The Best of 2008 (Part 2)

The Best of 2008
By Jonathan Fisher, January 11th, 2009


As I sat down to draft a list of my favourite movies of 2008, a flurry of images and moments from the year’s movies rushed into my mind. The lined faces of the astronauts in In the Shadow of the Moon; Heath Ledger’s defiant, maniacal cackle during his interrogation by Batman in The Dark Knight; Ken singing Coldplay’s “Fix You” in Young@Heart; the line “There is no why” in Man on Wire; Robert Downey Jr.’s inspired performances in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder; Sir Ben Kingsley taking hits from a bong in The Wackness; Richard Jenkins screaming “You can’t treat people this way!” in The Visitor; Thomas chasing Charlie down the street in their underwear in The Black Balloon; Poppy’s driving instructor’s emotional explosion at the end of Happy-Go-Lucky; the unexpected sing-along shared by Hellboy and Abe Sapien in Hellboy II: The Golden Army; the boy with the burlap sack on his head in The Orphanage; and, perhaps my favourite moment of all, Jamal’s final rendez-vous with Latika in Slumdog Millionaire.

Of course, in finding the good one comes across some bad. I have equally sharp memories, for altogether different reasons, of scenes like the jumping-castle sequence in Four Holidays; Vin Diesel mumbling his way through a post-apocalyptic future in the Children of Men-wannabe Babylon, A.D; The numbing, excessive slow-motion action sequences in Max Payne; the woefully disappointing return of M. Night Shyamalan in The Happening; the laughable giant chickens in 10,000 BC; Ben Stiller flapping his way helplessly through the trainwreck of The Heartbreak Kid; and the painful final shot at the end of the credits of The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

As is customary at this time of year, I’ve sorted through the year’s movies and have compiled my top ten. It was a very difficult list to do this year, and my number one changed about five times. As always, I must explain that this list is not intended as a definitive list of what the year’s best movies were, nor is there an implied insult to movies lower on the list when compared to the titles that are higher on the list. Ten-best lists are rather inconsequential, and rather than offering an opportunity to define what the best movie of the year was, they should be seen as a chance to reflect back on all the wonderful films we have seen this year. It’s an appreciative process, not a hack-and-cut job. As usual, I have included special mentions for other films that I loved that didn’t quite make the final list.

Just a small disclaimer – being in Australia, some films that were release in 2007 in the U.S. were released in 2008 in Australia. Some films that were released in 2008 in America will be released in 2009 in Australia (movies like Milk and The Wrestler). This explains why some films that have been proclaimed as among the best of 2008 in America are not on my list. They’ll be considered as 2009 films.

2008 Top Ten:

10. The Visitor: Thomas McCarthy previously directed The Station Agent, another close examination of likeable, seemingly normal characters. The Visitor is in the same vein as that film. It is not flashy, is superbly written and acted and the emotional catharsis reached at the end is truly moving because of how well-drawn these characters are. Special mention must be made of Richard Jenkins’ performance. I don’t think he will be considered for an Academy Award, but he should be. His character is not eccentric, nor is he afflicted with a life-threatening disease, nor is he flamboyant or larger-than-life. He is a normal man with normal problems. Griffiths makes this character richly compelling and enormously moving in a powerhouse but quiet acting performance.

9. Frost/Nixon: This dramatisation of the behind-the-scenes tension of the David Frost/Richard Nixon interviews of 1977 is relentless, fascinating, funny and insightful. Langella delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as Nixon, with able support from Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell and Oliver Platt. Ron Howard directs efficiently and competently, opting to allow the performances to speak for themselves instead of adding unnecessary directorial flourishes.

8 Wall*E.: Wall*E could very well be the best science fiction film of the last several years, which is rather surprising considering its primary audience is young children. I’ve talked with people of all ages about Wall*E, and kids and adults speak of how it moved them, how charming, delightful and lovable little Wall*E is. I had the same reaction. It is rare when a film that intends to delight children ends up delighting adults in just as deep a way.

7. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Julian Schnabel’s film was released in 2007 in the U.S. but only reached cinemas in Australia in very early 2008, which is why it is on my 2008 list. This is a deeply moving film about a man whose freedom is taken away from him after suffering an enormous stroke that leaves him completely paralysed, except for his left eyelid. I know I know – sounds like Academy fodder about an ‘ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances’. It goes beyond that, painting a rich portrait of a flawed man who is cruelly robbed of his freedom, and the love of the people around him. It portrays the force of life at its most powerful and insistent. I still believe it was robbed of the Best Foreign Film Oscar at the 2008 awards.






6. Happy-Go-Lucky: Mike Leigh’s film is a comedy, a drama, and an absorbing character study all at once. It tells the story of Poppy, played terrifically by Sally Hawkins, who is simply a good woman trying to keep a sunny perspective in the midst of all the challenges that life presents. What is amazing about the film is that it isn’t afraid to show the damage that being unwaveringly sunny can inadvertently cause, and that some problems cannot be cured simply with a smile and kind words. This may well be one of my most re-watched films of the year.

5. In Bruges: There’s always at least one movie like this each year. I don’t mean that there’s always a movie like In Bruges, which I found wholly original, exhilaratingly funny and brimming with tension. I mean that there is always one divisive film that prompts me into more heated discussions with my friends than any other (last year there were two: Across the Universe and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). I’ve seen it twice now, and I’m still convinced I’m right. Martin McDonagh’s debut as director is a marvel.

