Out of Focus

OOF Year-in-Review 2009: Top 10 films ... adjacent

Uh … where was I. Really? Not so important. When I was so rudely interrupted by real-world endeavors, I was smack dab in the middle of expressing my love for any number of films released in 2009. I find it fascinating that such a crappy year (and awful decade) produced so many great films. Certainly, the correlation is a natural one: many great artists are tortured or, at the very least, bit-time complainers. But not everything in the world of film 2009 centered on morose melancholia or seriously issue-oriented; not even close.

The 10 films I listed as the best of 2009 in my last post were really just the sprinkles on top of the cinematic sundae that was 2009. Cutting to the required 10 only made me wish Mel Brooks’ joke in History of the World: Part One was actually history (or mythology, I suppose): that there truly were 15 commandments as then, our “top” lists likely would have 15 slots. And really, was 15 even enough? I count seven films that live on my next tier and each, at some point, spent time in my top 10 before I finalized my list and rankings. And beyond those seven, there were another 13 that popped into momentary consideration as I first pulled together all the titles I would consider.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other films that don’t belong to this additional group of 20 that I still thoroughly enjoyed watching and while heavily flawed and even denigrated by many, I would still describe as “good” movies if only for pure entertainment value and/or as semi-innocuous comfort film. (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans fits into this category; but so do It’s Complicated and Julie & Julia, two easily dismissed pieces of fluff that really shouldn’t be and aren’t … even though both have tremendous problems. And if I get around to a post on some of the films I consider most overlooked of the year, I’ll be sure to mention Bandslam.)

So here and now, I would like to devote a little time to acknowledging the films that are Top 10-adjacent (my favorite term originating from Los Angeles real estate). In the 2009 Book of Aaron, they’re all still winners.

Top 10-Adjacent (Click on title for further comments)

11. Up
    
12. The White Ribbon
    
13. Up in the Air
    
14. Adventureland
    
15. Every Little Step
    
16. Passing Strange: The Movie

Those were my “next seven,” and while I simply don’t have the patience (nor time, right now; the primary goal for 2010 is to do less, better, while not over-extending myself, so let’s start – sort of – now). Among the other distributed films I really liked in 2009 (in alphabetical order), I must mention Antichrist, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, The Cove, Duplicity, Food Inc., Forbidden Lie$, The Girlfriend Experience, The Headless Woman, The House of the Devil, The Hurt Locker, I’m Gonna Explode, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Night and Day, Outrage, Racing Dreams, The Road, Sugar, A Town Called Panic and Two Lovers.

After the jump, more comments about the adjacents, and coming soon, more comments about the year and decade in film as well as the year in decade in television; and, who knows what else. (Well, I do, but no more promises without follow-through. So there.)

OOF Year-in-Review 2009: Top 10 films of the year

The best film with a theatrical release I saw in 2009 was made in 1948. That’s not actually a knock on 2009, easily one of the stronger cinematic years this decade. But as I consider The Red Shoes to be among the top five greatest films ever made, I can’t ignore that the release of its pristinely restored version was a (if not the) highlight of my cinematic year. I’m only sorry I did not have the chance to attend the special screening at the DGA Theater to see it on a significantly larger screen than the one at Film Forum. Bruce Goldstein’s repertory programming at Film Forum is on its own almost enough for me to never even consider leaving New York, but oh how I wish their screens were significantly larger.

Yet I digress. My list of the top 10 films of 2009 completed in time for indieWIRE’s annual critics’ survey is now live at their site. I find creating lists to be simultaneously entertaining and frustrating exercises, but for me, the list simply can’t be the (only) thing. A list without an explanation might as well resemble a visually stunning plate of food that somehow lacks any flavor. So over the next two weeks, I shall explain my lists; the ones on indieWIRE as well as a few others. And so, first up: The Top 10 films of 2009.

Determining my top 10 this year was probably more difficult than any other year during these terrible Aughts, with the possible exception of 2004. Determining rankings (required by indieWIRE’s poll) proved particularly trying. I settled on my top 5 with relative ease and without internal argument. But after that, not only were there 10 or 20 films that convincingly deserved one of those lower-half slots, but they also kept hopping in and out of the list.

The difficulty in ranking combined with the pains of trimming illustrates a great year for film. However, it additionally proclaims a year in which the standout movies are mostly of such a high level that they simply don’t stand out from each other individually as much. I don’t mean to imply that the great films of 2009 aren’t unique and special; far from it, in fact. Rather, the voices that shouted, “Look at me” from screens this year were all so compelling, comparing most of them to each other in any attempt to rank them becomes quite complicated.

One special note about one title not on my top 10: Steve McQueen’s Hunger is one of the most unique and impressive achievements in cinema of the last couple years. I saw it at the 2008 New York Film Festival before it received a one-week release in LA. Because of that, I included it on my top 10 last year, as did 18 other participants of indieWIRE’s survey. However, it didn’t receive a New York release until this year, and it seems 10 critics voted for it this time around. If I hadn’t included it on last year’s list, it would definitely be on my current one, but I thought it inappropriate to list it twice. Where would it have placed this year? I’m not sure, and since I don’t have to make that determination, I’m not going to.

Of course, all of these exercises, especially when it comes to ranking, are more than simply subjective. And even in the days since submitting my ballot, I’ve thought to myself, maybe this film should replace that one; or, maybe this film should rank higher. One of the next posts will focus on the top films of the decade, which noticeably will not include any of the following titles. I’ll explain that deliberate choice further at that time. But for now, below is my list of the best of 2009, and after the jump, the reasons why:

Top 10 Films of 2009

1. Where the Wild Things Are
   
2. A Serious Man
   
3. Summer Hours
   
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
   
5. 35 Shots of Rum
   
6. In the Loop
   
7. Inglourious Basterds
   
8. The Informant!
   
9. The Limits of Control
   
10. Lorna’s Silence