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The best in movies

Unlikely romances highlight the 10 best movies of the year

By Dan Ochwat

With smeared white makeup and stringy green hair, Heath Ledger colored his Joker the way a mental patient would. Animate that look with a devilish gaze peering over his brow and the way he licked the corners of his mouth between words, feeling for those uncomfortable scars, Ledger’s performance is what will be remembered in 2008.

“The Dark Knight” rolled over critics and mounted rich box-office returns, much like another comic unveiling, but of lighter fare, “Iron Man,” fueled by Robert Downey Jr.’s insatiable, charming playboy superhero. Studios also made good with Brad Pitt aging backwards and Kate and Leo trapped in a novel.

Yet, none of the above embodied my 2008. If I had to pick one theme, unlikely romances moved me: a gangster Bollywood fairytale, a robot at the end of the world and a teen/vampire crush (not named Edward and Bella).

That said, I saw no “There Will Be Blood” masterpieces in 2008. I did see a good amount of enjoyable films, and I had no trouble cobbling together a list of the 10 best. I did have a hard time picking what truly was the best film of ’08, though. For this, I hit the default button, which always comes up Kaufman.

The 10 best movies of 2008:

1. “Synecdoche, New York”
With “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Charlie Kaufman is familiar with topping 10-best lists, especially mine. This film (his directorial debut) is another deluge of absurd ideas from a man creating a lifelong play of his life to a woman living in a house on fire to an artist famous for her microscopic paintings. All of this is amusing in the Kaufman style, but what sets “Synecdoche” apart from his earlier work is the intense sadness the film harbors beneath the oddness. Where past films had somewhat romantic undertones, here we get a lonely, love-lost man named Caden Cotard — the ringleader of this sad circus. “Synecdoche, New York” has us question the choices we make and how we live our lives.

2. “Slumdog Millionaire”
Danny Boyle has created an electric, gangster, Bollywood-infused fairytale. The story is genius: A slum kid in India on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” answering questions through flashbacks of his life. And the reason he’s on the show? To find the love of his life. This felt like the most original and entertaining movie of the year.

3. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
My single favorite scene in the movies this year: Javier Bardem approaches Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) and Rebecca Hall (Vicky) at a dinner table and bluntly entices them with an offer of sex. What comes next is classic Woody Allen verbal sparring. This is one of Allen’s best movies, a modern day “Jules and Jim.” One girl is structured and the other is wild; we relate to either/or. Allen takes these female types to Barcelona for the summer and gives them the Woody Allen treatment. Then, things really take off when a wonderfully manic Penelope Cruz arrives.

4. “Let The Right One In”
There are two pulp-horror scenes in this movie that prohibit it from being a masterpiece. One involves cats, the other human combustion. Otherwise, this is the most artfully done horror film I’ve ever seen (it’s Swedish and going to be remade in America and surely ruined). It’s beautifully shot and has a wintery, slow tone that makes it near realism. The film doesn’t weigh down in vampire mythology, and a sweet little romance rises to the top.

5. “My Winnipeg”
Filmed in grainy black and white, this flick is like a comedic Luis Bunuel movie. It shares the style of a surreal picture from the ’30s and the style of film noir. The thing is, it’s hilarious. Writer/director Guy Maddin delivers an outrageous memoir of his life growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, centered around the love/hate relationship with his mother and the love/hate relationship of his hometown. The trick is what to believe. The movie is chock-full of hilarious tall tales like his father being buried beneath the living room throw rug.

6. “Snow Angels”
David Gordon Green tried his hand at directing comedy (“Pineapple Express”), but I think he should stick to family drama, where he’s brilliant. This is a downer of a movie: divorce, adultery, alcoholism, suicide, a town rallying around a missing girl. However, Green doesn’t let this movie become a maudlin drama. He infuses offbeat casting (Amy Sedaris has a serious role), offbeat elements (a character caught cheating is inexplicably wearing a karate gi), offbeat settings (a Chinese restaurant), and the film has no real sense of time or place. The first time I saw the film I was rattled, but future viewings showed that it’s because things aren’t the way we expect that makes the drama so powerful. He could be the most underrated director out there.

7. “Frost/Nixon”
For me, this movie has two things going against it: Ron Howard (I’ve just never liked his movies) and “based on a true story” (code for boldly inaccurate). Well, neither get in the way. The joy of this film is how TV personality David Frost worked to get his interview with Richard Nixon and the boxing parallel of these two men preparing for the four-round interview. The movie gets the people and the period right, and it’s a wonderful play turned movie.

8. “A Christmas Tale”
Arnaud Desplechin wrote and directed this French film about a dysfunctional family reuniting for Christmas. There are multiple characters and plot lines to devour and, you know what, Christmas movies don’t always have to be “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

9. “Wall-E”
Like Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” meets “Lady and the Tramp,” this is unlike any kids’ movie I’ve seen. In fact, it’s a better movie than kids’ movie. The adorable robot is alone in a post-apocolyptic setting, and I could watch hours of this Chaplin-esque droid collecting garbage and courting a lady robot that recently landed. Unfortunately, it ends with an adventure of getting a cruise ship of humans back to earth, but man is the early part of this movie wonderful.

10. “The Wrestler”
Director Darren Aronofsky doesn’t complicate this movie. It’s an excellent, enjoyable character study of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a fallen wrestling icon, who will do anything for one last Ram Jam from the top rope. Mickey Rourke is actually charming.

Other must sees of the year: “Reprise,” “The Visitor,” “Redbelt,” “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” “The Fall,” “Tell No One,” “In Search of a Midnight Kiss,” “Elegy,” “Ballast” and “Paranoid Park.”

In Concert
Holy crap is the new Animal Collective album good, and they’re coming to town on 1/22 to play the Metro. Another fantastic new album is from Antony and the Johnsons, and the androgynous one is playing the Vic on 2/12. The other highly recommended show is a big middle finger to Valentine’s Day when fabulous metal band Fucked Up play High Concept Laboratories.

On 1/17, the Sven Guli keyboardist of The Hold Steady, Franz Nicolay, tickles the ivories at the Empty Bottle. On 1/20, The Killers team up with M83 to play the UIC Pavilion. A wonderful folk singer Jessica Lea Mayfield opens for the Annuals on 1/22 at the Empty Bottle, and Frightened Rabbit plays there on 1/24. That same night, Lambchop will strum at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Poppy sleepyheads Passion Pit visit Schubas on 1/27. Manic Les Savy Fav defile a church on 1/31, playing Epiphany. Excellent new punk band The Mae Shi rock the Beat Kitchen on 2/6. Los Campesinos! and Titus Andronicus are at the Logan Square Auditorium on 2/7, and another top double bill Fujiya & Miyagi are with School of Seven Bells on 2/9 at the Bottom Lounge.

On 2/19, Blitzen Trapper plays Empty Bottle with Alela Diane. Finally, Tapes 'n Tapes head to the Metro on 3/7.

Send me a note at danochwat@hotmail.com or reach out to me on MySpace or Facebook.

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