In these hard times, you deserve two “best films” lists for the price of one. It is therefore with joy that I list the 20 best films of 2008, in alphabetical order. I am violating the age-old custom that film critics announce the year’s 10 best films, but after years of such lists, I’ve had it. A best films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process. And 2008 was a great year for movies, even if many of them didn’t receive wide distribution.
Look at my 20 titles, and you tell me which 10 you would cut. Nor can I select one to stand above the others, or decide which should be No. 7 and which No. 8. I can’t evaluate films that way. Nobody can, although we all pretend to. A “best films” list, certainly. But of exactly 10, in marching order? These 20 stood out for me, and I treasure them all. If it had been 19 or 21, that would have been OK. If you must have a Top 10 List, find a coin in your pocket. Heads, the odd-numbered movies are your 10. Tails, the even-numbered.
• “Ballast”
• “The Band’s Visit”
• “Che”
• “Chop Shop”
• “The Dark Knight”
• “Doubt”
• “The Fall”
• “Frost/Nixon”
• “Frozen River”
• “Happy-Go-Lucky”
• “Iron Man”
• “Milk”
• “Rachel Getting Married”
• “The Reader”
• “Revolutionary Road”
• “Shotgun Stories”
• “Slumdog Millionaire”
• “Synecdoche, New York”
• “W.”
• “WALL-E”
I have composed a separate list of the year’s five best documentaries. They also may be described as “one of the year’s best.” And this year’s Special Jury Award goes to Guy Maddin’s “My Winnipeg,” which stands between truth and fiction, using the materials of the documentary to create a film completely preposterous and deeply true. Another of “the year’s best.”
Five documentaries in equal first place:
• “Encounters at the End of the World”
• “I.O.U.S.A.”
• “Man on Wire”
• “Standard Operating Procedure”
• “Trouble the Water”
Looking back over the list, I think most moviegoers will have heard of only about 11, because distribution has reached such a dismal state. I wrote to a reader about “Shotgun Stories,” “I don’t know if it will play in your town.” She wrote back, “How about my state?” This is a time when home video, Netflix and the good movie channels come to the rescue. My theory that you should see a movie on a big screen is sound, but utopian.
For further descriptions of Roger Ebert’s twenty-best films of 2008, you can read the article in its entirety here.
