The following films are the notable and memorable films of the year 2009. They are ranked in alphabetical order and not in order of preference.
500 Days of Summer
For a long time I had given up on mainstream Hollywood to deliver a realistically made entertaining film about real life characters, characters we can easily identify and relate with, about the current society we live in, current age we live in. Don’t get me wrong. I love Iron Man and Batman but an industry as huge as Hollywood should be diverse enough. Sadly the bigger it gets, the less diverse it gets.
Well, 500 Days of Summer directed by debutant director by Marc Webb is the answer to that question. For too long when it came to romantic comedies, Hollywood has relied on caricatures, the typical honest, committed, believes in fairy tales kind of girl and the typical non committed, emotionless, easy go lucky guy who would chase anything in skirts.
500 Days of Summer does away with all those caricatures and stereotypes and establishes at the very onset that this is a story about a boy and a girl but this is not a love story.
The crisp engaging screenplay and awesome soundtrack all add tremendous value and compliment the excellent performance from the lead pair Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. I had only seen Joseph earlier in an annoying performance in the film Killshot so he greatly impressed me here. I am glad he got a film like Inception now and hopefully his career will progress well from here on.
As I said before, the characters are so well written and easily relatable, this could be anyone’s story, my story or the story of the guy next door.
I had absolutely no trouble in seeing myself in Tom especially when he expertly delivers lines like “People don't realize this, but loneliness is underrated” and “It's these cards, and the movies and the pop songs, they're to blame for all the lies and the heartache, everything. We're responsible.” and “You know what sucks? realizing everything you have always believed in is a total load of bullshit”.
Initially I had dismissed it as just another crap romantic comedy Hollywood churns out every year but this is a deeply entertaining and beautiful film. Do not miss it.
An Education
This was a delightful film about England in the 1960s. The crisp and witty screenplay keeps you engaged all throughout and competent performances from every actor in the film makes it an enjoyable affair. Any talk about this film would be incomplete without special mention of its confident and promising young actress Carey Mulligan.
Away We Go
If someone held a gun to my head and I had to pick one film from this list, it would be this one. So far, I am yet to be left disappointed by a Sam Mendes film. Away We Go tells the story of a couple, looking for a suitable environment for the birth of their first child.
It is a delightful, fresh and quirky take on relationships, marriage, human emotions etc. It is one of those films that engage you from the very first scene with its fantastic screenplay. The music by Alexi Murdoch is a delight and adds value to the film. After a very long time, I felt a personal connection with a film and the music and lyrics which are some of the best in recent times had a big contribution towards building that connection. The performances by the two lead actors John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are absolutely charming to say the least. It is a must watch.
Bright Star
This is the film that prompted none other Quentin Tarantino to write a letter to director Jane Campion after he saw it at Cannes 2009. He wrote, “My favorite film of yours … I don’t like period pieces like that. I loved this!!! Never has heartache been so realistically and movingly portrayed as Abbie taking to her bed … The lovers kisses … Abbie and Ben … touching … Brilliant. I loved it!!! Love – Your fan – Quentin Tarantino”
I don’t think I would have been able to sum it up better myself. Like Tarantino, I am not a huge fan of period pieces either but this film just totally blew me over. Heartache, solitude, pain, bliss, everything that defines love is there. Add to that, the exquisite cinematography and soothing background scores.
Campion is a master director and there is nothing left to be said about her. However, I would just like to mention one scene, where Fanny’s younger sister is looking for her while she is with John Keats. As she walks along, we hear the rustle of the leaves and the chirping of the birds. Never before has the rustling of leaves sounded so poetic.
Fish Tank
This gritty, realist, coming of age drama is about growing up in modern Britain seen through the eyes of a 15 year old Mia Williams (played competently by Katie Jarvis).
She is disturbed, lonely, disillusioned and ignored by her mother and society in general. Her life changes drastically when her mother’s new boyfriend,(played by Michael Fassbender – the film critic cum spy from Inglorious Basterds) moves in with them.
The film is a brilliant character study of a 15 year old girl struggling to make her own place in this world.
Five Minutes of Heaven
This is an underrated gem which, for inexplicable reasons was totally ignored. I have absolutely no idea why no one has seen this film and why no one talks about this film.
Alistair Little was 17 years old in 1975 when, as a fledgling member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, he murdered his first and only Catholic. Little fired three shots through the downstairs window of James Griffin's home in Lurgan, County Armagh, killing the 19-year-old as he sat watching television. "I've scored," he told his masked accomplices as they drove off. Griffin's younger brother, Joe, who had been kicking a football around outside at the time, witnessed the whole thing. Their eyes locked and Little admits now that if had known that Joe was Griffin's brother, he would have killed him too.
