This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2008

Because it's futile to try and wait until the beginning of December anymore.

Previous installments:
This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2004
This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2005
end-of-2006 film stuff (detrius 2, the Richard Donner Cut)
This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2007

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/23/the-oscar-race-begins-gotham-nominations-boost-the-wrestler-rosemary-dewitt-rebecca-hall-melissa-leo/

and ...

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/here-are-the-14-films-up-for-an-animated-oscar

This thread can, of course, now lie dormant while the 1950s film poll results are unfurled.

I'm not even finished with '07!

I'm not even finished with '04!

The obvious topic of this year is the major gains that have been made by MSM in eliminating the position of "film critic" as a full-time given. It's been a major topic for a few years running, but this year the proof was really in the pudding, et al.

http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/nd08/fccrisis.htm

This might be too detritusy for the detrius thread, but:

http://www.ethansays.com/2008/11/robert-dowey-jr-is-ews-entertainer-of-the-year.html

My initial impression is that '08 was a pretty weak year for cinema - at least for movies that got wide distribution.

Foreign film distribution seemed particularly anemic this year, too.

in happy news, The Dark Knight score is Oscar-ineligible.

I didn't like TDK score, but ... well, the music branch is such a weird, fickle, vindictive bunch.

there were too many ppl's names on the score sheets, or something

And none of them were John Williams, I surmise.

John Williams tends to write heroic music, not deep anguished important graphic-novel stuff.

Hai just caught up with Oscar's best animated feature from 2005 (W&G and the Were-Rabbit). It was good and cheesy.

15 Docs Continue in 2008 Oscar® Race

Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 81st Academy Awards®. A record 94 pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order:

“At the Death House Door”
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
“Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh”
“Encounters at the End of the World”
“Fuel”
“The Garden”
“Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts”
“I.O.U.S.A.”
“In a Dream”
“Made in America”
“Man on Wire”
“Pray the Devil Back to Hell”
“Standard Operating Procedure”
“They Killed Sister Dorothy”
“Trouble the Water”

The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

-----

Another year in which the committee has apparently tried to eliminate any candidates that might have some semblance of recognizable cachet (Man on Wire and the newest Errol Morris aside). Left off the list (though I'm not sure of the vagaries of eligibility):

Chicago 10
Chris & Don. A Love Story
Gonzo
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Shine a Light
Up the Yangtze
Young@Heart

Early pick: Trouble the Water will win.

I've seen 4 of those, and think “Standard Operating Procedure” is one of the best films of the year. "Trouble the Water" wd be a decent pick, but since Obama hardly mentioned Katrina at all I don't expect his slavish showbiz cultists to pay it heed.

shamefully missing: "Up the Yangtze"

The Polanski doc sacrificed eligibility by premiering on HBO, right?

I'm reading elsewhere that it had a one-week qualifying run in theatres before the HBO broadcast, so it was eligible.

So apparently Oscar nods will be on Jan. 22, the one-year anniversary of Heath Ledger's death.

since Obama hardly mentioned Katrina at all I don't expect his slavish showbiz cultists to pay it heed.

Will Obama mentions outnumber Apatow mentions in last year's detrius thread?

well short of Dark Knight mentions, alas

Well let the good times roll, then.

Such is the nature of this year, I could even see Dark Knight slipping into Indiewire crix poll's top 10.

anyone wanna share their favorite films so far?

In order:

Viva
Flight of the Red Balloon
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
WALL·E

Um, that's it so far.

Ah, last year's thread had me watching 1-2 flicks a night in December trying to catch up on everything I missed.

In no order:

Flight of the Red Balloon
Wall-E
Rachel Getting Married
The Witnesses
Paranoid Park
Taxi to the Dark Side

Paranoid Park a fairly strong "honorable mention."

Along with the weird little psycho-thriller The Memory Thief.

Nothing on my list, though, is more than 3 of 4 stars.

Films that definitely came out this year, in no real order:

Teeth
Enchanted
Be Kind Rewind
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Brideshead Revisited
Man on Wire
Happy-Go-Lucky
Flashbacks of a Fool
Of Time and the City
Hunger

Films that came out in the UK this year, also in no order:
Noise
I'm Not There
Hors de Prix (Priceless)
Caramel
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)
There Will Be Blood
Battle for Haditha
Juno

Plus Paranoid Park, which came out here in the last week of 2007, but which I didn't catch till the new year.

(actually, Noise didn't really come out at all, but I saw it at the touring Australian Film Festival)

(oops - Enchanted should be listed alongside Paranoid Park as a late 2007 one)

Of those not mentioned so far, Roy Andersson's You, The Living deserves a shout. Did it even get a US release, though?

