Cecil's Top 10 Movies of 2008

The 81st Academy Award nominations are out, and boy are they fucking horrendous. Well, most of the categories anyway, best picture especially. I thought 2008 was a really great year for movies, but sadly the Academy's nominations don't reflect that sentiment at all. THIRTEEN nominations for Benjamin Button? Are you fucking serious? It was rightfully nominated for best cinematography and will probably win, but that should be it. A lot of people will be complaining about not nominating The Dark Knight for Best Picture. Originally I would've been like "shut up you fucking baby" but after seeing what got nominated, I can kind of agree that it got the shaft. The Wrestler was screwed out of Best Picture, Best Director, Editing, and Best Original Song. How could they overlook The Boss??? The category only has 3 fucking nominations! Write him in there or something!

FUCK

anyway, on with the show....

Since RoosterFlix has only been around a short while, I wasn't able to share my 2007 top 10. Here's a quick recap:

10. Tekkon Kinkreet
09. Once
08. Rescue Dawn
07. Ratatouille
06. Superbad
05. Persepolis
04. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
03. The King of Kong
02. No Country for Old Men
01. There Will Be Blood

I'd probably put Ratatouille at 3 or 4 if I made that list today. I'd also probably move Once a little higher. Everything else looks right.



Biggest Disappointments of 2008:

Blindness
dir. Fernando Meirelles

This movie had absolutely everything going for it. Director Fernando Meirelles has made probably the best movie of this decade (it's my favorite, anyway), City of God, and my favorite movie of 2005, The Constant Gardener. The script for Blindness is adapted from the novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago. And even with an A-list cast, the movie is just not fun to watch. Ebert said it best (as is usually the case) - "Blindness is one of the most unpleasant, not to say unendurable, films I've ever seen. It is an allegory about a group of people who survive under great stress, but frankly I would rather have seen them perish than sit through the final three-quarters of the film. Not only is it despairing and sickening, it's ugly. Denatured, sometimes overexposed, sometimes too shadowy to see, it is an experiment to determine how much you can fool with a print before ending up with mud, intercut with brightly lit milk."

Gran Torino
dir. Clint Eastwood

I have a feeling that critics were afraid to admit that this is a terrible movie simply because it's a Clint Eastwood movie and they are too busy sucking his rotting zombie cock to know any better. Hey, Clint Eastwood is the motherfucking man, I'll be the first person to say that. Who wouldn't want to see Eastwood as a bitter, mean-ass, old racist dickhead? It has the potential to be a poignant, somber, darkly humorous statement on the society we live in, right? Nah. This movie is horrible. I've never seen worse acting from an entire cast in my life, and that's including Eastwood. I'm pretty sure he doesn't unclench his teeth or unfurrow his brow for the entirety of the movie. There's a moment at the end where a not-so-subtle J-Christ reference gets a slap on the forehead. So heavy-handed. Talking about slaps to the forehead, how could these guys think that leaving the song in at the end of the movie was a good idea? It's seriously the most ridiculous shit ever. It sounds like a bad parody of Grover singing a song from a Muppets movie. COMPLETELY out of place.


Looking forward to these movies in 2009:

Up (trailer)
Watchmen (trailer)
Public Enemies
Black Dynamite (trailer)
9 (trailer)
Inglorious Bastards
Crank 2: High Voltage (trailer NSFW)
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (trailer)
Where the Wild Things Are (hopefully)
The Expendables (doubtful)
Tron 2 (seriously doubtful, fuck, this is probably 2010, maybe even 2011)


Best Documentary of 2008 - Man on Wire

There wasn't a movie all year - documentary or otherwise - with such an unbridled sense of enthusiasm and such a contagious sense of excitement as Man on Wire. Even though you basically know how it ends, it works perfectly as a thriller, building tension throughout the entire film, intercutting with previous public acts of tightrope walking and invaluable footage of home movies.

Honorable Mentions for Documentaries -
Encounters at the End of the World
Standard Operating Procedure
Trouble the Water


Honorable Mention (Top 11 through whatever, in alphabetical order)

Che (Part 1)
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird
Hellboy 2
In Bruges
JCVD
Kung-Fu Panda
Milk
Rambo
Slumdog Millionaire
Step-Brothers
Tell No One
Timecrimes
Wendy & Lucy

note: I didn't see Gomorra or Waltz With Bashir until after I got my list done, but I think they both definitely would've made the top 10.




