For Reel

Honorable mentions: Adventureland, Brothers, Still Walking, The White Ribbon.

“The Hurt Locker” is one of the year’s great discoveries, impeccably directed by veteran Kathryn Bigelow and boasting a knock-out performance by Jeremy Renner. The film establishes a flawless place, giving each action sequence ample breathing room – compare this to the clumsy last half hour of “District 9″, for instance, which descends rapidly into wall-to-wall, tedious action. Bigelow, masterfully utilizing this subject matter to make a film neither anti or pro-war, has constructed a profound character study that also just happens to be one of the most exciting action films of the decade.

I tend to find dual picks irritating, but both of these films gave me a similar, highly visceral reaction. Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” and Park Chan-wook’s “Thirst” are films of tremendous audacity, seemingly reckless abandons into an orgy of excessive violence. The women in both films go through remarkable transformations, evolutions that would be completely improbable in the hands of an ungifted storyteller. Thankfully, von Trier and Chan-wook are two of the world’s finest. Regardless of your opinion regarding the disturbing content of each effort, they both deserve praise as bold, fearless epics.

“Moon” is the best science fiction film to come along in years. Boasting a stunning performance in a dual role by Sam Rockwell, Duncan Jones’ debut effort masterfully crafts the claustrophobia of space. The imagery is spectacular, creating a completely convincing environment under limited financial resources. I love the way that Jones sets up each of the film’s “twists” – there are no Shyamalan surprises here, each revelation is arrived at methodically, and therefore the maddening, paranoid tone is never wasted on a cheap thrill.

The little documentary that could about the little band that could. “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” would, in other hands, be a terribly depressing film about two old men who don’t know when to give up. Director Sacha Gervasi, however, appears to idolize these men – the film tells us to fuck practicality, fuck “settling”, follow your dreams at all costs. Lips Kudlow and Robb Reiner, polar opposites of one another, will go down alongside Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank or Little Edie and Big Edie as one of the great memorable pairings in the form.

The child stars of So Yong Kim’s “Treeless Mountain” are fearless performers, both unashamed to be relentlessly examined in a state of utter vulnerability. The plot is a simple one – a mother has to leave her two girls in the care of her alcoholic sister. They’re given a piggy bank, and mother promises to return once it is full of coins. The two are a resourceful couple, quickly starting a business of roasting grasshoppers and exchanging large for small coins. Shot beautifully with a heavy reliance on close-up, Kim perfectly captures these girls’ venturesome sensibilities, as well as their oblivious spirit in the face of hopeless despair.

Continue to the top five!

A pitch-perfect coming-of-age drama, “Fish Tank” is perhaps the defining teen angst film of the decade. Comparisons to Mike Leigh and Ken Loach are warranted, reminding me especially of Leigh’s “All or Nothing”, and Arnold’s beautiful script is always unpredictable but never implausible. The film introduces us to a brilliant newcomer in Katie Jarvis, and it also continues to establish Michael Fassbender (“Hunger”, “Inglourious Basterds”) as one of the top emerging talents.

The matriarch of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda is continuing to innovate cinema over 45 years after the release of her most famous work, “Cleo from 5 to 7″. This film is the accumulation of a lifetime of memory, an inviting postcard into the life of one of film’s most quirky, fascinating characters. A beach full of mirrors, a room with walls composed of film strip, a cartoon cat in place of long-time friend Chris Marker – “The Beaches of Agnès” is an inventive, passionate, irreplaceable autobiography.

A claymation comedy/drama about unlikely pen pals, “Mary and Max” is both touching and enormously funny. However, the film, unfortunately, is the only picture on this list that didn’t find any significant U.S. distribution. It’s one that you may have not heard about, but one that I urge you to see at first chance – Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, and Eric Bana are among those who lend voices to the characters, and Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot masterfully frames his unique, vast world with unmatachable detail. Telling the story very much through train-of-thought postcards, Elliot composes a beautiful fable about aging, companionship, and isolation.

“A Serious Man” can be simply defined as a relentless onslaught of unfortunate events, but it’s the way the Coens develop this world that makes the film so remarkable. Like “Fargo”, “A Serious Man” exquisitely captures the details of life, the nuances of a neighborhood, the politics of family. It seems that nobody is quite as good as the Coens in handling supporting characters, and here over a dozen fully-realized individuals come to life. The film’s a challenging one, but one incredibly assured – tonally, the film is intoxicating, so much so that leaving the theater (on both occasions that I saw it) was a chore.

“Up” was the #1 film when I made my list of the best films of the first half of 2009, and nothing has dethroned it. It’s a film that i’ve seen five or six times now, and one that has not worn out it’s charms. Everything that needs to be said has been regarding the masterpiece of a montage in the first act, but there’s so many little moments throughout that are equally poetic – Carl’s reaction to Russell saying “cross your heart?”, for instance. It’s a beautiful piece of work, one that only confirms animation as a valid, mature artform. Pixar’s last three films have all been overwhelmingly great, but “Up” is, in my opinion, their best to date.