2009 Top 10

By Jonathan Fisher, December 24th, 2009

How fun, and frustrating, it is to look back at your favourite movies of the year. This year, by all accounts, has been a rather disappointing one for movies. The blockbusters, with a few exceptions (Watchmen, Avatar and Star Trek), were all sound and fury, signifying nothing (Terminator Salvation and Transformers 2 spring to mind), particularly when compared to the fun-filled blockbusters of last year (Iron Man and The Dark Knight). There were only a handful of mainstream films that really cut the mustard (Paranormal Activity, Up and some others), and as usual, there were a raft of smaller movies that slipped under the public's radar.

I always put in a little disclaimer about my year-end top tens. These lists are meaningless. I see them as an opportunity to go over my favourite movies of the year, to share them with others. I don't really see it as an opportunity to rate movies in order. All of the films on these lists are great in my eyes, and if anyone challenged me to prove why #9 is better than #10, I'd respond, "they're not, but tradition dictates that these lists come in tens, and something had to go above something else."

That being said, the number one movie on my list this year is definitely my favourite of the year. The other nine are all about equal in my heart, give or take. Another interesting note is that this year there are three Australian movies in my top 10. Now, I've always said that I don't include Australian films in my lists purely because I have a pre-determined bias towards films made in my home country. These films (Mary and Max, Last Ride and Samson and Delilah) are certainly among the most powerful, romantic and vicious (in turns) of the films I've seen this year. Add to that the John Hillcoat-directed adaptation of The Road, and nearly half of the films on my list have a dominant Australian presence. As usual, I add a caveat that some films appearing on many other critics' lists (An Education, Precious, Up in the Air, Bright Star and others) are still yet to be viewed by me.

There'a also the tricky business of deciding what to do with movies that were released in the U.S. in 2008, but weren't released in Australia, or seen by me, until 2009. Such semantics are annoying. Let me just say that I didn't include movies like The Wrestler, Revolutionary Road, Synecdoche, New York or The Class on this list, but they are certainly films I would consider among the best of the last eighteen months. Who says a list of the year's best has to be ten movies long, anyway?

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10. Last Ride: This film, a wrenching story of a father and son, on the run from the law, is one of the most visually stunning films to ever come out of Australia. There is one lasting image in my mind from this film of a child, surrounded by a frozen river, doubled over as if to avoid some terrible external reality. First-time director Glendyn Ivin uses the barren landscapes of the Australian outback and wilderness to compliment the very painful human story of Last Ride. Hugo Weaving delivers one the best performances of his career.








9. Mary and Max: This animated film from Adam Elliot, director the Oscar-winning Harvie Krumpet, is one of the most romantic, funny, heart-warming (and breaking) movies of the year. With an extraordinary visual style that is all Elliot's own, Mary and Max conveys the beauty of friendship, the heart-break of growing up and letting go, and the potential of this gift of life that we all have. An animated film that is perhaps more appropriate for adults and young teens than for very young children. Also features a fine Phillip Seymour Hoffman performance.





8. Avatar: Well, it might not be the movie to change the way we view movies, but James Cameron's Avatar is both a visual and sensual extravaganza, combined with a story and characters we can care about. This is also the first movie I've ever seen that must be seen in 3-D. It's been a twelve year wait, but James Cameron has once again delivered a textured, exciting and vivid masterpiece that reminded me just how big and amazing movies can be.











7. Up: Another year, another Pixar masterpiece. Up is perhaps the most fanciful Pixar film to date, a story of an old man tethering thousands of helium balloons to his house and taking off to find Paradise Falls, a place he promised himself and his late wife he would visit before he died. What follows is a wonderful visual feast, a beautiful story about the nature of friendship and the importance of never giving up on your dreams.

6. Paranormal Activity: Made for around $10,000, starring two unkowns and filmed in director Oren Peli's house, Paranormal Activity is currently sitting on a pretty $110 million dollar global gross. It deserves it. This is one of the scariest, cleverest, relentless horror movies since The Exorcist set the bar over 30 years ago. For about a week after seeing this film for the first time, I woke up at 2 in the morning, convinced that I'd heard something in my kitchen or living room. One thing this movie taught me is: don't try to film it.

5. Samson and Delilah: Wildly regarded as the film that should have gotten the world-wide attention that Baz Luhrmann's overblown Australia did, Samson and Delilah is a depiction of the other Australia that most of us choose to ignore. The people of the community that Samson and Delilah belong to are increasingly without hope. Samuel Johnson famously said, "a decent provision for the poor is the true test of a society." That quote, combined with the way that Samson and Delilah articulates the nature of the Indigenous living-standards disaster in Australia, should force any number of us to take a good, hard look at ourselves.







4. The Road: I'm a tough cookie to crack at the movies, but I was nearly a blubbering mess by the end of The Road. Put it down to the performance of Viggo Mortensen as a man trying to guide his son through a hopeless post-apocalyptic world, the visual style of The Proposition director John Hillcoat, and the source material from one of the best of modern authors, Cormac McCarthy. The Road is almost completely hopeless, but for the dim light in every human that wants to help others, to be happy and optimistic. The sad suggestion of The Road is that we may be on a path that will extinguish that dim light forever.















3. A Serious Man: The new Coen Brothers film epitomises everything I love about these film-makers. Deeply sardonic, quietly hilarious, surprisingly profound and, as usual, divisive as all hell, A Serious Man is just about the must-see movie of the year. This simple story of a man trying to work out why his life is falling apart discovers that in the Coen Brothers' world, there is no why -- shit just happens.











2. The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war thriller/action movie could well be, as James Cameron put it, the Platoon of the Iraq war. Chillingly objective and unflinching, The Hurt Locker cuts to the core of why humans need (and in a disturbing way, want) war. One of the most powerful experiences of the last few years.









1. Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino's World War II action/comedy/drama was not only the most fun I had at the movies all year, but it also fuelled some of the best online discussion of any movie released in 2009. Tarantino here applies his encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and its history, his astoundingly confident writing and directing style, and his deep love of movies to create one of the most memorable and hard-hitting films of his career, of 2009, and of this first decade of the 21st century.



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A few honourable mentions go to Doubt, Watchmen, Moon, District 9, Disgrace, The Combination, Coraline and In the Loop.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day, eat far more than the daily recommendation, and drink more than the allocated 4 units per day. I know I plan to. Below is a video of the greatest Christmas song ever written.