By now you all know that Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker were the big winners at the Oscars, and there were no real surprises in any of the major acting categories.
So let’s take a look at some of the lesser known victors of the night!
Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.
“This film transcends its environmental core to take a broad look at the myopic reality of the Taiji dolphin hunt. Yes, it is a biased depiction, but rather than focus all of its energy on the emotional slaughter the film chooses to examine personal, ecological, political, medical, and economic issues that arise from the killing and consumption of dolphins. In the end, the antagonists seem misguided rather than villainous, and the film’s suggestions reasonable rather than radical.” – Thaklos
A retired lawyer (Ricardo Darín) wants to write a novel about a crime he tried to solve thirty years earlier: a woman was raped and murdered. When the court decided to close the case for lack of evidence, he and his sidekick (Guillermo Francella) relay on one loose clue: a man looking at the victim, in an old photograph.
“A film full of surprises. Although it is full of extremely silly plot turns, it’s such a well crafted film that you can easily avoid nitpicking it. It uses a free-form narrative that departs from the structure of typical thriller, focusing on the moral dilemma over the crime. Another extraordinary surprise was Francella: although I thought he already sold his soul to Satan years ago, performing in comedies so low they reach the fiery pits of Hell, here he delivers a fantastic performance.” – KGB
A lot of the categories in this year’s Oscars seem to be already locked up… Mo’nique and Christoph Waltz are as good as gold, and there’s not much doubt who’s going to win Best Actor (Bridges) or Actress (Bullock). A lot of attention is focusing on the Best Picture & Director battles between The Hurt Locker and Avatar. We’re betting Kathryn Bigelow walks away from this one with the directing prize — she’ll be the first woman to win Best Director, and it will be well-deserved. She should have won it for Point Freaking Break! That’s right!
We’re always more interested in the prize for Best Foreign Language Film, possibly because we live in Europe — and it’s a great race this year, with 5 movies that are better than anything up for Best Picture:
Our favorite was The White Ribbon and it’s high time that Michael Haneke was recognized by the Academy — he’s won just about every other award on the planet. But the odds-on favorite this year seems to be A Prophet.
Since our days in Berlin, we’ve kept a close eye on the Berlinale — a festival which has become one of the world’s most important. The winner of the Golden Bear is almost always an incredible movie which takes everyone by surprise, and this year’s selection looks to continue the pattern.
Cue the ‘bears love honey’ jokes
Honey (Bal), by filmmaker Semih Kaplanoglu, is about a poetic account of young boy’s search for his missing father — a honey worker. It’s the third part of the director’s reverse-order “Yusuf” Trilogy, following Eggs and Milk. Check out the trailer — this is a film tailor-made to rack up awards:
Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the way in the Oscar race this year, the first in which 10 films are up for Best Picture. You can see the full list of nominations here.
The film with the highest score amongst Criticker users is…
Inglourious Basterds!
And Criticker users are never wrong. EVER. The film with the lowest average score is The Blind Side. Ms. Bullock just can’t get no lovin’ round these parts. I think I like the expanded nominations, even if it is just an attempt to get film fanatics in the theater more often.
Awards season has kicked into high gear, with the distribution of the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards — a good yearly measuring stick for Oscar hopefuls.
Bingo!
In that case, the cast of Inglourious Basterds has a lot to be hopeful for. The film picked up Best Cast, and Best Supporting Actor went to the untouchable Christoph Waltz — who’s much a shoe-in for the Oscar as anyone in recent memory.
[Unrelated Aside: I've finally added the words "inglourious" and "basterds" to my damned spell-check dictionary. Tarantino: teaching poor history and bad spelling]
Other winners were Mo’Nique in Precious, Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, and workhorse Sandra Bullock in The Proposal, All About Steve, The Blind Side. Blind Side, Blind Squirrel. Enjoy your nut.
The lack of love for The Hurt Locker in Criticker’s list has generated a lot of discussion. A very objective criteria was used to compile the list, Average Film Tier, and there was a lot of excellent competition. But how could a film that didn’t even break the Top 10 emerge as the front-runner during awards season? Was this a film that cinephiles love, but other might feel indifferent to? Any other theories?
By the way, the worst film of 2009 according to Criticker users, with an hilariously low average tier of 1.67, was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
Here they are, folks, your top ten movies of 2009! It’s a great list, containing a great variety of films. Science fiction, animation, comedy, Cameron, Cohen, Clooney, Yanks, Brits and Germans.
