Review of 2008

Now that I have caught up with most of the major releases of last year, I thought I'd rank the 28 films I saw last year. I didn't think I had seen much this year, but I'm only 7 off of last year's total, and I'm sure I'll see more of 2008 over the next few months.

I have to agree that this was a subpar year, especially the top ten. My favorite film remains Night and Day, which I saw at the Jeonju festival back in May. There were only 3 films that I thought were 5 or 4 1/2 stars, which to me are films that are masterpieces or near to it. Lots of solid movies of varying quality, but little that was really inspiring.

These rankings tend to be pretty generous. Basically, anything I enjoy I give 3 stars even if it's not great filmmaking, and if I really enjoyed it I give 4 stars, again, even if the filmmaking isn't masterful.

The films are ranked in order, even within the star ratings. My Top Ten for 2008 (and other years) will continue to mutate as I see more films.

5 stars

Night and Day

4 1/2 stars

The Flight of the Red Balloon
Happy-Go-Lucky

4 stars

Burn After Reading
The Wrestler
Milk
Paranoid Park
Standard Operating Procedure
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Rachel Getting Married
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Roman Polanki: Wanted and Desired
Revolutionary Road
The Dark Knight
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon

3 1/2 stars

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Religulous
Body of Lies
Quantum of Solace
Wall-E

3 stars

Tropic Thunder
Son of Rambow
Synecdoche, New York

2 1/2 stars

My Bluberry Nights
Sex and the City: The Movie

2 stars

Shine a Light
Slumdog Millionaire