Best Movies of 2008 - Final Version

This year, Farrah and I have the same top 10 pretty much, the only difference would be the order. We went for means and averages for the Christmas Card, but I'm posting them in my preferred order since this is my blog and I can do what I want.

1. Changeling
I’m surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, but it reminded me of Shawshank Redemption and the villain deserves to go into the Movie Bad Guy Hall of Fame.

2. Bigger Stronger Faster
A fascinating documentary on steroid use and America’s need to be the best, while hiding the skeletons in our closet. I’m still thinking about it.

3. Role Models
Funniest movie of the year. With so little good in the theatres this year, it came as a real pleasure to just sit and laugh non stop.

4. Diving Bell and Butterfly
It technically came out last year, but with there being so little to truly recommend this year, and most viewers discovering it in ’08, it deserves a spot. One of the most perfectly directed films ever.

5. Frost/Nixon
Who knew a film about a famous interview could be so riveting.

6. The Visitor
A very touching movie about a man finding himself with the help of some young, immigrant friends.

7. Milk
In retrospect, it could have been about so much more. Still, the ensemble cast was perfect and Sean Penn is mesmerizing.

8. Iron Man
The better of the two comic book blockbusters of the year.

9. Dark Knight
Really good, but not a great movie. Before it feels too long and gets clichéd, it’s a really good ride.

10. Frozen River
That small gem you wish everyone with an open mind would discover.

Best Music of 2008 So Far...

Duffy – Rockferry
She’s being hailed as the “new Amy Winehouse” which is meant as a complement from an artistic standpoint, but, unfortunately, carries negative connotations not just because of Amy’s behavior, but because of the glut of “new Amys” that are already bottlenecking the record bins.

For my money, Duffy is actually an improvement over Amy. Her voice is just as rich and lush, like a modern day Dusty Springfield, and the music is more organic. Amy was a classicist to be sure, but also seemed to be appealing to the hip-hop audience. Duffy relies more on her talents, than on the producers and studio gimmickry. Amy is good, but Duffy is solid.

Unfortunately, the single is not the best song on the album. That is a recurring theme this year. It’s satisfying to see the album is selling well anyway. Artists like her deserve the kudos. I don’t know if her career will span decades or if she’ll come and go like the other “new Amys” are bound to do. But she’s a bright star now.

Best Song - "Rockferry"


Mudcrutch – st
It’s the best work Tom Petty has done in over a decade (or two in my opinion, but I’m not a long-term Petty disciple). Who knew reuniting his first band would trigger the creativity like this?

Last year, director Peter Bogdanovich released a four hour documentary on Petty called Running Down A Dream that premiered on the Sundance channel. The reception was very positive and in the film viewers learned that the band that started it all was actually Mudcrutch. They were the ones that made the cross-country drive from his native Florida to LA to score a record deal, only to have the label axe Mudcrutch in favor of Petty, who they saw as the real value. A couple guys stuck around for what would become The Heartbreakers, and a couple other guys went home and lead normal lives for the next 30 years missing the entire circus. Petty must have felt guilty or deeply nostalgic because he reformed his original band after the doc’s airing and released a beautiful album.

More so than with his Heartbreakers stuff, Mudcrutch (terrible name, btw), sound even sunnier than he normally does. Honey-soaked melodies of bright yellows and oranges permeate the album. Even the darker stuff still sounds like dusk on a warm summer night. It’s folkier than the normal stuff too. He’s always been heavily influenced by the Byrds, but he wears it more on his sleeve this time out. At 14 tracks, it could have lost 2 or 3 to make for a tight, perfect offering, but it’s pretty close as it is.

Put it this way. I’ve resisted being a big Petty fan his entire career. It took Mudcrutch for me to stand up and take notice.

Best Song - "Scare Easy"
There are many, but you may as well start with the single.

Nada Surf – Lucky
Some people just don’t get this band, or find them inconsequential. Me, I find their last 3 albums, especially 2002’s Let Go, some of the most beautiful pop ever written.

