margot at the wedding

Noah Baumbach - 2007

Noah Baumbach doesn't work that much, but I love everything he's ever done - especially "Kicking & Screaming" from 1995. This one was wonderful as well, with Nicole Kidman playing a most unlikable character. Baumbach's films are filled with wonderful dialogue and discourses. Excellent.

This is likely my last film of 2009. During this year I've watched 132 movies, not so bad, but not my goal - which was 150. However, I also watched a number of 1 hour ESPN documentaries and the entire season of "Freaks & Geeks" which is 18 hours long, so I think I've come pretty close.

I think I'm going to start 2010 with Butch Cassidy - I don't think I got to it in 2009 and I now own it on blu-ray. What a great way to start the new decade.

alphaville

Jean-Luc Godard - 1965

Fascinating film, wonderfully visual and textual.

polar express

Robert Zemeckis - 2004

Really liked it.

body of lies

Ridley Scott - 2008

up in the air

Jason Reitman - 2009

Wow. This was really good. Great plot twist I didn't see coming and such a great character study. George Clooney was amazing. Vera Farmiga fabulous and watch for the moment where her in a different type of clothing signifies her truth.

julie & julia

Nora Ephron - 2009

I tend to like Nora Ephron's movies - seeing a movie through a woman's lens is so rare that even her somewhat predictable heartfeltness (word?) is okay by me. Julie Powell's husband is indeed a saint, I would have gone crazy.

At the end, this film is about finishing what you started. Completion in a fragmented age is more and more difficult - what does completion even mean? Blogs go on forever, movies have sequels, prequels and even squeakwels - ugh. Anyhow, media fragmentation can make completion feel more elusive, and thus more difficult to achieve. Both of these women accomplished something, and not something trivial.

My one nit - they raise the specter of Julia Child not liking what Julie Powell was doing, but then they leave it alone and don't bring it back - quite frustrating. Did anything else happen there?

school of rock

Richard Linklater - 2003

It seems to be a Linklater month. Watched this in Buffalo on TBS - very funny. Not really, but ok.

taking woodstock

Ang Lee - 2009

First movie I ever watched on my iPhone. Not bad, actually.

The movie was okay - good, not great.

she's the one

Edward Burns - 1996

Jennifer Aniston rules. There, I said it.

definitely, maybe

Adam Brooks - 2008

Why do I love this so much?

no country for old men

Cohen Brothers - 2007

Only the second time I've watched this. Javier Bardem is beyond creepy. Kept thinking that these are the same people who made Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski and other farces. This movie is not a farce.

the fantastic mr. fox

Wes Andersen - 2009

What a great film. Has everything that a Wes Andersen movie should and more - in stop-action. The amount of patience that that must require is beyond me. It is visually rich. Really, really great.

dazed & confused

Richard Linklater - 1993

Had insomnia the other night and caught the last hour of this. So many great early performances - mila jovavich, ben affleck, joey lauren adams, matthew mcconaghey, adam goldberg and more. So great, so early nineties, so many memories of high school when I see it.

bruno

Sasha Baron Cohen - 2009

Offensive, stupid, awful. But I laughed out loud during the whole thing.

american gangster

Ridley Scott - 2007

awesome as always.

saving private ryan

Steven Spielberg - 1998

Watched this in the new theater at home - you could hear the bullets whizzing by!

Still love this one, out of a 2hr 40 minute feature, he devotes an hour to two scenes - taking the beach and saving the bridge. Great use of structure. Great young actors.

funny people

Judd Apatow - 2009

Watched with Sam...it was just as poignant as the first time around. It's intensely personal and I really think Sandler is strong in this. He is great at showing vulnerability.

whatever works

Woody Allen - 2009

When you make a movie a year, you're allowed some duds. This is one of them.

planet 51

Jorge Blanco & Javier Abad - 2009

Horrible.

lymelife

Derick Martini - 2008

Totally missed this one when it came out, but I really enjoyed it. Very funny, very smart, quite poignant.

a bug's life

John Lasseter - 1998

Really smart.

astroboy

David Bowers - 2009

Watching animated movies by people other than Pixar makes you understand how good Pixar is.

