connielane (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
connielane) wrote2008-12-29 10:52 pm
connielane) wrote2008-12-29 10:52 pm
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My Top 10 Movies of 2008
I just want to start by saying that 2008 may have been one of the greatest years ever for the Summer Movie. By that I mean more than just a movie released in the summer; I mean blockbusters, superhero movies, and comedies. Maybe it's just that I didn't get around to seeing a lot of the heavier fare - money and time seem to be much less plentiful in New York than in Nashville - but I'm pretty sure I saw as good a balance as I have in any other year and a lot of the serious stuff just ... didn't wow me this year (though some of it certainly did). The big budget blockbuster stuff, however, was fun, more intelligent than normal, and just really, really good.
I also want to insert a caveat about release dates. If a movie was a 2007 movie, according to Academy stipulations, but I wasn't able/willing to see it until 2008, it's just going to have to be a 2007 movie that should have been considered for last year's list. Even living in New York, there are great films that have been pushed to the end of the year that I just haven't had the opportunity to see yet (like The Wrestler). Plus, if I see something for the first time in the last week of 2008, I don't trust my impressions of it yet when stacking it against films released earlier in the year that I've had much more time to think about (and possibly forget about).
And on a small note, I want it put on the record that I put my list in stone before clicking over to AICN and reading Harry Knowles' Top 10 list. So the fact that 8 of my 10 are also in his 10 is purely coincidence (though only 1 is in the same spot on both lists).
Geez, Pam, would you just get to the list already?! I don't want to read you blathering on like you did about BNAT!
Okay, okay.
10. Burn After Reading ("Hello, anybody lose their secret CIA s**t?")
Linda and Chad find a CD of an ex-CIA agent's memoirs which they take to be sensitive government intelligence. They go about trying to profit from it, Linda in particular hoping to get enough money for some plastic surgery. But things go screwy, as they always do in movies, due to a bunch of parallel stories and characters that find themselves intertwined ... as they always seem to in movies. Joel and Ethan Coen are doing what they do best here - jumping into a very specific world with a bizarre mix of people and just going for it. They did it best perhaps in Fargo and (in my opinion, though not everyone loves this film) O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Burn After Reading is another jewel in that crown. Loads of great character work from Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, and Richard Jenkins, but no one is better here than Brad Pitt as the wannabe blackmailer and lovable goofball personal trainer Chad.
9. Iron Man ("Give me a scotch. I'm starving.")
While everyone was counting down to the Dark Knight release, this movie snuck into the pre-Memorial Day mix and really took people by surprise. The movie's success rests largely on the impressive shoulders of Robert Downey, Jr., and I love that he brought that thing that makes him so awesome - his rapid-fire and seemingly spontaneous delivery - to the character of Tony Stark. I didn't know much of anything beyond a basic Wikipedia explanation about the comic book on which this film was based, but it doesn't matter, because director Jon Favreau tells this story and introduces this character so effectively that you don't need to be a comic book geek to get this movie. Tony Stark is like the American James Bond, but he's his own Q, and he has a Moneypenny, Pepper Potts, who can have a playful kind of sexual chemistry with him without stooping to be one of his conquests. So far.
8. The Dark Knight ("Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little emotions.")
I confess that I hesitated on whether to include this in my Top 10 at all. I only saw it once, while I saw other summer movies multiple times, and I never quite understood the fervent adoration people had for it. I understand that this is the closest thing comic book fans have had at a chance to see a superhero movie get some Oscar gold, but I'll stop short of calling it the Best Movie Ever. I do think it's quite good, though, and manages to transcend the comic book trappings to become a genuine crime thriller. And at the risk of sounding sentimental, I'll tell you why I think it's so good - Heath Ledger. Not because he's no longer with us, but because he brought such an immense amount of depth and menace to the Joker - depth and menace that Jack Nicholson could only have dreamed of in Burton's 1989 film - that I can only imagine he brought everyone else's work up several notches just so that they could keep up with him. Batman may be the hero of the piece, but this movie is about the Joker. Period. And that is no bad thing.
7. Tropic Thunder ("Ain't no Chris Angel Mindfreak, David Blane trapdoor horse s**t jumpin' off here!")
Film parodies had been a dying art form. Okay, not dying - dead. I never cease to be amazed at how moviegoers will pony up $12 to see crap like Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, or other Insert-Genre-Name-Here Movies. These are not parodies; they'd be dime-store versions of a year-end recap show on VH1, if saying such a thing weren't an insult to both VH1 and dime stores. Tropic Thunder is the kind of movie we haven't seen since Mel Brooks was still making good stuff. It's a funny, well-made movie that stands on its own apart from the genre it's sending up. It's beautifully shot by John Toll, hilariously well-acted by every last member of its cast, and well-written by a team of screenwriters who followed an important principle of comedic writing - never stop writing. Seriously, Ben Stiller had been working on this thing for 10 years, and there were jokes and gags being crafted well into principal photography. And on top of all that, this movie may be the thing that brought Tom Cruise back from tabloid hell. Which is an achievement in itself.
