best of 08'

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMINE BUTTON
The more I think about it, the more I don’t know if I enjoyed the story half as much as I enjoyed David Flinchers direction and the cinematography and the ambient jazz soundtrack and the sweaty gothic southern charm this movie has going for it. Everyone gives great performances, though truthfully nothing Oscar worthy or groundbreaking. It’s forest Gump only intelligent. That for better or worse, sums it up entirely

MILK
Man oh man is this a heart wrenching film. Sean Penn is not my favorite person in the world. In fact, when he was driving around in a boat trying to get some good P.R. er..I mean save the hurricane Katrina victims, I couldn’t’ help but roll my eyes. But after about 3 minutes you forget the actor and see nothing but the man, Harvey Milk, in a VERY moving and insightful biography of one of America’s heroes.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIR
My favorite movie of the year. It is the story of a kid in India who gets on their version of who wants to be a millionaire. Of course he gets to the second to the last question and the police detain him, and torture him, and try to get to the bottom of how he cheated. But he didn’t’ cheat. He knew every answer, not from school, but from experiences in life. Mostly through flashback, it tells the story of a kid and his love for another girl and how everything plays out is both amazing, complex, and intense. It’s from the guy who made trainspotting and 28 days later, but it’s easily got the most heartwarming, uplifting endings to any movie I’ve ever seen. You owe it to yourself to see this movie.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Twilight what? This is the best vampire movie I’ve ever seen. It’s also a very romantic movie, as well as a coming of age story also. So if you mix Bram Stocker with “kids” or “Bully” you have an idea of whets going on here. It follows all the cliché’s of the genre, but drops it in the middle of a realistic modern day drama, that would’ve been interesting enough on its own. It’s tragic, melancholy, and surprisingly funny. I can’t wait to see it again to absorb all the little details I missed.

THE DARK KNIGHT
I’m not gonne be popular with this statement, but I’m officially sick of the dark knight. It’s like a nickleback song, or TITANIC before it. Too much of a good this is still too much. It’ll get nominated for a crapload of awards, and everyone will be pissed that it didn’t’ win every single one. And then, in about 8 months, people will start moving on to other things, like wolverine and watchmen. It’s not that the dark knight isn’t good. It deserves every accolade it gets, and I am one of it’s legions of fans. But it’s over kill at this point.

ROLE MODELS
The funniest movie I’ve seen all year. It’s kinda low key under the radar promotion didn’t help, but I laughed till I cried, then laughed some more. And then I peed myself.

WALL – E
A smart sci-fi film with some very insightful observations about humans and society. Oh, and it’s a Disney cartoon as well. Go figure. It’s amazing. And how can you not adore that little guy calling out for “eee…vaaa!”