Chris knipp's 2009 movie best lists

[Chris Knipp]

..forever tag it by its moment of creation and tangential cultural detritus, rather than its more essential and deep criteria, missing the work’s continuing relevance.

I do not know Dan Schneider, the author of those words , in an apparently recent piece about the movie High Noon. "Criteria" doesn't seem like a good choice of words. http://www.cinescene.com/reviews/highnoon.htm. I do say indeed, that's a run of ill phrases! In defense of Cinescene, relatively very few pieces by Dan Schneider have ever appeared on the site.

[Chris Knipp]

P.s. I have occasionally put a link when one of my reviews here appears on Cinescene. On my own website, I always do, or it's been published in one or two other places. But I don't want to tout other sites here.

[tabuno]

My belated favorite 2009 movie list. I could just string this out until I see a few more movies, but well...it's already getting near March 2010. The rather surprising news this year is that while there might be one great movie this year (FUNNY PEOPLE), there really weren't any terrible movies that I had the fortune to go see, just some that were disappointing. On the whole, most movies in my opinion are getting better.


BEST MOVIES OF 2009 and others

1. Funny People (2009). Adam Sandler's offers one of his best performances with a great script that has Sandler playing a seriously ill-stand-up comic and hires an assistant (Seth Rogan) in this black comedy that that has elements from PUNCHLINE (1988), PHILADELPHIA (1993), THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995), and LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003) and helping to make this one of the best movies of 2009.

2. Coraline (2009). Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher voice this 3-D animated family drama where Fanning's young girl character discovers a secret door to an alternative universe with button-eyed people behind whose seemingly perfect world likes a darker secret. This 3-D animated experience is rich with visual effects and an emotionally layered movie that is fascinating to watch. In the tradition of the creative and innovative animated movie "Spirited Away" (2001).

3. All About Steve (2009). This mainstream movie is a powerful character study performed by Sandra Bullock which carefully weaves comedy with drama with a character that appears out of the mainstream, but offers the audience a valuable growing experience in humanity and human relationships (if audience members make the effort and openness to actually notice).

4. The Informant! (2009). Matt Damon gets to play a corporate executive (based on a true story) where he becomes an FBI informant in a role this is brings out another side of Damon. This light 50s musical score dependent dramatic-comedy set in the 90s, richly develops complexities of corporate intrigue and legalistic and public consequences. This many layered movie is an unusual blend of drama and a sprightly voice-over by Damon that makes for a creatively but risky and appealing movie.

5. Public Enemies (2009). Another strong but underplayed performance by Johnny Depp in an intimately, compelling, crime action period drama about John Dillinger. However a number of technical weaknesses prevent this movie from becoming a solid movie classic.

6. Up (2009). A deeply moving 3-D animated movie with strong comedic elements dealing with an old man's quest to fulfill a past promise to go to South America and accidently brings along a naive boy scout on this adventure. The real deep adult themes sometimes reside somewhat uneasily along with the usually animated but unrealistic action scenes.

7. The Soloist (2009). Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx offer excellent, strong performances in this melodic, relational drama about a former Julliard student who dropped out because of schizophrenia and a newspaper reporter who befriends him.

8. Inglourious Basterds (2009). Quentin Taratino directs another overly violence, and in this instance a depressing movie set in World War II with a fictional historical context that contains some of the best psychological and riveting performances this year, that retains a skewed mentality towards all Nazis which may political permit such wholesale slaughter of the enemy.

9. The Blind Side. (2009). Based on the true story of Michael Oher, a National Football League player, starring Sandra Bullock [Oscar nominee], presents a strong mass audience, populist movie that hits a multitude of emotional buttons in this captivating family drama.

10. Sherlock Holmes (2009). Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law combine together in this riveting action, mystery, occult thriller based on a intelligently tight script with good editing and pacing, except for some confusing fight scenes and difficult understandable dialogue, Downey and Law brings a new vibrant and strong presence to the screen.

Honorable Mention

Angels and Demons (2009). An intensely mental and low-tech action adventure that is riveting for his powerful suspense. Except for unnecessary second twist at the ultimate climax of this movie, the storyline is solid and the emotional thrills intensely appealing with from frustration and relief. Just edged out of the top ten list.

Avatar (2009). James Cameron returns in this sci fi blockbuster that dazzles and takes special effects and dazzling visual alien imagery and almost seamless character and their background into a new level of amazing immersive brilliance. However, the movie is let down by a weak script and a pretty derivative fusion of various classic movies leading to a more populist, action adventure, and empty headed blockbuster.

