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Top 20 Films of 2008: Spots 1 to 20
I’m not sure what to make of this – but this year Top 20 batch of film’s have death as a focal point in the plot or use bereavement thematically: death of a dream, death of a soul, death out of defiance and death of a culture, society and way of life. I don’t really have a fascination with death, but I’ve noticed that my own mortality and the eventual passing of my loved ones seem to have embedded itself in some aspects of my daily routine.
Top 20 Films of 2008: #1 The Secret of the Grain
Abdellatif Kechiche’s third film had such on long-lasting affect on me that I came for a second “helping” weeks after….I also rushed to my nearest Arab restaurant for a generous helping of couscous. I place this at my number one slot because it does everything right – plus the filmmaker allows the film to breath with contextual settings of a salty seaside town and the rich array of slice of life characters coating the rather simplistic storyline with honesty and intimacy.
Top 20 Films of 2008: #2 Hunger
I was shell-shocked by the hard to watch brutal nature of the film and it was McQueen’s manner in which he used the medium of film to near perfection with his superb play on the visual and aural cues.
Top 20 Films of 2008: #3 Silent Light
So while I wasn’t totally convinced by his cinema, this changed when I finally got to see what is perhaps the most beautiful story visually captured on film this year (it was actually a 2007 film, had a week release I think at MoMA in the Fall, and gets a release at Film Forum next week) comes from Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas and his DOP Alexis Zabe.
Top 20 Films of 2008: #4 Still Life
Truth is, I consider myself a fan of Jia Zhang-ke's work despite having only seen a pair of his films from a filmography that must be at a five or six count.
