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I don’t feel anywhere near ready to present my Best of 2009 list, much less my Best of the 2000s one, yet — too many movies to watch, re-watch and contemplate before the brutal culling and shuffling of titles can begin. Still, a lot of critics and bloggers are clearly more organized than me — as each day brings a new pile of Top 10s.
Our friend Anne Thompson has one of the more individual lists out there: I won’t steal her thunder by replicating her entire collective, but here’s her top 5, which I rather like. (She adds the caveat that she had not seen “Avatar” at the time of posting.)
1. “Bright Star”
2. “A Serious Man”
3. “A Prophet”
4. “Up”
5. “Red Cliff”
Anne also ventures into decade-best territory with another refreshing pick, naming Marco Tullio Giordana’s mammoth, 6-hour family saga “The Best of Youth” as the finest film of the last ten years. (“Red Cliff” makes her Top 10 of the decade too, though nothing else from 2009 does. Not sure I get that.)
AwardsDaily, meanwhile, passes on Peter Travers’s decidedly less idiosyncratic list, which could have been pulled straight from the Oscar-buzz charts. His top five:
1. “Precious”
2. “Up in the Air”
3. “The Hurt Locker”
4. “Up”
5. “An Education”
“There Will Be Blood” tops Travers’s best-of-decade list. Finally, Kenneth Turan has an unranked list of the year’s 10 best foreign-language films, which interestingly leaves out any of this year’s Oscar contenders (including ubiquitous critical favorites like “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet”) in favor of a number of 2008 hangers-on. (Perhaps he’s only including theatrical US releases from the past year.)
“Coco Before Chanel”
“Everlasting Moments”
“Flame & Citron”
“Il Divo”
“The Maid”
“Moscow, Belgium”
“Revanche”
“Seraphine”
“Summer Hours”
“A Woman in Berlin”
Anyway. Back to playing around with my list, which I don’t expect to have ready much before Christmas. I will say, however, that it’s reaching the point where I almost don’t want to fall in love with something new: booting certain titles out is going to hurt.
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25 responses so far
1 12-10-2009 at 5:36 pm
Simone said...
I think it’s silly to have a Best of Top 10 list before the end of the year anyway. All the movies haven’t been seen yet. I’ll be very interested in seeing yours Guy. I hope it’s not as commercial as the ones I’ve been seeing.
2 12-10-2009 at 5:39 pm
Will said...
The Best of Youth?!?!?! 100% agree
3 12-10-2009 at 5:40 pm
aspect ratio said...
Travers’ list seems every more vanilla than usual. There are six films on his list that are serious contenders for BP, including his entire top five as you noted. His bottom five is a bit more interesting, but really, when your top five looks like the Oscar BP-lineup you’re one hell of a boring filmgoer.
4 12-10-2009 at 5:40 pm
Will said...
But wait … How is Red Cliff her #5 this year while it makes it on the best of the decade list above the 4 films above it?
5 12-10-2009 at 6:05 pm
j said...
Bright Star, yes.
6 12-10-2009 at 6:13 pm
Chad Hartigan said...
When you compare different films, they look different. I know my top 100 of the decade won’t necessarily contain my top 10 of 2009 in order.
7 12-10-2009 at 6:15 pm
Derek said...
Top Ten Films of the Decade
1. Mulholland Dr. (2001) Dir: David Lynch
2. Talk to her (2002) Dir: Pedro Almodovar
3. There Will Be Blood (2007) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
4. Wall-E (2008) Dir: Andrew Stanton
5. The Best of Youth (2003) Dir: Marco Tullio Giordana
6. City of God (2002) Dir: Fernando Meirelles
7. No Country for Old Men (2007) Dir: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
8. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Dir: Guillermo del Toro
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Dir: Michel Gondry
10. Punch Drunk Love (2002) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
NEED NOT BE ANOTHER TOP TEN LIST, THIS SHALL SUFFICE…….
Or I shall strike my hand upon they with great vengeance and furious anger and you will know my name is the derek
8 12-10-2009 at 6:24 pm
Chris said...
Well, Anne’s top 3 are the same as mine so far, albeit not in the same order. I’ll have to wait with my own top 10 in February I guess. I hate late European releases.
9 12-10-2009 at 6:30 pm
Guy Lodge said...
Chris: Except us Europeans got to include “Summer Hours” and the like in our lists last year, a whole year ahead of the Americans. It rubs both ways.
10 12-10-2009 at 6:33 pm
Derek said...
You’re right chris I should have waited to profess my list until I’ve seen A Prophet among others. But seeing that I suffer from home sickly agoraphobia I gotta wait for a late 2010 dvd release buh humbug
11 12-10-2009 at 6:42 pm
Marvin said...
