We see more films each year than is strictly healthy here at Flicks. This means we could all do with a little more sunshine on our pale, lifeless bodies. It also means we’re well qualified to compile a list of the year’s best movies. After much heated debate – by which we mean ugly, clumsy violence – at Flicks Towers, here’s the definitive list of the films you should have seen in 2008…
1. There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day-Lewis and director P.T. Anderson may not be the most productive practitioners in their respective fields, but every time they surface it’s a showcase in the mastery of their crafts. Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood provided a mesmerizing score which was the cherry on top of this sparse, sprawling epic that hauntingly illuminated the nature of ambition.
“My straw reaches across the room, and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake!” – Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis)
2. The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight had everyone in a buzz months before its release – a heavy marketing campaign and the tragic death of one of its stars meant that this was the blockbuster on everybody’s lips. Heath Ledger’s Joker went down a treat but was only part of this terrific crime epic, which delivered everything it promised and entertained us to no end. For once, we could eat popcorn and be satisfied.
“This town deserves a better class of criminal.” – Joker (Heath Ledger)
3. No Country For Old Men
After a twenty first century slump, the Coen brothers returned to form with a typically unconventional but consistently compelling rewrite of the western genre. Javier Bardem’s sinister malevolence provided one of the great bad guys in cinematic history and was the highlight of a uniformly excellent cast. A film where even the flaws added to the intrigue.
“What’s the most you’ve ever lost on a coin toss?” – Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem)
4. The Savages
“The dark comedy of real life, captured with clarity and heart” we said of The Savages. It’s not easy to make a funny film about dealing with dementia, but this one nailed the mix of pathos and humour perfectly, through pitch-perfect lead actors (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco) and a superb script from Tamara Jenkins. Close to indie perfection.
“Death is gaseous and gruesome and it’s filled with sh*t and piss and rotten stink.” – on Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
This one sounded weird on paper – a movie about a paralysed man who could only communicate by blinking an eyelid? And we’d see everything from his point of view? But it worked brilliantly. Very personal, beautifully shot, and a sensory experience for both eyes and ears. An immersive, life-affirming work of art.
“I decided to stop pitying myself. Other than my eye, two things aren’t paralyzed, my imagination and my memory.” – Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric)
6. The Counterfeiters
This year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film redefined the scope and perspective for future holocaust films. Staple characters like victimized, powerless Jews and pure evil Nazis were eschewed for an even handed concentration camp game of cat and mouse that still unequivocally captured the horrors of the era.
“I’m myself. Everyone else is everyone else.” – Salomon (Karl Markovics)
7. WALL-E
WALL-E was a tremendous accomplishment. Teeming with detail, visually dazzling, and conceptually audacious with little dialogue, this original science fiction tale served as a warning to mankind. Most importantly, it gave us one of the year’s most memorable and loveable characters ñ a Waste Allocation Load Lifter (Earth-class) called WALL-E.
“Do not return to Earth. I repeat, do not return to Earth.” – Shelby Forthright BnL CEO (Fred Willard)
8. The Edge of Heaven
The Edge of Heaven wove issues of love, loss, family and cultural displacement together like the intersecting stories of its award-winning script. Thematically rigorous and emotionally fulfilling, it snuck up and floored discerning audiences who sat spellbound, even through the quiet end credits sequence. Now that’s filmmaking.
“Maybe you’re a person who just likes to fight.” – Susanne (Hanna Schygulla)
9. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Like a geeky kid in a cinematic candy shop, director Guillermo Del Toro went nuts with crazy creatures for the return of the satanically spawned hero. Crucially, he also made this comic book sequel both thrilling and funny, even including a singalong in the middle. Critics aren’t supposed to like this sort of movie, but we damn well loved it. Roll on The Hobbit.
“I would give my life for her. But she also expects me to do the dishes.” – Hellboy (Ron Perlman)
10. In Bruges
Released with little hype or fanfare, this hitman yarn set in Belgium’s cutest cobblestoned city turned out to be an unexpected shot of black comedy brilliance. Colin Farrell put in a performance that channeled the humour of Father Dougal, only with added murderous guilt, while Ralph Fiennes swore like a docker and Brendan Gleeson damn near stole the film.