tigerland

Joel Schumacher - 2000

I missed this in 2000, but man is it amazing. Really really good. Colin Farrell is fascinating.

dr. strangelove: or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

Stanley Kubrick - 1964

Got to see this in the historic Alameda Theater - awesome.

election

Alexander Payne - 1999

milk

Gus Van Sant - 2008

ali

Michael Mann - 2001

forgetting sarah marshall

Nicholas Stoller - 2008

i love you, man

John Hamburg - 2009

Laugh-out-loud funny.

the dirty dozen

Robert Aldrich - 1967

Lee Marvin, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown - gotta love this movie!

pineapple express

David Gordon Green - 2008

defiance

Edward Zwick - 2008

Amazing.

charlie wilson's war

Mike Nichols - 2007

Aaron Sorkin writes, Nichols directs. Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman star - what's not to love?

the invention of lying

Ricky Gervais - 2009

Amazing. Great concept - even if he every now and then overdoes it. It ends in a very formulaic way, but the trip there is great.

wedding crashers

David Dobkin - 2005

the talented mr. ripley

Anthony Minghella - 1999

Anthony Minghella is dead and Matt Damon is an action hero. Ten years have gone by. Damon is still creepy as hell as Ripley.

mean streets

Martin Scorsese - 1973

Saw this at the Castro - so great to see it on the big screen. What a great movie.

adventureland

Greg Mottola - 2009

Watched it again with Sam. Still the same reaction - average.

the informant!

Steven Soderbergh - 2009

Very good. Matt Damon was great. What a bizarre story.

semi-pro

Kent Alterman - 2008

adventureland

Greg Mottola - 2009

Jesse Eisenberg is channeling Michael Cera, and not impressively. I was really looking forward to this. But in the end - average.

juno

Jason Reitman - 2008

I love this movie. So good. Michael Cera is pure genius.

he's just not that into you

Ken Kwapis - 2009

Love that Jennifer Aniston.

(500) days of summer

Marc Webb - 2009

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a very interesting actor. Love Zooey Deschanel. Odd film - watch for the surreal nod to B&S. Great use of the space-time continuum.

gran torino

Clint Eastwood - 2008

Very good.

the incredibles

Brad Bird - 2004

inglorious basterds

Quentin Tarantino - 2009

I didn't see either of the Kill Bill movies, and I thought that Jackie Brown was lame. But I loved Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and absolutely loved this. It's a more mature, and yet still fun and interesting, film. I'm a big structure fan and I love a 5 act structure - my only venture into screenplay writing included a 5 act structure. The acting was amazing, and the opening - with the music, cinematography and pacing - is sublime.

tropic thunder

Ben Stiller - 2008

Absolutely hilarious.

brokeback mountain

Ang Lee - 2005

I love Ang Lee (The Ice Storm is one of my all-time favorites), and had only seen this once before. First off - the cinematography and pacing are amazing. It's slow, it uses every last bit of that huge Wyoming sky. Heath Ledger builds his character so well, so gracefully. He is this generations James Dean.

Ang Lee really has a thing for America - in The Ice Storm he shows you the beautiful rural/suburban Connecticut that I remember from growing up (and look for Katie Holmes in one of her best roles!), in Brokeback he shows the beautiful landscape of Wyoming. It's interesting, when the story goes to Texas for Jack's scenes, he doesn't show any landscape. The only landscape that matters is the one they share, in Wyoming.

air force one

Wolfgang Petersen - 1997

Harrison Ford - hey wow.

factory girl

George Hickenlooper - 2006

Sad. Andy Warhol was kind of an ass hole.

avenue montaigne

Daniele Thompson - 2006

Sydney Pollack was a great surprise in this French film. Miss him, he was so great both in front and behind the camera. Not a lot to this one, but I enjoyed it even so.

finding nemo

Andrew Stanton - 2003

Always good. Not so hot on the jellyfish scene.

funny people

Judd Apatow - 2009

Actually a very sad film, and not for the ways you'd think. Heartwrenching. This is the film he'd always wanted to make - and I'm really glad he did.

