The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow‘s gripping and emotionally exhausting drama following the ups and downs (and tragedies) of a U.S. military bomb squad in Iraq, was the overall best-reviewed movie of 2009.
That’s according to MetaCritic, the movie review aggregator, which this week published an extensive analysis of the 2009 year in film, based on critical response.
Bigelow’s film received a Metascore rating of 94.
Up topped the list of 2009’s wide releases, with a Metascore of 88.
And the worst-reviewed movie of 2009? Sex romp Miss March (Metascore: 7), followed closely by horror comedy Transylmania, and Sandra Bullock vehicle All About Steve (Metascore: 8), which tied with kung-fu disaster Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li for a Metascore of 17.
The Hurt Locker (91) was also the best-reviewed film in the category of limited releases, followed by 35 Shots of Rum (91), Still Walking (89), Goodbye Solo (89) and Tulpan (88).
Metacritic also surveyed various critics’ Top 10 lists, and determined that the films receiving the most mentions in those lists were The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, A Serious Man, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up.
Here’s that list (the Miami Herald was the only Florida newspaper included in the survey):
* Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten) – Where the Wild Things Are
* Austin Chronicle (Kimberley Jones) – A Serious Man
* Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov) – A Single Man
* Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow) – The Exiles
* Boston Globe (Ty Burr) – A Serious Man
* Boston Globe (Wesley Morris) – 35 Shots of Rum
* Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert) [unranked list]
* Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips) – Up
* Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer) [unranked list]
* Entertainment Weekly (Owen Gleiberman) – Up in the Air
* Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum) – The Hurt Locker
* The Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) – The White Ribbon
* The Hollywood Reporter (Sheri Linden) – The White Ribbon
* The Hollywood Reporter (Ray Bennett) – Up in the Air
* The Hollywood Reporter (Michael Rechtshaffen) – Up in the Air
* The Hollywood Reporter (Stephen Farber) – Up in the AIr
* The Hollywood Reporter (Frank Scheck) – Up in the Air
* LA Weekly (Scott Foundas) – The White Ribbon
* Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) – Up in the Air
* Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) – Bright Star
* Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez) – Up in the Air
* New Orleans Times-Picayune (Mike Scott) – The Hurt Locker
* New York Daily News (Joe Neumaier) – Up in the Air
* New York Daily News (Elizabeth Weitzman) – The Hurt Locker
* New York Magazine (David Edelstein) – Summer Hours
* New York Post (Lou Lumenick) – Up in the Air
* New York Post (Kyle Smith) – Inglourious Basterds
* The New York Times (Manohla Dargis) [unranked list]
* The New York Times (Stephen Holden) – Up in the Air
* The New York Times (A.O. Scott) – Where the Wild Things Are
* The New Yorker (David Denby) [unranked list]
* The New Yorker (Anthony Lane) [unranked list]
* Newsweek (David Ansen) – The Hurt Locker
* The Onion A.V. Club (Noel Murray) – Inglourious Basterds
* The Onion A.V. Club (Keith Phipps) – A Serious Man
* The Onion A.V. Club (Nathan Rabin) – Big Fan
* The Onion A.V. Club (Tasha Robinson) – Where the Wild Things Are
* The Onion A.V. Club (Scott Tobias) – 35 Shots of Rum
* The Oregonian (Shawn Levy) – An Education
* The Oregonian (Mike Russell) – In the Loop
* The Oregonian (Marc Mohan) – Hunger
* ReelViews (James Berardinelli) – Avatar
* Rolling Stone (Peter Travers) – Precious
* Salon (Stephanie Zacharek) – Summer Hours
* Salon (Andrew O’Hehir) – Hunger
* San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle) – Inglourious Basterds
* San Francisco Chronicle (Peter Hartlaub) – The Hurt Locker
* Slate (Dana Stevens) [unranked list]
* St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Joe Williams) – (500) Days of Summer
* Time Magazine (Richard Corliss) – The Princess and The Frog
* Time Out New York (David Fear) – 35 Shots of Rum
* Time Out New York (Joshua Rothkopf) – A Serious Man
* Time Out New York (Keith Uhlich) – The Limits of Control
* Village Voice (J. Hoberman) – The Hurt Locker
* Wall Street Journal (Joe Morgenstern) – The Hurt Locker
* Washington Post (Ann Hornaday) – The Hurt Locker
Metacritic didn’t, however, tabulate the results of various critics group awards, unless I just didn’t see it on the site.
For all the lists and ratings (and extensive graphs) surveyed by Metacritic, click here.