This is an amusing zombie comedy which sort of makes you wonder why it took until 2009 to make this movie. (In retrospect it feels kind of obvious.) There are certain things I didn’t love about it, but it was mostly pretty effective.
Tag: 2009
Parks and Recreation (2009)
This is a good-hearted but often hysterical situation comedy that it took me entirely too long to watch. I’m not sure exactly why but I guess I was at least slightly aware that it was a little bit wholesome and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t into wholesome in, like, 2011. Anyway…
The Buyout of America (2009) by Josh Kosman
The problem with making big predictions in your book is that, when they either do not come true or only partially come true, you kind of look like an idiot. (I should say you “should” look like an idiot because we humans love to listen to people who’ve failed in their predictions time and again. …
State of Play (2009, Kevin Macdonald)
This is a mostly well done American remake of the British miniseries. It’s considerably condensed but it also sort of fixes – or at least addresses – my biggest problem with the British version.
City Island (2009, Raymond De Felitta)
I don’t know if there’s a name for the subgenre of films in a which a person comes into a family’s life and helps them solve their problems, but there should be. If there isn’t, I propose “Magic Stranger”.
Coraline (2009, Henry Selick)
This is an inventive, amusing children’s film with an appealingly dark turn, which helps it stand out among so many inventively animated children’s films of this century.
Cellule 211 (2009, Daniel Monzon)
The “good guy in a bad place” (i.e. a hero stuck in a prison) is a tired story for many reasons, but perhaps the most annoying aspect is that, usually, Our Hero is recently arrived (in this case, in the prison) and yet, somehow, manages to befriend the/a leader immediately. It’s so dumb and such …
Carmel (2009, Amos Gitai)
This is one impressionistic film. Impressionistic films deserve your attention and concentration, they should not be watched while you empty the dishwasher and work on your podcast. Alas, that’s how I watched this film, so my appreciation of it, or lack thereof, is coloured by my wavering attention.
Carcasses (2009, Denis Côté)
Carcasses is part of that trend in Canadian independent film in the early years of the 20th century to mix documentary style with fictional or plots, sometimes with people playing themselves. (I say Canadian trend because most of the films I have seen that do this are Canadian films from this time, or thereabouts. I …
Capitalism Hits the Fan (2009, Stu Jhally)
In the grand tradition of academic lectures being filmed for our enjoyment, this is a film of Richard Wolff lecturing from his book Capitalism Hits the Fan at the height of the economic crisis.
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2009, Anders Ostergaard)
Burma VJ is one of those journalism-as-documentary films that is out of date pretty quickly after it is made – the military regime that is depicted in this film has fallen and a new, less repressive and supposedly democratic regime has taken its place. But just because things have happened since this film was made, …
Budrus (2009, Julia Bach)
This should be an inspiring documentary a village banding together to stop an oppressive foreign government from building a wall through their land. I say “should” because between when this film was released and when I watched it, 8 years later, the Israeli government did indeed succeed in building the wall around Budrus, though maybe …
2012 (2009, Roland Emmerich)
It’s a testament to the endless credulity of human beings that this film got made as a blockbuster, with the budget that entails and the all-star cast. The Mayan Apocalypse thing was some the worst horse shit I’ve heard the intelligent people I know spew, and it drove me crazy that I knew people who …
Augusta Read Thomas: Selected Works for Orchestra (2014) by Various Artists
This is a compilation of performances of some of Thomas’ writing for orchestra. I got this from the library by accident but decided to listen to it anyway.
The Box (2009, Richard Kelly)
Richard Kelly continues his descent into utter nonsense with this completely unnecessary feature length film version of that old chestnut about the man with a box and $1 million dollars. (It’s worth noting that Kelly has not made a film since this one.)
Kagel: String Quartet No. 4; Keuris: String Quartet No. 1 (2009) by Lagos Ensemble
This disc collects Kagel’s final quartet and the first quartet by Tristan Keuris, a Dutch composer I have never hear of before. The works were composed 30 years apart.
