My Favorite Films of '08

Instead of a "Year's Best List" set to the arbitrary number of 10 as critics like to do, I'm going to just go through -- in not much of an order and to no set amount -- the movies that stood out for me in '08. I hate when critics say the BEST films of the year. It is completely subjective. How can one man (or woman) claim to know which films were the absolute best? It is all one person's opinion. If you're going to claim which films were the best, you need to at least add "in my opinion" after it.

Also, no critic saw EVERY movie that came out in '08. I'm sure they saw the 800 movies Bollywood cranked out last year, or 98% of the Canadian films that are nominated for the upcoming Genies. Their lists should really be called "The 10 Movies I Liked the Best of the Ones I Saw Which Received a Decent Theatrical Release in the US or I Happened to Catch at One of the Three Film Festivals I Attended".

So anyway, of the movies I saw in 2008, here were the ones I liked the most:

Changeling

I figured this movie would be pretty good. Whenever Clint is in charge, you know you're going to get an intelligent, entertaining piece of classic Hollywood filmmaking made for adults. And when I say Hollywood filmmaking I mean the Hollywood that was good and knew that telling an interesting story was #1 on the list of what makes for a good film. And sure enough, as I could tell from the trailer, it seemed like a pretty intriguing story (lady's child goes missing; cops find him and return him; it's not him; cops insist it's him and she's just crazy). The only negative it really had going for it was Angelina Jolie. But I'm not one to stay away from a film just because of a personal dislike of a lead actor. Actually, that is a big pet peeve of mine. I hate when I try and recommend a movie to someone and they are like "Ugh, I'm not watching that. It's got [insert annoying big star who tries to make you feel like a horrible person for not caring enough about hungry puppies, meanwhile they live completely immoral lives with 4 divorces, 9 illegitimate children, 3 DUIs, 12 plastic surgeries and an addiction to coke] in it".

So, yeah, I thought Changeling was going to be pretty good. Turns out it was friggin' amazing! I loved this movie. And what is most incredible, I thought Angelina Jolie should have won the Oscar. She was insanely good in this movie. She permanently earned my respect with her performance.

I also thought this movie should have at least been nominated for the original screenplay Oscar. This movie is based on a true story that no one remembers and is completely unbelievable (so unbelievable that if it wasn't based on a true story you wouldn't have believed the LAPD could be THAT corrupt). The screenwriter wrote the screenplay entirely from scratch based on these old case files that were about to be destroyed. It wasn't based on a book or any other author's account of the events. The screenwriter did all of the research himself, starting from nothing. That almost never ever happens.

Changeling had great direction, great cinematography, a great script and great performances. It was a great film.

The Dark Knight

I've loved Batman pretty much as long as I can remember. When I was really little I loved the 60's TV show. Then when I was 7, I had one of the most profound moviegoing experiences of my life when I saw Tim Burton's original film. Like, oh man, Batman was so dark and intense. Nothing at all like the Batman I knew. I watched that movie like 1,000 times. I started reading the comics; I went to all the rest of the movies on opening day (including Batman: Mask of the Phantasm which is still the best Batman film, in my opinion); and I watched every episode of the original Fox Animated Series. Point being: I love Batman. He is far and away my favorite superhero. My comic book collection is like 10:1 of Batman comics to everything else. Plus Batman Begins had been a solid reboot of the franchise.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to this one. I was fully behind the Heath Ledger casting from day one. After I saw him in Monster's Ball, I was like, oh man, this guy can really friggin' act. I remember thinking, Ledger would make a great villain in a western. If I was making a western this guy could be a really menacing villain. While his next big role was a western, it wasn't the role I had in mind, but nevertheless, he was incredible in it. So yeah, I thought the Joker casting was totally brilliant and knew he'd do a good job. Of course he ended up doing the unthinkable, he made Jack Nicholson's performance look like a ham-handed, over-the-top caricature. After Ledger's, Nicholson's performance feels no more believable than Cesar Romero's.

