TOP 10 FILMS OF 2009

10) A SINGLE MAN - No, NOT A Serious Man. That's a different movie altogether. A Single Man was maybe the most beautiful movie of the year. Each shot is meticulously composed by first time writer/director Tom Ford, previously best known for his work in the fashion industry. Colin Firth redefines himself as a leading man in this film, giving one of the best performances of the year. It's a film about realizing what's important in life and sorting out your priorities while you still have time.

9) THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS - This was Heath Ledger's last film. He died during production, but his final performance was fantastic, as were the performances of his friends (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell) who filled in to complete his work after he died. Terry Gilliam directed a film in Imaginarium that is almost impossible to describe and it has to be seen to be believed. It's a wild, artistc free-for-all.

8) UP IN THE AIR - This is a film that on the surface appears to be very ordinary, but it's filled with such subtle quality, and it's the perfect film to define the economic times we're in today. Of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture, this is the only one that I agree should have been among the 10 best of the year.

7) MOON - Compared to the 3 big Sci-Fi hits of 2009 (Avatar, Star Trek, District 9) very few people saw this low budget gem. But I highly enourage everyone to see it now that it's been released on DVD and Blu-ray. Sam Rockwell turned in the single best performance of the entire year, and it's a shame he didn't even get a nomination for his brilliant work as an astronaut on a 3 year solo mission at a mining colony on the surface of the moon. This is the 2001: A Space Odyssey of this generation, without the psychedelic ending. That being said, it's still a bit of a mind bender.

6) CORALINE - UP was good, but Coraline was better. Digital animation may be king right now, but this old-school stop-motion animated film is a wonder to behold. Not only is the animation beautiful, but the voice acting is top notch, especially by Teri Hatcher. It's a dark tale about a bored kid who goes on an adventure to entertain herself, and it leaves the audience spellbound as well.

5) WATCHMEN - This film, adapted from possibly the greatest comic book/graphic novel of all-time, was said to be impossible to film. One, because of the sheer size and scope of the complicated story, and two, because it would just be so hard to do justice to the source material in a normal feature length film. But Zack Snyder was able to do just that. It's a superhero movie unlike any you've ever seen before. It supposes that costumed heroes are just regular people and it analyzes what their impact would be on society and on the psyche of those who wear masks to fight crime. It's dark, bloody, and not your father's comic book movie.

4) THE ROAD - Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, The Road tells the tale of a post-apocalyptic world in which almost all life on Earth is dying, food is scarce, and your life depends on staying hidden from bands of cannibals. The novel is a masterpiece, but the film succeeds in being even darker, bleaker than the source material. Viggo Mortensen turns in another amazing performance as a father trying to keep himself and his son alive for as long as possible, and the cinematic vision of the film is so complete you really fear for the lives of the characters and feel that any moment could be their last.

3) (500) DAYS OF SUMMER - This was the big surprise of the year for me. Just a wonderfully perfect movie. The soundtrack is fantastic and the two leads, Zooey Deschamel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, turn in excellent performances as lovers who weren't meant to be. (That's not actually a spoiler because they tell you in the first minute of the movie). It's a fantastic twist on the "boy meets girl" formula and it's a movie that can be re-watched 100 times and never get old. It resonates on such a personal, emotional level while still being able to maintain a light tone.

2) HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE - I don't know how they do it, but the Harry Potter series just keeps getting better. Half-Blood is the best installment from the wildly popular series so far, and that's saying a lot. While it may have been disappointing to those looking to see more magic and fantasy, the story instead really develops all the characters into three dimensional people, perfectly setting up the final film. It's a slow burn, and by the time you get to the end your emotions are running sky high. It's about love, loyalty, life, and death. Look for an excellent performance from the young actor Tom Felton as Draco malfoy.

1) ADVENTURELAND - And Finally, the best film of the year, Adventureland. It was mis-marketed as a silly teen comedy, trying to capitalize on the success of Suberbad, but Adventureland is so much more than that. It's a deeply personal story about a kid about to go to an ivy league college, but his parents are suddenly in financial trouble and can't afford to send him to the school he's been accepted to. Instead of taking a trip to Eurpoe with his friend he's forced to take a a job at the local amusement park. It's a coming of age tale told in such a delicate and honest way. Honest is really the best word I can use to describe the film. There is never a moment that rings false, and the acting and pacing is perfect throughout. Unfortunately, this amazing film only made about $16 million at the box office, but if there's any justice in the universe it will become a hit as people look back at it over the years.


Close, but no cigar...

The Hurt Locker
Where the Wild Things Are
Star Trek
In The Loop
Drag Me To Hell
Whip It
9
UP
The Hangover
Inglourious Basterds
Away We Go
Public Enemies
A Serious Man
Nine
District 9

(and no, Avatar wasn't even in the running. An amazing technical achievement to be sure, but the script is so poor that it just knocked it too far out of the contest.)

The Perils of Mismarketing

The marketing of films is very important to their eventual success... or failure. Everyone loves seeing movie trailers to find out what's going to land in the multiplex in the near future, and film trailer editors have gotten very good at creating slick mini-previews to build anticipation. But what happens when they get it wrong?

Conventional wisdom states that there are 5 major genres (Drama, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and Action/Adventure) and various combinations and sub-genres within those (ex. Thriller and Romantic Comedy). Most films fit neatly into one of these common genres and crafting the trailer and marketing campaign then becomes a simple matter of playing on the standard conventions of that particular category. When we're at the theater and see the trailer for Horsemen (2009) we can instantly tell it's going to be a Horror/Mystery film because of the creepy text that drips on the screen and the ominously creepy music that gradually increases in intensity.

The film studios want this to happen. They want the audience to see the trailer and instantly associate it with a specific genre that they already identify with and, if possible, with a similar film from the past that they already like. Films are marketed this way all the time. "From the director of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up comes the new film Funny People by Judd Apatow." It happens so often that we don't even realize that it's happening, but the idea is, "If you liked that you'll like this too."

But there are certain films that don't fit so neatly into any specific genre. What then? Unfortunately, the answer the studios come up with most of the time in this situation is to try to market these films as if they do fit into a common genre anyway, which almost always leads to audience disappointment.

One of the most recent victims of mismarketing is Adventureland (2009) starring Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg. It was marketed as if it were the next Superbad (2007), an outright comedy about teens going to parties and getting drunk. The first weekend it came out a sizable audience came out to see the next side-splitting laugh-fest, and a lot of people left disappointed, or at least confused. Adventureland, in truth, is a slow paced drama with comedic elements about a teen who has had the rug pulled out from under him, trying to find his place in the world and make sense of life while falling in love with a co-worker. It's perhaps the best film of 2009 so far and because of mismarketing grossed only $16 Million in the US.

What this phenomenon demonstrates is the complete lack of trust the studios have in the viewer. They are afraid that if they advertise a film like Adverntureland for what it really is then people won't be interested. They think, "We have this film here that's kind of a comedy but mostly a drama. It has teens in it, but it's not exactly a Teen Film. What do we do?" But what inevitably ends up happening as a result of mismarketing is confusion and disappointment, so why does it keep happening?

Perhaps the studios should learn their lesson and stop marketing films based on genre conventions, instead focusing on each film's individual merits. Doing so would allow the audience to more accurately choose the films they want to see, and ultimately learn to appreciate different kinds of films that don't necessarily fit into a neat little box.