Alternate Takes 12.26.09: Best Actors 2009

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 12.26.2009

Join Alternate Takes as we count down the best of 2009. From Daniel Day-Lewis to George Clooney, who makes the list of the year's Best Actors.



Welcome to Week 83 of Alternate Takes. I am your host Shawn S. Lealos and you have now entered my world.

Let's kick off with some comments.

Sleeping Beauty? Lame. Snow White? Lamer. Pinocchio? EPIC LAME FAIL. - Posted By: Guest#3528 (Guest) - And from this post, I detect you have absolutely no taste in movies.

5 lady and the tramp 4 beauty and the beast 3 emperors new groove 2 lion king 1 aladdin - Posted By: Guest#4903 (Guest) - This is even after specifically saying in the opening of that column, in response to last week's comments, that this list was classic movies before 1970, not modern movies as four of those movies took place in the last twenty years.

No Song of the South?! - Posted By: Guest#5671 (Guest) - Haven't seen it.

A fairly decent list. Mine would be rather different, but really, most of the classic Disney films are of such high quality that it's hard to argue against your list. I will say, however, that I found "Lady & the Tramp" utterly infuriating because of how sickeningly pampered & spoilt Lady was in the beginning. It's the only time I ever wanted to actually kick a puppy. Not even her later troubles really made up for how annoyed I was. I really hated that bitch. I'm also not quite as impressed by Cinderella, which I considered the first case of Disney "phoning it in", oddly enough.

My list:

5. Sleeping Beauty
4. Alice in Wonderland
3. Pinocchio
2. Dumbo
1. Fantasia

But as I said, the differences are almost negligible.

Posted By: The Tortoise King (Registered)

I think a lot of my love for Lady and the Tramp has to do with the age I was when I watched it and the excitement I had in the character of Tramp. As a young boy, you want to be the free running hero and that hit a chord in me when I saw it. I agree that Lady is not the best character, but that is still something of the Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant dynamic I mentioned. Alice in Wonderland ranks 11th on my list and was the last movie I eliminated.

1. lion king 2. peter pan 3. Aladdin 4. Pinocchio 5. alice in wonderland. GREAT list though - Posted By: Tra' (Guest) - Thanks for reading.

It is a good list but ignoring the lion king is a crying shame. - Posted By: lisa (Guest) - Thanks. However, even if I didn't make the 1970 distinction, I still wouldn't be able to consider The Lion King to be a classic Disney movie since it was released when I was 24-years old, and I'm not that old...

Movies made before 1970, that rules out Lion King, Aladdin and some of the others mentioned here. Good list, but I would put Jungle Book as number one (assuming it was made before 1970 which I won't bother to look up and find out) - Posted By: Kerec (Guest) - It was, and was listed as #7 in Part 1 of this list.

This week's plan was to make up for the break in 1970, and list my Top 5 Disney animated movies since that date but with the comments the last two weeks, I feel it has been done to death. Instead, I will list my Top 5 and then move on to a new topic for this week's column.

TOP 5 DISNEY MOVIES (1970-2000)
* This does not include Pixar movies *

1. Robin Hood (1973)


2. Beauty and the Beast (1991)


3. Aladdin (1992)


4. The Fox and the Hound (1981)


5. The Lion King (1994)

Onto this week's column...

First, a press release from the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle (of which I am a member):
http://ofccircle.org/

The Oklahoma Film Critics Circle has announced its fourth annual list of awards for achievement in film, giving top honors to "The Hurt Locker" as the best motion picture of 2009.

OFCC members are Oklahoma-based movie critics who write for print and online outlets that publish or post reviews of current film releases. Among the media outlets represented are The Oklahoman, The Tulsa World, The Oklahoma Gazette, Edmond Life & Leisure, 411mania.com and others.

OFCC members named "The Hurt Locker" as the year's Best Film. Set in war-torn Iraq, the absorbing drama focuses on an elite group of soldiers tasked with disarming bombs. The woman who helmed "The Hurt Locker," Kathryn Bigelow, is the film group's Best Director of 2009. Bigelow may well be on her way to becoming the first woman to win an Oscar for directing.

Rounding out the Oklahoma critics' 10 Best Films of 2009 list are "Up in the Air," "Inglourious Basterds," "(500) Days of Summer," "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push' by Sapphire," "A Serious Man," "Up," "District 9," "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Avatar."

Film buffs can find the complete list of awards on the OFCC Web site, ofccircle.org, as well as frequent postings on film-related items and links to individual reviews.

