Aguirre: The Wrath of God. A Review

AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD

Andean Insanity...

Aguirre: The Wrath of God is how Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness would have been like if it had taken place in South America, for has at its core an insane quest led by an insane man. The first collaboration between director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski, the film is a quiet journey into madness, chaos, destruction, and death.

Aguirre purports to tell the story of a doomed expedition into the Amazon. Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro sends a small group, led by Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra), to search for El Dorado, a fabled city of untold riches. Over Pizarro's objection, two women join the expedition: Don Pedro's mistress, Doña Inez (Helena Rojo), and Flores (Cecilia Rivera), daughter of Ursua's second-in-command, Don Lope de Aguirre (Kinski).

It isn't long before Aguirre leads a coup against Ursua and places Don Pedro de Guzman (Peter Berling) the titled nobleman of the expedition as his puppet, naming him "Emperor of El Dorado". As they go further down the river, the members of the expedition grow more and more tired, hungry, and delusional. Yet they press on, driven by fear of Aguirre and their own gold-lust. Ultimately, the members slowly go mad and/or end up dead, with the now-totally insane Aguirre declaring himself ruler over all he surveys, with only monkeys to rule over.

The simultaneously massive and minimal nature of Aguirre, The Wrath of God is seen right at the opening. Accompanied by the brilliant music of musical group Popol Vuh. After a brief prologue, you slowly focus in on this group going down a mountain, these Spanish conquistadors and their Incan slaves, going further down the valley. 

There is no dialogue in the opening save for the voiceover from monk Brother Gaspar (Del Negro), but Herzog's visuals capture more than what is spoken. We see the smallness of man against unconquered and perhaps unconquerable nature, the prospect of vast rewards blinding the expedition to their metaphorical and literal descent into a beautiful hell. 

Aguirre, The Wrath of God showcases how a deranged drive will cause men to abandon reason. A brilliant example of this is after Don Fernando is proclaimed Emperor. Though he has no power whatsoever the expedition treats him as if he were an actual monarch. He is fed elegant food on the makeshift raft while the rest of the crew starves. Rational men would have forced a return to the main Spanish group, but greed and the fierce nature of Aguirre push them forward. This is as frightening a portrait of how men can delude themselves through a mixture of fear and in this case greed.

At the heart of Aguirre is Klaus Kinski's intense performance as the film's title character. His Aguirre is a methodical, plotting man, one who by his force of will forces everyone into line. He has a peculiar style of standing and walking which to me was reminiscent of Shakespeare's Richard III. Kinski never goes into histrionics, doesn't rave or foam at the mouth. 

In the beginning, he seems almost rational, if somewhat heartless. It's only as he forces everyone to go further downstream that he loses all grips with reality despite his belief he is the only one seeing reality. It might have been possible to have Aguirre rave like a madman, but the fact that when he's spouting dangerous nonsense he's speaking in a normal tone of voice that makes him even more terrifying.

It's doubtful director Werner Herzog would have allowed Kinski to go into hysterics. The sparse style of Aguirre gives it almost a documentary feel, as if you are really there with the expedition, bringing you into the story and almost making you a part of it as opposed to being a mere observer. In some ways, Aguirre is a calm yet intense film, one that quietly lures you in the same way Aguirre lured the men into abandoning all reason.  

Popol Vuh's score evokes otherworldly sounds that mix excellently with the Andean region and its native people. While there isn't much music in Aguirre, the music that there is provides the haunting atmosphere of men sinking into a madness of their own creation.

When I finished watching Aguirre: The Wrath of God a second time, I was reminded of Pete Seeger's Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, both telling the tale where despite all reason and chance to escape the journey goes further down into death. A haunting, dark film, anchored by a fiery performance by Klaus Kinski and the cool but sharp direction of Werner Herzog, Aguirre: The Wrath of God will continue to show us the darkness within all men.

DECISION: A +

Orson Welles' Don Quixote: A Review

DON QUIXOTE

(AKA ORSON WELLES' DON QUIXOTE)

Don Quixote was the dream project for Orson Welles, and one could see similarities between the mad would-be knight and the journeyman filmmaker. Working on his own film version on and off for fourteen years, Welles scraped what funds he could whenever he could to continue his own version of battling with windmills. He would never finish Don Quixote, nor would it be finished in the lifetime of Francisco Regueira, who played the title character. 

