what are your 3 favorite movies of 2009 so far?

Emphasis on not necessarily the BEST movies, but the ones you've been personally enjoying the most.

I'm asking this question now, as opposed to in December, because I need recommendations.. I've barely watched movies in the last 3 months and withdrawal hurts.

1. Adventureland
2. Because We Were Born
3. Lymelife

well, i don't think the trailer for the first one is very good, the trailer for the second is pretty horrible given how incredible the film is (also you probably couldn't find it in english), here's lymelife:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt-YR-jDr48

sugar, crank: high voltage and i cant think of another one but i have high hopes for that g.i. joe movie

lymelife is my #1 for sure

observe & report #2

Emphasis on not necessarily the BEST movies, but the ones you've been personally enjoying the most.

classic "populist" bullshit binary

also what "you've been," like watching daily?

What have I watched this year. Errr:

Che Part 1 - yeah ok. Couldn't be bothered to watch Part 2 tho.
Milk - garbage.
The Wrestler - A+++. Would watch again.
Star Trek - meh.
Watchmen - bleh.

So yeah The Wrestler is the only thing I have properly enjoyed this year, but I'd see Star Trek again.

Goodbye Solo and Gomorrah are the ones that comes to mind immedietly.

Star Trek lol. Nothing has blown me away tbh. Quite liked In The Loop, and even State of Play was fun while it lasted.
DVD wise: Surprised how much better than expected I found The Baader Meinhoff Komplex, though that was from last year or the year before?

I will watch The Wrestler tonight.

The Wrestler
Adventureland
Star Trek

keep in mind I hardly ever see movies.

i pretty much constantly watch movies & ive been 2 a theater only twice this yr i think! -- Adventureland & Tyson, neither of which id really recommend

At cinema:
The Wrestler
Watchmen
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

dvd etc:
You, The Living
Black Narcissus
Synecdoche, New York

Intrigued by Lymelife thanks to recommendation upthread.

lol i have seen 3 new movies all year: In The Loop, Drag Me To Hell and Synecdoche, New York

all are strongly recommended

i don't think i've even seen 3 movies that came out this year. Only been to the cinema to see 4 films, they were Tony Manero (2008), Encounters at the End of the World (2008), Watchmen (2009) and Star Trek (2009).

All good apart from Watchmen.

star trek was ok, but i completely fotgot about it the minute i left the cinema

So far I've seen 25 films this year, and the only ones I'd recommend to anyone would be Up and Adventureland. Drag Me To Hell, Star Trek and Bruce MacDonald's Pontypool are all solid genre entries.

I also have a healthy respect for Observe and Report, though it's far from perfect.

Anxious to start festival season to get to the really good stuff.

Star Trek
Drag Me to Hell
Until the Light Takes US (low budget docu on Norwegian black-metal)

I think I may have seen only 2 this year. So Watchmen and Drag Me To Hell.

I haven't seen very much this year -- I am drawing a blank on anything besides Star Trek. So it wins by default I guess?

Emphasis on not necessarily the BEST movies, but the ones you've been personally enjoying the most.
classic "populist" bullshit binary
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 12:54 (Yesterday)

Why do there always have to be complaints about this?

Oh shit, Watchmen!

>Why do there always have to be complaints about this?

Good point, and I've no idea. Some actual suggestions, rather than predictable Buzz Killington posts, might be more useful but ho hum.

Gomorrah main contender.

#1 Black Dynamite

More coming soon hopefully.

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. Black Dynamite
3. Stay The Same Never Change

could not finish StSNC

Middle of Nowhere, Paper Heart and Adventureland are holding down my top three, but there's a lot more that I love

1. drag me to hell
2. a serious man
3. inglorious basterds

i don't think i've seen more than 3 movies this year :(

u deserve to have a swastika carved into your forehead imo

my 3 are

1. adventureland
2. inglorious basterds
3. lymelife

i've seen the hangover, bruno, and inglorious basterds for sure. probably one or two more, but who knows u_u

could not finish StSNC

It's not for everyone, but I can't wait to see it again.

