month-late ruminations on the year in film, 2008

Probably the worst year for film this decade. . . What a terrible year in film!. . . After such amazing releases in 2007, 2008 was a proverbial nosedive in originality and progress. . .

I've been reading and listening to statements very similar to those in the past few months. And I don't blame those who said them, I'm one of them! The year was filled with mediocrity and disappointments. Releases from storied, respected studios, actors, and directors left me disillusioned; and the year was filled with countless forgettable and uninspired performances.

Case in point: the abysmal, self indulgent Changeling from the legendary Clint Eastwood who for the past two decades, up until this point, has been continually producing some of the best cinema this side of the Atlantic. His first and much hyped film of the year was nothing short of tedious. And not only was Changeling a pointless bore, including an eye-rolling, calculated one-note performance from Angelina Jolie, but Eastwood's second release Gran Torino, while an improvement, was terribly acted and overly manipulative. As appealing as Eastwood was on screen, let's just hope Gran Torino is not the swan song many see it as for his acting career.

Eastwood, however, wasn't the only respected director to crash and burn in '08. Both the Coen Brothers and Fernando Meirelles released high-profile misfires (to varying degrees) with Burn After Reading and Blindness, respectively. Even foreign cinema had its slip-ups with the mediocre yet inexplicably highly praised French thriller Tell No One and the better, yet cliche and predictable, German Nazi era drama The Counterfeiters which undeservedly one best foreign film at last years Academy Awards. And even with the release of and subsequent hysteria over Christopher Nolan's masterpiece of the superhero sub-genre The Dark Knight, there was still a plethora of over-hyped and overblown distractions like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.

Some more of 2008's disappointments (most of which I didn't even bother to see):
Australia
The Spirit
The Reader
The Lucky Ones
Quantum of Solace
The Secret Life of Bees
W.
The Promotion

Nonetheless 2008 did have its fair share of near-great films as well as two films I could honestly say are bonafide masterpieces (my top two below).

I make a top 30 each year and this year is no different. So far I have 24 films on my list of the best of the year, the first six of which I consider severely flawed in some way or another. It excludes quite a few like Gomorrah, Waltz With Bashir, Wendy and Lucy, Synecdoche, New York, and Man on Wire which are on my wish list but have yet to see.

24. Cloverfield
23. Last Chance Harvey
22. Son of Ranbow
21. Be Kind Rewind
20. Blindness
19. Valkyrie
18. Ne le Dis á Personne (Tell No One)
17. Gran Torino
16. Burn After Reading

When you've got films like those so high on your list, you know somethings wrong.

15. Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) - I would've preferred for the suspense to have been a bit more refined but frankly using the past to represent the present is done so well here that I can't really complain. This film says almost as much about the evils of ruthless American style capitalism as it does about the Nazis. The lead, Karl Markovics, isn't brilliant but beyond sufficient, carrying the film when needed on the rare occasion that the screenplay fails. As opposed to most films, I'd love to see a (heavily ironic) American remake of this, although keeping with the original's subtlety.

14. Rachel Getting Married - The best example of cinéma vérité since the last Dardenne Brothers' film, I felt as though I was present for every minute of it.

13. Frost/Nixon - I'll echo here what I said on my Twitter. . . While no best picture, Frost/Nixon is certainly riveting and thought provoking. I would love to see the original stage-play version. Ron Howard, however, is still dead to me.

12. Vicky Christina Barcelona - It's Woody. . . in Spain?. . . I'm there.

11. Funny Games - A great remake of a great film from an amazing director. The fact that its a remake adds another layer of genius. Michael Haneke does it again.

10. Paranoid Park - It doesn't hit you until far after you've left the theater. This is a tragic, haunting portrayal of contemporary American youth, and a brilliant one.

9. Slumdog Millionaire - Not as good as the hype would suggest but just barely. This is a crowd-pleaser with brains. The one film I wanted to see again the most.

8. The Visitor - Poignant and touching, this is quite an amazingly powerful little film. Sure it can be a bit formulaic, pretentious and/or sentimental, but it's particularly effective at pulling our heartstrings when and where it counts. It opens our eyes and our hearts to the fact that more is lost than gained from America's current stance on immigration.

7. Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias, O (The Year My Parents went on Vacation) - The horrors of war and conflict need not be images of open wounds or piles of bodies. This portrait of Brazil in 1970 told through the eyes of a 12 year-old boy is a brilliant, touching, deliciously Red testament to the power of a good story. The best Brazilian film in years.

6. Doubt - Leaves you with more questions than what you came in with and it's all the better for it. Sure it's a filmed stage-play, but why mess with success? Powerful stuff.

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - An ambitious and grandiose, yet flawed masterpiece. This is a very old-school approach to telling a sweeping, epic story. The film is inhibited by the restraints of it's own source material, but Fincher takes it as far as anyone ever could. Not to mention, it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of his impressive oeuvre. Deep down, I love epic, meaning-of-life movies like this one; this is one of the best I've ever seen.

4. The Dark Night - enough has been said (and repeated).

3. The Wrestler - Surprised me with the scope of its message and symbolism as much as its exposing intensity and intimacy. This is the most American of films released in '08. . . and the most touching.

2. WALL.E - What a gamble. What an ingenious risk Pixar has taken this time, making one of the darkest, most amazingly poignant animated films ever. I didn't think it possible for Pixar to top last year's fantastic Ratatouille with yet another complex adult tale told simply threw what's typically considered a children's medium, but they just might have with WALL.E. It's tale is told rather simply (essentially a silent film for more than half an hour) but its themes, message and implications are very profound. And above all else there is a unrelenting heart at its core sans sentimentality that really hits the film's layered messages home. A must-see for any lover of film, art, life.

1. 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) - My only 5-star (perfectly) rated film of last year. Technically released in 2007, that year's palme d'Or winner was released here in the States in early 2008. I can still remember the feeling of this film slowly but surely creeping up on me as though taking me by the neck, slowly tightening, not letting go until long after it was all over. "Intense and gut-wrenching" doesn't begin to adequately describe this film. It is effective in ways I never knew film could be.