From New Orleans to Iraq, France to South America, we crisscross the globe and count down our favorites of the year
By MSN Movies contributors
Welcome to the third annual MSN Movies top 10 films poll. We are continuing our, ahem, long tradition of presenting 10 viewpoints from 10 critics that add up to some sort of hodgepodge representing the best movies of 2009
. The method is simple: 10 critics vote for their 10 favorite films. Films are assigned points based on their ranking, and BAM!: We have a list that no one is TOTALLY happy about but sure causes much heated debate, at least among ourselves and hopefully with you as well. The rub this year? Well, for the most part, we all agreed that the top movie of the year was between two films. Wonders never cease.
If you want to jump to the individual lists, you can do so. But we hope you count down the top 10 with us. And then write in and let us know what we missed. -- Dave McCoy, MSN Entertainment
10. 'Up in the Air'
"To know me is to fly with me," proclaims philosopher-in-flight Ryan Bingham. "This is where I live." Technically a "career transition counselor,"George Clooney's Ryan is a hatchet man for hire, forever flying to some forlorn company to fire employees for bosses who are too timid or intimidated to do it themselves. Ryan may take no pleasure in the act but he loves his job (and his accumulating frequent flyer miles). He's a 21st century traveling man who has trimmed his existence down to what can be packed into carry-on luggage and turned business class seating and the impersonal austerity of airport lounges and hotels into his comfort zone. He's spent so much time passing through life that he treats relationships like layovers: a brief, impermanent stop on a never-ending journey. Pick your own metaphor. Ryan calls it "the empty backpack" and he's even turned it into a side career as a motivational speaker. Where the film shines is in finding his rhythm, the elegant precision of his comforting ritual, the smooth familiarity of his life-in-transition existence. Clooney uses his trademark charm and easy confidence to create a character who skates along the surface until a connection with a sexy and smart fellow traveler (Vera Farmiga) starts him thinking that, "Everyone needs a co-pilot" (a revelation as sales pitches). But the film also taps into the pulse and the anxieties of our precarious times, and it gives a voice to the victims of downsizing and streamlining that go through Ryan's assembly line counseling. Clooney and director Jason Reitman make this cultural snapshot as existential odyssey funny and wry and bittersweet and ultimately painfully, tenderly human. -- Sean Axmaker
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xoxo
Carrie
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