My other 3 favorites are Adventureland, Coraline and Drag Me To Hell, which I will watch again but are less pumped about seeing a 2nd time than my initial 3.

My top 3:

Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
Taking Woodstock

35 shots of rum is the best.
than comes the hurt locker and goodbye solo.

I think I've seen exactly three movies released this year: The Hangover, Up, and Inglourious Basterds. I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed.

1. Hurt Locker
2. An Education
3. Moon

4. Up / Watchmen
5. Monster vs Aliens
6. District 9

Worst: Terminator Salvation / Transformers ROTF

Tetro and Silent Light are the two best. Nothing else seems listable.

cloudy with a chance of meatballs
gamer
g-force

historias extraordinarias
inglourious bs
serious man

"historias" only screened at festivals, so i don't know if it counts.

other faves: bright star, mother, parking, il divo, gomorrah, sugar, two lovers, duplicity, wendy and lucy, star trek

In The Loop, District 9...something else (surely not Star Trek arg)

hmm in the loop and district 9 were pretty good too.

(surely not Star Trek arg)

― modescalator (blueski), Tuesday, November 3, 2009 11:52 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

really? i seem to remember you going to bat for like, the matrix sequels - a decent sci-fi flick comes out and you're arging it?

oh also UP!!

really? i seem to remember you going to bat for like, the matrix sequels - a decent sci-fi flick comes out and you're arging it?

no i enjoyed it (probably more than Watchmen), just don't feel like its top 3 material. same goes for The Damned United. as usual i have only seen a handful of films in cinema.

ya i def wouldn't put ST in my top 3. top 10? maybe.

Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Star Trek

And I have to admit to liking Brothers Bloom even though I logically shouldn't have.

1.Broken Embraces
2.Limits Of Control

sugar, crank: high voltage

― Lamp, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 07:05 (5 months ago) Bookmark

YES
the second one is a masterpiece of wtf

since my favorite movies tend to be the ones I've seen most recently:

This Is It
Zombieland
The Hangover

honorable mention to Star Trek and GI Joe; also wanted to list Inglorious Basterds but late night + excessive drinking caused me to pass out halfway through

I wouldn't dare to define a "mature film" in an era when men in their 30s ride skateboards and read superhero comics.

But I know Kung Fu Hustle is one, and The Lives of Others is not.

― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Thursday, November 5, 2009 9:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

see shaolin soccer if you haven't already. it beats kung fu hustle's front-loaded ass around the block. (also you may revise your position on its maturity when you see what a backward slide KFH was)

I can only hope KFH was a backward slide. Big disappointment (though certainly nowhere near the mediocrity of Lives of Others).

very similar movies tho

I wasn't the one who first compared them, but I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't argue that Others is more "mature," or whatever, than Hustle.

wouldn't argue AGAINST

i wouldn't argue that either of them were particularly mature tbh.

I liked "The Lives of Others" but I haven't seen "Kung Fu Hustle" so I can't compare. I don't think that what I liked about it had anything to do with maturity though - just a decent thriller about an interesting period of history (with a few contrived plot devices, perhaps, but nothing too awful).

yeah if only lives of others was like a half-hour shorter

If it was only half an hour, more like.

and had a laugh track

and was set in China

Or if Jack Handey read the Rilke verse in voice-over.

Wow - you guys are harsh. I thought it did a good job of dramatizing life in East Germany in those years - showing the corrosive effects of totalitarianism and how people psychologically adapt. The ending may have been a little squishy but that doesn't undo the things the film does well.

haha, i just flashed back to how horrible that ending was.

I said in its respective thread: I didn't accept that this apparatchik had a soul amenable enough to the healing effects of poetry.

