Year in Review
Ahoy blog mateys! Should that be maties or is mateys okay? Is this like a monkey thing and not a monkie thing? I don't want to start my return to bloggery with a grammar gaffe. I'm going with mateys, final decision (which unlike a Final Destination does not result in anyone dying due to some grisly chandelier accident). I hope your Christmases were filled with cheer and presents (but mostly presents...side note: does anyone realize that, given modern context, "may all your Christmases be white" sounds really, really racist). I got a lot of good, good stuff, stuff that I will share with you in this week's "Things You Should Buy Me" installment on Wednesday (spoiler alert: people bought me things).
There's only one way to kick off this return from break-ation...okay, two ways. First, this:
There's only one way to kick off this return from break-ation...okay, two ways. First, this:
Don't you feel better already? Next, we add in a dash of "Year in Review." This is not the top 10 of 2009, which will arrive once I've seen all of 2009's releases (again, Omaha is on the cinematic equivalent of a 5-second delay...only instead of 5-seconds later, we get movies about a month later in some instances). No, this is a look back at the events and trends that populated the last year. I really don't need to introduce it further, so take a peek!
‘09 Like Fine Wine
This year shall be fondly remembered
Like cheese, wine and the ex you shouldn’t have dumped, 2009 will age far better than you or I will. In fact, Roger Ebert has gone so far as to claim on his twitter feed that “2009 is one of those magic movie years like 1939 or 1976.” Now, if Roger Clinton had said that, maybe I don’t take it seriously…but that was Roger Ebert, the godfather of modern movie criticism, talking. How could he have known that even in our own little neck of the woods, 2009 “brought it,” to use the parlance of a fallen pop-icon turned reality singing competition judge? Indeed, Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater once more delivered the cultural noise and socially significant funk, and the Midtown Crossing Theater finally united dinner and movies together into one experience after a century of date night segregation. From the local to the national, if this year had done any better, we’d have to find a way to publicly tear it down.
Without further ado, let’s dive deeper into the last of the “naughty aughties.”
Box Office Roundup: Michael Bay reminds me I’m irrelevant
Posting the biggest cumulative dollar amount in box office history, 2009 was nowhere near as good as its final tally, which should top out somewhere around $10 billion. Oh, Hollywood will take the results in a year in which the term recession appeared on television only slightly less than ads for erectile dysfunction pills—priories are still priorities, I guess. Still, the actual number of tickets sold will be the second lowest this decade, indicating that the real winner here is inflation…well, inflation and stereotype-spewing robots. The top film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, may have grossed more than $100 million less than last year’s champ, The Dark Knight, but it was also terrible and racist…I forget where I was going with that. Beyond the bigoted box office behemoth, the number of $100 million movies should be about identical to last year (29 apiece), and the overall cinematic take was bolstered by contributions from IMAX and 3D theaters, which charge a pretty penny for added size and dimension…must…resist…Cialis…joke.
Last year’s predictions: I didn’t lie to you that bad
When asked to prognosticate for 2009 in last year’s Reader—don’t worry, I never prognosticate in public—my first speculation was that Omaha would lose theaters. Blissfully, I’m a semi-liar. Although we did shed the Cinema Center, we gained Midtown Crossing, a downright gorgeous state-of-the-art theater that lets you scarf down food whilst scarfing down movies. With no disrespect to Cinema Center, may it rest in peace, Omaha came out ahead on this exchange. Speaking of coming out ahead, I crushed my final three predictions from last year like my dreams of fame after I turned 31. I called for a down year for superheroes. I present exhibit A: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I suggested that 3D would take off. I present exhibit B: A whopping 17 movies arrived in all three dimensions, with almost all of them seizing a huge wad of box office dough. Finally, I imagined that 2009 would see advances in direct-to-home-video materials. I present exhibit C: A release-strategy change now allows indie films like Antichrist and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call –New Orleans to simultaneously arrive in theaters and on video on demand. Sure, it wasn’t quite pointing to the bleachers in the World Series and yakking one out there, but I’m a movie writer, so my expectations are quite a bit lower.
Get animated: Was 2009 the best year for animation…ever?
