Cannes 2010: las mejores del puntaje de la crítica hasta hoy

Los votos se siguen sumando y acumulando en Letras de Cine y ha surgido otro título de puntajes altísimos: "Le quattro volte", de Michelangelo Frammartino, excelente película de la Quincena de Realizadores.

Haciendo un resúmen de promedios de las películas con puntajes más altos, los votos de la crítica están más o menos así:

LE QUATRO VOLTE: 8,83

HAHAHA: 8,06

UNCLE BOONMEE: 9,38

POETRY: 7,94

OF GODS AND MEN: 8,175

CHANTRAPAS: 7,91

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUCESCU: 8,61

FILM SOCIALISME: 8,62

EL EXTRAÑO CASO DE ANGELICA: 8,54

Cannes 2010: "Robin Hood", de Ridley Scott (promedio: 3,99)

Link a Letras de Cine

Eugenio Renzi (Independencia, Francia): 6,9
Francisco Ferreira (O Espresso, Portugal): 0
Diego Lerer (Clarín, Micropsia, Argentina): 5
Diego Batlle (La Nación, Otros Cines, Argentina): 6
Gonzalo de Pedro (Cahiers du Cinéma España, Público, España): 2
Markus Keuschnigg (ORF Radio FM4, Die Presse, Austria): 2
Carlo Chatrian (Panoramiques, Duellanti, Italia): 3
Alejandro G. Calvo (Sensacine.com, España): 3
Emmanuel Burdeau (Mediapart, Francia): 7
Carlos Reviriego (Cahiers du Cinéma España, España): 6
Carlos F. Heredero (Cahiers du Cinéma España, España): 4
Leonardo D'Espósito (Crítica de la Argentina, Argentina): 5
Violeta Kovacsis (Lumiere, España): 2
Eulalia Iglesias (Cahiers du Cinéma España, España): 3
Scott Foundas (Filmlinc, EE.UU): 8
Jaime Pena (El Amante, Cahiers du Cinéma España, España): 5
Manu Yáñez (Fotogramas, España): 3
Luciano Monteagudo (Página/12, Argentina): 5

Radio Micropsia - Episodio 12

No, él no es ninguno de nosotros. Pero una foto del prócer no se le niega a nadie. El Inefable Carlos Boyero!!!

Por Radio Nacional (FM 93.7), domingo de 20 a 22hs.
O por internet, entrando por aquí.

Terror en el Microcentro: cuatro críticos de cine se juntan para hablar de esas cosas que ellos hablan cuando se juntan y, se asegura, cineastas armados se van reuniendo en la zona con intención de cometer algún crimen masivo. "¡Si quieren venir que vengan, les presentaremos batalla!", aseguraba un olvidado y olvidable General.

Entonces sí, con la presencia del Monseñor Gustavo Noriega, el Coronel Javier Porta Fouz, el Ministro Diego Batlle y el Juez Federal Diego Lerer --más la tolerante presencia del también ocasional crítico de cine y co-conductor Jorge Belaunzarán--, esta noche en Micropsia se hablarán de esas cosas que hablan estas personas (películas, premios, festivales, etc.) siempre que no están viendo películas o hablando mal los unos de los otros.

Además, si no hablamos todotodotodo el tiempo podré pasar algo de música. ¿Qué? Lo que ellos traigan más bizarreadas propias (Ingrid Chavez, Mansions, Rain Machine, etc.), siempre en horario de protección al ser humano.

Algunas consideraciones sobre el Top 20 del cine argentino de la década, según Fipresci

Antes de hacer unas consideraciones sobre el tema, aquí está la lista de las 20 películas argentinas de la década (2000-2009), las más votadas por los miembros de FIPRESCI Argentina, asociación que incluye los críticos de los diarios y revistas más importantes del país (además de dos directores del BAFICI y la mayoría de sus programadores). Las primeras diez --cuyos puestos se definirán en una votación que se hará y se dará a conocer más adelante-- están en orden alfabético. Las restantes, en el que quedaron votadas.

El aura, de Fabián Bielinsky (The Aura) 2005

El bonaerense, de Pablo Trapero (El bonaerense) 2002
La Ciénaga, de Lucrecia Martel (La Ciénaga) 2001
Los guantes mágicos, de Martín Rejtman (The Magic Gloves) 2004
Historias extraordinarias, de Mariano Llinás (Extraordinary Stories) 2008
La libertad, de Lisandro Alonso (La libertad) 2001
Los muertos, de Lisandro Alonso (Los muertos) 2004
La mujer sin cabeza, de Lucrecia Martel (The Headless Woman) 2008

Nueve reinas, de Fabián Bielinsky (Nine Queens) 2000
Los rubios, de Albertina Carri (The Blonds) 2003

11. - "Bolivia", de Adrián Caetano
12.- "Un oso rojo", de Adrián Caetano
13.- "Ana y los otros", de Celina Murga
14.- "Leonera", de Pablo Trapero
15.- "La niña santa", de Lucrecia Martel
16.- "La antena", de Esteban Sapir
17.- "Yo no sé qué me han hecho sus ojos", de Sergio Wolf y Lorena Muñoz
18.- "Nadar solo", de Ezequiel Acuña
19.- "Aniceto", de Leonardo Favio
20.- "Como pasan las horas", de Inés de Oliveira Cézar

Habiendo sido responsable de compilar la lista, noté algunas cosas que me sorprendieron y me interesaría saber la opinión de los lectores, en algunos o en todos los puntos. A saber:

1.-La caída en cuanto a "peso" y "presencia" de Damian Szifron, cuyas películas fueron muy celebradas y premiadas en su momento. Ahora, "El fondo del mar" tuvo un sólo voto y ninguno "Tiempo de valientes". Paralelamente, otro cineasta que coqueteaba entre el cine de autor y el comercial como Fabián Bielinsky tuvo sus dos películas entre las diez primeras. ¿A qué se deberá?

2.-"Nacido y críado" y "Familia rodante", de Pablo Trapero, fueron completamente olvidadas. Me sorprendió que "Leonera" no estuviera más alto. De hecho, en el 2008 se quedó con la Mención Especial arriba de "La mujer sin cabeza". Hoy, las cosas cambiaron. ¿Alguna idea?

3.-Películas que no tuvieron prácticamente votos pese a ser de las más premiadas del cine argentino (al menos en Berlin): "El abrazo partido", de Daniel Burman; "El custodio", de Rodrigo Moreno; "El otro", de Ariel Rotter. Apenas Burman tuvo algunos votos repartidos entre sus películas... ¿Perdieron vigencia?

4.-"Liverpool" y "Fantasma", de Lisandro Alonso, fueron dejadas de lado y los fans del realizador pusieron todas sus fichas en sus primeras dos películas. Deja pensar que la evolución del cineasta no fue del todo apreciada por la crítica. ¿O no? Algo similar sucede con Albertina Carri. Nadie recordó sus otras películas ("La rabia", "Géminis") y muchos apoyaron a "Los rubios".

5.- El problema de las películas pequeñas. Muchos filmes recibían varios votos pero siempre en la parte baja del Top Ten, lo cual no lo permitían sumar demasiados puntos. Eso hizo que películas de Celina Murga, Santiago Loza, Gustavo Fontán, Ana Katz, Ezequiel Acuña, Luis Ortega o el mismo Adolfo Aristarain no sumaran muchos votos. Lo mismo que muchos documentales ("Pulqui", "Trelew", "Los próximos pasados", "M", "La quimera de los héroes", "Bonanza", etc), que apenas consiguieron una que otra mencion. Mejor le fue a "76/89/03", que arañó el Top 20.

6.- Martel, Bielinsky y Alonso parecen formar una trilogía que abarca las distintas facetas del cine argentino de esta década, con dos películas cada uno en el Top Ten. El cine de autor con cierto alcance comercial, otro aún más comercial y el tercero, para poco público.

7.- Una gran sorpresa para mi fue la buena ubicación de "La antena", de Esteban Sapir, una película que parecía haber quedado medio olvidada.

8.- No hubo casi votos para Juan José Campanella (uno para "El secreto de sus ojos") ni Marcelo Piñeyro. Enrique Piñeyro apenas cosechó un apoyo por su "Whisky Romeo Zulú". Otras películas con votos sueltos fueron "Historias mínimas", "Felicidades", "XXY", "Una novia errante", "Balnearios" o "La sangre brota".

9.- Nada hubo para las películas de Sandra Gugliotta, Juan Villegas, Paula Hernández, Verónica Chen, Ana Poliak, Raúl Perrone, Gustavo Postiglione, Alejandro Agresti, Pablo Reyero, Pino Solanas, Alejandro Chomski, Anahí Berneri, Gabriel Medina, Néstor Frenkel, Santiago Palavecino, Jorge Gaggero, ni para muchas que figuran en el Top 5 de este año, entre otros. ¿Ninguna de sus películas merecían algún reconocimiento? ¿Fueron quedando relegadas por el peso de los "grandes nombres"?

10.- El tema Caetano: sus dos películas más votadas orillaron el Top Ten ("Bolivia" quedó undécima por una mínima diferencia), pero no alcanzaron a cobrar la fuerza de las de los otros cineastas que sí lograron meter dos filmes en el Top Ten. ¿Habrá caído su cine en la consideración crítica o fue simplemente una división de votos? Por lo pronto, "Crónica de una fuga" tuvo una sola mención.