6. Pineapple Express ("F**k the po-lice!")
Perhaps this should have been tied with Tropic Thunder, because the two films really are close to each other in terms of the level and type of affection I feel for both of them. But David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express has the edge, because under all the absurdity of the story and the action sequences, there's a genuine emotional core to this movie. Like Superbad before it, this is a "buddy" film. Dale and Saul are Seth and Evan, and Red is the McLovin-esque third wheel that steals every scene he's in. This movie has ample moments of hilarity (you might just pee a little from laughing so hard), but the final scene is what really sells the film and its characters. Three guys at a diner, talking about all the awesome and scary things they've just been through, just like any of us ordinary schmoes would do were we in their shoes. Thug life!
5. WALL-E ("Computer, define 'dancing'.")
Like a lot of great movies before it, this one was loved by many and loathed by others. Yes, there's a bit of the "cautionary tale" about it, but that's secondary. The movie is a love story about WALL-E and EVE, about the desperate longing for companionship, and could hardly be more poignant or identifiable. I love the connection made between WALL-E's wish to hold another being's hand and the almost shock of contact between the two humans whose hands touch later in the movie. That, to me, is what the movie is about. And it's set in such a fully realized world that, unlike, say, Cars, is actually a skewed, futuristic version of our own world - a vision so massive that it could only be captured by computer animation. And yet amid that big dystopian vision, the film is still just about two little robots.
4. Slumdog Millionaire
I love Indian movies. There's such a sense of hope and optimism about them. They're fairy tales in a way, and though Slumdog Millionaire was made by a non-Indian filmmaker, it fits rather well into that mold. The love story here is what gets all the attention, and it's a great one, but for my money, the magic is in the conflict relationships. The game show host who pretends to help Jamal. The policeman who starts out suspecting Jamal of cheating and slowly starts to become interested in his story. And, most significantly, the older brother who steps on Jamal at every turn - from selling an autograph he got from a film star (at a very high price) to taking sexual advantage of his lifelong love - who eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice to help him. In addition to the relationships, though, I love the sense of morality in the movie. Jamal gets one of the questions right, because he chooses the answer not surreptitiously fed to him. And the last question is something he's wondered most of his life but never known, so he takes a wild guess, because he's already won what matters to him.
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I was convinced this would be in my top spot, but upon closer reflection, I had to move it down a bit. It's still my favorite movie from Butt-Numb-A-Thon and maybe the film I have the most affection for this year, but I know in my heart that the experience of BNAT and seeing it with that audience (with caviar and vodka provided, no less) has had a hand in that. This is, however, a spectacular film - mostly well-written, incredibly well-acted, beautifully shot, and with visual effects that blew my mind. Benjamin's life is that of an outsider, a man alone, but as we're reminded by Queenie, we're all going through life alone. And there's a strange sense of comfort and freedom that comes from knowing that.
2. Let the Right One In
I have a feeling that part of my hatred for the Twilight movie is rooted in my love for this film and my intense frustration that the vapid, lukewarm vampire romance movie that is neither a vampire movie nor a pass-grade romance got the $70 million opening weekend instead of the thoughtful emotional drama about a very young vampire that has all the dread, gore, and romance you could ask for. And on top of that, J.J. Abrams is remaking this to come out in (I think) 2009. I think fate owes us something in return for all this treachery - at the very least a Best Foreign Film nomination for this film at Oscar time. The two young actors in this film are absolutely stunning, and remind me of what I love about really great children's performances (such as in another Swedish masterpiece, My Life as a Dog). Children are very complicated people, and I hate to see them reduced to cheesy lines and empty, brainless happiness (or unhappiness - yes, Bella and Edward, I'm looking at you). I can't say enough about this film. It's just perfect. It is not, however, in my top spot, as you can see. That honor goes to...
