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Critics' choices: the films of 2009
Time Out's film critics pick their five best (and one worst) offerings from the year in movies, from talking foxes to the cheekiest gay Austrian ever
Dave Calhoun, Film editorHits
1 The White Ribbon (Dir Michael Haneke, Aus/Ger/Fr)
We were proud to present Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner as the Time Out film at the London Film Festival because it’s smart, troubling, good-looking and full of meaning. It’s set in 1913, but its ideas about domestic repression and public violence are as modern as anything he has made.
2 35 Shots of Rum (Dir Claire Denis, Fr)
Claire Denis’s poetic study of a Parisian train-driver father living with his just-adult daughter is subtle and touching and reveals its wisdom slowly and tenderly. It also contains one of the year’s most spine-tingling scenes: Denis’s cast dancing in a late-night bar to the Commodores’s ‘Nightshift’.
3 Milk (Dir Gus Van Sant, US)
Gus Van Sant emerged from the laboratory where he’d concocted his last three films to fashion this more accessible but no less wise tale of the rise and death of 1970s San Francisco gay activist Harvey Milk. All hail Sean Penn.
4 Il Divo (Dir Paulo Sorrentino, It)
Paulo Sorrentino’s portrait of much-accused former Italian PM Giulio Andreotti is a grotesque carnival with Toni Servillo playing a heightened version of the politician, with creepy prosthetic ears and an inscrutable face.
5 Fish Tank (Dir Andrea Arnold, UK)
This sun-drenched story of a mixed-up Essex teenager’s fight to find her place in the world confirmed Andrea Arnold as a sympathetic humanist and one of Britain’s rising filmmaking talents.
Misses
The Boat That Rocked (Dir Richard Curtis, UK)
Richard Curtis’s insistence that his comedy about a 1960s offshore radio station should be so long didn’t help. But our critic Wally Hammond captured its lack of humour, charm and direction when he retitled it ‘The Ship That Sank’.
Geoff Andrew, contributing editor
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Hits
1 The White Ribbon (Dir Michael Haneke, Aus/Ger/Fr)
Arguably the finest film yet from a misunderstood giant of cinema. Perhaps now, Haneke’s detractors will notice the quiet, unsentimental compassion – not to mention the discreet beauty – that marks his work. A movie for our times.
2 In the City of Sylvia (Dir José Luis Guerín, Sp/Fr)
Catalan auteur José Luis Guerin had been ploughing his own favoured and very fertile plot of filmic territory – situated somewhere between fiction, documentary and homage – for two decades before catching our attention with this sunny, sexy and slyly funny gem about a flâneur in Strasbourg.
3 A Serious Man (Dirs Ethan & Joel Coen, US)
The Coens offer an uncompromisingly Jewish, consistently audacious and frequently hilarious fable about… well, man’s absurd capacity for everyday suffering and the terrifying uncertainty and mystery of existence.
4 Shirin (Dir Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
Abbas Kiarostami’s bold experiment in storytelling focuses throughout on the faces of more than 100 women watching an old movie based on a Persian legend. Or were they? An extraordinarily open, even liberating experience, and surprisingly moving.
5 Cloud 9 (Dir Andreas Dresen, Ger)
Andreas Dresen’s warm but utterly unsentimental account of an adulterous affair is one of the few great fiction films about old age. Admirably forthright and frank, frequently witty and finally quite devastating, it was (despite mostly favourable reviews) perhaps the most unfairly neglected release of the year.
Misses
Antichrist (Dir Lars Von Trier, Fr/Ger/US)
Von Trier’s philosophical/ psychological thriller is short on both logic and suspense. His foray into gothic fable came across as silly, self-indulgent, childishly provocative and pretentious.
Derek Adams, Film writer
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Hits
1 District 9 (Dir Neill Blomkamp, US/SA)
Neill Blomkamp’s almost believable docu-style sci-fi drama was the most innovative film of the year. Like having all your favourite sci-fi movies rolled into one, it’s thought provoking, emotionally captivating and utterly compelling. It blew me away.
2 The Hurt Locker (Dir Katrhyn Bigelow, US)
Set on the streets of Baghdad, Kathryn Bigelow’s electrifying tour de force takes documentary-style filmmaking to new heights. Few films are as heart- palpitatingly realistic as this.
3 Inglourious Basterds (Dir Quentin Tarantino, US)
I’m out on a limb here, but Tarantino’s slice of irreverential wartime claptrap was the year’s most entertaining film. Harking back to the Mickey-taking World War II films of the 1970s, it’s tense, violent and a whole lot of fun.
4 Bruno (Dir Larry Charles, US)
The boldest film of the year. Aimless, yes, but often enormously funny, hugely embarrassing and très risqué.