This is the first half hour of the film. The next hour is a fictionalised account asking the ‘what if’ question. What if Alistair Little met Joe Griffin today?
The next 1 hour is absolutely riveting as the two individuals interact and attempt to make sense and ‘move on’ with their lives. Liam Neeson (as Alistair Little) is first rate and is ably matched by James Nesbitt who plays Joe Griffin. This film is not to be missed.
Inglorious Basterds
In a specatcular piece of arrogance, Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine is given the last line in the film “I think this might just be my masterpiece”. Quentin Tarantino fans will not find this line the least bit surprising as Tarantino has been wanting to make a WW2 masterpiece since 1998. In fact as early as 1994, when giving interviews for Pulp Fiction, he had spoken of his desire to make a western and a WW2 drama. Still waiting for the full on western but this is his WW2 revenge fantasy.
Sadly, Inglorious Basterds is no masterpiece. In a career that started off with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, two films that would easily make it to any Top 100 films of all time, it is indeed difficult to make a film that would surpass those. However, that said, Basterds is still a hugely entertaining film like all Tarantino movies and one of the notable ones of the year.
The weakest link in the film is however the Basterds themselves. Other than that, typical Tarantino characters like Col Hans Landa, film critic cum spy Archie Hicox, or German war hero Frederick Zoller. Dialogues are always a highpoint in a Tarantino film and this is no different. The opening scene in the film is perhaps one of the best and most chilling openings in cinema.
Then he gives this particular line to Michael Fassbender’s character in a spectacular set-piece that culminates in a Mexican stand-off, “Well, if this is it, old boy, I hope you don't mind if I go out speaking the King's.There's a special rung in hell reserved for people who waste good scotch. Seeing as how I may be rapping on the door momentarily...I must say, damn good stuff, Sir. Now, about this pickle... we find ourselves in. It would appear there's only thing left for you to do.” Its lines like these that make a Tarantino film a Tarantino film.
Also, as brilliant as the lines maybe, a lot depends on the actor to pull it off. There is this particular line uttered by Brad PItt, “You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement! The way Pitt delivers it with his thick accent makes this such a hilarious moment in the film.
Out of the 5 chapters, 3 are absolutely gripping and despite the weak climax, the film is definitely one of the best ones of the year.
Moon
Moon is an old fashioned sci-fi movie. That means it does not use technology as a gimmick to substitute good story telling. Moon is a psychological human drama, dispensing with overweening CGI and loud flashy action sequences and relying more on characters and ideas.
Sam Rockwell handles all the acting bundle of the film with the utmost of ease and confidence. This performance should do wonders for this talented actor’s career.
But more importantly, Moon is the debut feature of a talented, brave and independent young director and for that reason alone it should be watched by all cinephiles.
New York, I Love You
This is an anthology film joining several love stories set in one of the most loved cities of the world, New York. The coming together of diverse, internationally acclaimed directors like Fatih Akin, Mira Nair, Shunji Iwai and Yvan Attai, each with their very own take on one of the most popular cities in the world is surely a treat for any love of cinema.
Out of the many segments, I loved the ones featuring Orlando Bloom, Andy Garcia, Robin Wright Penn and Qiu Shu.
Public Enemies
This highly awaited film was not as well liked as it should have been. Honestly, I do not understand why. But perhaps I am a bit biased here for the following reasons
1) Michael Mann is one of my most favourite American directors
2) Johnny Depp is my favourite actor of his generation
3) Marion Cotillard is exquisitely beautiful.
I have seen all of Mann’s films since Heat and I have liked all of them, with Heat and The Insider being my favourites. I don’t even mind his weaker films like Ali and Miami Vice.
So I got everything I look for in a Michael Mann film - Sharp suited gangsters, audacious bank heists, exhilarating shoot-outs and sentimental romanticism, carefully, meticulously researched and as historically accurate as a feature film can be. All this and more defines Michael Mann’s take on the depression era bank robber John Dillinger. Many of the key sequences including the shoot out at the Little Bohemia and Dillinger’s escape from Lake Country Jail are filmed in the actual locations where the events took place. This goes to show Mann’s dedication to keeping it real and true.
The set-piece shoot out scenes are some of the most chilling and power packed ones we have seen. The shoot out scenes in Mann films always make you forget about shoot out scenes in other films altogether and Public Enemies is no different.
I have always been a great fan of the visuals and cinematography of Mann films and this digitally shot film with the new HD camera is a treat for the eyes. Mann’s usual DOP Daniel Spinotti helps create a captivatingly cold, clear and detailed mise en scene that combines with lots of handheld coverage to give the film a distinctive look and feel.
