2009 Blowout
Hey, year-end lists are great and everyone has an opinion, so I thought it’d be fun to post mine before the Oscar telecast on Sunday night. It’s in an Oscar-style format, with a few more goodies thrown in there. Enjoy:
Top 25:
1. A Serious Man (Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
2. Inglourious Basterds (Dir. Quentin Tarantino)
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Dir. Wes Anderson)
4. Tetro (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
5. The Hurt Locker (Dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
6. Bright Star (Dir. Jane Campion)
7. Star Trek (Dir. J.J. Abrams)
8. Avatar (Dir. James Cameron)
9. The Brothers Bloom (Dir. Rian Johnson)
10. Zombieland (Dir. Ruben Fleischer)
11. Where the Wild Things Are (Dir. Spike Jonze)
12. In the Loop (Dir. Armando Iannucci)
13. Black Dynamite (Dir. Scott Sanders)
14. The Girlfriend Experience (Dir. Steven Soderbergh)
15. Up in the Air (Dir. Jason Reitman)
16. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Dir. Werner Herzog)
17. The Cove (Dir. Louie Psihoyos)
18. Big Fan (Dir. Robert Siegel)
19. District 9 (Dir. Neill Blomkamp)
20. Humpday (Dir. Lynn Shelton)
21. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Dir. Sacha Gervasi)
22. Adventureland (Dir. Greg Mottola)
23. An Education (Dir. Lone Scherfig)
24. The Princess and the Frog (Dir. Ron Clements & John Musker)
25. The Informant! (Dir. Steven Soderbergh)
(Favorites denoted by a * and italics.)
Best Director
Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
* Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Actor
Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Tom Hardy, Bronson
Patton Oswalt, Big Fan
Sam Rockwell, Moon
* Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
Best Actress
Abbie Cornish, Bright Star
* Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Zoe Saldana, Avatar
Best Supporting Actor
Peter Capaldi, In the Loop
Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen
Woody Harrelson, Zombieland
Paul Schneider, Bright Star
* Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress
* Marion Cotillard, Public Enemies
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Rinko Kikuchi, The Brothers Bloom
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Original Screenplay
* Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Francis Ford Coppola, Tetro
Rian Johnson, The Brothers Bloom
Robert Siegel, Big Fan
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay
* Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche & Ian Martin, In the Loop
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, A Serious Man
Greig Fraser, Bright Star
Anthony Dod Mantle, Antichrist
* Mihai Malaimare Jr., Tetro
Steven Soderbergh, The Girlfriend Experience
Best Editing
James Cameron, John Refoua & Stephen Rivkin, Avatar
Chris Innis & Bob Murawski, The Hurt Locker
Roderick Jaynes, A Serious Man
* Sally Menke, Inglourious Basterds
Walter Murch, Tetro
Best Sound Design
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
* The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Best Art Direction
* Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglourious Basterds
Public Enemies
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek
Best Original Score
Alejandre Desplat, Fantastic Mr. Fox
* Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant!
Karen O & Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are
Hans Zimmer, Sherlock Holmes
Best Original Song
* “Almost There” by Anika Noni Rose & Randy Newman, The Princess and the Frog
“Petey’s Song” by Jarvis Cocker, Fantastic Mr. Fox
“Up in the Air” by Kevin Renick, Up in the Air
“The Weary Kind” by Ryan Bingham, Crazy Heart
“You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger” by Beth Crowley, An Education
Best Ensemble
The Brothers Bloom
In the Loop
* Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Zombieland
Favorite Scene/Montage/Sequence
Carl/Ellie’s Montage, Up
* Col. Landa at the LaPadite Farm, Inglourious Basterds
Escape from the Bean Farm, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Expectations vs. Reality, 500 Days of Summer
The Gang Visits to the Tippity-Top of the A-List, Zombieland
The Goy’s Teeth, A Serious Man
The Narada attacks the Kelvin, Star Trek
The N***a Elk Speech, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
The Origin of Dr. Manhattan, Watchmen
Ryan Meets Alex, Up in the Air
Worst Performance in an Otherwise Good Film
* Malin Akerman & Carla Gugino (tie), Watchmen
—-
Note: There’s no reason to put anything else here.
Best Performance in an Otherwise Bad Film
Jemaine Clement, Gentleman Broncos
Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones
Maya Rudolph, Away We Go
* Stanley Tuccirape, The Lovely Bones
Anton Yelchin, Terminator: Salvation
Biggest Surprise
Adventureland
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
* Bright Star
Humpday
The Princess and the Frog
Biggest Disappointment
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Lovely Bones
* Public Enemies
Terminator: Salvation
Year One
Biggest WTF Moment
Any time Zach Galifiankis shows up, Gigantic
Nite Owl & Silk Spectre shag to Leonard Cohen, Watchmen
Scotty’s Little Green Friend, Star Trek
* Tuccirape’s Treerape Trap, The Lovely Bones
Willem Dafoe’s lower half meets a 2x4, Antichrist
Best Use of Max Records
The Brothers Bloom
* Where the Wild Things Are
Still Need to Check Out
Broken Embraces (Dir. Pedro Almodovar)
Crazy Heart (Dir. Scott Cooper)
Ponyo (Dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
The White Ribbon (Dir. Michael Haneke)
Until next time,
Jake
