10. I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG

You need to see Kristen Scott Thomas’ performance in I’ve Loved You So Long to fully appreciate her skills as an actress.   The English actress who was once nominated for her performance in The English Patient gives the performance of her career in this heartbreaking French film about a woman who is reunited with her sister (Elsa Zylberstein) after serving a fifteen-year jail sentence.  Much like Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt and Rachel Getting Married, I’ve Loved You So Long is a story that questions our judgments but never asks us to withhold them.    And much like those three films, I’ve Loved You So Long is one of the most important films of 2008.

9. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Ever wonder how contestants from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? got where they are?  Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s wonderful new crowd pleaser, will make you think about it.  The film tells the story of Jamal, an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees on India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  However, before he gets the chance to take home the top prize, the show’s officials question his knowledge and accuse him of cheating.  What follows is a recap of his life and the experiences that taught him everything he knows.  It’s an interesting concept that plays out with an abundance of style and entertainment that will leave audiences grinning with joy.

8. WALL-E

There’s a certain beauty about films from the silent era, and their ability to say so much while speaking so little.  The same can be said for Andrew Stanton’s beautiful new animated feature, WALL-E, which extends Pixar’s impressive winning streak. The film tells the futuristic story of an old robot, named WALL-E, who was once the premier model for cleaning up the earth but has since seen improved models take over its job.  One of those models is Eve, an advanced robot who the lonely WALL-E instantly falls head over heels for.  What follows is a touching, funny and entertaining tale of the power of love.  WALL-E is a special film; its beauty ranks alongside Finding Nemo and it tugs at our heartstrings like Beauty and the Beast.  But comparing WALL-E only to animated films is a bit unfair; it’s not simply a great animated feature, but rather one of the great cinematic achievements of 2008, regardless of genre. 

7. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

The movies we remember through time all have their defining moments: the “here’s looking at you” scene from Casablanca, E.T. phoning home and Rhett Butler’s final goodbye.  This year, no film had more memorable moments than Jonathan Demme’s sincere family drama, Rachel Getting Married.  There are so many tender, unforgettable moments in Rachel Getting Married that it’s impossible to pick out just one: Kym’s return home, her hopeless car accident, her fear-inducing wedding speech, the cutting of the cake and the wonderful family hug.   Although none of these memories will likely go down with the greats from Casablanca or Gone With the Wind, they do transform Rachel Getting Married into one of finest films of the year.

6. DOUBT

You won’t find better acting in a motion picture this year than in Doubt, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name.  At this point, it sounds silly to say that Meryl Streep has seldom been better, but in this case it’s true.  She plays Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a cold and stern school principal that is feared by students and adults alike.  After being informed by Sister Adams (Amy Adams in a star-making role) of his actions, Sister Beauvier begins to question Father Brendan Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) relationship with a troubled young student.  What follows is an important and timely film that doesn’t point fingers or provide answers, but rather allows its viewers to make their own judgments.  And to me, there’s one judgment that is very easy to make: Doubt deserves four acting nominations at this year’s Oscars, (Streep, Hoffman, Adams and Viola Davis).  There’s no doubt about it.

5. WENDY AND LUCY

You can almost hear the camera flicker while watching Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt’s heartbreaking follow-up to 2006’s critically acclaimed Old Joy. To me, Wendy and Lucy far-succeeds any of Reichardt’s previous works, thanks to a powerful performance from Michelle Williams.  Williams plays Wendy, the penniless loner who loses her only companion, a Golden Labrador named Lucy.  Williams, who has a child with the late Heath Ledger, obviously knows a thing or two about loss and heartbreak and she puts all of her built up emotion into her performance.  It’s because of her that transforms the simple story of a woman in search of her missing pet into one of the best films of the year.

4. MAN ON WIRE

To me, there is no movie – fiction or nonfiction – that celebrates what the Twin Towers represented better than James Marsh’s exhilarating documentary, Man on Wire.  The film tells the story of Phillippe Petit, a French tightrope walker who in 1974 fulfilled his dream of walking across the Twin Towers on nothing but a narrow wire.  Petit is daring and wildly entertaining, and although the act may have been illegal, the film is really a celebration of the freedom and hope that the Twin Towers represented.  It also serves as a reminder of the beauty of the towers and the city of New York itself.  9/11 will forever be a painful day in American history, and several films have tried to capture the feeling of post 9/11.  However, none have celebrated our freedom and captured the beauty of our country better than Marsh’s film. And apart from all that, Man on Wire is one of the most entertaining films of the year.

3. THE DARK KNIGHT

By now, it’s nearly impossible to say anything new about The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film that has been praised over and over as “the greatest comic book adaptation ever made.”  Countless words have already been written about Heath Ledger’s haunting performance as the joker, and about Nolan’s vision of Gotham City.  But despite all of that, it’s still tough to grasp what a rarity it is for a blockbuster of its size to be this good.  The film grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, placing it amongst the highest grossing films of all time.  But when you look at the films in this exclusive club, only two films compare to The Dark Knight in quality: Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; both which are considered all-time greats.  And it’s just a matter of time before The Dark Knight joins in those praises.

2. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

“You can’t make everyone happy,” a good friend informs Poppy in Mike Leigh’s insightful, bubbly new comedy Happy-Go-Lucky.  Poppy’s response?  “There’s no harm in trying though, is there?”  This quote seems to define the goal of Mike Leigh’s films.  With every film, he attempts to make a film that will please masses of audiences, and Happy-Go-Lucky may be his most successful attempt to date.  Sally Hawkins turns in the finest performance of the year, as a schoolteacher who walks the line between happy and insane.   Her performance is the film’s driving force, and fortunately she does a far superior job of driving than Poppy’s character does in her driving training courses.   Poppy may not be completely sane, but she has a consuming joy that is contagious to the film’s viewers.

1. THE WRESTLER

In 1980, Martin Scorsese’s brutally honest boxing biopic Raging Bull set the standard of what a sports movie should be: truthful, uncompromising, and tremendously entertaining.  Nearly thirty years later, director Darren Aronofsky has taken every trick from Sorsese’s playbook to create the finest sports movie since Jake La Motta graced the big screen.  Mickey Rourke, the washed-up actor from several eighties-hits including Diner and 9 ½ Weeks, plays a washed-up wrestler who has dedicated his entire life to a sport that has left him with nothing in return, other than a few die-hard fans and a life-threatening illness.  Rourke turned in several fine performances in the eighties, including one that won him a National Society of Film Critics Award in 1983, but he has never been better than he is as Randy “The Ram” Robinson.  Marissa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood also turn in award-worthy performances – one as a stripper who understands Robinson’s pain; the other as his estranged daughter who only adds to it.  At the age of 39, Aronofsky (who also made 2000’s Requiem for a Dream) is only one year older than Scorsese was when he released Raging Bull.  Scorsese went on to release several more great films, including Goodfellas and The Departed.  Like Scorsese, Aronofsky’s masterpiece may forever be about a bruised athlete, but it seems likely that he still has a Goodfellas in him.