This is harder than I thought...

I love writing about and discussing film. Along with actually watching movies, it's easily my favorite hobby, bordering on obsession. My intention this year was to review, at least to some extent, every movie I saw that was released theatrically in 2009. This turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be...

My personal life was crazy this year, as I was trying to help Grace plan our wedding and honeymoon, leaving little time for writing. I also have seen more movies this year than I ever have. I've seen about seventy 2009 movies already, and am not going to slow down any time soon given that we're in the middle of Oscar season.

What I've decided to do is abandon the "review every movie" policy, and focus more on films that I think are actually interesting enough to write about, as well as end of the year/decade lists, Oscar predictions, etc. I think this will be more fun and feel like less of a job for me. I already have a full time job as a CPA and don't really need to feel the weight of writing all these reviews hanging over my head.

I also hope that this will be conducive to more discussion in the comment section. I appreciate everyone who subscribes to the blog or reads the e-mails that get sent out each time I post, and I'd absolutely love for all of you to comment periodically, whenever you have a thought or opinion on the topic at hand.

I want to end this post with a list of movies that I haven't reviewed yet, but I absolutely consider to be "must see" if you have the chance. I'll write more about most of these on my "best of 2009" list:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Hilarious! Funniest movie I've seen this year (take that Hangover)!

A Serious Man - A deeply provocative Jewish fable from the best film making duo in the business, the Coen brothers. These guys are obviously at the top of their game.

Where the Wild Things Are - The beginning and ending sequences with Max at his home are probably the most emotionally honest portrayals of childhood that I've ever seen.

An Education - This is simply a delightful film, featuring the year's best performance by an actress, lead or supporting, from Carey Mulligan. The comparisons to Audrey Hepburn are justified...

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push" by Sapphire - This is a harrowing tale of sixteen year old girl dealing with abuse from both parents and illiteracy. Featuring an impressive lead performance from Gabourey Sidibe, and the Best Supporting Actress Oscar goes to... Mo'Nique as the most monstrous character ever seen on the silver screen.

The Messenger - There are two great performances here, from Woody Herrelson and Ben Foster and members of a casualty notification team for the Army. This is definitely the best movie in the Iraq war era showing the effects of the war at home, although is fairly a-political.

The Road - This adaption of Cormac McCarthy's best selling novel is just as powerful and nearly as bleak. Also, features yet another solid performance from Viggo Mortenson.

Thirst - From the sick, twisted mind that brought us Oldboy, Chan-wook Park delivers a chilling, original take on the vampire genre. This is the second best vampire movie of the decade behind Let the Right One In.