Although I am by nature given to hyperbole thanks to a genetic condition, it isn’t too much of a stretch to consider this last year the greatest in the history of animation. The critical praise heaped upon Up, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Coraline and The Princess and the Frog far exceed the collective praise for any other genre. Moreover, the sheer diversity in form was staggering, from A Christmas Carol’s creepy-but-also-kind-of-cool performance capture, to the return of hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog to my favorite form, stop-motion, in Coraline and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. This year’s cartoony goodness was so dedicated to diversity, Disney even managed to present a non-racist black animated character. If Up does score an overall Best Picture nomination at the Oscars it will cap what has been an unprecedented leap forward for a category that is often dismissed as kid’s play. Of course, next year brings with it Shrek Forever, a film capable of single-handedly returning the entire category to the dark ages.
Low-low budget: Indies suffer, but low-budgets multiply?
One of the more disappointing aspects of any economic downturn is that it gives studios an excuse to take on less “risky” or “artistic” fare, as though shedding the $2 million art house project is really going to help the bottom line as much as trimming one of Nicholas Cage’s hair piece assistants. Perhaps one of the most encouraging stories of success then was Paranormal Activity, a movie that struck just the right chord with horror movie fans, a group that is notorious for not giving a good damn how much a film costs. With a budget less than a year of undergrad studies at Creighton University ($15,000 compared to $28,000), the spooky hand-held camera tale of demonic possession raked in $107 million…and that’s before its release on home video. Because copycatting is the thing to do in L.A., Paramount instantly tried to duplicate the inexplicable success by creating a “microbudget” division that will split $1 million between 10-20 movies. It’s hard not to see this as a win-win, with struggling artists finding hard sought dollars and a studio taking a small risk. Now, if only they’d realize this formula will work on a slightly larger scale…
Local lovin’: Omaha ruled to the point of a George Clooney citing
Locally filmed Lovely, Still final unspooled and Oscar front-runner Up in the Air took the time to shoot a few sequences in Epply Airport—a Clooney alert was issued, but thankfully only mild swooning was reported. Combine that with the aforementioned delivery of the Midtown Crossing Theater and the continued commitment from Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater and the Omaha Film Festival to make this town a prominent player in significant, intelligent cinematic fare and you have inarguably a banner year for movies in the Big O. Why, what a perfect opportunity to close with a kindly request that such a trend continues and that such events find their way to my inbox at film@thereader.com. Forgive me my flowery rhetoric but it goes without saying (other than me, you know, saying it right now) that on a daily and weekly basis throughout this fair city people dedicated to celebrating the modern art that is moviemaking do incredible things. Keep on keepin’ on, and keep on letting us know about it. I see no reason whatsoever that 2009 can’t be the start of a new, exciting statement for what is to come instead of the punctuation on the decade that has just closed.
‘09 Like Fine Wine
This year shall be fondly remembered
Like cheese, wine and the ex you shouldn’t have dumped, 2009 will age far better than you or I will. In fact, Roger Ebert has gone so far as to claim on his twitter feed that “2009 is one of those magic movie years like 1939 or 1976.” Now, if Roger Clinton had said that, maybe I don’t take it seriously…but that was Roger Ebert, the godfather of modern movie criticism, talking. How could he have known that even in our own little neck of the woods, 2009 “brought it,” to use the parlance of a fallen pop-icon turned reality singing competition judge? Indeed, Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater once more delivered the cultural noise and socially significant funk, and the Midtown Crossing Theater finally united dinner and movies together into one experience after a century of date night segregation. From the local to the national, if this year had done any better, we’d have to find a way to publicly tear it down.
Without further ado, let’s dive deeper into the last of the “naughty aughties.”
Box Office Roundup: Michael Bay reminds me I’m irrelevant
Posting the biggest cumulative dollar amount in box office history, 2009 was nowhere near as good as its final tally, which should top out somewhere around $10 billion. Oh, Hollywood will take the results in a year in which the term recession appeared on television only slightly less than ads for erectile dysfunction pills—priories are still priorities, I guess. Still, the actual number of tickets sold will be the second lowest this decade, indicating that the real winner here is inflation…well, inflation and stereotype-spewing robots. The top film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, may have grossed more than $100 million less than last year’s champ, The Dark Knight, but it was also terrible and racist…I forget where I was going with that. Beyond the bigoted box office behemoth, the number of $100 million movies should be about identical to last year (29 apiece), and the overall cinematic take was bolstered by contributions from IMAX and 3D theaters, which charge a pretty penny for added size and dimension…must…resist…Cialis…joke.
