2009 Calvins: Reagen Sulewski's Ballots

March 2, 2009

Reagen Sulewski's Calvins Ballots

2008: The Year That Was

As many are no doubt likely to note, 2008 was the year of the geek, with The Dark Knight and Iron Man ruling not only the box office, but in critical assessments. It was a one-two punch of nerdgasm not seen since 2002's Spider-Man and The Two Towers. So with those two costumed super-hero films right at the top of the year's output and at the top of my own personal list, why was it such a dissatisfying year?

In part, I think it's because I don't want those films to be the best of the year. Not that I don't want comic book films to reach for great heights, and it's not that I don't want them to tackle big subjects. It's just that I'm wondering where the rest of the year's great films went. It's almost a case of "be careful what you wish for", as while these films have finally given us the deep, textured comic book films we always knew were possible, it's to the point where this isn't surprising.

Much of what makes up being a film buff is being shocked by films and surprised by the places they take us. Again, I'm not saying I knew everything that was going to happen in this year's films, but there was nothing in these plots that you could have told me beforehand and I would have said, "What? How did they get to that point?" It's by-the-numbers excellence in filmmaking, and I'm fully aware of how jaded that sounds.

But I look back at this year, compared to a year I regard as the recent high water mark, 1999, and find so much lacking. That year we had some outrageously original filmmaking, in the form of films like Being John Malkovich, Magnolia and Fight Club, along with my topper for that year, The Matrix. Which, hey, was a fanboy film to be sure, and I'll cop to that potential hypocrisy, but it was one that at least brought new ideas to the screen (its originality overall is of course debatable, but we're talking films here). Essentially what I'm asking for is that Hollywood actually challenge me, shake me out of my, and its rut. While Slumdog Millionaire wasn't exactly my cup of tea, it's theoretically something different and a way to get filmmakers thinking about new ideas again.

Still, 2008 wasn't all bad – In Bruges was a particular highlight as a callback to the darkly comic crime capers of the 1990s, while managing an actual heart, and The Wrestler turned a poorly regarded form of entertainment into a majestic tragedy. But these examples felt few and far between. To go back to that magical year of 1999, who would have predicted Fight Club's David Fincher making such a pedestrian film as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? I even kind of liked it. But at no point did I feel I was in any danger of being taken exactly where I
thought I was going.

So by default, comic films become my favourites for the year. And as great as they've been lately, they have a natural limitation and are almost always borrowing from established mythologies. For 2009, I have just one hope – please, please, please... someone surprise me.

See more individual ballots and complete results at the 2009 Calvin Awards page



Best Picture
Position Film
1 The Dark Knight
2 Iron Man
3 WALL-E
4 In Bruges
5 Tropic Thunder
6 The Wrestler
7 Frost/Nixon
8 Burn After Reading
9 Visitor, The
10 Standard Operating Procedure

Best Director
Position Director Film
1 Christopher Nolan The Dark Knight
2 Andrew Stanton WALL-E
3 Darren Aronofsky The Wrestler
4 Jon Favreau Iron Man
5 Martin McDonagh In Bruges
6 Ron Howard Frost/Nixon
7 Coen Brothers Burn After Reading
8 David Fincher The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
9 Thomas McCarthy The Visitor
10 Michel Gondry Be Kind Rewind

Best Actor
Position Actor Film
1 Mickey Rourke The Wrestler
2 Richard Jenkins The Visitor
3 Colin Farrell In Bruges
4 Frank Langella Frost/Nixon
5 Ben Kingsley The Wackness
6 Michael Sheen Frost/Nixon
7 Brendan Gleeson In Bruges
8 Josh Peck The Wackness
9 Brad Pitt The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10 Jean-Claude Van Damme JCVD

Best Actress
Position Actress Film
1 Anne Hathaway Rachel Getting Married
2 Cate Blanchett The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3 Kate Winslet The Reader
4 Natalie Portman The Other Boleyn Girl
5 Frances McDormand Burn After Reading
6 Charlize Theron Hancock
7 Freida Pinto Slumdog Millionaire
8 Anne Hathaway Get Smart

Best Supporting Actor
Position Actor Film
1 Heath Ledger The Dark Knight
2 Robert Downey Jr. Tropic Thunder
3 Tom Cruise Tropic Thunder
4 Ralph Fiennes In Bruges
5 George Clooney Burn After Reading
6 Brad Pitt Burn After Reading
7 Haaz Sleiman The Visitor
8 Bill Irwin Rachel Getting Married
9 Mather Zickel Rachel Getting Married
10 Sam Rockwell Frost/Nixon

