It's been quite an amazing decade for lovers of film. While Hollywood pumped out monstrosities like Transformers and G.I. Joe, real filmmakers continued to make both large and small masterpieces, both inside and, more often, outside the Hollywood system.
So, below are my picks for the best 100 films of the past 10 years. However, instead of one list I've decided to make five: 70 Best Films, 10 Best Comedies, 12 Best Documentaries, 5 Best Animated Films, and 3 Best Musicals.
Quentin Tarantino
My Picks For The Top 100 Films of The Decade
My Picks For The Best Films of 2009
My Picks For The Best Films of 2009... and late-2008
Ok, people, this year I'm making two separate lists. Rather than mixing the Best Films of 2009 together with all the great films that were released in late-2008 that I never had a chance to see before posting my Best Films of 2008 list, I'm simply dividing them into two different lists: "Best of 2009" and "Best of Late-2008".
And of course, as is the case every year, there are a few late-2009 releases that I have yet to see that could very well have made this list had I had a chance to see them, most prominently Up In The Air, A Serious Man, An Education, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, The White Ribbon, Broken Embraces, Bad Lieutenant, and Crazy Heart.
So, here they are, my picks for the best films of the past year:
TOP 15 FILMS OF 2009
The Tarantino Death Proof Rant
Let's get something straight right off the bat, I'm a huge Quentin Tarantino fan and it drives me nuts when people don't "get" his films. But I just watched "Death Proof" on DVD (Tarantino's half of the double feature "Grindhouse") and I've gotta tell ya, I just didn't get it. I mean, it's not that I hated it or anything, I found it interesting and I'd probably even give it a 6 or 7 out of 10, but it simply didn't blow me away like all of his previous films have. And Tarantino films are supposed to blow you away. Period.
