It's that time of the year again, and 2008 has produced enough quality films
that I have
more than enough to make a satisfying top 10 list already. I'll just list my
picks in
alphabetical order, leaving rankings for the end of the year.

BEFORE I FORGET (Jacques Nolot)
Not until this film is halfway over does one fully appreciate the originality of
its storytelling
and the carefulness with which it doles out information about its protagonist, a
60-year-
old HIV-positive gay man living in Paris. There's plenty of incident, but the
drama is more
talked about than acted upon. And it has the most stunning finale of 2008, an
image of
quiet dignity that's likely to draw snickers from unappreciative audiences.

FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
For much of its running time, this seems to be an exceedingly beautiful film
about
nothing. To be honest, I think Hou's work has suffered as his interest in
history and
politics has declined, although I can't blame him for wanting to explore other
cultures
than Taiwan. Eventually, it turns into an indelible character study, with one of
the year's
most memorable female protagonists, that also thoroughly probes the visual and
sonic
possibilities of Paris.

LA FRANCE (Serge Bozon)
The year's biggest whatsit. I don't think we're likely to see a better WWI
musical ever, or
another war film that treats a group of male deserters who sing songs about what
it's like
to be female and a cross-dressing woman as representatives of the motherland.
In its
own, fairly gentle way, this is as much a provocation as IRREVERSIBLE: imagine
someone
making a film about a Vietnam War-era draft dodger traveling to Canada and
calling it
AMERICA.

FROWNLAND (Ronald Bronstein)
The best Amerindie of the year, FROWNLAND acts as a corrective to the
self-absorption of
the mumblecore movement and the general Sundance worship of quirk. Its anti-hero
is so
quirky that he can barely hold down a job or communicate coherently. It's full
of curiosity,
both about what it's like to live on the margins in New York right now and about
human
nature in general.

MY WINNIPEG (Guy Maddin)
Guy Maddin hasn't abandoned his campy sense of humor, reliance on the grammar of
silent cinema and early talkies, or autobiographical references. However, the
challenge of
making a documentary, even on his own eccentric terms, has forced him to put his
personal mythology into a social context and leave behind his comfort zone. As
entertaining as BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! was, it was also rather lazy; with MY
WINNIPEG -
and despite all the self-mythologizing and tall tales - Maddin comes close to
baring his
soul.

SPARROW (Johnnie To)
Johnnie To's celebration of pickpocketing takes the strain of dandyism present
in films like
THE MISSION and EXILED and runs with it in a far more benign context. This is
the kind of
film Jean-Pierre Meville might have made in the'50s if he was in a really good
mood. It's
first-rate populist filmmaking, but since it's from Asia and doesn't feature
guns, martial
arts or scary chicks with long hair, no U.S distributor cares.

STILL LIFE (Jia Zhang Ke)
The bard of China's modernization, Jia Zhang Ke makes some of the most
expressive use
of HD video that I've ever seen. However, his greatest talent may be finding
readymade
metaphors for a country rapidly trying to escape its history. This is less
schematic than
THE WORLD but more pointed than his documentaries.

THE UNFORESEEN (Laura Dunn)
Laura Dunn's documentary dodges the New Age traps it flirts with, thanks to an
ability to
do justice to the natural beauty whose fragility the film depicts and a
surprising amount of
compassion for people she disagrees with.

UNITED RED ARMY (Koji Wakamatsu)
It's ironic that Koji Wakamatsu is barred from entering the US thanks to his '70s
flirtations
with the PLO and Japan's extreme left, because he's made one of the strongest
critiques of
communism I've ever seen. Slowly and patiently, UNITED RED ARMY depicts how a
bunch
of idealists gradually turn into a violent authoritarian cult that duplicates
Stalin and Mao's
crimes in miniature. The documentary prologue doles out too much information too
quickly, but once the film settles into its two main locations, it conjures up
an intense
claustrophobia.

THE WITNESSES (Andre Techine)
A spiritual companion piece to BEFORE I FORGET, this may be the first film to
treat AIDS as
material for a period piece. Andre Techine's best film since LES VOLEURS, it
covers familiar
ground - a focus on a group of characters rather than a solitary hero(ine), a
mixture of
gays, bisexuals and heterosexuals - but it challenges the conventions of the
coming-of-
age tale by showing how AIDS ended it prematurely for so many people.

An interesting list - that's about all I can say really, having seen precisely none of them...

For me the best so far this year are as follows:

Over in my Edinburgh post I've already mentioned EDEN, JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR, STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE and RED. You could also add WALL-E and TIME CRIMES to that too, which will feature in my summary of all the sci-fi/horror films I saw at the same festival, whenever I get round to writing it.

Add to that list the documentaries DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH (bio of Harlan Ellison), MAN ON WIRE (raved about this already) and VIRTUAL JFK: VIETNAM IF KENNEDY HAD LIVED.

Italian murder mystery THE GIRL BY THE LAKE also makes the list alongside another couple of genre films in the shape of THE ORPHANAGE and CLOVERFIELD.

Finally, I'd also throw in THERE WILL BE BLOOD but only by virtue of it not being released on this side of the pond until 2008.

For what it's worth, my rather trivial method for picking out the best involved looking at my IMDb voting history and picking out anything with a vote of 9 or 10. A vote of 8 is also pretty darned good but then it would be a huge list so I gave up on that.

I've already been to the movies more times this year than I went in all of last year. But I've only got one I'd put on a top films of the year list so far, THE BANK JOB.

I've seen three of the films on Steve's list, and I see a lot of movies. :( But my theatergoing ratcheted up sharply in early 08, and with another turn of events due shortly I'll be able to submit a top 10 08 list next summer when it's all on DVD. I was taken with STILL LIFE.

Many seen last year, thanks to the magic of film festivals, but almost all "official 2008" releases:

1. WOMAN ON THE BEACH (my favorite Hong Sang-Soo film, and that's saying a lot)
2. THE FALL (easily the most overlooked film of the year in terms of something that could have broken wide, and so much less pretentious and more wonderful than the poster promises)
3. THE UNFORESEEN
4. WALL-E
5. PARANOID PARK
6. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS
7. MONGOL
8. THE SIGNAL
9. FORBIDDEN LIE$ (Australian documentary about controversial memoirist Norma Khouri)
10. OUTSOURCED (well, this obscure America/India culture clash comedy is an NZ release this year)

HM: SHINE A LIGHT, IRON MAN, STILL LIFE.

Seeing ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD tomorrow, have high hopes for that one. Still hanging out to see lots of stuff, particularly THE STRANGERS and (yes, really) KUNG FU PANDA.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON would probably rate #3 but I think it's last year's release, didn't come to NZ til this year tho. Not sure if YOU THE LIVING will ever get a proper release but it might well be my #1 if it was.

Special TROLL 2 award of impossibly awful and therefore wonderful to THE HAPPENING.

I’ve seen three dozen, but only five are worthy of a best list:

1. THE VISITORS
2. TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
3. THE BANK JOB
4. MARRIED LIFE
5. BODY OF WAR