Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Years Best From AFI, Boston Critics, Time, Stephen King & US Weekly


Both the American Film Institute and the Boston Society of Film Critics have announced their best of the year today.

AFI's Top Ten

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Gran Torino
Iron Man
Milk
Wall-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler

Thrilled to see Dark Knight, Iron Man, Wall-E & The Wrestler on this list. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I really love The Wrestler and am blown away with Mickey Roarke's performance.

Slumdog Millionaire didn't make the cut because it was produced abroad. Also noticeably absent - Revolutionary Road, Doubt & Golden Globe Obsession, The Reader.

Boston Film Critics Society

Wall-E & Slumdog Millionaire tied for Best Movie - both movies are racking up the awards - could Wall-E possibly get a best picture nomination? It's looking more and more likely.

Roarke & Sean Penn also tied, for Best Actor. I'm pretty sure it'll come down to these two for the little golden man. Go Mickey!

And the rest -

Best Actress: Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Director: Gus Van Sant for Milk and Paranoid Park
Best Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk
Best Cinematography: Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li for Paranoid Park
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Foreign-Language Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: WALL•E
Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire
Best New Filmmaker: Martin McDonagh for In Bruges
Best Ensemble Cast: Tropic Thunder

Thrilled with Actress & both Supporting categories. Just saw Happy Go Lucky today and was absolutely enthralled by Sally Hawkins. Beautiful performance that can't help but leave you smiling. Obviously happy to see Let The Right One In, though it pains me to think it won't get its shot at an Oscar. Martin McDonagh is one of my favorite playwrights (The Pillowman? Lieutenant of Inishmore? The Lonesome West? I could go on) so I love to see him win anything, but new filmmaker? Isn't he...an Academy Award winning filmmaker? Do shorts not count? Ah, and Tropic Thunder for Best Ensemble Cast. They were all pretty funny, but Thunder was not my favorite comedy of the year and certainly did not feature the best ensemble of the year. Oh well.


Next up, Time's Top Ten Movies & TV Series


Movies
1. Wall-E (another one for the adorable trash compactor!)
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. My Winnipeg
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Isn't this technically a 2007 film?)
5. Milk
6. Benjamin Button
7. Slumdog Millionaire
8. Iron Man (Woot!)
9. Speed Racer (Um...I'm guessing Time didn't see it stoned in IMAX like I did, so...how did it make it on this list?)
10. Encounters at the End of the World (aka david says I need to see this...so I probably should)

TV Series
1. The Shield
2. Mad Men (!!!!)
3. The Presidential Election (You know this doesn't count, Time. But I'll let it slide, cause, well... yeah, it WAS probably the best TV series this fall)
4. Dr. Horrible's Sing Alone Blog (Not a tv series either but who cares! Yay!)
5. The Wire (Still gotta catch that boat)
6. Breaking Bad
7. Lost (!!!)
8. Battlestar Galactica (!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE THEM EMMYS NOW BITCH)
9. Architecture School
10. Chuck (!!)

I like you, Time. You should have put Dark Knight on your list, but you more than make up for it with whichever geek you had compiling your best of tv list. Said geek should be my friend. Can this be arranged?

Stephen King

The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Tropic Thunder
Funny Games
The Bank Job
Lakeview Terrace
The Ruins
Redbelt
Death Race

Hmm. Well. Okay. The man loves himself some Jason Statham, that's for damn sure.


US Weekly

Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Tropic Thunder
Happy Go Lucky
Frozen River
Rachel Getting Married
Burn After Reading
Christmas Tale
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Doesn't a wave of profound sadness wash over you when you think of whoever must be reviewing movies for US Weekly? Can't really explain why, but I certainly feel it. Weird list, but glad to see Happy Go Lucky getting some love. Still baffles me why Tropic Thunder is popping up everywhere when Baby Mama, Pineapple Express, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Role Models and oh say, every other comedy this year made me laugh three times as much.

All for now folks.

4 comments:

Garrett said...

Really, Stephen King? Funny Games? Really? First of all, it was a shot for shot re-make of the Austrian original and directed by the SAME director. Secondly, it was excruciating to sit through (and I'm generally one to enjoy/be terrified by movies that have people stranded and trapped by torturous psychopaths/indbred mountain men/mutated desert people).

Okay, so maybe it was partly hard to sit through because I saw it on a terrible date, but STILL.

Also, I'm sad that Rachel Getting Married is only on US Weekly's list. I loved that movie.

LoquaciousMuse said...

I too generally enjoy those types of movies, but I rarely see them. Mutated desert people is the hills have eyes, yeah? I gotta see that shit. I never made it to Funny Games though. It looked cool, but the reviews kept me away.

Good point about Rachel Getting Married, I didn't even realize it only made one of those lists and it was US of all things. I enjoyed that movie way more than I thought I would and I thought Hathaway, Bil Irwin and Rosemarie Dewitt were top notch.

Batgirl said...

I absolutely did not like Tropic Thunder. I cracked a smile twice (during the fake trailers). I thought Tom Cruise was HORRIBLE. I actually wanted to get out of the theater and walk around while he was on screen.

LoquaciousMuse said...

re: batgirl

THANK YOU!

I mean, I liked the movie, but I too detested Tom Cruise and I found it to be the least funny of all the great comedies of last year. And yet it's getting all this attention from critics now. Bah.