2007-2008 Season's Best Films (Personally)

Probably the best movie of 2008. Hirsch proves he's a great actor. McCandless's life was a true inspiration.

The only reason I'm sorry for, is that I didn't get to see this film when it came out two years ago. It was a powerful hit to the stomach, a film that is infused with subtle intensity, a movie about an unusual human drama. For me, this movie was about antitheses: prejudice vs. acceptance, male vs. female, freedom vs. oppression, love vs. neglect, heart-break vs. fulfillment.

The performances are simply brilliant, and although Argentinian cinema is one I'm the least familiar with, I was just proven that indeed the greatest movies don't require neither Hollywood nor billions worth of budget, nor happy endings.

A most powerful film about humanity, sexuality, acceptance, growth and tragedy. I literally didn't want it to end. Lyricism that flies off the screen straight to the heart. No taboos, no restrains, no limits. Real cinema. At last a movie I can call a masterpiece.

There are no words to describe the beauty of this film. The duo (Pittt-Affleck) make the movie everything it is.

What an amazing, soul-captivating film. Throws you in the deepness of human patterns and tragedies from the first moment. Sam Rockwell gives a poignant, powerful performance. With the background of a snowy town, its citizens are destroyed piece by piece every moment, in what is for me, one of the most soul-stirring movies I have watched in my life. A movie that could not have a different ending but the one it had.

There's not much really to be said about this film. Just that it's a masterpiece and probably the best comedy I have watched in my life. Educative, spiritedly astute, magnificent in its sarcasm. Exceptional performances, unexampled direction and a truly brave script. Denmark might have a slowly-developing cinema, but it's a cinema worth waiting for. I wish everybody could make movies like this: you laugh when you want to cry, you wonder and you are amazed. What more does one need?

Day-Lewis gives one of the most electrifying performances of his career and Paul Dano is simply brilliant. I was taken aback at how shocking and captivating this movie actually was. Insane and powerful to its black gold core.

This truly was a masterpiece. You know how sometimes you watch a movie and you're not sitting in the chair of your desk, your eyes are not on your computer screen, but you are actually IN the movie? Taking part in everything that is happening? Well, this is what will happen with this film as well.

Idiots And Angels is the most perfect title they could have come up with. The protagonist of this film is an idiot himself - his daily routine has taken away all pleasure from his life and he's nothing but an android, driving to work, returning, shouting from inside his car, laughing at the humiliation of others, drinking at a god-forsaken bar. And then something happens. He grows wings. And even though it takes him a while to understand how to treat his "difference", he finally distances himself from the avarice of humanity, and he becomes just...human, more than anything.

Bill Plympton didn't use many things to make this film - just a brilliant concept, and the most simplistic one. A film that deals with the most common weaknesses: money, fame, envy, pride. And yet, as this film proves there will always be something to balance with all that's unjust.

Who needs Hollywood when you have films like this?

There are so many layers to this movie: the moral and ethical issues of life, the decisions you don't want to make but are forced to, the nature of forgiveness and if you could offer it, abandonment and violence, the many forms of loneliness and love and how the mistakes of your past always will come back to haunt you even if you change your name and become someone else.

A truly bold, powerful, fist-to-the-stomach film. I was stunned by its greatness. Everything is brilliant about it: from the performances to the direction, from the script to the tragedy of its ending. I blindly, hands down, with my hand to my heart wish people made movies like this more often. We truly could use more of them...

Without a doubt one of the best sci-fi films ever. The performances are great so is direction, all leading to an unbelievable ending.

Linney and Hoffman are perfect. Great movie on human relationships.

An absolute favorite - hands down. Great performances by everyone: Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker typically phenomenal, and I loved the performances of the three who were in the debate team.

The movie may started off slow, and paced at the same rhythm for quite a while, but midway through, it is fully engaging, emotional and you get very invested in the story and characters.

Not as Hollywood-like as everyone would wish it to be, and Denzel Washington's direction is refreshing. A film I enjoyed greatly and hope everyone else will too.

Wonderful

There are movies that drag everything so far, that, to a point, the movie becomes unreal. This doesn't happen with this particular movie. Incredibly honest, ordinary and paced accordingly to the rhythm of its subtle action. The performances are great. No, not just great - truly fantastic. So is the soundtrack. The script and direction may face difficulties at times, but such difficulties are unnoticeable.

The portrayal of the high school debating world is awfully accurate. I'm close to the world of debating and argumentation (even though not as close as I would like), and this movie hit right at home. I'm already inclined to liking films featuring any form of school debating, so all the more reason for me to rate it highly.

I didn't find it slow, and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. I'd recommend it to everyone, even though I know that only a few would find the elements in it that would make them care enough for it.

Not as good as the Austrian version, but everyone's acting is superb. The direction is worth mentioning as well, since it's Michael Haneke we're talking about. The soundtrack is scarce and the little there is is just pure annoyance. It's original and it surely is level best than all the needless-violence-related movies Hollywood has been serving us for years. Well-made and circularly complete filled with excellent performance by the entire cast, brilliant ending, however, it had a lot more potential and it could have been less far-stretched and more serious at points.

Surely enough not better than the first one. But it was a decent, humorous in some points, easy movie to watch. They maybe overdid it with the special effects and with the "everyone's evil" concept, but generally, a good, rightly-made, more on-the-dark-side blockbuster.

And Heath Ledger could easily receive a Supporting Role Oscar next year. Probably his best role to date.

This was extremely painful to sit through, and having seen it before going to bed, I was constantly looking around just in case someone was there. Not many horror movies can instill the fear in you, but this one certainly does. It's cruel, hard to take, and impossible to accept. Canadian horror has a lot to offer, but I didn't really care for the subject (the religious aspect of it, that is - young people having to suffer through all of that just to find out if there is life after death). Truly horrifying, masterfully acted, bitterly delivered. A greater quality, more realistic Hostel. There truly are no limits to human malice.

Smart flick with good performances from a great promising cast. I'm quite amazed that this movie hasn't received more attention, since it's not at all bad. Maybe the dialogue and concept isn't the most original you can run into, but it's enough to keep the movie interesting and not tireless. The characters developed in the movie are believable, honest, human and ones you can easily sympathize with. A movie that could have been much better and its performances are all that keep it intriguing.

With a promising trailer as the one this movie had, I sure expected a lot more. It definitely isn't your typical mystery/comedy high school flick, and it has a script! There are some brilliant lines and scenes in it that are side-splitting (the gum scene between Thompson-Willis in front of the lockers is just uproarious!)

However, even though Reece Thompson is simply efficacious, I wouldn't say the same about Mischa Barton. The girl simply can't act, and it's still a wonder to me how she can be cast. Her role suited her perfectly, but even so, she was bad at it. I didn't believe a single word she said. Besides that, even though the movie tries to escape the usual ordinariness of its kind, the hyper unrealistic plot only leaves you with questions of how, when and why. It brought me back memories of the 2004 The Perfect Score, in a much better quality. Great humor, fine ideas, wonderful Thompson - but the convolution and distortion is too much to allow you to enjoy it fully.