Top Ten Films Of 2008!

We are in the final days of 2008 and boy am I glad to see it go!

Every year I like to compose my list of the ten best films of the year. This year was perhaps my biggest challenge. What a pathetic, mindless, worthless year 2008 proved to be for cinema. Up until this very date, it looked like I wasn't even going to make a top ten list. My initial plan was to give a list of about 15 or so films which I thought were watchable. But, I didn't want to be a coward like Roger Ebert, who didn't even make a top ten list because he says he enjoyed too many films, not realizing it is his job to evaluate movies and judge them. I didn't want to take the sissy way out.

It is my guess, but, I would say anywhere between 400 - 500 movies opened within the Chicago land area this year. Of those movies I saw only 80. A mere fraction compare to what most professional critics see, but, a substantial number when compared to the average moviegoer. Out of those 80 movies, 7, yes 7 of them I gave four stars to. I was simply unable to connect with a majority of movies this year.

As is usually the case, I'm going to have lots of people bitch and complain about my list. Why did I chose such and such title as the best? Why did I leave such and such movie off the list? People are going to assume I didn't see the heavily hyped movies of the year. Let me put your suspicions to rest. I saw "Frost/Nixon", "Doubt", "Gran Torino", "Rachel Getting Married", "Wall.E", "The Reader", "W", "Happy-Go-Lucky" and the list goes on and on.

This is the first time in a long time I've seen nearly everything I wanted to see in a given year. I have very little catch up to play. I would say I've seen at least 95% of the movies I wanted to see this year. I admit I have yet to see "Frozen River", "Milk" and "The Wrestler" of the acclaimed movies this year. But everything else I have (if it played in Chicago).

One of the things which disappointed me so much this year was the great and celebrated filmmakers did not live up to their reputations. Claude Chabrol's "The Girl Cut in Two", while a watchable film, does not rank among his greats, Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" was a minor work which didn't affect me the way his best work does ("Naked", "All or Nothing", "Vera Drake"), Jacques Rivette's "The Duchess of Langeais" was disappointing, Oliver Stone's "W" also left me cold. Only a few directors managed to succeed. Woody Allen has gotten some rave reviews for his "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", Ron Howard did a fine job with "Frost/Nixon" and Clint Eastwood had a pair of hits; "Changeling" and "Gran Torino".

As was the case last year, if you wanted to see good movies you had to go outside the mainstream. In fact you had to practically search under every rock to find a great movie. They were so hard to come by. I'm shocked to hear people thought this was a great year for movies. They must have very low expectations.

This was the first year where I'm left thinking, perhaps Hollywood should stop making movies. It is better to end things now. Like a relationship starting to go bad, let us still have good memories. Hollywood has given us many good memories; "Casablanca", "Citizen Kane", "Gone with the Wind", "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Godfather". But if Hollywood is going to continue giving us the kind of films it gave us this year, lets just call it quits. Hey, I mean c'mon, Hollywood had a good run, over a 100 years, but, now is the time to stop making movies.

Of course I'm only kidding. About 5% only wants to see an end of movies, but my hatred, frustration and disgust for the year is 100% genuine. Hollywood cannot go on only wanting to have one good month (December). A business cannot succeed only one month out of the year. What are film goers suppose to do the other 11 months? Enough is enough.

The films of 2008 clearly surprised me. We got an unusual and almost unhealthy amount of French imports this year. At least 15 films from France came our way this year; "A Girl Cut in Two", "Fear(s) of the Dark", "I've Loved You So Long", "Duchess of Langeais", "A Christmas Tale", "The Last Mistress", "Flight of the Red Balloon", and "Roman de Gare". Plus others. Didn't any other country make movies this year? We had two films from the Czech Republic; "I Served the King of England" and "Beauty in Trouble", one from Lebanon; "Caramel" and one from Austria; The Counterfeiters. But what about Hungary, Romania, Slovak Republic, Russia, Bulgaria, Poland or Serbia? Something worth while must have been made in those countries to find distribution for the American market.

The most successful film of the year was a superhero movie; "The Dark Knight". A movie I resisted despite it's over-hyped acclaim, but, I must admit, it was good. Not great. But good.

I'm glad to see this year come to an end. It was too bad to go on any longer. It was very difficult for me to come up with this list. I know people will not like it. I'm telling you, you won't like it. You're going to say I left off your favorite. You hadn't heard of these movies. Or you saw them and they sucked, right? I know the story. But remember. If you think I made a bad list, my list is only a reflection of the year. A bad year will produce a bad list. Look at what the critics had to say. Usually by the end of the year every critic seems to have the same ten movies on their list. But this year there was a lot of diversity. There were no clear front-runners. You may say that's a good thing. But, the way I see it is, everyone came away liking something else. There was no consensus on what was good this year. Everyone had a hard time finding agreement.

Here are my ten "favorites" of the year:

1. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (Dir. David Fincher; U.S.) - Every year I always put the film which touched me the most on a personal level as my favorite. In the past my choices have included "Eyes Wide Shut", "21 Grams", "The Passion of the Christ" and "United 93". All films which greatly affected me. They hit me on a deep and profound level. Nothing released this year got to me that way.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is an imperfect film. There are lots of things wrong the film. There are lots of areas the film avoids and some I'm glad it did. But this movie got me thinking about life more than any other film this year. It wasn't so much because of anything the film did in particular, but because I brought my personal life to the story. When something happens to Benjamin (Brad Pitt) I would think how it related to my own life. It wasn't Benjamin's story which I was reacting to but my own.

