Two more distinguished colleagues weigh in on the year's
best and worst:
MICHAEL ATKINSON
It's been an exceptionally Godardian year, even if my
favorite release of the year is a 40-year-old JLG romance requiem not enough
critics saw, and which absolutely no one but me considered a viable 2009
list-maker in any case. I walk away stuffed and satisfied (even though I did
not see Haneke's "The White Ribbon" in time), thanks largely in part
to a handful of obsessive global filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino, and the persistent
idea that commercial animation can be interesting, metaphorically loaded and
uniquely textured, and not just a cash-hungry showbiz monstrosity.