TOP 10 OF 2008

Since we’re in the first few months of undoubtedly a fun year of film, I decided to add more fun! Below you will find my top 10 running list of 2008.

1. Just Another Love Story - By far the best film I saw at Sundance (and I saw Frozen River! read on…) Ole Bornedal of Nightwatch fame directs a noir chiller that had me visibly shaken walking out of the theater. Mistaken identity, murder, and thrilling storytelling make Just Another Love Story my early pick for Best Foreign at the 2009 Academy Awards

PRIVILEGED GOSSIP - 4 Months 3 weeks and 2 days was distributed by Red Envelope productions (a part of Netflix). Well in my screening of Just Another Love Story I happened to meet the founder and president of Netflix looking for another challenging foreign indie to distribute. When Just Another gets distributed, look for Red Envelope to be the maestro.

2. City of Men - Really a fantastic film. If you enjoy the images of Rio de Janeiro and a great plot you won’t be disappointed. There is a twist, there are well developed characters, and beautiful, beautiful scenery that make this film interesting from start to finish.

3. Chicago 10 - Don’t let the Rotoscope fool you, this one’s deep. I’m a flag waving American as much as anyone but the topic here is our wrongful involvement in Vietnam, and the domestic fallout in 1968.

4. Cloverfield - Really refreshing to have a big budget challenging movie. Unlike Spider Man, this film doesn’t embrace it’s ridiculousness, it fights it. A first person filmed disaster movie is a genius idea, kudos to JJ Abrams for attaching his name.

5. Be Kind Rewind - So damn funny I might just see it again. It premiered at Sundance and you could probably hear me laughing across the country. Mos Def and Jack Black will wipe the theaters clean post valentines day and post Oscars.

6. In Bruges - Come one come all back to the movies! The Oscars are over and we’ve actually got a really entertaining one for you in Bruges! Ha ha! I amuse myself. Anyway Colin Farrell stars as a hitman laying low in Belgium. It’s funny, it’s dark, and even a little sad depending upon your view of the ending.

7. American Son - Nick Cannon has really grown up. In AS, he plays a marine on leave for Thanksgiving. He meets a girl, and is going to Iraq in 96 hours. A simple plot with unexpected results. This is certainly worth a Netflix.

8. Frozen River - The 2008 Sundance winner of the Dramatic Competition. This is just great storytelling. Two mothers will do anything to provide for their children. By anything, I mean anything. They end up driving across a frozen river and navajo country to smuggle in illegal immigrants. It will get picked up.

9. The Great Buck Howard - John Malkovich is back! He steals the show away from aspiring Colin Hanks and outdoes the cameo of producer Tom Hanks. This is just straight up laughs with Malk playing Buck Howard, an aging magician and Colin as his personal assistant. MUST SEE

10. Mongol - The beautifully shot foreign film that is actually playing in cineplexes.  This film is breaking boarders much like it’s subject Gengis Khan did centuries ago.  Beautiful and refreshing especially during the summer crap fest of has been comedians making “comebacks”.

Things I’m looking forward to: Dark Knight, Miracle at St. Anna, The Lovely Bones, Wanted,  Wall-E, Where the Wild Things Are, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Fighter, and Michel Gondry’s Tôkyô!

If you don’t know what these films are, I will be happy to explain. This year is like every year really exciting and I’m happy to be alive and able to see the big screen!