2008

Best Movies of 2008
The Usual Choices
The Dark Knight (Christopher Knight)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Milk (Gus Van Sant)
Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)

But how about...
The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)
I've always found movies about "The Big Con" to be unbelievable and only marginally connected to the real world. So, when a conmen movie recognises this and wholeheartedly ditches reality, I am immediately more receptive to its inevitable plot machinations. Add endearing characters portrayed masterfully; a wonderful lead female performance played for comedy by a usually dramatic actress; an international zip-around, winding up in interesting places like Prague and Mexico; and the comforting realisation that, despite their violent deaths, nice people could still have escaped, and you've got an enjoyable movie experience. 

...and what about...
Valkyrie (Bryan Singer)
While I would have preferred someone like Clive Owen or Mark Strong in the lead role (I like my good Nazis to speak with a British accent), and some of the dialogue is speckled with Americanisms ("It's good to have someone in this office with balls"), I find this film to be mysteriously underrated. A great historic story (the failed attempt at assassinating Adolf), brimming with heroism, ultimate sacrifice and sheer guts, this thriller is well-executed (er...pardon me) and genuinely fascinating. Being a WWII history buff (of sorts), I can vouch for its near-authenticity, and only the always-will-be-awkward performances of the actors playing the biggies (Hitler, Himmler and all the gang) deflates the production's documentary feel. 

...not to mention...
Dean Spanley (Toa Fraser)
I think the notion of reincarnation is silly, wishful thinking. I often wonder why believers always claim to have past lives of historic importance in contrast (except for Shirley Mac, of course) to their current humdrum shell. This film is quaint, whimsical and centres around a clergyman who once lived as a Welsh Spaniel dog. Woven through the film is the universal quandary of father & son relationships and the waste of war. Strolling along at an Autumnal pace and endowed with wonderful performances by Sam Neill and Peter O'Toole, this offbeat comedic tale is a little beauty.

...and one personal unmentionable...
The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan)
I know this is an easy and common target, but something this godawful needs to be regularly recognised, even if it's just as a cautionary tale. It's not often I have to force myself to sit through a movie, but this is one of those: enduring a tone-deaf singer tackling both parts of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" in front of a pre-drunk pub crowd would've been vastly preferable. You want unpleasant? How about...everyone suddenly starts to commit suicide around you for no apparent reason...and, to stave off boredom, you get a veritable smorgasbord of self-slaughter. Mmm: that was a good one. And the shocking reason for all this carnage? Well, don't wait around for the big reveal; you'll truly be sorry if you do.

My Top 10 Films of 2008
"These delicatessen queues are getting ridiculous.
What number have you got?"


#01  A   The Dark Knight (Nolan)
#02  A   Frost/Nixon (Howard)
#03  A-  The Brothers Bloom (Johnson)
#04  A-  Gran Torino (Eastwood)
#05  A-  In Bruges (McDonagh)
#06  A-  Changeling (Eastwood)
#07  A-  Iron Man (Favreau)
#08  A-  Valkyrie (Singer)
#09  B+ Sunshine Cleaning (Jeffs)
#10  B+ Dean Spanley (Fraser)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11  B+ Genova / A Summer in Genoa (Winterbottom)
#12  B+ The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Herman)
#13  B+ Me and Orson Welles (Linklater)
#14  B+ Bronson (Refn)
#15  B+ Burn After Reading (Coen)
#16  B+ Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen)
#17  B+ The Hurt Locker (Bigelow)
#18  B+ Milk (Van Sant)
#19  B+ Rachel Getting Married (Demme)

Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
B   Doubt [if only someone had handed Viola Davis a tissue...]
  Nim's Island [okay kids film, but that's all]
B   W. [good lead performance in a too-gentle & too-kind story]
  Hunger [harrowing rather than riveting]
B   The Incredible Hulk [another missed opportunity...and I can't work out what they did wrong either]
  Body of Lies [strangely dull actioner]
B   Frozen River [too many people I don't like]
B   Slumdog Millionaire [marred by excessive violence and communal shit]
B   Revolutionary Road [in the end, I didn't care about them all that much]
B-  The Reader [I need someone to explain to me the need for the explicit sex scenes with the Auschwitz guard]
B-  Get Smart [the TV show was far better and more amusing]
B-  Tropic Thunder [uh yeah...a bit funny...Tom & Robert are okay]
B-  The Wrestler [it's wrestling...and could've just as easily been golf, chess or synchronized swimming]
B-  Defiance [more interested in action than telling the story]
B-  Hancock [a Will Smith action blockbuster]
B-  Happy-Go-Lucky [she's just far too annoying]
B-  Quantum of Solace [Casino Royale Chapter II...and not as good]
B-  Journey to the Centre of the Earth [a minor film for kids remade and dumbed down even further]
B-  Mamma Mia! [do I really need to spell it out?]
> B-  Cloverfield [aka Godzilla Visits The Big Apple...and You Are There]
C   Australia [an attempted epic circling around the WWII Bombing of Darwin that adds elements of fantasy and light comedy...incongruous]
  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [unbelievably sappy]
D   The Love Guru [incredibly not funny]
  Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [Duck & Cover: you can survive an atomic blast if you jump into a fridge...I didn't know that...did you know that?]
> E   The Happening [A Personal Unmentionable]

