The list comes a little late in the cycle this year, I’m afraid. Late last year, life, as they say, intervened, with some events far more important than a night at the movies. But, here we are! “Better late than never”? You decide!
Anyone out there go Blu-ray yet? Not me. Too many articles about early players being fraught with “bugs” and difficulties actually playing films from various studios. Too many stories about having to download firmware updates—just to play movies, for crying out loud! I wouldn’t doubt that purchasing physical media for enjoying films still has a healthy future (and right now, I’d better hope so, since that’s where my paycheck comes from these days), but I’m not quite ready yet to take the plunge to the “next” generation of home entertai nment. I’m looking for a) Blu-ray players receiving stellar reviews without requiring any activity from my end except plug and play, and b) the magical “$200 and under” price tag. Then and only then, I’ll be happy to jump onboard.
Remember some years back, film journalists declared it the “Year of the Woman” in movies? This year, I’d say it was the “Year of the Man,” more so than typical prejudices would manifest themselves at the multiplex. It didn’t necessarily have to be the straight man, or the white man, or the sober man, or the successful man, but a far greater percentage of films than usual dealt with the many predicaments of boys of all ages.
Until very recently, I had a tough time finding a film to really get behind with enthusiasm. More about Oscar predictions and such aft er the list, but just at the end of my “2008 film-watching schedule,” one movie leapt instantly to the very top of my rankings. It’s sure representative of my “Year of the Man” theory, but it’s truly a worthy film for anyone, trafficking as it does in the most basic joys and sorrows of the human condition.
Here are my picks for the year’s best in movies:
GEORGE’S TOP 10 OF 2008
The Wrestler
The Dark Knight
Encounters at the End of the World
Slumdog Millionaire
Gran Torino
Quantum of Solace
Iron Man
Milk
Religulous
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Wrestler
You may have already heard about the positively heroic “comeback” performance by Mickey Rourke. Perhaps you’ve also heard about its sense of grungy authenticity. Are you humming the Bruce Springsteen end credits song yet? For me, one of the many great revelations about this picture was director Darren Aronofsky’s escape from the stylistic prison he had locked himself into after his debut film, the inventive mindbender Pi. His sophomore effort, Requiem for a Dream, loved by many, I felt was mired in what looked perhaps to become Aronofky’s need to employ flashy visual gimmickry as a creative crutch, a substitute for genuine substance. How wrong I was. This stripped-down, raw, romantic, inspiring, and heartbreaking story of a professional wrestler’s struggle to survive his life’s second act with dignity is as potent as they come. It’s seething with simple lyricism, violent , touching, and rooted in Rourke’s unsparing and generous performance.
You may have already heard about the positively heroic “comeback” performance by Mickey Rourke. Perhaps you’ve also heard about its sense of grungy authenticity. Are you humming the Bruce Springsteen end credits song yet? For me, one of the many great revelations about this picture was director Darren Aronofsky’s escape from the stylistic prison he had locked himself into after his debut film, the inventive mindbender Pi. His sophomore effort, Requiem for a Dream, loved by many, I felt was mired in what looked perhaps to become Aronofky’s need to employ flashy visual gimmickry as a creative crutch, a substitute for genuine substance. How wrong I was. This stripped-down, raw, romantic, inspiring, and heartbreaking story of a professional wrestler’s struggle to survive his life’s second act with dignity is as potent as they come. It’s seething with simple lyricism, violent , touching, and rooted in Rourke’s unsparing and generous performance.
The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger’s Joker is simply terrific—everything praiseworthy that’s been said about his work here is true. Me, I laughed with delight that director Christopher Nolan’s second “reality-based” Batman saga actually found a way to “explain” the origin of the Batman mask’s solid white eyes (as traditionally depicted in the comics). Otherwise, this superhero film (and Iron Man along with it) was successful in thrilling with a maturity rarely seen in the genre since the 1978 Superman, in addition to adding layer upon layer of moral complexities comics fans typically associate with the Marvel (rather than DC, Bats’ literary home) brand.
