Top 10 Films of 2009

To me, 2009 was filled with many very good movies but few great ones.

As I write this on the winter solstice, "Up in the Air" looks to be unstoppable in the Oscar race. It's on my list, and high up, but as I look over the films I don't see many seminal movies people are sure to still be talking about in 20 or 30 years.

Top 10 Lists are by definition arbitrary, and by definition a lot of fun to compose and argue about. If you ask me to make this list next week, it might look a little different. But today, here's my take on the year in film:

10. "Precious." A tough, hard movie to watch, but rewarding for those who do. Gabourey Sidibe stars in a break-out role as an impoverished girl, abused and ignored, who finds reason for hope.

9. "The Damned United." Consider this movie compared to "Invictus." I'm equally indifferent to soccer and rugby, but found this behind-the scenes portrait of Brian Clough's disastrous stint as manager of one of 1970s England's top football teams utterly riveting. With Timothy Spall in a great supporting role that deserves more attention.

8. "Avatar." Give it up for James Cameron; the auteur -- one of the few directors today who deserves that title -- shoots for the moon. This mostly computer-generated epic is blowing away even the most cynical audiences.

7. "The Young Victoria." If all period costume dramas were this full of verve, they'd become box-office darlings. Emily Blunt gives a career-changing performance as Queen Victoria during her ascension and early reign.

6. "The Road." I'm still trying to figure out why this movie based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-winning novel was shelved for a year. It's about a father and son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with cannibals. Yes, it's depressing as hell -- and as uplifting as any film I saw this year.

5. "Moon." This sly, little-seen science fiction drama plays with your expectations, so just when you think you've got it figured out, it surprises you again and again. Sam Rockwell plays a solitary worker manning a lunar station where strange events transpire.

4. "Fantastic Mr. Fox." Based on a children's book, but Wes Anderson's funny/quirky take on a fox who tries to ignore his essential nature is not just one of the best animated films, not just one of the best children's films, but one of the best films of the year. Period.

3. "Up in the Air." The movie that provides the most honest snapshot of our country and our time. George Clooney plays a seemingly soulless executive who flies around firing people for a living, but then faces his own obsolescence. Wry, pitch-perfect, spot-on dialogue, wonderfully acted.

2. "The Hurt Locker." Somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan right now, an American soldier is attempting to defuse a terrorist bomb. Jeremy Renner gives the performance of the year as a man who is constantly surrounded by insanity, until normal life becomes intolerable. Director Kathryn Bigelow's masterpiece.

1. "Julie & Julia." I think I can safely say I'm the only critic putting this movie at the top of his list. Yeah, I've heard the backlash: Meryl Streep's Julia Child sections are terrific, the modern stuff with Amy Adams a bore. Like cooking, certain flavors just appeal more to some people than others. I think Nora Ephron's combination is a recipe for cinematic bliss.

Best of the rest: Making a list of just 10 movies means there are many others you appreciated and adored, but just couldn't find a spot for them. Here's 13 more films 2009 was blessed to have (alphabetically):

"(500) Days of Summer," "9," "Adventureland," "District 9," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "The Princess and the Frog," "Shrink," "Sin Nombre," "A Single Man," "The Soloist," "Up," "Watchmen" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

Video review: "Julie & Julia"

It's strange to me that many of my acquaintances have felt rather lackluster about "Julie & Julia," which I consider my favorite film of 2009 (thus far).

Among those whose ardor does not match my own, the feeling is virtually universal: They loved the period section with Meryl Streep portraying Julia Child during her life in France while she was writing her masterpiece, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." But they found the modern section with Amy Adams as a New York worker drone who resolves to cook her way through Child's entire book rather drab.

I can't account for the difference in taste. To me, writer/director Nora Ephron's marriage of the stories of the two women was a masterstroke.

Julie and Julia were not similar as people: Child, with her iconic warbling speech and towering height, was adventurous and outgoing. Julie Powell was a self-described underachiever, even a bit of a loser.

But it's the twin stories of Julia and Julie finding themselves through their love of food that makes this film such a tasty cinematic meal.

Video extras are decent for the DVD, but the real frisson comes with the Blu-ray version.

Both formats include "Secret Ingredients," a 27-minute making-of documentary, and a commentary track by Ephron. The doc is interesting enough -- Streep reveals that she gained 15 pounds while shooting the film -- but tends to be a lot of everyone talking about how great everyone else was. Ephron's commentary is entertaining but rather sparse, going silent for long stretches.

Several more extras are exclusive to Blu-ray. There is a 47-minute featurette of family and friends reminiscing about Julia Childs, which includes tons of photographs and tidbits about her life. There are five video cooking lessons, including Julia herself poaching eggs and making Hollandaise sauce.

"Julia's Kitchen," a 22-minute doc about the process of transporting Child's entire home kitchen for display at the Smithsonian, is unexpectedly riveting, with its intimate trip through her personal cooking tools and tchochkes.

