I keep separate Microsoft Word documents for each movie release year, which serve as an ongoing repository for all the movies I've seen in each year.
And because I keep track of things like this, I could have told you that 2009, as a result of whatever combination of factors, has been way out ahead of the rest. In fact, I've seen 17 more movies released in 2009 than in the next closest year (2007).
I could have also told you that 2009 has been on the verge of a milestone for some time now. What I never could have told you was how long it would take to get there.
On August 1, 2014, I saw my 199th film released in 2009 -- the Australian film Van Diemen's Land. It took until June 5, 2015 to see #200 -- another Australian film, the "aboriginal comedy" (clever bolding of the "ab" in the tagline) called Stone Bros.
I don't want to belabor how long it took to get to #200 at the expense of celebrating the achievement (another thing that I probably shouldn't belabor, but will). But consider this: According to my Letterboxd diary, the longest I'd ever gone between seeing 2009 movies was four-and-a-half months. This drought was more than twice that. You'd almost think I was avoiding them, waiting for that perfect 2009 movie to be #200.
But nope, it was just letting my viewing schedule fall where it may, as should be evidenced by the eventual viewing of Stone Bros. Stone Bros is a stoner road trip comedy starring Aboriginal actors and produced by my wife's boss. She watched it out of obligation, but ended up liking it out of good taste. As did I. I'd say that I even loved it, except it's patchy in some spots. But it has a ton of heart and I laughed a ton. Glad I got the chance to see it, since I never would have stumbled across it otherwise.
As this is the first release year to reach such a milestone, I thought it was worth acknowledging it by revisiting the year in some way. (And don't worry, I won't subject 2007 to the same treatment 17 movies from now.) So I thought I'd show you my rankings of all 200 movies I've seen that came out in 2009, taken from my Flickchart.*
There's an asterisk, as you can see. The asterisk is that the movies Flickchart considers to be from 2009 are not necessarily the same movies I consider to be from 2009. So I went through and noted all the movies where we agree. Where we didn't agree, I just eliminated their (wrong) 2009 movies and plugged my (right) 2009 movies into the list where they seemed to go. And as with any list on Flickchart, it's the inexact result of a lot of random duels, meaning some things are higher than they should be and some things are lower. I'll highlight some of those at the end.
For now, though, the list is yours just to take in:
1. Moon
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. Mother
4. Agora
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
7. Mr. Nobody
8. Watchmen
9. Humpday
10. Goodbye Solo
11. Away We Go
12. Sin Nombre
13. Fantastic Mr. Fox
14. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
15. Disney's A Christmas Carol
16. Fish Tank
17. The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
18. Star Trek
19. TiMER
20. The Messenger
21. Monsters vs. Aliens
22. Zombieland
23. (Untitled)