Best Supporting Actress
Position Actress Film
1 Rosemarie DeWitt Rachel Getting Married
2 Tilda Swinton The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3 Clémence Poésy In Bruges
4 Marisa Tomei The Wrestler
5 Evan Rachel Wood The Wrestler
6 Olivia Thirlby The Wackness
7 Melonie Diaz Be Kind Rewind
8 Tilda Swinton Burn After Reading
9 Danai Jekesai Gurira The Visitor
10 Hiam Abbass The Visitor

Best Screenplay
Position Person(s) Film
1 Martin McDonagh In Bruges
2 Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon WALL-E
3 Robert Siegel The Wrestler
4 Jonathan and Christopher Nolan The Dark Knight
5 Thomas McCarthy The Visitor
6 Peter Morgan Frost/Nixon
7 Jenny Lumet Rachel Getting Married
8 Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen Tropic Thunder
9 Joel and Ethan Coen Burn After Reading
10 Fergus, Ostby, Marcum, Holloway Iron Man

Best Cast
Position Film
1 In Bruges
2 Rachel Getting Married
3 The Dark Knight
4 Tropic Thunder
5 The Visitor
6 The Wrestler
7 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
8 Frost/Nixon
9 Iron Man
10 Get Smart

Best Scene
Position Scene Film
1 CZW fight and aftermath The Wrestler
2 Daisy seduces Benjamin with dance The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3 The Bank Heist The Dark Knight
4 Iron Man returns to Afghanistan Iron Man
5 Drunken phone call between Nixon and Frost Frost/Nixon
6 Jean-Claude's confessional JCVD
7 WALL-E regains his memory after EVE holds his hand WALL-E
8 The initial attack Cloverfield
9 A Trip to Fire Island The Wackness
10 Jamal's Final Question Slumdog Millionaire

Best Use of Music
Position Film
1 Frost/Nixon
2 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
3 The Wackness
4 Slumdog Millionaire
5 WALL-E
6 Be Kind Rewind
7 My Winnipeg
8 The Dark Knight
9 Kung Fu Panda
10 Pineapple Express

Best Overlooked Film
Position Film
1 In Bruges
2 The Wrestler
3 Frost/Nixon
4 Visitor, The
5 Standard Operating Procedure
6 Rachel Getting Married
7 The Reader
8 The Wackness
9 My Winnipeg
10 Man on Wire

Breakthrough Performance
Position Person Film
1 David Kross The Reader
2 Danny McBride Pineapple Express
3 Haaz Sleiman The Visitor
4 Josh Peck The Wackness
5 Freida Pinto Slumdog Millionaire
6 Dev Patel Slumdog Millionaire
7 Mila Kunis Forgetting Sarah Marshall
8 Lizzy Caplan Cloverfield
9 Jason Segel Forgetting Sarah Marshall
10 Jay Baruchel Tropic Thunder

Worst Performance
Position Person Film
1 Zooey Deschanel The Happening
2 Mark Wahlberg The Happening
3 John Leguizamo The Happening
4 James McAvoy Wanted
5 Betty Buckley The Happening
6 Jonah Hill Strange Wilderness
7 Will Ferrell Semi-Pro
8 Steven Strait 10,000 BC
9 Hayden Christensen Jumper
10 Shia LaBeouf Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Worst Picture
Position Film
1 The Happening
2 Strange Wilderness
3 10,000 B.C.
4 Wanted
5 Eagle Eye
6 Drillbit Taylor
7 Semi-Pro
8 The Tracey Fragments
9 Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
10 The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Best Album
Position Artist Album
1 Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer
2 The Walkmen You & Me
3 Sam Roberts Love at the End of the World
4 Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty
5 Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs
6 MGMT Oracular Spectacular
7 Sloan Parallel Play
8 TV on the Radio Dear Science
9 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
10 Calexico Carried to Dust

Best TV Show
Position Show
1 30 Rock
2 Battlestar Galactica
3 Friday Night Lights
4 Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
5 The Daily Show
6 Chuck
7 The Office
8 Burn Notice
9 Life
10 Reaper

Best Videogame
Position Game
1 Rock Band 2


     


 
 

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