In 2009:
Chesley Sullenberger landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River;
Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America;
MLB Network launched;
ER aired its final episode;
John Madden retired from sportscasting;
The Yankees won their 27th World Series;
Conan O’Brien debuted as host of The Tonight Show;
Adele won the Grammy Award for Best new Artist;
Phil Spector was convicted for the 2003 murder of Lana Clarkson;
The Pittsburgh Steelers became the first team to win six Super Bowls by defeating the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII;
Pat Hingle, Patrick McGoohan, Andrew Wyeth, James Whitmore, Philip Jose Farmer, Paul Harvey, Natasha Richardson, Marilyn Chambers, Bea Arthur, Jack Cardiff, Jack Kemp, Dom Deluise, Chuck Daly, David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Karl Malden, Robert McNamara, Walter Cronkite, Frank McCourt, John Hughes, Ted Kennedy, Les Paul, Patrick Swayze, Richard Todd, Gene Barry, Roy E. Disney, Jennifer Jones, and Brittany Murphy died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 2009:
10) Mary and Max
Adam Elliot’s semi-biographical, stop motion film about a young, Australian girl who strikes up a friendship with an unlikely pen pal living half a world away is a poignant essay about loneliness, trauma, and empathy.
The voice cast is incredible: including Toni Collette, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The stop motion effects are lovingly rendered with an obvious passion for the craft.
The relationship between Mary and Max is sublimely complex. They’re selfish and stubborn, each with enormous personal baggage, and their relationship has an ebb and flow familiar to anyone in a multiyear friendship. The origin of their pairing seems bizarre, but is no more random than the happenstance meeting of two people who attend the same primary school.
I love the film’s treatment of mental illness, especially Max’s insistence Asperger’s is a part of who he is, not a condition to be cured and removed.
The film’s treatment of depression and suicide is heavy for an animated film, but the contrast with our expectation of stop motion (particularly Aardman Animation), heightens the emotional impact.
9) In the Loop
This loose adaptation of Armando Iannuci’s TV show, The Thick of It, features UK and American mid level politicians plotting (and trying to prevent) military intervention in the Middle East; it’s a mockumentary about the lead up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Peter Capaldi (now more famous as the 12th Doctor) is first rate reprising his Thick of It role as Malcolm Tucker, a ruthless political operative who keeps cabinet ministers in line with the Prime Minister’s wishes. James Gandolfini does a fine job as an anti-war general. Anna Chlumsky (who was mostly known for her work in My Girl) proves she can act.
The movie’s depictions of the unscrupulous and often untalented people in positions of power sets the stage for Iannuci’s later work in Veep.
If you like that show’s brutal mockery and cynicism (which I do), you’ll love this proto-version.
In his final posting, Sgt. Will Montgomery is assigned as a casualty notification officer. Under the guidance of Capt. Stone (Woody Harrelson), they travel to the homes of deceased soldiers and inform the surviving family of their loss.
Stone conducts the brutal job with precision and in accordance with struct rules which don’t allow for compassion or reassurance; Montgomery struggles with this impersonal approach.
Woody Harrelson is wonderful, Steve Buscemi gives a powerhouse performance as a grieving dad, and Samantha Morton is transfixing as the wife of a deceased soldier who unexpectedly responds with relief upon learning of his death.
I’m fascinated by the idea of a fly on the wall witnessing the moment when the unimaginable becomes someone’s reality, seeing the million different faces of grief and developing rules to engage them.
7) Kirk Douglas: Before I Forget
At age ninety-two, thirteen years after a debilitating stroke, legendary actor Kirk Douglas took to the stage to reminisce about his Hollywood career.
Despite the obvious impediments of his age and after effects of the stroke, he’s engaging and commanding in this filmed version of the one man show.
It’s a glorious capper to an amazing career.
6) 3 Idiots
Three engineering students, Rancho (Aamir Khan), Fahran (R. Madhavan), and Raju (Sharman), form a tight bond as they rally against familial expectations and their cruel teacher, Dr. Viru Sagastrabuddhe (Boman Irani).
There are numerous twists and turns as the friends realize what makes them happy and pursue it: Fahran abandons engineering for photography, Raju becomes a wealthy executive and claws his family out of poverty, Rancho is revealed to be a poor servant boy impersonating his master’s son; post-graduation he lets the original Rancho take credit while he retreats to a simple life of teaching and creating.
It’s infectious and reminds us of the proper role of education, learning is its own reward and not a means to an end. Education can be a gateway to many things but the true purpose of life is to pursue your passion with reckless abandonment.
The Bollywood style musical numbers are a wonderful addition to the story and the film’s energy is sorely lacking in most Hollywood productions. This is entertaining, thoughtful, and fun from beginning to end.
5) Up
When his wife Elle dies, Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) decides to fulfill their childhood dream: moving their home to a cliff in South America.
