The Top 10 Films of 2009: Kyle's Picks
The Hurt Locker (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
The Messenger (dir. Oren Moverman)
Aside from Audiard's A Prophet, there wasn't a better shot film in 2009 than The Hurt Locker. There are so many Big Concepts surrounding the push for Kathryn Bigelow this year (It's time to celebrate a woman making a man's movie! And while we're at it, won't it be cute to see her go up against ex-husband James Cameron at the Oscars?) that I sometimes think the real reason's been obscured: The Hurt Locker is like a large-scale symphony made up of combustible instruments, and Bigelow is its unflappable conductor. (It's no coincidence that Jeremy Renner's Sgt. James shares the same Zen demeanor.) While The Hurt Locker gave us a man and a director who came alive in the theater of war, The Messenger excelled by chronicling the people at home who've been deflated by it. In scene after shattering scene, the film exposes the canard that the best way to pay tribute to the troops is to make them mythic -- and to look the other way when they die. They say that the best films about a war are made several years after it began. The Hurt Locker and The Messenger fulfill that maxim while reminding us that nothing has ended.
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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!