Luke’s Top 25 Movies of 2008

I’ve been working on this for a couple weeks and finally am able to present it. Here are my top 25 movies of 2008. Only the top 10 are reviewed but I have included the remaining 15 underneath.

10. Iron Man: Perhaps some of the most fun I’ve ever had at the movies. “Iron Man” is an absolute thrill ride of euphoric joy. To begin with, I’ve been a huge Robert Downey Jr. fan for a long time and it has been so difficult to see him squander his talent for an unfortunate habit. But my friends, he’s back and he’s back HARD. And let’s not forget about the fantastic writing and direction of Jon Favreau, someone I have admired tremendously since becoming obsessed with “Swingers” in High School. There’s no doubt that his talent is abundant. I had some frustration with this movie as well though. It occurred to me very early in the film that Jeff Bridges is a spectacular bad guy and watching him I realized that his character was the perfect execution of what a modern filmic Lex Luthor should be. It was my biggest beef with “Superman Returns”, that Lex is NOT a stupid mad scientist bent on world domination. The modern Luthor is a brilliant wealthy businessman who has a dark side and a jealousy of the Superman that drives his evil madness. I was so so so disappointed to see such a brilliant portrayal of Lex in an “Iron Man” movie as opposed to a new “Superman” movie. But that aside, what I am most excited about with “Iron Man” was it’s ability to tap into the fun of the superhero genre without turning it into camp. For so so long, the virus that has plagued this wonderful genre has been the ease of “camping” it up, but Favreau has proved that you can make a downright absolutely fun comic book movie without resorting to annoying and insulting camp. “Iron Man” ranks in the top 3 greatest comic book movies of all time in my opinion and kicks off our countdown for the 10 best movies of the year.

09. Let The Right One In: SCREW “Twilight”!!!! You want a movie about vampires, I’ve got a movie for you. In fact, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest vampire movies ever made. And it’s about freaking time. The “Underworld’s” and “Blades” needed to be counteracted by some actual filmic literature for some time. “Let The Right One In” is a Swedish film about two 12 year olds, one of them being a vampire and the other being a lonely outcasted boy. What proceeds is one of the most disturbingly heartfelt films I’ve ever seen. Original is a decent word here. There’s nothing necessarily profound about this movie, but the originality and the execution is pure bliss.

08. Milk: I’d like to take this moment to point out that making a top 10 is extremely hard because all of these movies are essentially tied. If I had determined them based on points, they all would have missed the number one spot by a fraction of a point. I loved them all so dearly and all for completely different reasons. The reason I bring that up is because thinking about Milk, this honestly feels like my favorite movie of the year, yet all the movies remaining feel like they are perfectly placed in my appeal as well. Of course, when you’ve watched hundreds of movies in a year, the top 10 is, essentially, the equally best movies of the year. “Milk” made a very distinct impression on me. To begin with it is a delicately crafted film. It does have the casual clichés of the modern biopic, but it also layers things on top of it as well. To begin with, unlike someone like Johnny Cash or Ray Charles, I was largely unaware of the life of Harvey Milk and the incredible progression he put forth in his lifetime for the rights of homosexuals. And I can say, without a doubt, that Sean Penn has proved himself to be one of the greatest actors OF ALL TIME. There is no denying his presence and skill in the world of narrative film. He is a force to be reckoned with and he performs Harvey with such great ease and perfection that there is absolutely no distinction between him and the character whatsoever. It is an immaculate portrayal. But what’s more is how amazingly relevant this film is. It seems like an obvious point to make, but this film was well into production long before any of the issues we’re experiencing with Prop 8 and the issue of gay marriage, but this film came around  in such perfect timing you have to wonder if the studio hired a psychic for their marketing. All joking aside, I firmly believe this film is essential to view. I know many people who would disagree but I firmly believe that gay rights are a civil rights issue and whatever your “religious” views on the topic, the point remains that it is engrained in the foundational principals of this country that ALL men, no matter their sex, race, socioeconomic position and even sexual preference, are created equal and deserve the same equal rights as everybody. This is a powerful and poignant film that will always be remembered as an important part of the history of art and culture.

