Top of 2009

Goddamn I love Sam Raimi.

Finally we have a horror film, after so so long, that doesn't take itself seriously. Raimi is in top form. He certainly has not "lost it." If anything, he's holding it in, begging for the opportunity to let it out again.

This, clearly, is where his heart belongs. He let it show a bit with the surgery scene in Spidey 2, but here is it completely unleashed.

Sure there is no Ash and there didn't need to be. Alison Lohman or Lindsay Lohan, Christine Brown could have been anyone. They just needed to be willing to have all sorts of craziness throw at them, on them, put in them, and so on. Like Looney Tunes meets bad acid.

Sam Raimi, I can wait for any other Spiderman films (especially after 3), but I cannot wait for your next balls-out, gross-out, laugh-out-loud horror film.

His dialog is sharp. His direction is better than ever. And the performances are spectacular. As always, it was one of the most fun times at a movie this year. Brad Pitt is good, although there was a point where his accent and upper lip got a little old. However, Christoph Waltz was brilliant. He reminded me of Tim Roth, when he was younger and totally fearless. Certainly one of the best performances this year. Other standouts include Melanie Laurent, Daniel Bruhl, and Michael Fassbender (who I didn't even recognize at first). This film is beyond enjoyable and it is so great to see Tarantino improve, yet again.

"Think of all the best moments of your life. Were you alone?" In a time when we, the disconnected connected, can get in touch with each other instantly in any way but in person, how can we develop true relationships? Such is the question of Up In the Air.

It's answer, or perhaps best guess, is beautiful and heartbreaking.

In addition, with the praise of Juno, the majority of it went to Diablo Cody's script, and it certainly deserved the acclaim. However, after seeming this film, I have no doubt that the true magician in Juno was Jason Reitman. At only 32, he has the wisdom of an old sage.

I'm going to try and avoid as much hyperbole as I can in this review. Bear with me:

For those of us who keep up with every minute detail of the film world almost considered Avatar a myth. Its had been in pre-production for almost a decade it would seen. So going into this, I was certain the hype was going to make things difficult. Let me tell you, it did not.

A vision like this is so rarely fulfilled completely. This is one of those rare films that lives on the screen, truly lives. The Na'vi might as well be real. They are so entirely realized that I never once questioned a thing. That is rare.

To develop his vision, Cameron needed some MAJOR technical breakthroughs and again, that promise was fulfilled. I found myself striving for the performances of the Na'Vi characters whenever their human counterparts were on screen. I have no idea how they accomplished the depth, life, and emotion in those blue faces, but they captivated me to the point where I had to remind myself to blink. I have no idea how WETA digital did what they did (I understand the motion-capture tech and all). The range of emotion is simply stunning. Frankly, I think it was the acting equivalent of airbrushing.

Okay, so the IMAX 3D. I've yet to be impressed with any of it thus far. This obviously changed my mind. Namely because they didn't do it for gimmicks. There are no "gotchas" as something flies at the screen. They just lay it in their so naturally that you, cliche I know, are there.

This film is spectacle. Don't expect anything else. The story is basic and predictable. The "message" is VERY heavy-handed, but that will not matter. Not one bit. You are allowed passage into another world that feels absolutely real.

If this isn't me vouching for the film, how about this: I think I can now forgive Cameron for Titanic.

If Where The Wild Things Are was too mature for children and movie like Planet 51 treat children like idiots, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a perfect middle ground.

The animation is superb. In addition, Wes Anderson, by having the actors record dialogue together, as an ensemble, unlike most animated films where it is simply an actor in a box,

Pixar is magic. Seriously, how else can you explain their track record (excluding Cars of course)?

Brutal satire of political interaction on both sides of the Atlantic. It manages to get a stark, quite depressing message across, while at the same time make you laugh until you cry. (How British!) Honestly, there are some of the most brilliantly funny angry tirades -- and insults to go along with them -- that I've ever heard.

Let me tackle the easy part first. The storytelling here is superb. You are not likely to find a more thrilling or tense scene this year than some presented in this movie. Okay, now to the hard stuff.

Whether animal lover, PETA member, or dog kicker, I have to hope that you will be appalled, infuriated, stunned, and shocked by the tragedy presented here. I hope so, because if you aren't, I am concerned that empathy and even apathy might be going extinct. Watch this, please, but just be prepared. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but one your need to take.

An audacious, ambitious tale about the complexities and instability of the emotions of children. Like the Wild Things, Max's emotions and the facets of his personality are playing, fighting, and arguing.

