Reagen Sulewski's 2009 Calvins Ballot
By Reagen Sulewski
March 2, 2010
Like 2008, 2009 was a year where TV offered me a lot more in terms of entertainment than the movies did. The gap closed in both directions for me, though, as a number of brilliant series ended or got the hook, and a number of directors stepped up to provide us with one of the stronger movie years of the decade.
Really, any year for me with a Quentin Tarantino film in release is going to be a good one for me, and Inglourious Basterds provided me with that rare thrill of the unexpected that I haven't had in some time. It's now the fourth time that a Tarantino film has topped my yearly list (the other three being Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Vol. 1) at a time when it feels like I should probably be growing tired of his films, and his strange genre affectations.
And I entered into Basterds expecting to find that Tarantino had given into the simple gore mentality of the last few years, and based on the ads I don't think I could be faulted for that. Instead, I found Tarantino using a WWII backdrop for a meditation on the power of cinema and its essential nature in determining truth, structured around three incredible set pieces. I never should have doubted you Quentin, even if I still can't really stand you as a person that much.
|
Best Picture: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 2 |
The Hurt Locker |
| 3 |
Up in the Air |
| 4 |
Big Fan |
| 5 |
The Informant! |
| 6 |
Up |
| 7 |
Adventureland |
| 8 |
District 9 |
| 9 |
State of Play |
| 10 |
Crazy Heart |
|
Best Director: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Director |
Film |
| 1 |
Kathryn Bigelow |
The Hurt Locker |
| 2 |
Quentin Tarantino |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 3 |
Jason Reitman |
Up in the Air |
| 4 |
Steven Soderbergh |
The Informant! |
| 5 |
James Cameron |
Avatar |
| 6 |
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson |
Up |
| 7 |
Neill Blomkamp |
District 9 |
| 8 |
Kevin Macdonald |
State of Play |
| 9 |
Robert Seigel |
Big Fan |
| 10 |
Rian Johnson |
The Brothers Bloom |
|
Best Actor: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Actor |
Film |
| 1 |
Jeff Bridges |
Crazy Heart |
| 2 |
George Clooney |
Up in the Air |
| 3 |
Jeremy Renner |
The Hurt Locker |
| 4 |
Patton Oswalt |
Big Fan |
| 5 |
Matt Damon |
The Informant! |
| 6 |
Sam Rockwell |
Moon |
| 7 |
Joseph Gordon-Levitt |
(500) Days of Summer |
| 8 |
Adrien Brody |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 9 |
Viggo Mortensen |
The Road |
| 10 |
Sharlto Copley |
District 9 |
|
Best Actress: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Actress |
Film |
| 1 |
Melanie Laurent |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 2 |
Maya Rudolph |
Away We Go |
| 3 |
Vera Farmiga |
Up in the Air |
| 4 |
Maggie Gyllenhaal |
Crazy Heart |
| 5 |
Rachel Weisz |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 6 |
Zooey Deschanel |
(500) Days of Summer |
| 7 |
Amy Adams |
Sunshine Cleaning |
| 8 |
Zoe Saldana |
Avatar |
| 9 |
Julia Roberts |
Duplicity |
|
Best Supporting Actor: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Actor |
Film |
| 1 |
Christoph Waltz |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 2 |
Anthony Mackie |
The Hurt Locker |
| 3 |
Ben Affleck |
State of Play |
| 4 |
Mark Ruffalo |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 5 |
Woody Harrelson |
Zombieland |
| 6 |
Alan Arkin |
Sunshine Cleaning |
| 7 |
Martin Starr |
Adventureland |
| 8 |
Jeff Bridges |
The Men Who Stare at Goats |
| 9 |
Zach Galifianakis |
The Hangover |
| 10 |
Paul Giamatti |
Duplicity |
|
Best Supporting Actress: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Actress |
Film |
| 1 |
Anna Kendrick |
Up in the Air |
| 2 |
Diane Kruger |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 3 |
Rachel McAdams |
State of Play |
| 4 |
Melanie Lynskey |
Away We Go |
| 5 |
Charlize Theron |
The Road |
| 6 |
Rinko Kikuchi |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 7 |
Marion Cotillard |
Public Enemies |
| 8 |
Emily Blunt |
Sunshine Cleaning |
| 9 |
Dakota Fanning |
Push |
| 10 |
Kristen Stewart |
Adventureland |
|
Best Screenplay: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Person(s) |
Film |
| 1 |
Quentin Tarantino |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 2 |
Sheldon Turner/Jason Reitman |
Up in the Air |