Encounters at the End of the World
You could be forgiven for having no idea whatsoever about Werner Herzog’s spellbinding documentary, seeing as how it got only the most token of screenings before its home video release (it’s out already, watch it now!). The ever-eccentric director of Grizzly Man--and the only filmmaker to ever fully exploit the mad genius of the late actor Klaus Kinski--here focuses on a diverse selection of people who have made their homes (however temporarily or permanently) in the icy wilderness of Antarctica pursuing various scientific endeavors. And, despite many protestations to the contrary throughout the early parts of the film, Herzog devotes a section of his humorous and visually magnificent film to penguins…as only he could. The film’s been nominated for Best Documentary, but I fear it hasn’t a chance against a film depicting the true story of a high-wire walker who dared to cast his line between the World Trade Center towers. Certainly Man on Wire tells the story of a person as mad as any Herzog hero, so how can one really complain? Come to think of it, too bad Herzog didn’t get to this material first.
You could be forgiven for having no idea whatsoever about Werner Herzog’s spellbinding documentary, seeing as how it got only the most token of screenings before its home video release (it’s out already, watch it now!). The ever-eccentric director of Grizzly Man--and the only filmmaker to ever fully exploit the mad genius of the late actor Klaus Kinski--here focuses on a diverse selection of people who have made their homes (however temporarily or permanently) in the icy wilderness of Antarctica pursuing various scientific endeavors. And, despite many protestations to the contrary throughout the early parts of the film, Herzog devotes a section of his humorous and visually magnificent film to penguins…as only he could. The film’s been nominated for Best Documentary, but I fear it hasn’t a chance against a film depicting the true story of a high-wire walker who dared to cast his line between the World Trade Center towers. Certainly Man on Wire tells the story of a person as mad as any Herzog hero, so how can one really complain? Come to think of it, too bad Herzog didn’t get to this material first.
Slumdog Millionaire
You are given a few choices at the outset of this film—options for rationalizing to yourself the story’s many highly unlikely developments. A humble Indian “slumdog” boy goes through an often-hellish childhood, growing up to be a contestant on his country’s version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”—and darned if every experience in his life hasn’t prepared him, somehow, for the high-stakes challenge. Is it fate, chance, or cheating that begins to work in his favor? The movie has an opinion. I’m not sure I agree with it, but the movie is enormously entertaining and uplifting all the same.
You are given a few choices at the outset of this film—options for rationalizing to yourself the story’s many highly unlikely developments. A humble Indian “slumdog” boy goes through an often-hellish childhood, growing up to be a contestant on his country’s version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”—and darned if every experience in his life hasn’t prepared him, somehow, for the high-stakes challenge. Is it fate, chance, or cheating that begins to work in his favor? The movie has an opinion. I’m not sure I agree with it, but the movie is enormously entertaining and uplifting all the same.
Gran Torino
What is it about Clint Eastwood’s uncanny ability to churn out one challenging film after another when most directors of his vintage have either given up the ghost entirely or are running on the exhausted fumes of invention? Combining the unnervingly un-P.C. personage Eastwood has mastered in characters like “Dirty Harry” Callahan and “Gunny” Highway (from Heartbreak Ridge) with the elegiac sensitivities of The Bridges of Madison County and Million Dollar Baby, Clint’s touching fable of a bigoted Korean War vet coming to the unlikely defense of a Hmong teenager and his family offers another richly rewarding study of the American national character, taking its time with difficult emotional and spiritual issues with a stark edge and an almost leisurely daring.
What is it about Clint Eastwood’s uncanny ability to churn out one challenging film after another when most directors of his vintage have either given up the ghost entirely or are running on the exhausted fumes of invention? Combining the unnervingly un-P.C. personage Eastwood has mastered in characters like “Dirty Harry” Callahan and “Gunny” Highway (from Heartbreak Ridge) with the elegiac sensitivities of The Bridges of Madison County and Million Dollar Baby, Clint’s touching fable of a bigoted Korean War vet coming to the unlikely defense of a Hmong teenager and his family offers another richly rewarding study of the American national character, taking its time with difficult emotional and spiritual issues with a stark edge and an almost leisurely daring.
