The best movies I saw in 2008

As I may have mentioned at some point, I don't have a lot of five-star movies on NetFlix. Why? Because I'm of the opinion that they should be reserved for the best of the best. As a result, a movie has to really make an impression on me to get a 5.

I've also decided that, barring the times I know something immediately is going to be a 5, I'm doing it at the end of the year. This way, I can calmly look over a long, long list, and say confidently that these were the best ones.

Last year, I think I did maybe five. This year, I couldn't restrict myself to five or even to twelve, so I have 13 new five-star films. And they are:

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead: One of the key things I look for in a movie when determining their ratings is stickiness. Does the movie stay in my head for a long time after seeing it? And "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" definitely stuck. A stunning film, and probably the best film of 2007.

Brokeback Mountain: I can now officially say that Crash robbed this movie of the Best Picture Oscar. (Then again, as I said in my Atonement blog entry, I don't think the Best Picture award is representative of the Best Picture of the year anymore.) Even if I hadn't known what was going to happen, even if I hadn't watched it after Heath Ledger's death, would it have the same feel? Perhaps. But that's how it was, so that's how it is.

CQ: This would get five stars just for the extra feature of the "Agent Dragonfly" movie on the flipside of the DVD; it captures that Danger: Diabolik feel perfectly. The entire movie is just so much dang fun.

Idiocracy: Is it a brilliant satire of anti-intellectualistic culture, or a hypocritical crude comedy? Speaking as someone who had to watch a Larry the Cable Guy movie, I put my vote firmly in the satire camp. Not to mention just how utterly, utterly quotable it is ("It's got what plants crave! And I ain't never seen no plant growing out of no toilet!"). Great comedy, severely undernoticed.

Into the Wild: I'm rather amazed by some people who have criticized the movie for glorifying Christopher McCandless. Sure, it doesn't go out of its way to point out all of his mistakes like the book did, but it doesn't make him out to be the Patron Saint of Anticonsumerism like some people would argue. A touching, beautiful film.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: This movie and The Apartment are neck-and-neck in my favorite Christmas movies. Like Idiocracy, it's so very quotable ("I was wetter than Drew Barrymore at a grunge club"), and very funny, with the fourth-wall-breaking being the best part.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters: A truly stunning biopic. Sure, some artist biopics would show the works of their subjects, but how many would actually adapt them into the story of the film? This, plus the rather avant-garde style, makes it truly astounding.

Oldboy: Probably the best of Park Chan-Wook's vengeance trilogy (Lady Vengeance comes close, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is simply meh). A remake is in the works, but I doubt that American audiences could take it seriously. After all, violence is sort of fetishized and humorous in American movies; here, it's brutal and disturbing. And since I like disturbing stuff, I like this.

Once: It's sort of funny that Once and Across the Universe came out in the same year; they're similar, yet so very different. Across the Universe went above and beyond the overstated musical numbers and stories of modern times; Once took them both into understated, subtle territories. Both are great movies. Both are worth seeing.

Paris, Texas: A very sad, low-key film. Regret and responsibility are the main themes, and they're handled very well. A movie worth seeing; the only problem may be finding a copy outside of NetFlix.

Running Scared: I've been getting into wild, over-the-top action films lately. (More on this later.) Running Scared (not to be confused with the Richard Pryor comedy) is one of the first I saw, and its combination of Refuge in Audacity (there's a subplot about serial-killing kiddie pornographers! A subplot!), hyperstylization and taut suspense puts it on top.

Snow Angels: A few days ago, kids in one of my classes were discussing sad movies. I resisted mentioning this one. A realistic tragedy, and probably the best of David Gordon Green's work so far (the out-of-left-field Pineapple Express not being included, since I haven't seen it yet).

State and Main: David Mamet's portrait of filmmaking is hilarious, through and through. Yet another quotable movie ("But that's insane!" "So's our electoral process, but we still vote").

Runners up:

American Graffiti: A great portrait of the 60s.

Iron Man: Between this and WALL-E, I have two favorites of '08 so far.

Shoot ‘Em Up: Like Running Scared, minus any semblance of seriousness and ten times the absurdity.

Shopgirl: Now that Steve Martin seems to only be doing family movies, this may be his last mature movie. Sigh.

Slipstream: Sure, there may be a lot of hyperstylized movies out there, but how many actually have the entire movie rewinding underneath the end credits?

The Court Jester: My first Danny Kaye movie, and it's a damn good one.

The Grand: Yet another endlessly quotable movie ("Mom, if I were a cooking critic, I would give your cooking five stars--five stars which would collapse into black holes and create the biggest gravitational field in the universe").

The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Sexy yet beautiful.

The War of the Roses: A pitch-black comedy, and yet another quotable movie ("There is no winning! Only degrees of losing!").