Toda lista, se sabe, es arbitraria, y en otroscines.com leía que a Fernando Martín Peña le molestaba que hagamos un "canon" con un cine tan variado como el de esta generación. Puede haber algo de cierto en esa crítica, ya que estas listas terminan por ensalzar a cinco o seis cineastas dejando de lado a un grupo muy variado y heterogéneo. Pero también nos pareció util intentar establecer un parámetro acerca de las películas más valoradas de la década por los críticos. Parámetro que será, seguramente, acompañado y justificado por textos y alguna publicación que explique esas elecciones.

Postdata: de las diez películas del Top Ten hay una clara diferencia de votos entre las cinco primeras y las que se ubicarían del 6 al 10. ¿Alguien se anima a apostar cuáles son las cinco más votadas? Cuando salga el Top Ten definitivo, le entregaremos un premio a designar...

Awards Tracker: An Updated Guide To Awards Season (IndieWire)

Announced Awards

African-American Film Critics
Austin Film Critics
Boston Film Critics
Broadcast Film Critics
British Indie Awards
Chicago Film Critics
Cinema Eye Honors
Dallas-Fort Worth Critics
Detroit Film Critics
European Film Awards
Florida Film Critics
Golden Globes
Golden Satellites
Gotham Awards
Houston Critics
IDA Documentary Awards
Indiana Film Critics
Las Vegas Film Critics
London Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
National Board of Review
National Society of Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Online Film Critics Society
Phoenix Film Critics
San Diego Critics
San Francisco Film Critics
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Southeastern Film Critics
Spirit Awards
St. Louis Film Critics
Toronto Film Critics
Utah Film Critics
Washington D.C. Area Critics

Summary of Winners

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker 11 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, Las Vegas, Austin, Satellites, Houston San Francisco, Boston, Gothams), 12 mentions (Globes, London, Online, BFCA, Utah, Southeastern, St. Louis, Detroit, African-American, NBR, Washington, NY Online)
Up In The Air 7 wins (Dallas, Florida, Southeastern, Utah, Indiana, NBR, Washington) 11 mentions (Globes, London, Online, Chicago, Dallas, African-American, BFCA, St. Louis, LA, Satellites, Detroit, NY Online)
Inglourious Basterds 3 wins (Toronto, Phoenix, San Diego) 13 mentions (Globes, BFCA, NSFC, Online, Chicago, Utah, Dallas, Southeastern, Detroit, NBR, Washington, NY Online)
Up 1 win (Detroit) 10 mentions (BFCA, African-American, Online Southeastern, Dallas, St. Louis, NBR, Washington, NY Online)
Precious 1 win (African-American Critics) 9 mentions (Globes, Dallas, BFCA, Southeastern, St. Louis, Spirits, Washington, NY Online, Satellites)
Avatar 1 win (NY Online) 4 mentions (Globes, London, Dallas, BFCA)
A Prophet 1 win (EFA) 1 mention (London)
Moon 1 win (British Indie)
Hunger 1 win (Toronto)
A Serious Man 9 mentions (BFCA, Southeastern, Online, Chicago, NBR, Dallas, Gothams, NY Online, Satellites)
(500) Days of Summer 6 mentions (Globes, Southeastern, St. Louis, Spirits, Detroit, NBR)
An Education 5 mentions (BFCA, Dallas, St. Louis, NBR, Satellites)
The Messenger 4 mentions (Southeastern, NBR, NY Online, Satellites)
Fantastic Mr. Fox 4 mentions (Dallas, Southeastern, Indiana, NY Online)
Invictus 3 mentions (BFCA, St. Louis, NBR)
Nine 3 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Satellites)
Amreeka 2 mentions (Gothams, Spirits)
It’s Complicated 2 mentions (Globes, Satellites)
Where The Wild Things Are 2 mentions (Chicago, NBR)
Julie & Julia 2 mentions (Globes, Satellites)
District 9 2 mentions (Dallas, Southeastern)
Star Trek 1 mention (NBR)
Summer Hours 1 mention (NSFC)
Bright Star 1 mention (Satellites)
The Stoning of Soraya M. 1 mention (Satellites)
Two Lovers 1 mention (NY Online)
Adventureland 1 mention (NY Online)
The Last Station 1 mention (Spirits)
Sin Nombre 1 mention (Spirits)
The Princess and the Frog 1 mention (African-American)
This Is It 1 mention (African-American)
American Violet 1 mention (African-American)
Goodbye Solo 1 mention (African-American)
Good Hair 1 mention (African-American)
Medicine For Melancholy 1 mention (African-American)
The Maid 1 mention (Gothams)
Big Fan 1 mention (Gothams)
The Hangover 1 mention (Globes)
The White Ribbon 1 mention (London)

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker 14 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Southeastern, Houston, Satellites, NY Online, Washington, Las Vegas, Austin, Toronto) 6 mentions (BFCA, London, Online, St. Louis, Globes, Detroit)
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air 3 wins (Utah, Florida, Dallas) 7 mentions (Globes, Chicago, London, BFCA, Southeastern, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds 2 wins (Phoenix, San Diego) 6 mentions (Globes, Online, Chicago, BFCA, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
Lee Daniels, Precious 1 win (African-American) 4 mentions (BFCA, Spirits, Satellites, Washington)
Clint Eastwood, Invictus 1 win (NBR) 3 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Washington)
Spike Jonze, Where The Wild Things Are 1 win (Indiana) 1 mention (Chicago)
Andrea Arnold, Fish Tank 1 win (British Indie)
Pete Docter, Up 1 win (Detroit)
James Cameron, Avatar - 4 mentions (London, Online, Globes, BFCA)
Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man 3 mentions (Chicago, Online, Spirits)
Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox - 3 mentions (Indiana, NSFC, St. Louis)
Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon 2 mentions (London, LA)
Neil Blomkamp, District 9 2 mentions (Online, Satellites)
Oren Moverman, The Messenger - 1 mention (St. Louis)
Jacques Audiard, A Prophet - 1 mention (London)
Cary Joji Fukunaga, Sin Nombre 1 mention (Spirits)
James Gray, Two Lovers 1 mention (Spirits)
Michael Hoffman, The Last Station 1 mention (Spirits)
Marc Webb, (500) Days of Summer 1 mention (Detroit)
Rob Marshall, Nine 1 mention (Satellites)
Lone Scherfig, An Education 1 mention (Satellites)
John Hillcoat, The Road 1 mention (Utah)
Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours 1 mention (NSFC)

Best Actor
George Clooney, Up in the Air 9 wins (NY, Dallas, Phoenix, Indiana, Florida, NBR, Houston, Southeastern, Washington) 9 mentions (Globes, Online, Chicago, SAGs, London, BFCA, St. Louis, Detroit, Satellites)
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker 5 wins (NSFC, Las Vegas, Chicago, Satellites, Boston) 8 mentions (SAGs, Online, Utah, Southeastern, Indiana, BFCA, St. Louis, Washington)
Colin Firth, A Single Man 4 wins (Austin, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco) 7 mentions (Globes, SAGs, BFCA, LA, Spirits, Washington, Satellites)
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart 2 wins (LA, NY Online) 10 mentions (SAGs, Chicago, NSFC, Online, London, Globes, BFCA, St. Louis, Spirits, Satellites)
Morgan Freeman, Invictus 2 wins (African-American, NBR) 5 mentions (SAGs, Globes, BFCA, St. Louis, Washington)
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man 1 win (Satellites) 3 mentions (London, Globes, Chicago)
Viggo Mortensen, The Road 1 win (Utah) 2 mentions (BFCA, Washington)
Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant 1 win (Toronto) 1 mention (NSFC)
Tom Hardy, Bronson 1 win (British Indie)
Matt Damon, The Informant! 4 mentions (Globes, Chicago, Detroit, Satelllites)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer 3 mentions (Globes, Spirits, Detroit)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine 2 mentions (Globes, Satellites)
Tobey Maguire, Brothers 1 mention (Globes)
Sharlto Copley, District 9 1 mention (Online)
Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers 1 mention (Online)
Patton Oswalt, Big Fan - 1 mention (St. Louis)
Ben Foster, The Messenger - 1 mention (St. Louis)
Hugh Dancy, Adam 1 mention (Satellites)
Johnny Depp, Public Enemies 1 mention (Satellites)
Michael Sheen, The Damned United 1 mention (Satellites)
Bradley Cooper, The Hangover 1 mention (Satellites)
Sam Rockwell, Moon 1 mention (Detroit)
Souléymane Sy Savané, Goodbye Solo 1 mention (Spirits)
Adam Scott, The Vicious Kind 1 mention (Spirits)
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes 1 mention (Globes)
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet 1 mention (London)
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds 1 mention (London)

