Best Films of 2009

2009 was a fairly lackluster year overall in movies (or maybe it was just my darkened mood), but there were some gems. I admit that I didn’t see everything that might have merited consideration on a year’s best list (anything animated, either of Meryl Streep’s much-lauded performances), but there are plenty of others to champion the popular choices. This list, as usual, is made up the movies that stirred my soul, most of which were little seen by the general public and long forgotten at awards time.

The very best film of 2009, in my opinion, has been sadly absent from most Best Film lists. Sin Nombre, a Spanish-language film by a fledgling Japanese-American filmmaker out of Oakland, California, tells the incredibly moving story of two refugees fleeing north on a train through Mexico: a poor Guatemalan girl and a Mexican boy trying to escape gang life.

The Hurt Locker has been deservedly praised, but an even more impressive movie to me on the psychological legacy of the Iraq war is The Messenger, directed by and written by an Israeli army veteran and featuring a pitch perfect cast led, most notably, by Woody Harrelson.

I was prepared to hate Inglorious Basterds after seeing the trailer, the very premise of which seemed ridiculous and patently offensive. But somehow in his mad genius, Quentin Tarantino managed to make a movie that is breathtaking in its audaciousness and resonant with a love for cinema itself. It is also a work of new maturity and discipline, with the exception of Brad Pitt brilliantly cast and filled with moments of almost unbearable power.

Two performances stand out over all others in 2009: Cristoph Waltz, in Inglorious Basterds and Mo’Nique in Precious. If they don’t win Oscars there is no justice.

So here they are, my nominations for best and worst in cinema in 2009. [Note: As always, films and performance are listed in the order in which I saw them during the calendar year, not ranked within categories.]

The Best of the Best
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country: What journalism is all about, citizen reporters risking their lives to tell the truth.
Inglorious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino rewrites no less than the history of the modern world.
Sin Nombre: Love and death on the road to El Norte.
The Messenger: Two soldiers reckon with the repercussions of the Iraq war in their personal lives and in their role as “death notification” officers.

The Best of the Rest
12: A retelling of 12 Angry Men through the lens of the social and political realities of modern day Russia. The epilogue says it all: “The law comes before everything, but what’s to be done if mercy comes before the law?”
Hunger: A graphic and thought-provoking examination of political protest at its most extreme through the story of Bobby Sands and the infamous IRA hunger strike at Maze Prison.
Il Divo: A blackly comic satire of the venality of political corruption as depicted through the character of former Italian Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti.
Sugar: This tale of a minor league baseball prospect is really about the immigrant experience, movingly told by the talented writer/directors of Half Nelson.
Revanche: A moody meditation on consequences and responsibility following a rash act. This Austrian film was one the five nominees for Best Foreign Language film last year but didn’t get its US theatrical release until this year.
(500) Days of Summer: A love story is told out of chronological order, allowing us to see what we might not see otherwise. The wonderful young actor Joseph-Gordon Levitt adds another strong performance to his resume.
The Baader Meinhof Complex: Another penetrating look at the extremes of political ideology, in this film espoused by the radical European leftists who believed that violence was the only way to overcome an oppressive society. Another 2009 Foreign Film Oscar nominee released domestically this year.
Lorna’s Silence: Do our choices free us or make us prisoner? The Dardenne brothers look at conscience and expediency in a cruel, cruel world.
A Single Man: Fashion designer Tom Ford astonishes with this beautifully shot, wonderfully directed, heartbreakingly acted portrayal of a man at a psychological crossroads. Colin Firth delivers the performance of his career.

Most Underrated Film of the Year
Two Lovers

Most Overrated Film of the Year
Up in the Air

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers
Edgar Flores, Sin Nombre
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Fassbender, Hunger
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Viggo Mortensen, The Road
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress
Paulina Gaitan, Sin Nombre
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Catalina Saavedra, The Maid

Best Supporting Actor
Liam Cunningham, Hunger
Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Bruno Ganz, The Baader Meinhof Complex
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles
Kodi Smith-McPhee, The Road

Best Supporting Actress
Melanie Laurent, Inglorious Basterds
Johanna Wokalek, The Baader Meinhof Complex
Mo’Nique, Precious
Samantha Morton, The Messenger

Best Ensemble Acting
---Everyone except for Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds (Christopher Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Denis Menochet)
---Marina Gedeck, Morrtz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz, The Baader Menihoff Complex
--Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, The Messenger

