468 replies to this topic

[theremin]

I feel like I might have missed some DVD or Festival only releases, but I didn't see anything else that anyone voted for that I would have put on my list.

Count me out of blurbing. I might pop in every once in a while, but for the most part, I'm gone.

24) Redbelt

23) Young People Fucking
22) Man on Wire

21) Chicago 10
20) Kung Fu Panda
19) W.

18) JCVD
17) Zack & Miri
16) Quantum Of Solace
15) Iron Man
14) Cloverfield

13) The Visitor

12) Syncedoche, NY

11) I.O.U.S.A.

10) Burn After Reading
9) Religulous

8) Waltz With Bashir
7) Milk
6) Gran Torino

5) The Wackness
4) Slumdog Millionaire
3) The Wrestler
2) The Dark Knight

1) The Fall

[Bhickman]

I'm probably not doing a list. Haven't watched anything yet. I've got 30 DVDs off of torrent in my cabinet and just finally watched "Taken" last night.

[nole.kennedy]

6) Gran Torino

Finally someone else gives this movie the love it deserves!

[worrywort]

6) Gran Torino

Finally someone else gives this movie the love it deserves!

The Searchers of our generation. Stories are similar. Racist a-holes saving kids.

[caley]

6) Gran Torino

Finally someone else gives this movie the love it deserves!

The Searchers of our generation. Stories are similar. Racist a-holes saving kids.

Speaking of...


Gentle now the tender breeze blows, whispers through my Gran Torino.

Gran Torino: A few years back, I remember someone writing that the film "Paparazzi is what happens "when Hollywood starts making movies for themselves, about subjects only they are interested in". In some ways, the first half of that statement, slightly modified, is pretty up in the summation of Gran Torino: "Gran Torino is what happens when the elderly start making movies for themselves". The basic plot elements could have been culled straight from the subjects of 'Dear Abby' letters: my children don't call me unless they want something, my grandchildren are spoiled, how come nobody takes care of their yards anymore?, all young people crave hard work and discipline, etc. etc. But, it's also hard to not see that Eastwood is having a ball here as a slightly more racist Dirty Harry now-retired, and alone, and it's hard not to enjoy watching him, especially when he 's making ridiculous cartoony angry faces, like in the photo above. Here, he is Walt "Don't call me Wally" Kowalski, retired ex-Army man and Ford prodcution worker. Newly-widowered, he spends his days drinking, and...drinking. He breaks up a skirmish at his Hmong neighbourhs' place, not because he cares about the people involved, but because, as most elderly people are concerned with, they're messing up his lawn. It's not until he witnesses the young Hmong girl standing up to three guys accosting her that he's drawn into helping her: that she's like him, completely stubborn and outspoken, refusing to shrink into the background or meekly walk away. And she doesn't care that he's a cranky old racist, she lets it bounce right off her, not willing to let an ally go, just because he's set in his ways. Contrary to the trailers that run so prominently, Gran Torino isn't really a reveng picture, nor is it a vigilante film, it's mostly about a most unlikely friendship: between said cranky old racist, and the young Hmong boy next door, whom Kowalski teaches to be a man, or at least his vision of a man. And, Eastwood sings the freaking theme song! I enjoyed this a lot. It should be somwhere in my Top 10.

[Elemeno P.T.]

Holy shit! Literally.



I've never seen a more likeable character than Kenny Smythe. Remind me to change the name of our year end thread to "The SOMB Favorite Films" as I just might put this at #1.
He and his father deliver the funniest lines I've seen in a movie this year. Who cares if the final scene seems staged...I had a huge grin on my face from beginning to end. Hell, in a perfect world, all the SOMBIE film lovers could be together right now with a keg of Fosters and pizza boxes stacked to the ceiling as we laugh our asses off and smile along with this great man.
I figure we will get 10-20 more lists posted in this final week. Any chance you get to rent this...I'd love to write the blurb but it's going to need more than the 2 votes it has now. Slack, caley, Lobs- I know your confidence in my recs has taken a hit, but trust me on this one. If it's not at least a film that amuses you, I'm buying the pizza and supplying the toilet paper at the Naperville summer film festival...(ok, so I was planning on hosting this anyway).

[greatwhitehope]

Been lurking for a while, figured I'd finally pop that ol' cherry in here. Big thanks to Elemeno for running this and to everyone for the great lists- I've got at least five or six flicks out of here that im really excited to go see. The List: 1. Synecdoche, New York 2. Let The Right One In 3. In Bruges 4. The Dark Knight 5. Wall-E 6. The Fall 7. The Wrestler 8. Tropic Thunder 9. Rachel Getting Married 10. Doubt 11. Slumdog Millionaire 12. Iron Man 13. Milk

[Slackmo]

Stellar list. Welcome to the reindeer games.

[James Iha]

Been lurking for a while, figured I'd finally pop that ol' cherry in here. Big thanks to Elemeno for running this and to everyone for the great lists- I've got at least five or six flicks out of here that im really excited to go see.

The List:

great to see some love for 'synecdoche.' i had a few friends who didn't like it but i don't talk to them anymore.

and of course the album in your avatar is a classick.

welcome aboard.

[greatwhitehope]

Been lurking for a while, figured I'd finally pop that ol' cherry in here. Big thanks to Elemeno for running this and to everyone for the great lists- I've got at least five or six flicks out of here that im really excited to go see.

