Top 10 of the first 6 and three quarter odd months...

I've always been a big fan of lists and we're halfway through the year, so why not make on? I have chosen not to include documentaries as I've always found it tough to compare the two types of movies. Perhaps later I will do a top ten documentaries but for now, fiction. On with the list!

1. Hunger - I realize this is a movie from 2008 but 2009 is when I saw it, so there you go! Michael Fassbender is worth the price of admission. It's a difficult movie to watch, but in the best possible way.

2. Moon - I'm not the biggest fan of Science Fiction but this movie is accessible to us regular folk. Sam Rockwell is great. It has a beautiful paced and very thought provoking. Also, they milked their budget for all it was worth. It'd be tough to guess the budget, good on 'em.

3. The Class - A doc style movie taking place in a french classroom. There are few movies out there that better show what it's like as both a teacher and a student.

4. Che - All four and a half hours need to be viewed in one sitting. Soderbergh does a great job of paralleling both the Cuban and French revolution showing why one succeeds and one fails. Also, del Toro is magnificent - he always is though, so that's nothing new.

5. Up - The best opening of the year with some really adult themes. It's a bit of a tearjerker, so be warned.

6. Departures - won the best foreign language film at the last Oscars. It's about a cellist who finds a new but rather unconventional vocation. It's a beautiful film.

7. Harry Potter 6 - The best entry in the Harry Potter [movie] series thus far. It would be higher on the list but it's clear this is really just a stop gap between the fifth and seventh movies. It has some dark themes and some surprisingly good performances from the three mains.

8. (500) Days of Summer - An interesting and refreshing twist in the rom com genre - a genre which I like very much but recognize it deserves better films. The best part of the movie is that this MAY be the movie that makes Joseph Gordon Levitt the household name he deserves.

9. The Hurt Locker - a movie about a military bomb squad leader. It's apolitical and that's to it's credit. Even as a left winger myself, I find myself getting tired of the same war movies with the same heavy handed messages. This movie is just about the soldiers. It's not glorifying or tearing them down, just showing us what it's like to be in this unique squad.

10. State of Play - I love a good journalist - detective story and this is a pretty good one with some pretty good performances from Crowe, McAdams, and Affleck. It's pretty forgettable but overall very well made with very little fat.

So there you have it, last years movies getting releases this year are dominating the list so lets hope 2009 makes a strong showing in the remaining 5 months and 9 days!