Top Ten Films of 2008 - Millionaires, Vampires, and a President, Oh My

Making my Top Ten Movies List was even more pleasurable than my Top Ten CDs list as 2008 proved to be an exceptional year for film:

10. Slumdog Millionaire – A street child from Mumbai tells his life story to the police after he accused of cheating his way to potential success on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. While the plot may sound confusing or contrived, this near perfect film, in the hands of visionary director Danny Boyle has deservedly touched everyone who has seen it and is a lock for a Best Picture nomination. Its only fault is its somewhat sugary ending.

9. Stranded (I’ve Come From A Plane That Crashed on the Mountains) – The story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes, killing many on board and resulting in the survivors’ resorting to cannibalism, has been documented many times in print and on film. But a reunion trip to that same mountain by those that survived this tragedy makes for a touching, compelling documentary.

8. Man On Wire – Like Stranded and Trouble The Water, the joy that comes from this documentary is not necessarily the story, as we know how they end, but in the people who in their own way, turn out to be the heroes we sometimes wish we could be. When Frenchman Philppe Petit walked on a tightrope rigged between the Twin Towers in 1974, he was not only fulfilling his promise, he was teaching us about our own dreams.

7. Frost/Nixon – Rarely does theatre translate well onto the big screen. There have been many that were successfully adapted (Children of a Lesser God, The Elephant Man, Closer) but these are far outweighed by the dross. It could be argued that Frost/Nixon, which won the Tony Award for Best Play, actually exceeds the vision of the original work solely because of what it is, a film. Director Ron Howard uses the camera to add even more depth to Peter Morgan’s taut screenplay, providing an intimacy we could never experience on stage.

6. Ballast – All over America, independent-minded directors are using amateur actors on sparse locations to make their dream film. None of them will match the achievement that is Ballast. Set in the Mississippi Delta, Lance Hammer’s second movie tells the story of a family trying to come together after the suicide of the one person that connected them. There is much silence in this movie, but Hammer uses this time and space as another element in a simple well-told story.

5. Frozen River – Like Ballast, the landscape portrayed in Frozen River is as much a part of the plot as the characters or their experiences. Melissa Leo (who deserves a Best Actress nomination) plays a woman living on the US-Canada border who is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling in order to make ends meet after her husband disappears with all of her money.  First time director/writer Courtney Hunt expertly balances the hard choices Leo’s character has to make with the innate weaknesses we all eventually succumb to.

4. Rachel Getting Married – Though this is a great film overall and the assembled cast is terrific, the success of Rachel Getting Married boils down to the career defining performance by actress Anne Hathaway and the remarkable script written by Jenny Lumet.  Hathaway dispels any notion you have of her acting based on previous character choices (Princess Diaries, Get Smart) and succeeds in claiming one of the best performances of the year. And sure Jenny Lumet was able to call on her famous father Sidney to get her script read, but that doesn’t take anything away from this intelligent, honest, and miraculous film.

3. Let The Right One In – I must admit that when I walked into the theatre to see this film, I had no idea what the plot was about, which I think helps. So by the time I discovered it was about a vampire, I was already sucked in by director Tomas Alfredson’s quiet, haunting world and hypnotized by the performances of the two stars of the film. I fear that giving away any more of the plot will lessen the miracle that is this movie. But if you must know more, read my review of it here.

2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days –Set in 1980s Romania as Communism is beginning to collapse, a woman sets out to help her friend arrange an illegal abortion. Only a few films a decade combine the perfect storm of a director at the top of his game, a group of actors blindly dedicated to the story, and a screenplay that is perfect from beginning to end. This is a harrowing and brutally honest film.

1. Hunger - English director Steve McQueen is known for making art movies that show in galleries around the world. He has converted these same sensibilities to this film about the last weeks in the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. With no soundtrack and without much dialogue except for a few astonishing scenes (a 10 minute continuous shot of Sands and a priest in conversation is already legendary) McQueen is able to capture the determination of the hunger strikers without any distraction. Also noteworthy is the dedication of Michael Fassbender, who lost 35 pounds to resemble Sands on his deathbed.

Honorable Mention: Trouble The Water, The Wrestler, Gran Torino, Dear Zachary, I’ve Loved You So Long, Milk, The Visitor, Tell No One, Role Models (yep, I have a sense of humor!), Pineapple Express (see!), Dark Knight