Movies 2008

Photo by Matthew Nistor

I really hate the idea of making lists of things I like. It seems a little petty and like a symptom of cultural gluttony. But I also know that I read the lists others make at this time every year and that it works as a filter for me so that I can get a sense of what to go look for. I'm at a conflicted point in my life about culture - feeling both that there's just too much of everything but that, on the flipside, I'm seeing popular culture - including hit movies and records - that are great humanist works of art.

I'll start out with film and move onto other things later in the week. Though nothing struck me as strong this year as my favorite movies of 2007, there was a lot that excited me. But rather than try to organize and rate it, let me do a little celebrating and a little bit of advocacy.

There were three films in 2007 that I got worked up over - The Fountain, Sunshine and No Country For Old Men. The great news this year was that all three of those directors put out new movies: respectively Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler; Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; and The Coen Bros., Burn After Reading. I haven't had a chance to see The Wrestler yet (which is getting great reviews), but the other two did not dissapoint. Burn After Reading is very funny, and very dark. It's a twin to Fargo in the sense that it portrays a world where everybody is an idiot, and blind to their own idiocy, and in which that idiocy often results in cruelty and brutality. But it's funny as shit. Boyle can do no wrong by me (28 Days Later, A Life Less Ordinary) and Slumdog has his trademark vibrancy and energy, only it's far more sentimental than his previoius movies, in a good way. The lovestory that comes out of the story is epic.

Moving quickly through the rest: If There Will Be Blood was the best thing I saw all year (I was sick with a fever but sat riveted through it's heavy running time without feeling a thing - I would pay money just to watch Daniel Day Lewis read the phone book) Step Brothers was the funniest. I haven't gotten bored yet with Will Ferrell or John C. Riley the way some of my friends seem to have, and I think this movie might be the one they were both born to make. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly might be as good as There Will Be Blood if it had Daniel Day Lewis in it and Johnny Greenwood's score. WALL-E is astounding - the fact that the year's most hyped summer animation blockbuster was essentially a silent film for the first half is hard to believe. And yet, that wordless first movement was my favorite part. So gorgeous and also very nostalgic for me in an '80s way in its Speilbergian romance of space and robots. Having said that, Kung Fu Panda is just as good, if not better, in its own way. It's a perfect movie, really funny and with the same exquisite pacing and direction as any Pixar film - actually the first non-Pixar animation that I've seen to hit at those levels. Elegy and The Savages were sharp, elegant independents that I'd see again. Iron Man was a better film than The Dark Night, and possibly the best superhero movie yet. I had no idea John Favreu had it in him. Quantum of Solace carried on the rehibilitation of the franchise by delivering a sequel to Casino Royale that has all of that film's rage without any of its respite or romance. Like the Dark Night, it's just endlessly grim. But unlike Dark Night, it's lithe and gorgeous to look at, and doesn't have silly bat cowls and batvoices to take your attention out of your movie-trance. I heard the budget for this film was astronomical, and when I saw it I could see every penny translated.

Advocy-wise, I already made my case for Religulous here on my personal blog. But I don't get tired of pointing one thing out: it's less about religion than the way religion is practiced. Some people have criticized Maher for taking on easy targets: the feeble and easily persuaded everydaymen, rather than professional apologists. But that's a smarter angle, because the true dangers inherent in religion come from those little and numerous lowest-common-denominator moments of minds closing. Maher exposes not just how quick people are to apply a lax set of standards to a particular belief system, but how that standard is incongruous with what they'd apply to anything else - all because they've been conditioned to do so. And Maher captures hundreds of those moments and uses them to support a persuasive thesis. Religion touches everybody in this world, no matter what you believe. So I really feel that everyone should spend the two hours it takes to engage this movie. And it's not like it's homework - it's hilarious.

Rent The Promotion. It's the most overlooked film of the year. A really sweet, unassuming comedy featuring John C. Riley and Sean William Scott and directed by Steven Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness) that manages to avoid a lot of message-cliches while delivering tons of laughs. I quote this movie all the time. Think Groundhog Day.