I’m trying to work on my Best Films of 2008 a little early this year. I went through the list of Oscar-eligible films and copied all the titles I haven’t seen yet that might make my “best of” list. I’m sure some of these are great1 and some have almost no chance, but if you have an opinion (for or against) please comment.
CHE
CHOKE
DEFIANCE
DOUBT
THE DUCHESS
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
THE FOOT FIST WAY
FROST/NIXON
THE LODGER
THE LUCKY ONES
MARRIED LIFE
MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA
NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST
NOBEL SON
PRIDE AND GLORY
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
RELIGULOUS
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
SEVEN POUNDS
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
SNOW ANGELS
THE SPIRIT
SWORD OF THE STRANGER
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
TEETH
VALKYRIE
W.
WALL-E
THE WACKNESS
WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU
WHAT JUST HAPPENED
THE WRESTLER
YES MAN
- The Wrestler, WALL-E, and Slumdog Millionaire are already in the IMDB Top 250; a few others are Ebert 4 star films. [↩]
No Drillbit Taylor or The Love Guru? those were both awesome
FROST/NIXON I heard is awesome, but haven’t seen it myself.
Nick and Norah is kinda cute, but not great by any stretch, but people on rotten tomatoes seem to think so.
Wall-E is great, one of my 2008 favorites.
Jon and Chris watched Teeth, but said I didn’t HAVE to see it.
The Spirit got horrid reviews.
If you want to see Slumdog or Yes Man, I’m down.
I know some of them got bad reviews, but sometimes you can have a really good time watching a movie that was poorly received by critics. And vice versa. Amazingly, I don’t like really depressing movies, even ones the critics gush over. I can appreciate their merits, but they’ll never make my list. For me, it’s stuff I might want to see a few times, and I rarely want to be depressed over and over.
I saw Teeth (a Netflix download) and it was decent. But yeah, not on the list. WALL-E should be delivered soon, along with Step Brothers and The Wackness, which also got a lot of buzz. Masterchief liked The Duchess, but he likes anything with Keira Knightly (which sounds reasonable to me). But six of those movies won’t be on DVD until Feb., and some are still in theaters and waiting to be released wide. I’m sure the Wrestler’s release date is being timed with Mickey Rourke’s assumed Oscar nom.
I’m down for either Slumdog (which I know absolutely nothing about, other than to have unrealistically high expectations) or Yes Man (which I probably know everything about, having seen Liar Liar).