Best Actress
Carey Mulligan, An Education 9 wins (NBR, Toronto, Dallas, San Diego, Utah, Chicago, Washington, Indiana, British Indie) 9 mentions (Globes, SAGs, London, Online, BFCA, St. Louis, LA, Detroit, Satellites)
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia 7 wins (NY, San Francisco, Phoenix, Boston, Satellites, Southeastern, NY Online) 12 mentions (Globes, BFCA, SAGs, NSFC, Online, Chicago, London, Indiana, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious 3 wins (Detroit, Florida, Las Vegas) 9 mentions (Globes, SAGs, Chicago, BFCA, Online, Southeastern, St. Louis, Washington, Spirits)
Yolande Moreau, Seraphine 2 wins (NSFC, LA)
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds 1 win (Austin) 1 mention (Online)
Nicole Beharie, American Violet 1 win (African-American)
Michelle Mongahan, Trucker 1 win (San Diego)
Shoreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M. 1 win (Satellites)
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side 4 mentions (SAGs, Globes, BFCA, Washington)
Abbie Cornish, Bright Star 4 mentions (Chicago, NSFC, London, Satellites)
Maya Rudolph, Away We Go 4 mentions (Chicago, Utah, St. Louis, Washington)
Helen Mirren, The Last Station 3 mentions (SAGs, Globes, Spirits)
Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones 3 mentions (BFCA, St. Louis, Detroit)
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria 3 mentions (BFCA, Satellites, Globes)
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal 2 mentions (Globes, Satellites)
Marion Cotillard, Nine 2 mention (Globes, Satellites)
Penelope Cruz, Broken Embraces 1 mention (Satellites)
Catalina Saavedra, The Maid 1 mention (Satellites)
Tilda Swinton, Julia 1 mention (Online)
Zooey Deschanel, 500 Days of Summer 1 mention (Satellites)
Katherine Heigl, The Ugly Truth 1 mention (Satellites)
Julia Roberts, Duplicity 1 mention (Globes)
Maria Bello, Downloading Nancy 1 mention (Spirits)
Gwenyth Paltrow, Two Lovers 1 mention (Spirits)
Nisreen Faour, Amreeka 1 mention (Spirits)
Alison Lohman, Drag Me to Hell 1 mention (Detroit)

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds 19 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, Phoenix, Detroit, Chicago, Florida, Dallas, Austin, Toronto, Las Vegas, San Diego, Houston, Satellites, Indiana, Southeastern, Boston, NY Online, Washington) 6 mentions (SAGs, Globes, BFCA, Online, St. Louis, Utah)
Christian McKay, Me & Orson Welles 2 wins (San Francisco, Utah) 5 mentions (BFCA, NSFC, Chicago, Detroit, Spirits)
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger 1 win (NBR) 11 mentions (BFCA, Chicago, SAGs, Globes, Online, Southeastern, St. Louis, Satellites, Detroit, Washington, Spirits)
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker 1 win (African-American) 2 mentions (Online, Washington)
Paul Schneider, Bright Star 1 win (NSFC)
John Henshaw, Looking for Eric 1 win (British Indie)
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones 8 mentions (Globes, SAGs, Chicago, Indiana, BFCA, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
Alfred Molina, An Education 4 mentions (BFCA, St. Louis, Satellites, Washington)
Matt Damon, Invictus - 3 mentions (Globes, SAGs, BFCA)
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station 3 mentions (Globes, SAGs, Spirits)
Peter Capaldi, In The Loop 3 mentions (LA, Online, Chicago)
Robert Duvall, The Road - 1 mention (St. Louis)
Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen 1 mention (Online)
Timothy Spall, The Damned United 1 mention (Satellites)
James McAvoy, The Last Station 1 mention (Satellites)
Woody Harrelson, Zombieland mention (Detroit)
Jemaine Clement, Gentleman Broncos 1 mention (Spirits)
Raymond McKinnon, That Evening Sun 1 mention (Spirits)

Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious 18 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, Chicago, Phoenix, Florida, Las Vegas, Satellites, Dallas, Detroit, Utah, African-American, Boston, San Francisco, Indiana, Southeastern, NY Online, Washington) 6 mentions (SAGs, Online, Globes, BFCA, St. Louis, Spirits)
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air 4 wins (NBR, Toronto, Houston, Austin) 12 mentions (Globes, Chicago, Online, NSFC, SAGs, BFCA, Utah, St. Louis, Southeastern, LA, Detroit, Washington)
Samantha Morton, The Messenger 1 win (San Diego) 5 mentions (BFCA, St. Louis, NSFC, Washington, Spirits)
Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy 1 win (British Indie)
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air 9 mentions (Globes, SAGs, Chicago, BFCA, Online, Indiana, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
Julianne Moore, A Single Man 5 mentions (Globes, Chicago, BFCA, Online, Washington)
Penelope Cruz, Nine 3 mentions (SAGs, Globes, Satellites)
Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds 2 mentions (St. Louis, Detroit)
Marion Cotillard, Nine 2 mentions (BFCA, Detroit)
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds 2 mentions (Online, SAGs)
Mozhan Marno, The Stony of Soraya M. 1 mention (Satellites)
Emily Blunt, Sunshine Cleaning 1 mention (Satellites)
Dina Korzun, Cold Souls 1 mention (Spirits)
Natalie Portman, Brothers 1 mention (Chicago)
Natalie Press, 50 Dead Men Walking 1 mention (Spirits)
Mia Wasikowska, That Evening Sun 1 mention (Spirits)

Best Screenplay
Up In The Air 11 wins (LA, NBR, Chicago, Toronto, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Southeastern, Indiana, Washington), 5 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Online, St. Louis, Satellites)
Inglourious Basterds 5 wins (San Francisco, NY Online, San Diego, Toronto, Washington), 7 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Online, NSFC, Chicago, Utah, St. Louis)
(500) Days of Summer 4 wins (Las Vegas, Florida, Satellites, Southeastern), 6 mentions (BFCA, St. Louis, Online, Utah, Washington, Spirits)
A Serious Man 3 wins (NSFC, NBR, Boston) 6 mentions (BFCA, London, Online, Washington, Chicago, Satellites)
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 3 wins (Utah, San Diego, San Francisco) 3 mentions (BFCA, Online, Southeastern)
The Hurt Locker 2 wins (Chicago, Austin) 7 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Satellites, Online, Southeastern, Washington)
In The Loop 2 wins (NY, British Indie) 4 mentions (LA, London, Online, Chicago)
Up 1 win (Phoenix) 5 mentions (BFCA, Online, Satellites, Chicago, Washington)
Precious 1 win (African-American) 3 mentions (BFCA, Satellites, Washington)
An Education 6 mentions (BFCA, Chicago, London, St. Louis, Satellites, Washington)
District 9 4 mentions (Globes, Online, BFCA, Satellites)
Where The Wild Things Are 3 mentions (Chicago, Online, Indiana)
Summer Hours 1 mention (NSFC)
A Prophet 1 mention (London)
The White Ribbon 1 mention (London)
Bright Star 1 mention (Satellites)
A Single Man - 1 mention (BFCA)
Julie & Julia 1 mention (Satellites)
The Road 1 mention (Washington)
The Blind Side 1 mention (Washington)
The Messenger 1 mention (Spirits)
The Vicious Kind 1 mention (Spirits)
It’s Complicated 1 menton (Globes)
Adventureland 1 mention (Spirits)
The Last Station 1 mention (Spirits)
The Informant! 1 mention (Chicago)
Away We Go 1 mention (Chicago)

Best Foreign Film
Sin Nombre 6 wins (Indiana, Florida, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Washington), 4 mentions (BFCA, Chicago, Utah, St. Louis)
Summer Hours 5 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, Southeastern, Boston) 3 mentions (Washington, Online, Chicago)
The White Ribbon 3 wins (Toronto, Chicago, NY Online ), 9 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Southeastern, Online, London, NBR, LA, Washington, Satellites)
Broken Embraces 2 wins (Phoenix, Satellites) 5 mentions (Globes, Online, BFCA, Chicago, Washington)
Red Cliff 1 win (Las Vegas) 5 mentions (BFCA, Chicago, St. Louis, Satellites, Washington)
The Maid 1 win (Satellites) 4 mentions (Globes, Spirits, NBR, St. Louis)
A Prophet 1 win (NBR) 3 mentions (Globes, London, Spirits)
Let The Right One In 1 win (British Indie) 1 mention (London)
You The Living 1 win (San Francisco)
Thirst 1 win (Utah)
Il Divo 1 win (San Diego)
Police, Adjective 2 mentions (NSFC, Online)
Coco Before Chanel 2 mentions (BFCA, St. Louis)
Everlasting Moments 2 mentions (NSFC, Spirits)
35 Shots of Rum 1 mention (NSFC)
Silent Light 1 mention (Online)
Treeless Mountain - 1 mention (St. Louis)
Winter In Wartime 1 mention (Satellites)
I Killed My Mother 1 mention (Satellites)
Revanche 1 mention (NBR)
Song Of Sparrows 1 mention (NBR)
Three Monkeys 1 mention (NBR)
Mother 1 mention (Spirits)
Welcome 1 mention (Indiana)
Baaria 1 mention (Globes)

Best Documentary
The Cove 11 wins (NBR, LA, Dallas, San Diego, Florida, Houston, Utah, Toronto, Boston, Indiana, NY Online) 7 mentions (BFCA, Chicago, Online, Southeastern, Washington, Cinema Eye, Satellites)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil 5 wins (San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, Austin, IDA) 9 mentions (BFCA, NSFC, Utah, Online, Indiana, St. Louis, Washington, Spirits)
Food, Inc. 3 wins (Washington, Southeastern, Gothams) 8 mentions (BFCA, Chicago, Online, St. Louis, NBR, Spirits, Cinema Eye, IDA)
The Beaches of Agnes 2 wins (NSFC, LA) 2 mentions (Online, Satellites)
Capitalism: A Love Story 1 win (Phoenix) 5 mentions (BFCA, Online, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington)
Mugabe and the White African 1 win (British Indie) 1 mention (IDA)
Of Time and the City 1 win (NY)
Every Little Step 1 win (Satellites)
Good Hair 4 mentions (St. Louis, NBR, Washington, Gothams)
Tyson 4 mentions (St. Louis, NSFC, Chicago, Gothams)
Burma VJ: Reporting From A Closed Country 2 mentions (NBR, Cinema Eye)
October Country 2 mentions (Spirits, Cinema Eye)
Michael Jackson’s This Is It 1 mention (BFCA)
Crude 1 mention (NBR)
Diary of Times Square Thief 1 mention (IDA)
Afghan Star 1 mention (IDA)
The Most Dangerous Man In America 1 mention (NBR)
More Than a Game 1 mention (Spirits)
Which Way Home1 mention (Spirits)
Loot mention (Cinema Eye)
Paradise 1 mention (Gothams)
My Neighbour, My Killer 1 mention (Gothams)
It Might Get Loud 1 mention (Satellites)
The September Issue 1 mention (Satellites)
Valentino: The Last Emperor 1 mention (Satellites)

