The Top 10 Films of 2009: Kyle's Picks
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (dir. Lee Daniels)
A Single Man (dir. Tom Ford)
Awards season can be an awfully dull, paint-by-numbers place, so how refreshing to have two riotously overblown films like Precious and A Single Man in the hunt. Each is a visual stunner that isn't afraid to go out on a campy limb, but neither's excess of style would work without career-best performances at their cores. Plenty has been written about Precious's Mo'Nique (and plenty more will be -- it's a tour-de-force for the ages), so I'll instead praise Gabourey Sidibe, whose Precious is almost thrillingly opaque but for the tiniest emotions and thoughts escaping before she has time to smother them. Her unlikely counterpart in A Single Man, Colin Firth, makes restraint seem just as riveting.
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Comments
Someone needs to make a comedy list.
These year end "Top 10" lists rarely contain commercially successful comedies.
The Hangover was really funny, Mr. Buchanan, and did monster business with a bunch of "unknowns." That, in and of itself, means something.
Funny People wasn't, and Humpday wasn't "written" as much as improvised so I'm not sure that counts, technically.
But then again, maybe it wasn't a banner year for Comedies.
Up.
I just saw Imaginarium, and I treasured it, but now that I look at your list, I can see how it couldn't possibly have made your Top Ten. Bravo! I stand by the flicks you picked: some Oscar-worthy, some indie. And I'm happy you aren't drinking Cameron's Kool-Aid.
Best comedy of the year was Black Dynamite. Hands down.
DY-NO-MITE!
The discussions about "Antichrist" over at IMDB are really fascinating.
Unfortunately, it is the sorta film I will NEVER WATCH. I am no cinema Masochist and it is pretty obvious that Lars von Trier is a cinema Sadist; giving literal meaning to the phrase "torture porn".
My own opinion is that art is to symbolize pain and suffering, not shove it in our face so that we are truly traumatized. In that respect, the film becomes the very evil it is trying to explore.
I love the films "The Shining" and "Marebito" (see it if you haven't!) so I am not against horror/suspense but there are somethings I don't want to see since I will never be able to unsee them.
On the meaning of the title>
My guess is that Christ = Good and Antichrist = Evil. From reading about the film it seems there is a play of opposites going on> The difference between the way we believe things should be and the way they sometimes are. Wife/Mother as nurturer; Husband as loving; Nature as beautiful; Lovemaking giving life; Couples adoring each others sexual organs; No actual sex in mainstream films; Cut aways during the violent parts; All of this is made opposite. Thus, ANTI.
It all works in theory, but I still will NEVER see this film.
I am going to send Lars a copy of the entire series of "Arrested Development" and see if that doesn't cheer him up...
I agree with 'sunnydaze' There is enough of this stuff in real life, who the hell wants to be 'entertained' by it??? Not me.
Humpday may have been improvised but it was certainly still a comedy. I do agree that comedy is an under-respected genre, especially at this time of year, but hey, I had two!