With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' decision to allow ten nominees for Best Picture this year, the list of 2009's most notable movies has nearly doubled.
As usual, many of the year's best films are recent releases, scheduled long ago for last-quarter premieres to remain fresh in Academy voters' minds come Oscar season. One such film is the big-budget holiday-release "Avatar," directed by James Cameron, which received popular and critical acclaim and smashed holiday-weekend box-office records, putting the otherwise respectable numbers grossed by "Sherlock Holmes," another Christmas release, to shame.
For some viewers, the loosely adapted "Holmes" disappointed on another level Guy Ritchie's refashioning of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective deviated from traditional representations of the character could not help but wonder when Holmes learned to use his detective powers not just to solve mysteries, but to beat people to a pulp as well.
Adaptations were apparently in vogue this year. Several of the year's best films fell in this category, including Nick Hornby's take on Lynn Barber's memoir "An Education," in which newcomer Carey Mulligan brilliantly plays an English schoolgirl charmed by an older man. Lone Scherfig's direction does the well-written screenplay justice, as it depicts 1960s England with aesthetic perfection.
The year saw a number of other successful adaptations, starting with January's "Revolutionary Road" and continuing all the way through last month's "A Single Man," which featured a stellar cast that allowed the film to shine.
Some adaptations, however, were met with considerably less critical acclaim, as was the case for "Nine," Rob Marshall's loose adaptation of the musical based on the Italian film "8 1/2" (1963). Yet despite negative reviews from critics, its star-studded cast makes "Nine" a noteworthy crowd-pleaser.
Family features and sequels won the year's popularity contest. Disney Pixar's "Up" led in financial success early on, only to be beaten out for top grossing film of 2009 by two sequels "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." "New Moon," the "Twilight" saga's second installment, broke several box-office records, but has not been in release long enough to surpass the totals grossed by the aforementioned films.
Two foreign films are among this year's best, but lesser known, films to watch. "Broken Embraces," starring Penelope Cruz, is an exuberantly melancholy Spanish film by Pedro Almodovar about the past of a filmmaker and his ill-fated love affair. Also consider taking a look at Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," about a northern German village on the eve of World War I. Jackie Donohoe
The Year in TV
Keeping on theme with the Year of Death 2009, during which the "famous people die in threes" axiom imploded and became "famous people die, well, quite often," there were a few RIPs in order for television in 2009.
First and foremost was the ongoing massacre of the television audience, which continued to fragment into a million tiny personal taste channels. Networks that didn't televise the Superbowl rarely pulled in the 30-plus million viewers that popular programs did in the past, as audiences turned to cable, the Internet or TV on DVD instead of the broadcast channels. On top of contending with a changed ratings landscape, TV networks and their corporate parents had to adopt recessionary budget measures in 2009, resulting in more product placement, a lower content-to-ad ratio and more cheap-to-produce programming like reality shows.
Other casualties of 2009 included analog television, which died with the official transition to digital television completed in June, and the TV Guide Channel (at least as we know it). The channel stopped carrying local television listing grids in April. Also, MTV pulled the plug on the iconic TRL franchise and replaced it with "It's On With Alexa Chung," a talk show starring a posh Brit, only to cancel the desperate-to-be-hip show after six months. Other shows closing shop last year after long tenures included "ER" (1994), "Reading Rainbow" (1983), "Lou Dobbs Tonight" (1980) and "Guiding Light" (1952).
Outside of the doom and gloom of dwindling audiences and profits, TV programming went on.
Perhaps no TV event was more anticipated, Twittered and blathered-about in 2009 than the shake-up in late night programming. Five years after announcing it, Jay Leno stepped down from the "Tonight Show" in May after 17 years at the helm. Conan O'Brien took over the venerated 11:35 p.m. post, and Jimmy Fallon filled Conan's old "Late Night" shoes. Early reviews of both shows were tepid (Conan's too esoteric! Jimmy's too fidgety!) but, in the end, both new incarnations were overshadowed by the news of the return of the big chin himself. Afraid that Leno would jump ship to another network, and with profits traveling precipitously south, NBC signed on the former late night king to a show weeknights at 10 p.m. that tanked in every way: Leno fans disliked the show's format, which aped his old show minus the desk and the laughs. Casual viewers were up in arms that NBC robbed them of five hours of scripted programming every week and didn't tune in. Competing late night personalities felt robbed of prime guests and attention. NBC's gamble turned out to be a shot in the foot.
Despite its financial and ratings woes, NBC rebounded creatively with its terrific Thursday night comedy block of "30 Rock," "The Office," "Parks and Recreation" and "Community." Between these comedies, ABC's "Modern Family," FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and CBS's "Big Bang Theory," 2009 proved the folly of all those columns pronouncing the death of televised comedy after "Friends" and "Frasier" went off the air in the first half of the decade.
The year in dramas was outstanding as well, as several 2009 shows stacked up to the best shows of what many end-of-the-aughts nostalgists deemed the best-ever decade for television. "Mad Men," which took home top drama honors at the Emmys again in 2009, shook up its chilly little universe with a devastating third season. Although nobody has watched it, there was a masterful rendition of the classic underdog story on "Friday Night Lights" on NBC. Also great in 2009 were "Breaking Bad," "Lost" and "Sons of Anarchy."
