire until just now. Good actor.

[Grouchy]

Worst of 2009

http://daddytypes.com/archive/pbk_bones.jpg

The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson

Just what the hell was this, I don't fucking know. Word goes around that the novel this is based on is quite good. But being better than this film is not any kind of achievement. Here Jackson tackles his chosen material (a murdered/raped little girl sees her family struggle with pain from the after life) with the maturity of an ADD chimpanzee. Apparently Heaven (or whatever limbo the girl ends up in) is an Epson TV commercial that works pretty much like a social club for murdered kids. Earth doesn't fare much better, as Jackson seems to think that the more he moves his camera in weird directions, the stronger a scene will be. There are a couple of moments here and there that make you wish this was a better film, and Stanley Tucci is actually brilliant, but overall it's incredible that such a disaster has been made and approved by a production team.

I guess after LOTR and even King Kong, Jackson simply doesn't have anyone around that dares to stop his hubris. Susan Sarandon has a couple of really embarassing scenes that seem like they were simply edited from a completely different film.

[Grouchy]

You know I didn't make the connection that the Michael Stuhlbarg from A Serious Man was Rothstein in Boardwalk Empire until just now. Good actor.
Hahah yeah I noticed that. Great actor.

[MadMan]

Some really great choices for 2009, a year that I consider along with 2004 to be the best of the 2000s. Although granted I'll admit that when it comes to 2006-2008 I'm a bit behind-yet I still like my lists from those years, too.

[Irish]

Great picks. Particularly like the inclusions of Bad Lieutenant, Mother, and Moon.

I need to strenuously disagree over your number one choice. Basterds is a perfect example of Tarantino resting on his laurels, and given his proclivities, playing it about as conservatively as he can.

Personally, I don't think he's done much fresh or interesting since he fell out with Avery.