Resurrecting the Movies thread...

[MaineWriter]

I suppose my list might change if I see Frost/Nixon but I have very ambivalent feelings about that movie. Sort of like Good Night and Good Luck. I watched it, I could see why people liked it but it was low on my list.

L

[SFEnnisSF]

I'm about 3 years late to the party, but I finally rented Monster's Ball.  It was nice to see "Ennis" again    , and hearing him speak different dialogue than what I'm used to and already know by heart.

Also watched The Shipping News.  Noticed Annie Proulx's gritty storytelling there.

[serious crayons]

I suppose my list might change if I see Frost/Nixon but I have very ambivalent feelings about that movie. Sort of like Good Night and Good Luck. I watched it, I could see why people liked it but it was low on my list.

That's right! I forgot about F/N.

As for GNaGL, I just watched it for the second time the other night. I can see why you'd be ambivalent. I liked the look of it, the acting, the seemingly pitch-perfect recreation of the tone of the era, the constant flow of cigarette smoke (oh, I guess you wouldn't agree with me on that one, L!), the kind of "adult" mood to it.

You know what I said to Del a few posts back about the '50s being a more adult era? This movie captures that, I think. The characters all seem like grownups. Even Robert Downey Jr., who doesn't always come off that way in other roles (though I like him either way).

That said, the plot just didn't have enough oomph for me. At the end, it kind of fizzles and feels anti-climactic.

[Front-Ranger]

Slightly OT: Don't you sometimes wish you could search one particular person's posts in a single thread? In this case, I'd like to search my own posts, to jog my memory about what else I saw this year.

Why don't you just enter 'serious crayons' in the search box? Try it!

[serious crayons]

Why don't you just enter 'serious crayons' in the search box? Try it!

Interesting! Well, it's true that all the posts that came up were from this thread. But there were two problems.

One is, they were not posts by "serious crayons," they were posts that mentioned or quoted "serious crayons." For the quotes, of course, I could click on them to find some of my own original posts. But then the other problem: they only went back to November.

[Ellemeno]

If you click on this link, it will take you to the 100 most popular titles for 2008 by total votes, over at IMDb, if like me, you need memory-joggers.  I'm going to look for my top and bottom movies for 2008.

http://us.imdb.com/List?year=2008&&votersort=on&&votes=500&&nav=/Sections/Years/2008/include-totalvotes&&heading=7;Most%20popular%20titles;2008%20by%20total%20votes

[Ellemeno]

Well this was a fun project.  I looked through several lists of what were called 2008 movies (though I notice that IMDb, which I consider the arbiter, didn't always agree, and called some of them 2007, but if they were on a 2008 list, and I felt like including them, here they are).


My Top Movies of 2008:
Walk Hard  (Great and respectful parody of Ray, Walk the Line, The Doors, and others.  I really enjoy John C. Reilly.)
Synecdoche, New York  (Oh man, someone see it!)
Rachel Getting Married  (Our Ann, and my Bill Irwin and Anna Deveare Smith AND it's set in a wonderful Connecticut house)
You Don't Mess with the Zohan  (I have a weakness for the more mature Adam Sandler, alright?)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day  (Frances McDormand steps in lucky shit.)

Movies I enjoyed, but wouldn't call top:
Get Smart  (I also have a fondness for Steve Carell, and in fact had an erotic dream about him recently.)
Baby Mama  (Especially liked Amy Poehler.  Tina Fey's character was a little too annoying.)
Hancock  (I also have a fondness for Jason Bateman.  Hey, you're learning all kinds of personal things about me.)

Bottom:
The Dark Knight  (Don't hate me.  I never would have seen it if it weren't for you know.)
Burn After Reading  (Liked the first four fifths quite a lot, but was so annoyed by the last fifth, that it puts it on this list.)
Sex and the City  (All the predictable fatuous vapidity of the TV show, with none of the wit or insightful social commentary or true pathos.  And I saw every episode of all six seasons, so I feel confident of what I'm saying.  Why did they think we'd care more about the size and contents of Carrie's closet than about how their actual lives were going?  And the big joke of the movie was Samantha actually has diarrhea on a fabulous tropical vacation, while we and the other three "girls" watch.  Um, hunh?)
Vantage Point  (Great premise, could have used better writers to actually tighten up the weak plot points.)
Horton Hears a Who!  (Insulted homeschoolers, of which I am one.  I have to admit I fell asleep during it, so did miss a good bit.)


