The Estimated Prophet Internet Journal

Blogging is hard.  Well, not exactly, but it’s much harder to find the time to maintain this blog than I had expected.  That is why it has been three weeks since I posted the first part of my top ten movies of 2009 list (the list was finished some time ago).  Here, at last, are my top five movies of 2009 (you might want to check out numbers 10-6 too):

5. The Brothers Bloom

Rian Johnsons impressed everyone with Brick, his debut feature about a Los Angeles teenager trying to solve the murder of his girlfriend…  well, he impressed everyone who actually bothered to see it, so it’s no surprise that his highly appreciated followup was a box office flop.  Nevertheless, The Brothers Bloom is a brilliantly stylized, intelligently written, and highly entertaining thriller which leaves nothing to be desired.  Like Brick, The Brothers Bloom is built on its characters and their relationships, and the titular brothers form one of the most memorable pairs of shysters in the catalog of con-men.  The younger Bloom (who forms the heart of the picture) is a magnificently constructed character, wonderfully impersonated by Adrien Brody.  He, along with Rachel Weisz and Mark Ruffalo, bring Rian Johnson’s beautiful visions to life.

4. The Princess and the Frog

In 2004, Disney announced that they would produce no more traditionally animated feature films, now, five years later, they have rescinded that dubious promise, and in doing so they have secured the future, not only of traditional animation, but of the Disney company’s reputation as a purveyor of the finest quality family entertainment.  The Princess and the Frog deserves to placed alongside such timeless Disney classics as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, One-Hundred-and-One Dalmatians, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; and hopefully, like The Little Mermaid, Princess and the Frog will launch a renaissance of (traditionally) animated Disney feature films.  But The Princess and the Frog is so much more than just another Disney animated classic.  Much ado has been made of the fact that Tiana is Disney’s first African-American princess, but there is more significance to this film than just some overdue minority representation–The Princess and the Frog is Disney’s first truly American (rather than European) folk tale.  (And no, I don’t count Pocahontas, which was really all about the Europeans.)  Tiana’s story is the quintessential American dream: to find happiness and prosperity by following your heart and believing that your dreams can come true.  (And I should also mention that Princess and the Frog is one of the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful animated films I have ever seen.)

3. Whatever Works and Synecdoche, New York
   
New York holds a hallowed place in the history of cinema–it has been the setting of spectacular musicals (West Side Story), gritty human dramas (Midnight Cowboy), brilliant comedies (Trading Places), and riveting thrillers (Inside Man).  One defining characteristic of those movies is that they wouldn’t have been the same–may not even have been possible–if they were not set in New York City.  The same is true of the latest films from two of the city’s greatest (and quirkiest) interpreters: Woody Allen’s Whatever Works and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York.  In Whatever Works, Woody Allen has created one of his finest and most endearing stories, that of a naive young woman who helps an old misanthrope discover how to love again.  Whatever Works is Woody Allen at his best: quirky, lovable characters, improbable situations, and snappy dialog, all steeped in the ambiance of the City that Never Sleeps.  Synecdoche, New York, on the other hand, is the exact opposite: it is the story of a man who becomes increasingly lost in himself, until finally even his family and friends seem to have forgotten him.  But like Whatever Works, Synecdoche, New York, is Charlie Kaufman at his best: dark and uncertain, mixed with equal measures of hope and despair, Synecdoche, New York, exists in a world created by a great artist, a world where metaphors can, and should, be taken literally, and the life you create in your own mind can become more real than this life you live outside.

2. A Serious Man and Moon
   
The connections between the other pairs of movies on this list might seem obvious: Avatar and District 9 are both about xenophobia, Whatever Works and Synecdoche, New York are both about how we shape each other’s lives.  But what does the the Coen brothers’ fable of Jewish life in 1960’s Minnesota have in common with an independently-produced science fiction drama directed by the son of David Bowie?  Nothing besides the fact that they are possibly to of the most finely crafted films ever produced–and that they both depict characters for whom the very foundations of their lives seem to have crumbled into dust.  Moon tells the story of Sam Bell, the lone employee of a lunar mining operation, whose only companion is a friendly (if conflicted) robot named GERTY, who, after an apparent near-death in an accident, goes on to uncover a terrible secret that the corporation has been hiding for years, a secret that undermines everything he believes about his life.  A Serious Man, on the other hand, is the story of Jewish college professor in 1960’s Minnesota, a man whose entire life seems to be spiraling out of control.  Although the milieu may be completely different, the psychological drama Larry Gopnik goes through as his familiar life collapses all around him is very much the same.  I don’t know what else to say except that A Serious Man is the Coen brothers’ best movie of the past decade, and Moon is a classic must-see for any fan of great science fiction.

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox

At last we come to the end of the list, and the best film of 2009 is… Wes Anderson’s stop-motion adaptation of Road Dahl’s story of a clever fox’s crusade against a trio of autocratic farmers.  What can I say about this movie?  It is probably Wes Anderson’s greatest film (I say probably because it is extremely difficult to chose between them).  It has everything that we love about Wes Anderson’s movies: the brilliant writing, magnificent characterization, moving personal drama, and finely executed filmmaking.  The casting, as one would expect, is excellent–Mr. Fox, with his attitude of lovable roguishness is the quintessential George Cloony character–and did I mention that the animation is absolutely beautiful?  One shot features Mr. and Mrs. Fox standing on a ledge in front of a waterfall somewhere in the sewers where they’ve been trapped; it is one of the most beautiful shots I have ever seen in an animated movie, and just one of many such shots in this film.  What can I say?  This is one for the ages.