10. The Hurt Locker- More a series of vignettes than a by-the-numbers plotted movie, The Hurt Locker is one of the most incredibly intense films to grace the screen in years. Jeremy Renner, who deserves at least an Oscar nom, turns in a pitch-perfect performance in the incredibly tough role of Staff Sergeant William James. He’s brash, reckless, and almost completely shut off from everyone around him due to his addiction to his job as a bomb disposal unit’s team leader. Devoid of any political agenda, the film seeks to illustrate the fact that war of any kind can alienate a soldier from humanity. Each and every scene escalates the tension to the point that it’s almost difficult to watch at times, yet the sure-handed direction from Kathryn Bigelow keeps it from falling apart into a jumbled mess and instead becomes one of the great action pictures of the year. Not bad for the director of Point Break.
9. Avatar- Yeah yeah, the plot is kind of thin, but James Cameron succeeds at what so very few artists are capable of doing: he creates an entire world that actually feels real. Like George Lucas did with Star Wars (the only reference I’ll make to that, I promise) and George R. R. Martin did with Westeros in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, the vision Cameron has with Pandora goes beyond just being a locale for his story and becomes a full, lived-in, living world. Sam Worthington is proving to be a solid actor, if not necesarrily great, and Sigourney Weaver is great as the all too rare scientist without a truly sinister agenda. It’s Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang as Neytiri the warrior princess and human Colonel Quaritch, respectively, who give the most memorable performances. She spends the entire film as the motion-capture realized Na’vi princess, yet like Gollum, she seems as real as the human characters: she has emotions and feelings and, even more extraordinary, never dips into the dreaded “uncanny valley” of animation. Lang, however, is just plain fun: he plays the villain, one of those tough military types who you can’t stand but still enjoy watching anyway. Avatar may not be the truly visionary work that Star Wars (aww crap) was, but it’s still an incredibly enjoyable experience that must be seen in 3-D.
8. Fantastic Mr. Fox- While Coraline had the superior stop-motion animation, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is just plain more fun. Kari and I saw it after Precious, which was an incredibly wise decision, and the sheer joy on-screen is impossible to not get caught up in. George Clooney is perfect as the titular fox, a former thief-cum-newspaper columnist who wants to engage in one last heist despite the protestations of and promise to his wife (Mary Step Meryl Streep). There’s not much detail to go into here; it’s just an incredibly fun ride in a year of good but serious children’s films (Coraline, Where the Wild Things Are, A Christmas Carol.)
7. Inglourious Basterds- Quentin Tarantino returns to form after the disappointing Death Proof. The story of a group of Jewish soldiers in World War II, it’s another film that is notable for two of its performances: Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine and Christoph Waltz’s Col. Hans Landa. Pitt is just plain having fun here, going over the top while still being bearable to watch, while Waltz is truly a revelation as the scheming, slimy Nazi Landa. His role in particular will go down as one of the great screen villains in history. The movie itself is loud, daring and incredibly entertaining, with a scene in the basement of a bar that’s as thrilling and intense as anything in The Hurt Locker. It may not be historically accurate (like, umm, at all), but it tells an entertaining story, which is all you really need.
6. (500) Days of Summer- I still don’t get those parantheses… anyway. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in the most original romantic comedy I’ve seen this year, and possibly ever. What I at first thought was going to be a gimmicky, twee exercise turned out to be an entirely enjoyable film that has the best use of Han Solo outside of Star Wars (oops) ever. Ever.
5. Star Trek- I loved this movie. At the risk of looking lazy (yep), I’ll let this clip speak for the enjoyment to be found here:
Heh. Pew.
4. Watchmen- It was enjoyable in the theaters, but the Ultimate Cut of the movie really brings it to life. I am in the minority who thought it was a worthy adaptation of the classic graphic novel, but aside from Malin Akerman’s performance (which was by no means truly terrible, but like Katie Holmes in Batman Begins, she was weak when everyone else was strong) I found it to be about as perfect as we could ask for. The inclusion on the DVD of the Tales of the Black Freighter scenes help flesh out the drama while also being a nice nod to fans, and smaller character moments sprinkled throughout make it easier for the layman to be drawn in. The best scene by far, and what cemented the movie so high on this list, is the inclusion of the death of Hollis Mason. Like the opening credits sequence, it’s just pure poetry on celluloid. It’s not the best comic book film of all time (The Dark Knight, duh), but it’s as solid as could be hoped for, changed ending and all.