1. Milk ("You are not sick. You are not wrong. And God does not hate you.")
It doesn't happen often, maybe once or twice a decade, but sometimes a film comes out that literally changes the trajectory of our culture and the way we see the world. Many people stopped hunting after Bambi. Fatal Attraction scared the pants back onto men. I think Milk could absolutely be one of those films. Could it have been powerful enough to defeat Proposition 8 had it been released sooner? I don't know. Somehow I doubt it. Movies like this take a little time to catch hold of the zeitgeist. But combine it with the ferocious backlash against the recently passed California proposition against gay marriage, and you might have bottled lightning. Sean Penn and his rather remarkable smile (have we ever even SEEN him smile before?) does for gay rights here what Tom Hanks did for AIDS victims in 1992's Philadelphia - he puts a face you don't expect on a sensitive and controversial issue. And the result is disarming.
I've been trying to write a review of this film for weeks, without much success. Every time I start, I can feel myself going into either rant mode or apology mode and neither is appropriate for this film. This is a political film about America and her principles, and it could hardly be more timely in the wake of both Prop 8 and the recent presidential election. I think that gay rights may prove to be the great issue of our time, and perhaps this film can set us on the path of coming to a better understanding of how we treat people in this country who are different. It could very well change the world. That's what great art does.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: AND THE ACTING CHOPS LIEK WOAH
Doubt
Like The History Boys, it doesn't work as well on screen as I can only imagine it did on stage, but my goodness the performances. Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman hold their own, but Meryl Streep and Viola Davis win all the points ever for the sheer surprise layers to their character. Streep, in particular, does her best work in years. I really hate the last line of this movie, though.
Rachel Getting Married
Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie Dewitt gave two of the best performances of the year in this powerful drama. Anne the shattered Kym, trying to build back trustworthiness and win back her family's love, and Rosemarie the bride Rachel, frustrated with her sister's solipsism but unable to turn her back on her. The bathtub scene is a definite Kleenex moment.
Frost/Nixon
Frank Langella shines perhaps the brightest in an uncanny portrayal of former President Richard Nixon, but Michael Sheen keeps pace with him at every step, playing the charismatic and incredibly under-pressure David Frost. Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, and Rebecca Hall do great supporting work here as well.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: PURE, CRACKTASTIC, MUSICAL FUN
Mamma Mia!
I saw this thing three times, and it never got stale. I've listened to the soundtrack roughly 87,000 times, and it still makes me indescribably happy. This is not great, in terms of cinematic genius, but it was probably the most fun I had at the movies this year. Especially the sing-along version.
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Hard rock, opera, and blood. Set in a futuristic society where people can put their organ transplants on a payment plan - and can also have said organs repossessed when they don't pay on time. Another one that's slightly absurd and not in the pantheon of Great Films, but it rocked pretty hard, and it had Tony Head in it. And it had Paris Hilton in it, not being terrible. Top that!
I also want to insert a caveat about release dates. If a movie was a 2007 movie, according to Academy stipulations, but I wasn't able/willing to see it until 2008, it's just going to have to be a 2007 movie that should have been considered for last year's list. Even living in New York, there are great films that have been pushed to the end of the year that I just haven't had the opportunity to see yet (like The Wrestler). Plus, if I see something for the first time in the last week of 2008, I don't trust my impressions of it yet when stacking it against films released earlier in the year that I've had much more time to think about (and possibly forget about).
And on a small note, I want it put on the record that I put my list in stone before clicking over to AICN and reading Harry Knowles' Top 10 list. So the fact that 8 of my 10 are also in his 10 is purely coincidence (though only 1 is in the same spot on both lists).
Geez, Pam, would you just get to the list already?! I don't want to read you blathering on like you did about BNAT!
Okay, okay.
10. Burn After Reading ("Hello, anybody lose their secret CIA s**t?")
Linda and Chad find a CD of an ex-CIA agent's memoirs which they take to be sensitive government intelligence. They go about trying to profit from it, Linda in particular hoping to get enough money for some plastic surgery. But things go screwy, as they always do in movies, due to a bunch of parallel stories and characters that find themselves intertwined ... as they always seem to in movies. Joel and Ethan Coen are doing what they do best here - jumping into a very specific world with a bizarre mix of people and just going for it. They did it best perhaps in Fargo and (in my opinion, though not everyone loves this film) O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Burn After Reading is another jewel in that crown. Loads of great character work from Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, and Richard Jenkins, but no one is better here than Brad Pitt as the wannabe blackmailer and lovable goofball personal trainer Chad.
