The Best (and Worst) Movies of 2008 - Page 4

9. The Visitor – This year also turned out to be a really shining one for great character actors getting their shots at lead roles and, along with Melissa Leo’s great work in Frozen River, Richard Jenkins got to hold the screen like a vice for a whole movie as a buttoned-down college professor whose life and generosity are opened up when he meets a couple of illegal immigrants who change his world in ways he did not expect. It is no surprise that the director, Thomas McCarthy is also a character actor and, with The Station Agent and now this one, he is proving to be a master of telling humanistic stories in the lowest and subtlest key. With its international cast including Israeli-Arab actress Hiam Abbass, this is one of the rare gems that wisely chooses valuable talent and heart over star power.

10. Slumdog Millionaire – The “crowd-pleasing” movie of the year, as it is labeled by ads and most audiences, although the best quality of the film is director Danny Boyle’s refusal to shy away from the drab conditions of the slums of India in the first half so that the underdog story of Jamal (played wonderfully by Dev Patel) really means something. Boyle’s trademark speedy visual flair is put to great use in seamlessly combining the Indian culture with a classically entertaining and romantic story in the tradition of Charles Dickens. Because of that and the dazzling cinematography, more people will discover the little known Indian culture, perhaps for the first time.

Runners-up (in alphabetical order):

The Chaser – An uncommonly effective Korean thriller that builds suspense and an angry social attack on its own police system while breaking practically every rule in the genre book. Also containing a remarkable performance from Kim Yoon-seok that breathes new meaning into the word “doggedness,” the movie has yet to get a release in the US and the rights have been bought for a remake but I hope this original work gets a release for the audiences to discover first.

A Christmas Tale - An engaging story of a Christmas family reunion fraught with troubled histories but one that is at turns honestly heartwarming and unpredictably facetious in its examination of the problems of mental illness, disease, and dysfunction thanks in great part to the performance of veteran actress Catherine Deneuve that exudes an amazingly calm presence despite her character suffering from cancer.

Doubt – John Patrick Shanley successfully adapts his own play that provocatively mauls over its titular concept in the setting of a Catholic school. All the actors, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams, are exceptionally well cast to bring to life a psychological and spiritual morality tale of rare complexity.

Article Author: moviejohn

Joo-Wang John Lee is a computer programmer at Binghamton University by day and a movie critic by hobby. Upon insistent suggestion from people around him, he finally decided to start critiquing movies in writing instead of just verbal form among his friends. …

Visit moviejohn's author page — moviejohn's Blog