Waitsel’s Best Movies of 2009
Grab your popcorn and drink and let's talk.
It's that time of year, when everybody and their brother publishes a "Best of 2009" movie list. It's really becoming annoying. What makes my list different, I hope, is that I try to have a certain amount of objectivity and discernment about it. Just because I personally like certain aspects of a film or certain actors that are in it isn't enough to include it on my list: the film has to have some major redeeming values; which, today, is becoming increasingly more difficult to find. But, there are still some good movies out there, and I hope at some point there will be more. Among the values I look for are artistic merit; spiritual, cultural and historical relevance; humanity; and just plain good story-telling.
I apologize for the length of this article, but it contains a lot of information I think you will find interesting. After my list of the nine movies I liked best from 2009, I offer my comments on six films I was supposed to like but didn't, ten films to look forward to in 2010, and some reflections on the film industry in general. So, here we go.
BEST DRAMA / MOST INSPIRING - The Blind Side - 5-Star Masterpiece
If you don't see any other film from 2009, you have to see this one. Not only is it good drama and even inspiring, Sandra Bullock (The Proposal, Crash, Miss Congeniality) is to die for. She plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a real-life, very high-mainteance, incredibly focused, tenacious wife, mother and interior designer, living a very wealthy lifestyle with her family in Memphis, Tennessee. One fateful rainy night, the family meets and decides to help a young, homeless black student from their children's private Christian school. He is Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), future All-American and first round NFL draft pick; but at the time, an introverted, poor student with only two qualities that might possibly help him to become a football player: his size and his protective instincts. Leigh Anne, with the help of husband Sean (Tim McGraw), son S.J. (Jae Head) and daughter Collins (Lily Collins), along with coach Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon), help Michael to see his potential and use it to become, not only a talented football player, but a good student and an honorable man. So that, by the end of the film, he has coaches from all over the South vying for his recruitment.
This is a true story, based on the book by Michael Lewis (The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game), and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Alamo, Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, A Perfect World), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Lewis. Country music recording artist Tim McGraw is enjoyable as good-natured husband Sean, and also does the soundtrack. But Sandra Bullock steals the film. I know how good she is because I grew up in a Southern family with interior designers, and they're all high-maintenance, focused and tenacious like that. What makes Bullock's character extraordinary is the courage, heart and vision she adds to those qualities. But she never smiles... until the end of the film, and it's a classic moment. Another terrific scene is when the coaches from different universities are looking at a video of Oher blocking an opposing player that has been antagonizing him all game, and pushing him all the way down the field, into the end zone and over the fence. That's just one of the many times you'll laugh and cry simultaneously. This movie makes me glad there is still a movie industry.
PG-13