3. Up in the Air- What an incredibly sad film. George Clooney gives another terrific performance (this time live-action) in Jason Reitman’s third home-run. Seriously, the guy’s three for three with this, Thank You for Smoking and Juno. Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man whose job is to fire people so their employers can essentially save face. He makes no lasting attachments and “lives” in an apartment that’s more spare than the hotel rooms he frequents. Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman and Danny McBride all contribute to this terrific mini-ensemble tale of a man who cherishes being alone. It’s funny and heartbreaking at the same time, and ends on a melancholy note of redemption sought after and lost, but the road ahead opening up to endless possibilities.
2. Ponyo- Like My Neighbor Totoro, this is proof positive that master director Hayao Miyazaki is just as good at telling children’s fables as he is epic fairy tales (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas are surprisingly perfect as, respectively, Ponyo the goldfish daughter of a sea wizard and Sosuke the school boy. It’s beautiful, charming and magical and proof still that Miyazaki is interested in story first and style second. The underwater world is just as beautiful and realized as anything seen in Finding Nemo and the humanity of each character brings depth to what could have easily been a one-dimensional “cute kid’s flick.”
1. Up- I know, this list is out of the order set by the halfway through the year list, but I saw Up at least twice after I made that and it affected me more and more each time. If this movie had been the first fifteen minutes followed by eighty minutes of Carl’s house just floating through the air, it still probably would have ranked number one. The geniuses at Pixar are still batting a thousand (though I’m very leery of Cars 2) and Up is quite possibly one of their top outings yet. Ed Asner is just perfect as Carl Fredricksen, an aged widower who decides to fulfill the promise made to his wife when they were young. The opening montage is one of the most moving scenes I’ve ever seen in a film, evoking tears each time I saw it, and the rest of the film is a perfect balance of adventure and true, honest character development. It never steps wrong, there’s not a single false note in the entire film (not to mention that amazing waltzy score…), and, like Ponyo, it tells a good story first and foremost. Emotionally resonant without being cloying or manipulative, Up is the best film of the year and one of the best of the decade.
Runners up: 17 Again, A Christmas Carol, Adventureland, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Duplicity, I Love You Man, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Monsters vs. Aliens, My Sister’s Keeper, Public Enemies, Terminator Salvation, The Blind Side, The Hangover, The Proposal, The Informant!, Whip It
Next time: the top 50 (!) films of the decade. And please, don’t start on the “but the decade isn’t over until the end of 2010″ stuff. I do not care. See if you can guess what’s going to be on there.
Kyle said I only update this when I see movies and… yeah, I (shamefully) guess he’s right. Like last year, here’s my half(ish) way through the year Top Ten. This year, there’s no sure-fire lock for the best movie of the year from me, but everything in at least the top five are incredibly solid entries and would be worthy of the top spot.
From 10…
10. 17 Again- Yeah, that one. In a surprisingly witty comedy, Zac Efron plays Matthew Perry’s younger self (….right) in a movie that should have been a cheap rehash of Big but instead comes into it’s own as a decent teenage comedy. It’s predictable, to be sure, but there’s more wit to the script and many more laugh out loud moments than I expected.
9.I Love You, Man- Raunchy, yes, but also incredibly funny. Paul Rudd is a dweeby schlub who befriends Jason Segel because he needs a best man at his wedding. The movie features Rush and coined the awesomely stupid phrase “totes magotes,” so I’m happy.
8. My Sister’s Keeper- Again: yeah, that one. What should have been a standard order weeper turns out to be an incredibly well-acted, written and directed study on how illness effects different members of a family. Granted, there are some tears to be shed and it diverts greatly from the book’s ending, but it features strong performances from Cameron Diaz (not kidding), Jason Patric (really not kidding), Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva and Alec Baldwin so it never feels manipulative.
7.Sunshine Cleaning- Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are pitch-perfect as sisters in this drama that studies the toll loss of a loved one can take on a family. Sure it’s funny and has some great gags, but the heart of the movie is the relationship between the sisters and how they and their father (Alan Arkin) deal with their lives catching up with them after ignoring tragedy for so long.