Last year’s predictions: I didn’t lie to you that bad
When asked to prognosticate for 2009 in last year’s Reader—don’t worry, I never prognosticate in public—my first speculation was that Omaha would lose theaters. Blissfully, I’m a semi-liar. Although we did shed the Cinema Center, we gained Midtown Crossing, a downright gorgeous state-of-the-art theater that lets you scarf down food whilst scarfing down movies. With no disrespect to Cinema Center, may it rest in peace, Omaha came out ahead on this exchange. Speaking of coming out ahead, I crushed my final three predictions from last year like my dreams of fame after I turned 31. I called for a down year for superheroes. I present exhibit A: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I suggested that 3D would take off. I present exhibit B: A whopping 17 movies arrived in all three dimensions, with almost all of them seizing a huge wad of box office dough. Finally, I imagined that 2009 would see advances in direct-to-home-video materials. I present exhibit C: A release-strategy change now allows indie films like Antichrist and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call –New Orleans to simultaneously arrive in theaters and on video on demand. Sure, it wasn’t quite pointing to the bleachers in the World Series and yakking one out there, but I’m a movie writer, so my expectations are quite a bit lower.
Get animated: Was 2009 the best year for animation…ever?
Although I am by nature given to hyperbole thanks to a genetic condition, it isn’t too much of a stretch to consider this last year the greatest in the history of animation. The critical praise heaped upon Up, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Coraline and The Princess and the Frog far exceed the collective praise for any other genre. Moreover, the sheer diversity in form was staggering, from A Christmas Carol’s creepy-but-also-kind-of-cool performance capture, to the return of hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog to my favorite form, stop-motion, in Coraline and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. This year’s cartoony goodness was so dedicated to diversity, Disney even managed to present a non-racist black animated character. If Up does score an overall Best Picture nomination at the Oscars it will cap what has been an unprecedented leap forward for a category that is often dismissed as kid’s play. Of course, next year brings with it Shrek Forever, a film capable of single-handedly returning the entire category to the dark ages.
Low-low budget: Indies suffer, but low-budgets multiply?
One of the more disappointing aspects of any economic downturn is that it gives studios an excuse to take on less “risky” or “artistic” fare, as though shedding the $2 million art house project is really going to help the bottom line as much as trimming one of Nicholas Cage’s hair piece assistants. Perhaps one of the most encouraging stories of success then was Paranormal Activity, a movie that struck just the right chord with horror movie fans, a group that is notorious for not giving a good damn how much a film costs. With a budget less than a year of undergrad studies at Creighton University ($15,000 compared to $28,000), the spooky hand-held camera tale of demonic possession raked in $107 million…and that’s before its release on home video. Because copycatting is the thing to do in L.A., Paramount instantly tried to duplicate the inexplicable success by creating a “microbudget” division that will split $1 million between 10-20 movies. It’s hard not to see this as a win-win, with struggling artists finding hard sought dollars and a studio taking a small risk. Now, if only they’d realize this formula will work on a slightly larger scale…
Local lovin’: Omaha ruled to the point of a George Clooney citing
Locally filmed Lovely, Still final unspooled and Oscar front-runner Up in the Air took the time to shoot a few sequences in Epply Airport—a Clooney alert was issued, but thankfully only mild swooning was reported. Combine that with the aforementioned delivery of the Midtown Crossing Theater and the continued commitment from Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater and the Omaha Film Festival to make this town a prominent player in significant, intelligent cinematic fare and you have inarguably a banner year for movies in the Big O. Why, what a perfect opportunity to close with a kindly request that such a trend continues and that such events find their way to my inbox at film@thereader.com. Forgive me my flowery rhetoric but it goes without saying (other than me, you know, saying it right now) that on a daily and weekly basis throughout this fair city people dedicated to celebrating the modern art that is moviemaking do incredible things. Keep on keepin’ on, and keep on letting us know about it. I see no reason whatsoever that 2009 can’t be the start of a new, exciting statement for what is to come instead of the punctuation on the decade that has just closed.
Labels: 2009 Year in Review
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