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I'm Addicted to Lists: Best Movies of 2008

This is long overdue, but I have finally made my top movie list of 2008.  In my opinion, 2008 has been the best year in film in my conscious movie-going life.  It gave me my favorite movie of all time and a diverse and large group of great films that are sure to become all-time favorites of mine.  Since this year was so great I could not limit my list to 10, so I’m doing 15.  Ebert and Roeper did more than 10 as well, so suck it – this is elite.  I have a couple disclaimers before I go into this though.  First is that I will not count Che and Gomorrah as having been released this year.  If I could not find them in LA by January that is too obscure to be considered 2008.  These would have surely been on my list but I have to wait to see them now, so they can wait till 2009’s list.  However, there were a few films I missed that are fair game for 2008, most notably Happy Go Lucky and Wend and Lucy, which I’m sure would be contenders if I had seen them but now I must wait until they come out on dvd.  Either way I am happy with my list.  If you disagree post it on my comments and I will argue to the death with you because I am very attached to this list.  Here we go.

 

The Dark Knight:  Words can not describe my love for this movie.  It’s not only my favorite film of the year, but my favorite of all time.  Christopher Nolan said he wanted to do what Empire Strikes Back did for Star Wars and he succeeded.  Heath Ledger’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen in my lifetime and his Joker will go down as one of the great characters on screen.  The rest of the acting is superb – anyone who bitches one more time about Christian Bale’s Batman voice should have their tongues cut off.  His Bruce Wayne and Batman were perfect, and the voice was necessary and intimidating.  Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart made me fans as well.  This is everything and more I could have ever wanted with a Batman film.  Few things have been as consistent in my life as my love for this hero and his story.  Nolan told it brilliantly and beautifully,  making it as much a noir-ish crime film as a comic book (as Batman should be).  I’ve never been in a theater where people cheered after action sequences and special effects.  Finally,  as many people have gone into depth about, it makes you think and is a definite product of the times we are living in.  Whatever, it’s all been said.  Believe the hype. The Dark Knight is amazing.

The Wrestler:  Another amazing flick.  Mickey Rourke is awesome as an aging 80’s star wrestler still going off at Vet Halls and Community centers in wrestling’s senior circuit.  It is one of the best performances of a year filled with bests for other favorite actors.  As dominant a force as Rourke is in this he is complemented with outstanding supporting actors (Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood) and Arronofsky’s directing chops and storytelling ability. Not only a great, classic, American underdog story where I’m not sure I’ve rooted for someone in a film as much as I did for Rourke’s character, Randy “The Ram” Robinson; but also a deep character study of a man dealing with his past demons, his current ones, and the hard reality of a down-and-out veteran wrestler working at a grocery store just to make it.  It’s gritty and real and at points the shots feel as disoriented and beaten-up as Randy must feel after brutally staged performances with much younger foes.  Bruce Springsteen’s title track fits the film/trailer so perfectly as well.  All this and an awesome hair metal soundtrack and funny, blasphemous, commentary about Kurt Cobain. Just go see it.

Milk:  A truly inspiring life and story, captured and told perfectly by Gus Van Sant and the best all-around cast next to the Dark Knight.  Sean Penn is unbelievable as Harvey Milk in this, he lost himself in this role and became it.  James Franco, Emile Hirsch, and Josh Brolin are already favorite actors of mine and they shine as well.  I wish this was released before we voted this year, because  this film is beautifully told, acted and inspiring; its an argument, not only against right-wing bigots but also how to successfully fight them – with a movement.  Milk recognized this in his time and became one of its great speakers, organizers, fighters, leaders, and martyrs.  I believe, as Milk did, in the power of the people to make social change, but after the passage of Prop 8 I wish Milk was still alive.  At least this brilliant film cuts no corners and is unabashedly pro-gay rights, pro-movement politics, anti-right, and progressive.  Not only good enough to change minds, but more importantly, inspiring enough to get people off their asses and into the fight.

Slumdog Millionaire:   How did Danny Boyle get to be so amazing?  I mean this guy gave us Sunshine last year and now this masterpiece.  I went into it expecting great storytelling and insight and commentary into the changing social terrain in India in the last couple decades as it is ever penetrated by global capitalism (and these were delivered brilliantly to be sure), but I did not expect it to look amazing as well.  Beautifully stylistic from the beginning through the end credits.  And this is not to minimize the story and content of the film.  Slumdog brilliantly interweaves portraying the brutal reality of India’s poor with the joy, love, struggle, and triumph of the personal lives of the characters dealing with these realities.   Great directing, great story, great characters, deft criticism and challenges on questions of class (eloquently defending the hustle in such an unequal society with fantastic montages and a perfectly complementing soundtrack), and simple and beautiful, Dickens’ style love story.  This movie is the whole package and will go down as a classic.

Let the Right One In:  I was so glad to be able to see, not just a good, but a great horror film this year.  Let the Right One In is one of the most beautiful, interesting, and frightening takes on the vampire story that I’ve ever seen.  Perfectly set (and made) in Sweden where it’s almost always dark and with plenty of white snow canvasses to be splattered with red blood.  Eli’s Caretaker’s blood-extracting kit is one of the most inventive and coolest things I saw on screen this year.  And to top it all off, a perfectly sweet and violently vengeful ending.  Fuck Twilight, go see this.

