Same rules as before. List between 5 and 20 movies from 2008. Release dates are decided by RYM.

Here's a link to the RYM page for 2008: http://rateyourmusic.com/films/chart?page=1&chart_type=top&type=film&year=2008&genre_include=1&genres=&include=both&limit=none&countries=

Voting will close Saturday, August 14.

1 . トウキョウソナタ [Tokyo Sonata] - Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
2 . Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] - Tomas Alfredson - Sweden
3 . Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman - USA
4 . Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh - UK
5. Entre les murs [The Class] - Laurent Cantet - France
6 . Revolutionary Road - Sam Mendes - USA
7 . 歩いても 歩いても [Still Walking] - Hirokazu Koreeda - Japan
8 . 愛のむきだし [Love Exposure] - Sion Sono - Japan
9 . Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood - USA
10 . The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow - USA
11 . Морфий [Morphine] - Алексей Балабанов - Russia
12 . Hunger - Steve McQueen - UK
13 . 崖の上のポニョ [Ponyo On The Cliff] - Hayao Miyazaki - Japan
14 . Le silence de Lorna [Lorna's Silence] - Luc Dardenne - Belgium
15 . Weltrevolution [The World Revolution] - Klaus Hundsbichler - Austria
16 . Slumdog Millionaire - Danny Boyle - UK/India
17 . The Wrestler - Darren Aronofsky - USA
18 . Il divo - Paolo Sorrentino - Italy
19 . ואלס עם באשיר [Waltz with Bashir] - Ari Folman - Palestine
20 . Muukalainen [Visitor] (2008) - J.-P. Valkeapää - Finland


According to IMDB The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy is a 2008 movie. But the first release date is in Canada second of May 2009 in Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. If we still somehow decide it's 08 a movie it's my #5.

Even though I may not always agree with them, I really always like your lists Petri. Very varied, some rare gems and also some mainstream films. I will have to check out Tokyo Sonata.

01. Vals im Bashir (Ari Folman)
02. Entre les Murs (Laurent Cantet)
03. Gomorra (Matte Garrone)
04. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
05. The Dark Knight (Christoper Nolan)
06. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
07. L'Heure d'Été (Olivier Assayas)
08. Lat den Rätte Komma in (Tomas Alfredson)
09. Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes)
10. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)

11. Linha de Passe (Walter Salles & Daniele Thomas)
12. Disgrace (Steve Jacobs)
13. Cloverfield (Matt Reeves)
14. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen)
15. Iron Man (Jon Favreau)
16. Il y a Longtemps que Je T'aime (Philippe Claudel)
17. Burn After Reading (Athen & Joel Coen)
18. Revanche (Götz Spielmann)
19. Milk (Gus van Sant)
20. Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme)

For the first time the number of films that I have seen has dropped significantly. I am still able to post a top 20 though, as I enjoyed watching all of the 20 films posted above and I have seen more than 40 films that were released in 2008. The foreign films are doing better than in the previous couple of years, fortunately. And again, France was quite important. But the best one, an animation, comes from Isreal. This year seems to be a nice blend of popular films and arthouse films.

1. Treeless Mountain / So Yong Kim / South Korea
2. Three Monkeys / Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Turkey
3. Wall-E / Andrew Stanton / U.S.
4. Gomorrah / Matteo Garrone / Italy
5. Lorna's Silence / Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne / Belgium
6. A Christmas Tale / Arnaud Desplechin / France
7. Burn After Reading / Joel Coen / U.S.
8. Lake Tahoe / Fernando Eimbcke / Mexico
9. The Merry Gentleman / Michael Keaton
10. Still Walking / Hirokazu Kore-eda / Japan

1. Wall-E
2. The Hurt Locker
3. The Dark Knight
4. Milk
5. The Visitor
6. Synecdoche, New York
7. Rachel Getting Married
8. Let the Right One In
9. The Wrestler
10. The Reader

If it turns out that The Hurt Locker is not eligible this year, please move everything else up one position and add Frozen River at #10.

