Rabbit Room

A quick note: my top 2008 films are films that received a wide release in 2008. Re-releases don’t count. So even though the IMDB says The Fall is a 2006 film, it wasn’t actually given a release until this year (thereby making it eligible for my list). Saw 2, on the other hand, was given a wide re-release as part of the Saw Marathon to promote Saw 5, so it was not eligible (and wouldn’t have made the list anyway, probably, but I couldn’t think of another example off the top of my head).

That said, these are my 20 favorite films of 2008, numbers twenty through eleven. I’ll try to have the top ten up tomorrow.

20. Zack & Miri Make a Porno (dir. Kevin Smith)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1007028/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/zackandmiri?q=zack%20&%20miri
Trailer: Youtube

Kevin Smith’s first film– seriously, the first film in his career as a filmmaker– that doesn’t take place in New Jersey or constantly refer to characters and situations, etc. from his other films. Maybe that’s why it’s also arguably his best film to date. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are excellent, the supporting cast (especially Craig Robinson and Justin Long) are all hilarious, and it feels like Smith has finally hit exactly the right balance of potty-mouthed humor and sappy romantic comedy.

19. Cloverfield (dir. Matt Reeves)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/cloverfield?q=cloverfield
Trailer: Youtube

After The Blair Witch Project, it seemed that mankind was doomed to a future of “handheld horror” knock-offs. That may still be the case, but for some reason it took the better part of a decade before the floodgates opened. While last year’s awesome [REC] is probably the real kickoff of the current wave of “first-person” shot-on-DV horror movies, Cloverfield opened up the giant monster movie by making it personal. Bitch all you want about unlikeable characters, there’s no denying that the film has some moments of genuine pants-wetting terror. Shame about Quarantine, though.

18. Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0780622/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/teeth?q=teeth
Trailer: Youtube

No idea why he thought it would be a good idea, but for Mitchell Lichtenstein’s first movie he tackles the serious taboo of vagina dentata. Luckily, he’s made a very funny film that jabs at teenage abstinence movements and lackluster sex ed that happens to feature a primordial male fear. Audiences and critics have been wildly divided over the film, but I know more than a few people who avoid “horror” films who enjoyed it tremendously. I’m anxious to see what Lichtenstein does next.

17. Stuck (dir. Stuart Gordon)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0758786/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/stuck?q=stuck
Trailer: Youtube

Stuart Gordon made his name with outrageous H.P. Lovecraft adaptations like Re-Animator and From Beyond, but he returned to the big screen this year with a film unlike any other out there. Taking a lurid tabloid story and translating it into a pitch-black comedy about how far some people will go to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, Gordon has made one of the most uncomfortably entertaining films in recent memory. The cast is great all around and it’s wicked, mean-spirited fun.

16. Australia (dir. Baz Luhrmann)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0455824/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/australia?q=australia
Trailer: Youtube

Moulin Rouge completely rejuvenated the movie musical with its recontextualization of popular songs and its hyperspeed ADD editing, immediately setting director Baz Luhrmann up as a controversial figure among film fans. Australia goes in the opposite direction, paying tribute to the sweeping, epic romances of Hollywood’s golden age by faithfully replicating their tone and structure. The first half-hour or so has some of Luhrmann’s trademark imagery, but it soon falls away to reveal the traditional epic beneath. It’s huge, grand entertainment the way they don’t make any more– and given this film’s box office returns, they probably won’t again any time soon. Damned shame, that.

15. The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/darkknight?q=the%20dark%20knight
Trailer: Youtube

The only imaginable sequel that could make even Batman Begins look like Batman Forever. Christopher Nolan puts Batman into Michael Mann’s Heat and comes up with a bleak, sprawling crime epic that I felt would have worked better as two separate films. Heath Ledger has ruined The Joker for all time– there’s no question that he is absolutely the best film Joker ever, and he more than deserved his own film. So did Aaron Eckhardt’s amazingly creepy Two-Face. Oh well. This is still unquestionably awesome, the best Batman film yet and (along with Iron Man) a major step forward for comic book-to-film adaptations.

14. Paranoid Park (dir. Gus Van Sant)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0842929/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/paranoidpark?q=paranoid%20park
Trailer: Youtube

The first of two films Gus Van Sant released this year, Paranoid Park feels like a bookend to his “Death Trilogy” (Gerry, Elephant and Last Days). With a great cast of non-actors, Van Sant creates a dreamlike atmosphere to emphasize the disconnection of his teenage protagonist from the things going on around him. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and another notch on Van Sant’s current streak of excellent films.

13. Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (dir. Matt Wolf)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1168662/
Metacritic: none
Trailer: Youtube

Even if you’ve never heard of Arthur Russell, chances are you’ll come away from Wild Combination wanting to hear more of his massive discography. Director Matt Wolf speaks to many important people in Russell’s life and intercuts interviews with performances and recordings of his incredible music, creating a compelling image of a humble, restless, entirely human genius. My only complaint is that the film, like its subject’s life, is sadly far too brief.

12. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (dir. David Fincher)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/benjaminbutton2008?q=benjamin%20button
Trailer: Youtube

Arguably David Fincher’s best film yet, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button marries his stylistic tendencies to a story seemingly more suited to a traditional Hollywood epic. The story is almost compelling and personal enough to redeem screenwriter Eric Roth for Forrest Gump (almost), while the excellent performances and unbelievable makeup and special effects deliver the goods and then some. It’s also the only big-budget spectacle event film I can think of that is steeped in such a deep melancholy, the same one that seemed to find its way into many of this year’s best films.

11. The Fall (dir. Tarsem Singh)
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/
Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/fall2006?q=tarsem
Trailer: Youtube

Tarsem Singh’s first film, The Cell, was one of those movies that I didn’t like when I first watched it. Then I spent more time thinking about it, and over time I came to actually hate it. He more than makes up for that film’s infuriating failures with his utterly amazing follow-up. The Fall is absolutely, unquestionably the most amazing eye candy to hit the big screen this year, an utterly gorgeous film that continually offers up new visual surprises seemingly every few minutes. It doesn’t hurt that the film is anchored by a sweet, sad story about a stuntman and an injured little immigrant girl that takes place in the early days of Hollywood. Amazing.