What are your top ten films of the 2008? Performances?- Page 3

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 7:05am

I have to give a shout out to Casey Afflecks performance in Gone Baby Gone as well, brilliant, as was the film

Best films
Gone Baby Gone
Changeling
Frost/Nixon
Dark Night
Wall- E

Worst
Mamma Mia
Day the earth stood still

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 1/11/09 at 12:44pm

1) SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK
2) LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
3) THE DARK KNIGHT
4) WALL-E
5) WALTZ WITH BASHIR
6) THE FALL
7) IN BRUGES
BURN AFTER READING
9) THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
10) THE WRESTLER


Best Performances -

Mickey Rourke in THE WRESTLER
Lina Leandersson in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Marisa Tomei in THE WRESTLER
Kate Winslet in THE READER
Heath Ledger in THE DARK KNIGHT

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/11/09 at 12:49pm

I"ve seen 7 so far, and of those, I really liked 2 of them.

Doubt
Dark Knight

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/11/09 at 1:14pm

I'm not really in the state of mind to list and rank, but when thinking of film in 2008, a few things come to mind:

-everything about SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
-THE DARK KNIGHT's cinematography
-REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
-Taraji P. Henson and Brad Pitt in BENJAMIN BUTTON
-Keira Knightley's overlooked performance in THE DUCHESS

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/11/09 at 1:17pm

I forgot to mention performances, which stand out even if I didn't love the film.

Meryl Streep-Doubt
Sean Penn-Milk
Heath Ledger-Dark Knight
Kate Winslet-Revolutionary Road

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 3:26am

My thoughts in more detail:

10 - BURN AFTER READING



In what is essentially a giant companion piece to the existential nothingness of The Big Lebowski, The Coen Brothers have elected to return to the comedy well with a pitch-black nihilistic comedy about the sad lives lived by pathetic characters whose lives collide in strange, and often violent, ways. This is vintage Coen right here, filled with all of the sorts of things that I love about Coen movies. There's the snappy, clever dialogue, the over-the-top performances, the hilariously solemn score by Carter Burwell, and an ending that is as brilliant as it is infuriating. Like Lebowski, the plot of this movie is very much modeled on the story of the shaggy dog, which could cause extreme anger in a lot of audience members. I, however, enjoyed the crazy ride and cannot wait to see this again. Out of all the movies on this list, I suspect that it will be Burn After Reading that I will rewatch the most for fun.

(NOTE - This movie would form a good double feature with Michael Haneke's Funny Games)


9 - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON



Even if everything else was terrible, this movie would still be worth seeing simply for the stunning technical aspects. Every moment of this movie is hand-crafted, with a glorious amount of love and care that you can see in every frame. This was a true passion project, through and through. The story itself is more a series of vignettes about life than it is a coherent plotline. The vignettes tend to meander in magical directions, painting the picture of a man trying to live life to the fullest. It's a movie that works like a slow burn, engulfing you in its sweet, sweet fires.


8 - IN BRUGES



Martin McDonagh is one of the most stunning playwrights out there, with a perfectly warped sense of humor that seeks comedy in the strangest of subjects. Fortunately, none of that spirit is lost in his first feature-length film venture. What I love about this movie is its simplicity. This is a very small-scale story about the minds of two men going through their own personal hells. Frills can be shown the exit door as this is strictly a no frills revue. And Bruges itself becomes a character in its own right, showcasing itself as a dark place lurking with medieval architecture and deep shadows. I can't wait to see what McDonagh does next.


7 - THE FALL



So underrated it's criminal. Nobody got a chance to see this incredible psycho-visual feast for the senses as it only was released into a few theaters over the summer. But what a movie this was! Tarsem's imagination and eye for visuals fill the screen with beautiful moments that make your heart ache with their power. A horse dangling over a bridge. Birds flying out of a screaming mouth. A man's face morphing into the desert. These are moments that are not going to leave my mind for a very long time. It took Tarsem years and years and his own money to make this movie and I'm glad he went through the trouble.