4. The Dark Knight: Easily the most popular film at the box office on my list this year, The Dark Knight is that rare entertainment that achieves its immediate goals while also maintaining a richness that grows with each viewing. It has been labelled the best superhero film ever, and the best sequel ever, but such labels trivialises what this film achieves. I don’t think it is possible to talk about The Dark Knight without discussing Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker. It is my opinion that he would have received the accolades for his performance even if he had not died before the film opened. He deserves the Best Supporting Actor gong, and I think he will get it.

3. Gone Baby Gone: Another film that was released in 2007 in America but was delayed until 2008 here in Australia. Ben Affleck’s directorial debut is a close, detailed and morally murky examination of the gap between classes, exploring the notion that the right moral decision can conceivably be the wrong one in certain situations. It features another terrific performance from Casey Affleck to add to his role last year in The Assassination of Jesse James etc. that cements him as one to watch in years to come.

2. The Black Balloon: The Black Balloon is such a gentle, bittersweet but ultimately uplifting film about the trials, difficulties and joys of a middle-class suburban Sydney family. My top two films this year are heart-warming charmers that encourage some form of cheering after they conclude, which is a nice change after the brilliant but cynical No Country for Old Men topped my list in 2007.


1. Slumdog Millionaire: How I love this film. I love its warmth, its humour, the pluck and perseverance of the characters, its firm belief that love is an emotion that everyone deserves and can achieve. Director Danny Boyle transcends cultural and language boundaries, crafting a film that people of all creeds, sexes, backgrounds and cultures can enjoy. Slumdog Millionaire is my favourite movie of 2008.



Honourable Mentions:

Other films worth mentioning in this list of the best of 2008 are: Ridley Scott’s intelligent spy thriller Body of Lies; the Coen Brothers’ comedy Burn After Reading; David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button about a man who is born an old man and gets younger – a film I didn’t immediately embrace but find myself admiring more the longer I think about it; The superbly crafted Spanish thriller El Orfanato (The Orphanage), a ghost story that doesn’t short-change the human characters in between its chilling moments; Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army, one of those rare sequels that actually improves upon the original, maintaining its humour, artistry and verve; and the spellbinding documentary In the Shadow of the Moon about the American space program of the 1960s and 70s, featuring powerful interviews with the astronauts themselves – time may have lined their faces and aged their bodies, but their feats are immortal.

Also, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, a film that, along with The Dark Knight, proved 2008 was the year in which the superhero movie truly matured; The King of Kong, the hilarious documentary about two warring Donkey Kong experts; the peculiar, funny and moving documentary Man on Wire, following Phillipe Petit’s tightrope-walking exploits; and Tim Burton’s bloody, dramatic but playful adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Special Jury Prize:

Each year I nominate a film for a ‘special jury prize’, a la the Sundance Film Festival. This award is intended for an under-rated film that probably would have captured an endless amount of hearts were it allowed a wider release, more savvy marketing or was more ‘commercially viable’. The film I am awarding the Special Jury Prize to this year is the documentary Young@Heart, about a choir of senior citizens who sing contemporary rock and pop songs. While it is an unlikely subject for a documentary, Young@Heart is funny and remarkably insightful. The meaning of songs like Coldplay’s “Fix You” change markedly when sung by someone who has seen the true ups and downs of life after seventy-odd years on this planet.

The Best Foreign Films:

Oh, what a headache it is these days to define what a ‘foreign film’ is. I’m sure some of us remember the fiasco that enveloped the Academy in 2007 when it disqualified several terrific films from the Foreign Language category for trivial reasons (too much overseas funding, too many scenes featuring English). In no particular order, here are my picks for the best foreign films of the year: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a powerful but bleak Romanian film about the country’s abortion black market; The Band’s Visit, a funny and touching Israeli film about culture clash; The Counterfeiters, the Academy-Award winning German World War II thriller; and the unexpectedly deliberate Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In.
The Best Animated Films:

2008 was a rather light-on year for family animated fare, with Wall*E dominating the animated landscape. Persepolis is also one of the finest animated films of the year, an astoundingly realised Iranian film about the difficult life journey of a young girl. Waltz with Bashir, an animated documentary, did not get a wide release but should have been seen by more people. It is interesting to note that all three of those films are animated, but with an adult audience in mind. Regarding family fare, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa provides some neat laughs, but stands firmly in the shadow of Wall*E when it comes to sophistication and universal appeal.
The Best Documentaries:

What a year for documentaries it has been. In the Shadow of the Moon, Young@Heart and Man on Wire I have already mentioned. Alongside them is Errol Morris’s Abu Ghraib examination Standard Operating Procedure, the Academy Award-winning documentary on the Iraq war Taxi to the Dark Side, as well as another excellent Iraq-based documentary No End in Sight. Also, the aforementioned animated doco Waltz With Bashir. In a more light spirit, The King of Kong may not be about anything deep or profound, but it’s one of my favourite documentaries of the year. It really was a cluttered field for documentaries this year.

That just about does it for 2008. It has been regarded as a lean year for good movies, and I’m on record as describing it as a disappointing year. But as I delved back into the films that I have experienced over the last twelve months, it was surprising to find just how difficult it was to pick and choose from a backlog of terrific films. Some were thrilling, some were funny, some were touching, some were inspirational. Let’s hope that 2009 can provide more of the same. Now go see a movie, and if you haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire, make that your first stop. You’ll want to see it again.