My Top Ten Films of 2008

Over the last few weeks, the Internet has been inundated with lists. Best of this, best of that, etc. For the most part I try to stay away from creating lists, mostly because I feel that I don't have anything to add to what's already out there, but since movies are a passion of mine (I see EVERYTHING!) I decided to create my own list of the best movies I saw that were released in 2008.

Now, because of the fact that the people who run Hollywood are a bunch pricks who inundate the last few weeks of the year with all the good stuff while serving us all heaping helpings of overcooked shitloaf the other 11 months of the year, I should note that there are still two movies I've yet to see that I think may have been in contention to make this list. They are "Defiance" and "Waltz with Bashir." I was gonna wait until I saw both of them before I made this list, but fuck it, sometimes I get impatient, so keep that in mind when reading this. Anyway, here it goes....

My 10 Best Films of 2008

1...The Curious Case of Benjamin Button…Recently I was asked what was the one thing above all else that I personally use to gauge or rate movies, television shows, stage plays, etc., in regards to whether or not I consider something to be good or bad. My answer was, quite simply I think, is that ultimately what I’m looking for above all else is to just be told a good story, to be taken for a ride, a journey to a place that I’ve not been to. I mean, isn’t that what we’re all after? Stories are the lifeblood of human existence. We crave them. For as long as man has walked the earth, we have gathered to tell and be told stories. Stories infuse us with life and they inform who and what we all are. It’s just the way it is.

With all of that said, seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button felt like one of those times in my life where you're being told an epic story. I felt sort of like I was a kid again, sitting in the barber chair at Mr. Fanguy’s Barber Shop back home, being told some sweeping, epic tale by the old men who hung around the shop, one where all belief is suspended, all worries and obligations and troubles of the world melt away, and for a brief moment in time you just sit there slack-jawed and allow yourself to be swept out to an imaginary sea, and the world is suddenly a wondrous place again. But let's be honest...the fact that most of the story takes place in New Orleans probably enhanced the film’s ability to touch my soul a wee bit.

To me, TCCOBB was storytelling at it’s most masterful. I am in awe of the work that screenwriter Eric Roth did here. After seeing the film I had the script FedExed to me because I was dying to see how he’d constructed the story on paper, and his adaptation, which borrows little more than the main premise of a man who ages backwards from F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was inspired by a quote from Mark Twain, is a jewel so sparkling that it…I’ll put it like this…as anyone who writes can probably attest to, often you read writing that inspires you, that informs your very own instrument so to speak, and the voice of the person who wrote what you’re reading aids in strengthening your own, but then occasionally you read something like this story by Eric Roth, and it’s so good, so fucking good, that it just makes you almost want to give up, simply because you just know in your heart of hearts that you will never be as good. Not even close.

That’s what this story felt like to me.

Seriously, I could go on and on and on. Just go see it.

A quick side note… Before a location scout suggested New Orleans, the story was set in Baltimore, of all places. Not to knock Baltimore too much, but I can’t imagine this story taking place there and having the same impact. The inherent mysticism that’s so palpable in New Orleans acts almost as another character in the story, and definitely aids in the suspension of belief I think, just because, well, weird shit just happens down there all the time, what with Voodoo and all. I don’t think that the film would have the same charm if not for the New Orleans setting.

2...Tell No One…Prior to seeing TCCOBB a few days ago, this French adaptation of the Harlan Coben novel that I raved over a few months back held the top spot. It's the closest thing to a Hitchcock thriller that wasn't made by Hitchcock himself that I think I've ever seen. It comes in a close second. It’s available for rental or purchase on DVD. Put it in your Netflix queue.

3...Trouble the Water…Hurricane Katrina hits the Lower Ninth Ward and a young black couple has a camcorder with plenty of battery life. Some heart-breaking and amazing footage here. I completely lost my shit numerous times while watching it.

4...Rachel Getting Married…I love this film for so many reasons, the amazingly cool interracial wedding where the subject of race is NEVER. BROUGHT. UP., Jenny Lumet’s great script, Anne Hathaway’s very un-Anne Hathaway performance, the striking realness of the family that the film centers around with all of their abundantly real gaping wounds, but the reason I love it most of all is for the acting. The entire ensemble cast is just amazing in this film. I actually thought that large chunks of the dialogue were improvised when I saw it. It just didn’t feel like people reciting lines. It all felt so Goddamn real, like I was watching a documentary on someone's weeding weekend or something. And I suppose that director Jonathon Demme deserves a lot of credit for this as well. Just a great, great film.

5...Man on Wire…A man sets on a quest to walk a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Do you really need to know anything more. Also available for rental now.

6...The Wrestler…Who’da thunk that we’d be talking about Mickey Rourke for a Best Actor Oscar in 2008. Amazing. And Marisa Tomei is more beautiful now in her mid-forties than she’s ever been. I, like George Costanza, lust for her.

7...Slumdog Millionaire…Another great ride of a story that takes you to a place a place that few will ever see. Kinda kitchy at times, but who gives a fuck? And the cast dance in the credits is worth the 12 bucks alone.

8...Transsiberian…Woody Harrelson stars in a great old-fashioned train caper movie filled with quite a few heart-stopping moments. Also available for rental now.

9...Doubt…I would argue that the play was actually better (I saw it three times), but how could any film starring Phillip Seymore Hoffman and Meryl Streep be anything less than great.

10...Frost/Nixon…This is probably the one time when the film was actually better than the play it was adapted from, and the play was fucking awesome. Frank Langella's Richard Nixon is almost scary good.

(Honorable Mention…Synecdouche, New York, Religulous, Tropic Thunder, JCVD, and Revolutionary Road)

Any thoughts? Agreements, disagreements, etc.? I'd love to hear.