The Best Films of 2008

1. Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut, a haunting, loving, brilliant tome on life and mortality, was the most affecting film of the year.  A superbly-crafted existential fantasy about a theater director who fills a warehouse with a reenactment of his life and the lives of everyone around him, the plot doesn't work in a chronological, traditional way but instead as an emotional journey towards the end of...us.  Featured powerful performances by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton and Michelle Williams.  Not to be underestimated or dismissed, a film masterwork that lingers long after the credits roll, begging to be revisited.  A classic. 

2. Milk & Paranoid Park

It was quite a year for Gus Van Sant, the best American filmmaker currently working.  He began 2008 with one of his lyrical, heartbreaking, aggressively independent arthouse features (a la My Own Private Idaho, Elephant, Last Days) Paranoid Park, about a teenager wandering aimless in the wake of a terrible accident and ended with a return to what, for Van Sant, counts as mainstream (a la To Die For, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester) Milk, the story of the first openly gay man ever elected to public office.  The former was an act of filmmaking brilliance, subtly Felliniesque and Hitchcockian, rewriting the language of cinema and never losing the emotional core of this boy on this journey.  The latter was the most uplifting film of the year, finding joy and hope in absolute sorrow.  Milk also contained some of the best performances of the year-- Sean Penn outdoing himself once again, James Franco re-astounding after a virtuoso comedic turn in Pineapple Express and Josh Brolin bringing real pathos to the role of Dan White, turning what could have been a one-note character into the most complex man in the film.  Paranoid Park brought us the debut of Gabe Nevins, with a face that Van Sant trusts to carry his entire film-- it does.

3. The Wrestler

An emotional wrecking ball of a film, anchored by the performance of the year.  For once, all the hype is true: Mickey Rourke is that good as Randy "the Ram" Robinson, a broken down piece of meat, an aging pro-wrestler who traded in his life for the whiz and the bang of the crowds and the fame and finds himself middle-aged and alone.  Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood are good in supporting roles, but this is Rourke's show-- playing of his own broken persona he finds the heart of the character and never misses the mark.  Occasionally the film can't live up to the extraordinary realism of this performance, but it's a tiny flaw-- Darren Arronofsky trades in his usual theatrics for a more somber, toned down approach and almost scores a complete masterwork.

4. Doubt

John Patrick Shanley brought his Pulitzer and Tony award winning play about the evolution of the Catholic Church in the wake of John Paul the Second to the big screen with out losing much of the parable's power.  As much a period piece as an allegory on certainty or a drama about homosexuality and child molestation, it contained more notable work from Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep, although the film is stolen by Viola Davis, going head to head with Streep in a ten minute scene that becomes the heart of the film.  The woman is incredible.   The most intelligent film of the year.

5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall & Pineapple Express

Judd Apatow and his unstoppable comedy factory were responsible for the two funniest, purest entertainments of the year-- the first,Forgetting Sarah Marshall, was a fairly traditional romcom that never lost touch with realism whilst keeping the heart and humor intact in it's story of a man recently broken up from his girlfriend who goes to Hawaii to ease the pain, only to find here there with her new beau.  The second and the most interesting was David Gordon Green's second masterwork of the year, a brilliant combination of wildly homoerotic buddy comedy, stoner romp, head trip, and action satire.  Forgetting Sarah Marshall proved the big screen viability of Peter Segal, who scripted and starred; Pineapple Express continued Seth Rogan's steamroll through Hollywood and featured another truly exceptional performance by James Franco.

6. Wall-E

Great science fiction is rare, making this Pixar release a gem.  And it's a wonder it was even green-lit by parent corporation Disney-- so sparse on dialogue is the first half it almost plays as a Chaplin-esque silent film and so heavy handed the environmental message of the second half it plays almost as propaganda.  But never mind the last act flaws, the film is magical.  About a robot left alone cleaning Earth after man has ben forced to desert the planet , the film is cute, touching and heart-rending, smart and perceptive, and the animation is brilliant.  Not a 'children's film' by any means, it's a worthwhile experience for anyone with a penchant for great cinema.

7. Revolutionary Road

Sam Mendes directs reteams Kate Winslet (his wife) and Leonardo DiCaprio in this unofficial sequel to Titanic filtered through his own American Beauty.  Frank and April Wheeler are two free-sprits who, in the mid-50s, are disenchanted with the average life but find themselves saddled with children, pointless responsibilities and trapped in a suburban hell from which they are unable and unwilling to escape.  In a big, brassy performance Winslet is extraordinary and DiCaprio hits a personal best with his quieter, more subtle performance.  The film occasionally ascends into melodrama and a few scenes find the wrong tone, but the closing passages are wrenching, the emotional currents that flows through the film are unwavering, and when the two leads spar, your witnessing some of the best acting of the year.  A devastating portrait of suburbia that makes American Beauty look like 'Father Knows Best'.

8. The Duchess

An intelligent, exuberant, touching and entertaining costume drama (the best in some time, in fact), telling the engrossing story of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, married to the duke at a young age and effectively imprisoned-- a bird in a gilded cage-- unable to pursue her own passions and, infuriating the Duke to no end, unable to produce a male heir.  Slightly feminist in theme, the film is handsomely mounted, continually gorgeous, showing a young woman ahead of her time, awash in celebrity and fashion, and, as seen by Saul Dibb's film, increasingly relevant to today.  Keira Knightley shines as the centerpiece of the film, but Ralph Fiennes, as her husband, is the real standout, taking a character that, on paper, is no more than a standard villain and via performance making him relatable, despicable, sympathetic and terrifying... all at once.

9. The Dark Knight

The biggest, most popular film of the year (and almost of all time), the latest Batman film was intense, mesmerizing, suspenseful and shockingly intelligent.  The years most effective score underlined the action and the suspense builds to a breaking point, overshadowing that the film is overlong and riddled with plot holes.  And the performances!  Heath Ledger in a swan song of terrifying, chaotic insanity.  Aaron Eckhart in a big, juicy, melodramatic role that he chews through admirably.  Christian Bale, still the most effective of all the batmen.  And Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman in supporting roles as good as you would expect from such marquee names.

10. Snow Angels

A small, quiet drama from David Gordon Green about a teenager making the first steps towards love and a thirty-something couple taking the final steps away from it, before everyone is irrevocably changed by a tragedy.  The film is set in a small, icy Northeast town in the dead of winter, and the photography is perceptive and beautiful.  The first two thirds of the film are perfect, the final reel expertly made but belonging to a more melodramatic film.  Sam Rockwell is brilliant as an unstable alcoholic trying and failing to get clean and Kate Beckinsale is a revelation as his ex-wife, trying and failing to get by.

Most Disappointing 

1. Slumdog Millionaire

2. Wanted

3. Religulous

4. Burn After Reading

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Performances 2008

Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road)

Colin Farrell (In Bruges)

Sean Penn (Milk)

Sam Rockwell (Snow Angels)

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Actress

Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

Keira Knightley (The Duchess)

Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day)

Meryl Streep (Doubt)

Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)

Featured Actor

Josh Brolin (Milk)

Ralph Fiennes (The Duchess)

James Franco (Milk, Pineapple Express)

Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Featured Actress

Penelope Cruz (Vicki Christina Barcelona)

Viola Davis (Doubt)

Rosemarie Dewitt (Rachel Getting Married)

Emma Thompson (Brideshead Revisited)

Debra Winger (Rachel Getting Married)