Imagine a gorgeous girl without any make-up on. That’s Nada Surf. Pure, simple, lovely, natural, unforgettable. Singer Matthew Caws has a voice like a lovelorn romantic on a late, dark night. Full of passion that is haunted and yearning. Yet, his love is perfect, just as his melodies are perfect. His thoughts and emotions are clear. His muse is on his shoulder. No frills. Just bottomless heart.

It's certainly a far cry from their one gimmick hit "Popular" from '96. They aren't even the same band anymore.

Best Song - "Beautiful Beat"
The bestest of all the "best" songs I point to here.

R.E.M. – Accelerate
They’re still around? Yep, and finally recapturing the fury of their youth. Many have criticized the last 15 years of the band’s career. Surely, the sales have shown that one of the biggest bands ever, and a one-time monster revenue generator, have dwindled to a core of cultist fans who just haven’t moved on with their lives yet. (That being said, I thought 2002’s Reveal was one of their best, but I’m the only one who feels that way).

REM are smart businessmen and couldn’t help but notice their star plummeting, so they tried to infuse some life in their seemingly forgotten careers. Thus, Accelerate, a fast and lively and energetic shot of adrenaline that reintroduces them as artists to take seriously once again. Will they be rediscovered? Probably not. The young don’t care about the old unless they’re on a dating show on VH1 and even then it’s not for their music. But, fans will finally feel repaid for their investment.

The easiest touch point is to compare the album to 1986’s Life’s Rich Pageant. To call it a carbon copy is not meant to minimize the greatness of Accelerate. It just means that they took their best template for a rock record and reworked it for 2008. The songs are urgent and vibrant and straightforward. No experimenting. No obscure lyrics. No drama.

Again, the single “Supernatural Superserious” sucks and is the worst song on the album. Don’t let it, or your dubious feelings about REM, keep you from checking it out though. I know you’re sitting there thinking, “But, I really don’t care anymore.” In fact, their fall to mediocrity might even cause you to forget that you ever cared (chances are you did once). But fight that impulse. They’re handing you a reward. Take it! It’s yours!

Best Song - "Man-sized Wreath"

Vampire Weekend – st
Yes, the hype is deserved. Yes, they’re that good. Yes, they’re worth your time.

It’s this simple. They sound like ivy-league college kids who were heavily influenced by Paul Simon’s Graceland album. That also happens to be exactly what they are. If you’ve seen them live, you know they wear v-neck sweaters, sear-sucker pants and boat shoes, the Cape Cod uniform. Not to be clever either. That’s them. The music is rich white kids versions of afrobeat and ska and new wave. It doesn’t sound at all pretentious (to me, at least), and, in fact, sounds like the freshest music of 2008. No one else is doing this.


Best Song - "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

Wussy – Left For Dead
Take Nada Surf’s girl with no make-up and smear some lipstick on her. Maybe some thick, black eyeliner. Dress her up in a white t-shirt with a pack of cigs rolled into the sleeve and make her road weary and you have Wussy.

They manage to take the pop simplicity of Nada Surf, but run it through the DIY aesthetic. Crunchy, fuzzy guitars, even lower-maintenance production, a chick lead singer (on most of the songs), and some attitude. What they’re calling on, are the spirits of long gone bands like Replacements and Husker Du. It isn’t totally ramshackle. In fact, it’s often quite beautiful, just as those bands could be when they chose to dial it down. It’s real and raw and earnest.

Best Song - "Jonah"
Truthfully, it's one of the only ones I could find a link for. But it is good.

Honorable Mention
Black Crowes - Warpaint
Estelle - Shine
Moby - Last Night

Disappointments
Gnarls Barkley - Odd Couple
Bob Mould - District Line
Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
Deathcab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Movie Wrap Up

The Visitor

Sometimes it just feels good to be in a movie theater again. It’s been a while since I felt compelled to go out, but seeing The Visitor had been on my list for a while, so I sucked it up. I even liked seeing that stupid Stella Artois ad again. A night in the theater is made even more satisfying when the movie is good. It seems to happen so rarely now.

