Last year around this time I wrote a post about five amazing female characters of 2009 on the belief that it was a bumper crop year for such roles, and going on the scarcity this year, I think it was worth celebrating them while it lasted. Irrespective of the quality of character roles afforded women, this has been an incredible year for film in general. If I had to characterize what I experienced in the cinema during 2009, I would say it was more fun than years past. While kids films were inexplicably becoming more serious (Where the Wild Things Are, Coraline and Up), the grown-up films, or many of the good ones at least, had found their inner child. The somber epics that are the trademark of Oscar season feel scarcer this time around (ironic considering their decision to choose 10 instead of 5 nominees), and in their place documentaries, comedies and even summer blockbusters raised their game. Films like Rip! A Remix Manifesto, Away We Go and Star Trek brought fun back to the movies and there are more such films I have yet to see (Anvil! and Avatar for starters).

This post is a celebration of a somewhat random collection of people I enjoyed during 2009, people that made me smile (and no, the girl from Precious is not on this list)

Burt and Verona (Away we Go): My favorite onscreen couple since Faye Wong and Tony Leung flirted in Chungking Express. Apparently screenwriter Dave Eggers wrote the parts specifically for John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, he saw the greatness in them that I never did. The pairing of Krasinski’s Burt with his goofy and gormless wide eye innocence and Rudolph’s Verona with her perfunctory self-awareness and world-weary demeanor has a lived-in believability that few cinematic couples so successfully capture. I love the characters and have a newfound admiration for the actors that played them. If the opening sex scene does not crack a smile than you are hopeless.

Judd Apatow and his Family (Funny People): It kind of sucks being the last person to the discovery, and were it not such a strong feeling of joy I would hide this away out of shame, but I’m here now to tell you Judd Apatow is going to be big. My discovery occurred first with Knocked Up, an Apatow directed film from a few years back that also starred his wife, Leslie Mann, and their kids, Iris and Maude. I soon followed that up with this year’s Funny People, the family reprising their same roles, more or less, and I love them. Not in a creepy way, I swear, just I think they are all great at what they do. I’ve noticed also the Apatow produced films are not nearly as good as those he actually participates in the directing of.

Aubrey Plaza (Funny People): Okay, so this one is kind of creepy. And at the risk of looking far too preoccupied with one movie, I find Aubrey’s far too short role in Funny People as the ‘mousy’ girl-friend/stand-up comedian worth mentioning NOT ONLY because she is hot but because she is funny, and has something about her that makes me feel she may break-out into Scarlett Johansson gargantuan fame, so it would be cool for me to be ahead of the curve on something for once. Apparently she will be seen next in the upcoming Michael Cera project, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
 

Girl Talk (Rip! A Remix Manifesto): Armed with a laptop, headband and lots of perspiration, mash-up artist Girl Talk is a maelstrom of energy whose contagious spontaneity in the celebration of mashed music spurs on impromptu raves that rush the stage and even burst onto the streets. Watching him create new music seemingly on the fly as he cuts and pastes appropriated songs into a cacophony of pulsating sound is one of the great joys of Rip!, and led me to buy all three of his albums legitimately (oddly in protest).
 
 

Abbie Cornish (Bright Star): The Jane Campion film came and went without a word, but Abbie Cornish’s performance as the pesky romantic interest to poet John Keats was a highlight of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. In it she plays Fanny Brawne, a highly unconventional 19th century lady who repeatedly mouths off, boils over and unabashedly flirts her way through the film with a determination that can only bring a smile to your face. Her penchant for fashion only helps accentuate her novelty as she literally draws your eyes to her in every scene, but it is perhaps mostly Abbie’s captured beauty that lasts long after the film has ended. If she doesn’t become the next big thing, there is no justice.