Quantum of Solace
The cinematic James Bond that’s “back” in the 22nd installment of the long-running series manages to be both strenuously faithful to the central appeal of Ian Fleming’s literary works and highly original and immaculately tailored for his time. Forget about all the lazy scribes who claim star Daniel Craig’s second 007 adventure is simply riffing off the appeal of the Jason Bourne films--which, of course, are themselves derived from material aping Fleming’s Bond (James Bond. Jason Bourne. Jack Bauer. See any connection?), what emerges from Quantum of Solace is a breathtaking and surprising continuation of the freshness and brutal vitality Craig has brought to the series, helped in no small part by the stewardship of producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and here by the direction of Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball), who gives the Bond films’ rigid stylistic Bible a few inventive art-house tweaks. After a fairly inexpressive and tedious run with the sadly wasted Pierce Bro snan, the Bond films can boast truly exotic excitement once more. So many people complain they can’t understand the title. Are you kidding me? “A measure of comfort.” Bond has a tough, tough time finding it in this thriller.
Iron Man
The right actor for the right role. At the risk of appearing too “on the nose” about blending reality with fiction, director Jon Favreau cast Robert Downey, Jr. as a rich playboy struggling to allow his better angels to emerge from an oversized ego and a dependence on his hedonistic impulses. As industrialist Tony Stark, who constructs a high-tech suit of armor first for survival and later for superheroics, Downey is smart, sassy, and super-exciting in this Marvel Comics adaptation filled with sharp wit and bursting with blockbuster spectacle.
The right actor for the right role. At the risk of appearing too “on the nose” about blending reality with fiction, director Jon Favreau cast Robert Downey, Jr. as a rich playboy struggling to allow his better angels to emerge from an oversized ego and a dependence on his hedonistic impulses. As industrialist Tony Stark, who constructs a high-tech suit of armor first for survival and later for superheroics, Downey is smart, sassy, and super-exciting in this Marvel Comics adaptation filled with sharp wit and bursting with blockbuster spectacle.
Milk
Sean Penn anchors this sturdy biopic with his joyful portrayal of Harvey Milk, who won a position on the board of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977 as the first openly gay man to be elected to office in California. On November 27, 1978, Milk was assassinated, the victim of either one man’s insanity or one country’s prejudices--or perhaps both. Director Gus van Sant steeps this film in period authenticity, making sure a script (by Dustin Lance Black) that contains meticulous cultural and political details never feels less than absolutely real. Penn is aided onscreen by a terrific ensemble cast that includes James Franco, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch. Watch f or the scene where Milk achieves an important electoral victory and van Sant chooses to allow for a long take, searching Milk’s face as he gushes with pride among his supporters. It’s a movie about change. Good timing.
Religulous
It’s not necessarily a spoiler to say that the centr al thesis of Bill Maher’s outrageous and provocative documentary is that the world would be better off if it divested itself of religious beliefs entirely. While I found much sympathy with this movie as it skewered various sacred cows amongst the world’s predominant faiths, I confess I disagree with his main point entirely. Maher’s wrong to even imagine in passing that religion could ever be eradicated from our set of spiritual or intellectual tools. The world will complete its next great religious reformation, I believe, when even the most ardent adherents of all faiths come to realize that each of the world’s religious creeds can be valuable in that they help us grapple with life’s great mysteries, those things about which we will never, ever know the true answers to in time to share them with ot hers. But, oh, is it ever funny.
Sean Penn anchors this sturdy biopic with his joyful portrayal of Harvey Milk, who won a position on the board of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977 as the first openly gay man to be elected to office in California. On November 27, 1978, Milk was assassinated, the victim of either one man’s insanity or one country’s prejudices--or perhaps both. Director Gus van Sant steeps this film in period authenticity, making sure a script (by Dustin Lance Black) that contains meticulous cultural and political details never feels less than absolutely real. Penn is aided onscreen by a terrific ensemble cast that includes James Franco, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch. Watch f or the scene where Milk achieves an important electoral victory and van Sant chooses to allow for a long take, searching Milk’s face as he gushes with pride among his supporters. It’s a movie about change. Good timing.
