2009 Year End Wrap Up - Sounds of Cinema

Top 10 Films of 2009

What follows are Nathan’s picks of the best films of 2009.

1. Up

Directed by: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson

Premise: An animated film shown theatrically in 3-D and 2-D. An elderly man (voiced by Edward Asner) sets off to fulfill his dream of traveling the world by attaching helium balloons to his house and floating to South America. He finds that a young boy (voiced by Jordan Nagai) has stowed away and the two of them navigate together.

Why It Made the List: Up is another terrific film from Pixar and it is among the best features the studio has produced. The opening prologue, in which the film summarizes the rise and fall of a marriage, is as expertly conceived and as emotionally wrenching as anything involving human actors. In every respect of cinema, Up excels. The film looks and sounds great, with Pixar’s usual attention to detail, and Up finds a look that is somewhere between the digital realism of Avatar and the claymation of Wallace and Gromit. This is a new look for an animated film and that look complements the storytelling, finding the right texture. A lot of animated films rely on clichéd plotlines, but like last year’s WALL-E, Up manages to break out of the usual predictable storyline. This makes the film much more harrowing and allows it to break new story ground for the genre. The film is very funny, using physical comedy with some sarcastic dialogue and ironic visual gags that pay off for audiences of all ages. Between the humorous bits, Up gets into some heavy thematic material, as its characters deal with the loss of loved ones and absentee parents and it handles this material just right, allowing its characters to learn from their adventures and reconcile their flaws and losses. The narrative and cinematic excellence of Up distinguishes it not just from other animated films but of all the motion pictures released in 2009.

2. The Girlfriend Experience

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Premise: The film follows a high-class escort (Sasha Grey) in New York as she meets with clients and interviews with a writer researching her line of work.

Why It Made the List: Steven Soderbergh is a filmmaker whose work can be sorted into two distinct categories: one is star-driven, mainstream entertainment like Oceans 11 and the other is experimental, intimate films like Bubble. The Girlfriend Experience fits into the later category and among that collection of films, this is the best picture Soderbergh has ever made. The Girlfriend Experience is told in a nonlinear fashion and is skillfully edited and shot. But what really stands out about The Girlfriend Experience is that it avoids all the stereotypical pitfalls that films about prostitution often fall into. It does not portray her as a victim or as a fallen woman nor does the film glamorize her livelihood. Instead, The Girlfriend Experience has a cold and sterile quality about it and Sasha Grey’s detached performance coveys a woman who is bored by her life and who is emotionally vacant. Soderbergh has used the story of an escort set against the current economic crisis to make this film a penetrating examination of capitalism and of the human factors involved in a business transaction. With characters small talking about the bailout of Wall Street, discussing their own domestic and economic hardships, and showing the exchange of trust, services, and money, The Girlfriend Experience implies that the main character’s line of work is not all that different from the way the world of business operates. The suggestions of the film run deep and put a human face on economics while questioning what personal consequences result from a capitalist system. This is a challenging film that is extremely well made and belongs near the top of Steven Soderbergh’s filmography.

3. District 9

Directed by: Neill Blomkamp

Premise: An alien spacecraft lands in South Africa and authorities contain the extraterrestrials by confining them to shantytown. When a government agent (Sharlto Copley) attempts to evict the extraterrestrials, he is exposed to their biotechnology and starts to become one of them.

Why It Made the List: In a year that saw science fiction repeatedly take on heavy political themes with inversions of the alien invasion subgenre, District 9 rises above not only the science fiction of this year, but above much of the science fiction that has been released in the past decade. This is a fearless and energetic movie that uses the science fiction genre the way The Planet of the Apes and The Twilight Zone did to present political ideas in an accessible way. The apartheid politics of the film are unmistakable but District 9 also takes shots at issues like corporate greed and economic exploitation. As a piece of cinema, District 9 is a much more groundbreaking and daring as it is shot in a gritty, handheld documentary style and the computer generated creatures look organic rather than digital and perfectly meld into the setting and cinematography. This is a great story with a political edge and an exercise in filmmaking craft that is on par with any piece mainstream Oscar bait.

4. Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Directed by: Spike Jonze

Premise: An adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book. After a fight with his mother, a young boy (Max Records) runs away from home and enters a fanciful land of large monsters.