Top 10 Movies of 2008




10. Synecdoche, New York
dir. Charlie Kaufman

This is the type of movie that if I was to revise this list one or two years down the road after watching this movie 10 more times, it'd probably be in the top 3. I'm not so sure I should even be placing it in the top 10 after only one viewing because immediately after finishing it, I said to myself "fuck, I have to watch this again" (and I mean that in the best possible way). There are layers upon layers upon layers (that I probably didn't even know were there) upon layers (that only exist in my mind) upon layers. I'd do the movie a disservice by trying to explain it, it's just something that needs to be seen.





9. Chop Shop
dir. Ramin Bahrani

When this film was released on DVD last year I had never heard of it, but I knew the director from his previous movie, the highly underrated Man Push Cart. I think from this point forward I'm going to try and be aware of everything Ramin Bahrani is working on. The performances he gets out of his non-actors, especially the kids, is pretty incredible, and the low-key cinematography is easily some of the best of the year. The Iron Triangle, right across the street from Shea Stadium in Queens, NY, is not the most photogenic of locations, but the way the film is shot really gives this area a certain charm and charisma to the point where the location itself becomes a character and takes on a life of its own.





8. Iron Man
dir. Jon Favreau

I don't have much to say about this movie, just that it was 2 hours of pure entertainment. Great performances from everyone, especially Robert Downey Jr. Awesome cameo from Tom Morello. The only real problem I had was with the villain. I loved Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, but at the end he's just a bigger version of Iron Man, basically. Kind of boring. I had the same problem with Ed Norton's The Incredible Hulk. He ends up fighting a slightly bigger version of himself. Zzzzzzz. I mean, I know Iron Man & The Hulk don't have the kind of iconic arch nemeses that Spider-Man or The X-Men had, but they can do better than a souped-up clone. They set-up The Leader for the next Hulk movie with Tim Blake Nelson's character, but what about the inevitability that is Iron Man 2? Is The Mandarin gonna show up out of nowhere? Is he going to be dressed like a transvestite Chinese Robin Hood and wearing those ten alien rings? He's so lame, but I guess there's really no choice. Spider-Man has like 400 enemies...how about sharing the love, Pete?





7. Pineapple Express
dir. David Gordon Green

David Gordon Green usually likes to work within the confines of his own space. His movies are completely and unmistakably his. He generally directs what he writes, and his films are intensely personal. And even though I love his work, nothing made me happier than hearing he would be directing a comedy, scripted by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg no less. The end result is one of the best comedies of the year. Quotable for days. "You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos, motherfucker!" Stoner-buddy-action-comedies don't come along too often, but when they do and they're this good, you have to appreciate. One of the biggest reasons this movie works so well is because of the great chemistry between Seth Rogen and James Franco. They're both perfect in their roles, but Franco easily steals the show. He's never been better. Originally, their roles were supposed to be switched, with Franco playing Dale the civil servant and Rogen playing Saul the pot dealer. I'm glad they changed their minds.





6. The Dark Knight
dir. Christopher Nolan

Let me get this out of the way: The Dark Knight is a really, really great movie.

Now, let me get THIS out of the way: half a year after its theatrical release, the internet continues to make this movie more and more difficult to enjoy. It has its flaws (Batman voice) like most other films, but it's still one of the best of the year. BUT, people who are saying this is one of the best movies of all-time need to start watching movies that were made before 2003. You know, honestly, I don't mind if people think it's one of the best movies ever. Just don't tell me that I have to like it as much as you. Case in point, people and articles like this. "It’s more than the best movie of the year, it’s one of the best movies ever made. Snub it and there will be consequences." Consequences? Really? There is a legion of people with this mindset, no joke. It's almost like they are extremist disciples of a new Dark Knight religion, hell-bent on making this the #1 rated movie on IMDB, and I really wish they would stop pushing their shit on me. Just let people make up their own fucking minds. ANYWAY, I'm not going to go on and on about The Dark Knight, it made about 8,000 billion dollars so there's a pretty good chance you've already seen it. It might be the most grossly overrated movie of all-time, but that doesn't mean it's not great.





5. The Fall
dir. Tarsem

I've always been a sucker for amazing visuals. The Fall is chock full of some of the most fantastic, awe-inspiring imagery ever committed to film, so it was no surprise I responded so positively to it. I'm going overboard with hyperbole, but it really struck a chord. One of the biggest reasons this movie was not adored by critics was due to its thin plot. Sure, The Fall's plot, lifted from the 1981 Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho, isn't mind-blowing, but I felt that combined with what was happening on-screen, everything came together perfectly and resulted in one of the best experiences at the theater I've had in recent years. Even more amazing to me is that the movie is completely self-financed by Tarsem Singh, and what he went through to get this movie made is something that sounds perfect for a Burden of Dreams-ish documentary. I also thought that as amazing as the cinematography was, Tarsem's discovery of non-actor Catinca Untaru for the part of Alexandria was the key to making this movie work, because it wouldn't be the same without her.