I guess the film is kind of a victim of its own success - it succeeds so well at envisioning the drab, soul-sucking world of East German communism that one balks at the politically obligatory ending themes of redemption and reconciliation.

the healing effects of poetry

wasn't it a novel? seriously can't remember now, blocked it out

Sin Nombre
Star Trek
Soul Power

o ya.. soul power!

not a bad year for movies tbh

Not maybe the thread for this, but An Education was terminally dull imo.

i saw the Weinstein cut (right?) of Shaolin Soccer, didn't reach KFH's level.

anyway, 35 Shots of Rum is at least in this year's top ten right now.

What about the scathing critique of capitalism that was "All for the Winner"?

im w/ morbs, KFH way superior to SS, imho - this isn't meant to be snark or anything, but i wonder if Shaolin Soccer plays better in America/Canada rather than in Europe?

God of Cookery is better than either of them.

God of Cookery had a disturbing number of parallels with Happy Gilmore (including giant face ghost at the end in triumph).

i can't see how SS is superior to KFH in any way, honestly.

also, hating on Lives of Others? really? sad.

that great performance from ulrich muhe, and his personal history and the sadness of his death, temporarily made me ignore how fucking awful lives of others was

I don't feel like I've seen enough movies this year to pick three. Three out of ten or twelve seems a little too generous.

Dislike or disappointment isn't "hating on" -- I reserve my hate for something stupid/offensive like Frost/Nixon or something.

I did like A Serious Man. A whole movie about the William H. Macy character in Fargo!

except he didn't try to kill his wife

or have her kidnapped

and he was a physics professor not a car salesman--but you're right other than that, same movie

I keep forgetting what a literalist you are.

A whole movie about the William H. Macy character in Fargo!

I thought that was Wild Hogs.

haven't seen alot of films this year but i guess it'd be:
1 - District 9 (easy)
2 - Up
3 - Zombieland (i guess)(hmmm maybe Watchmen)

A whole movie about the William H. Macy character in Fargo!

yeah there was a pretty unmistakable (and probably deliberate) jerry lundegaard vibe to that performance

wait what the hell, we're not talking about the informant! are we...

ASM has depths that Fargo never touched

I'll stand for Moon, regardless of r|t|c.

Its the first space sci-fi in 20 years truly in following the lead of early 70s classics like 2001 and Silent Running. I have problems with the plausibility of the plot, but supporting the rare sci-fi film about ideas rather than explosions supercedes any reservations.

District 9, another low budget sci-fi flick, also deserves some praise, but in general, I find my canon never solidifies before the Asian market films arrive on DVD.

oh wow, i kind of adore THE BOX, though it took me two viewings to come close to understanding it.

Haven't quite locked it down yet, but so far:

Ing Basterds
Let the Right One In

3rd choice between:
(Moon
Bronson
Star Trek
Hurt Locker
District 9
Bright Star)

Saw Let the Right One In last year, but that was definitely a favourite.

No order,

Inglorious Basterds
Il Divo
and probably Pranzo di Ferragosto

but, enjoyable as that last film was, it's probably there because this year has been a real low one for films for me - haven't yet seen Bright Star or Moon. Hated District 9.

This year has been difficult for me because I'm in South Korea, and so much great stuff gets released late here (if at all). I haven't loved anything this year without reservations, but the standouts so far have been:

Moon
Public Enemies
The Hurt Locker

I guess Star Trek and District 9 get honourable mentions.

Ignoring the pre-Oscars 2009 stuff, and allowing for the fact that I haven't seen any new releases since August, here is my top 5 from the always-great-for-cinema March-August period:

Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Drag Me To Hell
Public Enemies
The Hangover

(in that order)

My film year runs Oscars to Oscars not because I think they're important, but because once the Oscars arrive, all the studio films that have come out in the U.S. have also come out in the U.K., which is not true on 1 Jan.

My final 3 for '09...

Inglorious Basterds
Black Dynamite
Fantastic Mr. Fox