EH, you may then concur w/ Ed & me that it is a "dire year"? (of course, that's how I feel about the decade)

MoMA is showing Dark Knight in a couple weeks, so since I'm a member I may get to see how long I can last with it.

You and Ed have both seen a bunch more movies this year than me, so who am I to argue if you both say it's a dire year?

I think the total number of posts in this thread might end up telling that tale.

People who say a year is dire for film or music or any other artform must know they're talking nonsense, right? I mean, OK, you might track general slow trends in quality over the years if you're that way inclined, but with the sheer numbers of films released in a year, it would be a statistical freak to match all freaks if one year turned out to be good and the next one bad? No?

(The EoY Top 10 I submitted to Uncute magazine was this btw

You, the living
4 months, 3 days & 2 weeks
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
There Will Be Blood
Wall-E
In Bruges
Sweeney Todd
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Be Kind Rewind
Charlie Wilson's War )

...unless you've seen a shitload of movies.

(xpost)

The only way it makes sense to me is if you judge goodness or badness by the quality of, say, your three or four favourite films in that year.

yes, Alba, I mostly agree with those caveats. (except I've sen a shitload of stuff throm the '00s and the '70s, and the '70s are better.) If I had a better memory, i could make a list of all the international stuff I'd like to see based on my reading that won't be released in the States for months, or ever.

Oh, I can completely understand someone comparing decades against each other, as I implied. Though even then, I doubt that even the most avid cinephile is really in a position to take into account all the branches of world cinema. It's the "Last year was great for films, this year is bad" that rings so hollow.

I dunno if there's a better thread to ask this in, but since I've gotta submit a top 10 to my paper next week, any reccomendations from this year that are already on DVD/Netflix would be awesome.

xp: although the Editor I referred to probably sees 400+ films a year, so I think that's a level where "____ Year" gains credibility (in terms of what was screened locally).

2 that haven't been mentioned (maybe) that go together nicely:

Still Life
Up the Yangtze (just out on disc)

xp: although the Editor I referred to probably sees 400+ films a year, so I think that's a level where "____ Year" gains credibility (in terms of what was screened locally).

Not at all! It's the other way around. If you've only seen 10 films, then yeah, I could see how one year could be good and the next bad for you, but if you're seeing 400 then the sample becomes big enough for a marked shift in quality from one year to the next to be a remote statistical possibility. Unless, as I say, you're only judging these things according to the very best in one year vs the very best in the next.

the very best in one year vs the very best in the next

I think this IS the core principle. "wow, it's been a great year, cuz I saw a slew of total dreck in '07 but a slew of forgettable mediocrities in '08."

as in Mommie Dearest!

xp, well me too

As in every good movie.

k, you'll hate Hunger a lot (did you get a screenr?)

I did and I'm sure I will.

I liked the second half of Che better than the first half, too.

wau.

my top DO NOT WANTs in movies: pandering sermonizing, character "arcs," realism, faux-indie cred, zero aesthetic, underacting

De Palma luv explained :)

um, duh.

so ya shoulda listed "acting," wokka wokka

Mickey & Sean (together) thank Boston critics:

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/blog/2009/02/sean_and_mickey.html

I finally caught up with Shotgun Stories, and while it has its problems, it might be one of the 10 best American films of '08.

(nb Eric: "realism," underacting)

I can't agree - the rigged Frozen River, which i finally saw yesterday, has my vote for best Working-Class Sundance Movie.

hey, Steve Coogan is hosting the Spirit Award, could be a blast. maybe.

so, best old films you saw for the first time in 2008?

Boy (1969, Oshima)
Daisy Kenyon (1947, Preminger)
Trafic (1971, Tati)
Violence at Noon (1966, Oshima)
The Big Sky (1952, Hawks)
The Ceremony (1971, Oshima)
Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarter (1960, Uchida)
The Clock (1945, Minnelli)
It Always Rains on Sunday (1947, Hamer)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954, Donen)
The Housemaid (1960, Kim)
The Thin Blue Line (1988, Morris)
General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974, Schroeder)
Panic in the Streets (1950, Kazan)
Humoresque (1920, Borzage)
The Cranes are Flying (1957, Kalatozov)
Compulsion (1959, Fleischer)
Liliom (1934, Lang)

just watched "nick & norah's infinite playlist". was disappointed. was pleasant here and there, but even at 90 minutes, seemed to drag. plus is 2000+ NYC still so blase abt high-school kids in clubs? i thought things had tightened up since the 70s/80s/early 90s. dunno. for everything it got right (attention to weird WASP/jewish divisions, overally exc treatment of gay characters, retarded teen "romance" strategizing), it seemed to fake something else. final confrontation scene at the fluffy show was esp wince-inducing. nor did i need norah's breakthrough mariah orgasm moment - ecch, but whatev.

better than a good gossip girl ep, but just barely.

plus soundtrack was boring (hella). only songs i dug were the band's material (go deep, screw the man). and chris bell (dear sweet RIP). and ting tings on a preview for something horrible (unrelated)

so did no one else keep fastidious records of the old films they saw last year? (3 posts back)

I'd have to scan my blog (which owes much to Rosenbaum and Kehr's weekly columns). Daisy Kenyon and The Furies were my favorites.