Why It Made the List: There is a presumption that films adapted from children’s books must in turn be for children and be about childish things. What this presumption overlooks is the fact that childhood fantasies are some of the wildest and most interesting expressions of the human mind. Where the Wild Things Are is an extremely mature film with rich characterizations and complex interpersonal relationships. The interactions between the beasts, especially KW (voiced by Lauren Ambrose) and Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), have much more depth and sophistication than a lot of characters in supposedly “adult” stories. The film does not sentimentalize or pander to its audience and its take on childhood and growing up does not idealize it. Instead, the film finds the real struggle of childhood in Max’s story and brings it to life through the imagination. Like The Fountain or Son of Rambow, Where the Wild Things Are is a meta-text about the value of fantasy stories and how they allow us to deal with the stress and banality of daily life. This is a complex piece of work about growing up and instead of pandering to the audience’s nostalgia, Where the Wild Things Are makes us reexamine our conception of childhood and what it means to grow up.

5. The Hurt Locker

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Premise: Set in Iraq in 2004, a staff sergeant (Jeremy Renner) joins an Army bomb squad that is kept busy diffusing roadside bombs and other explosives. The staff sergeant’s reckless actions put him into conflict with the other soldiers on his team.

What Works: The Hurt Locker is an extremely well-crafted combat film. Shot in a low tech, handheld style, the film captures the heat and occasional chaos of the war front. As an Iraq War film, The Hurt Locker distinguishes itself from so many disappointing attempts at dramatizing the conflict by leaving the politics of the United States’ involvement in Iraq out of the film and focusing on daily life on the ground. As a result, The Hurt Locker has an immediacy and a sharpness of focus that makes it a very tense film. Although there isn’t much violence actually on the screen, the atmosphere of the picture manages a tone of impending danger, and director Kathryn Bigelow stages the scenes of bomb diffusion very well, stacking up the threats from the explosives, from insurgents, and from the staff sergeant’s recklessness. The film’s use of sound is impressive; The Hurt Locker does not use a score although there are some atonal sounds or chords that come across very effectively and the sound effects support the sense of impending danger. Yet, the most interesting and gutsiest move on the filmmaker’s part is to shift the audience back to the home front in the third act. The film’s statement about the love-hate relationship between war and its warriors is made in such a way that avoids hysteria or sentimentality and The Hurt Locker is one of the best films about the Iraq War that has yet been made.

6. (500) Days of Summer

Directed by: Marc Webb

Premise: A young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) recounts his ill fated but intense romance with a spunky, independent woman (Zooey Deschanel) who doesn’t believe in love.

What Why It Made the List: The year 2009 saw an aggressive return of romantic comedies. (500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy but it openly defies the conventions of the genre and is an antidote to the formulaic crap that filling up screens throughout the year. The picture puts to question the underlying assumptions of love stories; that people will just naturally fall in love, that everyone shares the same ideal of what romantic love is, that a couple’s feelings for each other will never change, and that earnest feeling by one person is enough to sustain a relationship. (500) Days of Summer punches holes through these preconceptions, exposing them and revealing how fraudulent they are. In the process, the film gets down to the real messiness of love that so many romantic comedies ignore and in that the film reveals things that are much more honest and true. (500) Days of Summer is an excellent bit of romance that will likely be enjoyed by viewers of either sex because, rather than recapitulating clichés or pandering to the audience’s fantasies, the film is honest about love and relationships and reveals some truths, even the sad ones.

7. Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Directed by: Lee Daniels

Premise: Set in the late 1980s, an illiterate and overweight African American girl (Gabourey Sidibe) who is pregnant with her second child enrolls in an alternative school and begins to put her life together.

Why It Made the List: There were a number of bold films released this year, some in terms of their ambition and other in their politics, and Precious is among the boldest. This film violates a lot of conventional wisdom about mainstream American cinema. The lead character is not articulate and she does not conform to a Cosmopolitan magazine sense of beauty; the film takes place in a location that is as foreign to many American viewers as a third world country, and as a film about minority characters it does not allow itself to tell the kind of easy, inoffensive, feel-good entertainment that so often passes for an “issues” picture. Precious is in many ways an ugly and aggressive movie in its unsparing portrayal of the horror of this girl’s life and in the message it ca rries for both white and black audiences. There are several characters and images in this movie that recall racial stereotypes, such as when Precious steals a bucket of chicken and her mother’s abuse of the welfare system. But what the film is doing is intentionally adopting these images and making the viewers acknowledge something more complex about them; the film suggests that horror and hope can exist at the same time and that social programs can provide opportunities for both advancement and corruption. The film also takes some risks in its production as it transitions between realistic and formalistic styles and uses that to show how the media shapes Precious’ view of herself. This is important to the film, as it is told from her point of view and the audience is forced to see the world through her eyes. Allowing this person a voice, rather than having others speak for her, is a key feature that distinguishes Precious from other movies and makes it one of the best films of the year.

