Top ten best movies of 2009: part three of three

These are my final top ten favourite films of 2009. It's a re-edited and expanded version of my provisional list posted in November.

This is part three. Check the rest of my blog for parts one and two.

Other films of note

The best British comedy of 2009 was In The Loop, although I think it suffered against a superior TV series. The best US comedy was The Hangover, but it certainly wasn't enough for a top ten position.

Sean Penn's turn in Milk is worth a mention, as is the uplifting headlocker The Wrestler. 9 was astonishing to look at and is an essential DVD purchase, while The Men Who Stare At Goats may just be Clooney's best performance yet.

As for animation, Watchmen was bold in its scope and is a classic of its kind, while Up certainly gave us the best five minutes of the year when it tracked the courting, the marriage and the loss of a beautiful relationship in a heart-breaking montage.

Oh and Coraline should claim the best 3D visuals of the year, but it seems James Cameron stole that thunder in his otherwise tripe-spewing Avatar.

On with the final two...

2 - Moon

"I'm here to keep you safe, Sam. I want to help you."
Gerty

Sam Rockwell has been mining on the moon and is ready for his imminent trip back to earth to see his wife and kids. Surely the last two weeks of the mission will pass without event?

It's difficult to talk about Moon without giving too much away, because it's the bizarre plot that is the crux of the whole film. Is this real? Who is Sam Rockwell? Is Kevin Spacey really trapped inside that computer? In short, there is an accident and then Sam's reality shatters into space debris.

The isolation of the moon jumps from the screen in spine-freezing chills as Rockwell gives a compelling performance as a man who is trapped and scared and just wants to go home. The soundtrack, as you'd expect from David Bowie's son, is tremendous. This film is experimental, complicated and effective.

I wish I could say more. Just see it. Watch the trailer.

1 - Where The Wild Things Are

"Will you keep out all the sadness?"
Carol

Max is a naughty boy who ends up in a forest full of monsters. Wild rumpus ensues. Max gets home in time for supper. The end.

This is Spike Jonze's first directorial feature since the mind-fizzling Adaptation seven long years ago, so the numerous cinema punters who walked out half way through probably have no idea that Jonze was never going to deliver (a) a standard blockbuster about monsters nor (b) a standard children's film about monsters.

Because this isn't about monsters. Yes, the furriness of Max's friends helps fuzz things up a lot, but this is fundamentally a film about childhood - and the loss of it.

Empire magazine called this a 'mood piece', and they are right. The plot doesn't matter: the joy and the frustration of childhood is writ large in Where The Wild Things Are. It's so brilliantly realised and uncompromising (you should read Dave Egger's accompanying novel), this makes it the best film of 2009.
Max lives in a world where his actions have no consequences, where his world is the only one that matters. He has no idea what his selfishness is doing to his family, and he is on that cusp of having to put childish things behind him - but he can't let go.

And so, he joins the world of Carol and Judith and KW and all the Sesame Street drop-outs as they smash down their own homes, nearly crush Max to pieces, punch holes through trees and engage in childish squabbles.

There is a sinister edge throughout (the eating threats, the pile of bones, the suffocation scene later on), but it is only enough to keep us a little uneasy without ever resorting to nastiness.

The inevitable goodbye, where the monsters howl in glorious unison as they mourn for Max's friendship and for their own hopeless state, ought to leave you floored and broken - but also a little thankful for the short childhood you had.

This is part three. Check the rest of my blog for parts one and two.

Top ten best movies of 2009: part two of three

These are my final top ten favourite films of 2009. It's a re-edited and expanded version of my provisional list posted in November.

This is part two. Check the rest of my blog for parts one and three, as and when I've written 'em.

6 - Anvil: The Story Of Anvil

"We're gonna be rock stars."
Lips

Anvil were a real band and this is a real documentary following their very real hopes and dreams.

Let me address comparisons to a certain comedy rockumentary that was funny to the level of 11. Yes, Anvil has the same kind of down-to-earth silliness, and it proves that the drudge of normal life can be frequently hilarious when small minds dream big dreams. But the comparison stops there.

Here are a bunch of guys who had their day a long time ago, but their rock dream remains alive. As we follow their triumphs and tragedies, their mentors and opportunists, you become increasingly aware this is a touching study of ageing and how normal people cope when there's so much to achieve and too little time left in which to achieve it.

For those about to watch this masterpiece, I salute you. Watch the trailer.

5 - A Serious Man

"Very troubling... very troubling..."
Clive

A suburban family man tries to get by. His wife wants a divorce, his brother is moving in, he has a daughter he doesn't understand, and his son is in trouble at school. So he seeks advice from three rabbis.

The Guardian called this a very un-Coen Brothers film. They are completely wrong, because this has all the Coen trademarks: slightly left-of-centre characters, Jewish jokes, small-town mentalities, lots of pot, amazing hairstyles and a script that is so tight, you couldn't stick a shekel between the pages.

The strange repetition of incidents and dialogue along with all the references to God, and the fact you have to see this twice to really get it, puts A Serious Man alongside Donnie Darko as a mysterious, symbology-laden cult classic.

Don't you want a film to love? Watch the trailer.

