The Best of 2009
by Adam Hirsch
Now, on this snowy New Year’s Eve, it’s a better time than ever to reflect back on the year and select our choices for the best cinematic efforts in 2009.
Myself, Peter Warren, Brian Barth, Giampaolo Bianconi, Jake Teresi and Matt Paley all wrote down our Top-10 lists (although Matt, in an uncharacteristically cynical move, declined to offer a full 10). There were ten films overlapping our choices, and, ranked by frequency, comprise the final top-10 list.
Best Films.
Up (Dir. Pete Doctor) — 5 Votes
The Hurt Locker (Dir. Kathryn Bigelow) — 5 Votes
A Serious Man (Dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen) — 4 Votes
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Dir. Wes Anderson) — 3 Votes
Up In The Air (Dir. Jason Reitman) — 3 Votes
Inglorious Basterds (Dir. Quentin Tarantino) — 2 Votes
Lorna’s Silence (Dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne) — 2 Votes
Where The Wild Things Are (Dir. Spike Jonze) — 2 Votes
The Road (Dir. John Hillcoat) — 2 Votes
Sugar (Dir. Anna Boden) — 2 Votes (more…)
Notes on Funny
by Giampaolo Bianconi
Roberto Bolaño was known to say that it was the writer’s duty to plunge headfirst into the void, into the darkness. I like to think that Funny People is the film where Judd Apatow walked to the edge of the void, looked down, and decided that it was enough. The director said he wanted to make a movie about death, but I wouldn’t have known it from watching Funny People. The film is made up of moments where Apatow plays chicken with the serious — and he’s the one to veer first. It follows much like the scene when the self-absorbed pseudo-star played by Jason Schwartzman shares the story of his grandfather’s death, only to be greeted with jokes by his friends.
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