explorations

top 10 films of 2008

It's only about six months late. But here it is, in all its imperfect, eager glory. My top 10 favorite films from the year 2008.

10. Slumdog Millionaire (directed by Danny Boyle) — Sure, it won Best Picture. But, to be honest, I think people would have enjoyed this relatively quiet, epic film if it didn't have so much hype surrounding it. The tale of a young boy who just barely makes it out of India's slums plays like a polished mashup of the archetypes of rags-to-riches, chase-your-love-down and what-are-the-chances? Surprisingly, this in-depth exploration of India's recent history was made by a Brit.

the wrestler

The Wrestler (2008)
directed by Darren Aronofsky
****

I remember when I first heard that Darren Aronofsky — the unbounded, creative mind behind Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain — was making a film about a professional wrestler. I was dumbfounded. And then I was curious. This, after all, was the director so talented that I had said I'd watch him direct the telephone directory.

If memory serves me, I also said he's a taste not for everyone. Pi, an intellectual, black & white film, was about our longing to understand life. Requiem for a Dream, a highly emotional, blazingly color film, was about the wages of sin, as well as their pleasures for a season. The Fountain, an unorthodox science fiction film that blurred emotion and intellect, was about the irretrievable distance we create by our own selfishness.

duplicity

Duplicity (2009)
directed by Tony Gilroy
**3/4

It's written and directed by the guy who created the Bourne series and Michael Clayton. It stars those luminaries known as Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, surrounded by a constellation of incredible backups like Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson. The cinematography is wonderful and the plot includes a built-in rug that it pulls out from under you at just the right time. It's even got a great poster.

So why is this film not awesome? I have two words for you: confusing, and so?

synecdoche, new york

Synecdoche, New York (2008)
directed by Charlie Kaufman
****1/4

I've never seen anything like this film before. In a way, that one sentence seems the most eloquent praise I can give, before I make a fool of myself trying to explain what I mean. Part of me wishes I could just tell you that this film is unique. You would have to decide for yourself to see it - or not - and have your own experience with Synecdoche, New York. But that's not how a review works, is it?

still here

Contrary to the looks of things, I did not drive off an e-cliff at some point in mid-February. To continue the metaphor, I've simply been at the 24-hour gas station/convenience store for weeks, trying to do some catch-up. The sort of catch-up that included finishing a chapter for my thesis, spending time with my daughter, taking at 2-week trip to St Andrews, teaching Eliot to 15 MA students and juggling several projects simultaneously.

Also, to be honest, I'm working on an idea for version 2.0 of this blog - at least in my mind. I've wondered for quite some time if there's a better way to share what I'd like to share, to have some community together around the flickering screen. So I decided recently that version 2.0 (which, I guess, starts now in some form or another) will focus on film only, with no "distractions." I enjoy many other topics, as you may have guessed, but they do keep me from focusing, and they keep you from thinking of Explorations as a place for film.

Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married (08)
directed by Jonathan Demme
****

Rachel's is one of the most life-celebrating weddings of all time, despite the menacing presence of her little sister Kym (played with gusto by a surprisingly excellent Anne Hathaway). Though you don't see it coming, Kym's dismal presence is exactly what transforms the wedding from something shallow into something profoundly rich and powerfully beautiful. That, dear readers, is the point of Rachel Getting Married. There's something rotten in the state of life, and the darkness can seep through the cracks of even the most wonderful days. But the light is brighter on the other side of darkness. It's fascinating, and one of the freshest films of the year.

The Reader

 The Reader (08)
directed by Stephen Daldry
***3/4

Stories that touch on the Holocaust appeal to our vulnerability, our human sense of what's wrong in the folds of our own heart. Vulnerability is the reason a masterful retelling can have us so easily under its spell; it's also why a disappointing, redundant version seems to verge on blasphemy.

The Reader resolves to live in this grey zone; its determination to wrestle with the subject again is one of the film's virtues. Instead of giving us another lesson about history's public evils or another simplistic Nazi hunt, this film wants to ask questions that don't get answered. It wants us to crawl back into a vulnerable space, and stay there, a little longer this time — at least the span of the film, if not much longer. It wants us to see the Holocaust inside ourselves.