The Best of 2008 (So Far)
by Brie Beazley
Sure, it's only August, but does that mean it's too early to start thinking about the best film of the year? No way! Although there's still several months to go in the year, 2008 has already seen a mother lode of cinematic gold, from monster movies (Cloverfield) to erotic drama (The Last Mistress) to some ridiculously successful movie involving the Caped Crusader. Whether you're into romantic comedies, heart-wrenching dramas, or action-packed comic book fare, theaters this year have been packed with movie junkies looking for their next hit. So break out the popcorn and the DVD player remote because here they are: Our picks for the best flicks of the year so far.
Cloverfield This might be the monster movie to end all monster movies. Sure, it takes its cues from Godzilla flicks and about a million disaster movies, but when it comes right down to it,
Cloverfield is creepy and suspenseful as hell thanks to some creature that crashes on to Planet Earth and then goes on a rampage in Manhattan. Co-scripted by
Lost mastermind
J.J. Abrams,
Cloverfield was a perfect popcorn movie to kick off 2008 and now that it's available on DVD, we can see that scary alien/monster/THING whenever we want. Hooray!
The Dark Knight It's pretty safe to say that this sequel to director
Christopher Nolan's
Batman Begins will go down as the movie of the year. Not only is
The Dark Knight a hit with audiences (it's made over $400 million), it's also a critics' darling with a rating of 94% on RottenTomatoes.com. Then there's the ace up the film's sleeve: the late
Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, Batman's nemesis. Ledger died at the age of 28 in January 2008 with much of his potential tragically untapped, but there's already been talk of him receiving a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance. Don't be surprised if it happens. Ledger is so good as the Joker it's scary.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall Judd Apatow is the reigning king of comedy and one of his disciples,
Freaks and Geeks star
Jason Segel, wrote and starred in this romcom. Segel plays Peter, a man whose shallow actress girlfriend (
Kristen Bell) dumps him for another guy. To cope with the loss of both his love and his dignity (he's naked as a jaybird when he's dumped), Peter travels to Hawaii—where his bitchy ex is also vacationing with her English rock star beau. All the hallmarks of an Apatow comedy are present (drug use, raunchy humor, a cameo by
Paul Rudd), what makes
Sarah Marshall worth watching is its heart. Segel is warm and believable as Peter, and he's both a writer and an actor we look forward to seeing more of in the future.
Snow Angels Despite receiving a very limited release in the winter of 2008, this adaptation of the 1994 novel by Stewart O'Nan is one of the most moving films of the year. Directed by
David Gordon Green (
All the Real Girls),
Snow Angels is a compelling look at what happens when a marriage goes bad and how the actions of one couple (
Kate Beckinsale and
Sam Rockwell) can have repercussions that affect an entire community. Green's latest release is the critically acclaimed stoner comedy
Pineapple Express, but we're willing to bet that
Snow Angels will be his crowning achievement this year.
The Last Mistress Catherine Breillat is the bad girl of French cinema, having directed such sexually charged (and explicit) flicks as
Romance,
Fat Girl, and
Sex is Comedy. Breillat's penchant for the erotic has often been the focus of the criticism of her work, but with
The Last Mistress critics are finally realizing she's not just a provocateur—she's an auteur as well. Starring
Asia Argento (daughter of horror director
Dario) as a 19th century seductress,
The Last Mistress is a captivating costume drama about the sexual peccadilloes of the French aristocracy.
Ooh la la, indeed.
Sex and the City: The Movie Yes, it's a chick flick, and not every one is a fan of Carrie and Co.'s lascivious adventures in the Big Apple. But for
Sex and the City aficionados, the arrival of the movie after the cancellation of the TV series four years ago was like getting a brand new pair of Manolo Blahniks—simply fabulous. And how awesome was it that Carrie (
Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mr. Big (
Chris Noth) finally…well, we can't say. But it was an ending that
Sex and the City fans had been waiting to see for a long time.
Surfwise While 2008 hasn't seen much in the way of documentary releases, one of the few docs released looks poised to be one of the best films of the year. We're talking about
Surfwise,
Doug Pray's peek into the unconventional life of a wave-riding family. Led by patriarch Doc, a former doctor, the Paskowitz family leads a nomadic existence, always in search of the next wave. While the Paskowtiz kids grow up to have some issues with their parents (the surfing lifestyle eclipsed their educations, for one thing), Pray's film is a paean to freedom and hanging ten.
WALL-E It just wouldn't be a "Best of" list without at least one animated flick and this time around, that honor goes to
WALL-E. Overseen by the gurus at Pixar, WALL-E is a trash-collecting little robot who's roaming the Earth circa 2700, and he's a lonely little guy, at least until he meets a robot named EVE who makes his electronic heart go pitter-pat. A tear-jerker for the whole family, look for
WALL-E to nab at least one Oscar nomination next winter.
HONORABLE MENTIONS Iron Man,
The Band's Visit,
Son of Rambow,
Hellboy II: The Golden Army,
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,
The Wackness,
Man on Wire,
The Duchess of Langeais, and
Paranoid Park.