Some Good Stuff From 2009 Part 1 (Movies)

2009 will go down in infamy as a year that kicked the shit out of most people, considering what was visited upon us - recession, plague and biblical bad weather. Personally, I can't really complain - I kept my job when so many around me lost theirs, I've so far ducked swine flu, and the particularly bad run of winter weather in Ireland has so far not affected me much. So far so good...

I'll admit my reluctance to go the cinema has me playing catch up when it comes to Best Films of the Year lists - I've yet to see Public Enemies, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Trick R' Treat, and the new Star Trek film, but by sheer luck I saw in November an advance screening of John Hillcoat's film of Cormac McCarty's The Road. So it goes that The Road be my my favourite film of 2009. I left some thoughts over at a message board the day after I saw the film - I got to see The Road last night at a local film festival, so some very quick thoughts while its still fresh in my mind. Worth mentioning that I haven't read a single line of the book so I can't say how the film holds up as an adaptation, but nevertheless Hillcoat's film remains mightily impressive. An early scene in the film had me thinking it was gonna turn into a sort of Mad Max type future-shock movie but thankfully its more Terence Malick than George Miller, with its slow languid pace and the quiet whisper of a voice-over. Saying that, there are a few tense sequences along the way - for anyone like me who hasn't read the book, they are best discovered when you see the film, and there's one especially memorable scene where the father and son meet a fellow grizzled traveller on the road (try to avoid the cast list before seeing the film and see if you can identify the actor underneath the dirt and grime). The visual look of the film is incredible, with color almost completely banished from the film save a few sequences lit with the glow of a candle. There are some CG backgrounds but the photography is so heavily filtered and dark, they blend very naturally into the locations. Along with Tarkovsky's Stalker, it must rank as one of the grimiest treks in Cinema. Its an incredibly subtle film in many ways - its never overcooked, and it may be Viggo Mortensen's finest work as the wasted, exhausted father. Highly recommend so don't miss this one...


Two other films that I loved this year were Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, and Paranormal Activity. We love Tarantino around here, a new film by QT is hugely exciting,and this one didn't disappoint... As for Paranormal Activity, I must admit, I was deeply cynical about this one, I almost talked my wife out of going to see it, lazily writing it off as a Blair Witch Project knock-off. Actually, it may well be a Blair Witch Project knock-off, but no one was more surprised as me about how enjoyable it turned out to be. And creepy as hell. Worth mentioning that the teenagers who were at the screening I went to, absolutely hated the film (another plus for me) and hurled abuse at the film right from the get go. It reminded me of a screening of Eyes Wide Shut back in 99, another film that went down like a lead balloon...