A lot of good films this year:
1. Waltz with Bashir
2. Benjamin Button
3. Entre les murs
4. Gomorra
5. L'heure d' été
6. 35 Rhums
7. Man on wire
8. Still Walking
9. Departures
10.Wrestler
11.Rachel getting married
12.Séraphine
13.Revanche
14.WallE
15.Slumdog millionaire
16.Happy-go-lucky
17.Ponyo
18.Burn after reading
19.Ghost town
20.Wendy and lucy

21.Goodbye solo
22.Che 1
23.Milk
24.Transsiberian
25.Hurt Locker
26.Max Manus
27.Cloverfield

The agreed on rules are we go by the RYM year so long as it coincides with either the first festival release date or the first wide release date. So Hurt Locker counts as 2008.

I'm surprised so few people have voted Wendy and Lucy so far. I'd consider it for my top 50 all time.

01. Vals im Bashir (Ari Folman)
02. Entre les Murs (Laurent Cantet)
03. Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood)
04. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
05. L'Heure d'Été (Olivier Assayas)
06. Lat den Rätte Komma in (Tomas Alfredson)
07. Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes)
08. Burn After Reading (Athen & Joel Coen)

Although I have to admit that Gomorra had to settle for a while in my mind, before I really got to appreciate it.

About Gomorra: the mafia has put a price on the head of the author of the book the movie "Gomorra" is based on. The movie doesn't feel like a movie but like a documentary; so the things you see in the movie are real-life. After I saw the movie with my wife, we never wanted to travel to Italy again.

I enjoyed Revanche. At the beginning it looked like it was going to be all about sex trafficking. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get through it, because those are people I consider further beneath contempt than serial killers. But the first half set up for a really powerful second half.

I didn't get as much out of The Chaser. I thought the noir aspect was great. The ending could have worked if they hadn't worked in the preachy 'Oh you jerks care more about the poop thrower' angle. But the series of events that led to the ending felt so contrived and manipulative, that's when the film lost me.

I'm not quite sure what I think of Synecodche, New York. I think it's one of those films where I like the intention more than the film itself. I like how the daughter turned into like a character from an arty french film.

I'm just realizing all the foreign films I've seen in 2010 are eligable for 2009. So right now I've got about 30 2009 films to choose from.

Don't watch any Soderbergh films. You won't be able to come to America either.

I wasn't that impressed by Gomorrah. Yeah, it de-romanticizes the mafia, but it doesn't really do anything I haven't seen in a Coppola film, a Scorcese film, or The Sopranos.

With The Chaser I liked the 'Everyone cares about the poop thrower more than the serial killer' angle when it was just kind of there in the background. It's when they threw it in your face later on and caused things to happen I can't discuss without it being a spoiler that it got kind of obnoxious and manipulative. Especially since the chain of events that lead to the things I can't discuss just weren't that plausible.

Okay, I have a question about the movie Hunger.

Are we actually supposed to agree that a murderer should get special treatment if they committed the murder for political motives? And that outrage is supposed to be enough to get me to subject myself to an hour and a half of bodily fluids? If you want to glorify terrorism on the grounds of noble cause, at least show us the crimes these people committed against innocent people for some semblance of balance. I'm not going to sympathize with a bomber just because I see his shit smeared on the wall.

I really liked Let The Right One In. It might be the best vampire film since Nosferatu, (Not that that's really saying much). It might be the first vampire film to take a stab at magical realism.

Has anyone seen Broken Embraces? There was this one scene where the father and his son discuss in detail the logistics of dating a vampire. (This vampire doesn't kill people, she runs a phony blood bank and uses donations). I want to see *that* movie made.

Anyway, my list:

1. Wendy and Lucy
2. Waltz With Bashir
3. The Wrestler
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Let The Right One In
6. Frozen River
7. The Good, The Bad and The Weird
8. Revanche
9. A Christmas Tale
10. Rachel Getting Married
11. Goodbye Solo
12. Hellboy II
13. Slumdog Millionaire
14. Still Walking
15. Iron Man
16. Summer Hours
17. The Class
18. The Dark Knight
19. Milk
20. Synecdoche, New York

1. Entre les murs [The Class]
2. De ofrivilliga [Involuntary]
3. Milk
4. Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In]
5. In Bruges

1) The Dark Knight
2) Slumdog Millionaire
3) Pineapple Express
4) WALL-E
5) Tropic Thunder
6) Cadillac Records
7) Valkyrie
8) Gran Torino
9) Defiance
10) Yes Man

I'm surprised no one's voted for Die Welle (The Wave) yet. A must see if anyone thinks that autocracy's dead in the western world.