Top performance honors went to George Clooney as Best Actor for his portrayal of a high-flying hatchet man in "Up in the Air." Best Actress honors went to Meryl Streep for her remarkable transformation into famed chef Julia Child in "Julie & Julia." Mo'Nique earned the Best Supporting Actress spot as an abusive mother in "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push' by Sapphire," while Christoph Waltz handily won Best Supporting Actor for his role as a sinister SS officer in "Inglourious Basterds."

"This was a very good year for cinema, and we hope our awards encourage viewers to seek out these films we have honored," OFCC President Phil Bacharach said."One of our goals as a critics' group is to make Oklahomans aware of quality films that may not have the publicity budgets of major studio releases."

While 2009 was a strong year for well-crafted movies, it also saw its share of disappointments. OFCC members selected "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" as Obviously Worst Film of the Year. Their nod to "Amelia" as Not-So-Obviously Worst Film of the Year expresses their realization that some films fall far short of their sizable amibitions.

"As professional moviegoers, we see many more unsuccessful films than successful ones," Bacharach said. "The Not-So-Obviously Worst Film category contains films that may have great talent behind them, but somehow add up to less than the sum of their parts."

Not all the films named as award winners opened in Oklahoma before voting took place; studios arranged press screenings and provided DVDs of many of their films so OFCC members could assess and consider them for year-end awards.

"We honor achievements in motion pictures each year both to celebrate film and to continue to draw attention to Oklahoma as a place with a sophisticated audience of people who appreciate films that challenge and entertain," Bacharach said.

OFCC promotes film in Oklahoma and strives to increase the visibility of the state's film-viewing and filmmaking communities. Oklahoma film critics see the majority of the studio and independent films of any given year and write hundreds of reviews of them as individuals.

The group's Web site, ofccircle.org, allows member critics to link to their reviews on the sites of their various media outlets as well as to post original pieces on film. This year, several critics began Coming Soon to a TV Near You, a post that suggests movies to watch each week on the small screen.

2009 Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards

Best 10 Films of 2009

1. "The Hurt Locker"
2. "Up in the Air"
3. "Inglourious Basterds"
4. "(500) Days of Summer"
5. "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push' by Sapphire"
6. "A Serious Man"
7. "Up"
8. "District 9"
9. "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
10. "Avatar"

Best Film of 2009: "The Hurt Locker"
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"
Best First Feature: (tie) Neill Blomkamp, "District 9" & Marc Webb, "(500) Days of Summer"
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia"
Best Actor: George Clooney, "Up in the Air"
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push' by Sapphire"
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds"
Best Screenplay (Original): Scott Neustadtler & Michael H. Weber, "(500) Days of Summer"
Best Screenplay (Adaptation): Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, "Up in the Air"
Best Documentary: "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," dir. Sacha Gervasi
Best Foreign Film: "Coco Before Chanel," dir. Anne Fontaine
Best Animated Film: "Fantastic Mr. Fox," dir. Wes Anderson
Obviously Worst Film: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
Not-So-Obviously Worst Film: "Amelia"

For the next six weeks, I am going to give my Top 5 in a number of categories, concluding on January 30 when I talk about my personal Top 10 movies of 2009. This week we will start with my Top 5 Actors of 2009.

5. DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, NINE Directed by Rob Marshall Written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella Nine had a lot of expectations to meet. Director Rob Marshall's last musical was the Oscar winning Chicago. The musical this movie is based on is a multiple-Tony Award winning stage play. Add to the pressure that the story is based on the Fellini classic 8 ½ and you have a movie that has the deck stacked against it from the start. Looking at the reviews across the board, it seems the movie did not match up to the expectations of many critics as it currently sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. My opinion of the movie is quite different as I find it a work of art that lives up to the heightened expectations of the Fellini classic. The problem many critics have with the movie is the music, which is a shame since it is the same music from the Tony Award winning musical, save three new songs, all written by the original musical's composer. I have also heard criticism that Daniel Day-Lewis was miscast as Italian film director Guido Contini. On that count, I disagree completely and list him as my fifth best male lead actor of 2009. Day-Lewis is an actor that can raise the expectations of a movie just by signing on to appear in it. I am actually surprised he has only been nominated for four Oscars because his name is synonymous with excellence. He won for There will be Blood and My Left Foot and was also nominated for In the Name of the Father and Gangs of New York. He has won a total of 59 awards in his career which is even more amazing due to the fact Nine is only his tenth movie since My Left Foot in 1989. When watching both Nine and Fellini's 8 ½, it is easy to see where Day-Lewis is coming from with his performance as Guido, a man tortured by his inability to love, his inability to accept nothing short of excellence in his work, and a man who refuses to grow up, preferring to play the role of the clown and hiding from the harshness of the real world. Day-Lewis hits the notes perfectly, giving the character what I believe is the exact pathos needed for his character's story arc. With a lesser actor the movie never would have been as good and, thanks to the strong performance of this leading man, the movie remains one of my favorite movies of 2009. Other Daniel Day-Lewis movies to check out: My Beautiful Laundrette, My Left Foot, The Last of the Mohicans

4. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, (500) DAYS OF SUMMER Directed by Marc Webb Written by Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber While Daniel Day-Lewis is an actor whose very presence will provide instant recognition for any movie he appears, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has not reached that level yet. However, look at the young actor's body of work and it is clear he is one of the best working in Hollywood today. I point to his amazing work in the spectacular Independent smash Brick and this great 2009 film as perfect examples of the man's talent. Indie movies live on two main ingredients: an interesting, quirky story and the strength of its actors. Movies like Little Miss Sunshine and Juno are great examples of these movies and, in my opinion, 500 Days of Summer is better than both those movies combined. The strength of this movie, outside the unconventional narrative, is the acting of Gordon-Levitt. (500) Days of Summer tells the story of the 500 days spanning the relationship between Gorden-Levitt's Tom and a girl named Summer. The movie takes place in an unconventional manner, jumping between various points in the timeline, back and forth with little to no order, just the way a person's memory works in these situations. Tom remembers the good times, the bad times but we are not required to watch the sedentary moments in much the same manner that our memory works. This requires Gordon-Levitt to perform in a number of difficult situations and credit first-time director Marc Webb for the order he constructs these scenes. Tom will get onto an elevator extremely happy, after deciding he had found the woman of his dreams, and get off the elevator a hundred days in the future - or the past - depressed because of a fight the couple just finished. Zooey Deschanel, as good a performance as she supplies, has it easier than her co-star. She lives each day as it comes, taking what happens at face value, happy to be alone and refusing to believe in fate and true love and all that other "nonsense." Tom is a man plagued by the inflictions of love and the thoughts of "happily ever after." He writes greeting cards and might believe all the drivel that appears on them. However, by the end of the 500 days in this fairy tale, and the movie is a fairy tale, he no longer believes in love and has become a blank slate. The transformation from hapless romantic to cynical loneliness is a testament to the acting skills of Gordon-Levitt, a man whose best roles are yet to come. Despite his age, this performance ranks up there with Oscar winners and elder statesmen as one of the best of the year. Other Joseph Gordon-Levitt movies to check out: Mysterious Skin, Brick, The Lookout