Synecdoche, New York:   Charlie Kauffman delivered another genius, mind-bending, ambitious script, but this time he directed it – and did as good a job, if not better, than Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.  A look at life and aging, filled with plenty of weird and paranoid insecurities that we all have.  I’ll probably sound like everyone else, but there’s so much to think about in this movie you can’t see it just once.  I haven’t seen Doubt, but Philip Seymour Hoffman was so amazing in this I don’t know how it could be overlooked.

Pineapple Express:  While already familiar and expecting a lot from Seth Rogen/James Franco/Apatow etc. this was my first introduction to David Gordon Green.  He did not fail to impress and Pineapple Express is probably the coolest, most violent,  and most ambitious (until Funny People) project produced by the Apatow Crew.  I was expecting it to be hilarious, and it was, but I was not expecting the amount of violence, reminding me of duo comedies.  James Franco as Saul has to be one of my all-time favorite characters.   My favorite comedy in a year of great comedies.  This deserves a cult following.

Revolutionary Road:  I was skeptical of this movie at first because looking at the underside of American suburban life is such a boring cliché in film and would seem to be even more petty amidst this recession.  However, I love Leo and Kate Winslett together and I thought the trailer was done well so I saw it.  I was very surprised.  The themes of Revolutionary Road deal more with “Death of a Salesmen” work alienation and the effect of sexism in our relationships.  You wouldn’t know it, but the film becomes a powerful argument for a women’s right to choose.  Leo and Kate do an amazing job of becoming these characters and you become so attached to them that it’s heartbreaking as a member of the audience to witness what becomes of their lives/relationship.  And the crazy guy was brilliant, and unexpected, comic relief.  Definitely one of the best movies of the year.

Wall E:  What can I say that hasn’t been said.  The beginning of the film is almost lyrical with no dialogue.  Basically, robots make me love being human.  Also serves as a great post-apocalyptic/sci-fi film.  Pixar did it again.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army:  Guillermo Del Toro upstages his first Awesome Hellboy movie with The Golden Army.  The directing and special effects create a fantasy meets Universal Monsters type of world, perfect for Hellboy and the BPRD to explore and fight against evil in.  Krauss was super funny and I applaud any superhero/comic-book movie that breaks into a drunken sing-along between love-struck Abe Sapien and Hellboy.  The second best comic book movie in a year that gave us the Dark Knight, Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.  Enough said.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall:  Funny and sweet as hell.  Apatow and his crew at their best with Jason Segel’s screenwriting debut.  Add another comedy classic to their ever-growing stack.  Few movies made me feel as good after I saw it as this.

Miracle at St. Anna:  I still stand by this.  It basically got dumped on by most critics and did horribly at the box office, but I thought it was great.  The war scenes were great and it’s an important story that needed to be told and I thought Spike Lee did a great job.   For a full review just go to my October section on this blog and read what I wrote after I saw it. 

Incredible Hulk:  Wholly underrated, and yes, I think it was better than Iron Man.  I loved Iron Man as much as the next guy, but I’m not so sure why it completely overshadowed Incredible Hulk.  Maybe its my fanboyness and attachment to Hulk as a character and its comics (and the great 90’s cartoon), but I really think this was an awesome comic-book movie, worthy of all the praise of Iron Man.  Ed Norton was the perfect Bruce Banner and did such a great acting job.  William Hurt and Tim Roth were spot-on as Thunderbolt Ross and Emil Blonsky.  Liv Tyler was a fantastic Betty and her and Norton’s on-screen chemistry rivals any within the Marvel movie universe.  The film – Leterier’s directing style, the action, and the CG and special effects looked amazing.  I mean, Hulk looked like he was a part of our world.  You could tell everyone involved with this got the Hulk story, characters and universe down perfectly.  Also, great themes that dealt with worker’s alienation and frustration in the Developing world and subversive views of  American militarism.  Plus the final fight scene was as great a comic-book action scene anyone could ask for.  And the Hulk Smash got me so pumped. 

Iron Man:  Don’t let the above blurb fool you, I loved Iron Man.  Robert Downey Jr. was absolutely amazing as Tony Stark and Jon Favreau did such a stand-up job directing this.  Making an Iron Man story as liberal as it could possibly be without being cheesy is quite a feat.  Iron Man looked great and the special effects were awesome. 

Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay:  Hell yes this belongs in a top movies of the year list.  Harold and Kumar are the Cheech and Chong of our generation.  I don’t think I laughed as hard as I did in a movie this year.  Plenty of great honkie-bashing and a great chill session with George W. Bush.  Nothing could be funnier than when we get a look at Roldy in college in 2000.  Count NPH’s cameo as another awesome comeback performances and cameos in a year that saw a lot of those.  Both Harold and Kumar films need to become cult classics.

 

Noteworthy Mentions:  Burn After Reading, W., Zack and Miri Make a Porno, In Bruges, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Indiana Jones 4: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Be Kind Rewind, Tropic Thunder, Valkyrie, Cloverfield, Step Brothers

 

What I’m most looking forward to next year:

Inglorious Basterds

Funny People

Watchmen

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Shutter Island

Public Enemies

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The Wolfman