Best of 2009 (Part 2 of 10)

9) Bronson (Magnolia Pictures, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

Just as the gritty, foreign crime dramas Romper Stomper and Chopper introduced us to future leading actors Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, Bronson does the same for UK native Tom Hardy. A 90-minute character study based on England’s most famous and incorrigible inmate Michael Gordon Peterson (a.k.a. Charles Bronson), Hardy’s riveting and frequently unclothed performance transforms what could have been an exercise in soulless filmed violence into genuine art.