I love her inclusion of A.I. in the decade list. Doubtless it is Spielberg’s best movie this decade and I count it among his best three.
Currently the decade looks like so to me:
1. Children of Men
2. Gosford Park
3. Brokeback Mountain
4. Yi Yi
5. L’enfant
6. 5×2
7. Syndromes and a Century
8. Y tu mama tambien
9. Lost in Translation
10. A History of Violence
Although I rewatched Gosford Park last night and it’s got me thinking whether it should move to the top as the decade’s best film.
12 12-10-2009 at 6:48 pm
Speaking English said...
Wow, could her Top 2 be any more perfect? No. No it could not.
13 12-10-2009 at 6:50 pm
Jim T said...
Guy, I don’t know if you (or anyone) saw my comment on A Prophet but I’m wondering if you agree with me that Niels Arestrup was great and award-worthy. It’s just that everybody loves the movie and Rahim’s performance but I hear nothing about Arestrup. By the way, did you get the symbolisms in some scenes? (you know what I mean although we can’t really discuss about it)
14 12-10-2009 at 7:01 pm
Marvin said...
Testing, testing..
15 12-10-2009 at 7:35 pm
Sound Designer Dan said...
Which version of Red Cliff is she ranking? The 2 1/2 hour international version which has most of the character development ripped out of it or the epic 4 1/2 hour Chinese director’s cut?
16 12-10-2009 at 7:59 pm
daveylow said...
I loved A Prophet but since it wasn’t released in the US this year, why is it on her list?
Or is she going to change her list once she sees Avatar?
17 12-10-2009 at 8:24 pm
Chase K. said...
Yeah, films that you saw at Toronto/Venice/etc. that haven’t been released theatrically in the US shouldn’t be on anybody’s list. It’s “Best of 2009″.
“Everlasting Moments” will probably make my Top 10 this year – simply indelible.
18 12-10-2009 at 8:31 pm
James D. said...
Chad, that doesn’t make sense. It is one thing for films from earlier years to jump around, as you have changed your opinion over time, but how do you say four films were better than Red Cliff this year, but Red Cliff was the fifth best of the decade and the other four aren’t from 2009?
19 12-10-2009 at 10:25 pm
Matt King said...
Yeah, there’s no logic whatsoever to what you said, Chad. The “Red Cliff” thing doesn’t make sense.
20 12-11-2009 at 12:23 am
Jonathan Spuij said...
However beautiful Bright Star gets towards the end of the film, the deafening dullness of the first half of the film cannot be ignored.
21 12-11-2009 at 1:53 am
red_wine said...
Red Cliff is a clunker. I wonder why Anne liked it so much. I’ve seen both the 2 1/2 western version and the 2 part 4 1/2 eastern version. The western version is like any other action ‘against the odds’ movie you ever saw with a horribly cliched climax. It also is extremely improbably and relies on such horrid plot devices and co-incidences I was left shaking my head.
The eastern version is marginally better but really not much.
The sets, costumes and cinematography and even the music are good. The action scenes have an epic scale and scope last seen in LOTR, but the script sucks balls and the entire thing is painted very broadly on a bed-rock of stereotypes, archetypes and cliches. Certainly not recommended.
22 12-11-2009 at 3:28 am
Guy Lodge said...
Jim T: I am completely in agreement with you about Arestrup, and singled him out in my brief discussion of the film here.
Daveylow and Chase: It’s Anne’s personal list, so I think it’s completely fair to include films that she discovered this year, regardless of their US release date — not least when they are contending for awards this year. I’m taking the same approach to mine — just warning you in advance.
Jonathan: Well, it can be “ignored” rather easily if you don’t think it exists. Beware of presenting opinion as fact ;)
23 12-11-2009 at 4:32 am
aspect ratio said...
I agree about Red Cliff being a clunker. I admittedly only saw the shorter one-movie cut, but honestly, I don’t feel like more of it would’ve made it that much better. It had it’s moments, but on the whole it just really wasn’t that interesting or exciting.
24 12-11-2009 at 12:00 pm
Maxim said...
“I think it’s silly to have a Best of Top 10 list before the end of the year anyway. All the movies haven’t been seen yet. ”
That’s what I always thought to be true too.
25 12-11-2009 at 12:51 pm
Me. said...
I love Anne Thompson. She has “Bright Star” at the top of her list (it’s my current #3 right after “Micmacs” and “Where the Wild Things Are”). I also loved “A Serious Man”.
Peter Travers has the “Precious” bitch as the best film of the year? Meh. Oh well, art is subjective.