My Top Ten Films of 2008

"Everybody's doing it."

This was also my excuse for investing in a pog-maker in the nineties.

So here are my ten favorite films of 2008...

10) Religulous
Religulous is not the best documentary of 2008. That honor probably belongs to a little seen piece of subjective rage called Dear Zachary (now airing on MSNBC and guaranteed to immolate your heart) but Religulous is basically a 2 hour rant by Bill Maher against religion, picking up on just about every issue I've ever had with the institution. When a movie decides to reiterate my own beliefs and thoughts in a funny and poignant manner, I can't help but sign on.*

Bonus points for seeing the movie in Winter Park, Florida, an upper-middle class suburb of Orlando that is prominently featured within the film itself. How meta.



9) Vicky Christina Barcelona
Damn. Woody Allen really won me over with this one. A sexy, funny, sumptuous tour through Spain full of temptation, neuroses and dissatisfaction, the movie survives a flawed narration device thanks to standout performances by Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz, who was 2 for 2 this summer in delivering the best American performances of her career.

Allen's exploration of flawed, illogical love is once again both poignant, involving and hilarious.



8) Iron Man
When I heard Jon Favreau was directing, I was confident. When I heard Robert Downey Jr. had been cast as Tony Stark, i was ecstatic. Perfect casting (save for the slightly effeminate Terrence Howard as iconic badass Rhodey) and perfect tone. Iron Man had the smarts to make superheroes FUN again. Not everything has to be grim & gritty, tortured, gothic heroes crying in the rain. For once, we get a kickass, charismatic lead who ENJOYS being super.

Iron Man got the popcorn movie so right, I have nothing but confidence that Favreau and Downey can do it again. This is the level of quality every franchise picture should be aiming for.



7) Forgetting Sarah Marshall
If you ask me what kind of movies I want to write and direct, I'd say look no further than the best, most underrated comedy to come out of the Apatow Factory since The 40 Year Old Virgin. Why? Several reasons, really...

A fantastic ensemble, with winning, hilarious and honest performances from the entire cast. Characters you understand, characters you give a damn about, and a romantic tragi-comedy that refuses to label anyone a cardboard-cutout-bad guy.

This is what a romantic comedy should be. You can call it a chick-flick for guys, I'll just call it a fresh and heartfelt tribute to moving on.



6) The Dark Knight
I did not expect this movie to be so goddamn amazing. Honestly. I wasn't in on the hype. I wasn't sold on Ledger as The Joker. I wasn't thrilled with the tonal direction of tortured superhero-movie-cliches.

But then I saw The Dark Knight in IMAX. My life was never the same.

This film deserved every accolade, every dollar, every bit of love it received since it was released, because this is an impeccably crafted film. Christopher Nolan cannot fucking miss. He's just a brilliant filmmaker and this film is not only his best since Memento, it's also an absolute masterpiece of the genre. The tension, suspense, and excitement of this film just gets in your blood, and the IMAX sequences projected on those giant screens make this one of my all time greatest movie-going experiences.

Welcome to the best Batman film ever made. Perhaps the greatest live action superhero film as well. It's just so perfectly constructed it belongs in a museum. Or at the very least, your DVD rack/entertainment center.

Also, this Heath Ledger fellow? No slouch. He's an impressive performer, that one.




5) Elegy
Of course the critics ignored this. And the press. And audiences.

And that's a goddamn shame, because Elegy was the most bittersweet, poignant love story I saw all year. Ben Kingsley deserved so much more love for this role, illuminating the state of mind of an older man madly in love/fear of a beautiful younger woman. Penelope Cruz gave the best English-language performance of her career, and as a guy who's never been a huge fan of hers, I was absolutely blown away. The two of them are fantastic together, and the film expertly deals with the fears that permeate and threaten to destroy passionate love.

This was a love story for adults, and it stayed with me days after the credits rolled. In fact, you could say my entire top five were films that didn't just evaporate after I left the theater. My top five were all movies that left indelible imprints on me, the characters and emotions holding on to the investment I had made in the theater.

