The top 200 movies of 2009

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?

A year out of synch

We critics like having an iconoclastic streak. Most of us would never be satisfied producing a year-end top ten that aligned with, say, the ten best picture nominees -- even if that seems, on some level, like the ultimate endorsement of your critical faculties. See, the Oscars are way too mainstream, and we like to snub our noses by championing small/ overlooked films. Not only does it make us feel smarter, but it's more interesting -- more of a conversation starter than just parroting the status quo.

But don't think we also don't like it when one of "our" films gets nominated. We like Oscar's endorsement just as much as we like to proclaim, at other times, that Oscar's endorsement has no value. We're complicated people that way. Less charitably, we're hypocrites.

And never forget that nugget of uncertainty I've discussed before, nestled in the back of our minds: We always want to be reminded that our judgments are sound, that we really are qualified for this job. Falling in line with Oscar, or perhaps more importantly, falling in line with other critics -- at least somewhat -- is essential to that sense of reassuring comfort.

So years like 2009 can be tough on a critic. And when I say "a critic" I'm talking about me.

As a reminder from Tuesday, here are the top ten movies I saw in 2009, according to me:

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

And here is what Metacritic.com thinks are the ten best movies I saw in 2009:

1. The Hurt Locker
2. Up
3. An Education
4. The Cove
4. Avatar
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox
6. Star Trek
6. Drag Me to Hell
6. Up in the Air
6. Tyson
6. In the Loop
6. Crazy Heart

Only one title in common. And that's even listing 12 titles from Metacritic, since the final six were tied with the same Metacritic score (called a Metascore) of 83.

For those unacquainted, Metacritic is a website that compiles dozens of reviews from major outlets around the country, assigning a number from 1 to 100 based on the level of enthusiasm of the review. (It's possible that the critic him or herself assigns this number -- I'm not sure). The movie then gets stamped with an average critical grade, called a Metascore, which provides a quick and easy way to compare it to other films.

So I used this resource in the following way: I copied into an Excel spreadsheet the Metascore for all 113 films I saw this year, then sorted them, to find how my impression of those films compared to the average critical impression. Apparently, my appetite for film-related "projects" has no end.

To give you some idea of the range we're dealing with, the movie I saw this year that was ranked most favorably by other critics was The Hurt Locker with a Metascore of 94. The lowest was Miss March with a Metascore of 7, which may be the lowest score I have ever seen on Metacritic.

My take on these films was much different. Whereas they ranked The Hurt Locker #1, I ranked it #68. What can I say, I like it less than anyone I know. Perhaps I was making more of a statement with my ranking than I really intended, or maybe it's how I really feel. Who knows? I'm more in line with them on Miss March, which is, indeed, quite bad. But there were 19 films on my list that I considered worse.

Now, number systems are not infallible, as much as people like me like to put a huge amount of weight in them. Nor should we expect all critics to say the same things about all movies. Disagreements are the lifeblood of discussing film.

But the more I look at that list, the more I worry. Let's take some other prominent examples:

Up. Metacritic ranking: #2. My ranking: #62. Is my frustration that they didn't spend enough time in the air, that there were too many talking dogs, and that this guy shouldn't be all obsessed with a rare bird if he invented a way for dogs to talk, really worth 60 points in the rankings?

Up in the Air. Metacritic ranking: #6. My ranking: #35. I know it's a story for our times, but I also know that it felt too familiar to me, structurally and otherwise. That flew in the face of the freshness I was supposed to feel from something as current as this claims to be.

Avatar. Metacritic ranking: #4. My ranking: #37. This film has plenty of detractors, so we can probably skip over it. In fact, this ranking might actually gain me some credibility.

Crazy Heart. Metacritic ranking: #6. My ranking: #88. Largest discrepancy between us on the whole list. Yes, Jeff Bridges is good, but he's always good, and the story around him in this case is punchless. If he wins an Oscar, I'll celebrate it as a career achievement, not as an endorsement of this particular movie.

District 9. Metacritic ranking: #16. My ranking: #65. Jeez, District 9, pick a narrative style (mock documentary or fiction film) and stick to it. And pick a tone and stick to it. And make your main character more likeable.

(500) Days of Summer. Metacritic ranking: #23. My ranking: #70. Was I the only one who wondered why we were watching these two characters that I didn't care about?

Adventureland. Metacritic ranking: #24. My ranking: #91. Was I the only one who wondered why were were watching these two characters that I didn't care about, part II?

As hard as it is to understand why people liked a movie a lot more than you did, it can be even harder when they liked it a lot less. At least when you're hard on a movie other people like, you have a certain stodgy credibility. In critical circles, we're more likely to respect a person who hates everything than a person who loves everything. Hating everything, you see, is a sign of discerning standards and an implicit yearning for the good old days when everything was better, while loving everything means you might just be a simpleton, unworthy of anyone's time. Never mind the fact that we're all supposed to love watching movies, which is what we're even doing in this job in the first place.

