Fine in 09: Movies

No new releases made my Top 5 in 09. That's because I finally took American Film last semester, and got a chance to see movies made before 1990 (besides The Godfather, The Deer Hunter, and the other classics my dad calls me into the living room to watch, no matter the time of day he discovers them on cable).

The Long Goodbye: An unconventional approach to the film noir, set against the neon hues of 1970's Los Angeles. A gorgeous movie complete with femme fatale, gangsters, topless hippies, beach parties, loads of drugs, and random acts of violence. It's also the tale of an honorable man struggling to live by a seemingly outdated code in a world that's spiraled down into free-wheeling hedonism.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller: An unconventional Western, and the second Robert Altman entry on my list; his work blew me away. A cold, wet, dirty Northwestern town gets a little action when McCabe and Mrs. Miller set up the most pleasant whorehouse in film history. Altman refuses to judge his characters, and demands you do the same. A tragic love story, as well as an artful, unpretentious examination of community living.

The Philadelphia Story: "The time to make your mind up about other people is never!" The first Katherine Hepburn movie I ever saw; she's brilliant. A film thoroughly in favor of people getting over themselves; it's like watching a 1940's episode of Gossip Girl complete with judgemental middle-class men (Jimmy Stewart's Macaulay Connor = Dan Humphrey) trying to understand an upper-class woman who's playing a game so advanced they fail to realize she's holding all the cards.

Rachel Getting Married: I love Anne Hathaway, and I love stories where everyone plays the sinner and the saint; it shouldn't come as a surprise that I loved Kym the moment she bitched "I prefer Pepsi from the fountain." A fair look at a flawed family trying desperately to hold it all together in the midst of celebrating one of their own. No one escapes unscathed. Debra Winger steals all her scenes as Kym's never-really-there mother, Abby.

Shampoo: Another fun 1970's house party, complete with Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, lavish material excess, loads of sex, and big hair. Beatty dons a blow dryer and sleeps around as women across L.A. grow hot under the collar. All those movies you've seen that open to the sound of a woman's orgasm - that started here (I think). Tune in to see a thirty-years-younger Goldie Hawn, and wonder if Kate Hudson somehow discovered time travel (twins or clones, I'm telling you).