07. Doubt: Going into this film I was a little skeptical. I kind of had to ask myself, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep at the helm, if this movie really honestly had any chance of not being awesome. but what I found was such a beautiful little character film. I am, admittedly, a huge fan of movies based on plays, which explains my obsession with David Mamet, but this film does so much for the viewer! Besides including a spectacular ensemble cast (and Viola Davis: wow!) and an awesome short-form style of narrative, the interaction that occurs after seeing this movie is SO much fun! My wife and I sat in our apartment for HOURS just debating the facts. She was convinced he didn’t do it, but I was convinced he did and we did NOTHING but give each other credible evidence to prove our points and we laid in bed arguing them till we fell asleep. I honestly can’t remember another movie in a long while that engaged us so much. Clearly this is the point of not only the movie but the play. It’s what makes it so great, but I hadn’t seen the play at all and I found out there was actually much more in the movie that wasn’t included in the play. Do yourself a HUGE favor and dig deep into this one. You won’t regret it. It’s an intellectually fun film.

06. Gran Torino: For a long time I have been a somewhat lone dissenter of Clint Eastwood’s. I always felt he was a bit overrated. I felt that maybe he was given a bit of a pass because of his veteran and icon status, but I have to admit that now I’m intrigued and it might be time to eat crow, cause “Gran Torino” is simply A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!! I mean it, this movie is just badass! And what’s more is that it is ALL because of Eastwood. Eastwood has said this will be his final lead acting role and if that is truly so, I believe it is fitting. This is his Dirty Harry role retired and it has helped me to finally understand the appeal of his classic iconic badass persona. I’m now ready to get my Eastwood schooling.

05. The Wrestler: “The Wrestler” is a fitting title for this movie. This is a movie you really do have to wrestle through. It’s a movie that doesn’t expect to be much more than a heartfelt study of a person. A person who has to reclaim his identity despite himself.  Randy “The Ram” Robinson is his own worst enemy, yet he is his own greatest hero. He has simply the potential to destroy himself or redeem himself, an in a way he does both at the same time. It is relative whether Randy deserves to be happy or deserves to be glorified, but the truth is that he cannot be both at the same time. He is part of a dead time and finds it near impossible to “breathe” outside of his own distant prime. But despite the obvious flaws he has incurred we can do nothing but sympathize for him. Mickey Rourke as “Randy” honestly gives one of the greatest performances I have ever seen. This film rests entirely on his shoulders and the performance very much reminded me of Brando’s in “On The Waterfront”. He is in every single scene and in every scene he shines like a powerful lighthouse. It was certainly Mickey Rourke who impressed me the most in this film (especially considering that many of the scenes, including his spectacular speech at the end, were improvised by Rourke himself), but I was also extremely impressed by Darron Aronofsky’s style in this film. This was something uncharacteristic of him and and I think it showed how subtle he can be with a camera. Something that I think is important in film today. Sorry Michael Bay, but your bombast doesn’t impress me all too much. Anybody can stick a camera on a very expensive crane and throw it around, but it takes a true artist to humanize the camera. Darron did a spectacular job of that in “The Wrestler”.

04. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: This movie may perhaps be one of the most hearbreaking but beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Those are the two words that I think just sum it up the best: heartbreaking and beautiful. David Fincher, one of the greatest working directors today, manages to do something that I believe would normally be botched by any other less talented artist working: he manages to simply show a life. He’s not particularly telling a story here. I don’t think there is very much of a moral to this story. He just wants us to experience a life. As the screenwriter, Eric Roth (who wrote one of my favorite films of all time “Forrest Gump”) stated: “Forrest Gump’ was the story of an ordinary man in extroadinary situations, but ‘Benjamin Button’ is the story of an extroadinary man in ordinary situations.” This is just honestly one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever experienced.

