UPDATE: Since the site switch, none of these links seem to work properly anymore. Maybe one day I’ll fix them, but that day ain’t today.
I hate to seem rushed in summing up such a fucked up year, but I felt it was better something than nothing.
I’m a few hours away from heading off to a week in Havana. A week where I’ll witness the end of 2008, the beginning of my second quarter-century on this planet, and, as it turns out, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution (if there’s ever a time Fidel will show his face in public…). But while I’ll be sure to do some serious blogging catch up in regard to the trip when I get back in eight days, until then.. this blog is shut down, as is my relationship with the internet. Which will be very strange, I’m sure. I haven’t gone a day without the internet in years.
Most certainly not this year, which marked the first full year of this blog, a pasttime I’ve enjoyed way more than I expected, and I thank anyone reading this for continuing to do so. And while I could go on more generally about the many political, cultural and historical events that shaped 2008, I’m gonna make an attempt at doing it link-to-this-blog style, from a very personal perspective, and in a few short paragraphs so I can continue packing and try and get some sleep.
The year began with losing my Sundance virginity, which involved some vomit, an interview with Bruce LaBruce, swag, “Good Things Utah”, the horribly shocking death of Heath Ledger, indieWIRE getting impounded, and dinner with Paris Hilton.
In February, I got a new roommate with a thing for Denis Leary, survived the middle of hellish Canadian winter, spent way too much blogging about the Oscars, gambled on them and won, and did not-so-bad (it seems) predicting this year’s Oscars a year in advance.
Then came March’s annual Nuit Blanche in my then home-city of Montreal, more insane winter to go with it, that horrible Sally Kern, the true beginning of thesis-related hell, DMX making me feel insecure about my intelligence in writing said thesis, and the magical facebook wonder that was Kevin Benson.
It was still snowing in April, a month which saw make verbal love to Richard Roeper, get robbed while I was fucking sleeping in my apartment, serve on my first festival jury in Atlanta, witness a hockey related riot for the ages, attend Hot Docs as a journalist instead of a volunteer coordinator, and watch Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen be the funniest people alive at an iW-Apple Store event.
May brought Cannes, and with it pandas, karaoke, creepy phototaking, and a newfound hatred for Clint Eastwood’s directorial capabilities. I arrived back in North America just in time to do some more bitching about the Sex and the City movie.
Then there was the summer, where I continued to near thesis completion, left my day job, spent time outside, found an unlikely rebound from my post-The Wire television celibacy, became a cowboy, became forever scared of buses, broke up with my boyfriend, got a tattoo, became briefly obsessed with the Olympics, joined a Christian rock group, and finally, moved from my beloved Montreal and into a now four-month long stint as a gypsy/hobo/residential mooch.
September brought my first school-free fall since 1987, and with it Zac Efron, an all-nighter in Toronto, the beginning of more Oscar geekdom, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, the kick off of my over discussed “hobo tour”, including a wacky voyage to New York, and a fantastic New York Film Festival, which brought viewings of my two favourite films of the year: Wendy & Lucy and Happy-Go-Lucky.
The rest of the year, getting smushed into one paragraph because this is taking way too fucking long… brought with it a return to Montreal, a mourning of the end of Mad Men’s second season, my introduction to my drag personality, Petra, a crazy ass trip to Los Angeles, and with it an awards show, “Milk”, Tilda,Obama, and the Prop 8 rallies. By the end of November, my own country was in political upheaval just as I was being forced back. I was too busy spending every waking moment obsessing about awards season or doing weird things with my family, though.. and somehow time flew at it was December 29th. And 1am. Four hours before I go to meet Fidel.
See you in 2009.
I’ve been geekily doing this privately for years, but I figured I might as well share this year. I feel like calling them anything puts too much credence on them, hence the question mark (as well as how stupid “lost boy awards” sounds to begin with). But nonetheless, in my dream world, this is what I’d prefer this awards season recognized. There’s six nominees in each category, and they don’t entirely follow Oscar category ways. So with a grain of salt, and after the jump, I present my own personal 2008 awards.
