Best of 2008: Films

My eyes are a bit bleary this morning; deep dark circles make me look ill, I think. I slept on the couch - the house was empty, and I'd told Z to stay at home so that I could sleep in peace. And so I pulled my comforter off of my bed, threw all the sofa pillows on the floor, and curled into a tight ball, squashed by the eager advances of the dog. He loves to sleep under the covers too, you see.

I woke up once, stretched out and sweating, and I remember dreaming but I don't remember what. The night before, drawn low by medication withdrawal, I dreamt wretched dreams, awakened by Z's Arabic somniloquy. I sleep badly regardless. Always tired, never resting, always on the go...

I'm writing because we're about to ring in the new year. Nothing momentous about 2009 - we have survived snow and floods and biblical disasters, and here comes 2009. Nothing special, only that I will be 25 and Barack Obama will be our next president.

I'm writing because everyone else seems to be. Compiling "Best of 2008" lists, assessing the year behind us, making New Year's Resolutions, and I feel I must include my own opinions. Before midnight, I want some contemplation of my own. Now seems the time to address what we are thankful for, what we have endured and triumphed over, and not on the misguided and manufactured patriotism of Thanksgiving day.

I'll start with a best of 2008 movies. I think that's the easiest to compile.

I always feel like I never see as many movies as I'd like, but it's surprising how many I can list. Of movies that were released in 2008:

• Be Kind, Rewind
• Penelope
• The Visitor
• Iron Man
• The Fall
• Wall-E
• The Dark Knight
• Tropic Thunder
• Burn After Reading
• Synecdoche, NY
• Milk
• The Spirit

I used to keep a movie journal, in which I listed each movie I watched, cast and crew credits, and list of questions and details that eventually grew too long to maintain. Well, a brief description of each film follows, since the details of my movie journal are too grandiose for now.

Be Kind, Rewind I just watched last week, over the Christmas holiday. I rented it, and watched it at home on my sister's small TV. I think many movies lose their magic when not seen on the big screen, and this may have been one of them. Michel Gondry blew me away with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and chamed me with Science of Sleep, but Be Kind Rewind felt unfinished or unexpectedly ordinary. I do love Mos Def, though, and Melonie Diaz.

I saw Penelope in the theater, and adored it, in spite of its obvious use of scrims to hide the copious make up used for Christina Ricci's snout. I loved the costumes, and exited the theater feeling hopeful, in spite of myself.

I watched The Visitor at home. I had high hopes for the film, having enjoyed Thomas McCarthy's The Station Agent a great deal. I expected the same quiet ease in humor, but received an awkward representation of illegal immigration.

Iron Man, well, I wanted to see it in the theater but never did. So Dad bought it to watch with Melanie and me. Melanie watched it one lazy afternoon, and then I watched it, leaving Dad with an unwatched DVD. I didn't like it much. I thought Terrance Howard's character simple, and the requisite evil middle eastern terrorists boring. I may have enjoyed it in the theater, or at least Robert Downey Jr's well-sculpted body and gleeful performance, but not much else.

Oh man, The Fall. The Fall grabbed me by the hair and shook me until rendered drunk. This is one of those movies that I loved so dearly that I feel like a dufus trying to describe why. I have never seen Tarsem Singh's The Cell, although I've heard surprisingly good things about the serial killer film starring Jennifer Lopez. I knew nothing of what The Fall promised to be, I only followed the excited advice of a friend, attended the movie with a crowd of friends, and stood dumbfounded outside the theater when it was over. A gleeful experiement in dream location shooting, storytelling, and historical drama, I wondered at first if the film was self-indulgent, but quickly came to the conclusion of "to hell with self-indulgent: the film is gorgeous!"

Wall-E was cute.

The Dark Knight felt somewhat protracted. I thought Heath Ledger was pretty awesome, but I like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne far more than his Batman. Aaron Eckhardt grew on my because of his performance as Two Face, which felt all too short. Maggie Gyllenhaal, as much as I love her, is not much for playing damsels in distress.

Tropic Thunder was so stupid it made me mad.

I was a little worried about Burn After Reading. I had heard from others that it fell short of the Coen Brothers' mark, but I enjoyed it. I still quote Brad Pitt's "sensative shit" and am almost enamored of Tilda Swinton's harsh, androgynous beauty. John Malkovich still gives me the heebie jeebies though, which is probably his point.

I liked Synecdoche, NY; Charlie Kaufman is an innovative writer. But I probably won't remember much about it. Perhaps it was too complex for me.

Milk reinforced a burgeoning respect for Sean Penn and left me debating the relative qualities of Emile Hirsch (in Milk) and Shia LeBeouf (not in Milk, but in other films I've seen recently). Milk was successfully understated for a biopic.

The Spirit has left me (embarrassingly) eager to learn all about comic books. (Not helped by the fact that I'm currently reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.) A movie I thought I'd hate because of the archetypal characters, but was easily convinced otherwise.

How exactly do I make a best of list? How do I make it anything more than a list of items that hit me at the right time, right place, mood and situation? I could compare my choices to those of otheres, but reading the criticisms of other people makes me mad because their choices are often as arbitrary as my own, and so many people present their favorite things as legitimate in spite of biases and subjectivity. Anyway, my Best of Films in 2008 are as follows: Penelope, The Fall, Milk. In no particular order, of course. Just a short list of films that affected me positively.