8. The Road

Directed by: John Hillcoat

Premise: An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. In a post-apocalyptic future, a man guides his son through the ruins of civilization in hope of finding a safe place.

What Works: The Road is an excellent film, part experimental art house film and part Hollywood adventure. The picture upholds the look and style of other apocalypse films such as Children of Men and The Road Warrior but the film does not get bogged down in heroics. Instead, The Road plays nearly as a metatext of apocalypse cinema as the film addresses a major theme of the genre: redefining heroism and what it means to be civilized. Many of these kinds of films get bogged down in the reasons or process of the apocalypse but The Road never actually gives a reason or shows us what happened, only hinting at some kind of calamity in flashback. It may be natural, it may be man made, or it may be supernatural; the answer is never provided and is ultimately unnecessary. The Road’s omission of a reason makes it a stronger film because the focus is not on the details of why but on the characters within that environment and how they carry on afterward. The performances of The Road are really tremendous and Viggo Mortensen largely carries the film on his shoulders as the father trying to protect his son and teach him the ways of the world. The film is ultimately about the bond between a parent and his child, and the apocalyptic story of The Road is really about something very integral to that bond: a parent’s wish that they will leave their child skilled enough to go off into the world and survive.

9. Up in the Air

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Premise: A man who lives out of his suitcase (George Clooney) is grounded when his employer adopts Internet technology as opposed to flying him all over the country. Resisting the change, he takes a trainee (Anna Kendrick) on the road while carrying on a casual romantic relationship with a traveling business woman (Vera Farmiga).

Why It Made the List: Timing is nearly everything in art, and Up in the Air is a film that captures an aspect of contemporary life—the way the digital communication technology shapes our work and our relationships—and plays out the implications and consequences of it through drama. The story is very nicely unified as it connects the romance to the job without forcing the matter and the lessons that Clooney and Kendrick’s characters come around to realizing happen very organically. Although the casting of the lead actors works well, care seems to have been taken in filing minor parts and the scenes of employees being fired have some great, if brief, performances by these actors. The scenes are written and played very well, as they range between the funny and the tragic and never repeat exactly the exact same scenario twice. The editing of these scenes is very effective, both within the scenes and also as they crosscut from one interview to the next. Up in the Air has a brave finale and it goes off unexpected directions, leaving Clooney’s character in a place of revelation but without requiring that he necessarily end up happy.

10. Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Directed by: Sacha Gervasi

Premise: A documentary film about the rock band Anvil, which had minor success in the early 1980s and had an important place establishing the sound of heavy metal that was later taken to great success with bands like Metallica and Slayer. Thirty years later, the band is still performing and trying to make it and the film follows the musicians as they tour across Europe and record their latest album, “This is Thirteen.”

Why It Made the List: Anvil is a distinct and important music documentary. So many of these films end up following major bands and come across as vanity pieces, showing how rich and how popular the band members are, but without showing anything really to do with process of making music. But Anvil’s story is different; this is a band that came very close to mainstream success and influenced bands that did, but never quite got there themselves. And yet the band members continue to produce new music and nurse the hope of success. The film keeps its focus on the blood, sweat, and tears of making music and the stress and financial precariousness of being an independent musician. There is more than ego at stake here; the well being of band member’s families is on the line and that risk gives the film so much more weight than other music documentaries. The film also exposes life on the road as most musicians experience it; the film exposes touring as a difficult, grueling experience that takes tolls on the band physically and financially. Aside from the portrayal of the band, Anvil is a documentary that gives history to heavy metal, a genre of music that is not often given much due, but is major cultural force. This film helps to flesh out some of the history of music and unveil a segment of our musical heritage that is often dismissed. Anvil gives voice to a band that deserves to be heard and counted within the history of rock music and it captures a portrayal of the commercial music scene at a critical point in its history.