Lame

Lame

Terrifying

Chris Nolan should have won best director. He pulled off the most impressive feat of any director last year, hands down. Who else could have made a sequel to a Batman film one of the most intelligent, intense, grittiest, thought-provoking films of the year? Who else could have pulled off such a mammoth, monstrously-anticipated film and disappoint virtually no one? Like seriously, look at all the other directors who were nominated and try to imagine them pulling off Dark Knight. No way. Not in a million years. Ron Howard pulling off a Batman film as good as Dark Knight. His best film to date is still Willow and it's only a 7/10. How about Danny Boyle or Gus Van Sant? As much as I like both of those guys, if they did a Batman film it would be weird in a bad way. Outside of maybe James Cameron, I can't think of another filmmaker who could have made as good a Batman movie that EVERYONE would have liked. Now I'm sure there are more independent-minded filmmakers that could have pulled off a sick Batman film that only fanboys loved, like when Darren Aronofsky was going to do Frank Miller's Batman Year One. But to make a Batman film for the general masses, I don't think anyone will ever top Dark Knight.

Now that's not to say the film doesn't have some flaws. Like, seriously, how bad is Christian Bale's Batman voice? It is so terrible. I cringe every time he opens his mouth as Batman. He is easily the best Bruce Wayne ever put on film, but he doesn't come anywhere close to Micheal Keaton's Batman. If only you could combine Michael Keaton's Batman with Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne. Bale's Batman voice sounds like a little kid with his nose plugged doing a terrible imitation of an angry Clint Eastwood taking a dump the morning after eating 3 pounds of suicide wings.

p.s. Gary Oldman rules

In Bruges

YES! If you haven't seen In Bruges yet, put it #1 on your list of movies to see. It is so good, tough, smart and completely hilarious, you'll hopefully be as surprised as I was that you hadn't already seen it 5 times.

Man, Colin Ferrell is hilarious. He basically plays himself as a foulmouthed Irish criminal who is stuck in Bruges, Belgium with his accomplice (Brendan Gleason) after sort of botching a hit in London. So the basic premise is two criminals stuck laying low in Bruges. Colin Ferrel hates the city and Brendan Gleeson loves it. It is really funny and really original, and the guy who made it is supposed to be the next David Mamet. Well I like David Mamet, and I think this movie is better than anything he's directed (although admittedly I haven't seen House of Games yet, which is supposed to be one of his best).

See this movie ASAP.

When I rented In Bruges I watched it twice. I can't remember the last movie I watched twice on a single rental. Maureen, my wife, hated it by the way. She couldn't even sit through the whole thing. Halfway through, she is like "This is too stupid; I'm going to bed". So maybe it's not for everyone, but it was definitely for me.

Kung Fu Panda

I generally don't care about or for kids movies. Even the ones that are critically acclaimed, like Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, I find to be completely unfunny and boring. Even when I was a kid I didn't like animated family movies like these. I'd ALWAYS fall asleep watching them.

That was not the case with Kung-Fu Panda. Even though the story is completely by-the-numbers and within the first 10 min you know exactly what is going to happen for the last 80, I still loved this movie. Why? Because I found it totally hilarious, charming and heart-warming. Along with In Bruges, it was the funniest movie I saw all year. When Jack Black has all those peaches in his mouth and he's like "I thought they were regular peaches!". I laughed as hard as any movie can make me laugh. And there were at least 5 other parts that made me laugh almost as hard.

I know WALL-E in most people's minds, including critics and the Academy, was the runaway best animated film of the year. But for me, while I agree Wall-E was the superior film, I just didn't love it like I loved Kung Fu Panda.

