TOP 10 2008

[samsong]

ready... go.

despite having not seen a lot of potential greats:

1. rachel getting married
2. flight of the red balloon
3. my winnipeg/momma's man
4. ne touchez pas la hache (the duchess of langeais)
5. wendy and lucy
6. milk
7. the dark knight
8. chris & don: a love story
9. pineapple express
10. wall-e

honorable mention: gran torino, the wrestler, a christmas tale, redbelt, trouble the water, happy-go-lucky, ashes of time redux

admin-edit: thread title continuity

[Astrostic]

1. Un Conte de Noel (Desplechin)
2. Wendy and Lucy (Reichardt)
3. Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman)
4. Summer Hours (Assayas)
5. La Vie Moderne (Depardon)
6. 24 City (Zhang ke)
7. 35 Rhums (Denis)
8. Süt (Kaplanoglu)
9. Happy-Go-Lucky (Leigh)
10. The Headless Woman (Martel)

[samsong]

i left off summer hours and 24 city because they haven't had u.s. releases.  dying to see 35 rhums.

[w/o horse]

Flight of the Red Balloon and Synecdoche, New York are the only two proper 2008 releases I'll probably see later, along with smaller indie and foreign films that will pop up here around the beginning of 2009.

If You, the Living gets a proper release in the US I'll be so happy.  I'm going to put it on my list anyway.  Sugar I know will be released next year so I won't.

1.  Timecrimes
2.  The Band's Visit
3.  The Edge of Heaven
4.  Che
5.  You, the Living
6.  Milk
7.  Hunger
8.  Let the Right One In
9.  Rachel Getting Married
0.  Water Lilies

[picolas]

i'll post a new one (possibly a vid tribute now that i've learned how to do those things) after i've seen most/all of: rachel getting married, wendy and lucy, my winnipeg, the class, mister lonely, flight of the red balloon, che, vicky christina, let the right one in, kung fu panda, hunger, i've loved you so long, the fall, the reader, bolt, ballast

but this is how i feel right now

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[Ostrich Riding Cowboy]

1. In Bruges
2. WALL·E
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
4. Let the Right One In
5. Milk
6. Revolutionary Road
7. The Counterfeiters
8. Man On Wire
9. Happy-Go-Lucky
10. The Dark Knight

[w/o horse]

Imagine

in my list, somewhere near the top, if you may.

Saw it a few days ago.  It's available to rent as a Blockbuster exclusive.  So good.

[pete]

really?  I kinda hated it.  I hate how detective mysteries don't just simply solve the case anymore.

[hedwig]

#1

     

WALL•E

2. Synecdoche, NY
3. Waltz with Bashir
4. Milk
5. Mister Lonely
6. Gonzo
7. The Dark Knight

honorable mentions: Doubt, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Redbelt, Be Kind Rewind.

the worst: The Happening, The Love Guru, The Zohan.

still haven't seen: tons of stuff.

oh, and Bender's Game is fucking awesome.

[Pozer]

i do not get all this in bruges love.

[w/o horse]

really?  I kinda hated it.  I hate how detective mysteries don't just simply solve the case anymore.

You don't like it when genre films are used as ciphers for unrelated discussion (in Mad Detective, and in Let the Right One In, the other film I'm thinking of from this year that I felt you irrationally hated on, the themes were intelligently mingled within the genre, the genre being the conduit through which the cinematic and the human collided), is what I'm beginning to think.  As good a love story as I thought Let the Right One In was, I thought Mad Detective was an even better exploration of weakness of character, and how those weaknesses become damaging in the appropriate situation.

Take for example Redbelt, a quasi-genre film from '08 that you and several others loved.  Too rigidly structured for my tastes.  It's a continuous moral avalanche, with boulders bearing contradiction and corruption.  And then a single note ending.  I don't like a film to be that spiritually monochrome.  I don't think the world is that simple, or wicked, or reductive.   I don't think fights come so easily, I don't think resistance is so easy.

What I love about modern genre films, and To is certainly among the finest genre filmmaker working today, is that they don't deal with all that subtext bullshit of the past.  They don't disguise their intentions and they freely work out complicated human conditions within a genre lens, and a criticism I have of some genre films is that they come at you surreptitiously.  They waste too much time developing a story that's only half of the film's intention.  That film is fundamentally half bullshit.  It's also inauthentic.

As the meanings of genre deepen and become codified, it's great to see creative filmmakers widen the possibilities of material and discussion within these films.  I'd rather see a film like Mad Detective that makes a serious approach at a subject and has a peripheral story than vice versa.  You want a legitimate detective film?  Fine.  Those can be great too.  Timecrimes, my #1, is purely a time travel story.  No meaning anywhere.  I think it can be done both ways though, and I don't think it's appropriate to criticise a film for failing to deliver the conventional expectations.

Also, the ending is more conclusive than you make it sound.