1. Gran Torino – Clint Eastwood
2. Los crímenes de Oxford (The Oxford Murders) – Álex de la Iglesia
3. The Happening – M. Night Shyamalan
4. Burn After Reading – Joel & Ethan Coen
5. Die Welle (The Wave) – Dennis Gansel
6. Changeling – Clint Eastwood
7. Blindness – Fernando Meirelles
8. Taken – Pierre Morel
9. Outlander – Howard McCain
10. Flawless – Michael Radford
11. 21 – Robert Luketic
12. Defiance – Edward Zwick
13. Lakeview Terrace – Neil LaBute
14. Transsiberian – Brad Anderson
15. The Bucket List – Rob Reiner
16. Sex and Death 101 – Daniel Waters
17. Babylon A.D. – Mathieu Kassovitz
18. The Spiderwick Chronicles – Mark Waters
19. Passengers – Rodrigo García
20. Cadillac Records – Darnell Martin

I can't! I haven't seen close to enough films per year to vote. I could watch them on the internet, but that will totally ruin the atmosphere. I'm hoping to watch the final 100 so I can vote then.

I'm doing good watching all the qualified ones I hadn't seen. Right now the only ones from 2000-2007 I've got left are Inside Man, the second half of L'enfant, V for Vendetta, and Superbad which I may or may not watch if I feel like it when it gets close to the deadline.

And, there's two current shoo-ins from 2008 I haven't seen, but I doubt there's going to be anything in 2009.

Most of the new films I saw these weeks failed to wow me—although they were quite good—with the notable exception of Waltz With Bashir.

1. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (David Fincher)
2. The Chaser (Hong-jin Na)
3. WALL·E (Andrew Stanton)
4. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
5. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
6. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
7. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
8. Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman)
9. Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
10. Burn After Reading (Ethan Coen / Joel Coen)

Do you have any ideas on continuing this for other decades BillAdama? To me it would be even more interesting to dig into the '40s through '80s, and that's why I'm also willing to run it if you don't want to, because my all-time list is dominated by films from the '90s and '00s.

To go to something a bit happier after watching Waltz with Bachir and The Chaser, and because I really love Snatch, I just watched RocknRolla... and it is awfully dull and boring...
5 more movies to watch and I'll be ready to vote !

I was only planning to do 00s, but if enough people want me to I'd be willing to go through other decades. Although, sometime in 2011 I was planning to start another Moderate, and I don't want to be running two polls at the same time.

If somebody else ran them I'd absolutely participate. I have far more gaps in previous decades than in the 00s.

Your votes always seem to be powerful Stephan. They always seem to land on the bubble films.

I try to watch all the #1's from other people as well as films that seem likely to make it, so that might have something to do with it, but I'm sure that if other people voted last-minute theirs would seem more powerful too.

Regarding other decades, what do you think would be most appropriate; working our way back or starting somewhere early? Personally I'd be more interested in '70s and '80s, but I suppose it makes more sense to do the '90s first. Anyone else with an opinion on the matter?

There are not as many participants in these film polls as there are for music polls, and I'm guessing there will be even less if we take early decades, so I'd be willing to do the collating if you have too much work on your hands.

I'd like the other decades as well. So, I'm definitely in. I don't know about organizing though, maybe some earlier decades if enough people will vote.

Here are the arguments I would make for any particular decade.

90s: Movies from the 90's haven't gotten their critical due yet, so we'd probably be unearthing the most diamonds with a 90's poll. Plus, if we wanted to make this an ongoing thing, it seems logical to just go backwards.

70s: You'd probably get the most participation and best competition from the 70s. It's old enough that it's films are considered classic, but new enough that the films still have modern appeal, and that some of the forum members could have grown up with them. The 70s are when the 'modern' film was born.

Combined 20s-30s: Best of the silent era versus early talkies, with a lot of obscure masterpieces. Of course, we'd get the least participation.

I'm inclined to agree that it's more logical to do '90s next; I can wait a while to find more films from before the '90s. We can do about 2 decades per year, so we'd be finished with the '10s-'30s early 2014. Looking forward to it already.

To get back to the current decade, my recommendation for 2009 is "Un Prophète", and I will be watching "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" tonight.

Wow, I can't believe nobody ever brought up "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" in the 2009 topic, what a fantastic film.

