Lots of excellent acting Nov 27 '09 (Updated Oct 10 '11)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Movies Under the Tuscan Sun From $9 Casablanca From $3 The Bottom Line more quirkiness than great Cinema (though there are many more to see) Having held up doing a list waiting for “Gomorrah,” which I anticipated would have a place on my 2008 list, I decided not to wait for the Japanese film that won the foreign-language Oscar, “Departures” (Okuribito), that did not come out on DVD until 2010 and has to be added. Some of the ones not made in North America were released in 2007, but I’m taking North American release dates for establishing what is a “2008 movie.” (10a,b) I like to include a sub-shoestring budget movie of considerable accomplishment with my ten-best list. I thought “Take Out” (made for $3000), cowritten and codirected by Sean Baker and Tsou Shih-Ching showed more than many big-budget movies. Its biggest surprises are in the DVD bonus features, that should not be viewed before the movie itself is. Also in the neorealist tradition is the slice of life far, far removed from NYC, Sergei Dvortsevoy, "Tulpan," filmed on the Hungersteppes of Kazhakstan with a Kazhak sailor (!) played with exuberant charm by Askhat Kuchinchirekov attempting to wed the only young woman in a hundred-kilometer radius (the never seen title character), as lambs are being stillborn from undernourished ewes. (9) Easy Virtue, directed by Stephan Elliot, loosely adapting a 1924 play by Noël Coward has Jessica Biel holding her own in a battle of wit with an unglamorous Kristin Scott Thomas for the latter's son, a callow pale Ben Barnes. Colin Firth's performance as a traumatized survivor of World War I is what makes the movie work, though the locations and the opening up of the play help.   (8) “Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan" directed by Sergei Bodrov, mostly filmed in stops before the slave turned  khan (Asano Tadanobu)  conquers much of the world It opened in the US in 2008, in some other places in 2007. I have a fascination with seeing central Asian landscapes and lifeways (from couch potato comfort, thank you very much). “Mongol” has a big budget and the results are on the screen. (7) “Il y a longtemps que je t'aime” (I've Loved You So Long), the auspicious film debut by the writer and director Philippe Claudel,  has a genuinely great performance by Kristin Scott Thomas (in French or in English), IMO the best in any 2008 movie I’ve seen with the possible exception of Meryl Streep’s in “Doubt.” Elsa Zylberstein was also exceedingly good as the sister who takes in Juliette (KST) when she is released from prison for having killed her son. (6) I was delighted by “In Bruges” written and directed by Martin McDonagh with  excellent performances by Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, and Bruges itself. As a villain rather than a depressed failed lover, even Ralph Fiennes was tolerable. (5)  “Gran Torino” is supposedly Clint Eastwood’s last appearance in front of the camera. His work on both sides of the camera in this movie about a sour Korean War veteran and the Hmong refugee family that moves in next door to him and in which he ends up being more comfortable than with his own children is the work of an assured master film-maker. It was shot in Highland Park, a northern suburb of Detroit, ending along Lake St. Claire, reminding me of my days as a Michigander. (4) Although I thought that Frank Langella brought more dignity to the role than the real-life Richard Nixon had, he and Michael Sheen were superb as/in “Frost/Nixon” directed by Ron Howard. (Sheen does oily well as Tony Blair in "The Queen" and "The Deal," though he's not as oily as the young "Tricky Dick" was...)  (3) I found much to like in the multiple award-winning “Slumdog Millionaire,” co-directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan with upbeat music, lots of fine performances from its Indian cast, and Mumbai locations. It seemed a bit diffuse to me and employed some cheap tricks to get laughs, but there was plenty of pain and poignancy, too. (2) John Patrick Shanley’s screen adaptation of his mesmerizing play “Doubt” had three great female performances from Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, and Amy Adams plus one from Philip Seymour Hoffman. I thought Shanley opened up the drama of mistrust in a Catholic school very well and left audiences debating what Hoffman’s priest “really” did or didn’t do.  (1) I have some frustrations with the Cleve Jones vision of Harvey Milk, not least the total absence of Milk’s anointed successor Harvey Britt, whose legislative accomplishments considerably surpassed Milk’s own. Sean Penn is great in the title role. Josh Brolin was also good as cop/fireman/assassin Dan White as was James Franco as Scott Smith (Franco had a good year). Gus van Sant finally got the movie made. Would that it had been released earlier in the year! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Other 2008 movies I enjoyed and/or regarded highly. Ed Harris directing himself and Viggor Mortensen in the non-revisionist western “Appaloosa.” IMO the project was brought down by René Zellwegger who may have won an Oscar for a 19th-century role but was totally unbelievable in the Old West here. Written and directed by Eran Kolirin, “The [Egyptian Police] Band’s Visit” [to an out-of-the way Israeli settlement] had a gentle charm with many forlorn but dignified characters, including the leader played by Sasson Gabai and the Israeli café owner played by Ronit Elkabetz. I enjoyed the irony-laced portrayal of the rise and fall of half-brothers "Rudo y Cursi" (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) a movie directed by Carlos Cuarón (who cowrote the earlier buddy movie with them, directed by his brother Alfonso, “Y tu mamá también”). The two are exploited, but not totally corrupted in the Big Bad City (Mexico). I enjoyed George Clooney, Bradd Pitt, Frances McDormand et al. in the Coen brother’s acidic satire on espionage and celebrity, “Burn After Reading” (which many others disliked, whereas I don't much like "Fargo" or "O Brother,"  which are loved by many). A more genial romantic comedy built around a fraught topic was John Jeffcoats's "Outsourced," set in Seattle and outside Mumbai (the latter the site of "Slumdog") with Josh Hamilton and Ayesha Dharker supplying the romance. Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo" is almost impossible for anyone not intimately familiar with Italian history of the last four decades to follow, but it is obvious that the film is outstanding cinema with a gnomish Toni Servillo playing the astoundingly durable Giulio Andreotti (seven-time premier and with more political lives than two cats). Maddeningly, the movie presents the still-active Andreotti denying Mafia involvement without taking a position on whether he was lying or not (Nixon was straightforward in comparison!) Olivier Assayas's "L'heure d'été" (Summer Hours in English, singular in French) features pieces borowed from the Musée d'Orsay, the elegant and crisp Edith Scob, and a haute bourgoise family drifting apart rather than hyperventilating upon being forced to reunite as in "A Christmas Tale." Eric Gautier's cinematography is gorgeous and elegeiac. Baltasar Kormákur’s “Jar City” is a good, creepy adaptation of the Icelandic mystery novel by Arnaldur Indriðason that looks at murder and genetic research (the jars). It has an outstanding performance as a detective by Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson. A Hollywood version is forthcoming. (I can wait… and dread!) “Mad Detective” (Sun taam) reteamed directors Johnnie To Wai Ka-Fai  and actor Lau Ching-Wan as a psychic or psychotic or both detective brought back to aid Andy On’s Inspector Ho in a combination ghost story and unconventional police procedural movie. Jet Li won acting awards for “Warlords” (Tau ming chong) which still hasn’t had a theatrical release in the US. It is a doleful epic set during the Taiping Revolt with Andy Lau and Kaneshiro Takeshi fighting with General Pang (Li) and after victory with each other. Not as visually impressive as Lau and Kaneshiro in “House of Flying Daggers” (Shi mian mai fu), but what is?  Kaneshiro was delightful in John Woo's "Red Cliff," too. I can see why the movie was substantially cut for its American theatrical release, though the long version is now available, subtitled on DVD. James Franco  entertained me in the silly stoner comedy “Pineapple Express,” as did Robert Downey Jr. and Brandon T. Jackson in “Tropic Thunder.” Downe, Gwyneeth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges entertained me  in “Iron Man,” which had very funny moments but was not primarily a comedy. I was also impressed by Angelina Jolie in Clint Eastwood’s historical drama of LAPD coverup, “Changeling,”  Melissa Leo in the human smuggling meldrama “Changeling”  Heath Ledger’s sinister Joker  in “The Dark Knight,”  Richard Jenkins and Haaz Sleiman in Thomas McCarthy’s “The Visitor,” David Kross and Kate Winslett in the David Hare/ Stephen Daldry adaptation of  “The Reader” (but I’m tired of the suffering, morose Ralph Fiennes!). Moritz Bleibtreu and the rest of the cast of "The Baader-Meinhof Gang" (which I reviewed on Associated Content) and the casts of the French  "The Class" (Entre les murs) and the English "Happy-Go-Lucky." "The Betrayal: Nerakhoon”  and “Encounters at the End of the World” were worthy. Both have substantial and interesting DVD bonus features, btw. I thought Werner Herzog would find weirder stuff going on in Antarctica, though. I found the documentary "Man on Wire" less interesting than the ten-minute cartoon version. "Ballast," produced, written, and directed by Lance Hammer, starts slowly by becomes an affecting portrayal of three very depressed African Americans in wintry and waterlogged Mississippi. The arguably overstuffed “Mio fratello è figlio unico” (My Brother is an Only Child, directed by Daniele Luchetti) providing another portrait of the strength of fraternal bonds in Italy, this time through political tumults of the 1960s with Riccardo Scamarcio (cf. Alain Delon in "Rocco and His Brothers" made in 1960...) and the pain-inducing anime Waltz with Bashir. _______________________________________________________ Heralded movies I saw and was not very impressed by (though there are some outstanding individual performances in many of them) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Cape No. 7 (see www.associatedcontent.com/article/1441927 /the_2008_movie_blockbuster_in_and_of.html?cat=40) Chop Shop Gomorrah Hunger Lust, Caution (Se, jie) My Winnipeg Revanche Rachel Getting Married Revolutionary Road The Strangers Vicky Cristina Barcelona Wendy & Lucy The Wrestler _______________________________________________________ Thus far unseen (some of which I will never see, many recommended to me by Netflix, not all yet available, but having waited and been disappointed by “Gommorah”…), so not considered Assembly The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Che The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Definitely, Maybe The Duchess The Fall Forgetting Sarah Marshall The Incredible Hulk Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) Mamma Mia! Paranoid Park Ping Pong Playa The Promotion Quantum of Solace Secret Sunshine (Milyang) The Silence of Lorna The Stoning of Soraya M. Under the Bombs W. WALL·E What Just Happened? XXY Yip Man +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I've also posted lists of the best movies of the 1940s, the 1980s, 1939, 1959, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,  2009, 2010, and of my all-time favorites.

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