Megan's Decade: 2009

My list for 2009 is in flux, but as we’re still in 2009 it’s a little early to tell exactly what films will stick with me. I even think that perhaps, a few of the films that I haven’t seen yet this year will be the ones that stick with me for years to come.

Avatar: I am a 3D hater. I think it's a fad just like it was 50 years ago and it will die. However, what James Cameron has done with 3D in Avatar is unlike anything I have ever seen. He uses 3D not as a gimmick but for what I think it was originally envisioned as - a tool to pull you into the world you are watching. In Avatar this works so effectively that you literally feel like you are walking on Pandora with everyone else. This would be a wonderful achievement on it's own, but after taking 12 years to make another movie Avatar totally delivers the complete pacakge, and is an utterly amazing movie.

The Soloist: I was moved by this film. So moved that I bought the book after seeing it and picked up and watched the DVD the day it came out. This is a beautiful film that reminds me there is something we can do to make our cities and our world a better place.

Star Trek: JJ’s Trek is going to stay with me. Never in my life did I think it would be cool to like Star Trek or that it would be referenced in a favorable way by pop culture or the masses. As if that weren’t enough, this is just a dang good movie; a franchise piece that remembered it wasn’t just one in a chain of mythology, but had to be a movie, and a good one at that, on it’s own merit.

Up In The Air: I'm a member of the statistic. I was laid off in 2009. Watching Ryan Bingham travel company to company to get rid of employees should have been a horrible thing for me to experience, but it wasn't. This movie touched me in a way I never expected - it understood what my year had been like and treated it with respect. As if that weren't enough it's another Jason Reitman home run, and is an incredible movie with a master craftsmans touch.

Through these posts I hope I’ve clued you into a few films that perhaps you haven’t seen and that you’re thinking about the films that have stuck with you through the years.

With that said I am going to leave you with the closing lines from one of my favorite films of the past decade, and if you don't know what movie it is...then maybe you should see a few more films on my list.

“Thanks for coming, please stay for the end credits, if you're wondering who the best boy is, it's somebody's nephew, um, don't forget to validate your parking, and to all you good people in the Midwest, sorry we said f--k so much.”