Best Animated Film
Up 11 wins (NBR, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, Florida, NY Online, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Southeastern, Washington) 8 mentions (Globes, Online, Indiana, BFCA, Utah, St. Louis, LA, Satelllites)
Fantastic Mr. Fox 7 wins (NY, LA, Las Vegas, Satellites, Utah, Toronto, Indiana) 7 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Online, Chicago, Southeastern, St. Louis, Washington)
Coraline 1 win (San Francisco) 6 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Online, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington)
The Princess and the Frog 6 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Chicago, Online, St. Louis, Satellites)
Ponyo 4 mentions (St. Louis, Chicago, Online, Washington)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Satellites)
9 1 mention (Washington)

Best Ensemble
The Hurt Locker 2 wins (Washington, Gothams) 1 mention (SAGs)
Inglourious Basterds 2 wins (Phoenix, San Diego) 3 mentions (SAGS, BFCA, Detroit)
Precious 1 win (Boston) 4 mentions (SAGs, BFCA, Detroit, Washington)
Star Trek 1 win (Boston) 3 mentions (BFCA, Detroit, Washington)
Nine 1 win (Satellites) 3 mentions (SAGs, BFCA, Washington)
A Serious Man 1 win (Spirits) 1 mention (Gothams)
It’s Complicated 1 win (NBR)
In The Loop 1 win (NY Online)
The Hangover 1 win (Detroit)
Up In The Air 2 mentions (BFCA, Washington)
An Education 1 mention (SAGs)
Zombieland 1 mention (Detroit)
Adventureland 1 mention (Gothams)
Cold Souls 1 mention (Gothams)
Sugar 1 mention (Gothams)

Breakthrough Performance
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious 6 wins (NBR, Phoenix, Florida, Satellites Washington, Detroit) 1 mention (Chicago)
Christian McKay, Me & Orson Welles 1 win (Austin) 3 mentions (Detroit, Washington, Chicago)
Carey Mulligan, An Education 1 win (Chicago) 2 mentions (Detroit, Washington)
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker 1 win (NBR) 2 mentions (Washington, Gothams)
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds 1 win (New York Online) 1 mention (Detroit)
Katie Jarvis, Fish Tank 1 win (British Indie)
Catalina Saavedra, The Maid 1 win (Gothams)
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air 2 mentions (Detroit, Washington)
Sharlto Copley, District 9 1 mention (Chicago)
Max Records, Where The Wild Things Are 1 mention (Chicago)
Chris Pine, Star Trek 1 mention (Detroit)
Ben Foster, The Messenger 1 mention (Gothams)
Souléymane Sy Savané, Goodbye Solo 1 mention (Gothams)
Patton Oswalt, Big Fan 1 mention (Gothams)

Best Film of the Decade (Roger Ebert)

"Synecdoche, New York" is the best film of the decade. It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives. After beginning my first viewing in confusion, I began to glimpse its purpose and by the end was eager to see it again, then once again, and I am not furnished. Charlie Kaufman understands how I live my life, and I suppose his own, and I suspect most of us. Faced with the bewildering demands of time, space, emotion, morality, lust, greed, hope, dreams, dreads and faiths, we build compartments in our minds. It is a way of seeming sane.

The mind is a concern in all his screenplays, but in "Synecdoche" (2008), his first film as a director, he makes it his subject, and what huge ambition that demonstrates. He's like a novelist who wants to get it all into the first book in case he never publishes another. Those who felt the film was disorganized or incoherent might benefit from seeing it again. It isn't about a narrative, although it pretends to be. It's about a method, the method by which we organize our lives and define our realities.

Very few people live their lives on one stage, in one persona, wearing one costume. We play different characters. We know this and accept it. In childhood we begin as always the same person but quickly we develop strategies for our families, our friends, our schools. In adolescence these strategies are not well controlled. Sexually, teenagers behave one way with some dates and a different way with others. We find those whose have a persona that matches one of our own, and that defines how we interact with that person. If you aren't an aggressor and are sober, there are girls (or boys) you do it with and others you don't, and you don't want those people to discover what goes on away from them.

But already "Synecdoche" has me thinking in terms of the film's insight. That is its power. Let me stand back and consider it as a movie. It's about a theater director named Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who begins with a successful regional production, is given a MacArthur genius grant, and moves with a troupe of actors into a New York warehouse. Here they develop a play that grows and grows, and he devises a set representing their various rooms and lives. The film begins as apparently realistic, but as the set expands it shades off into -- complexity? fantasy? chaos?

In the earlier scenes, he was married to Adele (Catherine Keener). She leaves, and he marries Claire (Michelle Williams), who to some degree is intended to literally replace the first wife, as many second spouses are. Why do some people marry those who resemble their exes? They're casting for the same role. Caden has hired an actor named Daniel London (Tom Noonan) to star in the play, as a character somewhat like himself. Many writers and directors create fiction from themselves, and are often advised to.

What happens in the film isn't supposed to happen in life. The membrane between fact and fiction becomes permeable, and the separate lives intermingle. Caden hardly seems to know whose life he's living; his characters develop minds of their own. How many authors have you heard say their dialogue involves "just writing down what the characters would say?"

Living within different personas is something many people do. How can a governor think to have a mistress in Argentina? An investment counselor think to steal all the money entrusted to him? A famous athlete be revealed as a sybarite? A family man be discovered to have two families? I suspect such people, and to some degree many of us, find no more difficulty in occupying those different scenarios that we might find eating meat some days and on others calling ourselves vegetarian.

"Synecdoche" is accomplished in all the technical areas, including its astonishing set. The acting requires great talent to create characters who are always in their own reality, however much it shifts. Philip Seymour Hoffman's character experiences a deterioration of body, as we all do, finds it more difficult to see outside himself, as we all do, and becomes less sure of who "himself' is, as sooner or later we all do. He shows us this process with a precise evolution.

Kaufman has made the most perceptive film I can recall about how we live in the world. This is his debut as a director, but his most important contribution is the screenplay. Make no mistake: He sweated blood over this screenplay. Somebody had to know what was happening on all those levels, and that had to be the writer. Of course he directed it. Who else could have comprehended it?

Top Ten de 2009 (Salon)

By Andrew O'Hehir

All I have to say about 2009 in film is that I'm sure they'll find movies to give those 10 best-picture Oscar nominations to, but it won't be any of the ones on my list. That's not a shocking development, but in this year of global recession, the distance between the massive pop-Hollywood spectacles and the little-noticed obscurities way out on the cultural margins seems to have widened into a yawning abyss.

Actually, though, this has been a pretty good year for the independent-film sector, at least in economic terms. I know, that goes against both perceptions and the headline news: the implosion of Miramax and the pseudo-indie, mid-budget bombs churned out by mini-major studios like Fox Searchlight (e.g., "Amelia" and "Whip It"). But it's true anyway.

"Paranormal Activity" took this year's Blair Witch Memorial Award for viral-marketed zero-budget hit — grossing well over $100 million to date — and "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" has defied the film industry's cumulative demographic and marketing wisdom to the tune of $40 million or so. If the major studios' Indiewood specialty arms are dead or dying, old-fashioned film-festival acquisitions suddenly look like good business again.

My problem, which may be strictly my own, is that I found a lot of this year's indie hits to be predictable, formulaic and fundamentally uninteresting. The top-grossing foreign-language film of 2009, to date, is "Coco Before Chanel," a movie I saw and declined to review because it bored me too much. (Anne Fontaine is one of my favorite French directors, but I thought she was poorly matched to star Audrey Tautou and the orthodox biopic material.) Pedro Almodóvar's movie-movie noir "Broken Embraces" may wind up giving Fontaine's film a run for the money, but while I found many of the individual elements in "Broken Embraces" beautiful — the photography, the seriocomic tone, the central performances of Penélope Cruz and Lluís Homar — it never congealed into a satisfying whole. (I've been told to see it again, and I plan to.)

One major foreign release still lies ahead: Michael Haneke's austere black-and-white period piece "The White Ribbon," already winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the best-film and best-director prizes at the European Film Awards. While it's a typically dark and enigmatic Haneke work that will surely attract some big-city viewers, it lacks the contemporary setting and the Lynchian combination of violence and mystery that made his "Caché" a surprise hit a few holiday seasons back.

One imported hit that I think is being oddly dismissed by so-called serious critics is Lone Scherfig's "An Education," a pitch-perfect pre-feminist coming-of-age fable that ought to make Carey Mulligan a movie star. It struck me as a lovely film with a depth of moral seriousness that's partly masked by its sets, costumes and charm — and I'm afraid that even in the year of Kathryn Bigelow's unexpected resurgence, "An Education" is the victim of some latent sexism.