With the aid of assistant director Jesse Franco and Welles' longtime companion Oja Kodar, Don Quixote now has something of a shape, but it's a disformed one. The footage itself shows Welles was still an extraordinary craftsman. The film shows he was unlucky and undisciplined in planning, with the end result a dull, convoluted effort. One can cut Welles some slack given the chaotic production, but it doesn't make Don Quixote any more bearable to view.

Don Quixote makes little to no sense plot-wise. Parts of the film appear to be a straightforward narrative of the Cervantes novel. A man becomes so enthralled with tales of knights and their ladies fair that he goes mad. Believing himself to be a great knight errant, the newly-christened Don Quixote De La Mancha (Reguira) goes to pursue his dreams of glory, aided by his "squire", a fat man named Sancho Panza (Akim Tamiroff). Quixote fights windmills thinking they are giants, slaughters herds of sheep thinking they are great armies, and attacks religious processions believing the penitents are being enslaved by cruel masters.

Somewhere along the line though the film shifts hodgepodge like from Don Quixote and Sancho Panza  not in 16th Century Spain but 20th Century Spain. There, primarily Sancho Panza is shocked by what he sees: television, a parade, a running of the bulls, and a film crew, one where Orson Welles is both director and star of a film project about Don Quixote.

As Welles died long before the various pieces could come together, what we have is a confusing production where everything seems jumbled with the hope of putting something together. The sloppiness of Don Quixote I believe is a result of the fact that Welles had no script to begin with. Welles also was hampered by by shoddy financing. One gets the impression he was forced to create two films and then try to mash them into one. The end results are a bit bonkers but endlessly fascinating. 

Viewers frankly don't know what's going on. If Don Quixote and Sancho Panza both came from the past, how did they get to the present? If they are from the present, how do they not understand present-day inventions? The audience is lead both ways, one moment with Quixote and Panza clearly not understanding the world they are in during some scenes, other times with Panza recognizing people in the present world as his relatives. 

It's obvious that the footage is a mix from various sources. The quality of the prints shifts, sometimes in the same scene. Scenes involving Welles look like a cross between outtakes and vacation movie footage. The worst moment of the production chaos comes when Quixote charges a religious parade. It's obvious that Quixote is charging them in daylight but it's equally obvious that the parade is taking place in nighttime. 

In a similar vein, it soon becomes clear that there is voice dubbing all throughout Don Quixote. The words heard on the screen don't seem to come from the lips of the actors on the screen. You have much narration in an attempt to disguise the fact the film was made with no real soundtrack. 

All that isn't to take away from what good things there are in the film. Francisco Regueira is a perfect Don Quixote: his gaunt face and lean frame seemingly tailor-made for the description of the character. Some of the footage shot is absolutely marvelous to behold, the fight with the windmill especially so. Daniel J. White's score is also excellent and helps make many of the silent scenes visually splendid.

Don Quixote and Don Quixote both capture the career and vision of Orson Welles himself. They are both dreamers, seers of visions but trapped by fortune and reality, forever charging at windmills and getting knocked off their horse. 

It is a terrible loss for cinema that neither of Welles' ideas for Don Quixote either as a straight retelling or shifting the characters to the modern world, ever came to be finished. A documentary about the failed, perhaps doomed Don Quixote project would have been good, with some effort at restoration.  Ultimately, I think the final product, though given the best effort possible, will leave few satisfied. 

If you are the type to love watching incomplete projects and don't mind taking an hour or two to see some brilliant footage, Don Quixote is worth your time. However, if you want to see an actual movie, you might be better to read the book.

DECISION: D-

The Song of Bernadette: A Review

THE SONG OF BERNADETTE

The faithful now flock to Lourdes, France in the hopes of finding cures for various physical ailments, but how did it all begin? The Song of Bernadette tells the story of the young girl whose Marion visions created controversy and religious fervor in equal measure. A moving, respectful portrait of a young girl's faith, The Song of Bernadette inspires even the strongest nonbeliever. 

Young French peasant girl Bernadette Soubinous (Jennifer Jones) sees "A Lady" in a grotto one day while waiting for her sister and a friend. The Lady, visible only to Bernadette, appears to also bring good fortune to the Soubinous family. Soon, other villagers go to the grotto, inspired by Bernadette's visions.

