Lists and awards, 12/8.

"The Washington DC Area Film Critics have added more heat to the Slumdog Millionaire awards juggernaut, awarding four prizes to the film including Best Film and Best Director." Anne Thompson has the full list and David Carr comments: "It's not an influential bunch, but influence is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about indicators of prevailing winds. One-by-one, the other contenders have come and gone, impressing to be sure, but none knocking filmgoers back in their seats. And that's what a best picture does."

Related: "Combining Alejandro González Iñárritu's skittery stylistics, Fernando Meirelles's conception of slum life as an aesthetic wonderland and his own unhealthy reliance on calculated sentiment," writes Andrew Schenker, "Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (co-directed by Loveleen Tandan) manages to synthesize most of the unfortunate cinematic strategies of the contemporary globally 'aware' movie." Earlier: November reviews.

Time's "Top Ten Everything of 2008" package naturally includes movies. "Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz in The Reader" tops Richard Corliss's list of the "Top 10 Movie Performances," female category. Best Male: "Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight." And his #1 movie is WALL•E.

"How many movies from 2008 will bear revisiting in later years?" asks Anthony Lane, blogging for the New Yorker. "That is the test, and it is dismaying to recall how few productions passed it." So: "All hail WALL•E." Does Defiance top David Denby's list? He names it first, and nine more movies tumble after, and not in alphabetical order.

"After exhaustive polling of 20 of the Guardian's film writers, we have the results: the best films of the year as judged by our critics. We'll be revealing two of the top 10 each day from Monday December 8 to Friday December 12."

"Absolute Best, Richest, Most Resonant and Rib-Sticking" for Jeffrey Wells: "Steven Soderbergh's Che (and fair warning to anyone planning to perversely name this film as one the year's worst - i.e., this is an aesthetically untenable viewpoint, and you will be called out on this)." You know, I'm kind of with him on this one.

The Black Balloon has swept the Australian Film Institute Awards.

In the wake of "the sad death of the PG-rated kid-oriented adventure film," Todd Brown puts together a list of essentials: "You Gotta Start 'Em Young."

Salon presents "the 10 most pleasurable fiction and nonfiction reading experiences of the year."

Online viewing tips. Kevin Lee starts a countdown: "Top Ten Videos of 2008. #10 (User Generated Content Day)."

Posted by dwhudson at December 8, 2008 10:54 AM