4 - Let The Right One In

"Be me, for a little while.
Eli

I love children's films. Schoolboy befrends local girl. Schoolboy is bullied. Schoolboy and local girl chat in the snow. Local girl gets people killed so she can drink their blood, provoking the vengeance of the neighbourhood.

Let The Right One In is a thoroughly gruesome horror film where the innocence of youth is torn apart by a vampire's bloody trade in blood-drained bodies and residents torn apart in subways. And young Oskar thought he had it hard just being picked on in the playground.

It is also a delicate study of love and childhood friendship, in which Oskar and Eli need each other in a world that is frightening and confusing. And the fact that it is set in a freezing Sweden and it has some brilliantly psychopathic cats makes it Very Cool Indeed.

Who needs twilight when you can have sheer darkness? Watch the trailer.

3 - Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Nobody kills me until I say so."
Jacques Mesrine

This is the first part of a brace of films following Jacques Mesrine's globe-pillaging career as one of the most notorious gangsters in history.

We see the end of the film first, so we know where it's all going to finish, but the ride along the way is exhilarating. Speeding through his life, often leaping months and years to leave us filling in the gaps, we have raids and affairs and shootings and fightings and oodles of moody dialogue.

Despite the rapier editing, the film does put its brakes on for one moment during an attempted prison break. As the inmates edge towards a perimiter fence, trying to avoid the gun-sights of tower guards, the teasing tension is absolutely no clue to the massively violent and surprising twist of fortune that is about to be unleashed.

It ranks up there with Goodfellas. Watch the trailer.

This is part one. Check the rest of my blog for parts two and three, as and when I write 'em.

Top ten best movies of 2009: part one of three

These are my final top ten favourite films of 2009. It's a re-edited and expanded version of my provisional list posted in November.

This is part one. Check the rest of my blog for parts two and three, as and when I write 'em.

10 - Drag Me To Hell

"You'd be surprised what you'll do when the Lamia comes for you."
Rham

This is a silly horror film in which a loans manager irks an elderly client, who then unleashes the curse of the Lamia upon her unsuspecting ass.

Amid a raging torrent of modern horror franchises, this film trumped on two significant counts. Firstly, it is quite scary. From the most terrifying handkerchief in the world, to the inevitable but still shocking conclusion, Sam Raimi ramps up the tension from start to finish.

And it would be too much tension but for the second significant factor: the humour. The comedy can be quite base (sucking someone to death having lost your false teeth, the staple in the woman's forehead) but it's done with a light touch and keeps the respect for the basic horror of the plot.

I feel awful including this in the top ten at the cost of In The Loop and Milk - but this is Raimi on top form. Watch the trailer.

9 - District 9

"What is 'eviction'?"
Alien

The politics are obvious. The style is inconsistent. But otherwise, this story of a tragic mis-management of an alien colony is compelling viewing.

And that's the point. District 9 really shouldn't work. Avatar has a much better final battle scene, while the aliens really do look like overgrown prawns. And the whole film's rip-off of The Fly should render it null and void for any discerning movie-goer.

But it's the sheer emotional pull that works here, on the side of Sharlto Copley's helpless cog in the human system as well as the prawns panicking for their lives. It's one of those few films where you are thrown into a complete world right from the start, with its slumdog sci-fi grubbiness, and you never question it once.

District 9 is *almost* the best sci fi film of the year (keep reading!). Watch the trailer.

8 - Slumdog Millionaire

 
"Maybe its written, no?"
Jamal

The rags-to-riches story of a poor-to-do boy is told through the strange construct of a television contest. So what makes this better than X Factor's Sigur Ros-soundtracked vignettes, then?

For a start, this snapshot of India (past and present) looks and sounds beautiful, from the sun shining off the tin slum houses to the girl in the gold dress promising so much for Jamal. It is brilliantly scripted, the TV host character is a revelation, and it pulls off the clever trick of feeling like a novel on screen.

More importantly, it has that crazy, overpacked feel of a debut feature. And yet, this is Danny 'Trainspotting' Boyle. Is this his best movie since the story of those Scottish junkies? No, because I think Sunshine is fabulous.

But it still rocks - Bollywood style. Watch the trailer.

7 - Frost/Nixon

I'm in this for all I've got.
David Frost

David Frost, desperate to save his floundering career, sets up an interview with Richard Nixon, the law-dodging president of the United States. What could possibly go wrong?

Frost/Nixon is set up like a boxing match, with the aides of each side constantly giving their prize fighters advice. And what brilliant aides: there isn't a bad actor here, with Frost's sidekicks providing more than a little light relief to counterbalance what is essentially a dry remake of a television interview.

You could be fooled into thinking this is a two header. It is not. With the likes of Kevin Bacon and Sam Rockwell in the wings, it can only be an ensemble piece. But it is ultimately about one man's battle against another. The stakes are high, and the added fiction of a dramatic late night phone call from Nixon to the gregarious TV presenter only serves to stoke the tension to the point of exploding.

Nixon famously lost the battle... but the outcome in this film is a lot less clear. Watch the trailer.

This is part one. Check the rest of my blog for parts two and three, as and when I write 'em.