5 Antichrist (Dir Lars Von Trier, Fr/Ger/US)
There are enough twisted thought processes on show to satisfy an entire conference of psychologists. Although not a film to enjoy, I couldn’t help but feel deeply affected by some of the imagery unleashed in Lars Von Trier’s occasionally beautiful but mostly dark and disturbing horror show.
Misses
Angels & Demons (Dir Ron Howard, US)
It wasn’t the year’s most terrible film, as there were far worse kids’ flicks. It’s just that Ron Howard’s Dan Brown adaptation used such a simplistic join-the-dots, signposted structure that it could easily have been followed by a three year old. And I’m older than that.
David Jenkins, Film writer
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Hits
1 Wendy and Lucy (Dir Kelly Reichardt, US)
The hints of genius revealed in Kelly Reichardt’s 2006 film ‘Old Joy’ came to full fruition in this masterly follow-up, a survey of life below the American poverty line as depicted in the story of a young woman (Michelle Williams) searching for her missing dog.
2 A Christmas Tale (Dir Arnaud Desplechin, Fr)
Arnaud Desplechin waltzes his camera through a family fracas in this delicious examination of generational and gender conflict.
3 In the City of Sylvia (Dir José Luis Guerín, Sp/Fr)
Catalan director José Luis Guerín offers an autobiographical search for a lost lover in Strasbourg that delights in the textures of the city while picking apart the mechanics of the romantic ‘chase’.
4 Sleep Furiously (Dir Gideon Koppel, UK)
The year’s best British film arrived in the form of an unassuming yet artful documentary paean to antiquated Welsh farming practices from debut director Gideon Koppel. Wistful, charming, ironic and sad all at once.
5 Fantastic Mr Fox (Dir Wes Anderson, US/UK)
Wes Anderson found his form again after the ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ with this stop-motion marvel which recasts Roald Dahl’s wily fox as a fop voiced by George Clooney.
Misses
Watchmen (Dir Zack Snyder, US)
A bloated fanboy behemoth that went some way to prove that hype and marketing budgets have little heft when you’ve got a dud in your mitts.
Tom Huddleston, Film writer
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Hits
1 Up (Dirs Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson, US)
No other film this year came close to matching Pixar’s achievement: this is their first masterpiece. Coming on like Herzog adapting ‘Winnie the Pooh’, ‘Up’ is heartbreaking, hysterical and daft.
2 Rachel Getting Married (Dir Jonathan Demme, US)
Jonathan Demme’s tearjerker cast Anne Hathaway as a reformed pill-popper set loose at her sister’s wedding. Mostly improvised and featuring a cast of friends, stars, musicians and bit-players, this is like truth, only better.
3 Wendy and Lucy (Dir Kelly Reichardt, US)
Another monumental female performance both grounds and elevates ‘Wendy and Lucy’, Kelly Reichardt’s bleak tribute to America’s economic migrants. Michelle Williams has come a long way from her TV roots.
4 Burma VJ (Dir Anders Østergaard, Den)
This bloody bulletin from the streets of Rangoon is a heartfelt tribute to the power of collective protest and individual heroism.
5 Watchmen (Dir Zack Snyder, US)
Many miss the subtleties in Alan Moore’s novel of superheroism run amok: one of them is director Zack Snyder, whose cackhandedly literal approach to Moore’s achievement is intellectually inert. Yet it’s also awe-inspiring, rendering Moore’s prose in enthralling, eye-popping colour, fashioning an unwieldy, wrongheaded masterpiece despite his best efforts.
Misses
The Boat That Rocked (Dir Richard Curtis, UK)
Richard Curtis’s rambling, turgid, self-satisfied maritime misadventure pulled off the feat of being even less funny than ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’, which at least didn’t include a comedy rape scene.
User comments on this story
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- Nasser Aslam said...
- Can you guys, critics after all, not go slightly out of your way to find more exciting stuff than the obvious? Posted on Aug 17 2010 00:03
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- James Dillan said...
- Did Flame and Citron not come out in the UK? Fish Tank was brilliant (and a bit depressing) as was Looking for Eric. I think District 9 takes the top prize this year however, while Paranormal Activity is another small budget flick that worked very well. Inglorious, while highly entertaining, doesn't earn a spot on the list. Finally, as much as it pains me to admit, Avatar will beat most of these out. While it is a big-budget hollywood CGI wank fest, it's anti-american and anti-technology message (ironic considering what it took to make) mixed with fascinating cinematography earn this one a top spot in 2009. Posted on Jan 19 2010 23:19
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- John M. said...
