2009 Movies

[lifeonqueen]

Valkyrie - not inherently risible as I believed it would be but Tom Cruise's absolute lack of gravitas undermines the entire movie.
The Reader - Kate Winslet deserves an Oscar for her work, she is never less than excellent and if Hollywood logic holds, this will be the performance that wins: The Reader is a flawed movie and Winslet, despite being excellent, is at the heart of it - you can never quite believe in her complicity and the movie can't quite make the audience's sympathy for her character work to its advantage.
I've Loved You For So Long - Kristin Scott Thomas does not age but can act Meryl Streep under the table. Sisters reunited after 15 years try to negotiate the minefields of time and memory between them (French subtitles).
The Sound of Music - it was in a theatre, it counts. Best movie ever.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - two-thirds of a delightful movie but the final act suffers from insufficiently pressing character motivation and ill-defined metaphors. But Brad Pitt is beautiful and Cate Blanchett extraordinary as usual.
The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke can still act and Marisa Tomei demonstrates once again that Jack Palance did not screw up back in '92 but, Jesus, a happy (or at least neutral ending) is not too much to fucking ask.
Tell No One - okay, the ending is dumb and features an Exposition Dump of Doom. Up to that point, however, Tell No One displays Parisian cool and smarts in equal measure as Doctor Alex Beck begins to suspect that his murdered wife may not be so dead after all (French subtitles).
Let the Right One In - a welcome antidote to Twilight/True Blood/"anything written from the vampire's perspective" romances and yet, it could have easily been a half-hour shorter and lost nothing (Swedish subtitles).
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - a delightfully stupid movie that rejects any hint of invention or innovation in retelling a story the audience already knows from Underworld in favour of letting Bill Nighy masticate the scenery for two hours.
Slumdog Millionaire - a feel good flick about societies existing in the betweens.
Taken - Violence porn for middle-aged men. Still, Liam Neeson gives impressive badass.
Watchmen (x2) - Visually thrilling and dramatically inert, this slavishly-faithful comic-to-film adapation can't overcome the flaws of the original.
Duplicity - the good in this movie is entirely Julia Roberts and Clive Owen's incredible chemistry. The plot never really gels but it's a fun ride to 'whu?'.
Fast & Furious - enjoyably stupid and while the car stunts aren't as good, Vin Diesel is still solidly pretty to watch.
Wolverine - it has a longer title. I don't care. It was a crap sandwich. Covered in ketchup. No matter how much you like ketchup, sooner or later you realize you're eating crap. That was this movie.
STAR TREK - a great, fresh, funny flick that mostly avoids both the dumb and the cloying, opting instead for a foot-to-the-firewall romp in outer-space.
TERMINATOR SALVATION - a disappointment: there was a better movie there. I know, you showed us clips from it in the trailers.
ANGELS AND DEMONS - so far the worst movie of the summer. And Bernini's heirs should sue for defamation.
UP - animation more affecting that any of the live-action films I've seen this summer and a sense of loss so palpable it makes me ache inside.
PUBLIC ENEMIES - an accomplished piece of film-making lacking a certain narrative hook to engage the audience.
EASY VIRTUE - a charming riff on the Noel Coward play. Jessica Biel really deserves more credit than she gets from US audiences.
DISTRICT 9 - this South African gloss on the ALIEN NATION-trope is part violent DF-actioner part examination of the intersection of race and power in South Africa; both formulaic and inventive at the same time.
THE HURT LOCKER - wanted to see this one for so long, the actual movie couldn't possibly live up. Bigelow deals with the difficulty of making a conventional narrative about Iraq by ditching conventional narrative. Instead the movie follows the sometimes pointless oft-times repetitious day to day of military life, punctuate by bursts of knee-watering adrenalin. "War is a drug" the epigram reads. THE HURT LOCKER is Iraq's first addiction movie.
JULIE & JULIA - Julia Child makes for a fascinating subject from this frothy biopic. Julie Powell's outer-borough midlife angst less so.

Urrrm, I know I've seen movies recently... Zombieland and Whip It.

Pickings have been really slim.