9. Iron Man ("Give me a scotch. I'm starving.")
While everyone was counting down to the Dark Knight release, this movie snuck into the pre-Memorial Day mix and really took people by surprise. The movie's success rests largely on the impressive shoulders of Robert Downey, Jr., and I love that he brought that thing that makes him so awesome - his rapid-fire and seemingly spontaneous delivery - to the character of Tony Stark. I didn't know much of anything beyond a basic Wikipedia explanation about the comic book on which this film was based, but it doesn't matter, because director Jon Favreau tells this story and introduces this character so effectively that you don't need to be a comic book geek to get this movie. Tony Stark is like the American James Bond, but he's his own Q, and he has a Moneypenny, Pepper Potts, who can have a playful kind of sexual chemistry with him without stooping to be one of his conquests. So far.
8. The Dark Knight ("Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little emotions.")
I confess that I hesitated on whether to include this in my Top 10 at all. I only saw it once, while I saw other summer movies multiple times, and I never quite understood the fervent adoration people had for it. I understand that this is the closest thing comic book fans have had at a chance to see a superhero movie get some Oscar gold, but I'll stop short of calling it the Best Movie Ever. I do think it's quite good, though, and manages to transcend the comic book trappings to become a genuine crime thriller. And at the risk of sounding sentimental, I'll tell you why I think it's so good - Heath Ledger. Not because he's no longer with us, but because he brought such an immense amount of depth and menace to the Joker - depth and menace that Jack Nicholson could only have dreamed of in Burton's 1989 film - that I can only imagine he brought everyone else's work up several notches just so that they could keep up with him. Batman may be the hero of the piece, but this movie is about the Joker. Period. And that is no bad thing.
7. Tropic Thunder ("Ain't no Chris Angel Mindfreak, David Blane trapdoor horse s**t jumpin' off here!")
Film parodies had been a dying art form. Okay, not dying - dead. I never cease to be amazed at how moviegoers will pony up $12 to see crap like Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, or other Insert-Genre-Name-Here Movies. These are not parodies; they'd be dime-store versions of a year-end recap show on VH1, if saying such a thing weren't an insult to both VH1 and dime stores. Tropic Thunder is the kind of movie we haven't seen since Mel Brooks was still making good stuff. It's a funny, well-made movie that stands on its own apart from the genre it's sending up. It's beautifully shot by John Toll, hilariously well-acted by every last member of its cast, and well-written by a team of screenwriters who followed an important principle of comedic writing - never stop writing. Seriously, Ben Stiller had been working on this thing for 10 years, and there were jokes and gags being crafted well into principal photography. And on top of all that, this movie may be the thing that brought Tom Cruise back from tabloid hell. Which is an achievement in itself.
6. Pineapple Express ("F**k the po-lice!")
Perhaps this should have been tied with Tropic Thunder, because the two films really are close to each other in terms of the level and type of affection I feel for both of them. But David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express has the edge, because under all the absurdity of the story and the action sequences, there's a genuine emotional core to this movie. Like Superbad before it, this is a "buddy" film. Dale and Saul are Seth and Evan, and Red is the McLovin-esque third wheel that steals every scene he's in. This movie has ample moments of hilarity (you might just pee a little from laughing so hard), but the final scene is what really sells the film and its characters. Three guys at a diner, talking about all the awesome and scary things they've just been through, just like any of us ordinary schmoes would do were we in their shoes. Thug life!
5. WALL-E ("Computer, define 'dancing'.")
Like a lot of great movies before it, this one was loved by many and loathed by others. Yes, there's a bit of the "cautionary tale" about it, but that's secondary. The movie is a love story about WALL-E and EVE, about the desperate longing for companionship, and could hardly be more poignant or identifiable. I love the connection made between WALL-E's wish to hold another being's hand and the almost shock of contact between the two humans whose hands touch later in the movie. That, to me, is what the movie is about. And it's set in such a fully realized world that, unlike, say, Cars, is actually a skewed, futuristic version of our own world - a vision so massive that it could only be captured by computer animation. And yet amid that big dystopian vision, the film is still just about two little robots.
4. Slumdog Millionaire
I love Indian movies. There's such a sense of hope and optimism about them. They're fairy tales in a way, and though Slumdog Millionaire was made by a non-Indian filmmaker, it fits rather well into that mold. The love story here is what gets all the attention, and it's a great one, but for my money, the magic is in the conflict relationships. The game show host who pretends to help Jamal. The policeman who starts out suspecting Jamal of cheating and slowly starts to become interested in his story. And, most significantly, the older brother who steps on Jamal at every turn - from selling an autograph he got from a film star (at a very high price) to taking sexual advantage of his lifelong love - who eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice to help him. In addition to the relationships, though, I love the sense of morality in the movie. Jamal gets one of the questions right, because he chooses the answer not surreptitiously fed to him. And the last question is something he's wondered most of his life but never known, so he takes a wild guess, because he's already won what matters to him.