Honorable Mentions

What follows are films that were either runners up to the Top 10 list or other pictures that came out in 2009 that are worth mentioning.

Answer Man – A funny film (that virtually no one saw) about our search for meaning.

Avatar – The storytelling was bland but the visuals were stunning. Not the breakthrough that it was touted as, but a fun film nevertheless.

Away We Go – A funny and sweet story about the search for the perfect home.

Adventureland – Too predictable to crack the Top 10, this film is nevertheless sweet and funny.

Battle for Terra – With low budget visuals but much stronger characterizations, this film was the inverse of Avatar and another small film that nobody saw but should have.

Capitalism: A Love Story – Michael Moore’s newest documentary was among his best work.

Coraline – A very impressive piece of stop motion animation.

Crossing Over – A thoughtful film about illegal immigration comparable to Crash and Babel and has a good performance by Harrison Ford.

Drag Me to Hell – Sam Raimi’s return to horror was a funhouse of a movie.

Fanboys – This film finally saw release after years of distribution-limbo and was fun for fans of Star Wars and other science fiction franchises.

Food, Inc. – An important and penetrating documentary about our food supply.

The Hangover – One of the funniest films of the year also features a strong performance by Zach Galifianakis.

He’s Just Not That Into You – Despite some flaws, the film was generally a smart and witty take on contemporary romance and features an impressive performance by Ginnifer Goodwin.

Inglorious Basterds – The opening and closing of this film contains some of the best material Quentin Tarantino has produced but the middle is too poorly paced to get this film into the Top 10.

Notorious – An impressive biopic of The Notorious B.I.G.

Paranormal Activity – Further proof that great films don’t need to be expensive, this literally homemade haunted house picture was the scariest thing in theaters.

The Soloist – An impressive film about a man suffering from mental illness that is also significant in the way it deals with the race and class issues that The Blind Side chose to ignore.

Star Trek – J.J. Abrams successfully resurrected the series for a new generation while placating longtime fans.

Tyson – An impressive documentary about Mike Tyson.

Whatever Works – Although it plays like an elongated episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s persona and Woody Allen’s writing go together perfectly.

World’s Greatest Dad – Bobcat Goldthwait wrote and directed this challenging black comedy that has several outstanding performances.

Zombieland – A highpoint in the recent surge of zombie films features a killer performance by Woody Harrelson.

Good Buzz List

These are films that were released in 2009 and have strong word of mouth, and in some cases award nominations, but Nathan was unable to see them in time for the year end summary, usually because they did not open here.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans – This film has gained a lot of attention for Nicolas Cage’s performance and the film’s overall intensity.

Bright Star – Jane Campion’s film about John Keats has been nominated for several awards including the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Crazy Heart – Jeff Bridges performance has been generating a lot of awards buzz.

The Last Station – A film about Leo Tolstoy’s attempt to balance fame with his dedication to a life devoid of material attachment.

The Messenger – The film has been generating lots of award nominations, including and Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

A Serious Man – The Cohen Brothers latest picture earned an award for Best Screenplay by the National Board of Review.

A Single Man – Colin Firth has been earning a lot of attention for his performance.

The Young Victoria – A film about Queen Victoria has earned praise for Emily Blunt.

Great Performances

This is a list of some of the great performances in 2009, although not all of them were in great movies.

Answer Man – Jeff Daniels gives a great performance in the film as a misanthropic self-help guru.

Funny People – Every once in awhile Adam Sandler will redeem himself by showing he really does have talent.

He’s Just Not That Into You – Ginnifer Goodwin gives a funny and vulnerable performance in this film.

The Informant! – Matt Damon gives one of his best performances in this film.

Inglorious Basterds – There are some great performances in this film by Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, and Brad Pitt.

Invictus – Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon give strong performances as South African president Nelson Mandela and rugby team captain Francois Pienaar.

Nothing But the Truth – Kate Beckinsale gives one of the best performances of her career and there are some strong supporting performances by Alan Alda, Matt Dillon, and Vera Farmiga.

Notorious – An impressive biopic of The Notorious B.I.G with Jamal Woolard in the lead role and Angela Bassett as his mother.