casino

Martin Scorsese - 1995

Always amazing.

horton hears a who

Jimmy Heyward - 2008

funny.

deception

Marcel Langenegger - 2008

Average

definitely, maybe

Adam Brooks - 2008

It was on HBO and I couldn't help myself.

point break

Kathryn Bigelow - 1991

forgetting sarah marshall

Nicholas Stoller - 2008

The more I see this the more I like it. Jason Segal is a great writer.

eagle eye

DJ Caruso - 2008

Haven't I seen this before?

the reader

Stephen Daldry - 2008

Gives Rachel Getting Married a run for its money as the best of 08. Really, really amazing. Great sex scenes (which are really hard to do), great tension, drama, acting, writing, cinematography, production design, editing. Loved it. In life you make choices and have to live with the consequences, you wonder how he lived with himself. You wonder how she lived with herself.

a hard day's night

Richard Lester - 1965

campy, fun.

children of men

Alfonso Cuaron - 2006

The second time I've seen this. Shocking, amazing, dystopian fantasy film. Loved it.

righteous kill

Jon Avnet - 2008

Wow. This was not good.

w.

Oliver Stone - 2008

What was most disturbing about this movie was that Stone makes you root for Bush. Subversive. James Cromwell is absolutely disturbing as "41" and makes you really feel for "43". The character players were all very good, and Brolin is excellent as Bush.

It seems that one of Stone's hypotheses is that had Bush been able to just play baseball for a living, he never would have bothered to work so hard to become president. Fascinating.

up

Pete Docter and Bob Petersen - 2009

In 3D this time.

enemy of the state

Tony Scott - 1998

hancock

Peter Berg - 2008

If Will Smith weren't so damn likable, this movie would really suck. Which is odd, because Peter Berg is pretty good, and Charlize Theron is absurdly attractive. But, it's pretty dumb.

vantage point

Pete Travis - 2008

Second time...still pretty average. Love Forrest Whitaker though.

scarface

Brian DePalma - 1983

Oliver Stone writes, Brian DePalma directs, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer star - awesome. The final scene is pure 80s indulgence.

the hangover

Todd Phillips - 2009

Quite funny.

24 hour party people

Michael Winterbottom - 2002

Second or third time I've seen this. I like the blending of fiction and non-fiction, breaking the fourth wall. Great story, great music. Very cool.

twilight

Catherine Hardwicke - 2008

Sam convinced me to watch it with her. Not bad...I'm in to 'True Blood' though and so I guess I'm somewhat primed to like this. That said - it treats the idea of vampires differently than TB, and so it's interesting to see a different perspective. Love that this movie is directed by a woman and involves a female protagonist - was my aversion to watching this because of that?

the doors

Oliver Stone - 1991

Let's start with the cast - Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Frank Whaley, Kevin Dillon, Kyle McLachlan, Michael Madsen, Billy Idol, Kathleen Quinlan - seriously. It was interesting, I haven't watched this in a few years and some of the dialogue was pretty weak. But the film is saved by the imagery. Stone feels his way through the story, folding on top of itself. The Native American motif - which exists in many Stone films - is dominant and intense.

I don't watch as many Stone films now as I used to, the complexity of what he's doing on the screen is fascinating. This man clearly does not think in linear fashions.

into the storm

Thaddeus O'Sullivan - 2009

Churchill in WWII, pretty good.

harold & kumar escape from guantanamo bay

Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg - 2008

Not as good as the first one, but still pretty damn funny. Lots of smart stuff mixed with really stupid stuff. And you don't even have to be stoned to enjoy it.

up

Pete Docter & Bob Peterson - 2009

The montage in the very beginning is amazing. I want to go see it again, just for that. A whole life without words.

almost famous

Cameron Crowe - 2000

Just can't help myself. 

p.s. i love you

Richard LaGravenese - 2007

Hilary Swank trying to show she can play the girly-girl. Why do I watch romantic comedies obsessively? 

meet the parents

Jay Roach - 2000

Ben Stiller rules.

rachel getting married

Jonathan Demme - 2008

I will often cry at movies the first time I see them, but it's quite rare that I cry the second time - and perhaps cry even more. This was the second time I've seen this movie and I just couldn't stop myself. It's really amazing.

