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It's that time of year. Okay, it's a month after that time of year, but for those of us who aren't so lucky as to live on one of the coasts, getting to watch some of the most prestigious movies of the year isn't easy. This week and next week, the A-List is going to go over the ten best films of 2009, with plenty of honorable mentions thrown in for good measure. Of course, when I say that the A-List is going over these movies, it just means that these are my top ten movies of the past year, including any and all movies that were originally released in 2009; if that wasn't the case, then the 2008 list would've included not only The Dark Knight, but There Will Be Blood (again, the magic of living in the state of Arizona).

As I said, there are a lot of movies here that I'm going to list aside from the top-ten list. However, I'm also guilty of not having seen all the major prestige movies of the past year. So, before you wonder why I could have left off Movie A or Movie B, here's a few movies I missed out on: A Serious Man, A Single Man, An Education, Nine, Invictus, Bright Star, The Cove, Crazy Heart, and The Road. A few of these are still in theaters, and I'd like to be able to catch up on most, if not all, of them by March 7th, when the Oscars are announced. Still, I'm sad that I wasn't able to check these movies out, all of which had small releases near me, and were all among my anticipated movies of the year. You don't need to send me any hate mail; I'm sending it to myself already.

Having gotten past the pity party, here's a list, in alphabetical order, of some movies that will not show up in my top ten, as honorable mentions: (500) Days of Summer, Adventureland, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Duplicity, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Funny People, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I Love You, Man, The Informant!, Precious, The Princess and the Frog, Sherlock Holmes, Where The Wild Things Are, and Zombieland. What, from this list or my top ten, can you figure out about this year in film? As much as having ten Best Picture nominees seems weird, mainstream movies didn't suck as much as in past years. I'm still not sure about this being the best year to honor ten nominees, but it is what it is. Enjoy my list, folks.

10. Public Enemies

One running thread of the movies on my top ten list is being underrated. I've already discussed, in a previous A-List, my pick for the most underrated movie of 2009, and it is higher on the list (by which I mean you won't see it this week). That doesn't mean that there's going to be a lack of underrated movies here, though. Perhaps the biggest and most underrated movie of 2009 was Public Enemies. The latest film from auteur Michael Mann chronicled the last few years of the life of famed criminal John Dillinger and his fellow bank robbers, including Pretty Boy Floyd and Babyface Nelson. Dillinger, as played by Johnny Depp, lives for the moment despite being pursued by the newly formed federal crime-busting unit led by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). He's accompanied by his girlfriend, Billie (Marion Cotillard) as he crosses America at the lowest point of the Great Depression.

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