Even beyond the depth offered there, you are treated to some of the most visually stunning characters I've seen in a long time. The Jim Henson company should have awards thrown at them for this work. They truly can make anything come to life. That with the seamless CGI faces made for some stunning eye candy.

But what REALLY brought them to life, for me, was the voice acting. The writing of this unruly clan / dysfunctional family was so realized already that the voices (specifically Gandolfini, Whitaker, and Dano) seemed so natural. Kind of like "of course he sounds like that."

It is a treat. Deep, thoughtful, beautiful, and very personal. Much like Max, there are things I feel (about this film) that I can't quite articulate. Not what I expected, but it knocked me on my ass.

You have your perfect soldier. He is brave, smart, courageous to a fault. He is trained and determined...but only for war. He is no longer prepared for home, for domestic life, to live in the country he's defended. Perhaps that is perfection in the eyes of the military. A solider in war, and a solider at home. All he wants is to get back to it.

Also...

Mrs. Bigelow. Please keep directing.

Totally took me by surprise. Jesse Eisenberg and Martin Starr are fantastic. The relationships are real, and you root for them. They characters are fun, enjoyable, and, as had been desperately missing this summer, human. Ryan Reynolds is great and it is great to see him doing something other than the lovable, sarcastic dude. He is creepy and pathetic and it works.

All in all, it made me smile and laugh and I just kept rooting for it.

Easily the funniest film of the year. It isn't a parody of the blaxploitation genre. It is one. Eternally quotable, this film may be a cult classic. "I'm Gonna Get Your Sucka" WISHES it could be this.

In the early days of the sci-fi genre, robots and alien species that looked JUST LIKE US were the norm. Because at that time, the emphasis was on the fiction park of science fiction. Then the 60s and the Space Age came around and, well, science, research, and actually information became much more available. So it flipped. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey explored the possible dangers of science, the ethic of artificial intelligence. And then a decade later it was back to lasers and implausible, impossible explosions in space. Since then, its been almost all this "soft" sci-fi. The occasional smart, "hard" sci-fi film will slip through (i.e. Blade Runner, Primer). However, all in all, it is hard times for those of us who love the works of Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, and Philip K. Dick.

Director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie!!), clearly, is one of us. He has made Moon, a film that could be the love child of the high-brow, elite space pics 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris, with the blue-collar, everyman, "it's where we work" space of Alien. It is incredibly smart, funny, and hopefully a sign that there is someone out there who can show that SCIENCE fiction doesn't have to be dumbed down.

This is 4 films wrapped in one. It is a sci-fi film to start. Then it morphs into an action film, a small part buddy film, large part satire. It's absolutely wild.

Blomkamp's imagination is boundless. It is so fully realized and expertly executed. The performances, especially the lead, are very good. Well done Tri-Star for getting totally behind this film.

Hilarious and quite unique.

You will learn more about passion, ambition, and, above all, friendship in this little movie, than from any of the numerous melodramatic oscar-baits that come out every year. The friendship of Lips Kudlow and Robb Reiner may very well be of the most amazing relationships I've seen on film in a very long time.

A movie about elevating the dead (despite how they were when living) that is as dark as it is funny. I laughed out loud at this more than anything else this year.

It is an amazing thing to see an actor simply enjoying, reveling in what he is doing. Such is Tom Hardy as Charles Bronson. He is brilliant as the man you are dying to watch and know more about, but terrified to be anywhere near. Hardy captured perfectly that feeling of the unexpected, never quite sure what would happen the next second, as if you just walked in on a wild, cornered animal.

Beyond just his performance, Refn's direction is, as always, a trip. He has the brilliant eye, of course, but I'd like to think that Hardy's performance was helped by Refn's vision.

This will be Zach "Fat Jesus" Galifianakis's big role. Todd Philips helped launch, I mean really launch, Will Ferrell's career as the "quirky, slightly overweight, guy who doesn't quite fit in." In The Hangover he basically chose Zach G to fill that role. I adore Galifianakis's comedy, and he deserves to be well-known.

Everyone else is good, solid. It has some moments of fucking fried gold, some stuff I'm amazed they got away with. But if anything, see it for Galifianakis and Ken "scene stealer" Jeong...seriously, that guy is ridiculous.

To say this film is beautiful is difficult. Visually it is stunning, but its story is ugly. No doubt words like bleak and stark will be attached, and they are all true.

I could have done without the Charlize Theron parts, but they really didn't bother me too much. The final 30 minutes are a little wearing, but all in all, the film is a good adaptation of the wonderful book.