The List:

great to see some love for 'synecdoche.' i had a few friends who didn't like it but i don't talk to them anymore.

Only movie of 2008 that really demanded multiple viewings, for me anyways. The combination of

the funeral speach and how the whole film almost, but not quite, spirals completely out of control

just give it that extra edge, ya know? But yeah my now ex-girlfriend really disliked it- made me kinda re-evaluate some things

[velocity]

Is Synecdoche, New York out on DVD? I haven't been able to find it online and really would like to see it before the deadline.

[Bob Loblaw]

Just bumped Kenny to the top of my Netflix queue. Should be able to squeeze that in before the deadline. Maybe one other one before midnight Friday. I really wish Synechdoche or Happy Go Lucky was out on DVD before then.

[Elemeno P.T.]

Cool.

Anyone with a link to Synechdoche, help some brothers out. Also, I can't find The Class anywhere.

Loblaw, here's a good link to Happy-Go-Lucky, in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

[Bob Loblaw]

Awesome, thanks.

[The Gooch]

The best movies of 2008


1. Rachel Getting Married
2. 4 months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
3. Let The Right One In
4. Waltz with Bashir
5. Wall-E
6. The Class
7. Man On Wire
8. Paranoid Park
9. Milk
10. Slumdog Millionaire
11. The Dark Knight
12. Happy-Go-Lucky
13. My Winnipeg
14. The Visitor
15. The Wrestler
16. The Fall
17. Encounters At The End Of The World
18. In Bruges
19. Redbelt
20. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Also good but I won't bother to rank:
Burn After Reading
A Christmas Tale
Flight Of The Red Balloon
Frost/Nixon
Hellboy II
Pineapple Express
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
W.
Benjamin Button
Doubt
Tropic Thunder
Iron-Man
Quantum Of Solace
Son Of Rambow
Ghost Town

Don't Bother

Indiana Jones
Sex and The City
Wanted
Zack and Miri Make A Porno



And since it's Award Season.....The Goochies

Movie moment where you collectively felt the audience lean forward – The pool scene in Let The Right One In

The Supporting Actress who was not only better than every other supporting actress this year, but could also kick their asses – Debra Winger in Rachel Getting Married

Best Romantic Scene – Eve and Wall-E dancing in space via extinguisher

Best metaphorical fuck scene – see above (at one point I believe he blows it in her face)

Best use of Soundtrack since… name a Scorsese picture – Paranoid Park

Shit my pants, mouth agape moment – Going from animation to film at a crucial point in Waltz with Bashir

Wotta year – Gus Van Sant, Robert Downey Jr., James Franco, Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, foreign films, India

Scene so stunning I wanted to throw up (Good) – the ‘delivery’ in 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days. Phillip Petit lying down on that wire between the twin towers. The diver going beneath Antarctica without a tether in the Herzog film. The unfortunate guard in Paranoid Park

Scene so stunning I wanted to throw up (Awful) – Pretty much all of Zack and Miri but mainly the anal-sex-shit-scene. What a literally shit movie.

2nd place to Heath Ledger’s undoubtedly Best Supporting Actor work – Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading

You should have had her play Two-Face – The beautiful than ugly than beautiful than ugly Maggie Gyllenhaal

Best Teacher Movie Ever so now you can stop making them – The Class

[caley]

Since we've been here, I haven't heard a dog bark...or a car pass. Nothing. Just us and them.

The Strangers: This was actually genuinely creepy. The opening five minutes might be my favourite opening of any movie this year (Well, minus the "Inspired by True Events" nonsense), with the couple driving back to the summer place, lit only by the streetlights and stoplights. There's some pretty creepy stuff: like the above scene, which never draws attention to the figure in the background, just has him appear and if you notice it, it's terrifying, and if not, your loss. It was a little short on any kind of explanation (Were they ghosts or just psychopaths? Who were they? How did they get in the house seemingly at will?), but, in some ways, that was kind of refreshing, that unecessary moments weren't spent on needless exposition on why they were doing what they were doing, it kept the focus on trying to be scary. Also, to add to the creepiness factor, it's the first horror movie I've ever seen that uses a Joanna Newsom song on its soundtrack. It might even sneak this on my Top 30, we'll see how things shake out.

[Asher Ford]

We decided Defiance was 2008 right? March 10th looks like the best DVD release date ever: Elegy Rachel Getting Married Cadillac Records Milk Synechdoche, New York Role Models The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Let the Right One In A Secret

[Elemeno P.T.]

We decided Defiance was 2008 right?

Yes.

[Bob Loblaw]

Is there still time to squeeze in one more argument about release dates and poll eligibility?

[Elemeno P.T.]

Have at it. Don't know that I'd change anything for this year in the final week, but who knows. The Class is 2008's exhibit A in the argument to keep the eligibility the way we did it in the past. I have no way of seeing it unless I drive an hour into the city, which, despite that it looks like a movie totally in my wheelhouse, I ain't gonna do. Then again, it's possible that folks who have seen it and are voting for it would forget to vote for it if we made it 2009. I wonder if 4 months...would have placed higher in 08' then it will this year, if at all. I suspect placement would be about the same either way, so changing the rule makes sense, mainly because it's easier to tell if a film is eligible simply by clicking on imdb and seeing if it had a US release that year. The mid-year is the only list where films like The Class and Synechdoche get a fair shot.