Ones I still want to see, roughly in order of desire:
Frost/Nixon  (I admire Ron Howard.)
Milk  (Because it's Harvey Milk, and Sean Penn playing him with love.)
The Women  (I LOVED the Clare Booth Luce original.  And it has Carrie Fisher and Cloris Leachman, two of the smartest.)
Wendy and Lucy  (You know why.  Plus it's in my beautiful southern neighbor, Oregon.)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button  (Sounds intriguing, and I want to hear Brad Pitt's accent.)
CSNY  (I have Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in my cells.)
Trumbo  (About Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted writer of "Johnny Got His Gun," and other powerful stories.)
Chicago 10  (Should make this a double feature with CSNY.)
Pineapple Express  (Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen.)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno  (What can I say?)
Step Brothers  (More what can I say?)
Battle in Seattle  (The revolution will be movie-ized.)
The Business of Being Born  (Because I'm a proponent of respectful birth.)
The Secret Life of Bees  (I think I read the book and liked it.)
Then She Found Me  (Did read the book and liked it a lot.  Also Helen Hunt's directing debut.)
Humboldt County  (For someone who hasn't smoked marijuana since 1987, I sure enjoy it in movies sometimes.)
Tropic Thunder  (I dunno.)
In Bruges  (I hear it's good.)
Where the Wild Things Are  (Michelle Williams and Maurice Sendak.  Though can it compare to the Carole King version?)
Be Kind Rewind  (Okay, I like Jack Black too.  Now you know how unbelievably low brow I am.)

[MaineWriter]

Here's the Golden Globe nominees for 2008:

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button - saw, liked, should be on the list.

Frost/Nixon - like I said, I'm ambivalent. Ron Howard is the director. I guess that's why it is on the list.

The Reader - doesn't open til 2009 so it won't be on my 2008 list. Looks good from the preview.

Revolutionary Road - also doesn't open until 2009 so it won't be on my 2008 list. Another one I have mixed feelings about. Early reviews say it is incredibly depressing.

Slumdog Millionaire - saw, liked, should be on the list.

Personally, I think I would substitute Milk for Frost/Nixon, if only because they are recreations of actual events, so it is sort of an eye-for-an-eye swap.

I saw the preview for The Wrestler and I can see why everyone is raving about Mickey Rourke's performance, just from 2 minutes of film.

L

[southendmd]

So interesting to read people's lists.  I don't think I saw enough films to merit a list.

I did see Doubt yesterday (mostly because the times for Slumdog Millionnaire were inconvenient).

Doubt has some wonderful performances, and much nostalgia for one who went to Catholic school, but it didn't work for me as a film.  I could see how it would be effective on the stage, however.  I liked the individual performances, but I thought the film lacked a necessary tension.  My theory is that the playwright, John Patrick Shanley, who wrote the screenplay and directed, was too close to the material.  I wonder how it would have been with a different director, or writer. 

Meryl Streep is still The Goddess!  She does wonders with limited material, suggesting a very complicated character that I wanted to know more about. 

Viola Adams was very effective in a small but important role.  I had a hard time separating Amy Adams from her "Enchanted" character, sorry.

***mini spoiler***









Philip Seymour Hoffman has a tougher part to portray--the ambiguity of the situation.  The audience relies on his performance to make up their minds.
Reportedly, Shanley secretly tells the actors playing Father Flynn whether he thinks the character is guilty or not, but no one else knows.  (IMDb)

[southendmd]

BTW, I saw the trailer for Revolutionary Road and it looks just awful to me.  But then again, I am not a Leo fan, and I'm one of those few people who hated Titanic , thus not interested in a rematch of him and Kate.

I did recognize David Harbour (our Randall); however, not enough for me to want to see this.