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Sunday, Jul 5, 2009
"Happy-Go-Lucky" and the ignored romantic comedy "Ghost Town" were among those that reminded us why films are still worth looking at.
By Stephanie Zacharek
Read more: Stephanie Zacharek, Movies, Arts & Entertainment, Best of Salon, Critics' Picks, 2008
Dec. 24, 2008 | The worst part of coming to the end of a year of movies is trying to pull together some meaningful thesis statement to put it all in perspective. You could say 2008 was the year everyone went out to the movies, to see "The Dark Knight." Or 2008 was the year almost no one went out to the movies, except to see "The Dark Knight." There are granules of truth in both of those sentences, but neither comes close to conveying the range of movies -- domestic and imported -- that most of us had the opportunity to see this year, either in our local theaters or courtesy of Netflix.
There's almost never a satisfying way to sum up a year of movies, particularly when you're just emerging from that year and still trying to digest the significance of all the big December releases -- or, perhaps more accurately, the lack of significance. Supposedly, all the great performances are revealed in the big Christmas movies, pictures like "Revolutionary Road," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Frost/Nixon." But while I do think those movies include some good performances, when I look back, I realize that the performances that meant the most to me -- like that of Sally Hawkins in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" or Robert Downey Jr.'s in Jon Favreau's "Iron Man" -- were doled out, like small, welcome surprises, in earlier months. These are performances that work perfectly without trying too hard.
My list of favorite movies, listed below in something close to order of preference, is, as always, unapologetically subjective. Some of your own favorites may be on it, and others will not. But if my list prompts you to look back and define for yourself why movies are still worth looking at -- as, unquestionably, they are -- and helps determine what meant the most to you this year, it will have done its job.
"Happy-Go-Lucky" -- I first saw "Happy-Go-Lucky" in Berlin last winter, and I loved it so much, and with so few reservations, that I thought surely a second viewing would reveal some cracks. No dice. Mike Leigh's story of an exceedingly cheerful North London schoolteacher -- played by Sally Hawkins, in the finest performance of the year -- is an intimate masterpiece, the kind of picture that's so effortlessly multilayered that it's in danger of being called "light." "Luminous" is the better word.
"A Christmas Tale" -- French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin's movies work a weird kind of magic. In "A Christmas Tale," Catherine Deneuve plays the matriarch of a splintered family who discovers she needs a bone-marrow transplant. So the various family members (and potential donors) descend upon the family homestead, bringing their conflicts and their neuroses with them. It may sound like a formulaic conceit, but Desplechin's mode of filmmaking has a kind of sawtooth lyricism: The humor is jagged and painful in places, but that's how Desplechin cuts to the heart of familial love. What he shows us may not always be pretty; but it's unfailingly beautiful.
"Ghost Town" -- Every year, friends and fellow movie lovers ask me the same question: Why can't anyone make a good romantic comedy anymore? Then David Koepp -- a writer and filmmaker who has worked frequently with Steven Spielberg -- comes up with one that's close to perfect, and almost no one sees it. "Ghost Town" drifted into and out of theaters earlier this fall with the quiet stealth of a specter. Maybe not many people were interested in seeing Ricky Gervais as a romantic lead, or Greg Kinnear as a dapper ghost in a tux, or Téa Leoni as a confused widow -- but I suspect that a lot of people simply didn't know about "Ghost Town" until it was too late. Well, now you know. Koepp and his actors honor the spirit of Preston Sturges, proving he's more than just a forgotten ghost.
Next page: Seven more great movies from 2008
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