Movie: 4 stars
Extras: 3.5 stars

The loneliest critic

The movie still doesn't hit theaters tomorrow, but a number of critics have weighed in on "Julie & Julia," and I'm surprised by the varied reactions.

They're all over the place. Plenty of negative reviews, along with positive ones. I appear to occupy a very lonely spectrum: I called it one of the best films of the year. I stick to my opinion.

Roger Ebert gives the film a middling review, apparently put off by the Julia Child persona. Great for a 30-minute cooking show, but wears on you after a whole movie, he says. He also finds the Julie Powell character obsessive. She must be, to cook 524 recipes in a year. But there wouldn't be a movie without her.

My friend Roger Moore, critic at my hometown paper in Orlando, awards four out of five stars. Entertainment Weekly likes it but calls it "hardly a perfect souffle." The Associated Press and Variety both pan it.

Overall, the movie is scoring a respectable but unremarkable 64 percent "fresh" rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Hard for me to say why I loved this movie and others found it barely palatable. I've made no secret of the fact that I was looking forward to "Julie & Julia" more than any other film this summer. And so many of them have been major disappointments: "Wolverine," "Star Trek," "Terminator Salvation." "J&J" was the one movie for me that lived up to my own internal hype meter.

I'm not sure what's more uncomfortable: Being the lone voice who dislikes a movie that is universally admired, or one of a handful to defend a film that is reviled. The former hasn't happened to me very much; the latter only a couple of times. I joke that I was one of only two critics in America to give "Catwoman" a positive review. (Which I still stand by -- it's a fun, silly flick in which Halle Berry seems to be having a high old time. As Pauline Kael would say, it's trash, but glorious trash.)

On another note, now that some of the legitimate press is beginning to weigh in, the Tomatometer rating of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" has fallen from 91 percent to 75 percent in the last 24 hours. I'm not sure how much lower it'll go, since not every critic bothers to do a follow-up review of a movie that was not screened for critics.

Review: "Julie and Julia"

Do yourself a favor: Before going to see "Julie & Julia," treat yourself to a wonderful meal.

This new film by writer/director Nora Ephron is a visceral and epicurean delight, and should not be indulged with a stomach full of chips and queso (as I did). You'll walk out of this movie hungry for life, and for good food.

"Julie & Julia" is the story of Julie Powell, a self-described "government drone by day, renegade foodie by night," who takes it upon herself to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's watershed book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," in one year. She blogs about her culinary adventures and occasional disasters, which becomes a Web sensation, leading to newspaper articles, a book deal, and eventually this movie.

This story would be engaging enough on its own, but Ephron ("Sleepless in Seattle") had the stroke of genius to unspool the stories of the two women side-by-side. Julia, played by Meryl Streep in yet another Oscar-worthy performance, struggles for more than a decade to finish her book as Julie (Amy Adams) undertakes to master its daunting recipes in a cramped apartment kitchen in modern-day Queens.

They are not similar people -- Julia was fearless and adventurous, while Julie by her own admission is an underachiever who never finishes what she starts. Yet they both had a certain amount of mulishness when it comes to being told they can't do something, and had sweet, slightly put-upon husbands (Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina) firmly in their corner.

Julia and her husband Paul are living in Paris in 1949. He's a career diplomat, and she's a housewife bursting with energy. Frustrated by the usual social outlets for women like hat-making, she responds to Paul's query of what she most likes to do with the obvious answer: Eat!

She enrolls in a cooking class, but finds it too basic, and insists on enrolling in the class for professional chefs. She quickly becomes a star, and meets two French women, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle (Linda Emond and Helen Carey). Together they set about to write a French cookbook for American housewives.

Flash to 2002, where Julie works for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, overseeing the rebuilding of the aftermath of 9/11. Essentially, her job entails sitting in a cubicle all day while an endless stream of strangers call to shout at her.

Her turning point comes when a journalist friend talks Julie into participating in a magazine cover story that turns out to be an exploration of people around age 30 who have lost her way. Embarrassed at being labeled a loser, Julie becomes determined to do something that will stretch her skills as a cook, and a writer.

(I was delighted to find that Powell's entire blog, "The Julie/Julia Project," can still be viewed here.)

Their twin journeys mount in difficulty, but so does their resolve. Paul is transferred several times to different parts of Europe, and one of Julia's partners fails to pull her weight. Meanwhile in 2002-03, Julie fends off an observation from her mother that she is the only one reading the blog, which turns out to be gloriously untrue.

Streep nails the Julia Child persona, not only providing a spot-on imitation of her signature high-pitched warbling speech, but also providing a portrait of the real, vibrant woman behind the apron. In one scene, she pulls two piping-hot manicotti out of a pot and says something we never thought Julia Child would say, and yet in that moment we believe she could have.

Sweet, smart, funny and heart-warming, "Julie & Julia" is a cinematic feast, and one of the year's best films.

4 stars