From One End to the Other: The Best of 2009 (so far)

Due to being the result of the writers' strike, 2009 has been a strange year indeed. While I was expecting the indie movies to carry the torch, I've been taken aback on several occasions by big studio pictures. Was it the fact they were so desperate they decided to take whatever they could get? It's hard to tell at this point, so let's just call it a pleasant surprise and hope maybe it's a fever whose infection will stay put. I'm still psyched for the fall, of course, and given the overall lousiness of the summer, I have little hope for last few months of it (aside maybe from Tarantino's latest and Kathryn Bigelow's comeback). Let's see how many of these still make the cut come January.

LEE



1) Adventureland dir. Greg Mottola

Growing up is a bitch, and Greg Mottola is better at showing it than most directors. He conveyed the difficulties of parting with your best friend to a truly remarkable degree in Superbad, and now, in Adventureland, he jumps to the bittersweet summer before college when nothing makes sense and there's still a thread of innocence left to hold on to. There is a terrific love story at the center of the picture, but makes it so special, ultimately, is the soft way that Mottola captures how memories are made. By the use of location, character, and above all, music, we vividly see every detail that shapes the moments that we cherish the most once the experiences have passed.



2) Two Lovers dir. James Gray

Incredible sadness flows through James Gray's Two Lovers, a story of the difficulties of moving on once a love has been lost. It's a movie about choices, and as usual, Gray is able to draw emotional impact through a strong visual palate and beautiful, subtle performances. Joaquin Phoenix has never been better, ditto for the often excellent Gwyneth Paltrow. Gray is getting better with each project. He's always had a gift for making his settings a character, but never as perfectly as he does here. There's a beach in the movie that is a stunning mirror of the main character's sadness. A triumph in every way possible, Two Lovers achieves a poetry not often seen in the movies in that it makes us question whether it's okay to settle for what's right in front of us. The movie challenges us by asking, what if that's the only choice we have?



3) Up dir. Peter Docter

Pixar's latest is a thoroughly creative and visually luscious endeavor. Like my number two choice, it's about loss and learning to move on, but it's made as difficult for the audience as it is for the main character due to a masterful montage chronicling a lifetime of memories between two people who were deeply in love. What follows is the story of a stubborn old man who learns that it's never too late to go after your dreams and there's nothing wrong with letting other people in (literally and figuratively). Filled with heart, laughs, and plenty of suspense, Up is a splendid addition to Pixar's already impressive library.



4) Observe and Report dir. Jody Hill

The whole time I watched it, my mouth sat wide open, as I was unable to decide if I should laugh or be shocked. Maybe it's because I needed to do both. Jody Hill's Observe and Report is a go for broke comedy, a movie that plays by no rules but does it in a way that is highly effective and at times, unexpectedly sympathetic. As an experience, it's damn near indescribable, since it's not often a movie comes along that you don't want to criticize for making you horribly uncomfortable. If the movie had gone for simple shock value, it would have sunk from the beginning, but since it believes in and wants us to like its main character (played by a better than expected Seth Rogen), we develop an almost alien interest in this terrifying individual (terrifying for what he is, what he's going to be, and how many others out there are just like him). I can't wait to see the picture again so I am able to convince myself it actually exists.



5) Drag Me to Hell dir. Sam Raimi

People often complain that critics don't know how to have fun at the movies. Obviously, those people did not see Drag Me to Hell, which is likely to be the most fun I have at the movies this year. A throwback to his roots, director Sam Raimi has crafted a picture that manages to be funny, scary and exciting, all at the same time. He's a master at building dread and creating unpredictable situations for his characters, which he pulls off with his signature inventive camerawork and booming sound design. This is what summer movies are supposed to be about: taking the audience on a ride and then hurtling them back out the door, grinning and exhausted. An early confrontation in a parking garage is an instant classic, an expertly executed sequence that Michael Bay couldn't even pull off in his manic dreams.


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