60 Second Oscar
--Jason Bateman and Jeff Daniels, State of Play
--Steve Buscemi, The Messenger

Most Deliriously Demented Performance
Nicolas Cage, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans

Breakthrough Performance of the Year
Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Best Director
Quentin, Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds
Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre
Uli Edel, The Baader Meinhof Complex
Oren Moverman, The Messenger

Worst Director
Michael Mann, Public Enemies

Best Original Screenplay
Sin Nombre
The Messenger

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Baader Meinhof Complex

Best Cinematography
Tetro
A Single Man

Best Art Direction
A Single Man

Best Score
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, The Road

Worst Score
Crazy Heart

Best Love Story
Sin Nombre

Best Anti-Love Story
(500) Days of Summer

Best Documentary
Tyson
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
Every Little Step
Capitalism: A Love Story
La Danse

Worst Movie
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Most Disappointing Movie
Public Enemies

Best Performance in a Bad Movie
Robert Downey, Jr., The Soloist

Worst Performance
Entire cast of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Best Scene
--Bobby Sands and a priest debating the efficacy and morality of a hunger strike-to-the-death in Hunger
--Italian prime minster Andreotti’s confessional monologue on the necessity of evil in Il Divo

--Opening scene of Inglorious Basterds
--An inveterate bachelor, played by George Clooney, talks his would-be brother-in-law out of cold feet at the altar in Up in the Air

Worst Movie Line
Avatar: "Out there beyond the fence every living thing that either crawls, flies, or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for Jujubes.”

Best Films of 2008

For once, nearly all the films and actors vying for top honors at this years /Academy Awards are worthy contenders. Of the five Best Picture nominees, Milk. Frost/Nixon, and Slumdog Millionaire are all superb, intelligent, soulful, beautifully crafted movies. Each would be a deserving winner and I would hate to have to pick between them if I were an Academy voter. But no feature film in 2008 captured my heart like Slumdog Millionaire, a fairy tale both on screen and off. That it was ever released at all, much less has received the attention and acclaim it so richly deserves, is a miracle considering its sometimes harrowing subject matter, its focus on prejudice, poverty and exploitation in a third-world country, and the fact that it was dropped by its own producer after the movie was completed. Fortunately audiences (and another distributor) could see what a great film Danny Boyle had made. The direction, screenplay, cinematography, and performances by both professional actors and actual children from the Mumbai slums put this little miracle of a movie into the top ranks of cinema.

Nevertheless, the two films I consider the very best movies exhibited in 2008 are documentaries and not eligible for the top prize by Academy rules. Fortunately they both are nominated in the Best Documentary category and one of the two, Man on Wire, seems likely to take that prize. This true-life story of a French aerialist quest to walk on a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the 1970s, is another miracle movie, so dramatically and engagingly told that it reaches a level of spiritual transcendence. This animated portrait of one man’s quixotic obsession touches on the universal—the wonder of our own yearnings but also the wistful recognition of a time of innocence now irretrievably lost. An even more powerful documentary, Trouble the Water, my pick for the greatest movie of 2008, follows the plight of Katrina victims and reveals more about the resiliency of the human spirit than any movie you’re ever likely to see.

On the acting and directing fronts we saw some very strong work in 2008. Sean Penn, Frank Langella, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Leonardo DiCaprio Richard Jenkins, and Mickey Rourke all delivered extraordinary performances. Again, I’m torn between several equally great choices: wanting Sean Penn to be rewarded for truly channeling the spirit of Harvey Milk, or Frank Langella to be recognized for his career-capping work in making us see the needy humanity in Richard Nixon. But if I had to choose I guess I’d give the palm to Mickey Rourke for his soul-searing, emotionally naked work in The Wrestler. Kristin Scott Thomas, who received no Oscar nomination, leads perhaps all the ladies with her work in the very fine French film I’ve Loved You So Long. Kate Winslet is also a very strong and deserving contender for her fine work in two films, The Reader and Revolution Road (both of which are leading not supporting roles, by the way), as was Penelope Cruz for her lead in the underrated Elegy and fantastic turn in a supporting role in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Viola Davis had little screen time but was unforgettable in Doubt. Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler and Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road also gave standout performances in supporting roles.

