2009 in Review

I am not a film critic. I don't have the luxury of seeing every film that passes through the cinema. As such, I was unable to see (and review) Up in the Air, A Serious Man, A Single Man, The Road, 500 Days of Summer, and Precious among others. That being said however, I did manage to see a fair amount of films in 2009 and the following is my own personal list of the best films of the past year, along with a random assortment of other awards.

10. Drag Me To Hell

9. Star Trek

8. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call -- New Orleans

7. Public Enemies

6. Moon

5. District 9

4. Up

3. Avatar (3D)

2. Inglourious Basterds

1. The Hurt Locker

Best Lead Performance: Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Honorable mention: Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant, Sam Rockwell in Moon, Sharlto Copley in District 9

Best Supporting Performance: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Honorable mention: Anthony Mackie in The Hurt Locker, Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies

Best Ensemble Performance: Star Trek, Funny People (tie)

Best Direction: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Best Screenplay: Up

Biggest Surprise: The box-office success of Paranormal Activity/The Hangover

Biggest Disappointment: Terminator Salvation. Butchered in nearly every way and completely undeserving of the Terminator name.

Most Overrated: The Hangover. Yeah, it was a decent comedy that made a ton of cash while starring pretty much nobody, but now there’s talk of a possible Best Picture nomination – which is, quite frankly, totally insane. In my mind, The Hangover is a clear cut below such recent comedies as Pineapple Express, Superbad, and Tropic Thunder, to name a few.

Best Franchise Entry: Star Trek. What the Star Wars prequels should have been: well-acted, funny, exciting, and most of all, fun.

Best Visual Effects: Avatar. District 9, Star Trek, and even Terminator Salvation all showcased fantastic effects, but it speaks to the huge leap forward by James Cameron that this category was the easiest call.

Best Cinematography: The Hurt Locker, Public Enemies (tie). The camera is never in the way in Katheryn Bigelow's intense war-time character study. Nevertheless, several perfectly framed sequences are forever seared into my brain due to the understated and extremely effective camera work on display in The Hurt Locker. Equally impressive was the handheld digital photography and traditional filming techniques which combined to create a strikingly handsome and immersive look in Michael Mann’s period crime drama, Public Enemies.

Best Use of Iguanas: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call -- New Orleans. A darkly comic film that deserved to be seen by far more people. The random shots of hallucinated iguanas are just one example of the insanity permeating this bizarre and often hilarious film.

Best Ending: Public Enemies. Michael Mann knows his endings. The combination of music, handheld cinematography, and slow motion creates an ending as poetic as any you are likely to see.