Ghost of Girlfriends Past (2009). A fun comedy romance, with Matthew McConaughy playing the playboy instead of Scrooge the businessman in this Christmas Carol update. Except for an overly eccentric Robert Forster military character, this movie is nicely balanced with a bit of dramatic flare, with good editing and pacing with a decent message about sex and marriage.

He's Just Not That Into You (2009). The ensemble comedy/drama about romance, love, and marriage is stuffed with too many characters with an uneven tone, but is revealing in asking and answering the right questions in an entertaining way.

Julia and Julie (2009). Meryl Streep brings a lively, joyously entertaining depiction of Julia Child to the screen (another performance worthy of a Golden Globe nomination) while Amy Adams presents an ambitious wife who attempts to cook from the entire Child's book. A challenging dual movie that follows two couples in different eras. An intelligent, humorous, and smart summer-time movie.

Law Abiding Citizen (2009). Gerald Butler (also a producer) and Jamie Foxx headline this solid crime thriller that has Butler conducting assassinations from prison in retaliation for a mis-carriage of justice that saw his wife and daughter murdered. With a few weaknesses, this action charged movie has a great twist and emotional intensity.

Men Who Stare at Goats, The (2009). This quirky, light, paranormal war movie is a feel-good entertaining movie with a subtle message starring George Clooney with engaging youthful flashback scenes, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges. [Almost made top ten list].

Moon (2009). A riveting if somewhat flawed movie that has a great storyline and Sam Rockwell offering up delightful performances that by the end of this sci fi movie a rewarding feeling is likely. Alone, Sam Rockwell, is overseeing mining operation, and who later discovers he is not alone. Worth seeing. An enduring movie.

The Proposal (2009). An entertaining and very funny comedy starring Sandra Bullock (an uptight, strict, inwardly closed off but respected book editor) and Ryan Reynold (her assistant) who end up in an arranged marriage to allow Bullock's character to remain in the United States. This fusion of Green Card (1990) and The Devil Wears Prada (2008) with a weird Betty White scene and a strong but not spectacular ending is a warm comedy that director Anne Fletcher allowed the humor extended time to flourish.

Star Trek (2009). Remarkable casting except for Captain Kirk. Almost the entire cast captures the very essence of their older count parts of the original series. Exciting action, decent plot, but with a few weaknesses in technical details.

Sunshine Cleaning (2009). Amy Smart and Emily Blunt are two sisters who end up in their own business cleaning up after crime scenes. This is a family drama that incorporates a different venue to relate a small story about these sisters, their growing and relating to each other. There is a hint of humor, a good dose of drama, a sprinkle of drama that makes for a sometimes, slowly paced beginning and a not outstanding, but interesting, rewarding human interest storyline.

The Surrogate (2009). A solid, above average sci fi high tech action thriller that is well balanced with Bruce Willis coping with relational issues and a murder mystery that has an on the edge of your seat ending.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009). This is a challenging and fascinating time travel romantic fantasy movie that captures the shifting chaos of time quite successfully in new ways.

The Ugly Truth (2009). Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler are television personalities who are thrown together in this sexist romantic comedy that actually has something to say about real relationship. Some great comic scenes in this predictable, but meaningful story.


Good But Failed to Make the Grade

2012 (2009). Some of the best disaster visuals and gripping action, even if some unbelievable, scenes. Not quite as substantive as THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004), almost too long, almost boring, but overall entertaining and solid storyline, if somewhat predictable.

Duplicity (2009). Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star in this corporate espionage romantic thriller that while decent didn't have classic written all over it. The industry and the denouement weren't really overly amazing. Roberts and Owen's interplay were rather novel and hopefully will be used in a superior future movie. Entertaining, decent, above average film.

Inkheart (2009). Brendan Fraser, Helen Mirren star in this child's fantasy about a person who can bring to life characters from books by reading the books aloud, but in this case with tragic consequences that Mr. Fraser's character attempts to repair, taking along with him his daughter on this dangerous adventure with a few brief humorous lines. There are a few problems in the music in places and editing, less about the fantasmagorical and more about the serious trials of honor and honesty and repairing relational losses.

Monsters v. Aliens (2009). A visually exciting sci-fi animated feature for children with solid humor and decent action, but somehow lacking in chemistry and balance for the primary characters.

Knowing (2009). A decent, above average sci-fi, disaster movie that attempts to avoid the typical stereotypical cliques, but can't completely escape from somewhat two-dimensional characters, plot devices, and special effects.

Taken (2009). Liam Neeson plays a retired intelligence operative who goes in search of his kidnapped daughter in this above average but derivative action-thriller.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2007). This summer action-adventure blockbuster has the explosions and stunts, introduces some emotional intimacy components between brothers and boyfriend-girlfriend, employs a number of shocking twists and turns more than usual which unfortunately led more to a feeling of overdoing it, being done it, and uncertainty as to understanding the motivations behind each characters' actions and behaviors.

