2008: A Sad Year For Hollywood

So it's time for my yearly roundup of my Top Ten and Bottom Five for 2008. Before I get there though, I want to say that this was a sad year for Hollywood. We lost a lot of legends and good people working in the biz, and there was also a writer's strike (and threatened actor's strike) that impacted our job market. It's a wonder I was actually able to work having just graduated from school.

Think about it...in 2008 we lost Heath Ledger, Sidney Pollack, Paul Newman, Roy Scheider, Stan Winston, Don LaFontaine, Michael Crichton, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Bettie Page, Isaac Hayes, Tim Russert, Eartha Kitt, Arthur C. Clarke, and even chess champ Bobby Fischer. Am I forgetting anyone? And somehow God lets Paris Hilton stay in the spotlight...

Anyway, a few quick reviews before getting to the list:

"Slumdog Millionaire" I think this may well be Danny Boyle's best movie, and that's saying a lot. I hope it does well at the Oscars this year. I'm a sucker for movies about guys who put it all on the line for the girl of their dreams, and so this movie had me practically cheering in the aisles at the end. There really is very little I have to say about this movie, because it was so GOOD. I'm generally critical of movies that try to show the plight and poverty taking place in other countries because they often fail to tell any sort of story, and instead focus on just a lot of poor people suffering. "Hotel Rwanda," for example, is a good movie, but it spends way to much time forcing us to feel guilty for the people of Africa, so that it overshadows any sort of human drama going on. "Slumdog Millionaire" on the other hand is almost joyous in its zeal to show us how people live in India. It doesn't shy away from any of the horrors of the impovershed country, but it also makes a point of showing what a bright and beautiful land it is, full of colorful and amazing people.
My only slight gripe was that, during the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" scenes I was never really sure how much Jamal was making on the show, since its all done in rupees, and I have no idea how much a rupee is. Also the basic premise (that all the questions on the show are luckily based around events in Jamal's life) is a tad hard to swallow, but I'm willing to go with it. However it's even MORE difficult to buy that, not only were they based on Jamal's life, but also that they were based on Jamal's life IN ORDER. Likely telling events from Jamal's life out-of-order may have given for more convoluted and confusing storytelling, so I'm willing to forgive. However, it does make the already unlikely premise even MORE unlikely. Even so this was such a joyous movie that I would have still been willing to suspend even more disbelief. This movie's good. See it!
I also want to say that I thought Dev Patel did an excellent job in the lead role. An Oscar nomination is a longshot, seeing as he's so young and basically an unknown, but I think it's possible.

"The Wrestler" I've never been an Aronofsky fan, but I do really like Mickey Rourke, so I was curious what I'd think of this movie.
Frankly, it made me think of many other Aronofsky movies. Superbly made, but depressing to the point where I wanted to blow my brains out afterwards. It is soul-crushing to watch Randy the Ram (Rourke), a basically good guy who's made a lot of mistakes, get to the point where he believes everyone he cares about has given up on him (spoilers ahead), so that he essentially commits suicide. The final shots of the movie, when he thinks that even Marisa Tomei's character had given up on him (and I don't think she had) broke my heart. Thanks a lot, Darren.
Comparisons between this movie and "Raging Bull" are inevitible, and frankly, I did like "The Wrestler" a lot more. I got more into Randy the Ram's head, and felt for him a lot more than I ever did for DeNiro's character. I've always thought "Raging Bull" was overrated. You are free to disagree with me in an angry fashion.
Will Mickey Rourke win best actor for this role? I think so, thought I'm still holding out for Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor." Marisa Tomei will likely get a nom too, and she deserves it for her work here (by the way, she's in INCREDIBLE shape...WOW!!!). The only role I thought competely failed was Evan Rachel Wood as Randy's daughter. She was terrible.