Knowing (2009, Alex Proyas)
It’s kind of hard to describe how dumb this movie is. It’s also extremely dispiriting to know that it was written and directed by the man who made Dark City, a personal favourite. This review contains SPOILERS.
The Peep Diaries (2009) by Hal Niedzviecki
This book is a relatively interesting and amusing book about how modern technology and modern culture have created a brave new world that we don’t really understand how to navigate – and which could have all sorts of unintended consequences for us. However, the book suffers from a number of problems which make it not …
The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James (1994, 2009)
This is one of the numerous discs to collect all nine of Skip James 1931 78 records that he recorded before he abandoned his music career – or whatever happened – until being “rediscovered” in the ’60s. This music is essential listening for fan of the blues or people interested in music history. James among …
Mad Men (2007)
I watched Mad Men over an even longer period than most of you, so my memory of the individual episodes is not perfect. I know there were some weaker ones in there, and there even parts of seasons – perhaps even whole seasons – that I didn’t enjoy on the level of the best parts …
Best Worst Movie (2009, Michael Stephenson)
This documentary is ostensibly about Troll 2, which some consider the worst movie ever made – at one point Troll 2 had a 0% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was once the worst movie on IMDB. At this point I should mention I have never seen Troll 2. Surprised, aren’t you? I should. But I …
Bananas!* (2009, Fredrik Gertten)
This is a maddening, frustrating and outrage-sparking documentary about Dole’s (nee Standard Fruit Company) use of a banned pesticide in Nicaragua (and Costa Rica and Honduras) and how it deeply affected the lives of workers on plantations. There are great things about this movie, including the depiction of actual courtroom arguments, and the clear evidence …
Bakjwi aka Thirst (2009, Chan-woo Park)
The idea of vampires being used as some kind of metaphor for sex has probably been around for as long as vampires have been in literature. It’s not a new thing. And so, initially, this film feels like yet another in the endless line of erotic vampire films. However, the film has enough twists and …
Antichrist (2009, Lars von Trier)
I struggle with Von Trier’s movies – and megalomania – for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the ridiculous Dogme 95 statement that he has gone back on so thoroughly in his later films. (It’s not that I object to Dogme 95 in itself but it’s the brashness of youth I …
Hindemith: The Complete Viola Music 1 (2009) by Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips
This disc collects Hindemith’s three viola sonatas with piano accompaniment, and it also includes a transcription for viola and piano of one of the dances from Hindemith’s ballet, Nobilissima Visione. The sequencing is odd: it starts with the final one, then goes to the first, then to the second, then back to the late ‘30s …
Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema 1896-1913 (2009)
This is a collection of many – but hardly a majority or all – of George Melies’ short films from when he got into cinema shortly after the invention of the medium until 1913, when his various personal problems consumed him and he stopped making films. (Note that many of Melies’ films have been lost …
Symphonies Nos. 7-8 (2009) by H.W. Henze, performed by Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Marek Janowski
This set pairs two of Henze’s later symphonies from a time which he had embarked on a more conservative path. Though the performances are excellent (as far as I know), I find these symphonies to be less interesting than his earlier work.
Watchmen (2009, Zack Snyder)
This is an admirable, ambitious attempt to adapt what is, for many people, The Greatest Comic of All Time. (I know others prefer some other comics, but I know that this was the first comic given serious treatment as literature by non-comic book fans.) I was mostly impressed by the attempts at fidelity and the …
The Age of Stupid (2009, Franny Armstrong)
Somewhere in this movie there are the makings of a great “message” documentary about climate change. With some more money and a different “director” – if it was indeed directed by one person – maybe this could be the movie they wanted it to be, the movie some critics apparently thought they saw. But this …
L’affaire Farewell (2009, Christian Carion)
This is an interesting attempt at making a “real” spy movie, one where the spies behave like real spies, without car chases, without shoot-outs, without super-intense interrogation scenes.