Today’s movie is not quite the masterpiece everyone was waiting for but it was a truly brilliant, truelly delightful piece of cinema. Deeply flawed but equally charming it heralded a fine return to form for one of cinema’s favourite sons. Number 6 is…
Today’s movie was an unexpected treasure on it’s release earlier this year. A fresh and inventive comedy it stood head and shoulders above the rest and it gave us simply the greatest cameo of this or any other year. My choice for the 7th best movie of 2009 is…
Exactly one week to Christmas and one week till my number one movie of 2009 is unveiled. Today sees another American movie made in 2008 but released in Ireland in 2009 enter the countdown. A critics and awards favourite this could prove to be the final swansong of a legend. The 8th best movie of 2009 is…
There’s 3 movies out this week in Irish cinemas. It takes brave films to go up against a goliath like Avatar and we can excuse film producers for not wishing their pet projects be released this week. That said there are 2 movies out other than the one with the blue aliens, and one of them is actually rather good.
Today brings us to my one and only foreign language film in the Top 25, well I say one and only but there is another yet to come that has large parts not in English. This film proves that great cinema, strong story-telling and indeed good old-fashioned scares are not subject to the constraints of language. A true fright at 9 is…
And now the games can begin. At last we have reached the top ten, the ten movies that I believe best reflect the raw power and visual majesty that was cinema in 2009. Not all of these will be critic’s darlings, but then many times what we like and what “professionals” think is best does not match. Instead I offer a top ten that will have some critically excellent movies and other that were just so enjoyable that it would be a crime to exclude them. And at 10 it is…
Yesterday was the Critics Choice but today marks the real start of awards season for Hollywood, with the announcement of the nominees for the 2010 67th Golden Globe awards. Unfortunately unlike yesterdays list there is no Irish hope for the Globes in the movies category save for U2 entry Winter from in film Brothers in the Original Song category. Elsewhere, Brendan Gleeson is nominated for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the mini-series Into the Storm. George Clooney starrer Up in the Air, which has yet to be released in Ireland, has the most movie nominations with six. Rob Marshall’s musical Nine has five, while Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has four.
Today’s choice misses out on Top 10 status by the narrowest of margins. An epic tale of conflict, both external and internal, today’s movie will be high on the honours list when the Oscars come calling in February. Number 11 is…
December is the traditional beginning of Awards season for Hollywood and we’ve already found out who the nominees shall be for the 15th Annual Critics Choice Awards. Sure it’s not the Oscars or even the Golden Globes but it’s a good indication of what we should expect when those two list come out. Ireland is represented in the list of nominees by Saoirse Ronan, the 15 year-old, Carlow born, actress who is starring in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. Previously nominated for an Oscar at age 11 for Atonement, the 7th youngest Best-Supporting Actress nominee ever, she has a chance in two categories at the Critics Choice Awards, having been nominated for Best Young Actor/Actress and Best Actress. Brendan Gleeson starrer Into the Storm is nominated for Best Picture Made For Television but that’s it in regards to Irish nominees.
We’re past the half-way stage in this countdown and we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty. Each one of the movies left is cinema at it’s absolute finest. Today brings us to another of the movies to score big nominations in the last Oscar ceremony. A monumental story and a superb film it absolutely deserves inclusion in my list. The 12th best movie of 2009 is…
The top ten are fast approaching and today brings me to the second of the animated movies that feature on this list. A little different from most and from a director unfamiliar with animation it was a brave and risky move that paid off, when it had no right to. The 13th best movie of 2009 is…
Number fourteen brings me to the first of the last batch of Oscar winners. A movie that has moved up and down this list every time I tried to sort this thing out, I absolutely had to have it in here. Right now I’m inclined to place it higher but the list was finalised 2 weeks ago. So here it is. And in at 14 it is…
14 days till Christmas and we reach my 15th favourite movie of 2009. I was profoundly moved by this film last month, and seeing one of Britain’s finest actors ever re-capture his staggering brilliance was an event worth shouting from the rooftops. Number 15 on my list is…
Sometimes a movie comes along unexpectedly and takes you on a journey of wonderful emotion. My choice today is one such movie. A heart-warming/heart-breaking look at love that should be corny as a flour-mill but somehow isn’t. Instead it wraps you up tight in a blanket of rich emotion and warmth and leaves you feeling better off for the experience. Number 16 is…
These little intros are becoming increasingly more difficult to write. I picked today’s movie simply because I think it’s a marvellous piece of cinema. I bowed to public pressure somewhat in not placing it higher, as a great many people were disappointed with the final result. I think this had more to do with the expection of a gangster movie from this director rather than with the quality of the actual movie itself. In at Number 17 it’s…
