The Big Picture's Top Ten Films of 2008

Today, we begin our week-long look back at 2008 at the movies. Every day, between now and Christmas, we'll go over some of the best and worst of the year. Today is our top ten films of 2008, tomorrow the ten worst. On Sunday the 21st, we'll rank our top performances, which leads into Monday's list of the ten best directors of the year. Tuesday, we'll chart the best posters and trailers, and Wednesday we'll name our winners and losers, a general list that needs no explanation.

And finally, on December 25th, The Big Picture Awards, our annual, totally non-influential honors. And now, our feature presentation... My immediate impression of the year in movies is not an overly good one. That isn't meant as a backhanded compliment; we were spoiled by 2007, a year in which my top ten list ballooned to 17 movies before I whittled it down. But this year, the tough choices were what to include rather than what to exclude. Some of these movies didn't leave a bookmark in my mind when I saw them that they could be among the very best of the year. That's the way it turned out, though, and here they are. We won't give you full reviews here, because the reviews are already cataloged here. This is more of a recap of why each movie stands out and why I feel it deserves the ranking it received. 1 - Slumdog Millionaire I came away from Slumdog Millionaire thinking it was among the two best films I'd seen in 2008. That's a good feeling, especially since it had been almost nine months since the last time I had felt as strongly. Then I saw it again a couple of weeks later, and felt a little more strongly about it. I became more familiar with Danny Boyle's storytelling, and started watching the performances more carefully. As luck would have it, I hosted a screening of the film five days later, so I had a chance to watch it a third time. That didn't necessarily give it an advantage; I always watch as many films in or near my top ten multiple times before I make the list. So, it was going to happen anyway. But as I watched the film again, I noticed the things you don't notice the first time in, especially with a movie so rich in texture, culture, and color. I paid attention to the sound. The music is part of that, but there are great punctuations in every scene that keep them moving and give the film a very distinct rhythm. I was more impressed than ever. The story is undoubtedly strong, the message and its impact unavoidable. The performances, all by actors I'd never seen (with the exception of Ifran Khan), were beautifully in step with their surroundings. And then, finally, the film can viewed separately from the emotional journey it is, and be appreciated for the technical artistry at work in so many departments, from cinematography and editing, to the music and sound, to the costumes and background casting. Slumdog Millionaire is as close to perfect as we saw in 2008.

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The Windy City Picks 'Wall-E' for Best Picture

As we follow these critics groups from around the country, it's interesting to see which ones are the furthest from the pack. Is that a good thing? I guess so. I mean, none of them are picking Bangkok Dangerous as their top film, and to my knowledge, The Love Guru has gone home a loser nationwide.Chicago has voiced its opinion, and there are a few new options to think about. For instance, Wall-E was pretty dominant, winning the expected Animated Feature award, but also taking home honors for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. A lot of the other awards picked up where other cities left off; Danny Boyle is going to be the director to beat, it appears, just as Man on Wire is the top documentary.But this one's just a little bit different, and you wonder if the group Roger Ebert votes for will carry more weight with Academy voters this early in the process than journalists from St. Louis, Denver, or Seattle. If it does, Wall-E might be taken more seriously as a potential Best Picture nominee.

Best Picture:
Wall-E

Best Actor:
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Actress:
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married Best Supporting Actor:
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight Best Supporting Actress:
Kate Winslet - The Reader Best Director:
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire Best Foreign Language Film:
Let the Right One In Best Documentary:
Man On Wire Best Animated Film:
Wall-EGet all the Chicago awards, and every other one on the planet, at Awards Daily.

Sean Penn, Heath Ledger Win Two More Trophies

It's becoming evident that a few movies and performers have a leg up on their competition in this awards season. Of course, they'd never acknowledge it's a competition, but most of these movies are being released at a specific time of year to compete for little gold statues. That's why they spend so much money promoting them. Why else would I have been shipped 30 DVDs, some of which are for movies that won't even open for two weeks?

So here are the names and titles getting the most play: Sean Penn, Heath Ledger, Danny Boyle, Man on Wire, and Wall-E. More often than not, Penn and Ledger win in their acting categories in the recent critics lists, Danny Boyle wins best director for Slumdog Millionaire well over half the time, Man on Wire has a nearly spotless track record in the documentary category, and Wall-E has not lost a Best Animated Film award to my knowledge.In fact, the race that might have the most inconsistency is Best Picture, with Wall-E, Slumdog, Milk, and Benjamin Button sharing it, with Slumdog maybe a turn or two ahead of Button and Milk.Two more critics groups have announced their lists and yep, it's broken record time.

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