Just when things can’t get better, 2008 year changed the rules about filmmaking. It keeps seeming that the next movie was always better than the last and making a top ten list was extremely difficult. But here we go anyways:

1. The Dark Knight: Picking from the top three films this year the number one was virtually impossible since all three are simply perfect. And so I had to come down to which movie would I most likely watch over and over again. Hands-down, this would be it. Christopher Nolan has taken the bar for Batman and raised it beyond any mortal expectations. This goes beyond the limits of comic book movies and becomes a classic film in it’s own right. Heath Ledger’s Joker is the ultimate villain and Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent/Two-Face is just as worthy of Oscar Glory.
2. Synecdoche, New York: Charlie Kaufman’s film about the meaning of life goes beyond what Fellini tries in his 8½ and goes bravely deeper. Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s performance is baring of all emotional taboos and creates a flawed human creature whose theatrical masterpiece allows him to see from God’s perspective and back into his own soul. If this is Kaufman’s grand masterpiece, it’s definitely worthy.
3. Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle’s film could easily be pigeonholed as an underdog story, but it’s much more. This is the story about a hard life and about a society at a crucial stage of it’s evolution and just how these two things have everything in common. Will you cheer along with the protagonist and hope that everything works out in the end? Yes. Dev Patel is a fascinating leading man and I hope to see more of him soon.
4. Wall-E: How does Pixar do it? How can they keep making these brilliant and engaging films one after another. Wall-E is a technical marvel, a visual delight, and storytelling at it’s best. Wall-E is more than just a cute robot, but a way to show how humanity can lose it’s own humanity through apathy. This film isn’t interested in making points or preaching, but provides us with the kind of adult satire that is missing in movies meant for grown-ups.
5. Stop-Loss: Director Kimberly Pierce creates a compelling drama and criticism about how war veterans are being treated by the US Government. Stop-Loss tells the story about a young man who is denied the ability to leave the military by presidential order and decides to run for it. The acting is all top notch by actors who are the cream of tomorrow’s Hollywood such as Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, and an Oscar-worthy performance by Abbie Cornish.
6. Rachel Getting Married: This is a film so alive you might not believe that it was written, or that it’s a film altogether! Jonathan Demme’s direction is compelling and completely without vanity, allowing scenes to play out naturally and without forcing events to arise. His actors embody the movement of the film, including Oscar-worthy performances by Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt and Bill Irwin. But be careful or you might just find yourself wanting to join in the festivities.
7. Doubt: John Patrick Shanley’s film adaptation to his Broadway masterpiece is just as rich and thoughtful as it is on stage. We have four perfect performances by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Viola Davis that create a story about a mystery about a priest’s relationship with an alter boy, fueled by the scorn of a older nun against said priest. This is one of the movies that the more you think about it, the less you find you actually know for sure, except that it’s great.
8. Lakeview Terrace: Samuel L. ersonName w:st="on">JackersonName>son has never been better as a Los Angeles cop determined to intimidate his new neighbors, an interracial couple, out of the neighborhood. Written and directed by Neil LeBute, this is a return to his brand of psychological pyrotechnics  laced inside a plot-driven bad-cop drama. ersonName w:st="on">JackersonName>son, Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson are dead-on in their performances.
9. Frost/Nixon: It’s particularly taking that the title kind of looks like what you would see at a boxing or chess match as the verbal war between TV Journalist David Frost and Former President Richard Nixon was just that. Ron Howard’s new film captures the flair of Peter Morgan’s play and uses the excellent performances of Frank Langella and Michael Sheen to set up a battle of ideas with stakes set so high that both men have nothing to lose.
10. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson: Alex Gibney’s look at the most sensational journalist of his time is purely breathtaking. Thompson broke a fourth dimension not with the power of drugs, but with his ability to capture his audience and bring them dragging and screaming to the crazy environements and vivid landscapes of his mind. With passages read by Johnny Depp, these landscapes are as vivid as his life, which was fuller than most. But what sets this documentary apart is how it doesn’t idolize the man, but shows him as flawed and sometimes insane creature beyond acceptance. It accepts him as he was, the way I’m sure he’d most appreciate his memory being kept.