2009's Best Ensembles
Runners-up
#8 - Orphan
(Vera Farmiga, Stellan Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder)
#7 - In the Loop
(Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Anna Chlumsky, Mimi Kennedy, Chris Addison, Gina McKee, and Tom Hollander)
#6 - The Hurt Locker
(Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Evangeline Lilly)
#5 - Bright Star
(Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, Kerry Fox, and Paul Schneider)
Great work from the two young leads and an understated but nasty turn from Schneider.
#4 - The Messenger
(Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, and Jena Malone)
In addition to the four stellar leads, all of the actors portraying the family members who receive the "horrible news" were gripping.
#3 - Precious
(Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, and Paula Patton)
Four fairly amazing females here...and I don't want to forget the gals in Precious' high school class.
#2 - The Brothers Bloom
(Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, and Rinko Kikuchi)
Funny is tough and these four brought the funny (and the sad, at times).
#1 - Fantastic Mr. Fox
(George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, and Eric Chase Anderson)
Granted, many of these people are Wes Anderson regulars, but the voice acting here was the best I've ever heard. Not a bad one in the bunch. Man, I wanna watch this movie again!
Runners-up
#8 - Orphan
(Vera Farmiga, Stellan Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder)
#7 - In the Loop
(Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Anna Chlumsky, Mimi Kennedy, Chris Addison, Gina McKee, and Tom Hollander)
#6 - The Hurt Locker
(Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Evangeline Lilly)
#5 - Bright Star
(Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, Kerry Fox, and Paul Schneider)
Great work from the two young leads and an understated but nasty turn from Schneider.#4 - The Messenger
(Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, and Jena Malone)
In addition to the four stellar leads, all of the actors portraying the family members who receive the "horrible news" were gripping.#3 - Precious
(Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, and Paula Patton)
Four fairly amazing females here...and I don't want to forget the gals in Precious' high school class.#2 - The Brothers Bloom
(Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, and Rinko Kikuchi)
Funny is tough and these four brought the funny (and the sad, at times).#1 - Fantastic Mr. Fox
(George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, and Eric Chase Anderson)
Granted, many of these people are Wes Anderson regulars, but the voice acting here was the best I've ever heard. Not a bad one in the bunch. Man, I wanna watch this movie again!
No Up in the Air?
ReplyDeleteFor realz?
Well, the more I look back on Up in the Air, the more I'm not sure I loved Anna Kendrick's performance, and, seeing as how she's one-third of the trio, I couldn't put it on the list. Immediately after watching, I liked her role, but it hasn't set well with me...kinda more whiny than I think they wanted it to be.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably gonna watch it again on DVD soon so we'll see.
Plus, Up in the Air was really only a three-person movie...Didn't quite feel like a threesome was enough for an "ensemble."
Messenger was a three person movie(if you're gonna count Jena Malone, I'm totally counting Jason Bateman be tee dubs) and Brothers Bloom is a three person thing since Mark Ruffalo isn't actually a human being, he's just a cardboard cut-out (Seriously, the guy has a screen presence in the negatives)
ReplyDeleteC'MON!
The rest of the argument is sound, if you didn't like her, you didn't like her. No complaint there.
See, The Messenger to me was fronted by three stars, but it's the "ensemble" -- those family members who each react to their son's/spouse's deaths differently -- that made the film place in this category. Those are the people that made this movie the most emotionally charged flick I saw in 2009.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really liked Ruffalo in Brothers Bloom. I would agree that he's often wooden, but I enjoyed him in this (and I enjoyed the film a lot more than most).
And, I'm not sure I didn't like Kendrick. It's an odd thing -- I liked her when I left the theater, but as the days have gone on, I'm not sure the character worked completely for me.
Now that I think about it, The Messenger and Up in the Air are remarkably similar.
ReplyDelete3 person main cast. 2 colleagues and a love interest.
Extended scenes of other people's miseries.
One of the colleagues is, at first, seemingly aloof and heartless.