A handful of new additions made a splash on the small screen, notably FOX's campy song and dance hit, "Glee," and trendy vampire shows, from the good ("True Blood" on HBO) to the forgettable ("Vampire Diaries" on the CW).
Perennial time sucks like "Dancing With the Stars" and "American Idol" continued their fluff-o-tainment dominance in 2009, thrusting old stars (Donny Osmond, "Dancing" season nine winner) and new ones (Adam Lambert, "Idol" runner-up but sure to usurp Kris Allen in relevance, a la Clay Aiken) into the pop culture limelight. Allison Ruderman
The Year in Music
A year of looking both forward and back 2009. Bands like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear kept on keeping on, churning out new and critically acclaimed material. The Collective whose single "My Girls," a blissful post-Beach Boys wash of sounds and voices, wormed its sinuous way onto Pitchfork Media's top 10 songs of the decade released a full-length album, an EP, and a live album to boot.
Turning back, Michael Jackson's death in June spawned an international reexamination of his decades-long catalog of work. Collections of the King of Pop's music were some of the top-sellers of the year, both digitally and in stores.
As for the latest from the greatest rapper alive, Jay-Z lashed out against over-production and digitized vocals with "Death of Auto-Tune," off his album "The Blueprint 3." This message didn't signify the end of a trend, though, considering the overwhelming popularity of songs such as Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" and even the parody "I'm on a Boat" by The Lonely Island and T-Pain.
Jay-Z's album may have been one of the best-selling of the year, but it was denied a Grammy nod for best album, which went instead to his better-selling counterparts Taylor Swift, Lady GaGa and the Kings of Leon.
The Kings' latest, "Only by the Night" (2009), shows the clear influence of their stint opening for Irish greats U2 the album is replete with atmospheric beats, delayed guitars and wailing vocals. Unfortunately, it lacks the sense of bouncy fun heard on the group's first couple of releases. "Use Somebody," the most recognizable single of the album, may be a contender for the most overplayed of the year, rivaled only by MGMT's "Kids."
Meanwhile, amidst the release of all this new material, the past stepped in again. In early September, the entirety of the Beatles' recorded catalog was, for the first time in over two decades, remastered from the original tapes and re-released. The Beatles revival also made its way over to the world of video games, as Electronic Arts released a Beatles "Rock Band" tribute.
As for musical recommendations and this probably has a lot to do with hometown pride I'd say pick up the latest Brother Ali release, "Us" from the Minneapolis label Rhymesayers. It's not pushing millions and it's not up for a Grammy, but it's a damn fine album. "The Preacher," especially, is a great cut I'm sure you'll like it. Brendan Lynch-Salamon
The Year in Books
For avid readers, 2009 brought a treasure trove of new books fiction and nonfiction alike. While fiction continued even further down the road of the supernatural, with the continuing popularity of tales of vampires and werewolves, 2009's nonfiction turned towards the more distressing reality of the current political and economic climates. Yet, regardless of personal taste, 2009 produced more than a handful of noteworthy books.
Maile Meloy's collection of short stories, "Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It," is a gripping work featuring flawed characters who act against their best interests and the interests of those around them. In each story, the protagonist becomes caught between two choices, only to choose the wrong one. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Meloy's short stories is the manner in which they draw attention to the fluid nature of morality Meloy has the ability to suggest that the character's lack of judgment might be acceptable. She has the uncanny ability to draw sympathy for the sinner.
Jonathan Lethem depicted the dynamic atmospher of New York City with his novel "Chronic City," the tale of a former child star. Lethem's elegant prose transfers New York's vibrant energy to paper as he takes the reader on the wild journey with protagonist Chase Insteadman's as he explores Manhattan society with the his friend Perkus Tooth.
For the nonfiction enthusiast, "The Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World" by Liaquat Ahamed is currently enjoying some time on various bestseller lists. Ahamed tells the story of four of the world's greatest bankers, responsible for the banking system as it is today: Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve, Montagu Norman, associated with the Bank of England, Emile Moreau of the Banque de France and Hjalmar Schacht, who was in charge of the Reichsbank. Ahmad's book attempts to make sense of the current economic crisis.
Some books made news this year for reasons other than quality. Dan Brown made a splash with the release of his new novel, "The Lost Symbol." The novel, which held the number-one hardcover fiction slot on the New York Times Bestseller list, received mixed reviews. While The Times claimed that the novel was "impossible to put down," other critics claimed that the novel was "contrived." Others hypothesized that Dan Brown was trying to apologize to the Vatican by portraying the church in a more positive light than he had in his former bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" (2003).
By far, the most controversial book of 2009 was Sarah Palin's oddly titled memoir "Going Rogue." Palin focuses much of the memoir on her part in John McCain's campaign, defending herself against the claim by a McCain aide that the former Alaskan governor veered off the campaign's original message. Not generally well received, Palin's book was ultimately deemed merely a collection of complaints about the campaign that raised her to national prominence in the first place. Medha Raj