“Well, here we are in a room with two manky hookers and a racist dwarf. I think I’m heading home.” – Ken (Brendan Gleeson)
11. Sweeney Todd
Was this Tim Burton’s best film in years? A gruesome musical about a barber, hell-bent on revenge, who cut the throats of his customers and sent them down a chute to Mrs Lovett’s pie shop downstairs? Flicks certainly thought so. Terrific production design, creepy costumes and murderously macabre musical mayhem got two thumbs up from us.
“They all deserve to die.” – Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp)
12. [REC]
For terror like a punch in the throat, one needn’t look further than Spanish thriller [REC] in 2008. Using the well-worn mockumentary template, the filmmakers made it fresh with an almost flawlessly executed, short and sharp fright-fest. Claustrophobic and intense.
“We have to tape everything.” – Angela (Manuela Velasco)
13. Waltz with Bashir
Based on filmmaker Ari Folman’s experiences as an Israeli soldier during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, this animated pseudo-documentary remained highly personal yet strange and unsettling. Its surreal artistic style captured a haunting, dreamlike quality that proved effective in getting into the mournful headspace of its protagonist, and left us reeling with shock at the atrocities of war.
“Now, in order to remember, I’m looking for those who can never forget.” – Ari Folman
14. The Orphanage
Produced by the modern master of melancholy horror Guillermo Del Toro, this lost-child-in-spooky house tale managed to be both terrifying and deeply moving. Director Juan Antonio Bayona held back from throwing around too much CGI, and the beautiful, believable delivery that results was spellbinding. Watching this, you didn’t know whether to shit your pants or cry into your soda. Either way, it was incredible.
“Arghhhhhhh!” – Flicks reviewer Ashley Bird
15. Rubbings from a Live Man
Florian Habicht’s ‘performed-documentary’ about the life and demons of local performance artist Warwick Broadhead, was not the most accessible film of the year but perhaps the most challenging and innovative. Heading towards an emotional and resonant catharsis, Broadhead’s musings and reenactments were gorgeously captured. Rarely are we treated to such brazen and successful experimentation on cinema screens.
“How raw do you want to see a person? Stripped back to their bones?” – Warwick Broadhead
16. Happy-Go-Lucky
After the depressing Vera Drake, veteran British director Mike Leigh went to the opposite extreme to create this boundlessly optimistic tale about a young school teacher called Poppy. Proving divisive amongst film-goers, some of whom complained that it was over-the-top in its cheerfulness, the film was nonetheless something really different – a very human, reassuringly ordinary look at a person who chose to see the glass half-full.
“En-rah-ha.” – Scott (Eddie Marsan)
17. Pineapple Express
Last year the Judd Apatow Factory really hit top gear with Superbad. Seth Rogen co-wrote and starred again, while independent filmmaker David Gordon Green took the helm. In a year desperately short on good comedies, Pineapple Express was the the funniest and most charming; combining the hat-tipping and mayhem one expects from Rogen and Apatow, with Green’s eye, clever pacing and ability to draw top shelf comedic performances, especially from James Franco.
“It feels good in my brain.” – Dale Denton (Seth Rogan)
18. In the Shadow of the Moon
This stunning British documentary assembled together all the old codgers from the Apollo space missions to tell their stories. These old craggy-faced Yanks made for great company, providing humorous observations and moving philosophies about their voyages. Cracking archival and never-seen-before footage gave us a jaw-dropping insight into one of the most incredible feats of human exploration ever achieved.
“Oceans were crystal blue, the land was brown, and the clouds and the snow were pure white. And that jewel of Earth was just hung up in the blackness of space.” – Astronaut Charlie Duke
19. Rain of the Children
It flew under the radar when it came to cinemas, after premiering at the NZ Film Festival, but Vincent Ward’s heartbreaking investigation into the life of 80-year-old Tuhoe woman, Puhi, revealed a little known aspect of New Zealand’s history and culture. Not only did Rain of the Children’s subject intrigue, but Ward’s visual and storytelling prowess allowed the audience to share in the joy of its discovery.
“Every family has a secret.” – Vincent Ward
20. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Sidney Lumet, one of the greatest but most underrated modern directors, returned to our screens with this jet black thriller. An intensely depressing, draining tale about a family in decomposition, it was nonetheless impossible not to admire the prodigious talents involved, whether they were in the form of the magnificent ensemble cast or the tense, taut script.
“I’m not the sum of my parts. All my parts don’t add up to one… one me, I guess.” – Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
