#1 There are no shortage of dysfunctional families in the annals of film. Directors like Jonathan Demme–who brings an observant delicacy to his work, a commitment to emotional honesty and an abundant insight–are, on the other hand, a true rarity. … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number One
#2 Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, like many Woody Allen films before it, is all about relationships between men and women. Two female friends are vacationing in Spain. A charming, handsome local painter propositions them, proclaiming equal satisfaction with any … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Two
#3 Arguably, the most impressive thing about Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days is its matter-of-fact tone. There’s ample opportunity for highly charged scenes given the subject. Cristian Mungiu’s film follows a woman in mid-eighties Romania who helps her … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Three
Revolutionary Road never had a chance. Months before it ever unspooled in a theater, it was the focus of agitated hype, the reunion of Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet held up as a major movie moment. As if … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Four
History is not tangible. Despite out attempts to commemorate it with statues and monuments, it’s not a piece of concrete that multitudes can look upon with reasonable assurance that everyone is seeing the same thing. Instead, it’s a collection … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Five
So there’s this guy, right? He dresses up in a costume like a bat–well, it’s more inspired by a bat, I guess–and dives around in these supercool cars and motorcycles and stuff and he beats up criminals. Or perhaps you’re … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Six
#7 I highly doubt that Hollywood power brokers are aggressively examining the oeuvre of Mike Leigh in search of remake fodder. Lucky for all of us, since it’s easy to imagine the cheery monstrosity that would result if Happy-Go-Lucky fell … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Seven
#8 Something that works on the page won’t automatically work on the screen, especially when the original prose tends towards the ruminative. That may explain why the likes of John Updike and Philip Roth are relatively underrepresented on the big … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Eight
#9 Gus Van Sant’s Milk pulls off the gratifying trick of making the fact that its title character is gay simultaneously vitally central and utterly beside the point. Harvey Milk’s mid-seventies rise from San Francisco small businessman to influential political … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Nine
#10 Set deep in a Scandinavian winter, Let the Right One In is a dark movie. Dark material, dark sensibilities and a dark, dark sky that crushes down on the characters with an enveloping, bleak power. The Swedish film focuses on a lonely boy who discovers a strange new friend in his apartment complex. It is a girl who appears to be about his age, but is actually ageless. She’s initially curious but standoffish, declaring the impossibility of friendship between the two. In a way, she’s right. What emerges feels like more than friendship, certainly more than the sort of … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Ten
Coffee for Two 