1. Rachel Getting Married
2. Wall-E
3. Ballast
4. A Christmas Tale
5. Let The Right One In
6. Man on Wire
7. Paranoid Park/Milk (a Gus van Sant tie)
8. Flight of the Red Balloon
9. The Dark Knight
10. Happy Go-Lucky

Honorable Mention: 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, Son of Rambow, Chop Shop, The Fall, Encounters at the End of the World

The Dark Knight- I watched this one again from the Digital Copy that was included with the Blu-ray disc. It’s the first movie I’ve bought that included this separate feature that makes transferring to your iPod a painless procedure. It is certainly quite a transition to watch scenes meant for IMAX on a 2″ screen. I certainly don’t envision watching many movies this way. It’s serviceable enough for a movie you’ve seen a half-dozen times and can afford to miss a great deal of scale. And it might be a worthwhile time-killer for a dialogue-heavy throwaway comedy or something. But an iPod screen is anything but cinematic. There’s nothing big about it whatsoever. I certainly will not be watching any movies for the first time in this format (in the foreseeable future anyhow).

Ballast – See previous post.

Iron Man- I really liked the first two-thirds of this one. The evolution of Tony Stark/Iron Man was a joy to watch. Robert Downey Jr of late has continued to amaze. Prison escapes are ready-made for thrilling cinema. And the spoils of the crazy rich and the gadgets they can create (or ordered created) are like visual candy. Whether it be Batman or Iron Man, I could watch the money spending and gadgetry all day. But the last third of this initial installment of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man seemed like just that. It seemed to be more concerned with setting up a sequel than maintaining a story. The secondary characters (Stane, Potts, Rhodes) got short shrift. Not knowing any back story nor which of these secondary characters might play larger roles in the future, the last third seemed a bit empty to me. Maybe this is the best Favreau can do with the material. After all, what pleases the initiated and what pleases the uninitiated are not going to be the same. I can accept that. With that, I’m willing to wait for the next installment and give it a go. This one was likeable enough.

Flight of the Red Balloon- It seems entirely pointless for me to say much about this film after only one viewing. I feel like there was so much to absorb in this film…if not for my own mental saturation. I need my own personal David Bordwell to walk me through the film. At the very least, I need to familiarize myself with Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (which I’ve never seen but is now at the top of my Netflix queue) before I say a word.

Dwight’s Top 10 Movies of 2008
1. A Christmas Tale
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
3. Wall-E
4. Man on Wire
5. Paranoid Park
6. The Dark Knight
7. Son of Rambow
8. Chop Shop
9. Milk
10. Trouble the Water

Still haven’t seen: Wendy and Lucy, Ballast, Happy Go-Lucky, Let the Right One In, Synechdoche, NY, My Winnipeg, Waltz With Bashir, Flight of the Red Balloon, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire.

Even though this blog is primarily focused on movies, I can’t resist including my music lists. While I did a piss-poor job at listening to music in ’08 (and came to it late at that), I did manage to come up with lists for my best albums and songs of the year.

Dwight’s Top 10 Albums of 2008
1. She & Him – Volume One
2. Fleet Foxes – s/t
3. Frightened Rabbit — The Midnight Organ Fight
4. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Jolie Holland – The Living and the Dead
6. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
7. Conor Oberst — s/t
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
9. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
10. (3-way tie) Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers — The Confiscation EP, The Decemberists — Always the Bridesmaid Singles, The Mountain Goats — Satanic Messiah EP

Dwight’s Top 10 Songs of 2008
1. “Mexico City/Corrido Por Buddy/Palmyra” – Jolie Holland (OK, it’s 3 songs. But it’s what I consider to be the best 13 minutes of music in ’08.)
2. “Valerie Plame” — The Decemberists
3. “Sentimental Heart” – She & Him
4. “I Will Possess Your Heart” – Death Cab for Cutie
5. “Skinny Love” — Bon Iver
6. “See Fernando” — Jenny Lewis
7. “We Call Upon The Author” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
8. “White Winter Hymnal” – Fleet Foxes
9. “Dancing Choose” – TV on the Radio
10. “Head Rolls Off” — Frightened Rabbit

