Year in Review – Top Ten Films of 2008

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One of the problems with living in a place like Cleveland (or Erie, Pa. before this) and not in NYC or LA is that you don’t get to see all the movies of 2008 until it’s 2009. I’ve always given myself an extra month to catch up.

Considering the lackluster year it’s been for movies, it’s no surprise that I could have published this list a few weeks ago. (Damn you Fox Searchlight for holding back The Wrestler.) It’s also no surprise that a three-and-a-half star movie made it onto my list for the first time since I started compiling them. That would Woody Allen’s best film in years, Vicky Christina Barcelona.

But even in bad years, there are certain movies that you fall in love with. I can’t remember caring about the characters in the movies as much as I did this year. Ballast, Rachel Getting Married, The Edge of Heaven, Milk, Slumdog, Benjamin Button, Vicky Christina Barcelona and even WALL-E didn’t just make me root for their characters. No, they made me feel like I knew them on a very intimate level. Even movies like The Wrestler, The Visitor, and Gran Torino, which didn’t make my list, took me inside lives of the characters beyond simple voyeurism.

Then there are the masterpieces like Revolutionary Road and Let the Right One In, which each affected me for days. I love when movies do that. I just love it.

So here they are, the top ten films of 2008 from TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com:

1. Revolutionary Road (dir. Sam Mendes)
2. Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson)
3. Ballast (dir. Lance Hammer)
4. The Edge of Heaven (dir. Fatih Akin)
5. WALL-E (dir. Andrew Stanton)
6. Rachel Getting Married (dir. Jonathan Demme)
7. Milk (dir. Gus Van Sant)
8. Slumdog Millionaire (dir. Danny Boyle)
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (dir. David Fincher)
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (dir. Woody Allen)

Honorable Mention: Gran Torino (dir. Clint Eastwood)

Best Director – Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road
Best Actress – Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
Best Actor – Sean Penn, Milk
Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress – Viola Davis, Doubt

Song of the Year:  “The Wrestler” by Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler

Quote of the Year:
“Don’t talk like one of them. You’re not! Even if you’d like to be. To them, you’re just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these… these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.” – The Joker, The Dark Knight