Jason’s Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2008

I wanted to post my ten favorite movies released in 2008 before the Oscar nominations were released so as to avoid any bias.  I call these my ten favorite movies on purpose, and remove myself from saying these are the ten best movies released in 2008.  These may very well be the ten movies I think are best as well, but the purpose of this list is to share the ten movies that have most stuck in my mind that I saw in 2008.  Without further adieu . . .

10 — MAN ON WIRE

The lone documentary on this list.  I heard about it from Harry of AICN.  This doco is just mind blowing in its visuals.  Even now I think to myself, walking on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center just is NOT possible, and never mind as casually as Phillippe did it.  I still try to imagine what he must have felt as he laid upon that wire and gazed upon the heavens from the top of the man-made world.

9 — THE WRESTLER

A great movie for anyone with nostalgia for the glory of the professional wrestling days of the 80s, with a huge dose of grim reality.  Who knew that wrestlers were so encouraging of each other?  Who knew a guy so good in the ring could be so bad out of it?  A great movie for fathers needing a second chance with their kids, or maybe not.

8 – FROST/NIXON

A great, intellectual film.  I liked it for its behind the scenes look of how the interview came about.  Frank Langella stole the show as Nixon as icon.

7 — SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

This year’s feel-good Oscar momentum film.  It is not undeserving of such status.  The film uses a lot of gimmicks, but it seems earnest in all it does.  Great insight into the life of kids in India.  You might cheer at the end.

6 — THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

It may be too similar to FORREST GUMP for some people’s taste, but I liked it for its beginning (the part of most movies I prefer) where we see a most unusual figure of a child born into an old body that grows younger physically as time goes on.  I liked all the worlds and lives Benjamin wandered into.

5 — MILK

Great bio-pic with Sean Penn showing he is just about the finest actor out there.  Like other movies on this list, I loved it for the world and time it showed, in this case old Frisco.  Being mostly ignorant of history helped make the ending more shocking.

4 — LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

The one movie on my list you probably have never heard of.  Again I have to thank Harry of AICN for turning me on to this most unusual film.  It being a Swedish film makes it quite unique just from that standpoint, but having a story about a tween vampire girl living in a regular apartment complex and befriending a neighbor boy of the same age, it’s just weirdly mesmerizing.  The only vampire movie that never once showed a pair of fangs.  

3 — GRAN TORINO

Another American masterpiece by Jacked-in favorite Clint Eastwood.  This movie made me laugh the loudest of any this year.  I felt a very personal connection with Clint’s character and the way he tried to adjust to a world that had changed radically around him from his younger days in the 1950s.  The final scene is beautiful.

2 — WALL*E

I cannot say the last time I saw such visual poetry on screen as during the scene in Wall*E of him flying through outer-space with Eve.  My eyes and mind were dazzled by those scenes.  I had not seen anything that beautiful in years.  This movie was incredible on many levels.  Obviously it was visually stunning, and poetic, yet it was framed by a strong environmental and health message.  A true masterpiece by Pixar, a flawless film.

1 — THE DARK KNIGHT

The most visceral non-Star Wars experience I have ever had in a movie theater.  For the first hour of the movie I just kept thinking, “the most bad-ass movie of all-time, the most bad-ass movie of all time . . . ”  The true definition of a mild-blowing film.  THE DARK KNIGHT was for real.  The Joker brought anarchy to the screen and had me on the edge of my seat.  The lie he tells Batman in the middle of the film catapulted this movie to its top-ten all time status.  The final catch-22 of the ending didn’t sit perfectly well with me, but it did not stop me from absolutely loving this movie, and the experience it gave me in the theater.

————————————-

Right after seeing THE DARK KNIGHT I thought no movie could even come close to rivaling it for #1 this year, but I had a really hard time putting it ahead of Wall*E, and even to some degree GRAN TORINO.  Still, THE DARK KNIGHT opening night experience at the theater was truly my best non-Star Wars/LOTR experience of all-time.

Let me know your ten favorites of 2008, or five, or just one in the comments below.

RELATED POSTS:

• IRON MAN [2008] review
• BATMAN BEGINS [2005] review
• A SCANNER DARKLY [2006] review
• THE ILLUSIONIST [2006] review
• MARCH OF THE PENGUINS review