Naturally, then, I feel even more self-conscious about movies I loved that other people didn't. Such as:

Away We Go. Metacritic ranking: #56. My ranking: #5. I thought my friend Don was the only one who hated this movie, but apparently, others were on board. But I can't deny that I walked out of that theater in a dreamy fugue of satisfaction. Hence my ranking.

Watchmen. Metacritic ranking: #59. My ranking: #8. At the very least I have heard that this is an exceptionally accurate adaptation of the comic book. I guess that doesn't win points with many people. I thought it was excellent execution of an epic story, one that spans the decades, and really admired Zack Snyder's ambition.

The Education of Charlie Banks. Metacritic ranking: #72. My ranking: #9. I like this movie more than almost anybody. Then again, I've talked to only two other people who've actually seen it, one who hates it, one (my wife) who seems to like it almost as much as I do. I love surprises from people I would tend to underestimate, and the light touch I thought Fred Durst showed as director was a great surprise for me.

Where the Wild Things Are. Metacritic ranking: #30. My ranking: #2. This is probably a silly one to include here, for two reasons: 1) This was a classic love it-or-hate it movie, which means there were a lot of "hate its" out there in the critical community; 2) 30 out of 113 is really not that low of a ranking.

2012. Metacritic ranking: #75. My ranking: #26. I am coming to grips with the fact that I liked this movie more than anyone else on the planet, except maybe Roland Emmerich.

Moon. Metacritic ranking: #40. My ranking: #1. What are you gonna do. If some people can't recognize brilliance, that's their problem.

One last interesting Metascore: Couples Retreat received only a 23, good for 112th out of 113 on Metacritic's list. My ranking of 74 doesn't mean I was a huge fan of it, but come on, it was better than this.

Interesting exercise. At least, that's what I think. I don't know what you think, but comment if you like.

So what does it say about me that I like Away We Go, Watchmen and 2012 better than Up in the Air, Up and The Hurt Locker? Would I substitute my three for those three among the best picture nominees? Would I really?

Best not to think about it too much; just keep on watching and ranking.

But to return for a moment to the topic of the Oscars, which ended up being kind of a red herring for what I really wanted to talk about today (comparing my views to my peers, rather than to industry professionals as I implied I would): I'm actually rooting for The Hurt Locker to win best picture. After an initial swell of enthusiasm for Up in the Air that I feel has died down, I now think The Hurt Locker is the only film that has a chance to beat Avatar. What's unusual about rooting for The Hurt Locker is that I am violating my own rankings in order to do it. According to those rankings, Avatar (#37) is 31 movies better than The Hurt Locker (#68). Maybe I just like Kathryn Bigelow better than James Cameron, even if I think her movie isn't as good as his on most of the levels on which I judge these things.

Like I said earlier: We film critics are a complicated people.

Or, less charitably, hypocrites.

"2009, you are clear for landing."

Aren't you glad you don't have to read another 15-word description of why I'm watching so many movies?

It's Oscar nomination morning, which means my personal 2009 film rankings are finally in the books. (That was 16 words.)

Each year around June, when I've seen a scant dozen movies released that year, I can never imagine that I'll actually get my list up to a respectable number by the following January/February. But it's a bit more than a respectable number this year. Actually, a bit more than a bit more. Actually, this year, I'm ranking twenty-six (26) more movies than I did last year -- and last year was a personal record. Which means I have a better than average chance of actually having seen all ten (grrr) of the best picture nominees. (Which, as I type this, are about three minutes away from being announced.)

Excuse me, I'm going to go pour a cup of coffee. (It's 5:31 a.m. where I am.)

So if you've never read one of my year-end lists, I'll include some disclaimers that let me off the hook for some difficult decisions. Each critic/enthusiast uses slightly different criteria when ranking movies. Mine is pretty much straightforward, but I do follow this basic guideline: I judge a movie based on how it fulfills its own potential. Which is why best picture nominees The Hurt Locker, Up, District 9 (!) and The Blind Side (!!!) don't rank as highly as what many people would consider lesser movies -- they left me wanting in important ways, while those other films drove it home more satisfactorily.

Also, if you see some film that you think belonged to 2008 (or God forbid, 2007), just trust me that I agonized over it, and came to the conclusion that I wouldn't have reasonably been able to see it -- like, it was released only in another country -- until this year.

Okay, that's about all you need. Here we go:

