Ten best films of the year 2009

Might as well get it out now, since I do this annually. Here we go.

1. UP IN THE AIR

dir. Jason Reitman (USA, Paramount Pictures)


2. STILL WALKING
dir. Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, IFC Films)


3. IN THE LOOP
dir. Armando Iannucci (UK, IFC Films)


4. FANTASTIC MR. FOX
dir. Wes Anderson (USA, 20th Centry Fox)


5. AN EDUCATION
dir. Lone Scherfig (UK, Sony Picture Classics)


6. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
dir. Quentin Tarantino (USA/Germany, Universal Studios/Weinstein Company)


7. THE HURT LOCKER
dir. Kathryn Bigelow (USA, Summit Entertainment)


8. UP
dirs. Pete Docter & Bob Peterson (USA, Pixar Studios/Walt Disney Pictures)


9. SUMMER HOURS
dir. Olivier Assayas (France, IFC Films)


10. DISTRICT 9
dir. Neill Blomkamp (USA, TriStar Pictures)

IFC Films makes three appearances and Jason Reitman tops my list for the second time since 2007 (JUNO). THANK YOU FOR SMOKING retroactively makes the top ten for films released in 2005. Where were Fox Searchlight and Focus Features this year? Distributing pseudo-indie-hipster-pandering clichés like (500) DAYS OF SUMMER and AWAY WE GO? Sure.

5 Least favorite: Bruno, Watchmen, Humpday, Invictus, Antichrist -- in that order.

Soon, the 2010 releases I highly anticipate!

Everything that I said I wasn't, I am

We idealize because we've never been.

But you -- you are like Avatar or Dances with Wolves. A real class crusader.

All that I've loved

Gone out the window.

Invasion.

No bells or whistles

I'm writing a fairly straightforward blog entry this time around because I wish to document those bands I saw at Club de Ville tonight. Because in all honesty, I'm bound to forget who they are. Danny Malone, Crawling with Kings...

Two others whose names I've already forgotten. Thankfully, my friend Caitlin'll have them.

In other words, I get Mad Men Season 1 Discs 1&2 in the mail later today (Monday, Jan 11, 2010). I cannot wait for them to arrive. Much of my time these next few days will be spent with my laptop, Jon Hamm, January Jones and some wonderful production design.

The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson's not too well-received adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel, is in store for me in the near future (Tuesday the 12th). I'm glad I'll be at a screening for it because I'm not sure I'd pay to see it in theaters. The novel, which I had hoped to read before watching the film, sits beside my left foot untouched for many many months in a shelf full of all the other books I haven't read yet. One day, I will. At the moment, I'm catching up on my film/television.

I think that after Tuesday, I'll be ready to compile my favorites of 2009.

I joke repeatedly of xanax

The blood turns the clear waters a dark shade of crimson.

Submerged & defeated.

I still love you, Colt McCoy.

A gift from the artificer

My wings are made of wax. Compliments of the innovator himself.

We will not fall into the tides.