6.Away We Go- John Krasinski needs to be a star now. He never once reminds you of Jim throughout the entirety of this movie, a bittersweet fable chronicling his trek across America with his girlfriend (Maya Rudolph, also eschewing her television roles in favor of a rich, truly developed character) in search of the perfect home. It’s quirky and eccentric, but it’s so sweet and good-natured even under the… colorful language that it’s hard not to fall for these two characters.
5.Moon- Sam Rockwell pretty much stars alongside himself in this brilliant, low-key science-fiction film. It has shades of a horror film, a psychological thriller, and a satire against big business practices, but instead of suffering from shifting tone or any other problem that plagues such ambitious material, the film always strikes the right note and becomes a tale that asks the questions “what is the true cost of human life, and how can that be measured?”
4.Watchmen- This is about as good a film adaptation of the material as we’re going to get, and Zack Snyder delivered it well. There were a few shaky spots with the performances (mostly from Malin Akerman), yet almost everything that was done was done right. Even the controversial changed ending worked in favor for the film and, though it may be heresy to say so, might have actually made more dramatic sense than the original. Kudos to Jackie Earle Haley for being perfect (perfect) as Rorschach.
3.Up- Ed Asner voices Carl Fredricksen, a man who you know what, Pixar can do no wrong. At least, I hope so…. ::cough:: Cars 2 ::cough cough:: Still, the wordless montage at the beginning (backed by Michael Giacchino’s lovely waltzy theme) is one of the most beautiful scenes ever put to film.
2. The Hurt Locker- An utterly brilliant character study that follows a group of EOD soldiers in Iraq as they deal with the stress and fear of disarming bombs. Jeremy Renner is perfect as the team leader, a late replacement in the rotation who takes the opening quote of the film (to paraphrase: “war is a drug”) to heart. He walks into situations that would make any normal man act cautiously and almost laughs at them. However, he’s not painted as a macho, two-fisted action hero; instead, the film examines how the thrill of war can take a toll on a man and make him almost dependent on the adrenaline. There are six or seven “events” in the movie, each one more breathtaking and intense than the last. Kathryn Bigelow has directed what may very well be one of the top contenders for the best picture Oscar.
1. Star Trek- I’m just going by the fact that I haven’t had as much fun watching a movie this year as I have watching Star Trek. It utilizes the time-travel and reboot devices very well, features terrific performances (Eomer as Bones?! Eeeee!), and is just an all around great time. I look forward to seeing more adventures with this crew in the future, and must commend J.J. Abrams for making, if not the best Trek film, then at least by far the most enjoyable and accessible one. Also: the Kobayashi Maru scene still makes me laugh (pew!).
There you go. Check back in about five months (kidding…. I think) for my final list for the year. If you read this. Which you don’t.
I debated to myself whether or not I should do commentary, but I’m lazy, so I didn’t. And therefore won.
And, per usual, I did 20 because everybody else does 10 and there were too many good movies to limit the list to such a small number. It was a good year for movies indeed.
The Best Films of 2008
20. U2-3D
19. Horton Hears a Who!
18. Definitely, Maybe
17. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
16. Bottle Shock
15. Tropic Thunder
14. Pineapple Express
13. Burn After Reading
12. Appaloosa
11. Slumdog Millionaire
10. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
9. Rachel Getting Married
8. Iron Man
7. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
6. Transsiberian
5. WALL-E
4. The Fall
3. Frost/Nixon
2. Doubt
1. The Dark Knight
Honorable Mentions: The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Valkyrie, Kung Fu Panda, Marley and Me, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Redbelt, Cloverfield, Be Kind Rewind
If that list surprised you in the least bit, then I guess you really don’t know me. In that case, hi, I’m Jay.
Here are the lists for 2001-2007, because, well, I can and I frankly don’t want to write reviews for all of them.