Observe and Report – Not a very good film, but it did have some exceptional performances by Seth Rogan, Anna Faris, and Collette Wolfe.

Precious – Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique give very strong performances in the film.

Sunshine Cleaning – Amy Adams and Emily Blunt do a nice job in a film that was not nearly as good.

Whatever Works – Larry David’s acerbic persona complements Woody Allen’s writing and directing style.

World’s Greatest Dad – Daryl Sabara and Robin Williams and terrific as father and son.

Zombieland – Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson form a great odd couple in this film.

Bottom 10 Films of 2009

What follows are the very bottom of the cinematic heap for 2009.

1. Obsessed (2009)

Directed by: Steve Shill

Premise: A successful executive (Idris Elba) becomes the object of desire for a delusional young temp (Ali Larter). As her obsession grows, she disrupts his family life and his career.

Why It Made the List: Obsessed is a half-hearted imitation of Fatal Attractionand with the right cast and a cheeky attitude, it could have a guilty pleasure much like Wild Things. But this film takes itself far too seriously, apparently believing it’s a serious drama when in fact it is a twisted version of a misogynistic male fantasy; in Obsessed the man is a victim because of his success, good looks, and charm and eventually his wife (Beyonce Knowles) and the temp slug it out over him in a screaming, hair pulling fight that looks like belongs in a Girls Gone Wild video. Obsessed is an ugly little movie and were it not for the presence of Beyonce Knowles it is unlikely that it would have seen the light of day. As it is, it’s not even quality trash.

2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Directed by: Michael Bay

Premise: A sequel to the 2007 film. The battle between giant robots continues as the two warring factions compete to find an ancient artifact.

Why It Made the List: Revenge of the Fallen is a failure on nearly every level. Although the special effects of this Transformers film are state of the art, the story telling is amateur at best. You know a film is in trouble when the first sixty minutes of this two-and-a-half hour film could have been excised without interrupting the story at all. No one in the film, machine or human, has any distinguishable emotions, personality, or goals; they just go though the motions of running, shooting, and running again. And even the action scenes, which ought to be the pay off of this film, are terribly staged and edited; all the film shows is a visual cacophony of metal grinding against metal and it is never clear just what the hell is going on. Transformers 2 is, amazingly, a tremendous bore that may actually displace Pearl Harbor as the worst film Michael Bay has ever made.

3. Land of the Lost (2009)

Directed by: Brad Silberling

Premise: A feature length version of the 1970s TV show. Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) uses his latest invention to lead a research team into an alternate dimension populated by dinosaurs and primitive human beings.

Why It Made the List: Will Ferrell’s film career has been on a downward spiral lately and Land of the Lost is a new low. The film is clearly aimed at a family audience but the humor of the film is barely PG-13, going beyond innuendo. Will Ferrell tries his usual lovable idiot routine in Land of the Lost but he is playing such a moron in this film that it is very hard to watch him. Throughout the movie, Ferrell’s character is chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and it’s very tempting to cheer for the dinosaur.

4. The Box (2009)

Directed by: Richard Kelly

Premise: A married couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) with financial troubles receives a box from a mysterious visitor (Frank Langella). Pressing the button on the box will give them a million dollars but it will also cause the death of some person unknown to the couple.

Why It Made the List: The only thing worse that a stupid movie is a stupid movie trying to be smart. The Box is one of those films and in a desperate attempt to make things unnecessarily complex it takes unneeded and incoherent twists and turns until it finally arrives at a climax that is so removed from the initial premise of the story that it seems like a completely different movie.

5. New In Town

Directed by: Jonas Elmer

Premise: A Miami-based career woman (Renée Zellweger) relocates to New Ulm, Minnesota to oversee the downsizing of a food plant. While there she adjusts to the Midwestern culture and falls for the local labor union representative (Harry Connick Jr.).

Why It Made the List: New in Town follows the same predictable paradigm seen in films like Sweet Home Alabama but it is not nearly as charming or as funny. Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. have no romantic spark whatsoever and their characters fall for each other for no other reason than that she is the leading lady and he has a scruffy beard. New In Town is yet another Hollywood picture that portrays Midwesterners as uncultured, unsophisticated beer chugging idiots with grotesquely exaggerated accents and business people from metropolitan cities as cold and heartless. These stereotypes are plugged into a by-the-numbers script that amounts to little more than lazy filmmaking.