24. Two Lovers
25. A Prophet
26. It's Complicated
27. An Education
28. The House of the Devil
29. The Proposal
30. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
31. A Serious Man
32. Triangle
33. Whatever Works
34. The Escapist
35. The Hangover
36. Cold Souls
37. The Girlfriend Experience
38. Phoebe in Wonderland
39. Drag Me to Hell
40. Bunny and the Bull
41. Crank: High Voltage
42. Sugar
43. The Vicious Kind
44. Pontypool
45. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
46. The Secret in Their Eyes
47. Lebanon
48. OSS 117: Lost in Rio
49. 2012
50. The Princess and the Frog
51. Surrogates
52. Crossing Over
53. I Love You, Man
54. The Men Who Stare at Goats
55. The Burning Plain
56. Amreeka
57. Avatar
58. Thirst
59. Trucker
60. Up in the Air
61. Big Fan
62. Mary and Max
63. Extract
64. Grace
65. Paranormal Activity
66. Coraline
67. Food, Inc.
68. World's Greatest Dad
69. State of Play
70. Stone Bros.
71. The Cove
72. Soul Power
73. Knowing
74. The Soloist
75. The Hurt Locker
76. The Road
77. Samson and Delilah
78. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
79. Sleep Dealer
80. Good Hair
81. He's Just Not That Into You
82. Invictus
83. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
84. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
85. Michael Jackson's This is It
86. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
87. The Invention of Lying
88. Up
89. The Haunting in Connecticut
90. Bright Star
91. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
92. Antichrist
93. Taking Woodstock
94. Uncertainty
95. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
96. I Sell the Dead
97. Funny People
98. (500) Days of Summer
99. The International
100. The Girl Who Played With Fire
101. Planet 51
102. Nine
103. District 9
104. Duplicity
105. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
106. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
107. The Time Traveler's Wife
108. Valhalla Rising
109. Whip It
110. Carriers
111. In the Loop
112. Ink
113. The Blind Side
114. Lo
115. 9
116. Bruno
117. Police, Adjective
118. I Am Love
119. Couples Retreat
120. A Single Man
121. My Year Without Sex
122. The Secret of Kells
123. Tyson
124. The Lovely Bones
125. Jennifer's Body
126. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
127. The Loved Ones
128. My Sister's Keeper
129. Observe and Report
130. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
131. The September Issue
132. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
133. Management
134. A Perfect Getaway
135. Life During Wartime
136. Public Enemies
137. Sunshine Cleaning
138. Brothers
139. The Informant!
140. Gentlemen Broncos
141. Saw VI
142. The Collector
143. Easier With Practice
144. Sorry, Thanks
145. My Tehran for Sale
146. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
147. Taken
148. Harmony and Me
149. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
150. Astroboy
151. Van Diemen's Land
152. Fired Up!
153. Lymelife
154. Spread
155. The Fourth Kind
156. Julie & Julia
157. Pandorum
158. Law Abiding Citizen
159. The Ugly Truth
160. War Eagle, Arkansas
161. Downloading Nancy
162. Battle for Terra
163. Powder Blue
164. The Answer Man
165. Everybody's Fine
166. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
167. Land of the Lost
168. The Informers
169. Crazy Heart
170. Dead Snow
171. The Cell 2
172. Post Grad
173. The Unborn
174. Miss March
175. The Uninvited
176. Adventureland
177. Death in Love
178. Inkheart
179. Did You Hear About the Morgans?
180. New in Town
181. Gamer
182. Shadowland
183. Confessions of a Shopaholic
184. The Box
185. Personal Effects
186. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
187. S. Darko
188. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
189. My Bloody Valentine 3D
190. Terminator Salvation
191. Gigantic
192. Year One
193. iMurders
194. Push
195. Paper Heart
196. Shrink
197. Transmorphers: Fall of Man
198. The Final Destination
199. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
200. Motherhood
(A bit) too high: Avatar (#57), Invictus (#82), (500) Days of Summer (#98), A Perfect Getaway (#134)
(A bit) too low: Up (#88), Bruno (#116), The Loved Ones (#127), The September Issue (#131), Gentlemen Broncos (#141), Julie & Julia (#156), Year One (#192)
Of course, nearly half of these I have seen since 2009. Let's note how my top ten compares to the top ten I selected in 2009 (or, early 2010).
Then:
1. Moon
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
4. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
5. Away We Go
6. Sin Nombre
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Watchmen
9. The Education of Charlie Banks
10. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Now:
1. Moon
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. Mother
4. Agora
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
7. Mr. Nobody
8. Watchmen
9. Humpday
10. Goodbye Solo
The top two are identical. The next two on my current list (Mother and Agora) were films that got ranked with my 2010 films. Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Watchmen are the other repeats. The Education of Charlie Banks wouldn't qualify because it is now categorized (by me and elsewhere) as a 2008 movie, though its ranking among the 2009 movies was legit at the time. Humpday has made a jump up from a lower ranking in 2009, and Goodbye Solo and Mr. Nobody are both movies I have seen more recently.
Whew. I'm done with this. You?
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