My Favorite Movies from 2009

A long over-due list of my favorite (narrative) movies from 2009! Disclaimers:

1. My criteria for "favorite" include: my connection with it on a personal level, my desire to see it again in the future, my likelihood of recommending it to others, and how strongly I feel that I want to make movies like it myself.

2. While I loved several documentaries from 2009, I've always had a hard time comparing documentaries against narrative films. So to simplify things, this list is for narrative films only.

3. There are still some big movies from 2009 that I haven't seen, so they are obviously absent from this list.

4. If you look back to my SIFF 2009 summary, you'll notice that my rankings for a few movies have changed. That's what happens over time...

Now onto the list:

1. Up in the Air
2. The Hurt Locker
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. Up
5. Avatar
6. Departures (2008 in Japan, 2009 in US)
7. A Single Man
8. Moon
9. Paper Heart
10. Precious

So there, my favorite (narrative) movies from 2009, as of today :-)