{"id":1400,"date":"2008-12-31T23:55:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T03:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=1400"},"modified":"2008-12-31T18:43:49","modified_gmt":"2008-12-31T22:43:49","slug":"brandon%e2%80%99s-ten-favorite-new-movies-of-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/1400","title":{"rendered":"Brandon’s Ten Favorite New Movies of 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

As usual, only counting just-released movies I saw in theaters in 2008.<\/p>\n

1. Paranoid Park<\/a><\/em> (Gus Van Sant)<\/strong>
\nMore youth poetry from Van Sant – nailed it this time.<\/p>\n

2\/3.
\nWall-E<\/a><\/em> (Andrew Stanton)<\/strong>
\nThere Will Be Blood<\/a><\/em> (P.T. Anderson)<\/strong>
\nTWBB<\/em> is better than Wall-E<\/em> in many ways, but I’m feeling more generous towards the lovestruck robot than the miserable oil-baron right now. They were both the visual and<\/em> story delights of the year.<\/p>\n

4. Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind<\/a><\/em> (John Gianvito)<\/strong>
\nThe only movie I watched three times this year.<\/p>\n

5\/6\/7.
\nLet The Right One In<\/a><\/em> (Tomas Alfredson)<\/strong>
\nDon’t Touch The Axe<\/a><\/em> (Jacques Rivette)<\/strong>
\nThe Edge of Heaven<\/a><\/em> (Fatih Akin)<\/strong>
\nThree exquisite foreign flicks.<\/p>\n

8. Youth Without Youth<\/a><\/em> (Francis Ford Coppola)<\/strong>
\nFF Coppola’s universally ignored return to cinema. Due for a major critical re-evaluation sometime after his death, I imagine.<\/p>\n

9. Milk<\/a><\/em> (Gus Van Sant)<\/strong>
\nI had my problems with it, but it’s still great, and wins points for being extremely relevant.<\/p>\n

10. Ashes of Time Redux<\/a><\/em> (Wong Kar-Wai)<\/strong>
\nBoth of Wong’s least-liked films (see My Blueberry Nights<\/em> below) opened to empty theaters this year, and I’ve gotta say I enjoyed them both. Even his worst work still has a gorgeous power to it at times.<\/p>\n

—–
\nHonorable Mentions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flight of the Red Balloon<\/a><\/em> (Hou Hsiao-hsien)<\/strong>
\nEncounters at the End of the World<\/a><\/em> (Werner Herzog)<\/strong>
\nHappy-Go-Lucky<\/a><\/em> (Mike Leigh)<\/strong>
\nThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/a><\/em> (David Fincher)<\/strong>
\n4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days<\/a><\/em> (Cristian Mungiu)<\/strong>
\nOpera Jawa<\/a><\/em> (Garin Nugroho)<\/strong><\/p>\n

—–
\nSpecial Categories:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Edward Burns Memorial Award<\/strong>, given to the movie I saw this year which I have already mostly forgotten, is mercifully awarded to Namibia: The Struggle For Liberation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Alien Resurrection Award<\/strong>, given to a movie I liked which nobody else did, goes to My Blueberry Nights<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Kyle Cooper Award<\/strong>, given for greatest achievement in opening or closing credits: Michael Clayton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Big Ehh Award<\/strong>, given for the least enthusiastic reception of an eagerly-awaited movie: Be Kind Rewind<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Batman Begins Award<\/strong>, given to a movie which everyone else must have been tripping while they watched because I can’t see what’s so great about it, goes to The Dark Knight<\/a><\/em> – and what’s more, given the academy award buzz the movie has garnered, this will hereafter be renamed in its honor The Dark Knight Award<\/strong>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As usual, only counting just-released movies I saw in theaters in 2008. 1. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant) More youth poetry from Van Sant – nailed it this time. 2\/3. Wall-E (Andrew Stanton) There Will Be Blood (P.T. Anderson) TWBB is better than Wall-E in many ways, but I’m feeling more generous towards the lovestruck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-lists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/2087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}