"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 2008 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
One Week (McGowan); The Other Boleyn Girl (Chadwick); Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman); Wendy and Lucy (Reichardt)


Best Performances of 2008
Oft-Mentioned Choices
Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Sean Penn in Milk
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler
Kate Winslet in The Reader

But how about...
Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man
There is the argument that John Wayne and Gary Cooper never acted; they just played themselves. Some would say that great acting is when you clearly are not acting; you are just being. Some would say that great acting is all about perfect casting (although, some people also voted for John Howard four times). In Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr simply and single-handedly made the most boring of all comic-book superheroes into someone who was cool, funny and humanly flawed, deserving of admiration (at a distance). While DC went serious + action, Marvel went comedy + action. The double-act between Downey and Paltrow is His-Girl-Fridayish; the facial close-ups inside the helmet are perfectly done (as are the many holographic interactions); the playboy-turned-hero / arms-dealer-turned-world-improver redemptive is totally believable. And all performed by an actor who just seems to be acting himself... beautifully. 

...and what about...
Josh Brolin in W.
Just like Oliver Stone & Anthony Hopkins with Nixon, Oliver Stone & Josh Brolin turn in a surprisingly gentle hatchet job on George W. Bush in W. In fact, Josh portrays George as the walking essence of Simple: out of his depth, easily swayed by strength, self-conscious, blokey. How accurate a portrait of the man this is may be vague, but the skill with which Josh calmly portrays the people's (twice) chosen leader is blatant. While I could never be party to any invitation to view George II as a buffoon (the guy was a politician: had connections, money and rat-cunning), I am so relieved that nobody involved tried to make him noble. The man harmed the world and Josh shows that, regardless of this calamitous legacy, Gormless George did his very pathetic best. Clearly, the W stands for Wanker.  

...not to mention...
John Malkovich in Burn After Reading
Don't you love it when John gets angry? The slow build to his volcanic explosion of expletives and grimaces in this movie is nothing less than a total hoot. Pickled by alcoholic paranoia, he staggers through irrationality and increasingly erratic behaviour, suffering fools like Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand extremely lightly. Nobody has a temper tantrum like Malkovich; nobody wields a hatchet like Malkovich. In BAR, he crosses W.C. Fields with Joe Pesci and comes up with a black comedy triumph. 

...and one personal unmentionable...
Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!
James Bond does not sing ABBA. 
Every actor in Hollywood is trying out for 
The Sound of Music remake.

Pierce Brosnan can't sing. 
ABBA is crap.

My 10 Favourite Performances of 2008
#01  Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
#02  Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom)
#03  Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man)
#04  Tom Hardy (Bronson)
#05  Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges)
#06  Ralph Fiennes (In Bruges)
#07  John Malkovich (Burn After Reading)
#08  Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles)
#09  Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
#10  Amy Adams & Emily Blunt (Sunshine Cleaning)
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11  Brandon Walters (Australia)
#12  Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
#13  Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading)
#14  Josh Brolin (W.)
#15  Michael Fassbender (Hunger)
#16  Perla Haney-Jardine (Genova A Summer in Genoa)
#17  Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man)
#18  Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)

Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky [imagine living with this person]
> Meryl Streep in Doubt [could her face get any more pinched?]
> Sean Penn in Milk [is he playing a gay character in this?]
> Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler [his whole performance is geared towards one big confessional scene]
> Melissa Leo in Frozen River [another film which attempts to justify crime as a reasonable lifestyle option]
> Kate Winslet in The Reader ["And I don't think we really need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It's like, how many have there been? You know, we get it - it was grim, move on. No, I'm doing it because I've noticed if you do a film about the Holocaust - guaranteed Oscar! I've been nominated four times. Never won. The whole world is going 'why hasn't Winslet won one?'...That's it. That's why I'm doing it. Schindler's Bloody ListThe Pianist. Oscars coming out of their arse."]

And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 2008 are:

FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
SILVER: Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard)
BRONZE: The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)

LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man)
SILVER: Tom Hardy (Bronson)
BRONZE: Josh Brolin (W.)

LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom)
SILVER: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
BRONZE: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
SILVER: Ralph Fiennes (In Bruges)
BRONZE: John Malkovich (Burn After Reading)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
SILVER: Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man)
BRONZE: Amy Adams (Doubt)

ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges)
SILVER: Amy Adams & Emily Blunt (Sunshine Cleaning)
BRONZE: Michael Sheen & Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Brandon Walters (Australia)
SILVER: Perla Haney-Jardine (Genova A Summer in Genoa)
BRONZE: Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)

The Alternate Razzies for 2008 are:

CRAP FILM of the YEAR
The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan)

CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia!)

CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Cate Blanchett (Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)