The Visitor is the story of a widowed college professor in Connecticut who keeps an apartment in NYC that he rarely stays in, only to find that an immigrant couple have been living in it for a couple months. Now, having never lived in NYC, I’m not sure if that could actually happen, so I had to suspend belief somewhat, but the film is about the strongest I’ve seen all year. The immigrant couple (he’s from Syria, she’s from Senegal, both are illegal) are a couple of sweet kids who help to bring the professor out of his stupor. When the guy gets arrested and is held in a deportation cell, the professor is taken on an odyssey of, not only the ins and outs of the political and legal process for illegals, but on an emotional journey he never could have imagined.

One of my biggest pet peeves in movies are those quiet insular performances that are always seen as deep, when really they’re just stoic. Brooding is often empty. The prof is played by Richard Jenkins, a guy whose name you probably don’t know, but will recognize the second you see him. He’s one of those guys. While the role could have been nothing more than one of those empty performances, Jenkins infuses a lot of life and power in his persona. He deserves an Oscar nom. Then again, I just really like the guy.

My only issue with the movie is it’s overly sympathetic view of the treatment of immigrants. The message is mildly heavy handed. However, the performances and subject matter quell the preaching. And, it turned me on to Fela Kuti, whom I’m now obsessed with.

Score: 8

The Hulk

Not normally being a superhero fan (or Edward Norton, but more on that later), I can’t say I was dying to see The Hulk. However, Iron Man has managed to plant some optimism in me. That has now been extinguished again.

The Hulk is ridiculous. It’s loud, it’s boring, it’s nonsensical, and Norton is so badly miscast that there is almost nothing good about it. Let me put it this way, I like Speed Racer better.

Edward Norton is SOOOO overrated. People think he’s a great actor, but I tend to judge greatness on range and he has almost none. I think people mistake an innate intensity as good acting. Sometimes, it’s put to good use like in Primal Fear or American History X, but that’s about it. (I did love Keeping The Faith, but not because of him.) Truthfully, he has a weird voice, is very average looking (I mean, like nondescript average) and his head is shaped like an oblong football. He could have played the Crystal Skull in the Indy movie. It’s discomforting to watch him emote here.

I never saw the one from a few years ago, so I have no idea if it’s better or not. I can say Eric Bana was a much better choice for the lead. The special effects are cool, but the story is lame and the set up is invisible. You never get a sense of why Tim Roth becomes that other guy. It just happens as a device to push more CGI on us.

Score: 3

Kung Fu Panda

Not a lot to say about Panda. It’s cute, Jack Black is funny, the animation is sub Pixar, but still good and it goes by quickly.

My only beef is that there was no reason for Angelina Jolie to have a part. I like her a lot, but she didn’t have many lines and you would never know it was her if you hadn’t been told in the ads. Why pay her fee and not give her something interesting to do?

Score: 7

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Best movie I’ve seen so far this year. It’s this year’s Super Size Me. It effectively pulls the veil away from, not just sports and steroids, but basic American ideals and exposes them for what they really are.

I’ve had such a deep hatred for steroids and the cheaters who use them, but the film shows me that they’ve been in use for years by almost everybody, including in the Olympics. Once you realize how rampant they are, how they have no noticeable side effects of any real danger, and that there are many other ways to “cheat” that are just as effective, you have to ask yourself if all the hoopla is worth it.

But the film is about so much more than steroids. It’s really about America’s drive to be the best and how that drives Americans to do whatever they have to do, lie, cheat, or steal, in order to meet that expectation. So, cheaters DO prosper. Nice guys DO finish last. You can screw everyone around you and still get to the top. You begin to realize how much spin is out there to create the illusion of ethics and morality and fairness, when these messages are all perpetuated by people with agendas and are as guilty of being flawed and cruel and unfair as anyone else.

There is no way you will exit the theater with the same rose-tinted glasses as when you entered. The film isn’t vicious. It’s not out to make you feel bad. It’s just examining the motivation behind the messaging and how messed up it is. It should be required viewing.

Score: 9