Movies of 2009

As I've written previously, I watch a lot of movies, though most are viewed as DVDs on my television. Because I do not see that many films in the theater, it can be difficult for me to write a post on the year's best movies (of 2009, or any other year).

Indeed, many of the best films I saw this past year were 2008 films that I missed in the theaters or saw in the theaters during 2009. Some were even older.

To make this rank-ordered 2009 list, I scanned the top 150 grossing movies of 2008, as well as IMDB's most popular titles for 2009 (and their most popular by average vote list). These were the only 2009 films I saw this year, so far as I know. Those marked with asterisks were viewed in a theater:

Julie & Julia
Sugar **
Away We Go **
District 9
Adventureland
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince **
The Hangover
Sunshine Cleaning **
Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale)
Extract **
Last Chance Harvey
The Proposal

And here's the annual list of movies I intend to see in the future (hopefully in 2010): (500) Days of Summer, Amreeka, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Broken Embraces, Bronson, Brothers, The Brothers Bloom, Brüno, Cloud 9, The Cove, Crossing Over, The Damned United, An Education, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Funny People, The Girlfriend Experience, Humpday, The Hurt Locker, I Love You Man, Inglourious Basterds, The Informant!, In The Loop, Invention of Lying, The Maid, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Messenger, Moon, Paranormal Activity, Pirate Radio, Precious, Public Enemies, The Road, A Serious Man, Skin, Star Trek, State of Play, Taking Woodstock, The Evening Sun, Up, Up in the Air, Watchmen, Whatever Works, Whip It, White Collar, and Zombieland.

Metacritic helped me compile that list.

Keep in mind that I didn't get around to seeing many 2008 movies from last year's list: Adventures of Power, American Teen, Appaloosa, Brideshead Revisited, Cadillac Records, Definitely Maybe, Diminished Capacity, Edge of Heaven, Frozen River, Gomorra, Gran Torino, Happy-Go-Lucky, JCVD, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Momma's Man, Revolutionary Road, Role Models, Seven Pounds, Shine a Light, Standard Operating Procedure, Stop-Loss, Street Kings, Synecdoche, New York, Taken, Tell No One, Under the Same Moon, What Just Happened, and Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?


Note: I did not provide links to the Powell's Bookstore website, where you can buy DVDs of many of the films listed in this post. However, if you buy books or DVDs from my link, I receive a 7.5% sales commission. All funds are used to operate this blog -- or will be gambled away at my monthly poker game.

Powell's is a great independent bookstore -- always a highlight of my trips to Portland -- with union representation, tremendous selection, and reduced-price used or sale books.


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