The Year of the What? 2009 Cinema in Review

In terms of cinema, what will 2009 be remembered as? There are many possiblities, but it is kind of hard to tell right now. One such possibility is that it will be remembered as the year of the woman, as many are already calling it. And yes, there have been many instances that can help it be looked back as such. The biggest one, is the fact that Kathryn Bigelow made history by being the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker and to be the first woman to direct a Best Picture winner, both being very deserved. Then there are the box office stories. Sandra Bullock had two box office hits in 2009: The Proposal and The Blind Side, with the latter being the first movie to cross the 200 million dollar mark with a woman getting sole billing on the posters. Meanwhile, Meryl Streep showed with Julie & Julia and It’s Complicated that actresses don’t have to be young to drive movies towards making more than 100 million dollars. Also, both of those movies were written and directed by women. Then there are the not-so-financially-successful but acclaimed movies that were focused on female character and/or were made by women such as An Education, Precious, Julia, Drag Me to Hell, and others.

Short Reviews: In the Loop, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Capitalism-A Love Story

In The Loop | Armando Iannucci, 2009

A lowly British politician says that a U.S. war in the middle east is “unforeseeable” in the radio, then all hell breaks loose. The Prime Minister wants him to say that he didn’t mean it. Some U.S. politicians want to use him as an excuse to prevent war. Then the British want him to go to the U.S to say that Britain is for war. That just sets up the basic plot for this movie, but there is much more to it than that.

In the Loop is a funny and clever satire about U.S. politics and how the British are drawn to support them, as well as the going-ons of preparing for a war. The strenght of the movie lies in the hypnotic dialogue, which grabs from from the moment the first of many f-bombs are dropped. The dialogue would have never succeeded without the great cast. The highlight of the cast is Peter Capaldi as Malcom Tucker, the Prime Minister’s communications chief. He has so many outrageous things to say, and he does it with so much gusto, andhe acts accordingly to his dialogue, which makes his work even more incredible.

I did not find In the Loop as hilarious as others, but I laughed plenty and loved the dialogue and the characters. This is one of my favorite movies of the year.