The Virginian-Pilot
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The year at the movies was like no other. In the midst of a recession and high unemployment, people spent more money going to the movies than ever. For the first time, annual box office receipts topped $10 billion. Last weekend, the final one of the year, a record $278 million in tickets were sold.
Sadly, some of the biggest money-making movies were among the worst - at least creatively and intellectually. It often seems that formula has replaced creativity and thought. Are all movies in the future to be made for 14-year-olds in a take-the-money-and-run game of one-big-weekend and then oblivion?
Maybe, but surrender is not imminent. And, after all, those 14-year-olds are smart - smarter, I would bet, than their counterparts of past generations - and their tastes have prompted some amazing technological thrill rides. It's just that other audiences need to be served.
The Virginian-Pilot's Top 10 movie list is a tradition that dates back more than 50 years to the Pilot film and theater critic Warner Twyford. In contemplating the best of 2009, we found at least 10 other films that could have made the list, but, oddly, no classics that will stand the test of time.
With that thought, here, in no particular order, are the choices for 2009:
The most moving movie of the year, this is about the after-effects of war on an Army detail assigned to notify next of kin. It is about the current conflict in Afghanistan but takes place on the home front and could be about any war. Not since "The Best Years of Our Lives" in 1946 has a movie dealt so expressively with the home front. Ben Foster, as a decorated veteran who must adjust to his final assignment as a "messenger," is our choice for the best actor of the year. Tremendous supporting performances come from Woody Harrelson as a gung-ho veteran and Samantha Morton as a widow who becomes involved with the messenger. The directorial debut for Oren Moverman is a gem.
The Iraq war has been hard on Hollywood, as audiences have rejected film after film. Perhaps viewers are getting enough about the war on the TV news. Perhaps it is because the movies tended to point fingers a t the U.S. military. With "The Hurt Locker," Kathryn Bigelow has made the best movie yet about the war in Iraq. (And it, too, has had only moderate box office success.) It is a suspenseful yarn about an Army bomb detonation squad working in a dusty, forlorn part of the world.
This movie, more than any other, touched on America's anxiety in terrible economic times. George Clooney, in the most natural performance of his career, plays a man who flies around the country firing people for timid companies who prefer not to do it themselves. His goal in life is to get 10 million frequent-flier miles. Meeting his dream woman, someone very much like him, is more a threat than a joy, but it happens. Director Jason Reitman hit it lucky in that his film, in production for years, came out at a time that was perfect for its subject. While it's difficult to think of it as a comedy, it is both a social and a personal statement about a man who is content with remaining uncommitted and, literally, up in the air. As a vulnerable preppy, Anna Kendrick delivers the most complex supporting role of any actress this year. Smart and witty, this film dares us to laugh in the face of widespread economic tragedy.
"CORALINE"
In a great year for animated films - including "Up" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - we found the eerie "Coraline" to be the most original and imaginative of the bunch. Its box office take was hurt when theaters pulled it quickly to make room for other 3-D movies. (Not enough theaters are equipped for 3-D). Here, a little girl faces an alternative existence in which her real world is mirrored very nicely, but her parents, and everyone else, have button eyes.
The best performance by an actress was by the new star Carey Mulligan. She plays a brainy British teenager who dreams of escaping her lackluster existence and winds up having an affair with an older man. The film's achievement is in its careful, detailed revelation of its characters. It is sympathetic toward them but open-eyed - leaving the audience to decide.
One of the funniest and darkest comedies of the year concerns a poor soul named Larry Gopnik for whom everything is going wrong. His teen son is stoned. His daughter is concerned only with getting a nose job. His wife is running off with a creep. His job as a college physics professor is threatened. His unemployed brother is sleeping on the couch. Michael Stuhlbarg has the lead role. From the Coen brothers, the film is an original comedy with an attitude.
This was the most exciting, epic and imaginative of the blockbuster adventures. Director J.J. Abrams took a 40-year-old TV series that had generated countless movies, spin-offs and spoofs and made it seem fresh. The movie depicts how the young crew of the USS Enterprise spaceship came together and headed out for the stars.