2001
1. Vanilla Sky
2. Amelie
3. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
4. Donnie Darko
5. Monsters, Inc.
6. Zoolander
7. A Beautiful Mind
8. The Royal Tenenbaums
9. Ghost World
10. The Man Who Wasn’t There
2002
1. Spirited Away 2. Insomnia 3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
4. Catch Me If You Can
5. Possession
6. About Schmidt
7. Chicago
8. About a Boy
9. The Pianist
10. Gangs of New York
2003
1. Lost in Translation
2. American Splendor
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 4. Big Fish
5. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
6. In America
7. Finding Nemo
8. Kill Bill Vol. 1
9. Whale Rider
10. City of God
2004
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Hotel Rwanda
3. The Aviator
4. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
5. Kill Bill Vol. 2
6. The Incredibles
7. Million Dollar Baby
8. Steamboy
9. Before Sunset
10. Finding Neverland
2005
1. Batman Begins
2. Sin City
3. Munich
4. Capote
5. Junebug 6. MirrorMask
7. Serenity
8. Pride & Prejudice
9. Crash
10. Howl’s Moving Castle
2006
1. Stranger Than Fiction
2. United 93
3. Apocalypto
4. Rocky Balboa
5. Pan’s Labyrinth
6. Casino Royale
7. Children of Men
8. Marie Antoinette
9. Half Nelson
10. Akeelah and the Bee
2007
1. Lars and the Real Girl
2. Into the Wild
3. Juno
4. Ratatouille
5. Once
6. Waitress
7. The Savages
8. 3:10 to Yuma
9. Zodiac
10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
I’ve been posting lists of my personal favorite films of the year with short reviews of each for the past five years now, starting in 2003. As such, I never did lists for the years 2000-2002. So, the next few posts will be dedicated to a list from each year. Because I feel like it. So, enjoy…
The Top Ten Films of 2000
10. Erin Brockovich- I honestly didn’t have incredibly high hopes going into this one. I wanted to see it, to be sure, but I wasn’t expecting to be truly engaged by it. However, while it is a fairly run-of-the-mill law procedural, it is incredibly well acted (most notably Albert Finney), and takes its time getting where it’s going instead of having quick and easy resolutions. I appreciate a film that uses its time wisely, and while it is long, there’s hardly a wasted minute in its entirety.
9. Memento- Honestly, this is probably Chris Nolan’s second weakest film, if only because his work continues to get stronger and stronger. There’s no need for a plot synopsis, as most everyone is already familiar with it if they haven’t seen it. Still, it takes a fairly straight-forward plot and, by tweaking the narrative, goes from a standard thriller to a one of a kind work of art.
8. Unbreakable-By far Shyamalan’s best film. One of the most original superhero stories in recent years, Unbreakable tells the tale of an everyman (Bruce Willis, awesome) and his slow realization that he is indestructible. Coupled with his limited telepathic ability, he sets out to be a superhero with the persuasion of Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson; holy crap Pulp Fiction/Die Hard with a Vengeance reunion). While the ending does feel a bit rushed (it was planned as part of a trilogy), the acting is solid, the story is low-key and contemplative, and Shyamalan had yet to succumb to the hamfistedness and pretentions that would plague his last few works.
7. Cast Away- Who didn’t cry when he lost Wilson? Containing what is no doubt one of the most difficult performances of any actor’s career, Tom Hanks carries the film through long stretches of silence and yet still keeps us firmly rooted in the humanity of the subject (you, paradoxically, feel lonely right along side him). It’s sprinkled with good humor, has a satisfyingly open ending, and, as far as I can tell, conveys the effects of loneliness on a man quite well. Plus there’s that awesome volleyball.
6. The Virgin Suicides- Sofia Coppola has yet to make a bad film. Like Nolan’s Memento, this is her weakest, but her debut is better than some entries from directors who have been working for decades. It’s incredibly bleak, yes, and you get exactly what the title gives you, but it’s stunning in its simplicity. It’s obviously shot on film and almost feels like an old Super-8 home movie. Like in Lost in Translation, Coppola uses music to capture a mood quite to perfection, and she directs Kirsten Dunst in possibly the best performance of her career.
5. High Fidelity-John Cusack plays a record store owner who gives a running tally of his most memorable (for better or worse) relationships. All of the characters feel lived in and like real people conversing, not running lines off of each other, which is a problem that plagues many a motion picture, play and television show these days. His fellow employees, played by Jack Black and Todd Louiso, are just average people who work in an average (and yet incredibly awesome) record store, going about their day to day lives while spouting off endless Top 5 lists. The story moves along at a realistic pace, with the characters speaking and reacting just like any average person would. It works because it’s real enough to relate to and yet has just enough touch of fantasy to be truly engaging and unique.
4. The Emperor’s New Groove-I think between the two of us, Kyle and I could quote this entire movie. One of the last truly great American standard cel-animated movies, The Emperor’s New Groove is just one of those fantastic movies that’s enjoyable no matter how many times you see it. The characters are great, the animation is bright and cheerful, and almost all of the jokes stick. Plus, everybody loves Kronk.