03. The Dark Knight: There’s not a lot that I can say about “The Dark Knight” that hasn’t been said about a million times already by a multitude of people. It is, without a doubt, a spectacular achievement. It is, for all intents and purposes, the genre-influencing equal to the Godfather, at least in my humble opinion. “The Dark Knight” is the kind of transcendental movie that they’ll be studying in film theory classes for many years to come. Two men shine at it’s core, the director and his villain, and I could write a 50-page essay on them, but in the interest of time, let’s just leave it as this is one of my all-time favorite movies and certainly at the top of my list for movies of the year. I’m desperately in love with it. And to that, Mr. Spock would tell me that I have an “unsurpassed talent for understatement”.

02. WALL-E: It’s not fair that I’m such a known fanatic for animated films. It’s not fair that I’m such a known fan for silent films. It’s not fair that people know how desperately in love I am with Pixar, and it’s certainly not fair that I’m a huge proponent of properly utilized Science-Fiction storytelling. None of that is fair because it makes it extremely difficult for me to seem objective when I try to tell you that “WALL-E” is not only one of the absolute best films of year, not only one of the best animated films ever made but also, simply, one of the best films ever made, certainly at least in my lifetime. Discussing it with one of my best friends, Ryan Rogers, we came to the simple conclusion that upon five seconds of viewing the character WALL-E, a computer-generated image of nothing more than a metal box of utilitary robotics and electronics, you are INSTANTLY in-love and want nothing more than to hug it and bring it home. You would, in essence, travel to the ends of storytelling with him. His charisma and personality are almost scary. And yet, it’s just an animated character that DOESN’T EVEN TALK!!! This is the founding beauty and genius of “WALL-E”. Add on to that, a film that uses as it’s conceptual inspiration, the sci-fi films of the seventies and early eighties and a technique to draw out and duplicate the imperfections of film lenses that French and German engineers have been trying to get rid of for decades, and a poignant and relevant social commentary executed to near-perfection, and you have, in my opinion, a masterpiece. “WALL-E” is a film-lover’s dream come true.

01. Slumdog Millionaire: “Slumdog Millionaire” is a movie that is not only brilliant in it’s function, but almost too great for it’s own good. Structure-wise, it’s not anything drastically revolutionary. It goes in-between three time periods, each allowing us to view a young “Oliver Twist” Indian boy from Mumbai as he travels through life, with two things leading his way: survival and love.  Story-wise, we’re not seeing anything dramatically innovative here either. As I mentioned, it’s a kind of “Oliver Twist” update with an unexpected true-to-life view of India and a major love story added to it. There are no grand twists or major upsets to throw us off the scent. It’s straightforward as could be. But in-between “Slumdog’s” convention lies it’s greatest asset: it’s ability to tell a story that we can latch onto with eager ease and tell it effortlessly, in the speed and efficiency that director Danny Boyle has come to be known for. As you’re watching it, the movie feels familiar. Familiar themes, familiar story structure, etc. But under all the familiarity is a more important feeling of wonderment. What I found most interesting was the movie’s poster. The way it was designed, doesn’t technically come from any scene in the movie, but the placement of the lights and the urgency of the design is the most apt description of the film you could find. Though it doesn’t reflect an actual scene or point in the movie, it perfectly captures the “feeling” of the movie. It’s like watching a brilliant indie band you’ve seen a hundred times in a small venue with no more than 200 people play their first Arena gig to screaming fans in the thousands – and pull it off like they’ve been doing it for 20 years. That’s “Slumdog Millionaire”. In fact, this movie feels like it’s main character. A small, insignificant contributor to the world economy. Somebody who is not, technically important or flashy, but who has the charisma of a rock star and flies through his life with the confidence and beauty of a seasoned soul. The best way for me to describe the brilliance of “Slumdog Millionaire” is simply: Magic!

As I mentioned, having watched hundreds of movies, a simple top 10 just isn’t sufficient. I saw many many more amazing films that I have to list. So here is the rest of my top 25 list:

11. Pineapple Express
12. Burn After Reading
13. Frost/Nixon
14. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
15. Humboldt County
16. Religulous
17. Quantum of Solace
18. Role Models
19. Tropic Thunder
20. Young@Heart
21. Revolutionary Road
22. In Bruges
23. Son of Rambow
24. Be Kind Rewind
25. Hellboy II