The best romantic movie of the year is also an anti-romantic movie that proves that guys, too, get dumped. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel act out a comedy-drama about dashed dreams, cruel lessons and hope. Much hope. The musical number in which Gordon-Levitt celebrates new romance is one of the best scenes of the year.
"PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE"
More a character study than a real movie with a beginning, middle and end, this harrowing modern horror experience cannot be denied a place on the list. A Harlem teen is pregnant with her second child, fathered by her stepfather. She faces a bleak, illiterate future until she is helped by strangers. Gabourey Sidibe creates a consistent, scowling presence more than a character in the title role, but still is perfect for the part. Mo'Nique is horrifying as the abusive mother. She emerges as the frontrunner to win the supporting-actress Oscar. Supporters hail this as a movie about people who are usually never seen in movies and are often ignored in the real world.
The bawdy, knockabout comedy of the year makes the list for sheer audacity and for its bromance. Buddies face disaster after a night of bachelor partying in Vegas. A baby is left behind, as well as severe hangovers, but the groom is missing. What happened? In a year in which guys hugged a lot, bromances were as common as romances. This was the best of those movies - and a surprise box office hit.
Honorable mentions
The film that came closest to also making the list is "District 9," which proved that a low-budget science-fiction yarn can be important. It's about space aliens who are isolated and abused in South Africa because they are "different." They rebel.
We also wish there was a place for the delightful comedy "My One and Only" in which Renee Zellweger played a modern, Southern Auntie Mame on the way to Hollywood. Also, we'd like to have included "Moon," a sci-fi entry with meaning.
Other honors
BEST ACTOR
Ben Foster in "The Messenger." Runners-up: Sam Rockwell in "Moon," Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "(500) Days of Summer."
BEST ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan in "An Education." Runners-up: Renee Zellweger in "My One and Only," Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side," Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia."
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"Sin Nombre"
FILM THAT MOST REFLECTED THE MODERN SOUTH
"The Blind Side," followed by "That Evening Sun."
WORST MOVIES
Bride Wars," "All About Steve," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," "Transylmania." So many more could be mentioned, but one works hard to forget them.
SURPRISE HIT
"The Blind Side"
SURPRISE FLOP
"Public Enemies"
MOST DOMINANT MALE MOVIE PROFESSION
Mall security cop. Two comedies, one of them ("Paul Bart: Mall Cop") a huge hit, suggested that security workers in malls deserve more respect, and laughs. Seth Rogen was in the less popular "Observe and Report
MOST PROMINENT FEMALE MOVIE PROFESSION
Meryl Streep is a chef in both "Julie & Julia" and "It's Complicated." Anika Noni Rose is the voice of would-be chef Tiana in "The Princess and the Frog."
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
Sandra Bullock, who had sworn off comedies, scored with "The Proposal" and "The Blind Side," which also could bring her first Oscar nomination
NEW MALE STAR
Ryan Reynolds proved that he is more than just a hunk, and that he can do comedy, in "The Proposal." Channing Tatum proved he can last a few more movies. Robert Pattinson cemented his stature as vampire to the teens.
NEW FEMALE STAR
Carey Mulligan as a result of "An Education."
END OF THE WORLD
Are we obsessed, or what? "District 9," "Terminator Salvation," "9," "The Road" and "2012" suggested the end is near. "2012" was the silliest, and the biggest hit, as billions died, but the movie star and the dog lived. The best acting was in "The Road," but it was so realistically depressing that people stayed away. Moviegoers want to go out with a big bang, if they're going at all.
NAKED DIFFERENCE
Nudity was played more for laughs than eroticism. There were naked laughs in "It's Complicated," "Bruno," "The Hangover" and "The Proposal."
THE STAR WE'LL MISS MOST
Although she hadn't made a movie since "The Towering Inferno," Jennifer Jones remained one of the great actresses in movie history, with movies like "Duel in the Sun," "Ruby Gentry," "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" and the Oscar-winning "Song of Bernadette." Also exiting this year were David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, John Hughes, Karl Malden, Natasha Richardson and Patrick Swayze, among others.
Mal Vincent, 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com
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