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As the year draws to a close, it is time to list my favourite movies of 2009.  The criteria I used to select these movies included:

• Originality
• Quality of cinematography/animation
• Quality of acting/voice acting
• Dialogue
• Execution
• How many times I went to see it in theatres

The greatest diffiiculty came in trying to order the list, but I did my best.  Without further ado, here is my top ten films released in 2009:

1. Up – Brilliantly written film with perfect amounts of comedy, sentiment, and wit.  A wonderful film (and another success for Pixar) for both adults and children alike.
2. Star Trek — One of the few blockbusters I enjoyed this summer.  J.J. Abrahams reset of the revered Star Trek franchise was an amazing success.  The particular methods used allow for sequels without affecting the integrity or quality of the original TOS timeline.
3. District 9 – One of the major successes of this movie was its very well executed marketing campaign.  No pre-release trailers gave much (if any) plot details away.  Stickers on movie theatre doors stating Humans only and other such anti-alien propaganda was great.  Very heavy parallels can be drawn between the film and events of humankind’s history and present. CG models fit perfectly within human actor driven scenes.
4. Adventureland — I am a sucker for a coming-of-age flick any day of the week, but when it’s executed so flawlessly but such loveable characters, I just love it.  Jesse Eisenberg is both adorable and completely believable as the innocent character we see in this movie.  The cinematography of this film is also brilliant and hasn’t gotten nearly enough praise.
5. Where the Wild Things Are — I might be slightly biased as this was my favourite book from childhood and one of films I anticipated most this year.  I cried during the preview.  It did deliver and was both touching and heartfelt.  Reminded me of the possibilities and difficulties of being a child.  The use of puppets instead of CG was the right choice, in my opinion.
6. Zombieland — I believe this is most likely the funniest movie I saw all year.  Once again starring Jesse Eisenberg (who I love), but this time instead of dealing with internal struggles we have him (and the rest) surviving in a post-apocalyptic world.  It even has a dash of RomCom just for me.
7. Sunshine Cleaning — Almost missed this one for some reason.  Glad I didn’t.  The film has a slightly over-exposed, dull colour, stationary frame kind of feel to it, which adds to the sarcastic sense of humour.  Amy Adams does a great job as a single mom, trying to provide for her family stuck in an affair going nowhere.  The dialogue is brilliant and believable.
8. Coco Avant Chanel — My favourite foreign language film of the year and brilliantly acted and paced.  Very interested to see how the great house of Chanel got its start.
9. A Serious Man – I can never turn down a Coen brothers’ film, but this one soars above the rest.  There is this sense of clockwork like repetition which provides an underlying “beat” to the whole film which slowly accelerates as the “serious man’s” life spirals apart.
10. Bright Star — A beautiful romantic film looking at the love between John Keats and Fanny Brawne.  A true story of unrequited love executed flawlessly with beautiful period costume, amazing soundtrack, and wonderful dialogue.

I look forward to another year of amazing films and hopefully will not wait until the end of 2010 to do any posting about them.  Let me know what your favourite films this year were?  What did I miss?

Tags:   2009 · list · movies · topten1 Comment