TOP MOVIES 2009

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. District 9
3. Avatar
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. (500) Days of Summer
6. Up in the Air
7. Inglorious Basterds
8. Brothers Bloom
9. Up
10. Where the Wild Things Are

    (P.S. Henry Poole Is Here was on my must-see list last year but I only got to see this in January, 2009, and found it irresistible, and would rank it #2 on this list if it were a 2009 release)*

HOPED TO SEE — BUT THESE NEVER MADE IT TO NW OHIO OR DIDN’T STAY LONG ENOUGH (!):

1. Moon
2. A Serious Man
3. Extract
4. The Box
5. Zombieland
6. Me and Orson Welles
7. An Education
8. The Hurt Locker
9. Law Abiding Citizen
10. Astro Boy

You can only see a movie for the first time once.

A first viewing of great films is momentous, precious, effortlessly luminous and numinous, gripping from the magical opening sequence. I regard my first viewing of the following list of movies as astounding, amazing, viscerally captivating, totally enthralling experiences for all that the respective filmmakers accomplish in creating the consummate cinematic experience for the kind of genre, themes, plot, action, et al. they were attempting. These movies are so close to perfect I have nothing with which to compare them were I to try to criticize or deny their perfection; so mesmerizing is their demonstrable screenwriting and cinematographic skills, so poignant is their care for their subject matters and characters, and so earnest is their empathy and respect for their audiences, that a second or third viewing can only diminish the impact of that very first viewing.

These movies create in me what C. S. Lewis calls in Surprised by Joy, “sehnsucht,” that stab of joy, that intimation of eternity, that foretaste of heaven, that ineffable uplift into new realms of appreciation and insight into what makes life worth living and why aesthetic experience is worth the risk. As they unfold, each scene seems made just for me, inevitable not in the sense of predictability, but fitting in some cosmic order of being–the storytelling is just, true, and beautiful, in a word: divine. It’s in the details, in the pauses, the well-chosen angle, the right amount of attention paid, the word aptly spoken by the right character at the right time.

So what films belong in such a category for the 2000′s? For this intrepid reviewer, here they are:

The Bruce L. Edwards 2000-2009 Movie Hall of Fame

1. Serenity
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. The Darjeeling Limited
4. Slumdog Millionaire
5. Signs
6. City of God
7. Unbreakable
8. The Passion of the Christ
9. District 9
10. Avatar

Honorable Mention

1. Amelie
2. Once
3. Ratatouille
4. Millions
5. Dark Knight
6. Memento
7. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
8. No Country for Old Men
9. Henry Poole is Here
10. Royal Tenenbaums

1. Firefly
2. Pushing Daisies
3. Arrested Development
4. The Office
5. Psych
6. 24
7. The Mentalist
8. Dexter
9. 30 Rock
10. Curb Your Enthusiasm

*Postscript: ALMOST COMPLETE LIST OF OTHER 2009 MOVIES I SAW IN THEATRE OR AIRPLANES OR BY RENTAL THAT DIDN’T MAKE MY TOP TEN

The ones in BOLD are recommended.

1. Paul Blart
2. The Blind Side
3. The Band’s Visit
4. Defiance
5. Last Chance Harvey
6. New in Town
7. Invictus
8. Taken
9. Wendy and Lucy
10. Coraline
11. Push
12. Watchmen
13. Duplicity
14. Knowing
15. Adventureland
16. Monsters vs. Aliens
17. State of Play
18. Angels and Demons
19. The Proposal
20. Public Enemies
21. Harry Potter 6
22. Inkheart
23. The International
24. The Great Buck Howard
25. 9
26. The Informant
27. Alien Trespass
28. Gigantic
29. Sugar
30. 17 Again
31. Men Who Stare at Goats
32. The Taking of Pelham 123

 
Posted in Movies, Top Ten, TV by Bruce Edwards

Share: digg this!