The movie is really about acceptance. The father accepts his daughter even though she did something horrible. Races are mixed and not talked about - it is a post-modern utopian world of acceptance, love and tragedy. And once again, Roger Ebert is right - that is a wedding I would like to go to.

In my mind this movie kicks Slumdog's ass. And Anne Hathaway rocks. 

pocahontas

Mike Gabriel & Eric Goldberg - 1995

White-washed version - watch this and then watch Terrence Malick's "The New World" - Americans are great at cartoonizing tragedy. Bella was transfixed, though, as usual. She will be like her Daddy - a movie lover.

forgetting sarah marshall

Nicholas Stoller - 2008

Why do I love cheesy romantic comedies? urgh. This is a great movie - witty, interesting, good characters. Paul Rudd and Jack McBrayer steal their scenes.

the china syndrome

James Bridges - 1979

An amazing movie - Jack Lemmon is perfect. Michael Douglas worked years to get this made. What a great apocalyptic, petrifying movie. 

zack and miri make a porno

Kevin Smith - 2008

Kevin Smith - still funny.

bullit

Peter Yates - 1968

Steve McQueen, great scenes of SF - love it!

cars

John Lasseter & Joe Ranft - 2006

again.

drugstore cowboy

Gus Van Sant - 1989

I can't believe this movie is 20 years old. Amazing. Still relevant, still amazing. Gus Van Sant is great at finding the sadness in his characters, without getting sappy. He's a master. 

bolt

Byron Howard & Chris Williams - 2008

Fun. First kids movie with the blu-ray. Still on the floor...our first family picnic in our new room.

observe & report

Jody Hill - 2009

Hey wow. Dark. Seth Rogen keeps getting better.

slumdog millionaire

Danny Boyle - 2008

First blu-ray in the new theater. Great picture. But City of God was far better. I can't believe this won an Oscar.

the big lebowski

The Cohen Brothers - 1998

The first movie watched on the new big screen. awesome!

baby mama

Michael McCullers - 2008

Surprisingly good. Tina Fey is hot.

sex and the city

Michael Patrick King - 2008

BLAH!

the royal tenenbaums

Wes Anderson - 2001

I've been watching this movie since March, in little bits usually late at night. But tonight I finish it. Love the Stones and "Stephanie Says" with Mordecai coming in. Classic, amazing film.

the contender

Rod Lurie - 2000

I always liked this movie, but I forgot how bad the ending is. 

dead presidents

The Hughes Brothers - 1995

Wow, this is a flawed movie. I've seen this before, a long time ago, but I had forgotten how flawed it is. 90 minutes of set up for a pretty stupid payoff. Lots of great actors very young though.

the godfather

Francis Ford Coppola - 1972

I love this movie. 

young frankenstein

Mel Brooks - 1974

Always funny. Watched with Tim in Denver.

i'm not there

Todd Haynes - 2007

Watched last week in Breck.

definitely, maybe

Adam Brooks - 2008

Watched with Sam in Breck...not as good the second time.

the sound of music

Robert Wise - 1965

Julie Andrews - back to back! She made 'em in two years and we watched 'em in two nights.

mary poppins

Robert Stevenson - 1964

Watched with the Hourigans in Breck. A great one, lots of great memories.

definitely, maybe*

Adam Brooks - 2008

I was happily surprised by this one. Really, really good.

flash of genius*

Marc Abraham - 2008

Shocking that a movie about windshield wipers could be boring, but this one was. I fell asleep and didn't finish it.

the american president

Rob Reiner - 1995

Always loved this movie - Aaron Sorkin is such a great writer.

body of lies*

Ridley Scott - 2008

juno

Jason Reitman - 2007

loved it again.

step brothers*

Adam McKay - 2008

funny.

the sound of music

Robert Wise - 1965

Watched this with the kids at Kim & Sharna's house. The kids love this movie, and so do I.

juno

Jason Reitman - 2007

I love how this movie makes you feel.

