With the year coming to a close, it's time again for the annual ritual of critics' top ten lists. Over at Slant magazine, Ed Gonzalez and I (as well as Bill Weber and Andrew Schenker) detail our favorites from 2008, a year that didn't exactly overwhelm with amazing films but offered enough good stuff to prevent the past twelve months from being a total bust.
2008: Year in Film (Slant magazine)
Maybe I'm just more of a hopeful whippersnapper, but in my mind, this was a pretty phenomenal year (if admittedly less titanic than 2007). True, some of my personal faves weren't overwhelmingly popular (or well-received at all), but just the fact that more than a few of your own highest-rated films of the year didn't make the cut (Gommorah, Hellboy II) is enough to reinforce this in my mind.
That being said, I don't get to see nearly as much out here in Pennsylvania as anyone with big city access, which means I'm missing out on a lot of good titles (not counting the screeners I've received, 50% of yours and Ed's Top 10 picks have yet to see the light of day here, theatrically or on DVD) and a whole lotta crappy ones.
Great lists and design, once again. Time to replenish the Netflix queue.
Posted by: rob | December 15, 2008 at 06:40 PM
Rob,
It's not that this year was out-and-out dreadful. Rather, I just felt that there were a few really stellar films, a sizable number of good-to-very-good films, and then TONS of crap. Of course, there's always tons of crap, but at least in my mind, there weren't enough so-fantastic-I-can't-stop-thinking-about-them films to offset all the dreary junk I sat through.
That said, yes, Hellboy II is pretty great. Would have been #21 on a second Honorable Mention list, along with quite a few other admirable B-B+ films.
And as is always the case, thank god for Netflix.
Posted by: nschager | December 15, 2008 at 10:29 PM