2009 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 2009:

1. Avatar
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
5. 2012
6. Up
7. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
8. Sherlock Holmes
9. Angels & Demons
10. The Hangover

What are your top three films for 2009? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Police, Adjective
3. White Material

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

So many came close. Dogtooth is intriguing, The Father of My Children finds hope in misery, Observe and Report is hilarious, The White Ribbon is a preview of fascism, A Serious Man questions our place in the world. The Bad Lieutenant, Alamar, Sweetgrass, Bluebeard, The Informant!, Everyone Else, The Limits of Control, Tetro, Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl, all came close.

 

1. Enter the Void
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans

4. Thirst
5. Dogtooth
6. The White Ribbon
7. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
8. The Hangover
9. District 9
10. Fish Tank

Also love Antichrist, Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, City of Life and Death, (500) Days of Summer, Castaway on the Moon, A Prophet, Up, Crank High Voltage, Orphan, Drag Me to Hell, A Serious Man, Black Dynamite, Mary and Max, Zombieland, Fantastic Mr Fox, Bruno, White Material, In the Loop and The House of the Devil. What a great year.

 

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Mystery Team
3. Observe and Report

 

Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Mother

HM: Where The Wild Things Are, A Single Man, That Evening Sun, Moon, Zombieland, Drag Me To Hell, An Education, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, 500 Days of Summer, Crazy Heart, Jennifer’s Body

 

1. Black Dynamite
2. Dogtooth
3. Enter the Void

Antichrist made me feel dreadful watching it and afterwards I realised I was holding on to my own misogynistic feelings towards women from a past relationship. A lot of people hate this movie, but it was valuable to me.

 

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. White Material
3. Summer Wars

Basterds is QT's best. Even as good as OUAT is, you feel the loss of Sally Menke. White Material is essential Claire Denis. Summer Wars is a great anime film that does the "living online"/Ready Player One thing way better than most who use similar ideas. A Serious Man frustrated me in theaters but I was young and I've come around completely. Antichrist is a film I think highly of, though I understand why it's divisive. World's Greatest Dad is one of Robin Williams' best performances and one of his funniest movies. I think it's the only Bobcat Goldthwait film I've seen. Adventureland lined up perfectly with my tastes at the time and I revisited it a couple months ago, it's like a teen romantic comedy in the style of Woody Allen without Woody Allen's specific hangups and pop culture tastes. An Education was memorable in the theater, I haven't revisited but it introduced me to Carey Mulligan. As far as comedies, Observe and Report and Mystery Team are both incredibly funny. I laughed a lot at the Hangover at the time too. Other notables include Funny People, a personal and introspective Adam Sandler performance in a bloated and flawed movie that still has a lot of good stuff. Tony Scott's Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 remake was very energetic. Avatar is a technological marvel. Up is in Pixar's highest tier but still not the best American animated film of the year, which was probably Fantastic Mr. Fox.

 

Summer Wars always felt like an updated Digimon Movie to me lol. Not that its a bad thing (checks Garurumon shirt he's currently wearing)

 

It's the same director, Mamoru Hosoda, and it's definitely a remake of the Digimon Movie without all the Digimon stuff lol. I loved the Digimon movie as a kid so when I found Summer Wars I was extremely pleased with it.

 

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. Up in the Air
3. Hurt Locker
4. District 9
5. Crazy Heart
6. Up
7. Observe and Report
8. Precious: Based on a novel by Sapphire
9. 500 Days of Summer
10. Zombieland

 

I thought A Serious Man was so boring when it came out but loved it on rewatch last year.

 

You've gone too far.

 

1. Mother
2. Black Dynamite
3. Public Enemies

The competition is stiff but Mother might be the most haunting movie Bong has made to date. The ending has stuck with me ever since I saw it. Black Dynamite is hilarious, impossible not to have a good time watching it. Public Enemies is not Mann's best but as is the case with all his later work, still heavily underrated

 

1. Inglourious Bastards
2. An Education
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox

 

I am surprised how quickly winners have developed among the more recent years. I assumed there would be a lot more deviation since we lived through these years as adults or close enough to it.

 

That could be why the winners are so clear tbh. We've all lived through these things together instead of having to discover them independently.

 

Maybe, but I don't remember Inglourious Basterds dominating polls in 2009 the way it is now. Synecdoche, New York definitely was not on that many lists in 2008.

 

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. A Serious Man
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Honorable mentions:

Dogtooth
White Material
Bad Lieutenant
Observe and Report
Where the Wild Things Are
Up
Adventureland
Funny People
(500) Days of Summer

A Serious Man is so oblique, but I love the fatalism that runs through the story. The Coen Brothers are so good at making every single character interesting, no matter how minor.

I hope Observe and Report gets more appreciated over time. I think people were expecting an Apatow / Hangover type movie and were confused when they got something much weirder and darker.

Where the Wild Things Are also got mixed reviews, if I recall correctly, but it's a great portrayal of the darker parts of childhood.

In a way, (500) Days of Summer reminds me of Fight Club, in that it was way overpraised and then way overcriticized, when in reality it's somewhere in between. But it has some genuinely clever and heartfelt moments. That split-screen "Expectations vs. Reality" scene is such a memorable gut-punch.

 

Where The Wild Things Are and Her are both too long.

 

A fat naked man running around a mall while a cover of Where is my Mind playing?

 

1. Inglorious Basterds (Easily in my top 15 of all-time)
2. 500 Days of Summer
3. The Hangover

I remember being so disappointed by Funny People, but now I watch it every time it's on. I've really come to love it. Up in the Air, Crazy Heart & Zombieland are also stand outs for me.

 

1. Up
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. The Hangover


Up is typically at the top of my favorite Pixar movies list, though sometimes it gets supplanted by a couple others depending on the day. Basterds is so freaking good, I probably could/should give it my top spot but I wanted Up to get some love. The Hangover was hilarious when I first saw it. it doesn't hold up as well on repeat viewings as the other 2000s comedies but it's still decent.

I also loved 500 Days of Summer, 2009 was kind of the last year I was still a little beat up inside from my previous relationship so the movie resonated a little bit.

I really liked Watchmen, probably because I hadn't read the graphic novel first.

Zombieland was great too. Still can watch that one and get enjoyment.

Sherlock Holmes was fun. 2012 was an over the top disaster movie that I still enjoy watching.

I Love You, Man was also pretty hilarious. Paul Rudd being an awkward dude without friends was perfect.

Land of the Lost was pretty funny too. The Ferrell/McBride combo worked

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past was funny

 

Totally forgot about I Love You, Man. Definitely a standout film for me in 09.

 

Also, don't mind me, but I'm woefully bored at work and went back in each of the last 15 threads of this to add on to it.

 

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Up

4. Where The Wild Things Are
5. Funny People
6. Observe & Report
7. Ponyo
8. District 9
9. The Hangover
10. Enter the Void