Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold, 2009

While a bit overlong and telegraphed narratively, Arnold's grimy, sub-working class distillation of the Lolita trope is, ultimately, an engaging piece of cinema. Katie Jarvis' Mia rings true as an outwardly defiant, inwardly naive youth and the ever-solid Michael Fassbender is at once disarming and unsettling as the lecherous Connor.

Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2008

The Dardennes have mastered the manner and vernacular of Europe's criminal underbelly, and likewise its human face. Here, the brothers' characters trade in citizenship, a conceit perfectly pitched for the directors' examination of the intersections of commerce, survival, compassion, and morality.

Pocket Cinephile @ Senses of Cinema

Our 2009 Top 10 + 1 list makes the Senses of Cinema World Poll for 2009.

RIP - Eric Rohmer (1920 - 2010)

Up in the Air, Jason Reitman, 2009

Reitman's film is a ham-fisted, aphoristic melange of dramatic themes, flatly and tacitly addressing "big" issues such as commitment, loneliness, love, and youth. Incidentally, a far more wrenching depiction of soul-crushing on-the-road hucksterism can be found in Craig Zobel's 'Great World of Sound.'

Ricky, Francois Ozon, 2009

Ozon's is an exceedingly curious film. A rote, blue collar domestic drama that turns eerily fantastic, the film uneasily inhabits a framework of magical realism and is simply too odd and unassured to play convincingly.