Talking 2009: Critics Comment On The Year in Film

Mo’Nique in a scene from Lee Daniels’ “Precious.” Image courtesy of Lionsgate

“Biggest misconception about A Serious Man (aside from the usual mystifying comments about the Coens “hating their characters” and all that) is the focus on its Jewishness, as though that were an especially daring choice and a kind of self-made ghetto (and stop talking about the Book of Job, please—this is not that). The movie is about Jewish people, but I had the funny feeling it was universal. And about the prologue: with their last three pictures the Coens are in a midst of a project that looks at stories, how they are told, why they are told, and how they can be used (frequently used in the wrong ways). How stories help us get along, and how they fail us. So along with the fact that very important scenes in all three films appear to be missing, they spend a large chunk of A Serious Man on a dybbuk story whose relevance to the rest of the tale is utterly baffling. Well, of course they do.” - Robert Horton

“The gap between the hand-made film (“Police, Adjective”; “Sweegrass”; “Let Each One Go Where He May”; “To Die Like a Man”) and the machine-made film (“Nine”, “Avatar”) grew ever wider. There are many ideological divides in cinema, but none is more important than this. Despite the ever-growing machine, we are living in a golden age of the hand-made film.” - Robert Koehler

“A solid year for movies that instigate conversation and productions made by “visionary” filmmakers, meaning people doing stuff because they want to do it rather than because, you know, it’s their job. Of course, the job factor figures into it, too. Here’s to another twelve months of finding that happy medium!” - Eric Kohn

“Thankfully receiving distribution, but should not go without notice: Sweetgrass. Best American film of the year is about…sheep.”Jay Kuehner

““Fantastic Mr. Fox” coasts so breezily and assuredly through its 87 minutes that only afterwards does its apocalyptic ambivalence about humankind’s ability to save itself seep through. This anthropomorphic ensemble seems bound in eternal competition (both emotionalyl and materially). They risk destroying themselves and their environment because they’re slaves to animal instincts that no amount of linguistic or behavioral sophistication can curtail. For me it’s the pinnacle for a year in which a slew of animation films bravely charted dark emotional frontiers. In hopes that our fair poll may someday include slots for two quintessentially cinematic categories, I’ll give a shout out to Anthony Dodd Mantle (for the 2nd straight year) for his crisply surreal HD lensing in “Antichrist,” and to Agnes Varda’s cutting and splicing of her life story into a seamless stream of wonders in “The Beaches of Agnes.”” - Kevin B. Lee

“I had about twenty-five to thirty titles I broke down as contenders for my top ten. Five of my films, including my best film, Assayas’ “Summer Hours,” were 2008 productions; that’s not uncommon. There are some films from this year’s festival circuit I saw that I would have put on the list had they opened commercially. It echoes my top ten of the decade list in the dominance of French realist art cinema, Asia and the astounding creativity and daring of Romanian cinema. Of my top ten, English is the dominant language in only the Wes Anderson and the Coens’ film (even that film has significant passages in Yiddish). English-language cinema dominates the world markets, but certainly not artistically, I’d argue.” - Patrick Z. McGavin

“Maren Ade’s Everyone Else is certainly one of the finest achievements of the year but it’s slated for release in 2010 and therefore oddly absent from this poll entirely. As a Canadian and someone whose time is mainly spent watching non-commercial film, may I be exempt from this US release rule svp?” - Andrea Picard

“I have no idea why, but most things don’t make me laugh, yet somehow 2009 was a gold mine of stuff I found absolutely hilarious: Fantastic Mr. Fox, In The Loop, Harmony and Me, Beeswax. Also, Thomas Haden Church is the funniest supporting player in America right now: in two otherwise lousy movies I had to review (Imagine That, All About Steve), he absolutely transformed every scene. Give this man a leading part before it’s too late. That more people aren’t paying attention to Zoe Kazan in Me and Orson Welles is kind of a travesty. Sincerely irritating, devoted to her enthusiasms without any kind of preconception about how she’s coming off, ramblingly awkward and logorrheic, she’s the prototypical Linklater character in a nutshell, equal parts endearing and annoying.” - Vadim Rizov

“Given this is indieWIRE, let’s tip our hat to the most successful independent film of the year (or of any year): “Paranormal Activity.” Still, why does that fact seem to be bothering so many people? It’s not like “Precious” wasn’t a horror film too, just a less effective one.” - Joshua Rothkopf

“Carax is back! Greenaway never left! Soderbergh rebounds! Herzog is delirious! Sokurov is indispensable! Tarantino is inexcusable! Movies are magical!” - David Sterritt

“A very poor year for American filmmaking in particular. An economic crash, widespread social misery, two disastrous wars have not yet stirred the artists to think seriously about things. That will come…” -  David Walsh

“One day Jared Hess’ “Gentlemen Broncos” will finally be recognized for its originality—in humanist terms it is the 2001 of 2009.” - Armond White

“A thin year, particularly compared to 2008. Was it a sign that some of the best films I saw were being made (ostensibly) for children?” - Stephen Whitty

“From directors like Kathryn Bigelow and Lone Scherfig to the career revivals of Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep (as well as the growing box-office might of female ticket buyers), 2009 feels like a watershed moment for women at the movies.” - Susan Wloszczyna

The Results:
Best Film of ‘09 | Best Film of the Decade | Best Lead Performance | Best Supporting Performance | Best Director | Best Documentary | Best Screenplay | Best First Feature | Best Undistributed Film