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
11. Two Lovers
12. Humpday
13. Star Trek
14. Zombieland
15. Disney's A Christmas Carol
16. The Messenger
17. Monsters vs. Aliens
18. Sugar
19. An Education
20. The Escapist
21. Departures
22. The Men Who Stare at Goats
23. Cold Souls
24. The Girlfriend Experience
25. World's Greatest Dad
26. 2012
27. Drag Me to Hell
28. Food, Inc.
29. The Soloist
30. Big Fan
31. The Cove
32. Sleep Dealer
33. Invictus
34. The Princess and the Frog
35. Up in the Air
36. Whatever Works
37. Avatar
38. Samson and Delilah
39. The Road
40. Surrogates
41. I Love You, Man
42. The Hangover
43. Knowing
44. Soul Power
45. Coraline
46. Crank High Voltage
47. Paranormal Activity
48. Mary and Max
49. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
50. The Proposal
51. Michael Jackson's This Is It
52. He's Just Not That Into You
53. Taking Woodstock
54. Extract
55. Funny People
56. The Time Traveler's Wife
57. Antichrist
58. Police, Adjective
59. The Invention of Lying
60. 9
61. The Lovely Bones
62. Up
63. Tyson
64. Nine
65. District 9
66. The International
67. Duplicity
68. The Hurt Locker
69. In the Loop
70. (500) Days of Summer
71. Observe and Report
72. Jennifer's Body
73. Whip It
74. Couples Retreat
75. The Blind Side
76. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
77. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
78. My Tehran for Sale
79. The Ugly Truth
80. Brothers
81. Julie & Julia
82. Sunshine Cleaning
83. A Perfect Getaway
84. Management
85. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
86. The Fourth Kind
87. Taken
88. Crazy Heart
89. Battle for Terra
90. Astro Boy
91. Adventureland
92. Dead Snow
93. Lymelife
94. Miss March
95. The Unborn
96. Land of the Lost
97. New in Town
98. Post Grad
99. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
100. Year One
101. The Uninvited
102. Paper Heart
103. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
104. Death in Love
105. Inkheart
106. Confessions of a Shopaholic
107. Gamer
108. Gigantic
109. Terminator Salvation
110. Push
111. The Box
112. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
113. The Final Destination

Most regret not seeing in time to rank them: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Black Dynamite, Good Hair, The Informant!, A Serious Man, A Single Man

Okay, I saw nine of ten best picture nominees. Nobody's perfect.

And even if you don't usually comment, I'd love to hear what you think. Compliment me for lavishing praise on the criminally underseen Moon. Tear me a new one for dissing Up and The Hurt Locker.

All I have is my voice, and as usual, I'm willing to use it.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my list of the top 25 films of the last decade. And thanks as always for checking in.

Hello, 2009

At last, I have something to rank again.

Even though it's been just 17 days since I finished my 2008 year-end rankings, that's an eternity for a list addict like me. And so it was that yesterday and today, I finally broke the seal on my 2009 rankings. And it was only today that I had to make an actual ranking decision, since the movie I saw yesterday, Taken, was both the best and worst movie I'd seen to that point. Today, it became the worst -- a ranking that is actually somewhat justified given the broad dialogue and the film's essential xenophobia. But hey, it was entertaining at least.

In case you're interested, here is how my list looks so far:

1. Coraline
2. Taken

Astonishing, my process, isn't it?

Jokes aside, the first movie I see in a given year is actually a subject of interest to me. As indicated above, I don't like to go too long without getting my rankings going again. And so each year I ask myself: "Am I going to start this year's list organically, or inorganically?" In other words, am I going to make the first film I see something I'd see anyway, or am I going to force it just to get the list going?

I've taken different approaches in the past. Two years ago, for example, I severely regret my decision to jump-start the list. I remember feeling an actual agitation to get started on 2007, and that's what led me to fork out movie theater prices for Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's Epic Movie on January 28, 2007. I went to this film with full knowledge of how much I hated their previous effort, Date Movie, and yet I went anyway. It helped that I had approval to review it, and to this date I don't know which review of mine is more vitriolic, Date Movie or Epic Movie. Let's just say that Friedberg and Seltzer are two of the men I respect least in Hollywood.

Last year, I didn't have to worry about it, as one of my most anticipated films of the year was released on January 18th. I actually saw Cloverfield twice in the theater before I'd seen any other film once. Yeah, I know I like that movie more than most people do, but come on -- it was good.

Three years ago, I got my 2006 list started before 2006 itself even started. I went to an advanced screening of Eli Roth's Hostel in December of 2005, and at the time, I loved it. I haven't seen it again since then, but I'm thinking it probably doesn't hold up. The year before that, I was big-time organic, waiting all the way until February 21st to finally find a film worthy of my attentions: Constantine.

So how about this year? I'd say it was semi-organic. I hadn't been expecting to see Taken, but I saw it under circumstances that kind of render that question moot: I saw it with a friend. Some of our great viewing compromises come when seeing a movie with a friend, and that's actually part of the fun -- you get exposed to things you wouldn't otherwise see that way. We were actually close to seeing Fanboys, another inorganic choice, but decided to push our evening back a half-hour and catch the 10 o'clock showing of Taken. (Push had also been briefly considered and rejected, and if you saw this post, you know that viewing would have been quite inorganic for me indeed). I was actually tempted to accompany him to The Wrestler, my favorite film of last year, but hey, I already closed that list.

As it turns out, if I did jump-start things, I only jump-started them by a day, since the wife and I went to see Coraline (in 3-D!) today. Quite a feast for the eyes, though I ultimately felt a similar emotional disconnect as I feel when watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. The Tim Burton-Henry Selick combo can sure create alternate-universe odyssesies, but I guess I don't have a special place in my heart for them. Still, since I'd guess some of you actually come to this site to see what I think about the movies I see -- not just my pontifications on the process of seeing them -- I'll give Coraline an enthusiastic recommendation.

It feels good to be back in the saddle again.