The great soundtrack created by Otis Taylor compliments the film beautifully and the theme song Ten Million Slaves is my favourite.
There is a lot of criticism about this film that there is very little exploration of Dillinger the man, his motivations, his background, what made him the man he was. I am glad the film did not tread along that path because not much is known about all that. Having read Bryan Burrough’s Public Enemies, which is the source material for this film, I realized that we do not actually know for certain why John Dillinger is John Dillinger. In such a case, I felt Michael Mann and his writers did the right job by not even going there.
Sherlock Holmes
Guy Ritchie is another favourite director of mine. Apart from his disaster Swept Away, I have enjoyed all his films. I loved his last film RocknRolla but unfortunately it wasn’t as successful and Ritchie was unable to continue with parts 2 and 3 as originally planned.
But when Ritchie picked up Sherlock Holmes instead with Robert Downey Jr, I was no longer complaining.
Ritchie delivers a tightly structured, intriguing thriller full of the twists and turns and witty humour. The film does have its customary ‘explain everything in the end’ bit as commercial thrillers usually do but apart from that, I enjoyed every bit of it.
Downey Jr and Jude Law are in fine form and it was a treat to see Mark Strong deliver another strong performance after RocknRolla.
The Girlfriend Experience
Steven Soderbergh is known for maintaining his ‘one for them, one for me’ policy in Hollywood. So while he makes the Oceans series and Out of Sight, which are enjoyable to say the least, he also makes gems like Traffic, Che and now The Girlfriend Experience. This is his latest experimental film about a Manhattan call girl who offers not just rushed release but the more refined "girlfriend experience" -- a suite of services including, as we see in the opener, fine red wine and Marc Jacobs black dresses, soft kisses and small talk, and many more things, an experience that goes far beyond sex. Sex is everywhere in The Girlfriend Experience, except there's no sex.
The movie is set during October 2008, many of Chelsea’s clients are customers are seen talking about politics, the elections, McCain, Obama and the financial crisis. Through the main character Chelsea, we are also given a window to contemporary America.
But the soul of the film is Chelsea played by adult actress Sasha Grey. The film is shot-with-the-4K-Red-digital-camera and gives it a spectacular look. Soderbergh’s sense of colour and aesthetics is always pleasant and this is no exception.
The Messenger
The Messenger is about two soldiers whose job it is to inform families when loved ones are killed in the line of duty. They are messengers of bad news basically. The two soldiers are expertly played by Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster. This film brilliantly captures that 10 second period where one's life is turned upside, and it blissfully displays the heartache that thousands of loved ones have had to endure during this Iraq War. It depicts those of all backgrounds with many different reactions.... some of them were truly harrowing to watch. It was the kind of performances that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
For me as an audience, the film was much more effective than The Hurt Locker in getting the point across.
The Road
After the visual masterpiece that was The Proposition, I have been waiting with bated breath for John Hillcoat’s next venture. An adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel, this is a beautifully shot film with a haunting soundtrack that adds to the depressing and often disturbing story of a father desperately trying to keep his son alive in a post apocalyptic world. The masterful cinematography and score bring The Road to life.
The film is definitely not for the faint hearted. It is a deeply stimulating film that provides deep insight into human nature and the nature of life itself and is often bleak and heart crushing.
But if cinema or any form of art is supposed to stimulate your mind, then The Road definitely does a very good job of that and it stays with you long after the film is over.
Tetro
Tetro is a deeply personal and beautiful film written and directed by the old master Francis Ford Coppola, the most personal according to the man himself. I can see why.
This is the sort of artistic gems that a man who has nothing else to prove has the luxury of indulging in. This is the sort of film I wish Scorsese would do now rather than churning out studio products.
The plot is very simple. Bennie travels to Buenos Aires to find his long-missing older brother Tetro, a once-promising writer who is now a remnant of his former self. Bennie's discovery of his brother's near-finished play might hold the answer to understanding their shared past and renewing their bond but also long buried family secrets.
Vincent Gallo as Tetro is not a very familiar actor for me. I had only seen him once before in a Johnny Depp movie called Arizona Dream where he played an Italian American wannabe actor. So when he delivers a performance of such high class in this film, I was totally awe-struck.
This is a haunting, heart-wrenching cinema experience that needs to be seen. It pains me that a mediocre work like Shutter Island gets praised to death while a legend's return to form is ignored. See this film.
Honourable Mentions
District 9
Drag Me To Hell
Goodbye Solo
Invictus
The Limits of Control
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