Along the way, he encounters young Wilderness Explorer Russell, a talking dog, a rare bird named Kevin, and his childhood hero Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), who’s more nefarious than Carl would have believed.
The opening ten minutes are among the most moving portrayals of a marriage in any film: a tribute to the strong, lasting relationship we all dream of having.
After the wonderful opening, it builds into a portrait of how we pick up the pieces following tragedy, suggesting the key to a long, happy existence is developing new relationships.
The movie remains one of my favorite because it’s so uplifting and positive in the face of tragedy.
4) Zombieland
Four survivors of a zombie apocalypse, Tallahassee (Woody Harreslon), Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) form a makeshift family as they struggle with the impending zombie threat and develop rules to make their new life manageable.
Most of the movie is devoted to frenetically explaining these rules and their increasingly snarky behavior towards each other.
It’s a good zombie movie until the Bill Murray cameo, which elevates it. Murray brilliantly acknowledges his peak is behind him and subtly reminds us how hard it is to remain relevant. Little Rock is oblivious to Ghostbusters and while watching the movie for the first time in Murray’s LA mansion, he surprises her dressed as a zombie.
Originally written for Patrick Swayze and offered to other A list celebrities, it may be the greatest cameo in any film and turns a good movie into a great one.
Quentin Tarantino’s alternate World War II history is a wish fulfillment fantasy, using historical reality as a starting point for a look into the mechanics of war and the need for revenge.
While her desires seem more justified, Shosanna is as driven for revenge as The Bride in Kill Bill.
Brad Pitt is perfectly cast as Aldo Raine, the leader of a group of Jewish assassins tasked with killing as many Nazis as possible. Their approach borders on cruelty, until we’re reminded they’re going after Nazis and instantly feel more at ease with their tactics.
I love the bar scene which goes haywire after an American undercover agent mistakenly uses the wrong three fingers to indicate an order. It’s an insignificant thing, but demonstrates how powerful and jarring cultural shibboleths are, how easy they are to spot for people attuned to them and how difficult they can be to convincingly fake.
Everyone in the cast is top rate, including BJ Novak, Michael Fassbinder, and Eli Roth, but the movie belongs to Christoph Waltz. His Hans Landa is one of the most chillingly amoral characters in recent memory. The opening scene which sets in motion Shosanna’s unquenchable thirst for revenge is a masterclass in creating tension and establishing character. We know everything about Landa from this ten minute scene.
Tarantino remains a powerful voice in cinema; fifteen years after he exploded into our consciousness with Pulp Fiction, he continues to impress with his mastery.
2) District 9
In 1982, an alien spaceship arrived over Johannesburg, South Africa. The aliens were treated as a threat and removed to District 9. Thirty years later, the city has grown and abuts the refugee camp, so the prawns must be relocated once again.
The government contracts Multinational United (MNU) to do the unpleasant work. The point man for the relocation program, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), is accidentally sprayed with an alien liquid fuel which mutates his DNA slowly transforming him into one of them.
As Wikus desperately searches for a cure, he becomes more sympathetic to the plight of the prawns, while those around him see an opportunity (the prawns a means to an escape; MNU a chance to create a new weapon).
Director Neil Blomkamp exploded onto the scene with this film. His personal detachment from The Hollywood tribe helped keep the vision pure and visceral.
The movie (heavily influenced by South African issues of race and apartheid) translates well for American audiences and our racial issues.
1) Mr. Nobody
In 2092, science has evolved to render death obsolete and 118 year old Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) is the last mortal on earth. A reporter attempts to document Nemo’s life before he dies, but his life story is a series of seemingly impossible contradictions.
Nemo, like Billy Pilgrim, exists outside of time. However, while Pilgrim could only move backwards and forwards in his own timeline, Nemo has lived several lives and has memories of each. In one, he lived with his father and married Elsie (Sarah Polley), who’s in love with someone else. In another, he grew up with his mother and fell in love with Anna (Diane Kruger), his step-sister from his mother’s second marriage. In a third, he married Jeanne and had a family.
This film asks us to ponder the importance of the decisions in our lives and argues “there are no good or bad choices. It’s simply that each choice will create another life for you.”
Via a series of educational interludes, the films explains scientific concepts such as the Big Bang, the Big Crunch, chaos theory, the butterfly effect, and pigeon superstition, then explores the real world ramifications.
From Requiem for a Dream (2000) to Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Jared Leto is always riveting, but it’s difficult to believe he’ll ever be better.
Sarah Polley is great as Nemo’s emotionally disturbed wife, Elsie. A fine actress, she’s an even better director: Away from Her (2006) is a devastating portrait of Alzheimer’s; Take this Waltz (2011) is a bittersweet movie about a dying relationship; Stories We Tell (2012) is a searing look at the lies families tell to function and survive.
Part Slaughterhouse Five, part Run, Lola Run (1998), part Amelie (2001), part The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), part Cloud Atlas (2012), part advanced science lesson, part love story, part philosophical discussion. This a great movie I hope to watch many more times.