THE STUFF THAT MATTERS: kim's top ten movies of 2008!!

THE LIST:

1. the dark knight
2. tropic thunder
3. snow angels & the band's visit (tie)
4. wall•e
5. doubt
6. in bruges
7. elegy
8. 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days
9. the counterfeiters
10. happy-go-lucky

IF ONLY THERE WAS A TOP 15: frost/nixon, slumdog millionaire, iron man, control & forgetting sarah marshall

WITH HONORS: american teen, baby mama, the bank job, body of lies, burn after reading, chicago 10, the curious case of benjamin button, defiance, the duchess, frozen river, ghost town, gran torino, hancock, i've loved you so long, man on wire, milk, persepolis, rachel getting married, the reader, revolutionary road, role models, stop-loss, the visitor, waltz with bashir, wendy & lucy, the wrestler

THE PEEPS:

best female actor: meryl streep, doubt
best male actor: frank langella, frost/nixon
runners-up: sam riley, control & mickey rourke, the wrestler

best female actor in a supporting role: alexis zegerman, happy-go-lucky
best male actor in a supporting role: heath ledger, the dark knight
runner-up: robert downey jr., tropic thunder

best direction: christopher nolan, the dark knight
(very, very close) runner-up: danny boyle, slumdog millionaire

best cinematography: anthony dod mantle, slumdog millionaire
best score: max richter, waltz with bashir
(super close) runner-up: a.r. rahman, slumdog millionaire

best non-use of a score: wendy & lucy
best non-2008 film: jfk (1991)

THE EXTRAS, YO!

things that really get in the way of seeing movies:

1. the most important presidential election in a generation;
2. moving from seattle to tacoma (really, really good idea on my part, though!);
3. ending a long-term relationship (also a good move); and
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/movies/awardsseason/02bagg.html.

best thing about the movies in 2008: rediscovering the grand cinema in tacoma!
worst thing about the movies in 2008: realizing that, in fact, heath ledger is not coming back

best trailer: doubt & milk (tie)
best use of music in a trailer: "wild is the wind" by nina simone, revolutionary road
best use of a song in a movie, possibly ever: "paper planes" by M.I.A., slumdog millionare

dude i fell in love with in 2008: robert "man, i don't drop character 'til i done the DVD commentary" downey jr.
gal i fell in love with in 2008: meryl "she's a machine!" streep

movie i really wanted to love but just liked: the duchess
movie i thought would be kind of funny but ended up being charming as hell: role models
movie that i really wanted to see but didn't get around to it: trouble the water

45 minutes that i'm never getting back: be kind rewind (please note that the movie is, in fact, 102 minutes long. nancy, jess and i just couldn't take it any longer, so we turned it off after 45 minutes. this is something we NEVER do. it was that bad.)

movie i think will be on my 2009 top ten: ballast (http://ballastfilm.com/)
movie that i am most looking forward to (in the coming years): broken kingdom (http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=654697850&gv=2#/pages/The-Disposables/32575512216?sid=48f5d1e4aa29f83c7a7ed2eb4bdd0988&ref=s)

number of movies i saw between february 1, 2008 and january 31, 2009: 47 (that's 16 less than last year. again, see reasons why, above.)

my goal for 2009: 75