The best movies of 2008

Movie theaters held their own in 2008. The silver screen remains the platform for movie premieres before they trickle down to small screens, flat screens, cell-phone screens and, for all we know, the sides of walls.

In fact, the box office seemed recession-proof. Sales for the year will drop about 1 percent to an estimated $9.60 billion, buoyed by higher ticket prices. That's off from last year's record $9.68 billion, according to researcher Media by Numbers LLC. Attendance will decline 5.2 percent, from 1.41 billion in 2007 to 1.33 billion.

As inflated as prices have become (particularly for popcorn), a movie is cheap entertainment, and it was proven again in '08 that a movie needs a theatrical release to have any life in home rentals and purchases.

Selecting a Top 10 from more than 400 movies that opened locally, or are set to open, in 2008 is a daunting task. The Pilot's Top 10 has been a tradition for well over 50 years - aimed, as always, at not the most popular films, but at those that have a chance of being remembered.

Film enthusiasts know that a movie's place in history takes time to be established. Immediate hits often fade quickly after the money is counted. In today's market, a movie that makes less than $100 million at the box office often is regarded as largely unsuccessful.

Women proved in 2008 that they'll show up at theaters for the right movies. "Sex and the City" and "Mamma Mia!" became rallying cries for girls-night-out parties, creating a "new" market that should be served in 2009. It also was a big year for dogs, with canine hits including "Bolt," "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and "Marley & Me," with its record-setting Christmas Day opening. "Hotel for Dogs" and "Wendy and Lucy" wait in the wings.

It would be easier to name the Top 10 performances. One after another, great performances proved to be better than the movies in which they were housed. These include Sean Penn in "Milk," Angelina Jolie in "Changeling," Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler," Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor," Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino," Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader," Josh Brolin in "W.," Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" and the entire cast of "Doubt."

The Top 10 movies (in no particular order):

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE A Mumbai orphan emerges to become an amazingly successful contestant in the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" - prompting suspicions that he is cheating. Actually, he knows the answers because of life experience, and his motive is not money, but to attract the attention of a girl. Directed by Danny Boyle and with a stunning musical score, this is the surprise hit of the year. The humorous, horrific and romantic share equal screen time.

FROZEN RIVER This is a timely look at the plight of two desperate women driven by poverty to do the wrong thing for the right reason. Melissa Leo turns in the year's best performance by an actress as a middle-aged woman who must fight the odds. Directed by Courtney Hunt, the movie got only a brief local release.

WALL-E This is the 2008 film that is most likely to become a classic, a profound and wonderfully inventive tale about a bleak future for the planet Earth, told in loving and romantic terms. Wall-E, who bears a stylistic resemblance to the underdog silent-movie characters created by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, is the last working robot on a planet that has been abandoned by humans. He finds romance with Eve, an egg-shaped robot searching for signs of life on the ecological nightmare that is Earth. Pixar's masterminds have concocted an original that speaks to our times.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, the lovers from "Titanic," are reunited, but not happily. This may be the most stinging indictment of American marriage since "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Based on a novel by Richard Yates, it is set in the mid-1950s and concerns an ambitious, intelligent couple who move to the suburbs only to find they hate their existence and, maybe, each other. It's directed by Sam Mendes, who is Winslet's husband. Let's hope they didn't rehearse it at home.

THE DARK KNIGHT The most popular movie of the year (it took in more than $500 million) is also one of the best, holding up a warped mirror to a world that has come to take violence for granted. Batman, played with a frown by Christian Bale, is a reluctant hero, wondering if a dark and despairing Gotham City is worth saving. Heath Ledger turns in a bravura performance as The Joker. He will likely win the Academy Award that should have been given to him for his more subtle performance in "Brokeback Mountain."

GRAN TORINO Honor and atonement are at the center of this suspenseful character study of a wrinkled, grouchy Korean War veteran who hates Asians and finds himself trapped in a neighborhood surrounded by people he considers "foreigners." Clint Eastwood directs himself in what he has announced will be his final acting role. It is a grand finale as his character gives lessons about life, and learns a few himself.

CHANGELING A true story, set in 1928, is at the center of this suspenseful and visually detailed period piece. A single mother is traumatized when her young son is apparently kidnapped and the Los Angeles police return the wrong boy. When she balks, they try to make her look either insane or unfit. Angelina Jolie gives a thoughtful, disciplined performance that shows as much strength as flair. The Oscar nomination that was denied her for "A Mighty Heart" must be forthcoming. This is a rare case in which one director, Eastwood, has two films on the list.

IN BRUGES Blessed with some of the cleverest dialogue of the year, this concerns two Irish hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) who are sent to hide in the storybook, touristy Belgian city of Bruges. Farrell is consumed with guilt over the fact that he killed a young boy in an earlier job. The script has the tough mark of Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, whose work has been represented on local stages through "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" (at Virginia Stage Company) and "The Pillowman" (at Generic Theater).

DOUBT John Patrick Shanley directs his Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, bringing to the screen a test of wills that puts moral and religious questions to the test. Meryl Streep is the stern and foreboding nun who accuses a modern-thinking priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of "inappropriate" attentions toward a young boy. When at its best, the film follows the play's dictates by balancing guilt vs. innocence, scene by scene. Streep will receive her 15th Oscar nomination, but it is more likely that Viola Davis will win the statuette for her supporting role as the mother of the boy. Hoffman also adds another fine characterization to his list - and this time he doesn't overact.

FROST/NIXON Ron Howard directs this entertaining dramatization of the 1977 television interviews in which British talk show host David Frost faced off against former President Richard Nixon. Frank Langella creates the picture of a crafty, brilliant political force who is cursed with self-doubt. Even though Langella looks nothing like Nixon, he sweeps us into a paranoid mind that is filled with denial. Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair so well in "The Queen," gives us an ambitious Frost. It is talky, but compelling.

Just missing the list was "Milk," another re-creation of past news, highlighted by a fine performance by Sean Penn. Others that might have made the list in other years were "Rachel Getting Married," "The Visitor," "The Wrestler," "Happy-Go-Lucky" and "Vicky Christina Barcelona."

Standout foreign films for the year were: the abortion thriller "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," the vampire love story "Let the Right One In" and the suspenseful "Tell No One."

Worthy supporting performances included Eddie Marsan in "Happy-Go-Lucky," Misty Upham in "Frozen River," Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Christina Barcelona," Brad Pitt in "Burn After Reading," Debra Winger in "Rachel Getting Married" and Brolin in "Milk."

Our picks for the worst movie of the year: "The Love Guru" followed closely by "Death Race," "Speed Racer," "Mamma Mia!" "Seven Pounds," "Body of Lies," "Drillbit Taylor," "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and "Synecdoche, New York." Last, and possibly least, was "Australia." Hopes were high for this would-be epic, but the scene in which Nicole Kidman finds a missing orphan because he plays "Over the Rainbow" on a harmonica is the corniest of the movie year.

Maybe we should add "10,000 B.C." because it didn't have Raquel Welch in a cavewoman bikini.

Somebody stop me.

It's time for 2009.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com.