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.