In keeping with that last post….

Quentin Tarantino recently shared his favorite flicks of 2009. His list has more than a few surprises, but by now I think we all know to expect a bit of weirdness from the guy.

Right off the top he admits he hasn’t yet seen Avatar, Invictus, or The Lovely Bones, films he is “expecting things from.” He is also gracious enough to exclude his own film, Inglorious Basterds, from contention.

That said, his top eight breaks down like this:

1.  JJ Abrams’ Star Trek
2. Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell
3. Judd Apatow’s Funny People
4. Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air
5.  Prachya Pinkaew’s Chocolate
6. Jody Hill’s Observe and Report
7. Lee Daniels’ Precious
8. Lone Scherfig’s An Education

He then makes a point of stating that he needs to see both Bright Star and District 9 again before he’s totally comfortable excluding them from his top picks.

Overall I like his list. There are a couple of the obvious top contenders in there, but the majority of his choices are decidedly “outside the box.” I’m very excited to see that he included Observe and Report, a film that ranks high on my own ‘best of 2009′ list.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

AFI announced today their top 10 films and top 10 television series of 2009.

After reviewing the lists, two things jumped out at me right away.  First, that two of their top 10 films are animated features (Coraline and Up.) This speaks to something that our mentor Jana Williams talks about frequently:  that animation is home to some of the best storytelling out there. In animation, the sky is the limit with regard to set-pieces and premise, but there are no famous faces (famous voices, I suppose, but how much does that really mean…) or superstar directors to coax people into shilling out twelve bucks for a ticket. These films rely so heavily on great scripts — big stories brimming with unique characters and situations. These are indeed two of the best in recent memory.

The other thing that jumped out at me was that The Hangover made the list! To me this is another testament to how vital a great screenplay is. This was an anomaly as far as studio comedies go in that there were no huge stars attached.  The cast was instead packed with emerging talents, and their performances (along with the incredible script) made stars of them all and turned The Hangover into one of the year’s biggest films.

The TV list didn’t bear too many surprises. Comprised of the most critically praised shows of the year, the only thing that caught me off-guard was the inclusion of Glee. I understand it’s a huge hit… I just can’t figure out why.

Here are the full lists:

AFI Movies of the Year

Coraline

The Hangover

The Hurt Locker

The Messenger

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

A Serious Man

A Single Man

Up

Up in the Air

AFI TV Programs of the Year:

The Big Bang Theory

Big Love

Friday Night Lights

Glee

Modern Family

The NO.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

Nurse Jackie

Party Down

True Blood