District 9 — Wanted to see this one again. And it was on Netflix Instant Viewing. Unfortunately it wasn’t in HD. Still a good, fun movie. The movie is a little schizophrenic. It feels like it’s trying to be several different movies all at once. Thus it never seems to fully play out its various intentions. But for the most part, it manages to hold things together adequately.

Five Easy Pieces — I came to this movie mostly just with the awareness of the diner scene. I became interested in seeing it after reading Peter Biskind’s book about New Hollywood, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. And I also go into this movie almost a little sick of Jack Nicholson. Maybe it’s his more recent acting choices, but I was beginning to think of him as highly overrated.

But with this one, Nicholson delivers a great performance as Robert Eroica Dupea. At the beginning of the film, Dupea appears as a roustabout on the oil fields. He is thoroughly blue collar. He survives in motels and bowling alleys with a dimwit waitress. He seems every bit a redneck jerk.

But then he must return to the family home on news that his father is ill. Once he arrives, we realize that he comes from a decidedly sophisticated family. He was classically trained on the piano. His family mixes with artists and intellectuals. Dupea isn’t working the oil fields because he’s blue collar. He’s just trying to avoid his family and this other part of his life.

The movie pits sophistication against provincialism. Dilettante against redneck. The soundtrack to the movie even pits Chopin, Bach, and Mozart against Tammy Wynette. Dupea struggles against both sides of his past. Eventually, he rejects them both in favor of Alaska.

Thirst and Let The Right One In — A couple of really good vampire movies from the last couple of years. These certainly aren’t your daughter’s vampire movies. And neither is American either. Thirst was a real surprise. It was not at all what I had expected. I think I was waiting to see an ultra-violent picture that was trying too hard to be badass. But what I got was a well paced, beautifully shot story that took me to some unexpected places. It explores religious guilt, morality, and the absurdity of eternal life through a vampiric perspective. I kind of can’t wait to see it again. I also really want to check out director’s Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy.

Let the Right One I had seen at the theater. After Thirst, it made the perfect double-feature. Thankfully, the Netflix Instant Viewing version featured the theatrical subtitles. After watching them both, I’m convinced that a vampire’s life (much like a religious afterlife) would be tedious struggle of monotony.

Jaws — It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it in an uninterrupted and unedited format (I may have only ever seen it on TV). I was honestly surprised with how serious the movie is. Seeing as it pretty much launched the Summer Blockbuster, I expected something a little more goofy. Big summer movies seem to be primarily about escapism. This was downright horror. The shark was impressively scary to me. Except for one particular scene, I thought the horror of the beast was quite believable.

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 — With the third installment at the theaters, it was about time that I actually saw the first two. While the toys make for delightful characters to follow around, I was left a little empty. They were okay. But I certainly prefer Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up to either of these. I wanted to love them…but I just didn’t.

1. Rachel Getting Married
2. Wall-E
3. Ballast
4. A Christmas Tale
5. Let The Right One In
6. Man on Wire
7. Paranoid Park/Milk (a Gus van Sant tie)
8. Flight of the Red Balloon
9. The Dark Knight
10. Happy Go-Lucky

Honorable Mention: 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, Son of Rambow, Chop Shop, The Fall, Encounters at the End of the World

Operation Filmmaker, Helvetica – A pair of documentaries caught on the PBS series Independent Lens. The first tells the story of an Iraqi film student who gets the opportunity to work on a Hollywood film. The confluence of liberal guilt and the inability to to appreciate and take advantage of the good things that come one’s way make for a maddening but ultimately satisfying documentary. I wanted to strangle equally producer Peter Saraf and the Iraqi film student Muthana. I hope Liev Schreiber delivered a huge apology to director Nina Davenport. The second documentary somehow made 80 minutes of talk about a typeface quite interesting. I am now both appalled and enamored by Helvetica.

Sunshine – Another time through with this one. Something to fight the cabin fever of being stuck at home during the ice/sleet storm.

The Fall – What a delightful surprise. It was sort of a longer, more complex, multi-colored version of The Red Balloon. With a little bit of The Princess Bride thrown in. And however director Tarsem coaxed out the performance from Catinca Untaru as Alexandria, he and she both deserve great praise.

Sundance 2009 Short Films on iTunes – Ten short films from the festival that were available for free download: Acting for the Camera, Countertransference, Field Notes From Dimension X: Oasis, From Burger it Came, Hug, I Live in the Woods, Instead of Abracadabra, James, Magnetic Movie, This Way Up. My favorites were Countertransference, I Live in the Woods (Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking – Sundance Film Festival), Instead of Abracadabra, and This Way Up (Oscar nominee).

The Trials of Ted Haggard – I have to admit that after seeing this I kind of feel sorry for Mr. Haggard. He actually seems sort of human. Unlike his successors. I do wish there was a little more to the documentary though. It almost seems that Alexandra Pelosi relies too much on her ability to develop repertoire with her subjects instead of delving deeper into the story at hand. How has Haggard really dealt with his sexuality? And what does he really feel about those who were once his friends and supporters?

Let The Right One In – I loved this one. Vampires have been done every which way on film. But this film seemed to bring something fresh, even if it isn’t really a vampire movie. The cold and dreary Swedish landscape, with the occassional touch of color, was beautifully shot. Warm red blood on cold white snow. That’s what this movie was all about. Complementary. Life complementing death. Warmth complementing coldness. Laughter complementing terror. Love complementing misery. This movie, more so than perhaps any other from 2008, is one that I can’t wait for its DVD release so I can watch it again and again.