Disappointments

17 Again (2009). An uneven comedy with an unnecessarily intrusive dumb nerd character side-kick surprisingly had potential that was brought down by character development gaps and a decent, but less that superb performance by Zac Efron.

Amelia (2009). Too much quantity and not enough quality in this biographical drama of the famous female pilot, the strong ending sequence cannot make up for the unnecessary and sometimes confusing flashback technique used in this movie and the underdeveloped parts of the wide swathes of Amelia's life that was attempted along with a chemistry that never really caught fire between the main characters.

Crank 2: High Voltage (2009). Jason Statham returns in a gyrating, psychedelic mindless martial arts action thriller that is filled with cinematic film gimmicks that wear thin with a few creative, experimental scenes.

District 9 (2009). An overly melodramatic, inconsistent, clumped together sci fi alien movie that has an unsympathetic main character and distracting pseudo-documentary style approach to presenting its story. While visually compelling and with some gripping raw, CLOVERFIELD (2008) photographic techniques, it remains one of the worst movies of the year.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). Besides a distancing color tone scheme used in this movie that removes the immediacy of the action, this movie seems like more of a collection of character relation and storyline plot scenes than a well presented story. While it has some great moments with eerie, horror motiff sequences, the convoluted plot makes this movie difficult to follow unless one understand the background story or read the book. This is a movie that uneasily stands alone and depends much on the movies which preceded it and the one to follow.

The Hurt Locker (2009). A overly stereotypical scriptwriter's fantasy about an American bomb squad in Iraq that is too incredible with manipulative scenes to project an political correct, to create audience sympathy but without authenticity. A huge disappointment.

The International (2009). This international corporate intrigue/thriller makes the audience suffer through the many rather sophisticated injustices only to leave it hanging with a rather unbalanced underwhelming climax.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009). This mostly unfunny, underdeveloped character-driven comedy falls mostly flat without much new creative and humor. An average, overused prat falls and action gimmicks that do not really entertain except for perhaps young children.

Race to Witch Mountain (2009). A derivative movie with nothing much new except some great casting and acting alien from the children actors. Only adequate special effects, plot points covered, but otherwise an entertaining but average movie.

Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen (2009). This sci-fi, toy robot writ large block-buster action movie is an uneasy blend of compelling serious military action and big special effects along with a more teenage plot sub-text and periodic crass humor that usually falls flat.

Terrible

None.

Missed/Haven't Seen Yet

500 Days of Summer
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Invictus
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
Paranormal Activity
Precious
Up In The Air

[Chris Knipp]

Bal directed by Semih Kaplanoglu. Have not heard of it or the Turkish director. Has anybody?

[oscar jubis]

Honey | Variety Review by Derek Elly
Berlin
Honey / Bal (Turkey-Germany)
By DEREK ELLEY

The final seg of self-styled Turkish auteur Semih Kaplanoglu's "Honey, Milk, Egg" trilogy (shot, natch, in reverse order) deals with its blank central character's childhood in the heavily wooded mountains of Rize province, northeast Turkey. The best-looking of the three and the most conventionally structured, this is still grindingly slow, content-light fare for card-carrying minimalists. Fest sidebars and Euro pubcaster slots loom.

With new d.p. Baris Ozbicer on board, Kaplanoglu appears to have discovered the visual merits of narrow depth of field and foreground framing devices, especially in the many schoolroom scenes and home interiors centered on its lonely protag, 6-year-old Yusuf (Bora Altas). Tyke's dad, Yakup (Erdal Besikcioglu), is a beekeeper who works deep in the forest; his mom, Zehra (Tulin Ozen), works on a tea plantation.

Shamed at school by his stutter, Yusuf takes pleasure in accompanying Dad on his honey rounds, finding the forest a place of mystery. When his father goes off alone in search of more bees, Yusuf feels isolated and retreats further into his own world.

More info about the small community's life -- and especially its religious/devotional background -- is in the pic's press materials than ever reaches the screen. Dialogue is at a premium throughout, Kaplanoglu typically holds fixed shots way beyond their usefulness, and music is rigorously avoided in attempting to sketch the kid's sense of wonder and inquiry.

As with "Egg" and "Milk," the pic's biggest flaw is that the viewer has no idea what the main characters are thinking or feeling and therefore tunes out emotionally at an early stage. The real star of the picture is writer-director Kaplanoglu -- which would be OK if he had anything to share with auds apart from auteurist mannerisms.

[Chris Knipp]

Doesn't explain why it would win the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, does it?