25 replies to this topic

[Overstreet]

What are your top 10 favorite films that opened wide, or were introduced on DVD (in the U.S. & Canada), in 2008?

Edited by Overstreet, 19 December 2008 - 12:22 AM.

[J.R.]

Updated 12/21/08:

The Dark Knight
The Fall
Be Kind, Rewind
Son of Rambow
Surfwise
Diary of the Dead
In Bruges
Paranoid Park
Pineapple Express
Iron Man

Edited by J.R., 21 December 2008 - 01:38 AM.

[Overstreet]

Wow.

Dairy of the Dead sounds quite surreal. And creepy.

[Christian]

I wish I had something to add. My favorite movie has yet to be released in the U.S. Others have already been mentioned, although my list contains only a few of the mentioned titles. Several others won't be on my list.

One that might make it is Shine a Light. 4 Months was on last year's list for me, although it wasn't released here until Jan. 26.

Also, didn't we have this discussion in a separate thread somewhere around the year's halfway point?

Edited by Christian, 26 August 2008 - 04:40 PM.

[Overstreet]

Yeah... I looked for that thread but didn't find it quickly enough. Patience ran out. I trembled and said a prayer, and posted a new thread.

Is this the thread you're referring to? It wasn't exactly a Top 10 thread.

Edited by Overstreet, 26 August 2008 - 05:03 PM.

[Nathaniel]

The Exiles will probably make several top ten lists this year. It's a 1961 semidocumentary about a group of Native Americans living in Los Angeles. Over the course of an evening, we follow them from bar to bar, listen to their thoughts, and experience their displacement. The cinematography is absolutely stunning, and it offers a valuable look at what L.A. circa 1960.

A really fine film. Strongly recommended for those who liked Killer of Sheep.

[Christian]

Is this the thread you're referring to? It wasn't exactly a Top 10 thread.

Yeah, that's the one. I'm glad you found it because it reminded me of a couple of films I'd already forgotten about! Sigh. My movie year has not been a good one, although it's had a few great moments. In general, however, it's a big comedown from 2007 -- which is fine; 2007 was a great year.

[Overstreet]

DougC's been blogging about The Exiles.

[Darrel Manson]

In the order I saw them:

• 4 motnth, 3 weeks, 2 days (I always forget this one since I saw it in October)
• Tell No One
• The Band's Visit
• The Visitor Probably my number one so far
• Young @ Heart
• Captain Abu Raed only at festivals
• Red Like the Sky only at festivals
• When Did You Last See Your Father?
• The Dark Knight

hmmm. Only nine. Not a good sign. Some I might consider rounding it out: the Orphanage (does it count as this year); Days of Darkness (does it count as this year?); and Standard Operating Proceedure

Mid December and I might consider a few more: Rachel Getting Married; Synecdoche, New York; I've Loved You Son Long

Edited by Darrel Manson, 13 December 2008 - 03:44 PM.

[Crow]

My in-progress list:

Wall-E
Man on Wire
The Dark Knight
In Bruges
My Winnipeg
Long Way Down
The Bank Job
Flight of the Red Balloon
The Visitor
Speed Racer

[Jason Panella]

Since I've only been to the theater a few times since January, my list:

Redbelt
The Fall
The Dark Knight
Wall-E

It's gotten to the point where I have to drive almost an hour to see any limited release or foreign/arthouse film. Hence the four titles.

[Christian]

My in-progress list:

Wall-E
Man on Wire
The Dark Knight
In Bruges
My Winnipeg
Long Way Down
The Bank Job
Flight of the Red Balloon
The Visitor
Speed Racer

Yeah, Speed Racer and The Bank Job are on my list, as is Man on Wire. Still haven't seen The Visitor.

[Darrel Manson]

One more for my second tier list: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (release in Sept.)

[Anders]

My list contains so far:

The Visitor
The Dark Knight
Flight of the Red Balloon
Wall-E
The Bank Job
The Orphanage
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Shine A Light

[Ron Reed]

Have seen far fewer films the first eight months of this year than in any of the years since I began keeping track. But I've seen a number I really enjoyed. In rough order...

