Best Movies of 2008

As promised, here is the list for my favorite films of 2008. Why so late, you may ask? Well, as awesome as Chicago is, we still have to wait like the rest of the country for a lot of movies to get wide releases. In order to make the eligibility deadline for the Academy Awards, studios often release films in New York and Los Angeles, where a lot of the voting contingent resides, just so they can qualify. So while a handful of films make critics' year end list all across the board, the rest of the country usually has to wait about a few weeks to a month until they actually see some of those films at a theatre near them. It's an effective strategy for less commercial films that need all the word-of-mouth buzz they can get and to gain that all important momentum during awards season. All this means is that I had to wait a little bit longer to view some of the movies I was looking forward to seeing and why this list comes to you now in early February.

I've been doing year end lists for movies for a few years now, but this is the first time I've done it for my blog. Here are my previous number one movies:

2007: Persepolis
2006: Children Of Men
2005: Good Night, and Good Luck

I can never understand how anyone says that a year is a bad one for movies. Not every year is going to be a canon year like 1999 or 1974 and it's only about once a decade where we get a special year filled with masterpieces and popular works that redefine cinema. The high standards that a lot of us hold for a year in cinema often overshadow the number of terrific films that are released every year. Would I consider 2008 a canon year? Probably not. One thing I will say that might have a lingering effect is the high IQ of some of the year's biggest blockbuster. Wall-E, The Dark Knight and Iron Man proved that you don't have to dumb it down to reach a wide audience. Who knows? Maybe studio execs will take more chances in the future. While I wouldn't consider 2008 a special year, it was still a great one for me at the theatres. Here are the reasons why.


1. Wall-E

No other movie this year amazed me more than Wall-E. The first half of the movie gets most of the attention and deservedly so. It follows a lonely waste management robot in the future longing for company on a deserted Earth, but the way it unfurls is as cinematically beautiful as anything animated or live-action.

Top 200 Singles of 2008

1. Goldfrapp - A&E

Powerful. I could say no more than just that word and it would perfectly sum up why "A&E" is my favorite single of the year. It combines a double emotional wallop of romantic longing and self-destruction to a simple electronic folk background. There is no inspirational message here. There is nothing to be gained. Just a beautifully honest and human moment captured with no resolution. It's dramatic territory that's given the right amount of bombast to make the soul swell, but never feels overwhelming or melodramatic.

Adventures at Lollapalooza 2008

Welcome again to my Lollapalooza recap for 2008. Armed with two frozen water bottles a day and a small umbrella, I made my way back and forth across Grant Park in the scorching sun for all three days with a smile on my face. It was also a treat since Saturday was my birthday and I usually can't think of a better place to be than surrounded by good live music. Also, I apologize for the quality (or lack) of some of the pics for the first two days. Stupid ol' me, I didn't have the same settings that I used last year and didn't figure out how to zoom closer until late Saturday. D'oh!

Day 1 - Friday

Bang Camaro



These guys started the festival off for me with a ton of power and presence. They play heavy metal covers with a ridiculous amount of bombast and musicians. Twenty vocalists in a rock band sounds almost like a parody on paper, but Bang Camaro was quite the opposite. I didn't dare laugh, but bobbed my head instead. I really didn't expect them to be that good.