BEST PICTURE
The Dark Knight
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
WALL-E
Waltz With Bashir
Wendy & Lucy
BEST DIRECTOR
Arnaud Desplechin, A Christmas Tale
Ari Folman, Waltz With Bashir
Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Kelly Reichardt, Wendy & Lucy
Gus Van Sant, Milk
BEST ACTOR
Mathieu Almaric, A Christmas Tale
Leonardo diCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Sean Penn, Milk
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Michael Sheen, Frost/Nixon
BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
Michelle Williams, Wendy & Lucy
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder
James Franco, Pineapple Express
Emile Hirsch, Milk
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Emmanuelle Devos, A Christmas Tale
Samantha Morton, Synecdoche, New York
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Elsa Zylberstein, I’ve Loved You So Long
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Arnaud Desplechin and Emmanuel Bourdieu, A Christmas Tale
Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York
Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married
Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, WALL-E
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Francois Begaudeau, The Class
Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let The Right One In
Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond, Wendy & Lucy
Roberto Saviano, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone and Massimo Gaudioso, Gomorrah
BEST CAST ENSEMBLE
Burn After Reading
A Christmas Tale
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Revolutionary Road
Synecdoche, New York
BEST BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Michael Fassbender, Hunger
Kare Hedebrant, Let The Right One In
Danny McBride, Pineapple Express
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Haaz Sleiman, The Visitor
Micheal J. Smith, Ballast
BEST BREAKTHROUGH ACTRESS
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Rebecca Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Allison Pill, Milk
Tarra Riggs, Ballast
Misty Upham, Frozen River
Alexis Zegerman, Happy-Go-Lucky
BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT
Ari Folman, Waltz With Bashir
Lance Hammer, Ballast
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York
Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
Steve McQueen, Hunger
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
WALL-E
Waltz With Bashir
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Christmas Tale
The Class
Gomorrah
Let The Right One In
Tulpan
Waltz With Bashir
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Chris & Don. A Love Story
Man on Wire
My Winnipeg
Trouble The Water
Up The Yangtze
Waltz With Bashir
BEST FILM EDITING
The Dark Knight
Gomorrah
Man on Wire
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Dark Knight
Gomorrah
Hunger
Let The Right One In
Paranoid Park
Slumdog Millionaire
BEST ART DIRECTION
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Fall
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Synecdoche, New York
WALL-E
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Fall
Revolutionary Road
Savage Grace
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Dracula’s Lament” (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)
“Little People” (Synecdoche, New York)
“Jai Ho” (Slumdog Millionaire)
“O… Saya” (Slumdog Millionaire)
“Walk Away” (High School Musical 3)
“The Wrestler” (The Wrestler)
BEST MUSICAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Waltz With Bashir
I find it hard to agree with the multitude of arguments that 2008 was any sort of weak year for filmmaking. The ten films I narrowed down for this list jointly represent all the adjectives you want from great cinema: affecting, challenging, ambitious, inspiring… I think a lot of the year’s collective criticism came from all the letdowns of the final few months. That dozen or so films with great gold hopes that failed to, at least personally, impress, mostly due to one common factor: a lack of any emotional relationship between the screen and the viewer. But that was not the case in the films noted here (and take note: all but one of which screened at least through a festival prior to August). All of these films I can totally go back to in my mind and regain a sense of my reaction. Every moment Poppy spent in the car with Scott. That final scene in Wendy and Lucy. The awe-inspiring first fifteen minutes of WALL-E. The first frame of Heath Ledger‘s performance in The Dark Knight. The walk home from watching Synecdoche, New York.
Though I’ll admit it was probably more challenging to place numbers in front of those films than most years. Perhaps because no one film had the overwhelming sense of artistry films that topped this list in the past had (There WIll Be Blood, Far From Heaven, Brokeback Mountain, for example). So it should be understood that had I arranged this list last week or next, the order might have been entirely different.
1. Wendy & Lucy
2. Happy-Go-Lucky
3. WALL-E
4. The Dark Knight
5. Waltz With Bashir
6. Milk
7 . A Christmas Tale
8. Synecdoche, New York
9. Ballast
10. Let The Right One In
11. The Class
12. Man on Wire
13. Rachel Getting Married
14. Pineapple Express
15. Gomorrah
16. The Wrestler
17. Slumdog Millionaire
18. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
19. Momma’s Man
20. Up The Yangtze
21. My Winnipeg
22. Love Songs
23. Frozen River
24. The Visitor
25. Burn After Reading
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