Please watch this movie.




4) The Wackness
I still remember walking out of "Can't Hardly Wait" in high school and feeling cheated. Angry. Why did they make such a great movie and then ruin it with that forced, bullshit ending where the guy gets the girl way out of his league? Why are movies always about getting the girl? What about surviving the girl? Getting over the girl? Learning to move on from the shitty hand that life deals?

I had to wait nearly ten years for The Wackness. Finally a coming of age story comes along that talks about learning how to deal with the shit that goes wrong, while managing to be funny, touching, and so goddamn honest you can't help but fall in love with it. Ben Kingsley goes 2 for 2 in the other tragically underseen indie of the summer, knocking it out of the park as a therapist exchanging sessions for weed with a disaffected teenager, played brilliantly by Josh Peck. Set in the summer of '94 in NYC, The Wackness chronicles the peak of hip-hop (hello there, B.I.G.) with the decline of New York City's flawed but colorful character (hello there, Guliani.)

But most of all, this film nails the highs and lows of first love, fractured family and alienation, while skillfully walking a dramedy tight-rope of tone and feel. I loved this film, each of the three times I caught in the theater (with different company each time.)

The Wackness just dropped on DVD. Rent it. Love it. Thank me later.




3) The Wrestler
I don't think I'll ever forget Randy "The Ram." He's an iconic character now. Mickey Rourke makes you fall in love with a loser, a broken down has been professional wrestler relegated to indie matches in gymnasiums, struggling to pay rent, ignored by his estranged daughter and holding it all together thanks to the feigned interest of a stripper named Cassidy; perfectly inhabited by the divine Marisa Tomei.

Whether the film draws tears or not, the last scene will hit you hard. This is a true swan song, a last dance of glory for a man built for greatness, slowly breaking down thanks to the humbling act of age.

It's an unforgettable character piece, and a story that asks you to redefine your ideas about happiness and redemption.




2) Let The Right One In
There are two ways to interpret this movie. I think its a deliberately-paced, haunting coming of age story, but that pace helps earn an absolutely ass-kicking finale that is so brilliant, the entire film is suddenly split right down the center into two stories, two distinctly separate interpretations of the events. The last shot either lands as a poignant moment of innocence and hope, or an ominous hint of doom. It's up to you.

But to watch these two children, a bullied little boy and the vampire-girl-next-door, fall in love (and I'm talking about innocent prepubescant love based out of friendship instead of sex) you can't help but care. And worry. And hope that there's a future for both of them.

But the genius of this hauntingly tragic film is how it lets you wrestle with what that future means...and ask what is the cost?



1) Milk
I struggled with the number one spot, but the fact is great movies affect audiences in basic emotional responses. We laugh. We cry. And if we do both, we walk out saying "that was a great movie."

And so I will honestly say that no film moved me more than Milk this year. No film affected me enough to elicit laughter as well as tears in the theater, and for the record, no film has ever made me like Sean Penn on screen until now. Finally free of his usual bag of tricks (i.e. intense, miserable brooding asshole characters) Sean Penn is absolutely inspiring as Gay Rights Leader and San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk, whose story resonates even deeper thanks to the era of Obama and the passing of Prop 8 in California this year.

This film moves people. It's an effective biopic that finally gets the formula right. Every member of the cast (aside from the impish, cloying ham-fisted theatrics of a dismal Diego Luna) shines, doing some of the best work of their careers (yes, Emille Hirsch is fantastic in this.)

But like I said, it's a great story about a great man that not enough of us remember or appreciate, and like any great biopic, Milk depicts the flaws and qualities of an iconic individual in a dramatic fashion. Funny, tender and an unapologetic tear-jerker, Milk lives up to that amazing trailer that promised an incredible document of history.

Bring kleenex.



*For the record, I do believe that religion has a place in giving hope to the hopeless and easing people's hearts and minds over their fears of death and loss. I simply agree with Maher's thesis that the dogmatic stranglehold over politics and violent factions must end if the world is to survive.