Year in Review 2009 Edition, Or "Why Didn't I See This, Either?"

Over Christmas my dad and I sat down (along with some other family spectators) and went over the list of all movies released in 2009 in preparation for the Oscar nominations.  Neither of us could remember many good movies that came out this past year, and with the change in number of Best Picture nominees, we were very intrigued by what would likely be nominated.  Seriously Academy, why would you up the number of Best Picture nominees in a year as bad for movies as this past one?

Whatever.  Just go quickly scan this Wikipedia page so we can all be on the same... page... for the rest of this post.

First reaction:  that list of highest grossing films makes me die a little inside.  Thanks, society.

Let's move beyond that, though, and take a look at the movie list.  Here's all the movies I saw in the order they were released, not the order in which I saw them:

The Class (Entre Les Mures)
Coraline
Watchmen
Duplicity
Star Trek
The Hangover
The Taking of Pelham 123
(500) Days of Summer
The Ugly Truth
Funny People
District 9
Ponyo
Inglourious Basterds
Taking Woodstock
9
Where the Wild Things Are
The Blind Side
Avatar
Sherlock Holmes

And here's all the movies I wish I'd seen but didn't in a similar order:

I Love You, Man
Adventureland
Drag Me to Hell
Up (Why didn't I see this?*)
Public Enemies
The Informant!
The Invention of Lying
Zombieland (Why didn't I see this, either?**)
A Serious Man (Or this?***)
An Education
The Road
Up in the Air
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I saw a lot of good movies, a lot more than I thought, and I didn't see a lot of movies I wanted to.  I saw a lot of chaff, though.  I'd say my top 5 movies of 2009 were, in best to also good order:
(500) Days of Summer
Inglourious Basterds
Funny People
Coraline
Sherlock Holmes

It's kind of sad that Holmes made that list.  Of course this doesn't include Up, Up in the Air, or A Serious Man, all of which looked fabulous.  When you add those to the list of movies that I didn't feel motivated to see but that will certainly be in contention for Best Picture (The Soloist, Invictus), you get a list that may actually have 10 good(ish) movies on it.  Not bad.

And now for some related ramblings

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is the project Heath Ledger was working on when he died.  It's a Terry Gilliam piece - you know, the guy from Monty Python that made 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas - so it's probably good.  Should probs see it.

After getting Forgetting Sarah Marshall for Christmas and lamenting my lack of a copy of (500) Days of Summer, it began to startle me how many of my favorite movies are love stories, usually ones that start with a break up.  Those two, High Fidelity, Eternal Sunshine, Harold and Maude... this list goes on.  And they're all basically about the same variation on a theme.  I guess I'm just in to love.  Or maybe it's the way real people interact (or at least the way they think they interact... or the way they want to portray themselves as acting to us... ow my head) is what intrigues me, and that you don't get to see that much in movies that aren't about relationships.  Hmm.  I guess I like Big Fish more than most of the above movies, and stuff like Inglourious Basterds doesn't have much love going on.  Still "hmm" worthy.

I hope Up gets nominated for Best Picture now that they've got 10 to give away.  Animation deserves more respect than it gets.  Comics, too.  Freakin' sweet.

I'm sure there's more to be said, but I've said a lot of it in other articles.  How did you feel about 2009 in terms of movies?  What deserves to win Best Pic?  Other nominations?  You can be sure I'll revisit this topic when the Academy starts doing their thing.

Until next time!


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* I don't know.
** Danl saw it without me.
*** It never came out in wider circulation.