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I was convinced this would be in my top spot, but upon closer reflection, I had to move it down a bit. It's still my favorite movie from Butt-Numb-A-Thon and maybe the film I have the most affection for this year, but I know in my heart that the experience of BNAT and seeing it with that audience (with caviar and vodka provided, no less) has had a hand in that. This is, however, a spectacular film - mostly well-written, incredibly well-acted, beautifully shot, and with visual effects that blew my mind. Benjamin's life is that of an outsider, a man alone, but as we're reminded by Queenie, we're all going through life alone. And there's a strange sense of comfort and freedom that comes from knowing that.
2. Let the Right One In
I have a feeling that part of my hatred for the Twilight movie is rooted in my love for this film and my intense frustration that the vapid, lukewarm vampire romance movie that is neither a vampire movie nor a pass-grade romance got the $70 million opening weekend instead of the thoughtful emotional drama about a very young vampire that has all the dread, gore, and romance you could ask for. And on top of that, J.J. Abrams is remaking this to come out in (I think) 2009. I think fate owes us something in return for all this treachery - at the very least a Best Foreign Film nomination for this film at Oscar time. The two young actors in this film are absolutely stunning, and remind me of what I love about really great children's performances (such as in another Swedish masterpiece, My Life as a Dog). Children are very complicated people, and I hate to see them reduced to cheesy lines and empty, brainless happiness (or unhappiness - yes, Bella and Edward, I'm looking at you). I can't say enough about this film. It's just perfect. It is not, however, in my top spot, as you can see. That honor goes to...
1. Milk ("You are not sick. You are not wrong. And God does not hate you.")
It doesn't happen often, maybe once or twice a decade, but sometimes a film comes out that literally changes the trajectory of our culture and the way we see the world. Many people stopped hunting after Bambi. Fatal Attraction scared the pants back onto men. I think Milk could absolutely be one of those films. Could it have been powerful enough to defeat Proposition 8 had it been released sooner? I don't know. Somehow I doubt it. Movies like this take a little time to catch hold of the zeitgeist. But combine it with the ferocious backlash against the recently passed California proposition against gay marriage, and you might have bottled lightning. Sean Penn and his rather remarkable smile (have we ever even SEEN him smile before?) does for gay rights here what Tom Hanks did for AIDS victims in 1992's Philadelphia - he puts a face you don't expect on a sensitive and controversial issue. And the result is disarming.
I've been trying to write a review of this film for weeks, without much success. Every time I start, I can feel myself going into either rant mode or apology mode and neither is appropriate for this film. This is a political film about America and her principles, and it could hardly be more timely in the wake of both Prop 8 and the recent presidential election. I think that gay rights may prove to be the great issue of our time, and perhaps this film can set us on the path of coming to a better understanding of how we treat people in this country who are different. It could very well change the world. That's what great art does.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: AND THE ACTING CHOPS LIEK WOAH
Doubt
Like The History Boys, it doesn't work as well on screen as I can only imagine it did on stage, but my goodness the performances. Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman hold their own, but Meryl Streep and Viola Davis win all the points ever for the sheer surprise layers to their character. Streep, in particular, does her best work in years. I really hate the last line of this movie, though.
Rachel Getting Married
Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie Dewitt gave two of the best performances of the year in this powerful drama. Anne the shattered Kym, trying to build back trustworthiness and win back her family's love, and Rosemarie the bride Rachel, frustrated with her sister's solipsism but unable to turn her back on her. The bathtub scene is a definite Kleenex moment.
Frost/Nixon
Frank Langella shines perhaps the brightest in an uncanny portrayal of former President Richard Nixon, but Michael Sheen keeps pace with him at every step, playing the charismatic and incredibly under-pressure David Frost. Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, and Rebecca Hall do great supporting work here as well.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: PURE, CRACKTASTIC, MUSICAL FUN
Mamma Mia!
I saw this thing three times, and it never got stale. I've listened to the soundtrack roughly 87,000 times, and it still makes me indescribably happy. This is not great, in terms of cinematic genius, but it was probably the most fun I had at the movies this year. Especially the sing-along version.
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Hard rock, opera, and blood. Set in a futuristic society where people can put their organ transplants on a payment plan - and can also have said organs repossessed when they don't pay on time. Another one that's slightly absurd and not in the pantheon of Great Films, but it rocked pretty hard, and it had Tony Head in it. And it had Paris Hilton in it, not being terrible. Top that!