| 3 |
Mark Boal |
The Hurt Locker |
| 4 |
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell |
District 9 |
| 5 |
Scott Neustadter/Michael H. Weber |
(500) Days of Summer |
| 6 |
Scott K. Burns |
The Informant! |
| 7 |
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter |
Up |
| 8 |
Matthew Michael Carnahan & Tony Gilroy & Billy Ray |
State of Play |
| 9 |
Rian Johnson |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 10 |
Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida |
Away We Go |
|
Best Cast: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 2 |
Up in the Air |
| 3 |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 4 |
The Hurt Locker |
| 5 |
The Informant! |
| 6 |
The Hangover |
| 7 |
Public Enemies |
| 8 |
Zombieland |
| 9 |
Adventureland |
| 10 |
Sunshine Cleaning |
|
Best Scene: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Scene |
Film |
| 1 |
Flashback of Carl and Ellie's life together |
Up |
| 2 |
The scene with the big-star cameo |
Zombieland |
| 3 |
Could I have another glass of your delicious milk? |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 4 |
Expectation vs reality |
(500) Days of Summer |
| 5 |
Might I have some more of your delicious milk? |
Inglorious Basterds |
| 6 |
Dismantling a car bomb |
The Hurt Locker |
| 7 |
Night out at the club in Montreal |
Away We Go |
| 8 |
Helpless man has unremovable bombs attached to body |
The Hurt Locker |
| 9 |
Serving eviction notices |
District 9 |
| 10 |
Paul goes to Philadelphia |
Big Fan |
|
Best Use of Music: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Crazy Heart |
| 2 |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 3 |
(500) Days of Summer |
| 4 |
The Hangover |
| 5 |
Up |
| 6 |
Away We Go |
| 7 |
Watchmen |
| 8 |
Observe and Report |
| 9 |
Adventureland |
| 10 |
Avatar |
|
Best Overlooked Film: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
The Hurt Locker |
| 2 |
Big Fan |
| 3 |
Adventureland |
| 4 |
Away We Go |
| 5 |
The Brothers Bloom |
| 6 |
Moon |
| 7 |
The Invention of Lying |
| 8 |
The Road |
| 9 |
Sunshine Cleaning |
| 10 |
Extract |
|
Best Breakthrough Performance: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Person |
Film |
| 1 |
Anna Kendrick |
Up in the Air |
| 2 |
Sharlto Copley |
District 9 |
| 3 |
Christoph Waltz |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 4 |
Jeremy Renner |
The Hurt Locker |
| 5 |
Melanie Laurent |
Inglourious Basterds |
| 6 |
Patton Oswalt |
Big Fan |
| 7 |
Jesse Eisenberg |
Zombieland |
| 8 |
Zach Galifianakis |
The Hangover |
| 9 |
Chris Pine |
Star Trek |
| 10 |
Anthony Mackie |
The Hurt Locker |
|
Worst Performance: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Person |
Film |
| 1 |
Megan Fox |
Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen |
| 2 |
Paul Walker |
Fast & Furious |
| 3 |
Danny Huston |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine |
| 4 |
Jack Black |
Year One |
| 5 |
Malin Akerman |
Watchmen |
| 6 |
Allison Janney |
Away We Go |
| 7 |
Amy Smart |
Crank: High Voltage |
| 8 |
Jordana Brewster |
Fast & Furious |
| 9 |
Ray Liotta |
Observe and Report |
| 10 |
Sacha Baron Cohen |
Bruno |
|
Worst Picture: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine |
| 2 |
Brüno |
| 3 |
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen |
| 4 |
Year One |
| 5 |
Fast & Furious |
| 6 |
9 |
| 7 |
Observe and Report |
| 8 |
Push |
| 9 |
Watchmen |
| 10 |
Terminator Salvation |
|
Best Album: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Artist |
Album |
| 1 |
Metric |
Fantasies |
| 2 |
A.C. Newman |
Get Guilty |
| 3 |
Yeah Yeah Yeahs |
It's Blitz! |
| 4 |
Neko Case |
Middle Cyclone |
| 5 |
Them Crooked Vultures |
Them Crooked Vultures |
| 6 |
Phoenix |
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix |
| 7 |
Heartless Bastards |
The Mountain |
| 8 |
White Rabbits |
It's Frightening |
| 9 |
k-os |
Yes! |
| 10 |
The Decemberists |
The Hazards of Love |
|
Best TV Show: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Show |
| 1 |
Mad Men |
| 2 |
Battlestar Galactica |
| 3 |
Better Off Ted |
| 4 |
Friday Night Lights |
| 5 |
Dexter |
| 6 |
Chuck |
| 7 |
The Daily Show |
| 8 |
Modern Family |
| 9 |
30 Rock |
| 10 |
Dollhouse |
|
Best Videogame: 2010 Calvins
|
| Position |
Game |
| 1 |
Batman: Arkham Asylum |
| 2 |
Torchlight |
| 3 |
Rock Band: The Beatles |
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