As for Bigelow's "Hurt Locker," anointed by critics' groups from coast to coast as an Oscar front-runner, uh ... how can I put this? I liked it. I'm a Bigelow fan from way back to "Near Dark." Way worse things could happen than to see her on the stage of the Kodak Theatre clutching a statuette (and looking fabulous while her ex-husband glowers in the audience) come March. But "The Hurt Locker" just doesn't speak to me the way the films on this list do. It was terrific, visceral cinema — but I don't treasure the experience of seeing it, or yearn to repeat it. And let's face it: While the acting was excellent, the film's dialogue, what little there was of it, was Michael Bay-grade awful.

So what about the movies I did like? From the Hollywood-financial point of view, it's a whole lotta nothing. Only two movies on my list grossed more than $1 million in the United States — and only one of those made it past $2 million. I've got two films by American directors, only one of them made in the U.S. I swear, none of this was deliberate. I'm not consciously trying to come off like that snotty, unshaven alt-weekly critic from 1989, talking up Balkan-dialect movies nobody but him has ever seen. (I wasn't even that guy in 1989, or not exactly.)

I do think, however, that the aesthetic conservatism that dominates American cinema at the moment — expressed on the indie fringes by a talky, unadventurous and fatally dull strain of neorealism — has taken its toll on me. I'm like a junkie GI who's come home from Saigon and discovered to his dismay that the shit on the streets just ain't strong enough, man! Screw these movies where people with bad haircuts sit around and drone on about their relationships, humorously or otherwise! I want Filipina transgender hookers, imitation mid-'60s crime flicks, opaque Argentine class warfare, mean-spirited Jewish fables and the completely inappropriate glorification of violent British convicts! And here they are.

Seriously, though — I didn't put any movies on this list because I respected them. Fuck that for a game of darts, as my late Uncle Liam said on many occasions. These are the movies that dazzled me this year, that disoriented me and shifted my reality prism and messed with my head. If in most cases hardly anybody else saw them or liked them, if the great humming and coughing steamroller of defective late capitalism squished them flat without even noticing, that is strictly not my fault. Happy happies, everybody. I'll catch you on the flippety-flop.

"Hunger" — British visual artist Steve McQueen's debut feature, about the Bobby Sands-IRA hunger strikes of the early 1980s, is so implausible on so many levels it's a wonder it works at all. Straddling the boundary between narrative and experimental cinema, between pure visuals and talky drama, between Terrence Malick and, say, Sean O'Casey, "Hunger" is in fact one of the decade's true breakthroughs. Plus, people on all sides of the Irish-British debate disliked it, which suggests McQueen was doing something right.

"Bronson" — Another fact-based British drama that isn't anything like what you'd think when you hear that phrase. Nicolas Winding Refn's operatic, visionary work about the legendary, ultra-violent English convict who took the name Charlie Bronson shamelessly breaks all the rules and wears a pathological obsession with Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" on its sleeve. I shouldn't rank it remotely this high, but I will anyway.

"Il Divo" — Rigorous, adventurous and explosive, Paolo Sorrentino's remarkable film takes the cinematic bravado of Martin Scorsese and the technical wizardry of David Fincher and applies them to the indecipherable story of Giulio Andreotti, the fabled "Black Pope" of 20th-century Italian politics. Part of the dazzling renaissance of Italian cinema, which may look sudden from here but has been brewing for a while. (See "Gomorrah," below.)

"A Serious Man" — I blow hot and cold on the Coens, but even their weaker films (e.g., "Burn After Reading," "The Ladykillers") reward repeat viewings — and their better films reward them even more. This utterly delicious black-comic Jewish fable, set in a middle-class Midwestern suburb in the '60s (a place that still carries buried undertones of Eastern European shtetl) is among their funniest and darkest films, both humane and ruthless in a way that's highly Coen-specific. As the last shot faded to black, I sat up in my seat and said, "Oh my fucking God!" Which is precisely right.

"The White Ribbon" — Michael Haneke's enigmatic and violent black-and-white yarn, set in rural Germany just before World War I, doesn't open until Dec. 30. I'll get to it then in more detail, but as is customary with the chilly Austrian-born director, "The White Ribbon" is a slippery fish. Ostensibly a parable about the roots of fascism, it's also a tale of faith, punishment, love and the petty cruelties of ordinary life. It's another of Haneke's unresolvable shaggy-dog mysteries, and simultaneously the most beautiful, most chilling and most forgiving of them.

"The Limits of Control" — People I know mostly either loved or hated Jim Jarmusch's stylish and surprisingly political twist on the '60s European crime film, driven by Spanish settings, Christopher Doyle's gorgeous photography and Isaach De Bankolé's iconic star presence and devastating wardrobe. Seriously, what's not to like? But then, I don't think this movie is about its conclusion (which some find dogmatic) or its reiterative-fragments-of-dialogue story. It's more like a Bach fugue, and it's about the moments, the silences, the faces and bodies and clothes, the endless cups of coffee. One of the indie pioneer's best ever.

"Serbis" — Based on the horrified word of mouth at Cannes in 2008, I didn't see Filipino director Brillante Mendoza's heartwarming family saga set in a dead-end porn theater until this year, when it had a very brief Stateside appearance. Last time I depend on gossip from a pack of prudish Europeans! Sure, the Family theater (yuk, yuk) is about the sleaziest place in the world — and the film includes one legendarily disgusting scene — but Mendoza's portrayal of the struggling family behind it, and the diverse and colorful sex trade it supports, has tremendous lyricism and compassion.

"35 Shots of Rum" — With virtually no audience outside France, Claire Denis has become that nation's leading chronicler of social change and dislocation. This hushed, minimalist portrait of an Afro-French father and daughter on the Parisian fringes may be Denis' loveliest and most challenging film. "35 Shots of Rum" builds slowly toward an enormous emotional payoff, and along the way offers one of the most heartbreaking and unlikely uses of a pop song in film history (the song in question being the Commodores' "Night Shift").

"Gomorrah" — In adapting a nonfiction book by Roberto Saviano about the Camorra (or Neapolitan mafia), Italian director Matteo Garrone draws on his nation's rich cinematic history for this big-canvas social drama that invokes Antonioni, Fellini and Francis Coppola. A spectacular big-screen accomplishment, whose gorgeous bleakness is well-captured in a brand-new two-disc special edition DVD from the Criterion Collection.

"The Headless Woman" — Argentine director Lucrecia Martel's gorgeous and deeply troubling '70s class-warfare drama was booed at Cannes, which is way beyond ironic given its themes of blind privilege and willful ignorance. Martel tries to break through the language of conventional film and show us how her central character, an upper-middle-class blond woman (María Onetto), lapses into amnesia rather than face the consequences of her own borderline-criminal conduct. Like every other film on this list, "Headless Woman" compels a second viewing — and then compels you to recognize that it's shown you things you still don't understand. (Now available on DVD from Strand Releasing.)

Honorable mentions (alphabetical): Lars von Trier's bloody, beautiful and fatally insane "Antichrist" established, in case anyone was wondering, that he no longer has an American audience; Andrew Bujalski's "Beeswax" was ignored by both the hipster audience that used to like him and the grown-up audience that should; Almodóvar's "Broken Embraces," on which see above; Scherfig's "An Education," also discussed above; Terry Gilliam's gorgeous and daring "Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," with a wonderful last performance by Heath Ledger; Götz Spielmann's twisty Euro-noir "Revanche"; Carlos Reygadas' Mexican-Mennonite adultery drama "Silent Light"; Nina Paley's irrepressible (and uncopyrighted!) feminist take on the "Ramayana," "Sita Sings the Blues"; Pablo Larraín's demented Pinochet-era disco fable "Tony Manero"; Zack Snyder's brooding, black-comic "Watchmen."

Check in tomorrow for Andrew O'Hehir's picks for best movie of the decade.

Best Movies of 2009 (Salon)

By Stephanie Zacharek

A month or so ago, as critics' top-10 lists started trickling onto various Oscar-related blogs, I noticed that one list or another would be branded "idiosyncratic," and I started to wonder exactly what that meant. Is there a hypothetically perfect list, a list that follows some ideal template? Is the ideal list the one that's most in tune with the Zeitgeist? One that doesn't contain any foreign-language or otherwise "weird" films that the majority of the American populace hasn't seen? Considering that 2009 saw the theatrical release of some 600 movies — not that any critic comes close to seeing them all — isn't any list made by any individual human being going to be idiosyncratic in some way? The notion that there's an acceptable critical view, that certain movies must — or must not — appear on a list in order for any given critic to be taken seriously, flies in the face of what criticism is supposed to be.

The year that's just passed was a great one for movies, but perhaps not necessarily for mainstream blockbusters that whole clusters of critics automatically got behind. "Up in the Air" and "Up," both generally well-reviewed, are clearly favorites among many critics; "Avatar" may have made it onto some lists as well, although many critics had filed their lists by the time they were able to see it. But that still leaves dozens — no, hundreds — of odds and ends, smaller movies that any critic or moviegoer may or may not have seen. And unless you live in a major metropolitan area with a good independent movie theater, those movies probably won't reach you until they come out on DVD. Heck, even if you live in New York City, they may have barely reached you: One movie on my list played in New York for just a week, although thankfully, it can be seen on DVD.