As her visions continue and crowds continue to grow, both government officials and the Church become worried that her visions will make her village the laughingstock of France or worse. Intense pressure is place on her to recant her story, especially by the Imperial Prosecutor (Vincent Price), but she cannot deny what she sees. Eventually, The Lady reveals her name to Bernadette. She says she doesn't understand what The Lady called herself, but repeats it: The Lady says she's The Immaculate Conception.

Ultimately, despite many hardships and physical ailments, Bernadette keeps to her faith, altering the lives and faiths of millions forever. By the end of The Song of Bernadette, Miss Soubinous has joined a convent but slowly succumbs to tuberculosis of the leg, beginning her own journey to meet her God

The Song of Bernadette is extraordinarily beautiful and respectful of the story of the town of Lourdes and the visions of this young girl. It is remarkably balanced, never once taking sides on the reality or falseness of Bernadette's visions. The doubters, primarily the government and Church, are not held out to be villains but are given reason and logic to repute the stories. In fact, one of the best points about the movie is that even though people like the Imperial Prosecutor are doubters, they are not presented as evil but as grounded in reality and thus incapable of taking anything on faith.

Near the middle of the film, Bernadette starts eating plants straight from the ground, then starts digging a hole and taking in the dirt as if it were water. The townspeople who've been following her think she has gone mad to the delight of the town officials. She is shuffled out of the area, and it becomes an emotional rollercoaster as by now you firmly believe that Bernadette believes. 

If you have a cursory knowledge about Lourdes, you know the result. However, the tension that builds as one man refuses to give up hope builds and builds until it comes to a beautiful fruition.

For myself, the most powerful moment comes a little later on. A family we've met earlier with a sickly child is told he is within hours of death. The mother will not believe this, and carries her son out of the house and runs straight to the grotto which now has water that has sprung out of nowhere. She places her child in the water as a devoted act of faith. I confess I was surprised at my reaction to this scene: I got a lump in my throat and some tears began to form.

The Song of Bernadette allows for gentle moments of comedy, such as when local officials refuse to reopen the grotto until a well-born lady, arrested along with the peasants, pays the one-franc fine and coolly informs them she's the governess of the Imperial Family. She has come by command of the Empress herself, embarrassing the village officials.   

The Song of Bernadette is filled with beautiful, haunting moments, elevated by fine acting, a credit to director Henry King. Vincent Price, primarily known for his villains, shows a greater depth as The Imperial Prosecutor. His final scene is deeply moving. Returning from an informal five-year exile, he wanders through the silent throng of believers, and in voiceover Price delivers a gentle but passionate soliloquy about how even as he knows he is dying, he cannot bring himself to believe, only to fall to his knees, asking softly out loud to Bernadette, the girl he persecuted, to pray for him. It is difficult to impossible not to become emotional at this scene, a hard man breaking to fear and hope.

Jones' performance is sublime. Her Bernadette is beautiful, one who is honest, simple, and pure. She is guileless, incapable of lying or denying what she sees and hears. Her story never changes, no matter how many times she's asked about it or how much pressure is placed on her from her family, friends, Church or State to do so. Bernadette never claims to have seen The Virgin Mary, only a beautiful Lady.

Jones invokes the grace and quiet strength of Bernadette, and that is what makes her performance all the more extraordinary and brilliant. Jones portrays Bernadette not as holy or aware of her importance to others, but instead as graceful, and that is what makes us love Bernadette: not her visions, but her true heart and noble character.

The Song of Bernadette is also highlighted by Alfred Newman's Oscar-winning score, a rich and haunting one that lends to the spirituality and reverence of the subject matter.

We can trifle over little flaws in historic accuracy or its two-and-a-half hour length, but on the whole The Song of Bernadette is a quiet, beautiful film about a gentle girl and the power of faith. 

As I saw the film, I was reminded of the words of Christ, who said to the woman who touched his garment, "Your faith has made you well" (Mark 5:34). I also thought of 1 Corinthians 1:27 where Paul states, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong". Bernadette had little education, let alone comprehension of such concepts of the Holy Trinity or the Immaculate Conception, but her quiet strength and dignity metaphorically overthrew the powerful forces against her. 

