Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
I head back to 2009 in my look back at the world of film. This was right after Iron Man and The Dark Knight, so the movie landscape was not quite where it has been in recent years. I’m also trying to remember what the Oscar world was like in that year, but of course I am about to find out. Here’s a look back at how film looked 15 years ago.
Oh yeah, 2009 was the year of Avatar, so that in turn means I now know what won Best Picture. Avatar was such a big swing for James Cameron, but it paid off. It has taken a couple re-releases, but Avatar is the highest-grossing film ever. Also, it was huge in terms of making 3D films a thing again for a minute there.
The top 10 of the worldwide box office is littered with sequels of the Harry Potter and Ice Age ilk, plus Up, the Pixar film of record for the year. What stands out to me, though, is the movie that finished 10th, which is The Hangover. Remember when comedies, original comedies at that, could be big in the box office? I don’t like The Hangover. I think it’s bad comedy. And yet, the era that is gone, which it represents, is one to be remembered fondly.
This was a bizarre Oscars. The Hurt Locker won Best Picture, becoming, at the time, the lowest-grossing winner of that award. It’s fine, but what is more notable is Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to win Best Picture, beating her ex-husband Cameron in the process. Then, she kind of got herself into director jail, but I’m not really a fan of her work so that’s unfortunate for her, but, like, Detroit was a flop.
Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock were both given effectively career achievement awards. Bridges won for the completely-forgotten Crazy Heart, and Bullock inexplicably won for The Blind Side. What’s a shame is that winning these Oscars probably kept them from winning for True Grit and Gravity respectively.
There are a couple of Oscar nominees that I enjoy more than the winning film. A Serious Man is not peak Coen Brothers, but it is quite good, and definitely interesting. Then, there’s Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which won Christoph Waltz a deserving Oscar and made him a star in America. I think Basterds could be Tarantino’s best film, and would be my Best Picture winner for 2009.
Although, In the Loop may be my favorite movie of the year.