The harsh reality is that theatrical-distribution problems for independent films are only going to increase. Most people will see these smaller pictures at home, although the silver lining to this particular cloud is that at least those movies can be seen, pretty much anywhere. And so I invite you to draw up your own list of favorite movies of 2009, whether you watched them in a theater or at home, with reckless disregard for what anyone thinks you should like. In other words, feel free to be idiosyncratic.

Here are my 10 favorites which, beyond the top three, are not necessarily in any particular order:

"Summer Hours" — Olivier Assayas has made a lyrical, bittersweet picture about preserving the past by letting go of it. Juliette Binoche gives a wonderful, slightly prickly performance as one of a group of siblings who can't agree on how their mother's estate should be divided. (Edith Scob, who as a young woman starred in Georges Franju's "Eyes Without a Face," plays the matriarch, superbly.)

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" — No movie gave me more pleasure this year than Wes Anderson's stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's marvelously disreputable children's novel, a picture made with so much care and love that it practically glows. And this is the Clooney performance of the year: His elegance and charm find a natural home in the body of a handsome, wily fox puppet.

"Antichrist" — Hell hath frozen over: A Lars von Trier movie has found its way onto my list. I've always found von Trier's movies pretentious and misanthropic in a self-aggrandizing way, as if he were looking down on his audience and pronouncing them unworthy as human beings. But "Antichrist," in which Charlotte Gainsbourg gives an astonishing performance as a grief-stricken wife and mother creeping toward madness, is different. There's more raw pain in this picture than most filmmakers would dare, or be able, to express in a single work. "Antichrist" isn't easy to love, but I can't look away from it: This is the movie in which von Trier reaches out to us, instead of just looking down.

"The September Issue" and "Valentino: The Last Emperor" — These two beautifully made documentaries — by, respectively, R.J. Cutler and journalist turned filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer — are ostensibly about fashion. But really, they're both about the nature of work and of partnership, as well as the value of manmade beauty and craftsmanship in our world. In "The September Issue," Vogue editor Anna Wintour and creative director Grace Coddington channel two very different, often conflicting visions into the pages of their magazine — the chemistry works in spite of itself. And "Valentino" shows us the Designer Who Needs Only One Name and his movie-star-handsome partner (in both business and life), Giancarlo Giammetti, residing over a dying butterfly of a world, the planet of haute couture.

"Bright Star" — Jane Campion's film version of the romance between poet John Keats and literal girl-next-door Fanny Brawne is unfussy, passionate and gently erotic. It's also one of the few pictures I can think of that don't render the world of poets and poetry dead on arrival. Sturdy but delicate performances by Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw sure don't hurt.

"Coraline" — Henry Selick's stop-motion animated picture, adapted from Neil Gaiman's creepy-wonderful kids' book, is visually inventive and gloriously tactile. In a movie universe where the human touch is becoming a thing of the past, Selick champions the beauty of visible fingerprints.

"The International" — German director Tom Tykwer makes a smart, quiet, gorgeous-looking thriller for grown-ups, and — surprise! — it tanks at the box office. The cutting here is meticulous but leisurely; the mood is one of restless melancholy. Although Tykwer's craftsmanship deserves to be seen on the big screen, it at least deserves a second chance on the small one.

"Lake Tahoe" — In 2006 the young Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke gave us the strange and lovely coming-of-age tale (shot in black-and-white, no less) "Duck Season." Eimbcke's most recent picture, "Lake Tahoe," earned accolades at various film festivals, but was barely released in the United States. (It played for one week in New York.) The movie covers a day in the life of a young man who's just suffered a death in the family, and it's the kind of picture in which nothing, and yet everything, happens. Eimbcke's style of filmmaking is disciplined, serene and ultimately deeply moving, and he knows the value of keeping the camera still. Shaky-cam haters unite! ("Lake Tahoe" is available through Film Movement.)

"Broken Embraces" — Pedro Almodóvar's latest, a gorgeous melodramatic fantasy about what it means to live for movies, has the go-for-broke passion and lush craziness of early Almodóvar pictures like "Matador" and "Law of Desire." And he always brings out the best in Penélope Cruz: Here, she's a dazzling, vital beauty who shows how exhausting it is to be a full-time dream girl.

"Star Trek" — Mainstream sci-fi filmmaking, done with heart and intelligence, courtesy of J.J. Abrams. Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, as the older and younger versions of Spock, are the tag team of the year.

But wait! There's more: Claire Denis' "35 Rhums," James Gray's "Two Lovers," Ruben Fleischer's "Zombieland," Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," James Toback's "Tyson," Steve McQueen's "Hunger," Mike Judge's "Extract," Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Jean-Marc Vallée's "The Young Victoria," Scott Cooper's "Crazy Heart," Oren Moverman's "The Messenger," Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell," Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," Ramin Bahrani's "Goodbye Solo," Richard Loncraine's "My One and Only," and, for truly cheap thrills, Pierre Morel's "Taken."

Top 100 de la década (Fin de Cinema)

Más allá de algunos severos desacuerdos (¿"DOGVILLE"?), aquí tienen un muy buen listado de grandes películas de la década.

Mi Top Ten del 2009: Puesto 7°

Gomorra (Mateo Garrone)

Nunca había visto una película de gángsters --uno de mis géneros favoritos-- como "Gomorra", que parece, a la vez, más realista que todas las demás juntas y, al mismo tiempo, da la impresión de suceder en un lejano planeta habitado por extraterrestres. Esa combinación, más la ausencia de todo el glamour que suele llevar acarreado el género, la transforma en una experiencia única e inusual. De hecho, que las historias sean separadas entre sí y ligeramente conectadas (no a la manera, digamos, Arriaga) le agrega un condimento extra: no hay mafiosos románticos ni héroes trágicos. Son tipos que trabajan en un laburo complicado, los "punteros" de un imperio de dimensiones que los excede a cada paso.

Top 20 del 2009 (L Magazine)

Fourteen critics ranked their favorite 2009 theatrical premieres and currently undistributed films for our first annual (?) film poll, which yielded a Top 10, especially, more demographically on-point than we had expected, given the diversity of sensibility demonstrated in the film writing published this year in The L. In 2009, a disproportionate number of Filmmakers We Grew Up On—Tarantino, Anderson, the Coens, Jarmusch, perhaps also Mann, Bigelow and Pixar (whose Up would have leapfrogged more than a half-dozen films if we had scored on number of votes rather than points)—released mature works; contrastingly, all but two of the foreign films on this list were 2008 (and in one case 2007) festival premieres, which delayed-release exposure underscores the usual distribution struggles contributing to the diffusion of votes among non-Hollywood/indiewood films. That said, The L's best film of the year—world premiere in August '08 in Venice, US premiere this March at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, NYC theatrical run in September—was the only film to receive more than one first-place vote: it received five (including mine).

1. 35 Shots of Rum
(Claire Denis)
Like Hou Hsiao-hsien did in Cafe Lumiere—another of the decade's best, hardest-to-quantify films—Denis jumps off from Ozu's Late Spring to tell a story of father-daughter bonds tenderly loosened, and unspoken intimacies exchanged or considered in intermediate spaces, like over rice or in commuter trains. With houseboat-rocking, light-rippling long takes, Denis (with cinematographer Agnes Godard) caresses the textures of people spending time in place, a full sensory immersion conductive to something like telepathy between character and viewer. Ask not why you should spend time with a movie whose chief achievement is its evocation of everyday experience—ask whether it's even possible for a movie to do anything more.
Mark Asch

2. Inglourious Basterds
(Quentin Tarantino)
The movies drop like a bomb to end World War II, as history's rewritten in a celluloid inferno cued from the projection booth—which is no more or less reprehensible than most historical fictions, it's just that QT's more honest than most about how filmmakers use their medium to satisfy private desires. He's also better than most at contriving fetish scenarios: delayed-gratification suspense set-ups and genre role-playing; masturbatory dialogue and orgiastic violence; inside references peeking through the movie like handkerchief code.
Asch

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
(Wes Anderson)
It's obvious now: of course Wes Anderson's masterpiece would be his stab at stop-motion animation! The technique not only lends itself to but demands meticulous control over the minutiae—Anderson's specialty. But Fantastic Mr. Fox is more than a delight of details: it's endlessly hilarious and steeped in pathos, most of which emerges from the film's complex struggle between civilization and human, er, vulpine nature. And, thanks to its Roald Dahl origins, it's Wes' first political film, a bold and serendipitously timely statement about wealth redistribution that sticks it to the fat cats.
Henry Stewart

4. Two Lovers
(James Gray)
Before disguising himself with a shaggy beard, Joaquin Phoenix allowed an excess of childlike vulnerability to twist his mouth into a permanent pout. Gray's riskiest work yet finds the actor pushing the archetype of the sullen, pallid, pleading-eyed romantic to new heights, walking that dangerous line between unabashed melodrama and grotesque self-parody. The result is a rare modern love story that combines the headiness of infatuation with a disgust at the infantalizing nature of raw human emotion.
Andrew Chan

5. A Serious Man
(Joel and Ethan Coen)
Amid gathering storms in a complacent suburban Jewish milieu where a tradition of skepticism has become institutional (and where even uncertainty is formulaic), the Coens search not for certainty—which A Serious Man's merchants of ambiguity possess in abundance—but for authentic doubt. A work of moral philosophy more profound than Manichean pulper No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man doesn't lament the collapse of the order imposed on chaos—it satirizes chaos's domestication. (Don't call the Coens glib ironists: they take irony seriously.)
Asch

