ZionSiva’s Groove

2008 was a good year for movies. It’s interesting that most critics seem to feel that it was not as interesting as 2007, for the lack of big masterpieces like There Will Be Blood or No Country For Old ean. Thing is, we had masterpieces this year, but they were “genre” movies. But more on that later. I’ve coupled most of the movies to make things snappier.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall / Tropic Thunder

The last few years have been great for comedies, and Judd Apatow is the man behind this great streak of funny, poignant and always interesing movies. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is amazingly funny and very, very well done, another proof that Apatow’s movies are consistently good without being at all formulaic, probably because he really trusts his protegees, like Jason Segel this time. Tropic Thunder, though, goes beyond that, and shows Ben Stiller at his best in a movie that puts him back at Zoolander heights. Very few authors can marry extreme intelligence with absolute idiocy like this man. Kudos.

Il Divo / Paranoid Park

Style is a double edged sword. I always felt that Paolo Sorrentino’s hyper stylized direction was jarring in the context of his previous movies, especially in L’amico di Famiglia. But Giulio Andreotti’s absurd story is a perfect match for his visual bravura, and Il Divo is the most interesting italian movie in years. On the other hand, I always liked Gus Van Sant’s experiments, and Paranoid Park marries his will to explore  with a great story and gorgeous cinematography from the world’s greatest DP, Christopher Doyle. It’s a great movie, bleak and inspiring at the same time.

Slumdog Millionaire

I have conflicting feelings about this movie: some parts feel too forced and unnecessarily glossy, there’s something about its structure that feels kind of fake, as if you could see the strings pulling all the dramatic moment in a obvious, jarring way. But I love the way this movie acknowledges its own escapist nature in the ending, and some of the best moments in this movie are some of the best moments in movies all year. It’s an amazing directorial achievement.

Hancock / Speed Racer

Hancock, as flawed as it may be, it’s one of the few movies about superpowers (which should be considered a different genre from superhero movies) that matches in ambition Joss Whedon’s work in the genre. The ending, considered by many as incoherent and abrupt, is one of the most interesting narrative twists of the year. And it works, changing shifts from comedy to fantasy drama with great skill. And all the actors are great on it. But yes, it’s weird. But not nearly as much as Speed Racer, just another proof that the Wachowski Brothers are among the very few artists who work with cinema without conceding anything to conventions. It’s as if each shot of the movie is built to create new words in the cinematic vocabulary. I have the feeling this two movies, in the long run, will have a bigger impact than most people expect. 

The Mist

I’ve written at great lengths l about the reasons why this movie rocks. I was quite surprised to find a better horror movie this year in Let the Right One In, but The Mist is more of a straight horror movie, and it’s absolutely brilliant.

Wall-E / Christmas On Mars

Sci-Fi is too often a cold, distant affair, but Pixar has managed to build an amazing movie about robots with no words, no humans, and a bug. This would be the first part of Wall-E: I have more problems with the second part than most people, but the greatness of what works makes up for whatever it’s not working. The Flaming Lips’ movie is an example of a very different approach: hyper low budget, basically a home movie, it works for the absolute honesty that comes out of every shot, and has some astoundingly great scenes. 2001: a Space Odyssey is one of my favourite movies of all time, I feel that both movies would make Kubrick proud.

The Dark Knight - Let The Right on In

I need to quote Joss Whedon here:

science fiction really gives you the opportunity to talk about the human condition in a very specific way. In a way that can touch everybody, because everybody can remove themselves just enough to relate to everybody. If you’re doing something about clam-diggers or a rap group or something that’s very now, you can still say beautiful things about the human condition, but in science fiction it’s be as you wanna be. What’s interesting to me, I never thought of this before, but I’ve been having this conversation for years: Hamlet is a ghost story. Interesting to me about this: Hamlet was a ghost story when there was no stigma about being a ghost story. That was partially because people believed in ghosts, but also they realized that there was a fantastic structure to this. The very first plays were completely mythic: Everyman, Death, you know, and then there was this bend toward realism, which is just a trend. It’s a fad. Those are the people, the ones who say: High-brow drama can’t have any fantastical elements, those are the people who are completely dated, completely not understanding history, making things new, coming full circle. And that’s something I’ve just been realizing, and that’s really fun in an interview. But to me, will always want to write like that.

I feel that what Whedon says applies perfectly to both The Dark Knight and Let the Right One In. Those are fantastic stories, some of the best of the decade, and have amazing depth and scope. They don’t transcend genre, they make a point for genres being completely useless for anything but browsing a catalogue.

P.S.: the picture on top of this post pays homage to a great show that is no more.