The Year in Film: The Best and Worst of 2008 - Page 2

Television maestro Whedon was frustrated by the strike, so in a flash of inspiration, he put together Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog; it's not coincidental that its story of a well-intentioned but powerless supervillain going up against a big dumb antagonist who incorrectly believes that he's a force of good can be seen in broad strokes as a story about the writers vs. the producers.

The result was a wacky, tuneful, and tragic slice of genius, as only Whedon (along with brothers Jed and Zack; and Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed's fiancée) could do. Neil Patrick Harris plays the title villain, who doesn't have it in him to be truly evil, and is in love with Penny (Felicia Day), the girl down at the laundromat. One of Dr. Horrible's ill-fated schemes introduces Penny to pompous do-gooder Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), whom she promptly falls in love with. The songs this inspires the characters to sing are as good as any Whedon penned for the beloved Buffy musical episode "Once More, With Feeling," and the amount of genuine pathos put into what could've been a mere novelty shows that art knows no boundaries. It also doesn't hurt that its innovative business model has proven a resounding success. It had been a few years since we'd heard from him via any screen, big or small, but Joss Whedon is still at the top of his game.

And then there was that other superhero movie, an obscure arthouse film you may have heard of called The Dark Knight. With 2005's Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan made the first truly good — nay, great -- Batman movie, and with The Dark Knight he topped it in every respect. There was Christian Bale's terrific portrait of a conflicted (Bat)man at odds with his own self; a layered, multi-faceted script which functioned as both an excellent crime film and a chillingly accurate examination of the state of America; and the late Heath Ledger's leering, jeering, and hauntingly unforgettable Joker. In other words, more than enough to make it the greatest comic book film ever made.

For another unforgettable performance, we turn to Gus Van Sant's Milk, in which Sean Penn does the best work of his career. I haven't always been a fan of Penn's, but here he slips so completely into the skin of Harvey Milk, the country's first openly gay elected official, that there's no acting there. He simply is Harvey Milk. It's an ultimately tragic tale, but Van Sant's effortless direction and a multitude of excellent performances (Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, and Emile Hirsch) make it an exuberant cinematic experience.

Synecdoche, New York, on the other hand, is a different kind of experience. It can be frustrating, maddening, and wearying, but it's also completely brilliant. The directorial debut of lauded screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is a masterful deconstruction of film narrative, challenging every storytelling preconception you might have. It slips through time, locations, and even realities at a pace guaranteed to make your head spin, all anchored by Philip Seymour Hoffman's sterling performance as a neurotic stage director who spends decades constructing a play about his life.

Article Author: Arlo J. Wiley

Arlo J. Wiley is an aspiring filmmaker who has a deep love of movies, music, television, and most other artforms. He co-hosts the Gobbledygeek podcast and maintains its blog, which you can find at http://gobbledygeekbtr.wordpress.com.

Visit Arlo J. Wiley's author page — Arlo J. Wiley's Blog