I did not keep a detailed screenlog this year. Probably the best older movie I saw for the first time was An Autumn Afternoon, with Remembrance of Things to Come and Pierrot Le Fou just behind.

I kept one, but Morbs wouldn't like it.

I'm just happy that the university library added The Horse's Mouth to its catalogue.

ive been trying to start that book for 2 months.

For years I avoided it because I confused him with the author of this this.

first time 2008 old stuff A+:

letter from an unknown woman (i would probably put this in top 10 movies of all time list if i were ever inclined to make that kind of list)
the letter never sent
jeanne dielman
daisy kenyon
cluny brown

...this is hard to remember, i don't really keep a movie log anymore

so it turns out i was all about movies named after their titular heroines and thwarted correspondence in 2k8

oh and also the panic in needle park

cool. (tho i think u saw Letter fr UnkWom around when i did at BAM, and that was Dec '07, I just rewatched it on crappy library VHS!)

i had kind of a banner year for older films, catching up with tons of classics I never got around to before:

Kiss Me Deadly
Porco Rosso (okay not that old, but)
Ride The High Country
Counselor At Law
Baby Doll
The Cockettes
The Servant
Vera Cruz
Love Me Tonight
Eyes Without A Face
Frenzy
The Sweet Smell Of Success
Point Blank
The Merchant Of Four Seasons
Panic In Needle Park
The Tenant

most of these have become such favorites-of-course-i've-seen-them it's odd to think that wasn't the case 12 months ago.

saw The Class last night and it was amazing, essential, almost certainly the best "movie of 2008" that i saw.

so did no one else keep fastidious records of the old films they saw last year?

Actually started one on Friday. Started it by going through my netflix records and then stopped cause even then the list was too long.

Anyone of you clowns seen Changeling? All 140 minutes of it await me at home.

http://spiritawards.com/

so why did James Franco win a Spirit Award for an OK performance with maybe one butt shot?

Voter sympathy for butt shots, of course. Anyway, Brolin's overrated.

poo!

haha, I hope Eric has already heard that The Visitor won Best Director.

My train ride has been ruined.

:D

read this, then:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/movies/22darg.html

Done.

hype rises...

FILM COMMENT READERS’ POLL:
THE TOP 20 FILMS OF 2008

1. WALL·E Andrew Stanton, U.S. (5)
2. The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan, U.S. (21)
3. Milk Gus Van Sant, U.S. (10)
4. The Wrestler Darren Aronofsky, U.S. (23)
5. Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle, U.S./U.K. (38)
6. Let the Right One In Tomas Alfredson, Sweden (11)
7. Happy-Go-Lucky Mike Leigh, U.K. (4)
8. Wendy and Lucy Kelly Reichardt, U.S. (1)
9. A Christmas Tale Arnaud Desplechin, France (3)
10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button David Fincher, U.S. (34)
11. Man on Wire James Marsh, U.K. (18)
12. Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman, U.S. (14)
13. Vicky Cristina Barcelona Woody Allen, Spain (39)
14. Rachel Getting Married Jonathan Demme, U.S. (25)
15. Gran Torino Clint Eastwood, U.S. (32)
16. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. (7)
17. Waltz with Bashir Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany (8)
18. In Bruges Martin McDonagh, U.S./U.K. (—)
19. The Edge of Heaven Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey/Italy (37)
20. Frost/Nixon Ron Howard, U.S. (41)

I would've LOVED to see Inside competing against The Reader and WALL-E.

― Eric H., Thursday, January 22, 2009 1:19 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Like a mother, the movie's all over-control until BAM it loses its shit. It's kinda ass in the final analysis, but yes it would've made a better Oscar contender than The Reader.

full Readers' Poll:

http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/ma09/extend.htm

Finally got around to the new Desplechin and shouldn't have worried. His wavelength is clearly close to mine and this was a full-on endorsement of sensation.

made me long for Anne Hathaway's RGM family.

Those two movies make better bookends than the two halves of Che.

I wish Che had shown up to execute most of them.

The assassination of Emmanuelle Devos' character would be ... problematic.

Frozen River is everything Eric claims The Visitor is, only moreso. Sundancey with a social-issues cowbell.

My god this thread got long.

knew i'd have to revive this eventually. anyway, melissa leo? kind of feel like her career is pre-fighter and post, no?