The experts’ 3 Best movies of 2009
Here are the 3 best movies of 2009 that got our adrenaline pumping and the dynamite exploding. We love good movies and have seen hundreds in our time.
- The Blind Side. It’s easy to see why America has fallen head over heels for this true-life story of Leigh Anne Toughy (Sandra Bullock), a well-to-do white Memphis woman, and Michael Oher, the black teen (Quintin Aaron) she adopts off the streets and nurtures into a star athlete. It’s irresistible, charming, reliably inspirational and The Blind Side comes with a fairy-tale ending we know actually happened. Of course, it’s also got football — and is truly the greatest tale of a left tackle ever produced.
- The Princess and the Frog. While much of the pre-release hype surrounded the significance of Disney’s first African-American princess (a long-overdue accomplishment not to be dismissed), it proved only one reason to celebrate this triumph. In a year ruled by 3D, stop-motion animation, motion-capture technology, etc, Disney went back to its roots and crafted a charming, toe-tapping and timeless tale in that good ol’ classic hand-drawn style The Princess and the Frog movie.
- Up in the Air. With three feature films now under his belt – ‘Thank You for Smoking,’ ‘Juno’ and now this instant classic — is there any doubt that 32-year-old Jason Reitman is one of Hollywood’s best directors? George Clooney somehow makes a corporate downsizer (topical!) lovable and magnetic in a superb lead turn (his best yet), while Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga kill as the distinctly powerful women who change his life. Watch Up in the Air movie is a near-perfect film that is at times bitingly funny, at other times heartrendingly sad — sort of like life, come to think of it.