Ron Howard showed a new maturity and refinement dealing with more intellectual material helming Frost/Nixon. Playwrights Martin McDonagh and John Patrick Shanley showed they have real talent as film directors, too, with the comic yet touching In Bruges and the probing, provocative Doubt. Woody Allen demonstrated he’s still capable of comic gems with Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The big prize, however, should come down to Danny Boyle for Slumdog or Gus Van Sant for his lyrical depiction of the life of Harvey Milk and reminding us how one man can make a difference.

So here they are, my personal nominations for the best and worst in cinema in 2008:

The Best of the Best
Trouble the Water
Man on Wire
Slumdog Millionaire
Milk
Frost/Nixon



The Best of the Rest

In Bruges
Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)
Irina Palm
The Visitor
Roman de Gare
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Elegy
Blindness
I’ve Loved You for So Long (Il y a Logntemps que Je T’Aime)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Doubt

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Dominque Pinon, Roman de Gare
Ben Kingsley, Elegy
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn, Milk
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Michey Rourke, The Wrestler
Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino

Best Actress
Audrey Dana, Roman de Gare
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Penelope Cruz, Elegy
Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You for So Long
Kate Winslet, The Reader/Revolutionary Road
Meryl Streep, Doubt

Best Supporting Actor
Miki Manojlvac, Irina Palm
Stacy Keach, W
Anil Kapoor, Slumdog Millionaire
Jeffrey Wright, Cadillac Records
Josh Brolin, Milk
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress
Hiam Abbass, The Visitor
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vera Farmiga, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Beyonce Knowles, Cadillac Records
Tilda Swinton, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Amy Adams, Doubt
Viola Davis, Doubt
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Best Ensemble Acting
In Bruges (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes)
Under the Same Moon (Adrian Alonso, Kate del Castillo, Eugenio Derbez, Gabriel Porras)
Roman de Gare (Dominque Pinon, Audrey Dana, Fanny Ardant)
Elegy (Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard, Dennis Hopper)
W (John Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeremy Wright, Thandie Newton, Stacy Keach)
Cadillac Records (Jeffrey Wright, Beyonce Knowles, Eamonn Walker, Mos Def, Columbus Short)
The Reader (Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz)
Frost/Nixon (Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt)
Milk (Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch)

60 Second Oscar (They may only have a scene or two, but they were sensational)
Viola Davis

Best Scene Stealer
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Most Intriguing Performance
Marinane Faithful, Irina Palm

Most Overrated Performance
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Breakthrough Performance of the Year
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Young Actors to Watch
Evan Rachel Wood
Eva Amurri
Michael Cera
Asa Butterfield

Best Director
Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
Vadim Perelman, The Life Before Her Eyes
Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Isabel Coixet, Elegy
Fernando Meireiles, Blindness
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Gus Van Sant, Milk
John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Daren Aronofsky, The Wrestler

Most Improved Director
Ron Howard, Nixon/Frost

Best Original Screenplay
In Bruges
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Milk

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Life Before Her Eyes
Elegy
Slumdog Millionaire
Doubt
Frost/Nixon

Best Cinematography
The Life Before Her Eyes
Slumdog Millionaire
In Bruges
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Love Story
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Musical
Cadillac Records

Best Thriller
Roman de Gare

Best Documentary
Bigger Stronger Faster*
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

Worst Movie
Che

Best Scene
Mickey Rourke’s “I’m just an old broken down piece of meat” scene in The Wrestler

Best Song
“I’d Rather Go Blind,” performed by Beyonce Knowles (Cadillac Records)
“The Wrestler,” written and performed by Bruce Springsteen (The Wrestler)

Best Films? Best Actors and Actresses? Oscars for a Perfect World

As most people know or should know, the Oscars are an industry phenomenon--predominantly by, from, about and for the multibillion motion picture industry. Tactics and results are parallel to the labyrinth of lobbyists, influence peddling, block voting, and horse trading that make people hold their noses when they watch Congress in action (or inaction). As a Columbia University trained journalist and professional writer and a film devotee, I've been compiling my own private list of the films and the people I believe should win the Oscars and would win Academy Awards in a more perfect world.

This list makes no attempt to predict who, in fact, actually will win but it's safe to say there is almost no correlation--especially for the films of 2009--between "should" and "will." My tastes and this list are tilted far more toward independents and brave, often little noticed "foreign" films (I prefer to think of them as movies without borders) than anything the industry that is Hollywood would ever sanction.