John Michael Decker’s Top Ten Films of 2009

It's time once again for my biased list of favorite films from the past year. It was difficult to put the list together this time, largely because it was such a disappointing year at the box office. More often than not, I’d end up walking away from the movie theatre feeling let down.

Films NOT on the list

Before, I get to the list, I’ll mention a few films that didn’t make the cut. I suspect that people will ask why these few in particular didn’t they make it into my top ten, so I’ll explain.

Avatar isn’t on the list because although the special effects were remarkable, I just didn’t find the story all that original. Moon didn’t make it because I didn’t get the chance to see it, although I’ve heard that it’s great. I was completely underwhelmed by Sherlock Holmes. I have to give props to Where the Wild Things Are for some gutsy artistic choices, but ultimately I thought it was a depressing mess that completely missed the point of my favorite children’s book.

Top 10 films of 2009

And now for the official list of 2009 films that I can gladly recommend. In case you haven’t seen them yet, I will do my best to say why I liked these movies without giving away any major spoilers.

#10: Paranormal Activity

This is a low-budget film based on a simple premise that was executed beautifully. The story centers on a twenty-something yuppie couple, Katie and Micah, who have been troubled by strange noises late at night. Katie feels that some entity has been haunting her since she was a little girl. In an effort to figure out what’s going on, her skeptical boyfriend Micah decides to videotape the room while they sleep. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that things get stranger and more intense as the story progresses. Although this movie was similar in style to The Blair Witch Project, I thought Paranormal Activity was much scarier.

#9: Zombieland

I love zombies and am very grateful that they have become popular in the American zeitgeist again. This is a really fun horror/comedy about a world overrun by the walking dead, and the four very different living people who band together to try to survive in it. Again, this movie has a simple premise, but was a lot of fun to watch, and amidst all of the laughs and the horror there was even some pathos thrown in. Woody Harrelson stars as Tallahassee, a man who seems to have been born to kick undead ass, but Bill Murray nearly steals the show with a brief cameo.

#8: Drag Me To Hell

After the disappointing Spider-Man 3, director Sam Raimi is back in fine form with this throwback to his earlier B-movie work, especially Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. This movie was advertised as a horror film, but like Zombieland, it was really a horror/comedy, and a hilarious one at that. What I liked best about this movie was the fact that so many of the characters were utterly unlikeable, so when horrible things start happening to them, you really enjoy it. There is a relentless energy to Sam Raimi films, and very little subtlety, but damn if they don’t make for some incredible escapism. If any lesson can be taken away from this film, it’s that you don’t mess with angry, old, half-blind, Gypsy hags.

#7: Watchmen

Watchmen is based on the graphic novel of the same name, written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons. In writing Watchmen, one of Moore’s intentions was to showcase the comic book format by demonstrating exactly how the union of words and pictures could tell a story in a unique way that no other medium could. The graphic novel is a dense, multi-layered story that delves into the psychological aspects of the “superhero.” It was a brilliant, groundbreaking work when it came out in the mid 1980s, but it was never meant to be made into a motion picture.

That being said, director Zack Snyder did about as good a job as anyone could in translating the graphic novel into a film. As a fan of the comic book version of Watchmen, I really enjoyed this movie. Snyder manages to capture perfectly on camera the distinct visual world that Dave Gibbons created in the book. With one or two exceptions, the casting was excellent. However, even the 162-minute running time isn’t enough to capture all of the subtle nuances of the book.

#6: The Road

The Road is an extremely powerful film set in a bleak dystopian future. Viggo Mortensen gives an outstanding performance as a man whose love for his son allows him to endure horrific conditions in an effort to hold onto his and his son’s humanity. This is not an easy film to watch; the material, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is extraordinarily dark, but I found the journey more than worthwhile.

#5: Up

Up is another Pixar masterpiece. The story, about an old man and a young boy on the adventure of a lifetime, is at times hilarious, touching, and ultimately uplifting. Up breaks new ground with its digital 3-D effects, but unlike other movies I’ve seen this year, it has more going for it than just pretty pictures. The characters are outstanding, the story is original, and the voice talent was perfectly cast. This movie is a wonderful reminder that it’s never too late to go out and find adventure in the world. Of all the films on my list this year, Up has the broadest entertainment appeal for the widest audience.

#4: The Hurt Locker

At its heart, The Hurt Locker is about men who intentionally put themselves in dangerous situations. Jeremy Renner plays Sgt. William James, an action junkie put in charge of an elite squad of bomb disposal operatives in Iraq. Director Kathryn Bigelow did an amazing job of creating suspense in the many bomb disarmament scenes. The character conflicts were both interesting and realistic, especially the dynamic between the unpredictable Sgt. James and the more cautious, by-the-book Sgt. Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie. I went into this movie knowing nothing about it and left pleasantly surprised.

#3: Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino crafts an incredibly entertaining World War II flick filled with memorable characters and his usual sharp dialogue. The basic premise of the story is that a young Jewish woman named Shosanna plots revenge against the Nazis for murdering her family. At the same time, an elite squad of Jewish, American, Nazi-killing soldiers nicknamed “the Basterds,” try to take out all the bigwigs in the Third Reich in a single strike. The two revenge plots collide at a tiny movie theatre in France. Brad Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of “the Basterds,” but the best performance is by Christoph Waltz, who portrays the charmingly evil Colonel Hans Landa.

#2: Star Trek

I’ve always been a huge Star Trek fan, but I have to admit, after five television series and ten films set in the Star Trek universe, I was pretty much over it. The concept was tired and I thought that I’d rather see the whole franchise fade into obscurity than have to face another bad Trek film.

And then producer/director J.J. Abrams did the impossible: He managed to create a Star Trek movie that not only reinvigorated the franchise, but wiped away 40 years of bloated continuity, brought action and excitement back to the Star Trek universe, and reminded me of everything I loved about the original series in the first place. Recasting the original characters with younger actors was a risky move on Abrams’ part, but the performers managed to capture the spirit of their iconic characters without just imitating the original actors.

And now, my favorite movie of 2009...

#1: District 9

So Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was all set to produce Halo, a movie based on the video game of the same name. As often happens in Hollywood, the project fell apart, so Jackson offered a virtually unknown South African director $30 million bucks to make whatever film he wanted to. The result was District 9.

District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp and starring Sharlto Copley, is a fairly low-budget picture by today’s standards. At the start of the film it looks as though we are going to be watching a mockumentary about stranded aliens contained in a detention center in South Africa, but the movie quickly picks up the pace and we are treated to an action-packed sci-fi thrill ride with some amazing set pieces and excellent social commentary. The aliens in the movie are interesting and multi-layered. The protagonist, Wikus VanDeMerwe, is an unlikable jerk at the start of the film, but by the end he has gone through an incredible transformation (just watch the movie and you’ll know that I mean that on all kinds of levels). Lately people have been touting Avatar as the film that has reinvented sci-fi for the 21^st century, but don’t listen to them -- District 9 is truly the film that accomplishes this.

Summary

And there you have it -- my top picks for the year in cinema. Feel free to get in touch and argue, or tell me about a great film I may have left off the list. Thanks again to Jem Matzan for acting as the editor of this article.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor who has been trying to get back into the writing groove. He sincerely hopes that 2010 will be a less disappointing year at the box office.