And my MOST favorite film of 2008:

The Wrestler

Oh man, did I love this movie. Randy the RAM! Mickey Rourke created easily one of the best movie characters of the decade. And, even though the film has some flaws (I had some issues with the daughter character, and not because I think Evan Rachel Wood is a horrible actress, but because of how the character was written) when an actor and director create a character this great, it doesn't matter. Much like Daniel-Day Lewis as Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York or Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, for instance, a truly great character can elevate a somewhat flawed film to classic status. Eventually I find, you end up overlooking the film's flaws and come to accept them and/or forget about them. But, yeah, I just loved Randy the Ram so much and every second he was on the screen. Like as soon as it ended I wanted to watch it again and I wanted him to be a real guy. It reminded me of why I loved wrestling so much when I was young.

When Mickey Rorke challenged Chris Jericho to the title at Wrestlemania 25, I was at first like, "Whoa, that's ridiculous and he just cost himself the Oscar". But after like 5 minutes of thinking about it, I got so excited. I really wanted that match to happen. I would have so watched Wrestlemania for the first time in 14 years. That would have been one of the great wrestling moments of all time. Screw Hollywood and what they would think, pro wrestling is great theatre that takes immense talent and demands respect, and Rourke knows it and wanted to drive that point home. Unfortunately, it didn't end up happening, but luckily the film made that point really well anyway.

Honorable mentions:

The following films I thought were totally excellent and worthy of all the critical acclaim they received, but I just didn't psychotically LOVE them personally:

WALL-E

Second best love story I saw all year.

Frozen River

Reminded me why I used to like independent films. And I mean real independent films, not "indie films" like Slumdog that are made in multiple countries for multiple millions of dollars by an internationally-renowned filmmaker.

Milk

Gus Van Sant has been on a roll since that mediocre dud Finding Forrester and his horrendous Psycho remake.

Slumdog Millionaire

Best love story I saw all year.

The Reader

And I thought this movie was going to suck hard.

Doubt

And I thought this movie was going to offend me.

Iron Man

DOWNEY!


Also, props to Spielberg and Lucas, I didn't think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a complete disappointment... although the fact that I don't consider it one of my favorite movies of last year says a lot, since the first three Indy flicks are three of my favorite films of all-time. Also, I retract my props to George Lucas because last year also saw the abysmal, humiliating release of the completely unnecessary waste of everyone's time and money that was Clone Wars.


Here are some films that may be added to my favorite list once I get around to watching them:

Gran Torino

As you know from my Changeling comments I love Clint as a director. Well he also stars in this one and I love him even more as an actor. And in the trailers he appears to have a shotgun at one point! Oh baby!

Happy-Go-Lucky

In case you didn't know, Mike Leigh is an insanely good director. Go watch the movie Naked if you've never seen it or any of his other movies. It will blow your mind. Also, his last movie, Vera Drake. Like, com'on. How many director's could pull off a brilliant movie about abortion that offends no one? And yeah, Happy-Go-Lucky is supposed to be a beauty, and actually heart-warming for once, as opposed to Leigh's usual depress-fests.

W.

I really like Oliver Stone (Born of the Fourth of July is one of my all-time fav war movies and JFK, Wall Street, Platoon and bunch of others are ssssiiiccckkkk). So, I was really hoping he would pull this one off after a few flops (although Alexander wasn't quite the worst movie ever like it was made it out to be. And I really liked World Trade Center, but it was pretty forgettable and a little disappointing, especially compared to the masterpiece that was United 93). And, based on the generally positive reviews, it sounds like he did. So I'm excited to see it.

Revolutionary Road

I'm excited to see this one as well. Leo has been on fire for awhile. I can't think of the last bad movie he made. They've all seemed to range from really good to masterpiece. Same deal with Kate Winslet.... Come to think of it, Titanic was probably the last mediocre movie either of them made... Oh wait, come to think of it, I HATED Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But anyway, this one looks good. Sam Mendes directed, and while I haven't totally loved any of his movies yet (I probably liked Road to Perdition the best), they have all been interesting throughout and absolutely beautiful to look at. So, I'll definitely be checking that one out too.