So, personally, 2009 has been a very disappointment year for film, and it got me wondering why has it not hit the heights of previous years in the decade - well, that's my opinion anyway.

2005 rocked my socks off, and remains my favourite along with 2007 and the sublime 'There Will Be Blood'. That's what set those years apart for me - the could-go-either-way Oscar, which seems missing from the usual candidates suggested for this year - I mean, I know it's open, but where are the frontrunners, the obvious candidates? There are some good films, but I see no great films from the year.

I'm providing a link for a fairly comprehensive list of film in each of the relevant years from Wikipedia for an aid, but what would be your year of the decade, and why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_in_film

Andrew

Difficult to boil the decade down to a single year since all years have their respective hits and misses. With respect to the Oscars, I agree with 2005 but I also thought 2008 was pretty good.

Going through the entire page I eventually came to notable deaths. Call me late to the dance but I hadn't heard that Ron Silver had passed away. Damn. I liked him.

This has been an amazing year for films for me.


Brilliant films across the board.


Two all time classic Sci-Fi films: Avatar and District 9, the best in years, not to mention Moon and Star Trek
Amazing Historical epic Tsar
Great off beat comedy in Up in the Air.
Great "horror" films like Triangle, Antichrist, Let the Right One In and Thirst

There's even been great little independent success stories like Colin and Paranromal Activity.

Plus bigger independent flicks like Julia (great thriller featuring brilliant performance from Tilda Swinton), Sin Nombre, Skin....

Bad Lieutenant, Crazy heart, Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Knowing, White Ribbon, Precious, a Serious man

Great to see Gillian back with Imaginarium...

Other notable films: Up, The Road, Fantastic Mr Fox. There are loads more.

Been a brilliant year.

As for the Oscars, hopefully Avatar will pretty much sweep up. It's done the impossible by toppling Titanic. A legendary performance and an amazing comeback for Cameron. A real defining moment for Cinema for me, simply dwarves the rest of the films of the year, even the incredible District 9, which in some ways I prefer.

Jeff Bridges for Best Actor in Crazy Heart.

I agree , this year was a disappointment, only great hits and very commercial movies. I never concider a great film , movies like avatar or lord of the rings.

For me the best years in this decade was 2005 and 2000 ( one of my top 3 movies is here  , Requiem for a dream)....

Quoted from Dimitris I agree , this year was a disappointment, only great hits and very commercial movies. I never concider a great film , movies like avatar or lord of the rings. For me the best years in this decade was 2005 and 2000 ( one of my top 3 movies is here  , Requiem for a dream)....

Just because people don't watch them doesn't mean they don't exist......

This year has seen new films from Almodovar, Lars van Trier, Herzog, Chan Wook Park...

Some of the greatest Directors who have ever lived.

Plus there has been some immense debuts such as Duncan Jones and many others.

When it comes to great movie years of the decade (or at least my favorite of the decade), my favorite is easily 2007. Just off the top of my head, these were some of my favorite. Some of them got completely screwed at the Oscars.

Zodiac.
Grindhouse. (Certainly no Oscar contender but it's one of my personal top 10.)
Michael Clayton.
American Gangster.
No Country for Old Men.
The Mist.
There Will Be Blood.

As you can figure, with the obvious exception of Grindhouse and possible exception of The Mist, the other five would be my Best Picture nominees. It's the only year in recent memory where I enjoyed five movies that all had a reasonable shot at Best Picture. I don't even think '99 had 5 of them and that was the last year I really liked before 2007.

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films This has been an amazing year for films for me. Brilliant films across the board. Two all time classic Sci-Fi films: Avatar and District 9, the best in years, not to mention Moon and Star Trek Amazing Historical epic Tsar Great off beat comedy in Up in the Air. Great "horror" films like Triangle, Antichrist, Let the Right One In and Thirst There's even been great little independent success stories like Colin and Paranromal Activity. Plus bigger independent flicks like Julia (great thriller featuring brilliant performance from Tilda Swinton), Sin Nombre, Skin.... Bad Lieutenant, Crazy heart, Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Knowing, White Ribbon, Precious, a Serious man Great to see Gillian back with Imaginarium... Other notable films: Up, The Road, Fantastic Mr Fox. There are loads more. Been a brilliant year. As for the Oscars, hopefully Avatar will pretty much sweep up. It's done the impossible by toppling Titanic. A legendary performance and an amazing comeback for Cameron. A real defining moment for Cinema for me, simply dwarves the rest of the films of the year, even the incredible District 9, which in some ways I prefer. Jeff Bridges for Best Actor in Crazy Heart.