The Song of Bernadette begins with a familiar quote: "For those who believe, no proof is necessary; for those who do not believe, no proof is possible". It may be that you may come to The Song of Bernadette as a believer or a non-believer, but with excellent performances and an involving story, those with or without faith will find The Song of Bernadette an excellent experience.

1844-1879

DECISION: B+

Avatar: A Review (Review #31)

AVATAR

What Happens When You Mix Green & Blue?

The way some Avatar fans talked about the film, you'd think it was one of cinema's great turning points. It was hailed as to the film that was to be to science-fiction films what Citizen Kane was to cinema itself. Decades in the making, is Avatar worthy of both the wait and praise? In certain respects, yes, but perhaps the adulation bears closer examination.

Paralyzed Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has been chosen to replace his twin brother on Pandora, a distant planet that contains the rare and valuable mineral found here: unobtanium. He is part of a plan to infiltrate the indigenous population called the Na'vi and learn their ways. Humans cannot breathe the Pandoran air, necessitating avatars: a human/Na'vi hybrid controlled by the individual's mind that will allow humans access to Pandora.

Assigned to protect Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), they're attacked by a native animal; Sully gets separated and encounters Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) a Na'vi woman. He soon becomes part of their tribe, which delights the military/industrial complex. The evil corporate head Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Rivisi) sees a great opportunity in Jake, whom he hopes will be a spy for them to crush and exterminate the Na'vi. 

As Jake spends more and more time with the Na'vi, his alliance and sympathies start shifting to them, culminating in him and Neytiri falling in love. Not wanting to wait anymore for Jake to either negotiate and suspecting his motives, the military/industrial complex decides to move in, leading to an epic battle for control of Pandora.

It's curious that what Robert Zemeckis cannot do with motion-capture, James Cameron can. My theory is that the former wants it to look realistic while the latter wants it to look fantastical. Cameron sees stop-motion as a way to create worlds, Zemeckis as a way to recreate worlds. 

Cameron has done an incredible job creating Pandora, this extraordinary visual world which audiences are fully immersed in. There are incredible images of sheer beauty on Pandora, and they are created so well you don't really question them as being anything other than realistic. The visuals alone are worth the cost of admission.

Having said that, I had major problems with the story. The first big problem was that this story isn't very original. As I watched, I kept flashing back to primarily Dances With Wolves (Dances With Na'vi?), though I also saw elements of Braveheart and at one point, The Ten Commandments. You see the overall script and think that otherworldly universe aside, Avatar is really a collection of past films merely set in another world

Even in the case of the Na'vi, the stereotype of the native population as being ethereal, spiritual, at one with Nature & The Universe can't or won't be shaken. The Na'vi are all mystical enlightenment as opposed to the military/industrial complex about to ravage their homeland. If one found the indoctrination from Captain Planet a bit on the obvious side, Avatar does them one better.

While that can be expected, other bits may come as a shock. Near the end of the film, as the Na'vi and their human associates prepare for the onslaught from the military/industrial complex, Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) comments something along the lines of how she wishes her mission wouldn't involve "martyrdom". At the very least Cameron is completely oblivious to how loaded this word and phrasing sound. While I didn't gasp I was surprised. Right after that, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is rallying his troops for the final assault, he uses the phrase "preemptive strike" (which is rather ridiculous since they've already invaded Pandora so the Na'vi know they're there) and then tells them, "We will fight terror with terror".

The attempts at parallels between Pandora and Earth are a bit heavy-handed. One gets the sense that Cameron is attempting to draw comparisons between the invasion of Pandora and Iraq, which I think may either age poorly or hopefully be forgotten.

There's a shocking lack of originality among the visual splendor. The Na'vi seems shorthand for "native". Unobtanium is close to "unobtainable". Parker Selfridge could be read as "Selfish".  Leaving aside for the moment the film as a whole, one would have hoped Cameron would have created more original terms.

The acting is also an issue. There's a push to make Sam Worthington a major star, but after the frightful Terminator: Salvation and this we see Worthington is wooden, incapable of demonstrating human emotion. I'm beginning to wonder if he's more an Action Star than an Actor since his roles tend to be the same. Even that could be forgiven if not for the fact that he isn't compelling as an Action Star to begin with. 