6. Summer Hours
(Olivier Assayas)
After kicking off the decade with a turn-of-the-century period piece (Les destinees sentimentales), France's preeminent neo-New Waver spent the rest of the aughts dividing his fans and critics with oft-outlandish DV experiments (demonlover, Clean, Boarding Gate). In his latest, the Chekhovian story of bourgeois siblings forced to liquidate their family estate after their mother dies, Assayas triumphantly returns to the domestic sphere, while retaining his unparalleled eye for globalism's discontents.
Benjamin Strong

7. The Headless Woman
(Lucretia Martel)
Martel fashions ultra-realistic narratives of visceral unease like no one else—here, a bourgeois woman's internal dissolution after a car accident we only half-perceive is a lean-forward-and-hold-your-breath nightmare in which every off-kilter composition and cut is engineered as an unemphatic WTF mystery. Is it amnesia, or something about our viewer's lust for omniscience? That it has rankled so many is a testament to what's unsaid and to the secret superpowers of off-screen space.
Michael Atkinson

8. Adventureland
(Greg Mottola)
Maybe a film pinning itself to Paul Westerberg's couplet "Dreams unfulfilled/Graduate unskilled" was always bound to resonate with underemployed liberal-artists who write freelance movie reviews. And yet... Mottola makes his sticky-tarmaced setting into a sort of Middle American Kitschland, games and rides embodying the incurious Top 40, working-class prejudice and sexual hang-up his holding-patterned Oberlin-grad protagonist expected to finally escape; beyond the I-Love-the-80s particulars is a quintessentially American tale of upward mobility arrested—one that, this year especially, hurts like an unexpected smack to the nutsack.
Asch

9. The Limits of Control
(Jim Jarmusch)
First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait: beyond coffee-kibitzing cool, Jarmusch's cinema of people-watching is a matter of patiently attuning consciousness to latent surrounding patterns. As the still point in the turning world, Isaach De Bankole's hyper-alert calm and physical focus made for the year's most underrated performance; walking out of the theater afterwards felt like stepping out of a sauna.
Asch

10. Public Enemies
(Michael Mann)
An oddity when it was fed in July to multiplex audiences sated with action (Transformers) and comedy (The Hangover), but for the ungrudging (not just Michael Mann geeks), this offered a thrillingly new kind of period crime picture. Depp's too good-looking, Bale's stiff, and the romance between Dillinger and Billie Frechette never quite crushes you, but the unique passion in every masterful DV frame—and the movie's accreting, poetic sorrow—can haunt your memory.
Justin Stewart

11. Lorna's Silence
(Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
At first glance we've seen this one before—a Dardenne brothers film about redemption—except Lorna's Silence isn't nearly so simple. The Dardennes reliably, realistically describe the socio-economic circumstances of scheming, citizenship-desperate foreigners within a porous post-EU Belgium, but what makes Lorna's Silence so unnerving is that the title character's quashed moral awakening transforms not into pure martyrdom but self-sanctifying madness, awing to behold but devastating to comprehend.
Michael Joshua Rowin

12. Thirst
(Park Chan-wook)
In a strong year for offbeat horror, the best may be Thirst, a vampire story less outright scary than icky, squishy, and transfixing. Park also made the beloved Old Boy, but Thirst's newly turned priest, who tries to stay sort of good while parlaying his condition into a forbidden affair, provides a more empathetic central figure, and despite the gushing blood, this is the more mature genre riff. The plot twists uncomfortably, Park's camera gazes steadily, and international cinema provides another reason for the U.S. to be embarrassed by Twilight.
Jesse Hassenger

13. The Hurt Locker
(Kathryn Bigelow)
Like the bomb-defusing unit in her movie, Bigelow braved the (admittedly lower-stakes) minefield of Iraq War art-making and somehow came up with something that was tense and exciting without being exploitative, Call of Duty bullshit, and morally impactful without sounding liberal wakey-wakey alarms. Its missions are cleanly choreographed—here incoherence doesn't equal realism—and Jeremy Renner's lead performance is unforgettable.
J. Stewart

14. 24 City
(Jia Zhang-ke)
Having spent the decade taking on the mantle of "greatest Chinese filmmaker," Jia closes out the aughts with an impeccably restrained portrait of three generations of factory workers. Gut-wrenchingly candid talking heads are intercut with literary quotes, sing-alongs, and movie-star cameos, an aesthetically flexible approach that allows Jia to keep his trademark austerity while adding a few doses of TV-drama immediacy.
Chan

15. Up
(Pete Docter)
Pixar grew up this year, making an intimate little movie about a reclusive old widower trying to cope with the suddenly very real (3D, even) prospect of his own mortality. Sure, there was a talking dog, a floating house, an aerial battle and a Skittles-colored emu, but Up's actually a superior, animated remake of About Schmidt.
Benjamin Sutton

16. Julia
(Erick Zonca)
Starring Tilda Swinton in a galvanic, often horrifying, lead performance as an aging barroom queen, Julia unfolds as both ludicrous character study and nutso thriller. But it's so committed to its wonky absurdities and ultimately so grounded in a great abyss of human need that it demands to be taken seriously.
Andrew Schenker

17. Night and Day
(Hong Sang-soo)
Gentler with age, Hong continues his Godardian-Rohmerian rumba through modern triangulated romantic warfare, this time relocating to Paris, following after a half-assed Hongian man as he dallies amid art students and experiences love as a series of painful and self-contradictory revelations. Kinda unforgettable.
Atkinson

18. You, the Living
(Roy Andersson)
Andersson builds both the desolation of his down-and-out urbanites and the darkly humorous nature of their plight directly into the letter-perfect framings of his miserablist tableaux. Music and dreams provide Andersson's grotesques with their only escape, but it's in showing us how to adapt an absurdist's perspective that the director teaches us how to accept our own world of woe.
Schenker

19. Revanche
(Getz Spielmann)
The blunt title translates as Revenge, and the plot pivots on a robbery gone wrong, but the pulp is merely the surface. Austrian writer-director Spielmann slowly, assuredly takes his smoldering film into unexpected terrain. This nominal scuzz effortlessly doubles as a study in the corrosive effects of revenge and guilt, triples as a nuanced character piece, etc.
Benjamin Mercer

20. Police, Adjective
(Corneliu Porumboiu)
Romanian filmmaker Porumboiu likes a challenge—or is that a gamble? After the dribbling on-air debates of 12:08 comes this longest of wind-ups: a police procedural reworked twice—first with the interminable imagery of surveillance, then with a dive into language and its grip on reality.
Nicolas Rapold

Honorable Mentions...

Beaches of Agnès: Agnès Varda, Godmother of the French New Wave (and den mother for international bohemia), reflects, with henna-haired playfulness and aching nostalgia. No one in cinema history has so perfected the art of leafing through a photo album. Asch

Beeswax: Andrew Bujalski's observational (which is not to say passive, it's structurally quite elegant) consideration of the search for clarity in personal and professional communication—which begins with knowing what you yourself want to say. Asch

Bright Star: Jane Campion's tragic John Keats-Fanny Brawne romance beautifully renders both plein-air flirtation and the cloistered pursuit of poetic inspiration, as well as the day-to-day domestic rituals of early-19th-century England. Mercer

The Class (Laurent Cantet): A friend, a 9th and 10th grade history teacher in Bushwick, reports: "I have every single one of those kids." Asch

Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha: From adolescent groping to pirates to love-starved grannies and even more touch-hungry gorillas, Melvin Van Peebles' audacious bildungsroman epitomizes the boundless spirit of DIY filmmaking. Gallagher

Henry Selick's Coraline, adapted from the Neil Gaiman text, has a living-storybook quality with its gorgeously intricate stop-motion animation and a haunting, sometimes even subtle use of digital 3-D tech. Hassenger

Goodbye Solo: Ramin Bahrani, New York's next neo-realist maestro (of Man Push Cart and Chop Shop fame), went home to North Carolina for this moving story from America's fringes. Sutton

Independencia: Raya Martin's as-yet-undistributed silent-film pastiche fits its tale of Filipinos hiding out from the Americans with an appropriately colonized aesthetic, but what sticks most are the silvery, dreamlike images. Schenker

Of Time and the City: Queer, erudite Terence Davies' history of Liverpool is equally the story of his self-conscious, perhaps guilty attempts to distance himself from his working-class Catholic origins: the nostalgia is doubly poignant for the filmmaker's self-defeating attempts to deny it. Asch

Paradise: Michael Almereyda preserves on video a collage of fleeting, stolen moments from around the world. The film's unassuming reticence only heightens its expressive, evocative power. Gallagher

Tokyo Sonata: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's masterpiece, about people out of place, centered on one family but with an eye on the surrounding world, which parallels their condition. H. Stewart

Serbis: Brillante Mendoza's hauntingly lurid modernist story about a Filipino family in crisis and the porno theater they run. A celebration of the tactile, no matter how grotesque. Simon Abrams

Still Walking: Hirokazu Kore-Eda's tribute to Ozu and Naruse, about two generations of a family who desperately want to but cannot connect. Brimming with genuine warmth and hurt. Abrams

Village Voice - Year-End Film Poll — 2009 (Resumen de resultados)

Best Films of 2009

1. The Hurt Locker
Kathryn Bigelow
(356 points, 54 mentions)
Bigelow's you-are-there Iraq War drama immerses the viewer in the front-line existence of a U.S. bomb squad in Baghdad. It's an experiential war movie—and a full-throttle body-shock, too.

