The Best Films of 2009

We count down our ten favorite films of the year.

Michael Atkinson: It’s been an exceptionally Godardian year, even if my favorite 2009 release is a 40-year-old JLG romance requiem not enough critics saw, and which absolutely no one but me considered a viable 2009 list-maker in any case. I walk away stuffed and satisfied (even though I didn’t have a chance to see Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” in time), thanks largely to a handful of obsessive global filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino, and the persistent idea that commercial animation can be interesting, metaphorically loaded and uniquely textured, and not just a cash-hungry showbiz monstrosity. And, a toast to Jean-Luc, without whom we wouldn’t be having quite this conversation.

10. “Three Monkeys”

Noir in structure but Ceylanian in its secrets and high-pressure silence.

9. “You, the Living”

Andersson’s achingly distanced style goes sad-funny instead of apocalyptic, and there wasn’t a more hypnotic use of long takes anywhere else this year.

8. “Night and Day”

Like a Rohmer with a Godard in his pants, Hong returns again to his New Wavey triangulated-romance template, but now in Paris, and with his usual tank full of potentially combustible lies, narcissism and lonesomeness.

7. “Up”

Pixar’s most inspired movie, and the saddest nine-figure Hollywood behemoth ever.

6. “The Baader Meinhof Complex”

White-man terrorism and recent Euro-history as sexy, runaway-train, rock ‘n’ roll action film. How could anyone resist this movie, or neglect the head-shaking case it makes for fightin’ the power? Am I a sucker for insurrectionism, or what?

5. “Hunger”

A subject potentially vulnerable to cheap piety gets a double-barrel load of filmmaking wisdom — you never know how the film’s physical ordeals are going to come at you, as elliptical shrapnel or as blockbuster bombs. The best debut of the year.

4. “I’m Gonna Explode”

Goosebumps. A modern, real-teen remake, kinda, of “Pierrot le Fou,” done with panache, precise wit, a glorious lack of pretension, and a hot love for ballistic youth so genuine it could singe your eyebrows.

3. “Inglourious Basterds”

My sigh-heavy case made for this beloved screamer can be found here.

2. “The Headless Woman”

Ultra-realism framed like a bad dream of amnesia and regret. Off-screen space becomes a terrifying second movie you can almost see, but fear.

1. “Made in U.S.A.”

Godard’s “Waste Land,” a restless, allusive, enigmatic jaunt about modern emptiness that is also, not incidentally, an expression of real if philosophical grief for the Godard-Karina symbiosis. It is, of course, one of the 15 essential rockets Godard launched that made the ‘60s his and his alone, and discovering it this year in the U.S.A., where it was finally released, was either a privilege for you or you don’t care about movies. Not counting it as a 2009 release, by the way, means allowing the vagaries of distribution, money, lawyering and greed dictate your idea of cinemania for you.

Honorable Mentions (in order): “Paradise,” “Bronson,” “The Sun,” “(500) Days of Summer,” “Cargo 200,” “Up in the Air,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Thirst,” “Still Walking,” “Julia,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “District 9,” “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” “24 City”

[Photos: "Crank: High Voltage," Lionsgate, 2009; "The White Ribbon," Sony Pictures Classics, 2009; "In the Loop," IFC Films, 2009; "The Headless Woman," Strand Releasing, 2009; "The Hurt Locker," Summit, 2009; "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," Abramorama, 2009; "Up," Walt Disney, 2009; "Drag Me to Hell," Universal Pictures, 2009; "Summer Hours," IFC Films, 2009; "Two Lovers," Magnolia Pictures, 2009; "The Missing Person," Strand Releasing, 2009; "Paradise," Post Factory Films, 2009; "A Serious Man," Focus, 2009; "Public Enemies," Universal, 2009; "Somers Town," Film Movement, 2009; "A Town Called Panic," Zeitgeist Films, 2009; "Fantastic Mr. Fox," Fox Searchlight, 2009; "You, the Living," Palisades Tartan, 2009; "Made in U.S.A.," Rialto Films, 1966; "Night and Day," IFC Films, 2009; "Inglourious Basterds," Weinstein Co., 2009]

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