semi-pro (2008)

Lots of nice touches. Such as Dick Pepperfield. Felt like a real guy.

the prowler (1951)

Chewy and campy. Concerns a police officer and a married woman who reports a prowler on her property. Van Heflin plays the cop in a fruit-and-seeds way that makes me imagine a late 70s remake starring Rutger Hauer. Has anyone healthy ever really shaved with an electric razor while lying in bed?

hula (1927)

Clive Brook

lonelyhearts (1958)

Montgomery Clift. As much as I like watching Montgomery Clift act, I would have cast Anthony Perkins. Actually, I wouldn't have bothered to make this movie at all.

the big lift (1950)

Montgomery Clift as an airman in the operation to fly goods past the blockade into West Berlin. Feels fresh like the beginnings of a cinema made from scratch. If they made it again today, I hope Peter Stormare would play the Russian spy.

wolf song (1929)

I cheated on the Montgomery Clift retrospective on the basis of this photograph in the Film Forum schedule. It turns out that Gary Cooper in the movie isn't such pure liquid hotness. But ordinary hotness is ok too, and he washes up in the river.

the virginian (1929)

Gary Cooper as a lanky goofy cowboy.

favorite performances of 2009

jeremy renner : the hurt locker

zach galifianakis : up in the air and the hangover

sharlto copley : district 9

jason schwartzman : fantastic mr fox

george clooney : fantastic mr fox

michael fassbender : fish tank and inglourious basterds

diego luna : rudo y cursi

avatar (cameron, 2009, in english and na'vi)

A success. Hokey but not too hokey, given the genre. Fantastic bioluminescence. Giovanni Ribisi looks good in slacks. Liked that we got to see Sam Worthington's hair grow.

Given that lots of the fauna had a sort of double-front-limb thing going on so that the four-legged-ish animals really had six limbs, shouldn't the Na'vi have had a couple of extra arms?

As someone that likes to see things in the cinema twice or more, I love that Ray wants to see this again.

a serious man (coen, 2009, in english, yiddish and hebrew)

a woman alone (agnieszka holland, 1981, in polish)

A postwoman has a decent postal route, but the party has given her a horrible shed to live in, and she has a son to raise by herself. Boguslaw Linda is great as always as the injured man she delivers a check to. Handsomely shot.

favorite movies of 2009

1. fantastic mr fox

2. district 9

3. up

4. police, adjective

5. zombieland

6. funny people

7. the hangover

8. transformers 2 : revenge of the fallen

9. pandorum

10. inglourious basterds

11. rudo y cursi

12. k-20 : legend of the mask