House of Saddam – A somewhat interesting (but not profound) HBO miniseries about the former Iraqi dictator. It was good enough, but it suffered severely from myopia. Taking place almost exclusively at one of Saddam’s palaces, it kept everything focused on Saddam (and his sons). But Iraq is not Saddam only. The Iraqi people were given absolutely no voice in this miniseries. The latest Iraqi invasion wasn’t given much more than a few seconds montage until we abruptly move ahead to “Six Weeks Later.” But, Saddam’s post-invasion hiding out got a whole boring hour. I look forward to seeing real Iraqi stories, hopefully told by Iraqi filmmakers. I’m sure there’s an Iraqi Persepolis out there waiting to be made. I can’t wait for it.

Juno – I’m a bit embarrassed as to how much I like this movie. But not apologetic.

Death Proof- There aren’t a whole lot of filmmakers who can get away with staring at the asses of their leading ladies and still come off as deeply respectful and admiring of the same women. Kudos Tarantino. Your women are, as the saying goes, the type of women that other women want to be andmen want to be with.

Dr. Strangelove – Now that we have a new HDTV in the living room, the old TV has migrated into the bedroom (replacing the 12″ TV that had been wasting away in our bedroom for over a decade) making watching movies in bed suddenly a lot more plausible. Dr. Strangelove is the first movie we’ve watched in this new situation. It’s ridiculous how good and watchable this movie is. This one would definitely be one of my desert island movies.

Celebration – A short documentary on the Disney-designed city in Florida. The documentary didn’t take sides, but it didn’t really have a whole lot to say either. Still, it revealed enough for me to know that the town of Celebration and the type of people who would inhabit it are some things to stay very, very far away from.

Duets- So, sometimes you get roped into watching a movie kicking and screaming (no, not the Noah Baumbach written film which would have been infinitely more bearable). This was one of those times. The in-laws saw this movie on TV and just had to buy it off of e-Bay. And because they loved it so much, they wanted us to see it because they figured we’d like it as well. Oh. My. God. Likely the worst movie I’ve seen in the last year…at least since Shooter(the movie we watched with the in-laws the last holiday season) and Indescribable (the holiday season before that). Horribly written. Horribly acted. Tonally confusing. Morally disgusting. Eck. I almost need a shower after that one.

Starting Out in the Evening- Another one of those movies (along with say Baumbach’s latest stuff) that makes me wonder (fantasize, maybe) about what it would be like to have parents andfamily who are literate, with whom I could really discuss films, books, and art. I wonder if it would be fulfilling or just stifling. At least I have somebody. Anyway, great performances from Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose, and Lili Taylor.

Taxi to the Dark Side- Last year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature (Alex Gibney). Another in a line of damming documentaries that illustrate just how horribly the Bush Administration has behaved on their watch. Like the response to Hurricane Katrina, this is one of those stories that doesn’t sound believable in this country. Some where else, but not here in America. I’ve moved Errol Morris’ Standard Operating Procedureto the top of my Netflixqueue. But after that, I think I’m just about done with these depressing docs about the insanity and stupidity of the Bush White House. Maybe Gibney’s most recent one about Hunter S. Thompson will be a lot more sane and comforting.

The Dark Knight- The 2nd Blu-ray in our collection. And, the second viewing of this one. It seems to hold up even after the months have passed since its summer blockbuster run. I was less impressed with Ledger’s performance this time around but more impressed with the screenplay (even if it’s not quite profound, it still seems solid).

A Christmas Tale – This one may become a part of a new holiday tradition. Granted, I won’t be watching this one with the in-laws (see above). But I will be watching it again (and again) because it gets at what I often feel during the holidays. A beautifully dense and performed film that gets at an honesty about families (esp. during the holidays) that is both comforting and maddening. May very well end up as my best film of the year.