- Some interesting choices here - I'm looking forward to checking some of them out. I find it very odd that people have reacted with such venom, though; these lists are subjective opinions put forth in an intelligent and honest manner and yet people seem personally offended that their favourite films haven't been included. Ridiculous. Posted on Jan 08 2010 11:24
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- Andy K said...
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1. Let the Right One In
2. Anvil, the story of Anvil
3. Mother Posted on Jan 07 2010 18:53 - Report as inappropriate
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- Valerie Livina said...
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The best films of 2009: 1) Avatar - because it is beautiful, deep and simple (which is a rare combination in the modern art); 2) Up; 3) 2012; 4) Dorian Gray; 5) Watchmen
The worst film is Inglourioius basterds - because it is an exact opposition of Avatar.
In December 2007, I wrote in my blog that 2009 would bring rise of sci-fi movies in 2009. And this is exactly what happened. Posted on Jan 04 2010 18:18 - Report as inappropriate
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- HAZEL said...
- New Moon, brilliant, Sngels and Demons, Gran Torino also brilliant. 2012 also very good on the big screen, probably not so on dvd. Harry Potter not as good on dvd. Burn after reading and Boat that Rocked, both very very silly. Posted on Dec 29 2009 22:46
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- rws said...
- A major omission from the lists posted here: 'The Secret of Her Eyes' (Argentina, dir. Juan José Campanella). It's the finest film of the year, for my money, and if there's any justice it will walk away with the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film Posted on Dec 29 2009 18:58
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- Tricky_uk said...
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Leave Derek Adams alone - The Hurt Locker is a great film, somewhat spoiled by a terribly tacked on last 10 minutes, which looks like it's been added by the studios to 'explain' the rest of the film and 'give it meaning'. Can't talk for Inglorious: it may be good or it may be awful.
But I very much doubt he's chosen these because he's "only seen big Amnerican movies". The two Euro films that crop up in the lists are both massively over hayped and massively disappointing. In the City of Sylvia is the worst: I saw it last year at Edinburgh and it's the most dull, pretentious, over hyped movie I've seen in many a year.
As for The White Ribbon, frankly I'm baffled as to how it tops the polls. It's so elliptical, you're just left thinking 'so what?' by the end. The idea that the events in the film have something profound to say about the German pysche or character in the run-up to the country's descent into fascism is nonsense. What the film does convey very well is the stifling claustrophobia and hypocrisy of village life in the early 20th century - but who doesn't know that? And as for Hanneke's 'warmth and compassion' - ha! It's just a series of uninvolving tableaus of different people being differently awful to each other. Unlike, say, Tarkovsky, there is no chance of redemption. And again, despite some luminous black and white photography, the direction has no real visual style or aesthetic to it, it's just by-the-book naturalism. I didn't not enjoy it; it's just simply not good enough to be considered the best film of the year.
On a cheerier note: looking forward to seeing Sleep Furiously as everyone I know who's seen it loves it. And finally, where was District 9 - a cracking summer treat! Posted on Dec 29 2009 18:08 - Report as inappropriate
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- mm said...
- Why, oh why, is Wendy and Lucy appearing on these lists? Apart from endless dreary mooching around by Michelle Williams, nothing happens! It's awful! Arggh, take it off the lists...please... Posted on Dec 28 2009 14:29
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- Marsellus said...
- Just for the record, I whole-heartedly agree with Derek's 2nd and 3rd choice. Inglorious and The Hurt Locker were both amazing films - and fresh additions to their respective genres. F**k anyone who criticizes those choices as being too 'Hollywood'. They're good films. What happened to Moon? No one has mentioned that. One of the seminal sci-fi films of the decade came and went without a whimper. The horror! Posted on Dec 23 2009 23:39
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- s ford said...
- what happened to 'un prophete'? some good films mentioned though. my film of the year was sleep furiously, and it was good to see it come up... Posted on Dec 23 2009 15:48
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- Adam Lee Davies said...
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There's a new star in celluloid heaven tonight, and everything it touches... is it's kingdom.
Derek Adams 19XX- 2009.
We'll mourn ya 'til we join ya, bro. We'll mourn ya 'till we joinn ya... Posted on Dec 23 2009 15:14 - Report as inappropriate
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- Derek said...
- 27 years of grinding my fingers to the bone – and this is what I get. Pah! Posted on Dec 23 2009 15:11
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- Peter Watts said...
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Hi Jack
Demanding that somebody is fired a couple of days before Christmas probably isn't the sort of behaviour Orwell would recommend either. Posted on Dec 23 2009 15:02 - Report as inappropriate
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- tom huddleston said...
- Just FYI Jack- Derek doesn't drink. Posted on Dec 23 2009 14:55
- Report as inappropriate
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