Silent Light (June 8, Theatre
In Bruges (Mar 11, Theatre)
U2 3D (Mar 23, Theatre)
Son Of Rambow (May 27, Theatre)
Redbelt (May 19, Theatre)
Wall-E (Theatre)
Heima (Apr 18, Theatre)
The Great Debaters (Aug 29, DVD)
The Visitor (May 2, Theatre)

It's hard to imagine a year-end list that would not include the first two of those films, and I'll bet the third also makes my top ten. (Interesting: all three of those I saw twice in the theatre during their original run, which is quite unusual for me.) Beyond that, who knows.

(But I do think this thread should be collapsed into the already existing thread on this topic that Jeffrey linked to.)

Edited by Ron Reed, 01 September 2008 - 02:47 AM.

[Christian]

Silent Light

Ron cheated, because this film didn't have a theatrical run in the U.S. nor had it been released on DVD. Otherwise I would've placed it first on my list.

Now that's changed, so I'm revising my list above. I take it that the N.Y. run makes the film eligible.

EDIT: Actually, for purposed of this list, Jeffrey wants us to consider films that "opened wide," so SL still doesn't qualify.

Edited by Christian, 21 September 2008 - 03:31 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Christian wrote:
: Ron cheated, because this film didn't have a theatrical run in the U.S. . . .

But it did have one in Canada, as per the introductory post to this thread. So no, he didn't cheat. (I've got your back, Ron!)

: Actually, for purposed of this list, Jeffrey wants us to consider films that "opened wide," so SL still doesn't qualify.

Are we only counting (presumably North American) wide releases and North American DVD releases? Hmmm, I wonder what that does to a film like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which opened across Canada in 2007 but not across the United States until 2008 (and was it ever really a "wide" release on EITHER side of the border?).

[Christian]

Gosh, I had no idea that a film could be released in Canada but not the U.S. I thought "North American release," which is the term I'm accustomed to seeing, meant that a film was released everywhere in North America, or nowhere.

4 Months was never "wide" in the U.S. I'm thinking Jeffrey didn't mean for us to read too much into his use of the term.

HEY, I just Googled and discovered that this film is already out on DVD in Canada!

[Peter T Chattaway]

Christian wrote:
: Gosh, I had no idea that a film could be released in Canada but not the U.S. I thought "North American release," which is the term I'm accustomed to seeing, meant that a film was released everywhere in North America, or nowhere.

Imperialist!

Of course, most of the time, that IS what "North American release" seems to mean, because most films are either produced by Americans, or they are sold to American distributors who then farm out the Canadian distribution to someone else. But yes, it does happen sometimes that non-American, non-Canadian films are sold to Canadian distributors before American distributors pick them up. Hence, e.g., Shooting Dogs, a British film produced in 2005, was released in Canada in 2006 and then, under a new name (Beyond the Gates), in the United States in 2007. And hence, as per this thread, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was released in Canada in 2007 and in the United States in 2008.

: HEY, I just Googled and discovered that this film is already out on DVD in Canada!

Hmmm, so it is. Came out three weeks ago, apparently.

[M. Leary]

This is in no particular order yet, but here is what I got:

Silent Light
The Visitor
Son of Rambow
Aleksandra
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
My Winnipeg
Le voyage du ballon rouge
Le graine et le mullet
Still Life
En la ciudad de Sylvia

This is a really tough list to make because it leaves out The Band's Visit, Heartbeat Detector, WALL-E, Encounters at the End of the World, In Bruges, Ostrov, Man on Wire and a few others. Lots of great stuff this year. Plus, I haven't seen a documentary that has affected more than Taxi to the Darkside for a long time, so I am not sure how to work that one in.

I really wish I could have seen Ballast this year.

Edited by MLeary, 13 December 2008 - 03:24 PM.