Roger Ebert’s Top 20 Movies of 2008
The year isn't quite over, but that hasn't stopped star film critic Roger Ebert from unveiling his Best of the Year column, listing off his top 20 films of 2008.
The bare-bones list follows below; you can also head over to RogerEbert.com to read the full column:
(ranked in no specific order)
Ballast, The Band’s Visit, Che, Chop Shop, The Dark Knight, Doubt, The Fall, Frost/Nixon, Frozen Friver, Happy-Go-Lucky, Iron Man, Milk, Rachel Getting Married, The Reader, Revolutionary Road, Shotgun Stories, Slumdog Millionaire, Synecdoche New York, W., Wall-E
Of all those listed, I've seen just 4 of them - The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon (which I saw yesterday), Iron man, and W.
I will be seeing the full 4 1/2 hours of Che this Friday, and will see Synecdoche NY some time this week. No immediate plans to see any of the others.
Surprises on Ebert's list? Iron man! I was expecting a "kidding" after. Iron Man? One of the best of the year? Wow! Roger, I'm baffled. Where are films like Doubt, and A Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and others much more worthy?
Iron-Freaking-Man?
Also, I thought W. was ok - but not much better than that, and certainly wouldn't consider it one of the year's best.
Nice to see Ballast on the list. Lance Hammer's Sundance indie hit has quickly become the proverbial "little engine that could." There are forces that want to see this film do well, and they are doing what they can to see their goal realized. It's a film I still haven't seen, even though it's played in my city at least twice. For several reasons, there simply isn't much interest on my part. But I'm sure I'll eventually watch it.
I'll be presenting my top 5 after the year is over, on my January 5th, 2009 podcast recording. I haven't seen enough films this year to come up with a solid list of 20.
See ya at Che on Fri!