The Best Films of 2008

Number Two - THE WRESTLER

No doubt everyone has heard some mention about the return of Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofski's The Wrestler. However, as powerful and important Rourke's performance is to the movie, the film as a whole seems to be overshadowed by this. The Wrestler is the most gripping and powerful American movie of the year and this is due in part to the rest of the cast, including Marisa Tomei and Evan Racheal Wood, and the brilliant film making. Helped in part by its semi-biographical nature, the movie seems almost like a documentary, following a broken man as he tries to assemble the pieces of his once great life.

Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a washed up professional wrestling star struggling to get by. He works at a grocery store deli by day and moonlights as his wrestling personality in small arenas before smaller crowds. Randy frequents a strip joint because he has feelings for Tomei, a topless dancer who helps him try to reconnect with his estranged daughter after Randy is struck down by a heart attack. The story mirrors Rourke's own career, which he managed to flush down the toilet a decade or so ago with drug and sex addictions and a boxing match that destroyed his handsome face. Randy, much like Rourke, seems unable to exist and alienated in the real world and feels more at ease as his celebrity persona than as his vulnerable, real self.

The Wrestler is raw and gritty and there are scenes of great emotional and visual intensity. Extreme wrestling matches fought with barbwire and plate glass and staple guns are shown in their entirety, not skipping over one bloody detail. The images are horrific and stomach-turning but penetrate the depth of what Rourke's character will go through to earn some money and keep his reputation alive. He pulls no punches in scenes where he tries desperately to reconnect with his daughter and exist in a world that does not take him seriously. The movie seems unpolished and stripped down, with no fancy camera work or FX, just real action.

The Academy honored both Tomei and Rourke with nominations but failed to see the perfection and vision of the film as a whole, skipping over the contributions writer and director as well. Nods for best picture went instead to more glossy, polished packages like Frost/Nixon and Milk, neither of which can compare to the genuine experience of The Wrestler. Even last year's No Country For Old Men is cartoonish compared to this realistic drama, and it is clear that this film is far too gripping and honest for most audiences. Easily the best American film of the year, nothing else even comes close.

The Best Films of 2008

Number Three - FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL

It takes a keen eye to find depth in a screwball comedy about a heartbroken young man, searching for love in Hawai'i, but Forgetting Sarah Marshall is easily the funniest and one of the most genuine movies of the year.

Peter, a composer working on a rock opera about Dracula, is dumped by his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall, a popular television star who leaves him for a famous, flamboyant rocker named Aldous Snow. When both Peter and Sarah and Aldus end up at the same resort in Hawai'i, Peter has to curb his emotions and try to enjoy himself while his ex parades around in front of him with her new beau. Peter ends up falling for a hotel clerk played by Mila Kunis who helps him forget his ex and enjoy himself.

This movie rides the coattails of the popularity of Judd Apatow, co-creator of Freaks and Geeks and director of Knocked Up and The Forty Year Old Virgin. Jason Segel, the writer and star of Marshall, has worked with Apatow since Freaks and Geeks and currently has a staring role on the surprisingly funny CBS series How I Met Your Mother. In a period of a few years, Segel has established himself as a hilarious and talented actor and his first foray into screenwriting has proven to be a success. Not only is Marshall funny, but it is also a genuine portrayal of a sensitive male character--not the oversexed, frat-boy chauvinist image that has come to represent males between the ages of 18 and 30--who is trying desperately to pick up the pieces of his life after having his heart shattered. Segel's character is brooding and troubled and his subtleties, interrupted by bouts of intentionally melodramatic weeping, make him one of the most empathetic and likable characters in romantic comedy history.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the best written romantic comedies of the year. There will be no nominations for this screenplay, but its original spin on the same old story of heartbreak and new love is both entertaining and thoughtful. The movies features unforgettable music by Russell Brand and original works by Segel himself. Easily the most lighthearted but endearing comedy of the year.

The Best Films of 2008

Number Four - AMERICAN TEEN

This very sincere documentary about a high school in the small town of Warsaw, Indiana is both funny and touching. With the orgy of reality television in this day and age, one has to be weary of what exactly "reality" is. But American Teen, despite its seemingly formulated plot points, climaxes and stereotypical characters, is about as genuine as it gets.

The story is set around four main characters: Hannah, an arty girl looking to escape conservative Indiana for California after high school; Colin, a popular basketball star looking for a scholarship to college to avoid going into the Army; Geoff, the quintessential nerdy kid looking for a girlfriend and his place among the high school elite; and Meghan, the most popular, and meanest, drama queen in school. The movie follows each of the characters as they struggle to make the most of their senior year and deal with the difficulties of getting into the college of their dreams.

What is different about American Teen is the familiarity everyone can share with it, no matter how different out teenage years were. Every school has characters like Hannah and Geoff and Meghan and Colin and everyone can relate to what they are going through. These are not contestants on a trashy show like The Real World or Flavor of Love - oversexed, awful individuals who we love to despise - these are real people with real problems that don't seem too far off from what we all experienced at age eighteen.

American Teen is easily one of the best films of the year for its honesty and it humor and its heartbreaking reality. One of the best documentaries of all time.

The Best Films of 2008

Number Five - TRANSSIBERIAN

One part psychological drama, one part action/adventure, one part Woody Harrelson, Transsiberian is surprisingly one of the best films of the year. Set on the infamous train that runs from Beijing, China to Moscow, Russia, two Americans cross the largest landmass on Earth: the frozen tundra and endless steppe of Siberia. Along the way, they encounter a charming young Spaniard who turns out to be a trafficking drugs in those precious little Russian dolls that pop open to reveal an identical, smaller doll underneath.

When an unhealthy relationship forms between Jessie, an American traveling with her husband Roy, and the Spaniard, Carlos, Jessie ends up having to defend herself against Carlos's advances. When Jessie realizes that she has accidentally killed Carlos beside a dilapidated church in the middle of the woods, she returns to the train only to find out that he has planted his drugs in her bag. Now, sharing a room with a ruthless Russian detective, played by Sir Ben Kingsley, Jessie must now dispose of the drugs before the clues to her dirty deed is found out by her new roommate.

Full of suspense, action, torture, and yes, Woody Harrelson, this movie has the twists and turns of any big budget thriller. Definitely worth a look, Transsiberian transports you to the cold world of the Russian wasteland and leaves you feeling helpless and alone.