Whip It (2009)

Fun, light, but not forgettable, Whip It is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut about a small town Texas girl who eschews her smothering mother's beauty pageant dreams for the shit-kicking brutality of girls' roller derby.

Ellen Page, who is turning into her generation's most important actress, plays Bliss, anything but, and tired and weary of pageant competition.  One day, she answers an add for derby try-outs and, based on her preternatural speed, makes the team and is monikered as Babe Ruthless.  Along the way, Babe makes new friends who all have awesome derby names like Smashley Simpson (Barrymore herself) and Rosa Sparks.  And Maggie Mayhem, played by the terrific Kristen Wiig, gets some of the movie's best dialogue ("You think you're gonna sleep with your regional manager and he won't give you crabs...Have you ever had crabs?").

The Hurt Locker (2009)

The best film of 2009--and director Kathryn Bigelow's masterpiece.  Largely unknown Jeremy Renner gives a brave performance as an elite bomb disposal technician in Iraq, who goes about his job with reckless abandon, fueled by the adrenaline rush of danger; in short, he's addicted.  Anthony Mackie plays the by-the-book second in command, and Brian Geraghty is the specialist who cannot come to terms with the randomness of death.