“Mad Men – Season 1″ (AMC) – As the Season 2 premiere approached, the critical esteem coalesced and the Emmy nominations were announced, I felt lost not having seen a single episode of this series. And the “very long wait” warning on Netflix wasn’t very promising. Luckily, the entire first season was available OnDemand. So we watched the 13 episodes of the first season over the course of the week.

I’m hooked. It continues the tradition of the HBO dramas, like “The Sopranos”. It’s full of the deep themes and complicated characters. But the thing that has impressed me most are the details. There are little details in the set dressing, in the costumes, the hair, that really pull you into the period. I love it.

The Werewolf of Washington – Dean Stockwell as a Werewolf in Watergate era Washington. This movie is perhaps only watchable because of its sure awfulness. There are some things that certain cheaply made horror movies have that lift them into the realm of camp or even cult status. This movie lacked most of those things. The film made a few failed attempts at parodying the then timely Nixon presidency and Watergate scandal. And there wasn’t much else–acting, special effects, cinematography–to redeem those failures. Most strikingly, this film was the polar opposite of the next film I would watch.

Bad Taste – Where Werewolf of Washington was a jumbled mess of awfulness, Bad Taste was clearly the work of a talented filmmaker (Peter Jackson’s first film). While it was obviously cheaply made in terms of cost, this movie had the eye of someone who could make something out of nothing. It was so much better than Werewolf. The special effects were infinitely better. The cinematography was infinitely better. The direction was infinitely better. What a surprise.

For me, watching Bad Taste right after Werewolf of Washington was a symbol of a lot of the amateur art you see whether it be writing, music, or film. You don’t need Final Draft to write a screenplay. You don’t need a Les Paul and your own PA system to make music. And you don’t need a big budget to make a movie. You really just need passion and talent. If you don’t have that to begin with, you’re really just wasting your time & money. I saw plenty of passion and talent in Bad Taste…not a whole lot of it in Werewolf of Washington.

Batman Begins – Had to watch this one again in preparation for The Dark Knight. Man, I must’ve been drunk or asleep the first time I watched this. There was so much of it that I didn’t remember. What I was really watching for most of all was the Joker card reveal at the end.

Control – Rock photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn’s bio-pic of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. This is no Ray or Walk The Line. This one was very nicely directed without the tired bio-pic cliches, excellently photographed in black & white, and stellarly acted by Sam Riley in the lead role.

The legendary Sex Pistols gig of June 4, 1976 was supposedly only attended by about 30-40 people. But that handful of people would shape the Manchester music scene. Morrissey was there. Members of the Buzzcocks and The Fall were there. And of course, members of Joy Division attended the show separately and are said to have become a band as a result. That’s enough right there for a good movie. Watching this one with the very enjoyable 24 Hour Party People would make for a great double-feature.

This film traces Curtis’ life from a kid listening to records in his room through a miscalculated marriage and to his final struggle with epilepsy. To see Riley transform this character…to see Riley/Curtis’ stage dancing evolve into a commentary on his own ailment…and to see where fear and uncertainty can finally lead someone. Man. The performance was certainly convincingly heartbreaking if it wasn’t entirely sympathetic.

The Dark Knight – I have to admit that this one lived up to the hype that I had created for myself. I’m not a huge superhero fan. I am a fan of good movies though. And this one was pretty damn good. The greatest compliment I can give it is that as I’ve talked about it and thought about it, I realize that I must see it again. I’ve created so many questions that can only be answered through a second screening. Heath Ledger’s performance is certainly Oscar worthy. And his makeup was perfect. That seems weird for me to say. But the simple detail of seeing the pores on his nose through the makeup added this weird level of realism that made him all the more creepy. This one will have to be one that I come back to later. And thanks to just finishing Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, I’m seeing her philosophy in lots of other stuff…including Batman (and, more overtly, in “Mad Men”). More on that later…