[Stefen]

[pete]

I love johnny to, but he's got his guillermo arriaga who'll cheapen the stories by trying to transcend them, the guy's name is wai kai-fai.
I honestly don't remember much about mad detective, aside from feeling underwhelmed because a great story with great characters was drowned out by unbelievable quirks, plot shortcuts, and actually, a moral avanlanche or whatever you said.  I generally don't care about genres, and I've certain never cared about vampire films.  Let the Right One In was awful because its genre-awareness made many scenes redundant - every scene seemed to be about how lucky it was for the viewers to be watching a vampire movie and a coming-of-age story crossed together!  There was no surprise, no thrills, and no insight.  though I did learn that you had to invite a vampire into your house, something I didn't know about before.  it reminded me of other first-time features like Kontroll (the Hungarian one) in which low-budget filmmakers could not figure out how to create visceral scenes without a proper second unit.  In Let the Right One In - there were some clever obscuring of the effects, while in Kontroll it was just crazy camerawork.  Ultimately, all of these movies have to deliver.  And I'm not saying low budget movies are the only ones affected - Michael Bay's films all lack sensation, instead he uses fast cutting and loud sound effects to fool the audience into thinking they've got their money's worth.

I liked Redbelt because though the conflict might've been familiar, it exists outside of "movie-world" - or it's a much more convincing version of it.  I've never seen a cop who trains at night and works second job as a bouncer in a movie, ever, but it happens in real life.  Mamet seems to understand how a dojo, a bar, a tournament, and a movie set, are run, and uses those details to build up a very basic story.  I wouldn't call them "insider's look" like what they always try to do with gangster pictures, because the character is very much an outsider, but I appreciate the lack of shortcuts in the script.  The same can't be said about Let the Right One In or Mad Detective, which simply replace one genre shortcut with another.

In Mad Detective, it was some kinda quasi-existential conclusion that Arriaga loves to throw in there.

But actually, as I type it out, I've decided to give it another shot, I actually don't remember much of the story.

really?  I kinda hated it.  I hate how detective mysteries don't just simply solve the case anymore.

You don't like it when genre films are used as ciphers for unrelated discussion (in Mad Detective, and in Let the Right One In, the other film I'm thinking of from this year that I felt you irrationally hated on, the themes were intelligently mingled within the genre, the genre being the conduit through which the cinematic and the human collided), is what I'm beginning to think.  As good a love story as I thought Let the Right One In was, I thought Mad Detective was an even better exploration of weakness of character, and how those weaknesses become damaging in the appropriate situation.

Take for example Redbelt, a quasi-genre film from '08 that you and several others loved.  Too rigidly structured for my tastes.  It's a continuous moral avalanche, with boulders bearing contradiction and corruption.  And then a single note ending.  I don't like a film to be that spiritually monochrome.  I don't think the world is that simple, or wicked, or reductive.   I don't think fights come so easily, I don't think resistance is so easy.

What I love about modern genre films, and To is certainly among the finest genre filmmaker working today, is that they don't deal with all that subtext bullshit of the past.  They don't disguise their intentions and they freely work out complicated human conditions within a genre lens, and a criticism I have of some genre films is that they come at you surreptitiously.  They waste too much time developing a story that's only half of the film's intention.  That film is fundamentally half bullshit.  It's also inauthentic.

As the meanings of genre deepen and become codified, it's great to see creative filmmakers widen the possibilities of material and discussion within these films.  I'd rather see a film like Mad Detective that makes a serious approach at a subject and has a peripheral story than vice versa.  You want a legitimate detective film?  Fine.  Those can be great too.  Timecrimes, my #1, is purely a time travel story.  No meaning anywhere.  I think it can be done both ways though, and I don't think it's appropriate to criticise a film for failing to deliver the conventional expectations.

Also, the ending is more conclusive than you make it sound.

[JG]

won't see all i need to see for quite a while, so:

Top Ten of 2008

1.   Frownland
2.   Wall-E
3.   The Pleasure of Being Robbed
4.   Ballast
5.   Milk
6.   The Wrestler
7.   The Dark Knight
8.   Momma's Man
9.   Mister Lonely
10.    A Christmas Tale


Honorable Mentions

Rachel Getting Married, Redbelt, Happy-Go-Lucky

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

This is the first year where my list won't be so embarassing since I've been working at a movie theater in Chicago so not only could I afford to see all these (i.e. - for free) but I saw a lot of limited release type stuff.  I actually feel qualified to join in this discussion.

Top 10 of 2008

10.  Rachel Getting Married

9.  Reprise

8.  Pineapple Express

7.  Fear(s) of the Dark

6.  The Fall

5.  Funny Games

4.  Viva

3.  Wall - E

2.  Synecdoche, NY

1.  The Last Mistress
         T   I   E
1.  The Wrestler

HONORABLE MENTION(S)

Bender's Game

Snow Angels

Let The Right One In

NEED TO SEE:

Che