Religulous
It’s not necessarily a spoiler to say that the centr al thesis of Bill Maher’s outrageous and provocative documentary is that the world would be better off if it divested itself of religious beliefs entirely. While I found much sympathy with this movie as it skewered various sacred cows amongst the world’s predominant faiths, I confess I disagree with his main point entirely. Maher’s wrong to even imagine in passing that religion could ever be eradicated from our set of spiritual or intellectual tools. The world will complete its next great religious reformation, I believe, when even the most ardent adherents of all faiths come to realize that each of the world’s religious creeds can be valuable in that they help us grapple with life’s great mysteries, those things about which we will never, ever know the true answers to in time to share them with ot hers. But, oh, is it ever funny.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
It’s hard to believe after so many films that seemed lazy, unfunny, and unoriginal recently, that Woody Allen could stage another comeback, but he did it. In this seductive romantic dramedy that Allen filmed in Spain, he offers not a complete reinvention of himself for certain, but an impassioned variation on his usual neurotic concerns. For once, Scarlett Johansson proves herself worthy of her writer/director’s confidence, and Javier Bardem makes for the most compelling leading man we’ve seen in a Woody film in ages, portraying an artist of immense charms and a troublemaking lifestyle. Penélope Cruz, as the saying goes, steals the show with a crazily hot-blooded turn as Bardem’s former--and still scalding--flame.
It’s hard to believe after so many films that seemed lazy, unfunny, and unoriginal recently, that Woody Allen could stage another comeback, but he did it. In this seductive romantic dramedy that Allen filmed in Spain, he offers not a complete reinvention of himself for certain, but an impassioned variation on his usual neurotic concerns. For once, Scarlett Johansson proves herself worthy of her writer/director’s confidence, and Javier Bardem makes for the most compelling leading man we’ve seen in a Woody film in ages, portraying an artist of immense charms and a troublemaking lifestyle. Penélope Cruz, as the saying goes, steals the show with a crazily hot-blooded turn as Bardem’s former--and still scalding--flame.
SO, WHO’S GONNA WIN THE OSCAR, HOLLYWOOD NOSTRADAMUS?
Will Slumdog Millionaire take the big prize of Best Picture? You betcha. I’m guessing that its closest rival, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is just a mite too curious and too detached to warm the hearts of the voters it needs to emerge victorious. That, and just how familiar it feels to previous winner Forrest Gump (both written by the same screenwriter—Google “if you see just one version of Forrest Gump this year” and see for yourself) I’d say will have it falling short, as technically awe-inspiring as it truly is.
Will Slumdog Millionaire take the big prize of Best Picture? You betcha. I’m guessing that its closest rival, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is just a mite too curious and too detached to warm the hearts of the voters it needs to emerge victorious. That, and just how familiar it feels to previous winner Forrest Gump (both written by the same screenwriter—Google “if you see just one version of Forrest Gump this year” and see for yourself) I’d say will have it falling short, as technically awe-inspiring as it truly is.
Best Director? I suppose we could see a split and have David Fincher win for Button, but I would doubt it. Fincher’s got enormous talents, but there’s no sense of impatience to give him his due just yet. And Danny Boyle’s victory with Slumdog is about as fascinating an underdog story as the film’s. I say Boyle comes with his picture.
As for the other major categories –
Between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke, I’d so love for Rourke to win. That’s taking nothing away from Penn, who already took home the gold with Mystic River. Actors who play real people can have an advantage, though. Rourke’s is the win I’m rooting for, but my head’s telling me it might go to Penn.
Actress? Anyone see that episode of Ricky Gervais’ “Extras,” when Kate Winslet (portraying herself) serves up the formula for winning an Oscar? “Schindler’s bloody List.” This year, Kate Winslet played a Nazi guard in The Reader (a horrible, horrible disappointment for this viewer), and she’s nominated, and yes, she’s way overdue.
The supporting actor race has long been over. Heath Ledger.
As for supporting actress, I’m tempted to think the Doubt ladies might cancel each other out, allowing Penélope Cruz to win. However, there’s always the Gump-like, saintly mother role essayed by Taraji P. Henson in Button--but then, you’ve got Viola Davis as a close competitor in, shall we say, matters of demographics. This one’s too tough for me to call until at least the SAG Awards. Yes, I’m too chicken to guess.
Thanks for reading! Please share your moviegoing adventures (or any other adventures) with me anytime you’d like. I’d enjoy hearing from you.
