Personally I was disappointed with 2009’s offering of cinema. Most people thought ‘08 had a bad turn out, but that year’s films were so much better than last year’s. Whereas in ‘08 I saw many new films the day or week they came out, in ‘09 I wasn’t particularly impressed with anything enough to watch it right when it was released. I either waited a few weeks, or just watched it once it came out on DVD or Blu-Ray. Because of this I watched many, many more older and non-American films, which was well worth their mostly long running times. This isn’t to say I totally avoided all new American films, or to infer I wasn’t excited about some films enough to catch them on their release date in theaters. I was particularly excited about Inglourious Basterds and Star Trek when they came out, for example, and I watched both on their opening day. Though I much more prefer a film with more substance than explosions, I don’t write-off a movie completely just because of its blockbuster status. The only exception to this was New Moon. I have better things to do than watch sparkly virgin vampires doing their thing.
My favorite films of ‘09: (in alphabetical order)
– Michael Moore, Capitalism: A Love Story
– Henry Selick, Coraline
– Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox
– Matteo Garrone, Gomorrah
– Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
– Steven Soderbergh, The Informant!
– Duncan Jones, Moon
– Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre
– Cyrus Nowrasteh, The Stoning of Soraya M.
– Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, Up
If there are any two films I would recommend as a must see, it’d be The Hurt Locker and Sin Nombre. The power of both films makes me glad to see good filmmakers making good films still.
Honorable Mentions:
– Marc Webb, (500) Days of Summer
– Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
– Lee Daniels, Precious
– J.J. Abrams, Star Trek
– Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
My least favorite films of ‘09: (in ascending order of suckiness)
– Zack Snyder, Watchmen
– McG, Terminator Salvation
– Gavin Hood, X-Men Origins: Wolverine
– Stephen Sommers, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
– Shawn Levy, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
– Nicholas Jasenovic, Paper Heart
– Oren Peli, Paranormal Activity
Avoid the last two like the plague.
I’m sad to say I didn’t see many new foreign films, particularly almost no new Filipino films at all. So, just for giggles, here are my favorite non-new release foreign films I saw in ‘09: (in alphabetical order)
– Francois Truffaut, The 400 Blows
– Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Blissfully Yours
– Auraeus Solito, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros
– Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress
– Hayao Miyazaki, Howl’s Moving Castle
– Masaki Kobayashi, Kwaidan
– Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In
– Ishmael Bernal, City After Dark/Manila by Night
– Lino Brocka, Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag
– Ingmar Bergman, Scenes from a Marriage
– Brillante Mendoza, Serbis
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