SFBG. "The Year in Film 2008."

"As 2008's year-end pieces roll across the blogosphere, one encounters the alluring titles and stills of films which won't reach the Bay Area for months," writes Max Goldberg in his piece for the San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Year in Film 2008" package. "Against this tempting tide, I turn to the faint echoes of those undistributed movies which lingered in mind long enough after their festival screenings to become pliable to memory." His top ten's in alphabetical order, though he does linger quite a while on John Gianvito's Profit motive and the whispering wind.

Johnny Ray Huston's #1: Sarabande, "the time and place where [Nathaniel] Dorsky's devotional cinema reaches the sublime. This country priest of a film critic may be misreading the signs, once again, in making such a claim - but so be it."

Cheryl Eddy looks back on the year in bromance: "Bros before hos, always - but hos are still in the equation, and are indeed a key component of any bromantic relationship. Returning to Pineapple Express: the subplot about Seth Rogen's high school girlfriend was the film's weakest link, in kind of the same way Step Brothers was only funny when Will Ferrell and John C Reilly were together onscreen, and it was pretty clear that no chick at the end of any road trip could match the BFFF ['best fuckin' friend forever'] bond in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay." Her #1: Milk.

"If Obama and Milk succored with romantic promise and possibility, the stumbling close of the Bush years and his party's latest last-ditch follies provided the bitterest laughs, with doses of unexpected sympathy for the devil," writes Kimberly Chun, who, in lieu of a top ten, offers "Five for Flesh, Fantasy and Fighting."

"2008 sucked for movie musicals," notes Louis Peitzman. "While 2007 offered Hairspray, Sweeney Todd and Across the Universe, 2008 gave us Mamma Mia!, High School Musical 3: Senior Year and Repo: The Genetic Opera. Is it too late for re-gifting?" Still, topping his list of "Ten Guilty Pleasures" is HSM3.

Dennis Harvey lists his "16 Horrible Experiences at the Movies" (#1: Over Her Dead Body), "Best Performances Most Likely to Be Overlooked" and a top 25. #1: Battle for Haditha.

Topping Kevin Langson's list is The Edge of Heaven, but he dwells on his #8, Slumdog Millionaire, whose "character types and arcs are not new by any stretch of the imagination, but it is quite rewarding, amidst all the pleasure of rich visuals and suspense, to witness the victory of a dignified, perspicacious member of the underclass."

Matt Sussman stays indoors with the best DVDs of the year. His list: "Top Ten Leading Ladies (In No Particular Order).

More "Top 10s and More" from Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, Michelle Devereaux, Barry Jenkins and... more.

Posted by dwhudson at December 31, 2008 6:57 AM