Lists and awards, 12/26.

"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," writes Stephanie Zacharek of her favorite film of 2008. "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."

At MSN, Richard T Jameson and Kathleen Murphy present "Moments Out of Time 2008: Images, lines, gestures, moods from this year's films."

"[T]he distinction of the best American narrative film of the year belongs to Michel Gondry's evidently-undervalued Be Kind Rewind." But neither of Tativille's writers, Michael J Anderson and Lisa K Broad, put it at the top of their lists. Anderson's #1 and Broad's #2: Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman. Broad's #1 and Anderson's #2: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata.

"This year I've taken things down to my top 25 - getting it down to ten would've been far too painful - chosen by a completely random and arbitrary process that basically boiled down to my really, really liking it." Todd Brown, alphabetically, at Twitch.

"Last week, just before everyone powered down for the holidays, we asked FilmCatcher staff, curators, and contributors for their personal thoughts on one movie that made an impact or that brought the most pleasure this year."

Topping Peter Keough's list in the Boston Phoenix: Waltz with Bashir.

Time Out New York's critics chime in with bests and worsts: Melissa Anderson's #1: Silent Light. David Fear's: Happy-Go-Lucky. And Joshua Rothkopf's: The Wrestler.

Shawn Levy introduces a batch for the Oregonian: an overview of what it's like to digest 500 of the 800 new films that screened in Portland this year; the list (in alphabetical order); and odds and ends: individual top tens, worsts, double bills and the underrated.

Cinematical lists the "25 Hottest Things in Movies 2008."

"All in all, the year in docs was, like our very culture, disparate and spread thin in identity." An overview from Aaron Hillis at IFC. "Critically acclaimed films like Trouble the Water, The Order of Myths and Up the Yangtze were little seen outside of New York, LA and a handful of festivals, and some of 2008's finest docs (my first thoughts point to Guest of Cindy Sherman, Anvil! The Story of Anvil and In a Dream) have yet to see the light of theatrical distribution."

"At Participant Media, Bryan Stamp worked on a number of notable docs this year, including Errol Morris's Oscar shortlisted Standard Operating Procedure and two films that are sure to be seen more in 2009 - Food, Inc and Pressure Cooker." And he looks back on some of his favorite nonfiction films of 2008 at All these wonderful things, where AJ Schnack interviews Patrick Creadon (I.O.U.S.A.).

The cinetrix travelled far and wide to put her list together. Her #1: Encounters at the End of the World.

At the top of Aaron Dobbs's list: Synecdoche, New York.

Kevyn Knox's list goes to 14 - plus a special mention. His #1: Synecdoche.

Finding The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the top of Kent Jones's list for Sight & Sound (PDF) has given Robert Davis pause.

A Christmas Tale tops Nathan Gelgud's ten.

Sean Axmaker put the Murnau, Borzage and Fox set at the top of MSN's list of the year's best DVDs.

The Japan Times: "In carefully ordered rankings for Japanese films and no particular order for the rest, we bring you the best films of a year that is steadily drawing its curtains closed." #1: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata.

"The Oklahoma Film Critics Circle has announced its third annual list of awards for achievement in film, giving top honors to Slumdog Millionaire as the year's best motion picture."

At the SpoutBlog, Michael Lerman lists what he argues are the "Most Misunderstood Films of 2008."

More actresses: Dennis Cozzalio and Bob Westal. Marilyn Ferdinand's moving on to actors, though.

Joe Bowman is listing, listing, listing.

"Screen looks at some of the key issues for the international film industry in 2008." Parts 1, 2 and 3.

In the Washington Post, Jen Chaney lists "2008's eight most memorable DVD moments, a collection of extras and overall releases that kept me glued to that couch cushion, happy to be entertained, enlightened and far, far away from a treadmill."

David Kamp writes the epitaphs for Vanity Fair's "Hall of Infamy, 2008."

Matthew Smith introduces City Pages' package of profiles of "some of the year's most inspiring musicians, writers, visual artists, dancers, filmmakers, and more."

Art critic Jed Perl has a terrific list of his favorite books of the year. Also in the New Republic, John B Judis presents a "Crisis of '08 Reading List": "As capitalism itself - or at the least the vaunted miracle of the free market - becomes problematic, the left is poised for an intellectual comeback. So here are four topics and some books to read about them, plus a few articles, from someone who learned economics by reading and rereading Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy's Monopoly Capital."

Vulture gathers its greatest hits and favorite posts.

Online browsing tip. "The Year in Michael Musto."

Online scrolling tip. Get the Big Picture selects the "Best Movie Posters 2008." Via Coudal Partners.

Online listening tip. IFC's Matt Singer and Alison Willmore "wrap up the year with a look at our best-ofs, an offering of worst-ofs and biggest letdowns and a round-up of the films we're most looking forward to in 2009."

Online viewing tip. Robert Horton hosts an hour-long conversation with Kathleen Murphy, Andrew Wright and Jim Emerson about the best (and worst) films of the year.

Online viewing tips. "Only one thing happened in 2008, and that was that stupid finally went out of style on November 4 when we elected Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States of America," writes Northwest Film Forum children's programs director Liz Shepherd. "It was a nail-biter, a cliffhanger, a grand opera and one very long Google search to get there. It was a year of hope and change and YouTube. Could any of us have survived without these clips?"

Posted by dwhudson at December 26, 2008 12:08 PM