I noticed that his native Australian accent was more pronounced here than in Salvation. I admit to taking it for granted that he was playing an American since all his cast-mates speak with American accents, but I thought it was odd to hear Sully sound as if he were more New South Wales than New England.

Particularly bad was Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge. He plays the evil industrialist with no variety at all, a mustache to twirl short and so cartoonishly over-the-top. Out of the whole cast, Sigourney Weaver saves herself because she is a first-rate actress who can play just about anything with great deal of conviction.

I don't take away from Avatar's extraordinary achievements in visuals, in taking us into a world that has no limits except one that an imagination will impose. I do wish that the story itself weren't so loaded with Environmental Movement cheerleading. Perhaps Avatar is a harbinger of things to come. That I welcome gladly.

Avatar is a visually splendid but surprisingly empty film. It's there to enjoy at the spectacle of it all, but not so much the story itself. 

DECISION: B-

Did You Hear About the Morgans?: A Review (Review #30)

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?

Yes, I Heard.  How Awful...

While watching Did You Hear About the Morgans? I heard two things: laughing audiences and the Green Acres theme song playing in my head. When the female lead goes on about how she couldn't relocate anywhere outside New York City, Eva Gabor going on about how she gets allergic smelling hay might as well been playing in the background.  I get the feeling that writer/director Mark Lawrence may actually have been inspired by the show to come up with the film's silly premise.

Meryl and Paul Morgan (Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant) have been separated for three years after Paul's one-night stand. After a reconciliation dinner they witness a murder. To protect them, they are sent by the Witness Protection Program to the the unchic Ray, Wyoming, where the culture clashes bright forth lots of laughs. 

If you are a more forgiving person, you know exactly what and how things will play out. I guess I'm not that forgiving, as Did You Hear About the Morgans? elicited nothing other than eyerolling.

Grant hasn't changed his persona or performance manner apparently since Four Weddings and a Funeral. It's the exact same performance in a pretty similar role: befuddled WASP.  His halting delivery, his fumbling body movements, it's almost to where one wonders whether he can act or just decided to give up and play "Hugh Grant" and cash his checks. 

I think it's clear that Parker took this as rehearsal for her next turn as Carrie Bradshaw: again, no different from her series. None. It was just Carrie in all but name.

While a lot in the film can be forgiven, perhaps what makes Did You Hear About the Morgans? so bad is that the Morgans as a pair so horrible is their cluelessness and vapid narcissism. When they arrived in Wyoming, they are taken by the sheriff and his wife (Sam Elliot and Mary Steenburgen) to the Bargain Barn, the local version of Costco or Sam's Club. They are amazed to find people actually pay $9 for sweaters! Only $9! There are even such things as two-for-one specials inside this massive store! Honey, we've discovered a whole new galaxy.

For people whose life experiences have never taken them outside Connecticut, Republican meat-eating, John Wayne movie watching people who shoot guns and don't commit crimes is astonishing. It's beyond cliché, it's damn insulting to both the Morgans and the good folks in Ray. It's as if the screenplay came from a good sixty years ago. It makes one wonder just HOW something like this got a green-light.

Elliot and Steenburgen come off a lot better in the film even if their parts are small because they are more believable as actual people. Yes, there were a few funny moments (though I wonder if seeing Grant sprayed with bear repellent isn't a little sadistic) but not enough to get over the clunky nature of the story or the sad state of affairs with the main character's acting. 

I found myself more intrigued with the story of the Morgan's assistants (Jesse Liebman and Elizabeth Moss) than in their employers and in Sheriff and Mrs. (Deputy) Wheeler than their charge.

In fact, my mind pursued a curious route. I thought about the possibilities of making a film about the assistants rather than the Morgans. I thought, how's this for a plot: throw out the murder angle (done to death--no pun intended). You make the sheriff and his wife actual cousins of Meryl, and she and Paul decide to rescue their marriage by going on a second honeymoon to their ranch. You have the culture clash and the romance without bothering with hitmen, as well as give them a legitimate excuse to be out of town. Or how about this: the Morgans leave under mysterious circumstances, leaving their assistants Adam & Jackie to deal with their various businesses. Can they do it? Do they fall in love in the process? Yes, maybe it ain't the most original of plots, but then again, neither is Did You Hear About The Morgans?

What you end up with are two people you never really like, in a situation you don't really believe, working on a film you really don't laugh a lot at. If you've heard about the Morgans, you've heard them all.

