"The Hurt Locker" is by far my favorite film that came out in 2009, followed closely by "Crazy Heart" and then "Up". "Coraline" was extremely good too. I'm very glad that "Crazy Heart" won, not only to reset the expectation that a great film isn't necessarily the one that raked in a brazillion dollars, but a film that is true and personal and can be made with a normal-sized crew and a smaller budget.

We saw "Crazy Heart" Friday night and I was blown away by the performances and the music (T-Bone Burnett needs way more acknowledgment than he already gets). The story wasn't particularly fresh, and it was pretty easy to predict what was going to happen next, but the acting and the atmosphere were top shelf and it was fantastic to see Jeff Bridges win the Oscar.

There are still a lot of films from last year that I need to see, with "Up In The Air" at the top of the list, followed by the Coens, "The Last Station", and "Invictus".