Cults, Cops, and Basterds: Top Ten of 2009
I couldn't let the final day of 2009 go by without dropping a list of my 10 favorites of the year. I could have easily swapped some of these titles with other favorites. However, these are the 10 films that really struck a chord.
1. Love Exposure
2. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. Symbol
A total endurance test with a spectacular payoff.
6. Breathless
A raw, funny, and heartbreaking film that will hopefully open the door for other South Korean indies.
9. House of the DevilEpic, ridiculous, sublime.
2. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Deliberately funny and completely whacked out.
3. Inglorious Basterds
Erased all doubts I had about Tarantino after Death Proof.
4. Symbol
A total endurance test with a spectacular payoff.
5. Mother
Park Chan-wook gets all the hype and publicity, but Bong Joon-ho is one that actually delivers.
6. Breathless
A raw, funny, and heartbreaking film that will hopefully open the door for other South Korean indies.
7. Anti-Christ
Lars von Trier works out his depression through filmmaking, and sprays his id all over the audience's face. There is so much more to this than mere "shock value."
8. A Serious Man
A much maligned film that encapsulates everything good about the Coen Bros. Arcane, obtuse, funny.
It's slow, not much happens, and it's completely riveting.
10. We Live in Public
Uses the improbable story of a brilliant and completely deluded Internet millionaire to highlight the consequences of "oversharing" in the age of ubiquitous Internet and social networking.
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