DECISION: D+

The Essentials: An Introduction

March 2021 Update: Sadly, my friend Fidel Gomez, Jr. died in 2017. It is an immense loss that I still feel. However, I think it would serve as a good memory to continue our long-hoped for project. 

A few years ago, my friend Fidel Gomez, Jr. and I started working on a project. It was a simple one: write about 52 films every person should see. The total came from the number of weeks in a year, to show that watching a great movie did not require hours and hours of one's time.

We wanted to have a wide variety of films: not just a list of "important" films but films from all sorts of genres. We found there are people who are terrified of musicals, of documentaries, of silent films. We also found there are some people who dismiss action films and/or Westerns and wouldn't consider them worthy of their time. 

These two types are the real film snobs: not the ones who hold up Cleopatra to Citizen Kane, but those who declare a movie to be bad without even seeing it merely because they don't have subtitles or have people singing and dancing. Fidel & I never considered ourselves film snobs. Just because we love the work of Akira Kurosawa or Orson Welles didn't mean we would automatically reject Die Hard or The 40-Year-Old Virgin. In short, we believed the problem wasn't with the movie itself, it was with the perception of the movie.

In the time we knew each other, I think both of us expanded each other's views on certain films & filmmakers. I learned to love Werner Herzog and Federico Fellini with the passion that Fidel had, and he gained an appreciation for the work of my beloved Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford. Of course, sometimes we still couldn't agree: I still find Stanley Kubrick an acquired taste and he was still resistant to Buster Keaton. That is what happens when you step out of your comfort zone and give these films a chance, going in with an open mind and leaving your notions out of the viewing.

This is what we wanted with The Essentials: 52 (More or Less) Films Everyone Should See. Fidel & I were very concerned that too many good movies were being ignored or forgotten because people wanted to stay within what they knew. We also feared that truly great films were being sacrificed in the place of truly awful work.

When we compiled our two lists, the ones that appeared on both automatically went in. It was just a matter of sorting out which ones would go in and which ones would go home. Sometimes we agreed real quickly, sometimes we argued fiercely until one or the other gave in, and sometimes we were reduced to flipping a coin because no matter what we said we couldn't convince the other. Eventually, we came up with 52 titles that we could live with. Now, in total there are 58 films altogether, but because we consider some of them to be part of one story we skated by with that reasoning to justify it being 52.

We went through all genres: documentaries, musicals, silent films, animation, comedies, action, science-fiction, foreign-language, and some that one or the other just loved for itself. Overall, we both thought it would be a good way to introduce people to films and directors and stars we think are worth your time. Eventually we used this as a standard to judge other films. "Would you make it an Essential?" one would ask the other if he thought it was really great. "That will never be an Essential," would be code for "What a lousy film".

As it is, Fidel Gomez, Jr. has disappeared from my life. I have no idea what happened to him after he said he was leaving to 'visit' his sister in Colorado. He may have moved up there permanently but he left no forwarding address or phone number. I miss him terribly. I assume he's still alive. In any case, I decided to go ahead and write about the films we came up with. If he is still alive, I'd love to see a Volume 2 of The Essentials. If he isn't, I hope to honor him by completing the work we started together.

The Essentials Collection

The Best of 2009 So Far

Update (December 2016): As I saw more films from 2009, I opted to revisit my 2009 List and rework it to make things more in line with my actual list.

Update (March 2021): I am reworking and re-cataloging all reviews, so this Best of 2009 List was current at the time originally written and reedited. A second list will be published once the cataloging is complete.

Well, it's a New Year, so we feel obligated to trot out the best films of 2009. This won't be easy, since I didn't see that many films and some good ones I haven't written a review for yet. Therefore, I ask you to indulge me, but at least I figure they will serve as teasers for the future when I DO write on them. Here they are in descending order:

Number 10:
The Princess & The Frog

A return to traditional 2-D animation that was once the hallmark of the Disney Company, The Princess & The Frog not only does a wonderful thing by creating the first African-American Disney Princess in Tiana, but also by making Tiana a more career-oriented character.  The film also mixes the varied musical styles of Louisiana: jazz, zydeco, Cajun, and gospel, into a wonderful gumbo that makes this film a delightful entry to the Disney Canon.

