catholiclefty

Certainly I saw rather a lot of films in 2008 - more than any time since my rather prolific 1997, and most probably the most ever.

In a vague approximation of the style of my 2007 list, but vastly expanded, here's my summary of the best and worst of the year. Quite a few highlights (and lowlights!) in what was a largely interesting year, where there are 25 excellent films rated 8 or above, about 15% of the total (a rather bigger number than I'd have instinctively thought), and 24 rated 3.5 or below, also about 15% (about what I expected). The other 70% didn't evoke especially strong feelings of love or hate! So here we go - all awards pertain to films released in the UK in 2008, unless I say otherwise, and all links go to my own reviews:



Best Film (first place) - Wall-E - no real competition here, a bold and wildly innovative and engaging film, which finally converts me to the Pixar camp which I've previously been more ambivalent about than most.

(second place) - There Will Be Blood - a film that manages to burrow down into your subconscious and demands thought, engagement, and multiple viewings. The virtuoso performance of Daniel Day-Lewis creates one of the most memorable characters of all time, via one of the most outstanding and consistent pieces of acting ever to grace the screen. The cinematography is also outstanding.

(third place) - a tie between the important and effective The Visitor, boasting a superlative performance from Richard Jenkins, and the frothily lightweight but deeply enjoyable Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, with a brilliant ensemble cast and one of the best musical scenes committed to film.

(honourable mentions) - 21 in total:

There were the excellent serious films, dealing with strong issues, with The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas giving a new take on the Holocaust issue, Changeling being an effective and atmospheric slant on a different era, Incendiary giving a slightly askew look at modern terrorism with a stunning lead performance by Michelle Williams, In The Valley Of Elah examining the effects of war on the people we actually send to do our dirty work for us, and The Savages giving an affectionate but realistic look at family dynamics.

There were also decent comedies in Forgetting Sarah Marshall with a hilarious ensemble cast and off-the-cuff humour that actually worked, the gentle and sweet Ghost Town, The House Bunny with a brilliant comedic performance from the highly talented Anna Faris, and the rude and raucous but also surprisingly sweet Zack and Miri Make A Porno.

Falling between comedy and drama were the splendidly done Angel, with a charmingly awkward performance by Romola Garai, and the off-beat and weird but well-scripted Dean Spanley.

There were the independent films In Search Of A Midnight Kiss, with a surprisingly affectionate eye for Los Angeles and a charming look at modern relationships, and the downright bizarre but effective My Winnipeg.

In foreign language films Conversations With My Gardener was startlingly effective and very well-constructed, La Zona dealt with social issues in a gripping way, and You, The Living delivered a well-crafted mix of comedy and pathos in its diverse scenarios.

There was the cinematic gem of a documentary Man On Wire, and the simple but effective charms of The Fox And The Child.

Finally in more-or-less my favourite genre, fantasy, there was the delightful Penelope, the reasonably traditional-feeling and well-written Inkheart, and the overblown and plot-hole ridden but still a masterpiece of cinema that was The Dark Knight.



Best Actor (first place) - not a difficult one to award, this. The laurel has to go to Daniel Day-Lewis for his astonishing Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. When most of the films I've mentioned here will have been forgotten, this character will live on in the memory.

(second place) - Richard Jenkins in The Visitor. An amazingly powerful performance.

(third place) - Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. A rare example of a performance living up to the hype surrounding it. His first real scene (with the pencil trick) is one of the highlights of the year.

(honourable mentions) - Tommy Lee Jones in In The Valley Of Elah gets a totally solid grip on his character. Philip Seymour Hoffman eats up the screen in Charlie Wilson's War and easily overshadows both Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. And Mathieu Amalric is worth mentioning for a memorable and conflicted character in Heartbeat Detector.



Best Actress (joint first place) - this one is a tie, between Michelle Williams in Incendiary, taking a character who ought to be an annoying stereotype and doing wonders with it, an absolute pleasure to watch from an actress I've never particularly rated previously (positively or negatively), and Sienna Miller in The Edge Of Love, who produces a wonderful piece of work in an otherwise so-so movie and outshines everyone.

(third place) - Naomi Watts in Funny Games - while it may be a diminished challenge in theory to participate in a shot-for-shot remake, the physical demands of this role are incredible and Watts is more than up to them while putting in an agonisingly real reaction to mindless cruelty.

(honourable mentions) - Angelina Jolie in Changeling puts in a very nice performance for someone I don't usually rate all that highly. Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky puts in an excellent showing of an eternal optimist, and Romola Garai in Angel puts in an excellent showing of a deluded eternal optimist. Anna Faris does a wonderful comic turn in The House Bunny. And I couldn't overlook my favourite actress Amy Adams who, in Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, takes on a role that should be flitty, annoying and deeply unsympathetic and makes her a lovable, adorable character, and also puts quite a lot of depth and ambiguity into the character, which becomes more noticeable on repeated viewings.



