Kate Rodger - Film3
10) The Cove
Easily the best documentary of the year, and given the competition from the likes of The September Issue, Food Inc and Religulous that's saying something. The Cove is compelling and moving, and a film which forced real change.
9) In the Loop
This'll throw a few cats among the pigeons but I just couldn't find fault with this film. An outstandingly dry laugh-out-loud script jammed with biting satire delivered to perfection by an excellent cast is impossible not to love.
8) Slumdog Millionaire
This little film that could won hearts and minds along with several Oscars this year, and it had to make my list. Danny Boyle once again defies genre-pegging and goes from drug addicts to outer space and now Mumbai.
7) 500 Days of Summer
500 Days of Summer bucked its own genre trend and scored a home run for me this year. Fresh, funny, and overwelmingly real, I loved everything about this film. It also gets a nod alongside Where the Wild Things Are for coolest soundtrack of the year.
6) Inglourious Basterds
At Number 6, Tarantino's latest sneaks into my list - I just can't resist its charms! A stand-out Oscar-baiting performance from Christoph Waltz and just far too much fun had by all, including me.
5) District 9
While Peter Jackson's fingerprints on this first-time outing for newcomer Neill Blomkamp certainly opened doors at the box office, this original and inventive South African-set sci-fi was a breath of fresh air. Laced with social and political commentary and delivered at a cracking pace, District 9 is a shoo-in for my Top 5.
4) Star Trek
What can I say? This is one of those films which stands up to multiple watches, and proves you can cast a blockbuster without a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt and still not just make a killing at the Box Office but convert an entirely new generation of trekkies.
3) Avatar
Stop the Presses - we have a late entry! At Number 3, James Cameron's Avatar. This is a cinematic spectacle like none other, and has changed the way we watch movies on the big screen forever. And there's even a story. Break-out star of this year Sam Worthington proves he's the next big thing, and it was so good to see Ripley back on the big screen where she belongs.
2) The Reader
Kate Winslet wins the Oscar, the Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a SAG and she's only one reason to see The Reader. British Director Stephen Daldry delivers that rare beast, a film that does a complex, challenging, mutli-textured book full justice. It's my Number two watch for the year.
1) The Wrestler
There is nothing I love more than a comeback. Mickey Rourke lays it all bare and on the big screen in Darryn Aronofsky's The Wrestler. While Sean Penn is always a deserving Oscar-winner, in this case I firmly maintain Rourke was robbed. I've not seen a performance more raw and vulnerable this year, in a film so profoundly moving it rocked me for days. For that, and for reminding me how powerful cinema can be and for so many reasons, The Wrestler is my Number One watch for 2009.
The Film3 Golden Lemon = Couple's Retreat
Runner's up for the worst film of the year were The Proposal and The Ugly Truth. But for pure lameness and utter missibility, Couple's Retreat wins hands down for me.
2009 has been a great year for film and narrowing the best down to a list of ten is extremely difficult.
The rest of the Film3 team and our film-loving friends from other media outlets around the country have thought long and hard about what we've experienced on the big screen this year. Below are our own personal top ten lists - along with the one movie that each of us hated the most.
Ant Timpson - Incredibly Strange / Sunrise
Love Exposure
Antichrist
Best Worst Movie
Wake in Fright
Inglourious Basterds
The Good the Bad the Weird
Let the Right One In
Synecdoche, New York
Disgrace
Goodbye Solo
Worst = Seven Pounds
David Farrier - 3 News
The Hangover
The Wrestler
Where the Wild Things Are
Antichrist
Star Trek
Moon
Inglourious Basterds
District 9
Ponyo
Best Worst Movie
Worst = The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Daniel Rutledge - Film3 / Rip It Up / bFM
Star Trek
The Wrestler
Van Diemen's Land
City of Life and Death
Avatar
Watchmen
Slumdog Millionaire
Love Exposure
Inglourious Basterds
District 9
Worst = Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Dominic Corry - Herald on Sunday / bFM
District 9
Drag me to Hell
Let the Right One In
Watchmen
Up
500 Days of Summer
Moon
An Education
A Serious Man
Funny People
Worst = Couple’s Retreat
Paul Scantlebury - Flicks.co.nz
A Serious Man
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Land of the Long White Cloud
Milk
Revolutionary Road
Synechdoche, New York
Trouble Is My Business
The Wrestler
The Class
Worst = Knowing
Aaron Yap - Real Groove / Fatso.co.nz
Best Worst Movie
Dogtooth
Humpday
Inglourious Basterds
Love Exposure
Ponyo
Wendy And Lucy
Wake In Fright
Winnebago Man
Up
Worst = Couples Retreat
Steve Newall - Groove Guide / Real Groove / bFM
Antichrist
District 9
Synecdoche, New York
The Hangover
Inglourious Basterds
Let the Right One In
Moon
An Education
Role Models
Star Trek
Worst = Case 39
Barney McDonald - Sunday Star Times
Crazy Love
Doubt
Food Inc
Gomorrah
Ice Age 3
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
Watchmen
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Creation
Brüno
Worst = Friday the 13th
Kim Choe - Film3
Coraline
The Boat That Rocked
Milk
The Cake Eaters
Where the Wild Things Are
Linha de Passe
This Is It
Star Trek
The September Issue
Slumdog Millionaire
Worst = 17 Again
Michael Quartly-Kelly - Film3 / Fatso.co.nz
Let the Right One In
Star Trek
In the Loop
Moon
Ponyo
The Cove
District 9
Antichrist
Love Exposure
The Wrestler
Worst = Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
David T Hay - Film3
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Frost/Nixon
Mother
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
Humpday
The Class
Trouble is My Business
JCVD
500 Days of Summer
An Education
Worst = O'Horten
Stacey Murdoch - Sunrise Film3 producer
Hunger
The Reader
Mother
An Education
Still Walking
Humpday
The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Winnebago Man
Worst = Zack and Miri Make a Porno
That's the best of Film3 for this year, here's to another 12 months of cinematic awesomeness in 2010.
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