Number 9:
Star Trek

I have as of today not seen a single episode from the original Star Trek series or its various adaptations. I recently received a Best Of Classic Star Trek as a Christmas gift, so I will watch, though I plan to make Spock's Brain the first one I watch. Isn't it the Citizen Kane of Star Trek episodes? In any case, the series had been floundering under its own mythology and it took this "reboot" to make the saga fun again. This film is perfect for the long-time Trekker/Trekkie as well as a great introduction to someone who has little to no knowledge of the saga.

Number 8:
Notorious

Biopics can be a tricky thing, but Notorious, the life story of Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls, is a fascinating portrait of a man rising above his circumstances while at the same time never quite escaping them.  With strong performances by the cast, we get a sympathetic portrait of an artist gone too soon.

Number 7:
An Education

An Education might not be strictly a biopic, but this portrait of a young woman becoming herself through experiences both physical and mental has a brilliant performance by Carey Mulligan.  It is a study of the growth of an individual, a portrait of a girl who becomes a woman in every sense of the phrase.

Number 6:
The Hangover

You take a somewhat clichéd situation (four guys go on a bender in Las Vegas) and you take it to the most extreme, outrageous level (a baby in the closet, a tiger in the bathroom, the groom missing). You then follow these average guys as they try to sort out the previous night and throw in crime lords and Mike Tyson into the mix, and you give it an actual logic (albeit a completely insane logic) and you get a first-rate comedy. What is especially good is that you relate to the characters...though hopefully not the situations. When a film can have you laughing during the closing credits, you've got a great film on your hands.

Number 5:
The Young Victoria

Perhaps I have a weakness for biopics, and ones involving royalty.  Don't let what might be thought of as a dry history lesson with elegant costumes (though they did win the film the Academy Award for Best Costume Design as royal-based films tend to).  The Young Victoria is an elegant film about the machinations and struggles the heiress to the British crown endured to reach a level of happiness with her beloved Prince Albert.  With excellent performances all around, The Young Victoria becomes a tour de force of passions within the confines of monarchy.

Number 4:
Michael Jackson's This Is It

The weirdness that surrounded Michael Jackson was like a fog that hid his enormous talent. The trials, the surgeries, the spending sprees, the baby dangling, the accusations, all overshadowed just what a first-rate singer/songwriter and dancer he was. One always wonders if things had gone differently, if he were able to have been pulled into reality instead of his "Never-Land", things would have been so much better for everyone concerned. As it stands, This Is It is his artistic final will and testament, showing that he still had exceptional abilities. A terrible loss, especially for his children. I don't believe that genius and madness have to be related, but Jackson seems to have lived that...and died with that.

Number 3:
(500) Days of Summer

Love is a many-splendored thing. Love hurts. Love is strange. I'm sick of love. People will say we're in love. I'll never love this way again. I will always love you. Love was when I loved you. This can't be love. Is this love, that I'm feeling? (500) Days of Summer is a love story that is honest and true. Anyone who's been in love or been in love with love or has fallen in and out of love can relate to the story of a guy and a girl who go through the ups and downs of an affair to remember, for good or ill.

Number 2:
Precious

Precious is one of the most simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting films. As we watch the title character struggle with horrific abuse and neglect, condemned to die due to the AIDS virus, we still finding herself freed from the misery of her world through her own will. With brilliant performances by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe and Monique, Precious is haunting, hauntingly beautiful, and emotionally impacting.

Number 1:
UP

Few films have been this moving, this funny, this brilliant as the latest Disney/PIXAR film. It may be old hat, but it's true: I laughed, I cried. UP hit you on a deeply emotional level, but it also was wildly funny and endearing and touching and well-written, even well-acted. Animation is not for kids, and neither is UP.  It was a tough battle between two emotionally impacting films, but by the thinnest of margins, UP is still my Best Picture of 2009.

Well, there it is. These are some of the films that I saw this year. Perhaps there were better films that I missed at the time of the writing (I think The Hurt Locker, for example), but I can't judge by reputation, only by what I see. I hope that 2010 is a great year for everyone concerned. I hope that films get better, people stop remaking films, come up with original ideas, not treat the audience like zombies, and that movies stop being entertaining only and start being entertaining and good.

THE WORST OF 2009 Version One

2009: Some Odds and Bitter Ends