Josh Spiegel's 2009 Calvins Ballot
By Josh Spiegel
March 2, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Here's the Olympic sport we all want to see: Family House Flying.
2009 was a better year than people initially gave credit for, in terms of the movies. When it was announced that the Academy Awards would nominate ten movies for Best Picture, not five, one of the prevailing questions was: Why this year? Of course, there were more than plenty exceptional movies that came out in 2009, and a large amount came from the studios. Whether it was the colorful and breathtaking world of Pandora in Avatar, the oddly architectured jungles of Venezuela in Up, or the near-expressionistic world of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the last year in movies was not just not a bad year, but it was also a great year in film.

Somehow, a seeming lack of great indie pictures means a lack of quality. While mainstream movies can be terrible (see the second-highest grossing film of 2009, Transformers 2), they can also be freeing and exciting. It's not just that James Cameron was given carte blanche to do what he wanted in Avatar, it's that someone funded Quentin Tarantino's warped vision of the second World War. Someone let Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis tool around Las Vegas, just as the studios allowed the mere existence of District 9, a movie that would seem a near impossibility to get greenlit. What's more, 2009 was a year for great science fiction, including Avatar, District 9, and the exciting and slick Star Trek. Maybe it was more accessible to people who think little of fanboys, but the quality is undeniable.

2009 was also a great year for animation, a year which saw the advent of more 3-D films, from Monsters vs. Aliens to Coraline to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and a return to form for Disney with its hand-drawn The Princess and the Frog. Up dominated the year, certainly, but it was one of many truly brilliant pieces of animation. This year was not filled with as many movies that truly excited me before they came out as 2010 has (what with the Iron Man and Toy Story sequels, a new Christopher Nolan film, and so forth), but 2009's output impressed me. Some of the nicer surprises featured Jesse Eisenberg, the man who Michael Cera wishes he was, with his two releases, Adventureland and Zombieland. Both were funny and had heart; one just also had zombies.

I ended up voting for movies that stuck out to me at the end of the year, chiefly movies such as Up, The Hurt Locker, In The Loop, Moon, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek, District 9, and Up in the Air. These were the movies that spoke to me this year, whether from suspense, joy, thrills, or any kind of deep thought. As I eke my way towards maturity, I'm finding that movies that try to have some kind of thought in their messages, for the most part, are the ones that interest me. Granted, Avatar's message is made simple, but that doesn't make it any less fascinating. Sure, movies like Up and Star Trek are for entertainment value, but the former is still quite tragic, and the latter is...well, it's just damn fun.

If there's anything to take away from my Calvins ballot, it's that I'm the kind of person who hates to have to shut my brain off before watching a movie, but I'm not against mainstream movies mixing high and low art. It's just that the majority of people running Hollywood studios assume I'm too stupid to get any kind of message in between explosions.

Best celebrity cameo: That one in Zombieland

Overrated movie of the year: A Serious Man

Biggest disappointment: Year One (yes, it was terrible, but with the cast and crew, it really shouldn't have been)

Most interesting failure: Funny People

Strangest mainstream film: Observe and Report

Actor whose banner year baffled me: Sandra Bullock