I still have a pile of films yet to review, but I am mostly through watching the majority of 2009 films that I wanted to see.  The last really outstanding one is The Hurt Locker and it is sitting next to my TV in that little red netflix envelope waiting for the right moment.  (Chances [...]

Up in the Air
USA | 2009 | Dir. Jason Reitman
George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
It only seems fitting that I am sitting in the Salt Lake City airport while writing this review.  I am a nervous flyer and normally dread visits to the airport. Up in the Air somehow managed to take all of the United 93 [...]

This question has been posed to me a couple of times, so I figured I would post my response.
Why are there 10 movies up for Best Picture this year?  And do you think there were any glaring omissions in the nominations?
$$$$$$$$$ is the easy answer.  Basically, they alienated the main stream crowd last year when [...]

Avatar
USA | 2009 | Dir. James Cameron
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang
Ok, I will say this: watching Avatar from the second row in 3D was an incredible visual experience.  I just find it really sad that in the course of the twelve or so years Cameron spent creating this modern epic he did not leave the time [...]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
USA | 2009 | Dir. Michael Bay
Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox
It is with great pride that I pin the only “One Star” of the year on Transformers 2 – a film that, even in the company of a good friend, a pile of beer, and the desire to be mindlessly entertained, could not [...]

The Young Victoria
UK | 2009 | Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent
Guest Review by Emily Eisen
I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t go see The Young Victoria in large part for the costumes, the love story, and the royal drama. But the film succeeds beyond the typical period romance or historical reenactment in [...]

The Fantastic Mr. Fox
USA | 2009 | Dir. Wes Anderson
George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray
It was commented in one review that Wes Anderson has been making stop-motion films his whole life with live actors and Fox is the first film in which he has finally matched his visual style and wont for control with the correct [...]

I seem to have stumbled into two overlapping film projects, one intentional and the other a lucky byproduct.  The premeditated series is the Cary Grant marathon that Emily and I embarked on a couple of months ago, slowly backfilling both of our knowledge of the Cinematic Titan.  The other intersecting marathon has been tracing the [...]

Food, Inc.
USA | 2009 | Dir. Robert Kenner
Following Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food (and others), this documentary peels back the illusions of the industrial food industry in America providing a wonderful introduction into the changes in eating habits and culture that is starting to take place.  It is, however, just a [...]

A Serious Man
USA | 2009 | Dir. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Michael Stuhlbarg
That the Coen Brothers are exceptional filmmakers is without a doubt, but rarely do their films take such a personal take, and dance such a fine line with moral issues.  The simple plot, of a physics professor who becomes trapped in the middle of [...]