Squeezing in just before the Oscar nominations are announced, here are a few final lists and remarks from Parallax View contributors and friends, along with those published by Seattle top critics, as a snapshot of the way we see 2009.
Sean Axmaker
A dozen for this list, including two 2008 national releases that debuted in Seattle in 2009
1. The Hurt Locker
2. A Serious Man
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Summer Hours
5. Of Time and the City
6. Silent Light
7. Police, Adjective
8. Liverpool
9. Still Walking
10. The Headless Woman
11. Where the Wild Things Are
12. Ballast
And runners-up: Adventureland, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Informant!, Treeless Mountain, Two Lovers, Up, Up In the Air and You, the Living
For more lists, see his blog seanax.com.
John Hartl
Terrific movies seemed to come in clusters in 2009. Still Walking, A Serious Man and Summer Hours all captured family dynamics in surprising ways. The Hurt Locker approached Iraq head-on, The Messenger took the homefront approach, while In the Loop deftly managed to suggest Iraq without naming it. District 9 and Up in the Air made politics personal by twisting very different genres. The year’s most enjoyable backstage movies, Me and Orson Welles and Were the World Mine, demonstrated that there’s still plenty of life left in the “let’s put on a show†format.
Those were my 10 favorites, in no particular order. More good stuff: Sin Nombre, A Single Man, Up, An Education, The Country Teacher, Precious, The Yes Men Fix the World, Crazy Heart and two movies that belong on a double bill: Crude and Avatar.
Robert Horton (from the Everett Herald)
1. A Serious Man
2. You, the Living
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Summer Hours
5. The Hurt Locker
6. Up
7. Ballast
8. 35 Shots of Rum
9. Up in the Air
10. Taking Woodstock
For more lists, runners-up and write-ups, see his best of 2009 at his blog The Crop Duster.
Richard T. Jameson
I’m not sure how it happened, or even that it did happen, but it seems as if the 2009 film record was more seriously impinged on than usual by titles from the previous year. One reason I didn’t put Summer Hours on a list is that I felt, “No! There are already too many 2008 movies on this list!” The Hurt Locker, Liverpool, 35 Rhums … and was Bad Lieutenant also at Toronto 2008? Hell, for all I can recall, maybe I put some of those on the list I posted on PV last year. (Ed. note: he didn’t.)
So at the moment I’ll say:
A Serious Man
The Hurt Locker
35 Rhums
Bright Star
Taking Woodstock
Up in the Air
Summer Hours
Liverpool
Inglourious Basterds
(500) Days of Summer
Kathleen Murphy
1. The Hurt Locker – Bigelow
2. Inglourious Basterds – Tarantino
3. A Serious Man / Up in the Air
4. Summer Hours – Assayas
5. Bright Star – Campion
6. Liverpool – Alonso
7. Fados – Saura
8. Blue Beard – Breillat
9. 35 Rhums – Denis
10. Still Walking
Andy Wright
1. A Serious Man
2. Avatar
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Drag Me To Hell
6. Summer Hours
7. The Informant!
8. Paranormal Activity
9. Ponyo
10. Up In the Air
(click here for original list on his blog Technicolor Yawning)
Some Seattle-area Critics and Friends of Parallax
Jim Emerson, Scanners blog
(click here for the video experience)
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times (in alphabetical order)
(500) Days of Summer
Bright Star
An Education
Everlasting Moments
Fantastic Mr. Fox
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
A Single Man
Star Trek
Treeless Mountain
Up
(click here for the original list and comments)
Tom Tangney, KIRO
1. The Hurt Locker
2. Lorna’s Silence
3. Summer Hours
4. Coraline
5. In the Loop
6. District 9
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Antichrist
9. Precious
10. A four way tie: Every Little Step, Hunger, Adventureland, Fantastic Mr. Fox
(the original list is here)
Plus…
An alternative list from “Movietone News” contributor Greg Way
Moments out of Time 2009 by Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy
The Village Voice Film Poll
IndieWire Critics Survey
Here’s last year’s list of lists