Time Capsule: The 10 Best Films of 2008

 

Time capsule: 2008

So 2008, yay or nay? We were in the middle of what would be a landmark Presidential campaign, but also mired in a recession following the collapse of the housing market. The stock market plunged and throughout the year, the rest of the world felt the fallout of this financial crisis, forcing numerous national economies into recession.

But there were some pleasant distractions along the way that could give us a little respite. “Breaking Bad” debuted on AMC. Seth MacFarlane reached a four-year agreement with Fox to keep “Family Guy” and “American Dad” on the air at least until 2012. "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" were the big winners at the Emmy Awards. Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the first ever private spacecraft into orbit, while the Large Hadron Collider powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.

The New York Giants became Super Bowl champs by beating the New England Patriots. The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the World Series title, the Boston Celtics beat the L.A. Lakers for the NBA Championship, and the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team star at the Beijing Olympics.

In pop music, Amy Winehouse and Herbie Hancock win at the 50^th Grammy Awards, while Rihanna and Chris Brown win big at the 35^th American Music Awards. Coldplay released its 4^th studio album, “Viva la Vida or Death,” and Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and Kenny Chesney were the big winners at the 42^nd Country Music Association Awards. 

I remember 2008 as a year where film critics pledged a more objective approached to picking the best movies. I couldn’t do that then and still can’t do it. Subjectivity must have a place in our judgment as to what constitutes a good film. I have always taken this role of mine seriously. It is my job to convince you, the reader, why you should spend your time on a film. And frankly, a film that checks all the objective boxes but doesn’t evoke strong feelings isn’t the kind of film many people are going to want to invest their time in.

In 2008, it was harder to find 10 films I could respect for their craft while also being able to enjoy them because there just seemed to be fewer to choose from. However, if you can find these films on your streaming service of choice, it is worth your time to check them out.

10. Snow Angels: The pain of disintegrating relationships coupled with budding young love are set against the backdrop of a missing child case. When the child disappears, the tension in all relationships examined here is heightened. The viewer is like the proverbial fly on the wall, witnessing every flaw in each character and we wonder who, or if, anyone has the ability to recognize their own self-destructive behavior enough to correct them. Stars Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale.

9. Happy-Go-Lucky: Director Mike Leigh never seems to get the due credit in the Unites States that he deserves. Sally Hawkins stars as a cheerful schoolteacher who isn’t cheery because she’s hiding something. She is truly as happy as she appears. But she’s tested when she meets a driving instructor (Eddie Marsan) who is as negative as she is positive. Leigh always takes subjects that seem ordinary on the surface and makes extraordinary films out of them (see 2010’s “Another Year”).

8. Rachel Getting Married: Anne Hathaway plays Kym, a former model who has just gotten out of substance abuse rehab in time to attend her sister’s wedding. Her cutting sarcasm is a defense mechanism and a tool for opening old family wounds. The themes here are treated honestly, yet sympathetically. And Jonathan Demme’s camerawork makes the viewer feel more intimate with what they’re watching, as if we are really attending this wedding.

7. In Bruges: Written and directed by talented and provocative playwright, Martin McDonagh. This film was a pleasant surprise in early 2008. Two hit men lay low in Bruges, Belgium after a job goes awry. Then they run into a series of surreal experiences with Bruges locals while awaiting instructions. Ken’s (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray’s (Colin Farrell) lives take a rather darkly comic turn once their directions finally come.

6. Encounters at the End of the World: Director/writer Werner Herzog scores again and illustrates why he is such a versatile filmmaker. In this film, Herzog travels to Antarctica to shoot a different type of documentary. Not only does film the wildlife, he chronicles the struggles of the research teams and denizens of the camps who must live in such harsh conditions.

5. Burn After Reading: Two gym employees come upon a disc (yes disc) that supposedly contains sensitive information belonging to the CIA. They see a big payday in their future and attempt to sell the disc. In their inimitable, darkly comic style, Joel and Ethan Cohen meditate on what constitutes intelligence as it can be compromised by love, career and physical appearance.

4. Frost/Nixon: Michael Sheen shines as British broadcaster David Frost. Frost has developed a reputation as more of an entertainer than broadcast journalist. He goes about changing that perception by assembling a team of researchers and fact-checkers who help him prepare for his interview with Richard Nixon after Nixon resigned from office. Nixon may have thought he was going to get a softball interview he could use to sanitize his reputation with the lightweight Frost. Frost proves him wrong.

3. WALL-E: A film probably shouldn’t succeed when it has two characters, each with a vocabulary of about 10 words, who take up the first half-hour of screen time. But this is as warm, expressive (without a lot of dialogue initially) and creative an animated feature you will have seen ever since feature animation films’ resurgence in the 1990s.  

2. Milk: Sean Penn once again shows his acting versatility by playing Harvey Milk, San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official, who fought for gay rights in the 1970s. The script and acting are superb and it is an important illustration of the rights LGBTQ activists have fought for over the decades.

1. The Reader: The courage this film shows in portraying a man who becomes a lawyer in Germany and the woman he had an affair with is remarkable and touching. The woman (Kate Winslet) goes on trial for alleged war crimes for being a Nazi guard during World War II. Michael (Ralph Fiennes) had an affair with her years before he is assigned to defend her at trial. Michael finds a way of showing her humanity (which he experienced first hand) without absolving her of her role in the war.

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