2. Summer Hours
Olivier Assayas
(239 points, 40 mentions)
Old money meets a new world as bourgeois siblings struggle to divide their mother's estate and Assayas ponders the value of family and France in the age of relentless globalization.

3. A Serious Man
Joel and Ethan Coen
(229 points, 34 mentions)
Larry Gopnik, schlub extraordinaire, absorbs humiliations of all kind—financial, professional, personal, rabbinical—to learn that life is really about . . . just kidding! Life isn't about anything, God sucks, and the Coens are brutal in this blackest of black comedies.

4. Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino
(214 points, 36 mentions)
All hail Quentin Tarantino's smashingly entertaining World War II romp about a dirty half-dozen American grunts trying to bring an end to the Third Reich. Jews and Nazis may battle it out to a fiery finish, but it is cinema that emerges triumphant.

5. 35 Shots of Rum
Claire Denis
(189 points, 32 mentions)
Denis's quiet, poignant father-daughter drama shows the beauty and strength of familial bonds, and the equally strong force of personal, individual desire.

6. The Headless Woman
Lucrecia Martel
(183 points, 28 mentions)
Though structured around Vero, a middle-aged peroxide blond who hits something (a dog?) with her car, Martel's willfully disorienting head-scratcher's true subject is the self-satisfied stagnation of the privileged elite, whom the film eviscerates without mercy.

7. Police, Adjective
Corneliu Porumboiu
(171 points, 28 mentions)
A slow-burn absurdist triumph, Police begins as a police procedural but winds up an exhilarating verbal ping-pong match about conscience, personal morality, and the true meanings of words.

8. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson
(163 points, 29 mentions)
Asking existential questions through the whisker'd mouth of a reckless, self-absorbed, corduroy-clad fox (George Clooney), Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation wonder is, in the end, deeply human.

9. Two Lovers
James Gray
(137 points, 20 mentions)
An explosion of emotions, Gray's Brighton Beach–set melodrama gives Joaquin Phoenix every Jewish boy's impossible situation: marry the parents-approved, nice Jewish girl (Vinessa Shaw) or shtup the crazy shiksa next door (Gwyneth Paltrow).

10. Up
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
(120 points, 21 mentions)
The latest Pixar insta-classic, Up takes off as widower Carl turns his home into a high-flying house-balloon and floats up, up, and away to see the world. Turns out, he is not alone—and his journey for personal wish fulfillment becomes something even more essential.

BEST ACTOR

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
(60 points, 27 mentions)
Beneath his blustery macho surface, Renner's Staff Sergeant William James may be the movie's most intricately wired explosive device. Bomb-detonator wins the war for best actor, at least.

Runners-up:

Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (33 points, 19 mentions)
Colin Firth, A Single Man (32 points, 13 mentions)
Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers (29 points, 12 mentions)
Tom Hardy, Bronson (28 points, 12 mentions)

BEST ACTRESS

Tilda Swinton, Julia
(66 points, 25 mentions)
As the titular desperate woman—a leggy, vodka-guzzling tart in false eyelashes and cheap sequined gowns—Swinton devours her role, then spits it back up, dances giddily upon it, and twirls it in the air.

Runners-up

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist (57 points, 25 mentions)
Carey Mulligan, An Education (42 points, 23 mentions)
Catalina Saavedra, The Maid (41 points, 19 mentions)
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia (32 points, 18 mentions)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
(92 points, 35 mentions)
As the loquacious Nazi Hans Landa, Waltz is not only the movie's villain, but also its master of revels. A cheerfully sadistic SS Colonel you can root for!

Runners-up:

Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles (34 points, 17 mentions)
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger (30 points, 15 mentions)
Paul Schneider, Bright Star (23 points, 12 mentions)
Vlad Ivanov, Police, Adjective (22 points, 9 mentions)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Mo'Nique, Precious
(69 points, 29 mentions)
A force of nature, Mo'Nique transforms an ostensibly one-note monster—Precious's welfare mom—into a complex portrait of a psychologically damaged woman.

Runners-up:

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air (45 points, 20 mentions)
Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds (32 points, 14 mentions)
Samantha Morton, The Messenger (31 points, 17 mentions)
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air (26 points, 14 mentions)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
(12 points)
Sacha Gervasi's phenomenal rockumentary follows the now-fiftysomething "demigods of Canadian metal" through a disastrous European tour and the recording of their 13th album—and waning shot at fame.

Runners-up:

Of Time and the City (10 points)
The Beaches of Agnès (9 points)
The Cove (8 points)
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet;
Tyson (7 points)

BEST FIRST FEATURE

The Messenger
(8 points)
The directorial debut of Oren Moverman (who wrote Todd Haynes's I'm Not There) is a moving and nuanced drama about a pair of casualty notification officers, bearing awful news while coping with their own traumas.

Runners-up:

Afterschool (7 points)
In the Loop; A Single Man; Tulpan (6 points)

BEST UNDISTRIBUTED FILM

To Die Like a Man
(24 points, 11 mentions)

A fabulously sad fable about a Fado-singing, pooch-pampering trannie growing old, Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues's To Die Like a Man, which premiered at this past Cannes and then came stateside to the New York Film Festival, is also a piece of lyrical, playful, unpredictable filmmaking.

Runners-up:

Trash Humpers (16 points, 7 mentions)
Enter the Void (12 points, 7 mentions)

WORST FILM OF THE YEAR

Precious
(6 points)
Starring our top pick for supporting actress, Precious—about an overweight, neglected, and abused teen mother—is apparently an acquired taste.

Runners-up:

Inglourious Basterds; The Lovely Bones; Nine; Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (4 points)
Whatever Works (3 points)

BEST FILM OF THE DECADE
Mulholland Drive (10 points)
Comic, sexy, surreal, self-reflexive, thrilling, and ludicrous by turns, David Lynch's 2001 exploration of the Hollywood dream factory is a voluptuous phantasmagoria with a two-part structure that suggests Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. reversed so that the dream comes first.

Runners-up:

The 25th Hour; In the Mood for Love (5 points)
La Commune; Yi Yi; Zodiac (4 points)

L.A. Weekly/Village Voice Media contributors: Robert Abele, Melissa Anderson, David Ehrenstein, F.X. Feeney, Scott Foundas, Lance Goldenberg, Tim Grierson, Aaron Hillis, J. Hoberman, Brian Miller, Adam Nayman, Michelle Orange, Nick Pinkerton, Nicolas Rapold, Vadim Rizov, Ella Taylor, Luke Y. Thompson, Chuck Wilson

Participants from Other Organizations: Sam Adams (Philadelphia City Paper), Jason Anderson (Eye Weekly), David Ansen (Newsweek), Michael Atkinson (Zero For Conduct), Sean Axmaker (Parallax View), Sheila Benson (Parallax View), Donna Bowman (freelance), Peter Brunette (The Hollywood Reporter), Jeannette Catsoulis (Reverse Shot), Justin Chang (Variety), Tom Charity (CNN.com), Daryl Chin (Documents on Art & Cinema), Richard Corliss (Time), Mike D'Angelo (Las Vegas Weekly), David D'Arcy (Screen International), Peter Debruge (Variety), Bilge Ebiri (New York), Jim Emerson (RogerEbert.com), Steve Erickson (Gay City News/Baltimore City Paper), David Fear (Time Out New York), Cynthia Fuchs (PopMatters), Ed Gonzalez (Slant), Larry Gross (Film Comment/Movie City News), Andrew Grant (Like Anna Karina's Sweater), Eugene Hernandez (indieWIRE), Logan Hill (New York), Christoph Huber (Die Presse, Vienna), J.R. Jones (Chicago Reader), Kent Jones (Film Comment), Christopher Kelly (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), Ben Kenigsberg (Time Out Chicago), Glenn Kenny (Some Came Running), Peter Keough (The Boston Phoenix), Robert Koehler (Variety), Eric Kohn (indieWIRE), Dan Kois (NYmag.com), Michael Koresky (Reverse Shot), Nathan Lee (NPR), Diego Lerer (Clarin, Buenos Aires), Karina Longworth (Spout.com), Philip Lopate (Film Comment), Todd McCarthy (Variety), Patrick Z. McGavin (Screen International), Kristi Mitsuda (Reverse Shot), Wesley Morris (The Boston Globe), Rob Nelson (Variety), Mark Olsen (Film Comment), Gerald Peary (The Boston Phoenix), Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune), Keith Phipps (The Onion), Richard Porton (Cineaste), John Powers (Vogue), James Quandt (Cinematheque Ontario), Nathan Rabin (The Onion), Berenice Reynaud (REDCAT), Carrie Rickey (Philadelphia Inquirer), Jonathan Rosenbaum (JonathanRosenbaum.com), Joshua Rothkopf (Time Out New York), Nick Schager (Slant), Andrew Schenker (Slant), Choire Sicha (The Awl), Chuck Stephens (freelance), David Sterritt (DavidSterritt.com), Amy Taubin (Film Comment), Charles Taylor (freelance), N.P. Thompson (Movies Into Film), Scott Tobias (The Onion), Martin Tsai (The Bitter Critic), Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times), Keith Uhlich (Time Out New York), Bill White (Seattle Post- Intelligencer), Matthew Wilder (Collider.com), Stephanie Zacharek (Salon). Disagree? Contribute to our Readers' Poll. We'll publish the results in the January 13, 2010 issue of The Voice and, of course, online.