I’m excited because this is the first year I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees going into the Academy Awards. These are ranked by personal preference, not by the chance they have of winning.
1. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen): The finest movie yet by the Coen brothers, this is a wildly hysterical masterpiece questioning the existence of God - or any sort of stability for that matter. The ending is equal parts chilling and hilarious - the ultimate assurance that we must sometimes accept the mystery.
2. Up (Pete Doctor and Bob Peterson): As far as movie taste goes, this movie is nonnegotiable. If you don’t like it, I don’t like you. (Kidding…kind of…) Its opening scenes alone make this one of the most beautiful stories of the cinema. With characters this fully-realized, Up is Pixar’s best movie.
3. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino): I’ve seen this movie four times, and I would see it another four times if I had the chance. Apparently 2009 was the year of unexpected bests, because this is in fact Tarantino’s masterpiece. His dialogue has never been better, and the performances by Christoph Waltz and Melanie Laurent are arguably the two best performances of the year.
4. Avatar (James Cameron): This movie is an unforgettable experience. Cameron really transports us to a different time and place, engaging us in the narrative in spite of acting and dialogue that is mediocre at best. I swear I felt wind blowing throw my hair during sequences of the film…
5. An Education (Lone Scherfig): I am in love with Carey Mulligan. Her performance in this film is smart, capturing the uncertainty of youth. This movie is full of great performances from Alfred Molina as the overly protective father to Peter Sarsgaard as the charming yet questionable love interest. Just ignore the disappointing ending.
6. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp): This sci-fi thriller was simply a lot of fun, even if it got unexpectedly and uncomfortably sentimental at times. For the most part, it was clever blockbuster filmmaking that blended documentary, action and good ol’ sci-fi horror.
7. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow): I don’t get the hype. I mean, it’s decent, but it is far from the masterpiece it is held up to be. The episodic structure of the film is meant for audiences to identify with the cyclical nature of the job, but it also makes the film stagnant. The supposed message of the movie in the last few minutes is really cheap. Props to Jeremy Renner on saving a movie that otherwise would have been very dull.
8. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (Lee Daniels): Many of the performances here are fantastic (particularly that of Gabourey Sidibe). Unfortunately, they get lost in the midst of the film’s distractingly abrasive style. The movie is manipulative, and the use of a child with down syndrome as Precious’ daughter is simply insensitive. I know Mo’Nique is guaranteed Best Supporting Actress - good performance, but overdone. When she screamed, all I heard was, “GIVE ME MY F—-ING OSCAR!”
9. Up in the Air (Jason Reitman): Precious director Lee Daniels said he considered casting girls who had experienced situations similar to the terrible events in his film, but he did not want to exploit them - very admirable move. Leave it up to Jason Reitman to cast unemployed Americans as, well, the workers being fired in this movie. This movie wants to be a populist anthem, but it is actually a bad mixture of romance, master vs. apprentice and existential nonsense.
10. The Blind Side (John Lee Hancock): “If you get one of these girls pregnant, I swear I will track you down and cut off your penis.” Enough said.
