You'll notice my top five films bare very little resemblance to the Academy Award nominees for best picture. I'm not going to get into that either. Let's just say I think they should know better.
Picking the top four was something resembling torture. Each was a film I loved dearly but for very different reasons so rating one above another was virtually impossible. So keep in mind that the order of the top four films will be somewhat arbitrary and that any one of them could be called the best movie of the year. It really comes down to my mood which I think is the best at any given moment. And I am painfully aware how long I can beat myself up over the designation of the year's best film. History shows that I can keep that decision kicking around in my head for at least a decade. So now that I've given that caveat, I'm free to not agonize over that when I change my mind down the road.
10. Iron Man – It's probably not a coincidence that when comic book movies started embracing the flaws of their heroes that comic book movies started getting a lot better. A guy with a metal suit fighting crime is only mildly interesting. But a genius billionaire with a drinking problem who does the same thing has a lot more meat to it. And when you get Robert Downey Jr. to play that part to perfection, you've got a damn fine movie. Bonus points for the magnificent sequence where Iron Man plays tag with a pair of F-22s over Afghanistan. That is one of the most beautiful and exhilarating action sequences in years.
9. Frozen River – Writer/director Courtney Hunt's debut feature film is a brilliant little film centered by Melissa Leo's ferocious and brave performance. A great eye for detail helps tell a tale of battling poverty that somehow manages to play out almost like a thriller. I can't wait to see what Hunt does next.
8. Waltz With Bashir – Israeli director Ari Folman Does something completely unexpected by using animation to drive his documentary. The subject is both memory and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. By using animation, Folman can neatly dovetail his separate ideas of how memory works and who bore responsibility for a brutal slaughter during the invasion. Topping it off is the moment where he yanks the rug out from under viewers and drops the animation in favor of archival footage to devastating effect.
7. Synechdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman has been one of my favorite screenwriters for years but now he adds to his stature by directing one of his own scripts. Kaufman is an incredibly inventive writer so directing one of his scripts is always a challenge and he proves up to the task. This tale of a theater director who mounts the most ambitious production of all time, encompassing his own life to the extent that it starts to sprout clones within the structure, is the sort of movie you need to watch over and over to appreciate the details and try to puzzle out everything it has to say. Admittedly this movie will baffle a lot of people but it rewards those willing to put in the effort to think it all through.
6. The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke was not, as some have suggested, born to play the role of Randy "The Ram" Robinson. No, he had to be full of talent and potential and then lead a self-destructive life to make his performance that much more poignant. But forget all of that, even if you know nothing of Rourke's life you'll be blown away by The Wrestler. It is that well written, shot and acted movie that the story of a fading star professional wrestler is this touching and fascinating. It perfectly captures a career few would take seriously if they didn't get a chance to see it up close like this.
5. The Visitor - Richard Jenkins is not the typical leading man. Actually he's rarely if ever a leading man. He's one of those character actors whose name you never know but the moment you see them on screen you say "Oh, it's that guy." He's always good and always working, which is why you remember him. But for once he gets to be front in center in a movie and makes it clear that talent and skill doesn't have to be relegated to a secondary character. He can carry the entire movie just fine, thanks. Writer/director Tom McCarthy is so good that I want him to work a whole lot more than he has so far. His only previous film is the brilliant The Station Agent. The guy actually spends a lot of time acting, which he's good at but dammit, I want more great films. So stop auditioning and get writing McCarthy.
4. Slumdog Millionaire - This movie is what going to the movies is all about. It just vibrates with life and energy and love. It has a great romance, horrible depths of cruelty, tension and mystery and wonderful music. I just love every bit of it. People tend to assume I hate romance in movies because I regularly trash romantic comedies. That's not true at all. I love a great romance that isn't forced. When it does the hard work to build a real romance and not just go for shameless tugging on the heart strings, I will respond very favorably. It just seems most of the time movies don't do the hard work to make me believe the romance and want to see it turn out well. Slumdog does this brilliantly, and by the end of the movie I've collapsed into a gooey mess of tears. Director Danny Boyle and writer Simon Beaufoy deserve great credit for their fine work here.
3. Doubt - Now you might find it a bit hard to believe that I would be a huge fan of a movie set entirely inside a Catholic church and school. Usually I would try to keep my distance from such things. But writer/director John Patrick Shanley has done such an amazing job of building this world and the people in it and making the viewer question everything they believe and everything that goes on that I can't help but be in awe of it. And when Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis add their considerable talent to bring that script to life, it's impossible not to love this movie. Years from now I will start to complain that this is one of those movies that if I stumble upon it while channel surfing that I have no choice but to watch it to the end. I just can't take my eyes off it.
2. Wall-E - Just about every year Pixar's latest effort makes it on to my top ten list. It's almost a given. But writer/director Andrew Stanton really went to another level this time. His main character is a roving trash compactor of a robot who barely speaks and yet he is one of the most charming characters in recent memory. I've written before about my son's obsession with Wall-E but in all fairness the little guy has wormed his way hard into my heart too. He is the definition of loneliness and that turns him into one of the great romantics. That's right, I'll bash endless romantic comedies with their ridiculously attractive human leads, but turn my heart over to a rusty old robot and his fairly cranky robot girlfriend without a second thought. I'm funny that way.
1. The Dark Knight - That this movie didn't get nominations for best picture and director is to my mind baffling. Sure, Heath Ledger's immediately iconic performance as the Joker is being justly rewarded but Chris Nolan deserves a lot of credit for this staggering achievement of a film. The script by Nolan, his brother Jonathon and David Goyer is brilliant and bristling with thoughts on justice, law, anarchy and morality. It is the sort of movie I can watch over and over again without getting tired of it. The worst thing I can say about it is that it pretty much guarantees that the next Batman movie will fail to meet expectations. Nolan and company set the bar so ridiculously high that even a solid sequel will probably be regarded as something of a failure. Better to quit while you're ahead, which of course won't happen because this movie was also massively successful at the box office.
Honorable mentions.
A top ten list always needs a list of honorable mentions I believe. Ten is kind of an arbitrary number and it gives the impression that other movies aren't anywhere near as good. Truthfully, lots of movies came close to making this list but fell just shy. They deserve at least a mention and in no particular order. In Bruges is funny, touching, dark and a bit weird. Just my sort of thing. The Secret of the Grain is too long and yet that's half the joy of it. It drops you in the middle and talks until your comfortable like family and then abruptly leaves. The Class feels like a documentary but isn't and is shockingly entertaining for a film trapped in one room most of the time. That's right folks, I actually had high praise for two French films this year. The Edge of Heaven is a heartbreaking movie that twists time back on itself to make it just that much sadder. That statement will actually make sense if you see the movie. Frost/Nixon can actually make you feel kind of bad for Richard Nixon, which is no mean feat. Finally, Son of Rambow which is the very heart of making movies for the pure joy of making movies.