Still I must admit by the end of the film I was teary eyed. Here is a movie about age, life, love, death and destiny. A movie about things which are out of our control.

Brad Pitt gives one of his most subtle, delicate and sensitive performances ever. I don't know if it is the best performance of the year but I'm sure he'll score an Oscar nomination. And he deserves it.

The director, Finch, usually makes good action movies; "Panic Room", "The Game", "Fight Club" and "Zodiac", but, none of those movies would have led me to believe he was capable of directing a film as romantic as this.

The film was written by Eric Roth, whose name has been behind some true favorites of mine, "The Insider", "Munich" and "Forrest Gump", which "Benjamin Button" most resembles. Both are films about "limited" men who achieve great things and are surrounded by extraordinary people.

2. ELEGY (Dir. Isabel Coixet; U.S.) - For a while I thought about naming this as the best film of the year but as the year went on something was holding me back. It didn't feel like a proper choice for best film of the year. But Ben Kingsley gives an amazing performance. It makes me sad to think he will be forgotten come Oscar time. The movie opened too early in the year and the film simply got lost in the hype of other movies. This was perhaps the performance which most touched me. And Penelope Cruz is outstanding. I find her to be better here than in Allen's "Barcelona".

3. CHANGELING (Dir. Clint Eastwood; U.S.) - It has been quite a year for Mr. Eastwood. First he gave us the remarkably touching true story of a woman (Angelina Jolie) who took on the corrupt LAPD when they tried to convince her they had returned her stolen son to her when she insisted the child was not her's and it wasn't!

Jolie may sometimes get a bad rap because of her life off of the screen but that shouldn't matter to people. Her work here is memorable. She manages to create a very convincing character who gains our sympathy.

4. FEAR(S) OF THE DARK (Dir. Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti and Richard McGuire; France) - I know, I know, I was suppose to say "Wall.E" was the best animated film of the year, right? Not this! Disney had nothing to do with it. Who the Hell do I think I am to recommend an animated film which wasn't done by Pixar? But "Fear(s) of the Dark" felt more epic. The animation in this film impressed me more. While I admit not all of the six stories which are pasted together here work, the film has a tone which felt consistent to me. I love the story by Burns, about a young geek guy who finds himself with an attractive girl. But things go very, very wrong.

5. BEAUTY IN TROUBLE (Dir. Jan Hrebejk; Czech Republic) - Here is another film a lot of people probably haven't heard of but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be seen.

Hrebejk is the director of the Oscar nominated "Divided We Fall" and the outrageous comedy "Up and Down" but here he takes it easy. The film has moments which are delicate with humor closely woven in. And it has the most unusual message you may see this year about the power of sex.

The performance by Anna Geislerova stole my heart. What a "beauty"!

6. MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA (Dir. Spike Lee; U.S.) - Some directors have gained the reputation of making the same movie over and over again. Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman usually have those comments thrown at them. I've defended those directors in the past but Lee is someone who I think does do that.

I'm usually skeptically walking into a Spike Lee film. I find him to be a racist. He becomes a stereotype himself; the angry black man, but "Miracle at St. Anna" won me over despite all the controversy which plagued the movie. Not since Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" has a war movie taken me on such an emotional roller-coaster. I'm not saying this is a better movie than "Ryan" or as good. But on Spike Lee's scale this is one of his best films.

7. THE COUNTERFEITERS (Dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky; Austria) - This Oscar winner for best foreign language film asks one of the more personal and unusual questions of the year. A film with a deep moral conscience.

Based on a true story the film follows Salomon Sorowitch (Karl Markovics) who led one of the biggest forgery schemes in history during WW2. Sorowitch was an Austrian Jew, who was pressured into helping the Nazis into printing money. Sorowitch says he has no loyalty to anyone, but can we live that way?

8. SMART PEOPLE (Dir. Noam Murro; U.S.) - A movie which sadly mostly got negative reviews. But I really found myself enjoying this movie.

Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and Elle Page (of "Juno") make a fantastic ensemble of quirky characters who managed to involve me from beginning to end. While most people fell in love with Page in "Juno" it was here she won me over.

9. THE LAST MISTRESS (Dir. Catherine Breillat; France) - Breillat is a director I've usually criticize in the past. She is a feminist director whose work deals with female sexuality. Her work is very graphic and off putting to lots of viewers but here she finds the right balance to get her opinions across and still seem thought-provoking.

Asia Argento gives a good performance but it is not really one of her best. Still she has a way about her of bringing the screen to life.

10. CARAMEL (Dir. Nadine Labaki; Lebanon) - For me the surprise hit of the year. Like most films from the region, this movie deals with women in society and their role. But the film is more than a "chick flick". This is a human movie about real people. We care for these characters. Their concerns become our concerns. Not well known but well worth searching for.

HONORABLE MENTION: "FROST/NIXON" (Dir. Ron Howard;U.S.), "DOUBT" (Dir. John Patrick Shanley; U.S.), "VICKY CRISTINA BARECLONA" (Dir. Woody Allen; U.S./Spain), "STILL LIFE" (Dir. Jia Zhang-ke; China), "THE READER" (Dir. Stephen Daldry; U.S.) and "THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES" (Dir. Vadim Perelman; U.S.)