Top 10 of 2008

1. Happy-Go-Lucky
2. In Bruges
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

4. The Class
5. Man on Wire

6. Snow Angels

7. The Dark Knight

8. Redbelt

9. Paranoid Park

10. The Wrestler

Honorable Mentions: Beauty in Trouble, Burn After Reading, Revolutionary Road, Shotgun Stories, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

'08: The Year in Laughter

"Whenever presented with an open-ended prompt about film, I invariably take the opportunity to preach about the trials and tribulations faced for a comedy. It is my firm belief that comedy is the most undervalued and underappreciated genre in all of film. While other low genres like horror and science fiction are similarly neglected from critic’s best lists and awards show glory, they at least have their cult appreciation and are bestowed with annals upon annals of film theory texts devoted to their deconstruction and analysis. Meanwhile, comedy goes largely unremarked upon in all discourses except box office (even pornography receives more academic scholarship)."

Click here to read my essay surveying notable comedies released in 2008 as part of the year-in-review feature posted at Not Coming to a Theater Near You.

The Fifty Best Movies

I have contributed a list of the fifty best movies of all time to a website called thefiftybest.com Of course, whittling down a list of fifty narrative films from over a century’s worth of cinematic output is no exercise in absoluteness but here it is anyway. Feel free to berate me for any choices or omissions. I tried to avoid films that have been deemed important but are relatively ordinary in cinematic terms in favor of films that have had a considerable effect on the medium itself, are distinct and perhaps most important – are entertaining!

Click here to read my list of The Fifty Best Movies

Top 10 of 2007

1. Zodiac

2. Knocked Up

3. The Bourne Ultimatum

4. In the Shadow of the Moon

5. No Country For Old Men

6. Rescue Dawn

7. Rocket Science

8. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

9. Into the Wild

10. The Lookout

Honorable Mentions: 1408, Atonement, Breach, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille

Click here to read my list with commentary at TheCinemaSource.com

Fantasy Oscar Ballot

On the eve of the announcement of the official Oscar Nominations, I figured I'd take a page out of my good friend/fellow critic John Young's book and post a list of names I would vote for in the top eight categories.

Best Picture
Half Nelson
The Departed
The Queen
Little Children
Children of Men

Best Actor
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Daniel Craig, Casino Royale
Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Actress
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Kate Winslet, Little Children
Gretchen Mol, The Notorious Bettie Page
Meryl Streep, Devil Wears Prada

Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Brad Pitt, Babel
Michael Sheen, The Queen
Bill Nighy, Notes on a Scandal
Clive Owen, Inside Man

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Diane Lane, Hollywoodland
Emily Watson, The Proposition
Toni Collete, The Night Listener

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
Todd Field, Little Children
Steven Frears, The Queen

Best Original Screenplay
Russell Gewirtz, Inside Man
Peter Morgan, The Queen
Rian Johnson, Brick
Guillermo Del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth
Ryan Fleck & Anna Bowden, Half Nelson

Best Adapted Screenplay
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta, Little Children
William Monohan, The Departed
Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger & Tom Tykwer, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Frank Cottel Bryce, Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Armistead Maupin, The Night Listener

As for predictions, the only risky pick I'll make is that DiCaprio gets snubbed for both performances and both Gosling and Cohen make it into the finalists. Very unlikely, yes, but what the heck.

Top 10 of 2006

1. Half Nelson

2.The Departed

3. The Queen

4. Little Children

5. Brick

6. Children of Men

7. Cars

8. Tsotsi

9. Casino Royale

10. Inside Man


Read my List with Commentary at TheCinemaSource.com