The experts’ 3 Best movies of 2009
Here are the 3 best movies of 2009 that got our adrenaline pumping and the dynamite exploding. We love good movies and have seen hundreds in our time.
- The Messenger. You know that gut-wrenching moment in any war-related film where a mother or father or wife opens the door to find two military men on the doorstep, and their presence alone signifies that inconceivable tragedy? Oren Moverman’s powerful debut is full of them — making this drama starring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson (in career-best performances) one of the year’s hardest films to watch. But The Messenger download also one of the most rewarding, an insightful character study that’ll leave you moved.
- Coraline. Ushering in the 2009 trend of children’s movies perhaps best appreciated by adults, the stop-motion animated download Coraline 2009 is dazzlingly inventive, eye-poppingly beautiful … and scary as all-get-out. Coraline’s richly strange and imaginative world gave us one of the best 3D movies ever made, and it will stay with us for a long, long time, even if that’s sometimes unfortunately manifested through horrible nightmares involving button eyes.
- Up in the Air. With three feature films now under his belt – ‘Thank You for Smoking,’ ‘Juno’ and now this instant classic — is there any doubt that 32-year-old Jason Reitman is one of Hollywood’s best directors? George Clooney somehow makes a corporate downsizer (topical!) lovable and magnetic in a superb lead turn (his best yet), while Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga kill as the distinctly powerful women who change his life. Watch Up in the Air movie is a near-perfect film that is at times bitingly funny, at other times heartrendingly sad — sort of like life, come to think of it.