Top Films of 2008

I’m gen­er­ally not a fan of year-end “best of” lists but on the other hand, I always seem to have an opinion on every other list I see so it’s only fair that I try to put together my own. It’s bound to be a little idio­syn­cratic, since I see most of my films at film fest­ivals. There are a number of sig­ni­ficant films that I haven’t (yet) seen but I wanted to limit my list to what I actu­ally saw in 2008. Since I see so many doc­u­ment­aries, they get their own list, although I think the hard boundary between doc­u­mentary and fic­tion is becoming more per­meable all the time. I’ve lim­ited myself to ten in each cat­egory, though there is no ranking.

Documentaries

• Man on Wire (review)
• Up the Yangtze (review)
• Blind Loves (review)
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil (review)
• Food Inc. (review)
• Of Time and the City (review)
• Trouble the Water (review)
• At the Death House Door (review)
• Waltz with Bashir (review)
• The Order of Myths

Dramatic Features (and One Short)

• Hunger (review)
• Doubt (review)
• WALL-E
• Wendy and Lucy (review)
• Entre les murs (The Class) (review)
• The Most Beautiful Night in the World (review)
• Le silence de Lorna (Lorna’s Silence) (review)
• Carlston za Ognjenku (Tears for Sale) (review)
• Un conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale) (review)
• 2 Birds (Smáfuglar) (the short film) (review)