CINEMANIA:

Silent Light (Mexico, 2008, Reygadas)

An exquisitely shot, emotionally challenging film. Not exactly a remake of Dreyer's Ordet so much as a riff on it.

Coraline (2009, USA, Selick)

Saw it. Didn't review it. But...Dug it. Even more than A Nightmare Before Christmas. Weird. Creepy. Funny. Wildly inventive. My tenth favourite film of 2009.

Up (USA, 2009, Docter, Peterson)

Up is not only one of the year's best films, it is also one of Pixar's most emotionally satisfying creations. Which is to say, it is a great piece of animated cinema.

A Serious Man (USA, 2009, Joel and Ethan Coen)

Ostensibly the Coen brothers most personal film, as it is set in their hometown of Minneapolis in the era of their childhood (there is some confusion about the exact date, as many commentators have set the date as 1967, yet there are references, such as that to the release of Santana's Abraxas, which indicate we are leaning up against 1970), A Serious Man is much more than a memoir.

The Hurt Locker (USA, 2009, K. Bigelow)

And Dan Begins:

Ben, I offer up to you The Hurt Locker with minimal comment, other than to note that it's pretty effective as an exercise in suspense, like that terrorist flick Night Day Night Day, but like most American films tries to have it both way (every way, really) with its politics, which are unclear at best. So, it is worth viewing if you want to check out the Hitchcockian skill set, but be prepared to critique its muddy headed politics.

The Maltese Falcon (USA, 1941, John Huston)

Ben sed:

Not as astounding as Citizen Kane from the same year but still groundbreaking, this is famously ground zero for noir. The shadowy staging, the obtuse camera angles, the constant potential for violence, the hard-boiled banter, the suspect morals of the good guy himself too long in touch with criminals and always rubbing shoulders with every manner of corrupt client - it's all here in spades, Sam Spades, that is.

African Queen (USA, 1951, John Huston)

Ben sed:

I've always had a big mouth and loved the sound of my own voice, obviously, but ever since the whole Cinemania/House Next Door thing cooled off for us, it's interesting to me when I do and when I do not feel compelled to write at length about a film. No doubt, there are innumerable personal factors involved that are not intrinsic to a film itself.

The Messenger (USA, 2009, Moverman)

Killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

--Albert Einstein

English politician Tony Benn once remarked "[a]ll war represents a failure of diplomacy." In truth (the first casualty of war, according to Aeshylus), war represents a failure of humanity. It means we have placed something--anything--whether it be an ideal, a cause, a belief, an obsession or a desire, above the value of a human life.

District 9 (South Africa/New Zealand, 2009, Neil Bloomkamp)

Ben:

Just when you think you might be watching a unique and engaging scenerio become a fully developed treatment of its potential, District 9 gets stupid and then stupider and then even stupider.

Anti Christ (All of Europe according to imdb, 2009, Von Trier)

Ben:

I'm going to begin this review with the critical observation you made yourself when you handed the disc to me. How dare he dedicate this film to Tarkovsky! At certain points he directly quotes the exterior formality of Tarkovsky's style, but these moments he includes in a presentation that fundamentally violates Tarkovsky's absolute devotion to the cinematic image.