Best 'what on earth?' moment - easily Buzz Aldrin's cameo in Fly Me To The Moon 3D. Why anyone thought that was a good way to end the film is beyond me.



Worst Film (first place) - Couscous - Beyond doubt the worst film I've ever sat through at the cinema, this transcended both boring and irritating and was much worse than either, combined. Far too long, deeply frustrating, and with no redeeming features whatever (bar a tiny bit of decent acting from Hafzia Herzi), this is a travesty of cinema. Also has the distinction of having the most irritating scene I've ever seen, as well as being the worst film overall.

(second place) - Disaster Movie - yes, it was indeed. Awful from start to finish. Who green-lit this rubbish?

(third place) - Import/Export - an attempt to make a film about a set of important issues, this fails at almost every step and instead is exploitative, unimportant, and irritating.

(dishonourable mentions) - 21 in total:

In action film disasters, Al Pacino had a bad year with muddled disasters in both 88 Minutes (though at least this was unintentionally amusing for most of the time) and Righteous Kill (which was just derivative and dull), Babylon A.D. was a confusing mess from start to finish that was so bad the director disowned it before it was even released, Body of Lies managed to be both very boring and very offensive, The Day The Earth Stood Still was a horribly stilted and pointless remake, The Mummy : Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor was a hollow, humourless CGI-fest that didn't even manage to have a mummy in it, and Pride And Glory did nothing original and failed to do it in a manner that was remotely interesting.

There were a couple of notable horror failures, with The Happening and Prom Night both proving to be closer to hilariously bad than horrific. I can't honestly say I hated either, as they both gave me a lot of unintentional laughs, but as horror films they miserably failed.

Comedies are always prone to failure if the premise itself fails to appeal, which certainly applies to Four Christmases with the baggage of tedious enforced heteronormality via succession of tedious characters, The Love Guru with a half-hearted attack on motivational speakers that misfired in almost every way, and You Don't Mess With The Zohan (an Israeli super-army guy who wants to be a hairdresser? Err, ok, whatever). Superhero Movie is another spoof that wasn't needed or wanted, and the only positive thing worth saying about it is that at least it wasn't Disaster Movie. Meet Dave had promise but a miserable script and an unsympathetic performance by Eddie Murphy.

As for failing children's films, City Of Ember had zero charm and zero interest, High School Musical 3 : Senior Year failed not on the premise but on the back of weak technical film-making, weak acting and a failure to write interesting songs, Fly Me To The Moon 3D was pointless (in 3D or otherwise), and Space Chimps looked ugly and offered nothing new in terms of story. Make It Happen was the most derivative and unoriginal film of the year, and Star Wars : The Clone Wars looked awful and was nothing more than a blatant cash-in.

Finally, the glorious failure of the year is undoubtedly Speed Racer. It was a bold attempt to make a new kind of film, innovative and brash. Sadly, it didn't work. At all.



Most Disappointing Films - these weren't necessarily bad films, just that they should have been so much better.

Nim's Island is the obvious example of a film that had a neat premise and terrible execution. The execution in Bedtime Stories was better but the film still feels like a waste of a great idea.

Hancock ought to have been an awful lot funnier than it was, and needed a script that didn't veer off into extended prison scenes and strange twists. Righteous Kill - De Niro and Pacino in a whole film, working together! - should have been great, but it was quite the opposite.

Of Time And The City disappointed, or at least it disappointed me - I expected something rather more affecting but much of it fell flat.

And no review of 2008 would be complete without mentioning that both Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and Quantum Of Solace failed to live up to expectations by quite a way.



Best Old Film Seen At The Cinema For The First Time - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. A brilliantly inventive film, tightly written and beautifully acted by everyone involved.



Best Film To See At The Cinema Rather Than At Home - 2001: A Space Odyssey. I finally saw this at the cinema after years of almost managing it, and it was quite the experience. The visuals, the sound, all require seeing it on a decent cinema screen.



Best Film Seen On DVD - This is a tie between two 2001 films - the fiendishly clever Mulholland Drive and the vibrant and innovative spectacle of Moulin Rouge!. Though Junebug deserves a strong mention, for the superlative acting of Amy Adams.



Best Film Overall Seen At The Cinema in 2008 - Enchanted. I still feel guilty about pushing it into second place in my list from last year - if I'd written it a month later, it would trivially have been first, however much I loved (and still love) Stardust. I still love Enchanted to bits, I saw it at the cinema in 2008 many more times than any other film, and indeed than any other film ever. A genius film, and while I'm not going to claim it is technically the best film ever, it is very well-crafted, efficient, and effective. And in terms of performance Amy Adams is going to be almost impossibly hard to beat, producing here the comedy equivalent of the stature of the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood.



And onto 2009, where if the first couple of weeks are anything to go by, I'll be seeing even more films than in 2008!