6 - THE WRESTLER



Mickey Rourke's best performance ever. He isn't just acting but he actually transcends his character and melds it into his soul. It's only after the end credits roll that you realize that Rouke was basically working with cliches, which makes his stunning work all the more admirable. Darren Aronofsky scales back on his experimental style considerably for a grittier, verite feel that really fits the mood. This could have been so much less and yet it becomes so much more in the hands of these artists.


5 - WALTZ WITH BASHIR



Ari Folman has created a hallucinatory, stunning masterwork out of half-remembered dreams, blocked memories, historical fact, and surreal imagery. This is a movie with the capability of kicking you in the scrotum and throwing scalding hot acid in your face. The Flash/AfterEffects animation is beautiful, reaching a style that resides somewhere in between comic books and realism. It is quite the technical achievement. This is another movie on the list that I will end up seeing multiple times, to savor the pure originality that radiates from every shimmering frame.


4 - WALL - E



Pixar has once again managed to do the impossible. They have created a heartbreaking story about robots, one of whom is a hunk of metal and the other who is an iPod with a gun. It's a movie of eerie beauty, showing us a decaying apocalyptic vision of an earth polluted and then moving into the stars, twinkling in the huge reaches of space. This is one of the saddest, creepiest, funniest, and most mysterious animated family films ever made. Its haunting beauty will stay with you for a very, very long time.



3 - THE DARK KNIGHT



The Batman movie of my dreams. Batman essentially functioned as a third parent during my childhood, swarming my pre-pubescent face in its nipply bosom. Now he finally has a movie worthy of the comics in which he has starred. This is not a story about Batman but a story about Gotham City as a whole, examining the ins and outs of the city's criminal underworld and police forces in a panoramic view. Gotham serves as a symbol for our times, packing an emotional punch that Batman has never felt before. What can be said of its ensemble cast but that they have done absolutely amazing work, with the crown jewel certainly being the sadly departed Heath Ledger as the maniacal Joker. He's not a mischevious prankster but a cold-blooded killer with a chillingly bleak outlook on the world. Christopher Nolan has forever endeared himself to fanboys everywhere as a Lord Savior, having finally legitimized the comic book movie as a noble artistic medium.


2 - LET THE RIGHT ONE IN



How can a movie be both heartwarming and bloody disgusting in the same scene? Let The Right One In shows you how. This is the best horror film I have seen in years, anchored by child performances of amazing depth and insight. I watched this movie with a constant grin on my face, convinced that I was watching the work of some kind of twisted genius. Sadly, it seems as if an American English-language remake is forthcoming, which makes absolutely no sense, but at least we will always have this movie. It's a horror-thriller, it's a psychological drama, it's a sweet romance, and it captures the double-blade innocence of kids better than any other movie I've seen recently. See it if you have not.


And the best film of 2008 is...


1 - SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK



That's right, I'm naming Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche New York as the best film of 2008. It was not an easy decision, but ultimately this was the one that won out over Let the Right One In. Technically, that was a better-made film. Synecdoche New York is not a perfect film. It is imperfect and chaotic in beautiful, mysterious ways. It's a movie you not only will want to see more than once, but will positively NEED to see more than once.

This is pure, unadulterated Kaufman. There is no Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry to ground Kaufman's flowing stream of ideas into something resembling realism. So, in a sense, you are watching the uncensored thoughts of one man as he ponders over the meaning of his and every life. The movie is ambitious in a heart-staggering way, attempting to literally compress all that encompasses life into a single minute. The fact that Kaufman had the balls to actually attempt is one thing. That he comes so close to perfection is another thing entirely.

I love it when directors think big and swing for the fences. It's a love that goes both ways, as for every wonderful movie like Synecdoche, you get something lung-barfingly awful like Australia. What makes Synecdoche work is its thick emotional center that never leaves the film, no matter how crazy it gets. This is one of the most achingly, beautifully sad movies I have seen in a very long time. The abstractions of the narrative only serve to enhance the story and its themes, rather than to just be wacky little quirk-boxes to set this screenplay apart from the others.

Synecdoche New York inspired and empowered me. I felt like I could create entire solar systems after I had seen this movie. This is a movie that aims big, thinks hard, and actually succeeds. That is lightning, my friends. Lightning in a bottle. And Kaufman has been lucky enough to have caught it five times.