"Milk" I wasn't looking forward to seeing this movie for several reasons. First off, I've never really liked Sean Penn in much of anything...the guy seems like a tool. Secondly, even though I respect the gay movement and think it's important that movies like "Milk" get made, I was not wild about seeing a bunch of normally macho actors act like fairies for two hours (I'm being rather facetious, but you get the idea).
However "Milk" was quite an eye-opener. I realize now how little I actually knew about the history of the gay movement in San Francisco, and this movie did a good job educating me on a lot of what actually happened. Van Sant's use of stock footage throughout the film also gave it a wonderful sense of authenticity. And I like that Josh Brolin's character was never demonized, which would have been a very easy route to take. Every character was well-fleshed out, full of both stregths and flaws.
I only wonder what would have happened had this movie come out just a few months sooner, before the vote on Prop. 8 went through. Would it have changed anything? We'll never know...

Anyway, now for my Ten Best of 2008 List. This year gave us a lot of good movies, but only a few really GREAT movies. Hopefully 2009 will be better. Also, as a caveat, remember that I don't get a chance to see a lot of "Oscar-worthy" movies until after the year is over, so they slip through the cracks. Documentaries in particular I usually don't see until years after they come out. So the list is always somewhat biased. Finally, this is generally more of a "favorites" list than a best list, so forgive me...

1. "The Dark Knight" Yes. The hype was real. The fanboys were right. And they are still right. As much as I'd like to say one of the less-mainstream movies out there was better, it's simply not true. This movie kicked ass, and only gets better and better with each viewing. It stands as a movie for the ages.
2. "Slumdog Millionaire" Great movie. Great message. Just GREAT!
3. "WALL-E" The first half hour of this movie was about as perfect as a movie can be, animated or otherwise. The stuff with the people in space was not quite as good, which is what caused it to slip just under "Slumdog" and get the #3 spot.
4. "The Visitor" Come on Richard Jenkins! I believe in you and your Oscar-getting ability!
5. "Kung Fu Panda" Definitely the biggest surprise of the year, this turned out to be a thousand times better than anything else to have ever come out from Dreamworks Animation.
6. "Ghost Town" Hell, I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. And I like Ricky Gervais. And since this movie didn't get much notice, I'm giving it the #6 spot.
7. "Iron Man" While Nolan's Batman movie may have added to weight and relevence to the superhero genre, this movie still rocked the theaters and proved that the basic superhero formula can still be immensely entertaining.
8. "Taken" Technically this movie doesn't come out until next year in the U.S., but whatever. Liam Neeson kicks ass and I loved it.
9. "Milk" This could have just been a basic "message" movie that got a lot of press because of the subject matter, but it wasn't. It was actually very good.
10. "Cloverfield" The hand-held monster movie sneaks in at the #10 spot because it was one of the more original films to come out this year (which is actually kind of sad). I was lukewarm about it the first time I saw it, but I've warmed up to it after repeated viewings, and the marketing campaign alone practically makes it deserve to be mentioned.

The Bottom Five
These were the stinkers of the year; the ones I couldn't stand, or at least left the theater feeling disappointed. I of course go out of my way to avoid most bad movies, so often a couple of these movies aren't really that terrible. For example, I avoided crap like "The Love Guru" at all costs.

5. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" True, I actually enjoyed myself a lot at this movie. But, considering how long we had to wait since "The Last Crusade," this film should have been a lot better, and it wasn't; it was rather generic. And seriously...wtf??? Aliens???
4. "Appaloosa" Not a bad movie so much as a bland movie. Viggo was awesome, but Ed Harris should stick to acting and not direct. Or at least not direct things that are so BORING. And Rene Zellwegger should just stop doing anything at all.
3. "The Clone Wars" A huge pile of bastardized dogcrap that once used to be Star Wars. It's interesting that George Lucas was involved with two of the five worst of the year. It's a shame that the guy who made me want to make movies has lost his touch.
2. "Funny Games" A dumb movie made worse by the fact that the girl who forced me to see it has since treated my heart like shit. That's right, I'm talking to YOU Julie!
1. "Jumper" Brian wrote a really funny review of this movie, wherein he said something along the lines of, "I'm not sure who had the last word on 'Jumper,' but I'm pretty sure that last word was 'shit.'" That sounds about right to me. This was the worst of the year (that I saw).

So there ya have it! I'm hoping for better things in 2009.