3. JEREMY RENNER, THE HURT LOCKER Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal When I heard Jeremy Renner was in talks to portray the character of Hawkeye, one of my favorite superheroes as a kid, all I asked was "who the hell is Jeremy Renner?" No one will have any questions of who this great young actor is after his performance in 2009's The Hurt Locker. The movie has been nominated for numerous awards and has been named the Best Movie of 2009 on many critics' year end lists. A lot of it has to do with the film's lead actor, portraying a member of an elite Army bomb squad in Iraq. Renner has been in a lot of high profile movies leading up to this. He is one of the bad guys in the film version of S.W.A.T.. He also had a prominent role in 28 Weeks Later and played Jesse James' cousin Wood Hite in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. However, he brought his A-game to The Hurt Locker and provides the best performance of his career. Renner is SSgt. William James, the team leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit during the 2004 Army insurgence in Iraq. He is replacing the former leader (Guy Pearce) who was killed by a remote triggered explosion at the start of the film. He joins the group but is a hard man for his fellow soldiers to love. He appears reckless, suicidal or just plain stupid. At one point he refuses to wear his bomb suit, because if he dies he wants to be comfortable when it happens. At another point, he refuses to leave a bomb, despite the time frame being too short, just to make sure he is the one who defuses it. If the man was just reckless, it would be too simple. Renner plays William James as a man who is extremely loyal to those around him, yet closed off and shielded from actual companionship. He has a wife and child at home but is unable to live that normal, "white picket fences" life. He is daring, exciting and dangerous but understands the consequences of his own actions. Renner, with simple facial expressions (and very little dialogue) gives us a character that could have been a caricature, but instead is someone we can sympathize with. There are very few movies about the current war in Iraq that I have enjoyed watching. Thanks to the acting of Renner, The Hurt Locker remains not only an Iraq war movie I enjoyed, but one of the best movies I have seen period. Other Jeremy Renner movies to check out: S.W.A.T., 28 Weeks Later, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2. GEORGE CLOONEY, UP IN THE AIR Directed by Jason Reitman Written by Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner Much like Daniel Day-Lewis, when George Clooney's name is attached to a film you are guaranteed to garner interest. It is not always a great movie, but you are pretty assured of a great performance. The man has appeared in crazy Coen films, political dramas, action flicks, horror films, historical dramas and the coolest trilogy this side of the Rat Pack. Regardless of the genre, one thing is for certain. George Clooney is one of the greatest "movie stars" since Cary Grant. Jason Reitman has created some fantastic independent films in Thank You For Smoking and Juno, but he faced a completely different task with Up in the Air. He has always strived to create movies that present characters as out of the norm as possible. With Up in the Air, he was tasked with taking a character that easily could have been unlikeable. Ryan has no desire to ever submit to the feeling of "family" or "community" and believes life is better living out of a suitcase, from airport terminal to terminal. His only goal in life is to build his frequent flier miles to the magical 10 million mile number. He is lucky George Clooney took the time to play Ryan Bingham because the movie would never have been as great without him. Clooney takes a character unlike most of America and makes him someone we end up relating with and agreeing to follow to the story's conclusion. I am not as in love with this movie as most people but I will stand right at the front of the line when praising Clooney's performance here. He is surrounded by some quality supporting characters, including Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick and Amy Morton who all represent what Ryan could have been. One is a woman who sets out on the same road as him, only to find it is not for her. Another seems to be just like him but turns out to be something completely different altogether. The third is his sister, a woman who has accepted domestic "bliss" and all it entails. Through all this, Clooney makes us believe that while Ryan is not what we may think of as normal, he is still just right for him. I believe George Clooney can step into any role and make it into something we can all relate to. He takes one of Reitman's strange characters and makes him as normal as you and me. George Clooney is a movie star but he is also one of the greatest actors working today and can make any movie a joy to watch. Other George Clooney movies to check out: Out of Sight, Three Kings, Good Night, and Good Luck.

1. TOM HARDY, BRONSON Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Written by Nicolas Winding Refn, Brock Norman Brock There have been some great roles by great actors this year, but the one that knocked me on my arse is one from a British film that I guarantee 99% of you have not seen. Tom Hardy plays Charles Bronson, a real-life inmate in the British prison system. Bronson was sentenced to 7 years for a botched armed robbery and has now served 30 years, much of it in solitary confinement. The reason his sentence has never ended, and probably never will, is because one of Bronson's most beloved actions is to kidnap someone, hold that person in his cell, and then strip naked and fight all the guards who come to the rescue. How the hell do you make someone like that a character someone will want to follow? Part of it has to do with the incredible direction of Refn but, more than that, it has to do with the acting performance of Tom Hardy. Simply put, the man is a tour-de-force of everything great about cinema acting. We get to see Bronson at different times in his life. We see him in prison. We see him getting into trouble outside of prison. In the most interesting scenes of the movie, we see him on a stage, speaking to an audience. In the best scene of the movie, he strips naked, paints his face and charges into a full scale battle in slow motion in the best of its type since A Clockwork Orange. All this comes from an actor I have heard of but could never place him in a movie. He was Handsome Bob in RocknRolla. He was Clarkie in Layer Cake. His debut role was as Twombly in Black Hawk Down. These are not roles you would expect from someone who blew me out of the water in Bronson. Where did this actor come from? With the exception of Star Trek: Nemesis, I assumed Tom Hardy was a pretty boy actor that would go the way of James McAvoy. God, was I wrong. Tom Hardy is a powerhouse that makes me believe the man could kick anyone's ass. At the same time, you could not turn your head from the screen whether he is staring at you and delivering a monologue or standing naked, ready to fight. Tom Hardy completely changed my perception of him in this movie and that says a lot. He is onscreen for 100% of the movie and it never would have worked with a lesser actor. He elevates this movie into something special and without him it could not have worked. Tom Hardy gave my favorite performance of the year and is easily my actor of the year. Other Tom Hardy movies to check out: Black Hawk Down, Layer Cake, RocknRolla

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