Favourite Films Of 2009

My favourite ten films of the past year.

10. Marley And Me (April)



I hate films about dogs, they're all designed to make grown men cry and this was no exception.

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9. Fish Tank (September)



Excellent gritty drama set on an Essex housing estate.

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8. A Serious Man (December)



Shock horror. The Coen's only at number 8. Well I'm still not sure I understood this film at all, but I'm sure it must have been good.

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7. The Damned United (March)



An inaccurate history lesson but still probably the best film about football ever made.

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6. The Reader (January)



Not as good as it should have been and Kate Winslet isn't as as good as she thinks she is but still a intriguing tale.

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5. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (January)



This James Bond parody was one of many films that I was dragged to this year. Loved it.

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4. Slumdog Millionaire (January)



Feel good movie of the year apparently, bloody depressing if you ask me.

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3. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (February)



Brad Pitt again impresses as he lives life in reverse but still experiences all life's usual ups and downs.

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2. Let The Right One In (April)



A great film that leaves you both repulsed and fascinated at the same time.

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1. Inglorius Basterds (August)



Tarantino does the war, as only Tarantino can.

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Humpday

‘Humpday’ is about a guy called Ben (Mark Duplass), who has settled down into what he describes as the ‘white picket fence’ lifestyle of marriage with his attractive young wife Anna (Alycia Delmore). Perhaps the only ingredient they are missing is a child but they’re working on that.

What they probably didn’t need was for Ben’s old college buddy Andrew (Joshua Leonard) to show up, out of the blue, on their doorstep in the middle of the night. Andrew has been away travelling, he sees himself as a bit of a ‘Kerouac’, and consequently it's been a long time since they’ve seen each other. They immediately drop back into a ‘two lads together’ type situation.

The following night, Andrew ends up at a party thrown by a girl he just happened to meet and he invites Ben over to join him. After drinking too much alcohol and smoking too much dope, they end up agreeing to make a short film for ‘HumpFest’, the local amateur pornography festival. Their idea is to produce something truly unique, a film of two straight guys having gay sex and they propose to star in it themselves. The idea being that it would not be gay, it would be beyond gay and it would not porn, it would be art...

Ben gets home to find that his night has gotten in the way of the baby making process much to Anna’s frustration. His next problem is how he’s going to square his new acting career with her. This is the best part of the film, as Ben spectacularly fails to tell Anna his plans and then Andrew spills the beans because he assumes Ben has told her. Problem is from here, the film goes downhill.

In the cold light of day, both Andrew and Ben regret what they have agreed to but neither will back down. Both feel they have something to prove. Ben that he’s not as ‘white picket fence’ as Andrew thinks he is and Andrew that perhaps he’s no ‘Kerouac’.

The ‘porn shoot’ in a hotel room is long and drawn out, we spend half an hour or so with the guys in that room, when a few minutes would have done because in the end, they don’t go through with it. They quickly realise their idea is going nowhere, the audience has already realised this fact but the director just didn’t seem to want to give it up and milked it for all it was worth. You end up just willing it all to end.



The film comes to a believable conclusion but takes an inordinate amount of time getting there. It’s also immensely unsatisfying when it ends there. I for one would have liked to have seen Anna’s reaction to what they did or rather didn’t do, and would she have believed them?