THE BEST, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:
Gomorrah (d. Mateo Garrone, Italy)*
Adventureland (d. Greg Mottola, US)
Hunger (d. Steve McQueen, UK)*
Star Trek (d. JJ Abrams, US)
Up (d. Pete Docter, US)
The Hangover (d. Todd Phillips, US)
The Hurt Locker (d. Kathryn Bigelow, US)
In the Loop (d. Armando Iannucci, UK)
District 9 (d. Neill Blomkamp, South Africa/US)
Inglourious Basterds (d. Quentin Tarantino, US)
A Serious Man (d. Joel and Ethan Coen, US)
The House of the Devil (d. Ti West, US)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (d. Wes Anderson, US)
Up in the Air (d. Jason Reitman, US)
A Single Man (d. Tom Ford, US)
*Films released in the US in 2009, but released overseas in 2008
FILMS I HAVEN’T SEEN
Avatar (d. James Cameron, US), The White Ribbon (d. Michael Haneke, Germany), Broken Embraces (d. Pedro Almodovar, Spain), The Road (d. John Hillcoat, US), Bright Star (d. Jane Campion, New Zealand/UK), Me and Orson Welles (d. Richard Linklater, US), Ponyo (d. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan), Coco Avant Chanel (d. Anne Fontaine, France), Crazy Heart (d. Scott Cooper, US), Nine (d. Rob Marshall, US), The Lovely Bones (d. Peter Jackson, US), The Messenger (d. Oren Moverman, US), Un Prophète (d. Jacques Audiard, France)
THE WORST**
Watchmen (d. Zack Snyder, US) - a rudimentary butchering of my favorite book.
Terminator Salvation (d. McG, US) - boring as hell
Public Enemies (d. Michael Mann, US) - again, boring as hell. Hated the handheld digital camerawork
Bruno (d. Larry Charles, US) - offensive, unfunny, and all over the place
Funny People (d. Judd Apatow, US) - overindulgent, and ruined by too much creative freedom. A movie about Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen would have been good enough; there was no need for the Leslie Mann subplot
Paranormal Activity (d. Oren Peli, US) - overhyped.
**I did not see Transformers 2, thus its absence on my list.
