Best Film of the Year for 2009

It's awards season in Hollywood. This year the Academy Awards will have ten nominees for Best Picture. Unfortunately, that was done to improve TV ratings. (Entertainment Weekly, Jan. 8, 2010, pg. 34) I believe there should be no concern for popularity when it comes to Oscar. Why? Because the Academy Awards unlike the Grammys stand for quality. You'll forget about who won for Record of the Year two years ago but you will remember for example that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won the Best Picture Oscar in 2004. Another problem is the dilution of the award. Now there's a chance that a clunker like Around the World in Eighty Days might win Best Picture as it did in 1956. Please. A film that wins the Oscar for Best Picture should be a classic.

This bring us to the Best Film of 2009. At the Basement Blog, the criteria for the Best Film of the Year is that movie stand the test of time. It must entertain but it must also be a work of art. All facets of the movie must have quality. These facets include acting, writing and direction. Okay, without further adieu, for Best Film of the Year for 2009, the nominees are G.I. Joe.... just kidding. The nominees are District 9, The Hurt Locker, Julie and Julia, Up, and Up in the Air.

And the winner is....


Up.



Though it's an animated fantasy film, Up took huge artistic risks. The first being that the hero of the film is an old man. The second risk was the first fifteen minutes. We meet the hero as a boy. We see him meet the love of his life as a boy. Then there is a five minute montage with no dialogue detailing the couple's life from marriage to heartbreak to life's troubles that at times overtake their dreams to the eventual death of the wife from old age. Starting a movie with that kind of downer is bold storytelling. It's sad but certainly gives the hero his goal for the film. This is all helped by Michael Giacchino's wonderful score. Unlike his dour Star Trek score, Up soars with warmth and inspiration. Up is a funny, heartwarming adventure that should take its place among the top movies ever made, animated or live action. Here's the trailer for "Up."