almost famous

cameron crowe - 2000

This is another one I always watch when it's on. The perfect match of music and film. It runs a few great genres - the 'night journey' wherein a protagonist goes on both a literal and figurative journey and comes out a different person on the other end, coming of age tale, psuedo-historic fake biopic .

wall-e*

Andrew Stanton - 2008

fur*

Steven Shainberg - 2006

This is a very different film. An imagination of how Diane Arbus left her cookie-cutter life and became one of the twentieth century's most interesting artists. Nicole Kidman & Robert Downey Jr. are great.

good will hunting

Gus Van Sant - 1997

the darjeeling limited

Wes Andersen - 2007

The first time I saw this I didn't care for it, even though I love Wes Andersen. The second time was a bit better. This was my third viewing and it does keep getting better. That said, I wish the short film that preceded in the theaters preceded it on HBO.

the jungle book

Wolfgang Reitherman - 1967

I had never seen this before, watched it with the kids. Love Louis Prima.

revolutionary road*

Sam Mendes - 2008

Saw this at the Kubuki with Kim Broadbeck. What an amazing film. So sad. So often we think that one thing can solve all of our problems, and so often we're wrong.

bottle rocket

Wes Andersen - 1996

Got the new DVD and watched the original short film (B&W). Rocks.

cars

John Lasseter - 2006

Again.

vicky cristina barcelona*

Woody Allen - 2008

What does love mean? What choices do we make? What is 'normal'? 'Proper'? My favorite director asks all of these questions. He's in a bit of a renaissance period right now as he makes films in Europe. His new muse, Scarlett Johansson, is perfect in this and Rebecca Hall - who I wasn't familiar with - is even better. Javier Bardem is perfect. This is a film that is really about something real. 

Our choices are always ours.

Saw this on a Delta flight from Atlanta to SFO.

nick & norah's infinite playlist*

Peter Sollett - 2008

Love movies like this. Those moments where you're figuring out that you're in love or you're going to be in love. In this movie that feeling is visceral.

Saw this on a Delta flight from Atlanta to SF.

fear*

James Foley - 1996

Mark Wahlberg as a crazy guy, Reese Witherspoon looking young and innocent and my grade school crush - Alyssa Milano - as a slut. What could be better?

heat

Michael Mann - 1995

One of my favorite films of all time. A classic procedural drama that is also magical and brilliant. Watch for the falling car dealership banner at the end of the shot when the tractor-trailer hits the armored car -- he lets the camera stay on the shot just a few seconds longer to let it hit the ground. Perfect. It's the little moments that make a great movie.

blades of glory*

Josh Gordon - 2007

Hey Wow.

interview*

Steve Buscemi - 2007

Based on Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's 2003 film, Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller make you cringe as they dig deeper into their own psyches. Buscemi plays a washed-up writer assigned to interview a dumb starlet-of-the-month. 

I watched this on a plane on my way to Charlotte.

fargo

Joel Cohen - 1996

What can you say? Simply amazing. Love the snow.

heist

David Mamet - 2001

I caught the last forty-five minutes or so of Heist, a great suspense thriller that has you guessing until the last frame. The possible permutations of plot proceed like a reverse pyramid until the final moment. The movie ends with a scene so simple, it seems anti-climatic, but then that's Mamet. When the scene finally cuts, the protagonist has lost his love, but won the day, and he smiles. Mamet thrills in irony.

Gene Hackman, Rebecca Pidgeon, Sam Rockwell, Delroy Lindo & Danny DeVito star. On to Fargo.

the prince & me*

Martha Coolidge - 2004

Our babysitter was watching this when we got home and we just finished it after she left. Totally predictable and stupid, but I do always love a romantic comedy.

the shawshank redemption

Frank Darabont - 1994

Sam turned to me while I watched part of this great movie and said, "how can you watch this again and again?" This is one of those I watch just about every time I see it on HBO. It is a masterful piece of cinema that I always love. The nuances of character and story are great. Tim Robbins again.

things we lost in the fire*

Susanne Bier - 2006

Starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, this movie was really sad, and really good. Really sad.