Instead of sleeping, this.

[greygirlbeast]

The insomnia is back again tonight, and I cannot bear to just lie in bed, listening to Spooky sleep. I'm not awake, but can't sleep. I sat in the front parlour for a while with the cats, looking down at the frozen street and the snow covering everything. There is a dreadful beauty to the pre-dawn hours of snowy nights in Providence. Perhaps not dreadful; perhaps terrible. The stillness. The silence. The streetlights glittering off the snow piled on the sidewalks and rooftops. There's a sense of expectation. Anyway, I should go back to bed and try again. I can't keep this up.

Oh, I know...my nine favourite films of 2008. The usual caveat applies. I'm not claiming these were necessarily the BEST films, only that they are those that most impressed me.

1. Synecdoche, New York
2. In Bruges
3. Låt den rätte komma in
4. The Fall*
5. The Tale of Despereaux
6. Burn After Reading
7. Patti Smith: Dream of Life
8. The Dark Knight
9. Cloverfield

A few honourable mentions: Quantum of Solace, Hancock, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The Bank Job, The Forbidden Kingdom, Be Kind Rewind, Doomsday, and Death Race. Likely, I'm forgetting a couple of things, and there are two or three films I missed that might have made the top eight. But, here you go.

* Technically, released first in 2006, but Ebert included it, and it was definitely one of the best films I saw in 2008, so I'm including it, as well.

Comments

[bluharlequin.livejournal.com]

This the first list from anyone (critic, friend, web-friend, blogger) that I've seen that didn't at least mention Wall-E.
Didn't care for it?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Didn't care for it?

The first half hour was wonderful, but then it veered off course. The Tale of Despereaux was my favourite animated film of the year.

[sovay]

Technically, released first in 2006, but Ebert included it, and it was definitely one of the best films I saw in 2008, so I'm including it, as well.

If I made lists, it would be on mine as well; and Låt den rätte komma in, and Un conte de Noël, and In Bruges.

[ericmvan.livejournal.com]

The only sane way to classify a film is by the year it's released theatrically in your country, so The Fall is definitely a 2008 movie.

With the caveat that I have yet to see The Wrestler, Man on Wire, 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, Frost/Nixon, Wendy and Lucy, or a dozen or two other quite critically acclaimed films, my favorites list goes like (except for The Fall, most of these could be bumped up or down one notch):

1. The Fall
2. Milk
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Let the Right One In
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. In Bruges
7. A Christmas Tale
8. Wall-E
9. Synechdoche, NY
10. I've Loved You So Long

HM: Doubt, Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, Changeling, Cloverfield, Iron Man.