Keep Track of all the Movies I Watch in 2008

This is an excellent documentary.

I rented it because I grew up and went to high school about 40 miles from the setting (Warsaw, Indiana) but I was immediately drawn into the stories of the students.

It’s amazing that these kids gave such access to their lives. It’s almost more exciting that filmmaker Nanette Burstein managed to edit it together in a way that doesn’t make devils out of some of the subjects.

It’s heart-rending and somehow hopeful, even though times are tough in high school these days. As always, I guess!

Yes! Finally a film in a theater again!

I liked this movie a lot. Although it’s a bit long at 2 hours and 48 minutes, I was fascinated and drawn forward through the narrative.

It’s visually stunning, including the old age and youth makeup and effects, but what really matters is what it has to say about life and mortality. It’s good for us to think about these things, which ultimately makes us think about what we value in our lives right now.

I know I’ve read the F. Scott Fitzgerald story it’s based upon, but I want to read it again. This story extends well beyond the author’s lifetime.

Believe it or not, this movie takes place around Christmas, so it’s a holiday film! (The only reason may have been so that it made sense to have Michelle Monaghan run around in a short dress trimmed with white fur.)

I really love this edgy, funny film, which was supposed to be a comeback vehicle for Robert Downey, Jr. I hope people discover it on DVD, because it’s smart and quick. A little confusing in the middle, but the interplay between RDJr and Val Kilmer is wonderful. I’d watch a dozen films pairing the two. (Okay, this is out there, but I could see them doing something like the Hope/Crosby road pictures…but you know, without the singing.)

Anyway. It’s not for the kiddies. It’s got violence and adult themes. It’s a romp for those who like action, but not quite at the Quentin Tarantino level of brutality.

What a terrific movie. It’s been a few years since I last saw it, I guess. It was nice that new things popped for me this time around. Stewart’s reaction to a glance at the shoes by the bed in the leaky honeymoon house, Gloria Graham’s ferocious struggle when she’s being carried out of a bar in Pottersville.

The DVD-extra documentary on The Making of IaWL is well worth watching. Capra loved the film because, he said, it illustrated the them of every man counting.

Yeah, it just gets goofier and goofier with every passing year as we find more holes in the plot and try to fill them with our own backstories.

But it’s a tradition, so we enjoy the songs!

Brilliant and breathtaking use of Beatles’ music to tell a story set during the early Vietnam War era in the U.S. Julie Taymor, who created the original puppets for The Lion King on Broadway directs, and uses some of her puppetry too.

The use of the songs in different contexts from those I have always envisioned for them, but they really work. Lots of interwoven stories, very carefully thought out.

It probably helps if you know the Beatles’ songbook intimately. But otherwise, it’s a bit reminiscent of Moulin Rouge in its terrific use of music we already know.

Wonderful, touching, amazingly shot, sometimes brutally honest, moving. I heard an NPR interview with the filmmaker that really impressed me and her movie is terrific.

It’s shocking to me that there were no Golden Globes nominations for this film.

A fun little romantic comedy that bears seeing again…and again. I even have the soundtrack because the original music is spot on, whether imitating the 80s or creating ridiculous lyrics for the Britney-like singer’s contemporary songs.

This one’s become a holiday tradition with us. It’s a good hearted comedy that interweaves a lot of stories and a lot of fun performances, and even takes a poke at the whole idea of trying to create a new classic.

Hello, Hollywood? What we want is a story, folks. Something that no matter how fantastic, engages our compassion for each other. It’s not so much the special effects that will keep us coming back as what it means for a human being we like to go through things.

Edward Norton is very likable in this, and they really had me for the first hour or so. Well, whenever it was that the miserable CGI beasts started fighting it out, it stopped having anything to do with anyone but the cartoons.

I bit because Edward Norton was in it, and because Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark was supposed to be in it. I’ll bet you anything, his bit was added at the last minute. Cheap.