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10. Ballast [Lance Hammer]Mississippi in cool blue winter light. Three souls hanging in the balance. The flat infinity of the Delta landscape. And a parable about the mystery of compassion. Soulful and breathtaking, Lance Hammer’s brave debut is a testament to the lowly wise.
9. Son of Rambow [Garth Jennings ]
Two scrawny schoolboys— one rabble-rousing, one raised in religious isolation—are inspired by Rambo: First Blood to film their own DIY action flick. Son of Rambow hits tender and gut-busting high-water marks, and the 1980s English setting grounds a passionate nostalgia for the youthful discovery of cinema and camaraderie.
8. Momma’s Man [Azazel Jacobs]
This past year saw its share of male characters frozen in arrested development, but few films took the situation as seriously as Jacobs’ third feature—a gently funny character study, a preservation of the filmmaker’s own childhood home and a tender portrait of his parents.
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [Cristian Mungiu]
A spare, visceral stunner, and the crown of the new Romanian emergence in world cinema, Mungiu’s stripped-down film follows a woman helping her roommate secure an illegal abortion during the last hours of Communist control in Romania.
6. WALL-E [Andrew Stanton]
Though Pixar made a name for itself with talking toys, fish and cars, the studio’s most ambitious, affecting and important work to date features a cooing automaton and zero dialogue for the first third of the movie, proving that children’s fables require neither narrative nor aesthetic sacrifice. WALL-E was a triumph not just for animation, but for all of cinema.
Best of What's Next: Shelley Short
The Master's Sputum: Unfinished Nabokov Novel Now…
Catching Up With... David Rawlings
Ears We Trust: Robert Earl Keen
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Stay Zombie…
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
I couldn't stand Paranoid Park. I think if it had been made by a guy named "Jeffrey Steve"--instead of Gus Van Sant--people would've ignored it (and rightly so).
It is slightly criminal that In Bruges is not on this list.
No In Bruges or Happy Go Lucky? That automatically makes this list suck.
Firaaq has not yet been released in US, what are you an alt weekly pulling that kind of smarmy stunt?
You didn't think There will be Blood, No Country for old men or burn after reading were up to snuff?
I haven't seen some of these, but I know In Bruges should be close to the top of this list, if not first. If that's not considered a classic in the future, something's wrong with the world.
There Will Be Blood and No Country were 2007 releases. So were several of the picks on the original list, even though they didn't get wide releases until 2008.
i am prepared to deliver donuts to your offices every day - from now on. what's the address?
scott p
In Bruges was a trainwreck, but really fun. It's definitely beats the stuffin' outta several selections ... but I'd never call it Top 20 fare.
In other words, The Dark Knight is your #1 film of the year.
This list is great. I only got a chance to see a small portion of these films in the theatre. I love seeing stuff like this on the web. I am constantly amazed at how much useful imformation one can find with just a little digging. Most traditional film schools tend to skip important topics in favor of technique and things like that. One program I found online offers one on one mentoring to assure that you have all the tools to feel comfortable and ready the first day you step onto a set. One such program is Film Connection. http://WWW.film-connection.com The best part is that their program is available anywhere in the US and Canada.
In Bruges was definitely nominated... but as someone else said, 20 places is 20 places. Definitely a good first picture for McDonagh, but I'd like to see him step out of Tarantino's shadow and find his own voice on film as much as he did in theater.
Actually, I watched Paranoid Park with low expectations, something about Gus Van Sant has always both fascinated and almost always irritated me, but ended up loving the movie (I guess why it was my write-up). About a month ago a friend of mine picked it up because of the skating but loved the film for reasons he couldn't really describe. He asked me if there was anything else like it and I couldn't come up with any recommendations. If there is, I certainly haven't seen it yet.