4. The Wrestler
dir. Darren Aronofsky

The Oscar is in the bag. All the hype about Mickey Rourke's performance is completely justified. The Wrestler is not just a great movie, but it's also deeply affecting, especially considering the parallels between Mickey and his character. It's a complete 180 in style and direction compared to Darren Aronofsky's past work, which is something I always enjoy seeing from accomplished directors. I think my favorite sequence from any movie this year was when the camera follows Rourke's character, Randy, from the employee's bathroom of the grocery store to the plastic curtain of the deli counter, all while faint music and crowd noise is played in the background. I can't imagine anyone not being moved after seeing this movie.





3. Let The Right One In
dir. Tomas Alfredson

One of the best Swedish imports since Ingmar Bergman. This is not your average horror movie......in fact, I wouldn't label it as a horror movie at all. Sure, there's some gruesome imagery, a bunch of blood, some light murder. OK, you can label is as a vampire movie, but don't expect the Lost Boys type. Being a vampire in this world is some serious, heavy shit. This is a drama that focuses on a relationship between two young kids, one of which just happens to be a vampire. The relationship between the two kids is handled better than most adult relationships in the movies. The cinematography is stark, cold, and calculated, with lots of blues and grays on the palette. The story explores a range of emotions, and the ending is bitter-sweet. It's really a dumb move on Sweden's part that they did not submit this movie as their entry for the Best Foreign Film at this year's Oscars, it had a pretty damn good chance of winning.





2. WALL-E
dir. Andrew Stanton

I've typed and immediately deleted about 20 different paragraphs about WALL-E and no matter what I say, I can't say it without rambling on like an idiot about how great Pixar is. I'll just say this: It's amazing to me how consistent this company is at cranking out truly incredible movies, and WALL-E is probably my favorite of them all. A robot dancing along with Hello, Dolly!, pretending that a hubcap is hat, and wanting nothing in life but to hold hands with another robot is like, the cutest fucking thing ever, come on.





1. Speed Racer
dir. Larry & Andy Wachowski

First of all, fuck ANYBODY that puts this movie on a "worst of 2008" list. They should have their eyes scooped out with a melon baller. I fully understand that Speed Racer is not everyone's cup of tea, but did all of these people forget that the two most jaw-droppingly retarded fuck-ups in Hollywood, Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, released TWO movies in 2008? Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie were so terrible that all "worst-of" lists for the rest of time should only consist of those two movies. To lump Speed Racer in with that crowd is a never-forgive action.

Now, why did I like the movie so much? It's a combination of reasons. I watched a ton of Speed Racer growing up, and strangely enough it ended up having a huge influence on me. One thing I love about the movie is how closely the Wachowskis stuck to the source material. I really never thought a live-action version of Speed Racer could be this fully-realized. It's a well-known fact that the Wachowski brothers are big fans of anime, and you can tell through their writing and direction that they know their stuff and that they truly love what they're doing. They probably knew the characters inside and out before they even started working on the movie, which is probably why everyone in Speed Racer fit the parts so well. It is probably the best cast movie since Robert Altman's Popeye. I can't stress enough how important it is for this movie that the cast be absolutely perfect in order for it to work, and they nailed it. Before Speed Racer was released I was saying that getting Matthew Fox as Racer X was the some of the best casting in movie history, and after watching the movie it only solidified the fact. The editing and transitions are completely next level. Sure it's fast and furious, but not in the Michael Bay Transformers sense where you can't tell what the fuck is happening. The CG is amazing. Every color of the rainbow is being shoved into your eyeballs with a bulldozer at all times. I would imagine that if a person with synesthesia watched this movie their brain would explode almost immediately. The thing everyone seems to attack is the story, which I don't really understand. It's cartoony, it's over-the-top, it's action-packed, and it fits the movie like a glove. Rest assured, It's not all happy-go-lucky, there's some devious, double-crossing shit going down here, but it usually manages to keep a light tone. What, not depressing enough for you? Movies can't be fun anymore? Sorry losers, go watch The Crow while listening to Morrisey's "You Are The Quarry", Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz style. Remember, you have to hit play the moment you slit your other wrist. YEAH!! SPEED RACER!!!!