Each year I make a point of comparing my judgments to the critical consensus, as summarized by Metacritic and the annual critics’ poll from indieWire (2008 here and 2009 here). I have at last caught up with almost all the best films of 2008, while the lists for 2009 will direct my viewing for the next several months, as the films come out on dvd. Below are lists of my own recommendations, with their indieWire poll rankings. As I reviewed my reviews of 2008 releases, some as recent as last week, I began to see my numerical ratings as pseudo-scientific, so instead of a ranked list I sorted them into a sort of narrative:
Best of the Year: Three stand out for me. Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky (#5) only got better on a second (subtitled) viewing. I would expect Laurent Cantet’s quasi-documentary of a year in the life of The Class (#33) to hold up as well. But I’m not sure if the Philippe Petit documentary Man on Wire (#20) could replicate the surprise and delight of first viewing.
Outstanding: Slumdog Millionaire (#28) needs no introduction, just an explanation of how a “Best Picture” could also be a good film. The Visitor (#57) struck some as string-pulling, but I guess they were my strings being pulled. I’m surprised I rated I’ve Loved You So Long (not on 2008 list) so high – must have been infatuated with Kristen Scott Thomas.
Highly Recommended: In this category I have one American film and a handful from around the world. I’m a big fan of Charlie Kaufman, so it’s no surprise Synecdoche, New York (#9) ranks as the best of Hollywood for me. It was a reach to wrap my mind around that film, as well as the others in this category: Fatih Akin’s German/Turkish Edge of Heaven (#16); the French family gatherings of A Christmas Tale (#2) and The Secret of the Grain (#42), the animated Israeli confessional Waltz with Bashir (#10), and the German Oscar winner The Counterfeiters (not on list).
Recommended: I will lead with three documentary portraits of cities: post-Katrina New Orleans in Trouble the Water (#30); Terence Davies’ Liverpool in Of Time and the City (#29 for 2009); My Winnipeg (#13) from Guy Maddin. Then a group of American independents that all take a sympathetic look at marginal lives: The Wrestler (#18); Chop Shop (#46); Wendy & Lucy (#4): Ballast (#19); Frozen River (#49). For a really marginal life, take a look at Swedish teenage vampires in Let the Right One In (#14). And for the Masterpiece Theater crowd, I have to note how much I liked The Duchess (not on list), with not-my-favorite Keira Knightley.
Well-regarded and okay by me: I endorse, without fully sharing, the esteem given to Pixar’s WALL-E (#3), Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married (#11), Gus Van Sant’s Milk (#15), and Jacques Rivette’s The Duchess of Langeais (#21), but would bump up into this group Oliver Stone’s W. (#64).
Critical bandwagons I can’t quite jump on: The Flight of the Red Balloon (#1); Paranoid Park (#6); Still Life (#7); Silent Light (#8); The Dark Knight (#22); and Gomorrah (#25).
As for 2009, the early leader in the clubhouse for me is Jane Campion’s Bright Star (#19). I’m also recommending Summer Hours (#1), A Serious Man (#2), and Avatar (#26), with particular enthusiasm for Goodbye Solo (#47) and Adventureland (#43), with lots more yet to watch – excluding #3, the latest from my cinematic nemesis Quentin Tarantino.
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