You gotta respect the San Diego Film Critics Society. You may not agree with their choices, but the San Diego critics, perhaps more than any other US-based critics group, association, society, circle, rectangle or what have you, always offer a whole array of highly unusual choices. They've apparently been vaccinated against groupthink, and that's a good thing. In fact, that's a great (and quite rare) quality.
Their best picture of 2009? Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that Tarantino's violent, twisted World War II fantasy about Jews taking bloody revenge against Nazis has been honored with a critics group's top prize.
(And now the Toronto film critics decide to prove me wrong by choosing both Basterds and Steve McQueen's independently made British political drama Hunger as the two best films of 2009. When something like this happens — I mean, Hunger? — I actually like being wrong.)
Back to the San Diego Critics: Additionally, Tarantino was voted both best director and writer of the best original screenplay. More expectedly, Christoph Waltz was chosen best supporting actor of the year.
All in all, Inglourious Basterds won a total of six awards. The other two were for best production design (David Wasco) and best ensemble performance. Also in the film's extensive — and wildly eclectic — cast are Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, August Diehl, Mike Myers, and veteran Rod Taylor.