3. You Can Count on Me- Anchored by two fantastic actors (Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo) and a strong script, this movie takes a look at the lives of two adult siblings and how they act when forced to make decisions that they don’t necesarilly want. Linney’s character is a single mother whose younger brother, played by Ruffalo, unexpectedly shows up and wants to stay for a time. She begrudgingly agrees, but soon regrets it when her son suddenly bonds with her brother. At times brutally funny and utterly heartbreaking, You Can Count on Me tells a realistic story with realistic consequences, and has one of the most positive religious figures I’ve seen in a movie in quite some time.
2. Love’s Labour’s Lost-If life were a musical, I don’t doubt that it would be like this. Taking one of Shakespeare’s least popular plays and making it a song-and-dance showcase is risky, especially when hardly any of the cast is trained at such things, but this movie is just so wonderfully goofy it’s impossible not to like it. Kenneth Branagh is, no matter what anyone says, batting a thousand with his stagings of Shakespeare, and while this was universally derided and critically lambasted, I still say it’s a wonderful romp that would be a joy to live.
1. Almost Famous- Was this really a surprise? It’s my favorite movie, after all. I’ve written pages and pages on how much I love this film and there’s nothing I can say here that would be any different from anything I’ve already said. All I know is it surprised me as a movie: I went in expecting an enjoyable experience, which I got, and yet when I watched it again, I realized that it was my favorite movie. I’ve probably seen it about twenty times now and it still surprises me, yet nothing can match the slow realization of favor that I just described. Or maybe, like Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) says, it chose me. (Nah, too pretentious.) Truly a wonderful film, and the best of this decade by far.
Runners up: American Psycho (but not recommended), Chicken Run, The Contender, Frequency, Innocence, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Perfect Storm, Pitch Black, Pollock, Requiem for a Dream (again, not recommended), Shadow of the Vampire, The Whole Nine Yards, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, X-Men, and Wonder Boys
I took this idea from a critic I read (http://www.reelviews.net/movies.php). He did a halfway through the year top ten movie list (two months ago), so I decided to do the same thing. 8 months into the year.
From 10….
10.Cloverfield- I was on the verge of death (or… close to it) when I saw this and I still enjoyed myself. The mystery of the monster and the fact that we know nothing about it absolutely makes this movie. That was kind of the point, you know.
9.My Blueberry Nights- Not incredibly emotionally involving, but it’s so gorgeously shot and well acted (even Norah Jones gives a good performance, despite what the critics have said) that it’s hard not to recommend it. It’s cute and sweetand just a bit corny. That’s why I liked it.
8.Horton Hears a Who!- Finally, a good adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book. The CG route was the best way to go with this type of story and it paid off in spades. One of those “big goofy smile” movies, as in I was wearing one the entire run time.
7.U2 3D- One of my favorite bands put on a heck of a show. It’s pretty much nonstop music and, save for a ham-fisted “COEXIST” message (you’ve seen it before; the word is spelled out with “symbols” of major world religions) it’s a constant entertainment filled with great music and high energy.
6. Smart People- This one was a bit under the radar. Dennis Quaid gives a great performance as a college professor who, after suffering a mild seizure, has to be chauffered around by his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church, who, even playing the same role in everything, is still a gem). A great tale about how even the smartest people aren’t especially bright.
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- So they nuked a fridge. Who cares? It completely captures the feel of an era and is just fantastic entertainment from beginning to end. Harrison Ford could still totally kick the crap out of me.
4. Iron Man- Robert Downey Jr. Awesome.
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall- On some level, I’ve enjoyed each of the Judd Apatow movies I’ve seen (depraved though they may be). Forgetting Sarah Marshall, however, strikes the perfect note between crass and, uhh, heartwarming, I guess. It tells a complete emotional arc and utilizes sweatpants in better ways than I ever imagined.
2. WALL-E- I do want to see it again knowing how they handled the humans, but this movie has possibly the best onscreen romance that I’ve seen in years. And it’s between two robots. Weird.
1. The Dark Knight- No surprises here. See last post.
I was also a fan of Be Kind Rewind, Redbelt, Definitely, Maybe, Get Smart, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Speed Racer (despite my best efforts), Kung Fu Panda, Jumper, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Hancock (also despite my best efforts), 27 Dresses (and a third time) and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
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