Dec 31 2008
One Final Ten Best Movies of ‘08 List
2008 began with a shaky-cam monster movie (you forgot about Cloverfield didn’t you?) and is ending with the usual crop of Oscar-baiting prestige films (and Valkyrie). And in between…there was The Dark Knight (and, even bigger, the Dark Knight hype). So how good a year was 2008 at the cinema? Not nearly as good as 2007. But there were still some pretty memorable pieces of work…from a scathing assault on religious silliness to a tale of a washed-up rassler with a thing for strippers and cheesy ’80s rock to, well, The Dark Knight.
And now one last review of the stuff that thrilled, tickled and terrified us (or, at least, me) in 2008*:
1. Religulous (Larry Charles)
Snarkmaster Bill Maher uses humor and pointed questioning (the same one-two punch he brings to his terrific show Real Time) to expose the illogic of religion. Well, okay, exposing the illogic of religion…that’s sort of like exposing the fatness of John Goodman or the lameness of John Mayer. Not a tasker. But Maher’s point sinks in nonetheless: The faithful often have no idea what they’re really investing their faith in, and that’s kinda scary (especially when they have bombs and the book is telling them to kill). Maher barely has to break a sweat in tearing down most of his opponents, who range from an incoherent Muslim rapper to a blinged-out preacher to a maker of looney contraptions for those observant Jews who still want to use the phone on the Sabbath. Godless heathens snicker and nod at each other. Maher’s secret weapon is director Larry Charles who has a little genius for assembling the material in a way that amplifies the meaning (maybe he should’ve gotten more kudos for Borat). The year’s most hilarious, troubling, inappropriately entertaining movie.
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days… (Cristian Mungiu)
Watching this is like mainlining depression, but its brilliance is undeniable. Mungiu considers a young, naïve college student who seeks an illegal abortion, and the friend who risks her own freedom to help her (now that’s a friend). The camera gazes upon this bleak reality with an unflinchingness that is both heroic and deeply unnerving. Mungiu almost makes us long for the sentimental contrivances of Hollywood – anything to protect us from the grim truths he is laying bare. Ickiest abortion scene since Alfie (not the Jude Law one). And just incidentally…does the sun ever shine in Eastern Europe?
3. The Visitor (Thomas McCarthy)
An emotionally paralyzed college professor becomes involved in the lives of a pair of imperiled immigrants in post-9/11 New York. The film seems glum, almost affectedly so, at first, but by the end it feels soulful and genuine as can be. Considerations of the collective experience are normally much more contrived and irritating (think Crash); this is a quiet, subtly devastating film and not a showy, star-studded hype-machine (again, think Crash). Richard Jenkins gives one of the year’s great performances as a man proceeding methodically from indifference to compassion to outrage to calm awareness, and finding solace in his new-found affection for beating on a drum in the park. We are all in this together – just not in a Crash sort of way.
4. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
Mickey Rourke? In one of the great performances of recent times? The only thing more shocking – and yes, Rourke really is that good – is Darren Aronofsky shedding his expressionist pretensions (I’ll never forgive the ghostly doughnuts he rained on Ellen Burstyn) and getting down to real filmmaking. But back to Rourke…man, what did that guy do to his face? Deformed, inexpressive features are normally a detriment to an actor, but they serve Rourke perfectly in his portrayal of a washed-up pro wrestler who can’t choreograph his life quite as well as his matches (or really smile anymore, not that he has much to smile about). Rourke is ravaged yet vain, bull-like yet diffident, and never lovable (or pretty). The film’s arc is predictable as hell but Aronofsky hangs so many ripely garish, beautifully detailed moments on it that it almost seems original.
5. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
I personally was not waiting for someone to marry Scandanavian angst to vampire angst, but now that I’ve seen it done, I’m grateful to Tomas Alfredson for conceiving of the idea. His movie is much more than just a snowy, brooding, at times savage horror film though: It’s a touching examination of adolescent alienation and the ties that bind the lonely (including Rubix cubes and a mutual disdain for asshole middle schoolers). The themes have all been dealt with via vampire myth before – insatiable blood-lust as metaphor and forbidden love and the despair of the outcast – but never with so much psychological specificity and naturalistic kick. Underworld was always lame but now it seems woefully outdated too.