6. Dance Flick

Directed by: Damien Wayans

Premise: A parody of recent teen dance films. A new student at an inner city school joins the dance team.

Why It Made the List: Satire is a very sophisticated undertaking but the deluge of recent parodies are some of the laziest films being released by major studios, and Dance Flick is no different. Like virtually all recent attempts, the film throws a bunch of pop culture references at the screen in hope that some of it will stick. Unfortunately, none of it does and Dance Flick looks more like the filmmakers just saw the trailers for the films they were satirizing instead actually watching them.

7. Sorority Row (2009)

Directed by: Stewart Hendler

Premise: A remake of The House on Sorority Row from 1983. When a prank goes bad and kills a college student, her sorority sisters hide her body. At the end of the school year a mysterious killer begins to assassinate everyone involved.

Why It Made the List: Sorority Row is a stupid mishmash of slasher film clichés with moments of misplaced humor. This is a good example of self-consciousness used as a cover for lousy filmmaking. Jokes can work in horror films if they relieve tension to set up a scare or add to the psychotic tone of the story. Sorority Row does neither and the humor is awkwardly placed and makes the audience laugh at the film instead of with it. The filmmakers try to distract the viewer from the shoddiness of the production by occasionally elbowing them in the ribs as though to say, “We don’t really mean any of this,” but that only makes the viewer ask why the filmmakers bothered to do it in the first place.

8. 2012

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Premise: Due to celestial event, the surface of the earth loses its integrity, threatening the continued existence of human civilization. The major governments of the world work together to preserve the human race while individuals evade disasters.

Why It Made the List: Any given scene in 2012 can be described as follows: well paid, A-list actors arrive in a location and a natural disaster starts ripping up the scenery and killing all the extras. The A-list actors pile into a getaway vehicle and make a grand escape to another location where this same scenario will play out again. 2012 repeats this pattern over and over again for two and a half hours. What’s worse, the film makes oblique references to recent natural and manmade disasters and in the end 2012 is a bit like someone made a theme park ride out of like September 11th or Hurricane Katrina.

9. Amelia (2009)

Directed by: Mira Nair

Premise: A biopic of female pilot Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank).

Why It Made the List: Amelia initially looked like some kind of an Oscar vehicle but it quickly descends into lazy and clumsy filmmaking. Everything here is pedestrian from the phoned-in performances to the dry recapitulation of historical incidents. The film is biography 101 and it goes through all the predictable steps of the genre from the love triangles to the vague statements about the value of taking chances but it all rings hollow. Whatever hopes Earhart symbolized for Depression-era America and for women are completely lost in this movie.

10. The Uninvited

Directed by: The Guard Brothers

Premise: A remake of the South Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters. A traumatized teenager (Emily Browning) returns to her family after spending time in a mental institution following a house fire that killed her mother. Once home she begins to suspect that her father’s new girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) may have murdered her mother.

Why It Made the List: The Uninvited is a sloppy combination of The Hand that Rocks The Cradle, The Sixth Sense, and The Ring. The acting in The Uninvited ranges from bland to outright awful. Emily Browning was supposedly twenty years old at the time of filming but she looks about thirteen, making her character’s relationship with a boy played by Jesse Moss extra creepy but not in a way that helps the film. The Uninvited manages some scares but the ending of the picture completely ruins the film, using a schizophrenic-cheat that opens all sorts of holes in the rest of the story and insults the viewer with a cheap gimmick.

Trends of the Year

Films Marketed Towards Women
The year 2009 saw a number of film made and marketed towards female audiences and some of these films did tremendous box office.

The Return of the Romantic Comedy
Although romantic comedies have been a staple of studio outputs for a long time, in 2009 these films were back in a very strong way after an absence in the past few years.

Films in 3-D
3-D films have been around for awhile but in 2009 they became a major force in theatrical entertainment and made strides toward becoming a major part of home entertainment as well.

Pushing the Envelope
R-rated films that treaded into areas previously considered strictly NC-17 territory continued to roll out in 2009.

Trouble in the Pursuit of Love
While there was a resurgence in romantic comedies there were also a trend of films dealing with love as a complex issue. These films often attempted to define what it means to be in love in the present day culture.

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