Aye, I understand my thoughts on it might be contentious. You know my views on 'Avatar' and 'District 9'. 'Up In The Air', 'Paranormal Activity', Moon', 'Let The Right One In' and 'Antichrist' I'll give you as good films. Of course, there has been a lot of dross this year, and to accurately and fairly appraise the year, we have to balance it out by acknowledging it - to my mind, 'Star Trek' nestles nicely alongside 'Avatar' and 'District 9' as good, but unremarkable, so ultimately hype killed the year. I understand you and many others would vehemently disagree re: 'Avatar', however.

'Knowing' sits in the dross category for me. I do, however, think there have been good films this year, just very few, if any, great ones. The sleeper hits occur every year, and didn't really outperform previous years, I don't think. That said, you enjoyed it, I didn't but we would both like a better 2010 :)

Yet to see 'Precious' but will at the end of the week. 'IB' was a very, very good film, and would be my pick for the Academy award. I suspect it will actually be 'Crazy Heart'.

So, deccy, would you say 2009 would take the 'noughties'?

Andrew

Quoted from Mr. Blonde When it comes to great movie years of the decade (or at least my favorite of the decade), my favorite is easily 2007. Just off the top of my head, these were some of my favorite. Some of them got completely screwed at the Oscars. Zodiac. Grindhouse. (Certainly no Oscar contender but it's one of my personal top 10.) Michael Clayton. American Gangster. No Country for Old Men. The Mist. There Will Be Blood.

'The Mist' was a good little movie even with the horrible SFX. '99 was 'Magnolia', so it will always remain a good year, for me.

Ahhh, sorry to be, indirectly, the bearer of bad news, Rob.

Andrew

I thought 2009 was great. The only real disappointment was Funny People. All the films I thought I'd like, I liked. All the films I thought I'd hate, I liked too. I actually loved Watchmen. Tons of surprises, namely that little jewel that is Moon, not to mention tons I haven't seen yet. Antichrist, Bad Lieutenant, The White Ribbon, etc. I still can't believe I missed Antichrist.

My highlights of 2008 were better than 2009 but 2009 had more films that were good and a lot less that were bad.

Overall, very satisfied.

Quoted from Andrew 'The Mist' was a good little movie even with the horrible SFX. '99 was 'Magnolia', so it will always remain a good year, for me. Ahhh, sorry to be, indirectly, the bearer of bad news, Rob. Andrew

That is true. Magnolia probably was my favorite of '99, but there's many close ones that year. American Beauty, Fight Club, Man on the Moon and The Matrix. Some of those may be cop-outs but they are truly great, to me. Not to mention, 1999 had two of the most underrated movies in recent memory (oddly enough, they're both comedies AND about the movie industry), Bowfinger and The Muse.

Being that I have a habit of going in reverse, 1995 was the last great year before '99. So, you have about 2 or 3 of these great years per decade. Not terrible.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde That is true. Magnolia probably was my favorite of '99, but there's many close ones that year. American Beauty, Fight Club, Man on the Moon and The Matrix. Some of those may be cop-outs but they are truly great, to me. Not to mention, 1999 had two of the most underrated movies in recent memory (oddly enough, they're both comedies AND about the movie industry), Bowfinger and The Muse. Being that I have a habit of going in reverse, 1995 was the last great year before '99. So, you have about 2 or 3 of these great years per decade. Not terrible.

Aye, and 'American Beauty' was an immense script, too. I do believe that '99 was also the year of 'The Insider', which was another good film. Agree with all of the ones you listed. 'Bowfinger' struggled 'cos of the movie industry parody, most likely. Not really a big draw that in the mainstream. I think another excellent film, 'What Just Happened' suffered a similar fate in '08.

Andrew

It's funny you mentioned The Insider. I had that in my post. I really liked it, but realized I didn't like it better than the others I mentioned, so I dropped it to save space. That was the second one I dropped. I had also dropped The Thirteenth Floor from the underrated list, but I figured it wouldn't matter anyway. Lol.