The number one might surprise, but the Criticker Community has exquisite taste. What a year 2009 was! We wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2010!
If you missed the first half of our top 20, you can get to it here.
“District 9 is the most propitiously first-rate and encouragingly sensible and prosperous sci-fi film of the summer. Not only is it a perspicacious commentary on humanity and other such global themes, but on its own as a regular and standard film it is unstoppable. The imagery is vibrant and energetically glowing in quality, and the acting is top-notch. The biggest sleeper triumph ever, and hopefully it brings overwhelming exposure to Blomkamp. He has all the talent in the world loaded into him.” – Jeb
“I’m continuously impressed by British cinema of late. The Damned United is a fine, sophisticated, and very entertaining biopic. And that comes from someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about soccer. Big part of the film’s success is lively, charismatic acting of Michael Sheen. His character is a bit similar to his previous role in Frost/Nixon, and his acting is even better.” – chemical404
“Really great minimalistic sci-fi debut; although the theme is not that complex, its exposition is spun out with great craft, allowing us to share the doubts of the main character while occupying an omniscient point of view. Humour is used well to alleviate the mood. At each plot point, the film seems to make exactly the right decision, and it’s a pleasure to just sit back and be hand-held though to the end. The continuous “why?”s are all answered satisfactorily and with impeccable timing.” – astrakhan
“What a fun movie. I never figured Anderson’s dry and witty humor would translate so perfectly into a children’s movie. All of the voice actors did terrific jobs making these “wild animals” seem not so wild. The story was fresh and entertaining, and the vintage style stop motion was absolutely beautiful.” – caiman
“DAMN YOU JAMES CAMERON! So here I was, getting comfy in my IMAX seat, putting my 3D-Glasses on, going over my assorted vocabulary of expletives to shred asunder what I fully expected to be yet another phony, pompous popcorn-flick (Hello Transformers 2!), just to be greeted with? A pretty decent movie! Yes, the story is shallow (gun-toting Cowboys, err, Marines battle the indigenous Indians, err, Aliens for their land), but done well. Take note Michael Bay! This is how you spend a AAAA-Budget!” – chiefg
“Burn After Reading painted its subjects’ lack of knowledge as tragicomic character defects; A Serious Man sees it as the defining human condition, though no less tragicomic. The workings of the world and God are inscrutable — God’s proponents’ remedies for the resulting existential crisis are optimism, indifference and Jefferson Airplane, respectively — but acknowledgement of one’s ignorance (“Accept the mystery”) is no defense against the swirling vortex of chaos, literalized at film’s end.” – theficionado
“In my opinion this is the best movie that Pixar has yet to put out. The animation is awesome, but the storyline is even better. The interaction between the Carl and Russell provides lots of laughs (especially when you then throw in a dog and some sort of crazy bird). My date went through an entire box of tissues, so if you cry come prepared. But besides all the laughs and tears (that Pixar films usually have) this really had a deep story to it. That’s what I liked best about it. Love Dog” – gtown1479
“Tarantino’s best film since Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds is a relentless, and at times disgusting film with some snappy dialogue, and some incredibly hilarious moments. Brad Pitt and the Basterds are easily the funniest part of the movie, but one unforgettable thing about this film is the performance by Christoph Waltz. With Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino crosses the line, but he does it in a way where you are not questioning why, but simply accepting.” – Farzan
“This film is a thoughtful examination of the value of human connections. The entire cast is excellent, and contribute to this luxuriously well developed comedy, but Clooney is particularly wonderful, and captures his characters comfortably bleak mindset with stunning charisma and depth. The film is beautifully shot, and has a really unique perspective that is both artistic, and works within the narrative. I love how Reitman uses comedy to enhance rather than distract from the drama in his films.” – thaklos
“This film isn’t answering questions, it’s asking them. The life, and especially the handling and punishment of children in a small community in a village in north germany stands for what is happening the next decades in germany. And thanks to a great director and an extraordinary cast it does it in a very impressive way.” – Charlie
Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.
A retired lawyer (Ricardo Darín) wants to write a novel about a crime he tried to solve thirty years earlier: a woman was raped and murdered. When the court decided to close the case for lack of evidence, he and his sidekick (Guillermo Francella) relay on one loose clue: a man looking at the victim, in an old photograph.
Sort of an update of the old Warner Brothers books come to life cartoon- only here logos come to life and populate the world.
Inglourious Basterds!
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