That movie didn't come out in the US until like May 2010 or so. It'll definitely be on my 2009 list. I loved the plot and the ending, but I think it had pacing issues.

The results for 2008:

1. Vals Im Bashir (Waltz With Bashir) (208/6/3)
2. Entre les murs (The Class) (194/7/1)
3. Wall-E (169/6/1)
4. Lat den ratte komma in (Let The Right One In) (161/7/0)
5. The Wrestler (155/7/0)
6. Gran Torino (145/5/1)
7. The Dark Knight (131/5/1)
8. The Hurt Locker (102/4/0)
9. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (90/2/1)
10. Synecdoche, New York (81/4/0)

Just missed:
Burn After Reading (79/5/0)
L'Heure d'Ete (Summer Hours) (73/4/0)

Benjamin Button is the first movie to qualify with only two votes. Aronofsky and Nolan qualify their second.

Oh, David Fincher also qualifies his second. I didn't know Zodiac and Button were by the same director. And I suppose Charlie Kaufman deserves a mention, because he qualified his second written film.

I thought we have until the end of the month...

Look at the top post, Nassim. It's been a two week window for every year. If it's okay with other people I could let you post a late list, so long as you don't look at exactly how many points each film needs when you post it.

A slight correction. Charlie Kaufman has qualified three written movies, not two. I forgot about Adaptation.

Yeah I've seen, but I'm accustomed of the music polls so I did took the monthly basis for granted.
It's ok without my vote, the top 10 is really good (except I did not really like Benjamin Button).

Sorry about Button, sometimes I'm just a big sucker for melodrama.

Didn't Gomorra get 35 + 30 + 30 = 95 points?

woot! nice catch, henrik

My list would have been :

1)The Dark Knight
2)Let the Right One In
3)Gran Torino
4)Wall-E
5)Iron Man
6)In Bruges
7)Revolutionary Road
8)Forgetting Sarah Marshall (vote might be a little biased... Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell in the same movie is too much sex-appeal to stay neutral)
9)Be Kind Rewind
10)Wanted
11)Slumdog Millionaire
12)You Don't Mess With The Zohan (I understand not everybody like those kinds of movies, but 368st of the year in imdb seems tough)
13)Waltz With Bashir
14)The Chaser
15)Synecdoche, New-York
16)Burn After Reading

Some huge deceptions this year, Benjamin Button is a failed attempt to copy the magic of Forrest Gump, The Spirit is a total mess, RocknRolla incredibly boring and the only couple of laughters coming from the Love Guru are here thanks to Justin Timberlake.

Maybe I should put it more positively. Why did you like 'You Don't Mess with the Zohan' so much?

Nassim's list wouldn't have changed the top 10, it only would have shifted the top 10 around a little.

The Big Lebowski has good character development. For comedies there tend to be at least one of two things I look for.

1) Good character development.

2) Intelligent humor.

A few people are pushing me to see Scott Pilgrim versus the world. I'm really skeptical of that one both because I hate Michael Cera and because all the ads look really terrible. Then again, since I liked Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, maybe the humor is more intelligent than it looks.

If you haven't seen Michael Cera in Arrested Development, it's an absoulte must. Greatest comedy TV show of all time (screw you Seinfeld!), and it's what got him the Juno gig, then the Superbad gig, and then the other generic "deep comedy"...

I like all kind of humors as long as it is not over-gross : give me situations, wit, absurd, burlesque, play on words, non-sense, people falling...
I'm not really sure about what "intelligent humor" is, I think for instance that "Funny People" was meant to be quite clever while at the end, it was jokes about dicks again and again.
On the other hand, I'm not convinced that the humor in the great silent classics was always very intelligent (the rest of the movies was however, I admit that can make a difference for the final appreciation).

And I did not find the Zohan that much stupid, even if it sure is not the wittiest film ever, and it surprised me which is a good think in term of humor (no surprise in the scenario for sure, but some on the jokes).

Maybe 'intelligent' is the wrong word. 'Clever' is better.

Movies like Zoolander and Scott Pilgrim (Which I've now seen and liked) aren't movies you can really call 'intelligent', but they're certainly very clever.

The types of humor I don't like are shock value humor, disgusting humor, and 'Character gimmick' humor. An example of 'Character gimmick' humor is what they usually do on Saturday Night Live. They establish a few odd character quirks and base the humor entirely on those quirks.