FILMS SEEN, 2008
All films from U.S.A. unless
otherwise specified.
(- seen on video; / repeat
viewing; [v] video piece; [p] paracinema (installation, etc.); [s] short, under
30 minutes; [m] medium length, 30-69 min; * grade changed upon repeat viewing; \ repeat viewing of something I walked out of or fell asleep during)
[Click here to go to the bottom of the list.]
JANUARY
-Prosperity for 2008 (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) [v/s] [7]
-Breaking and Entering (Anthony Minghella, U.K.) [4]
-In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, Spain / France) [7] [tentative grade]
Juno (Jason Reitman) [6]
/-Prosperity for 2008 (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) [v/s] [7]
Into the Wild (Sean Penn) [4]
-Exiled (Johnnie To, Hong Kong) [8]
-4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, Romania) [6]
-Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach) [5]
/-Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, Hungary / Italy / Germany / France, 2000)
-Vacancy (Nimród Antal) [5]
-Useless (Jia Zhang-ke, China / Hong Kong) [v] [5]
-Into Great Silence (Philip Gröning, Germany) [4]
-Once (John Carney, Ireland) [4]
-Glory to the Filmmaker! (Takeshi Kitano, Japan) [3]
-Big Man Japan [Dai-Nipponjin] (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan) [5]
-Joshua (George Ratliff) [2]
/-Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan, 1998)
-Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, France / U.S.) [6]
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton, U.S. / U.K.) [6]
-The Bothersome Man (Jens Lien, Norway / Iceland) [7]
-Lust, Caution (Ang Lee, Taiwan / U.S.) [4]
-Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet) [7]
-Radiant City (Jim Brown and Gary Burns, Canada) [7]
\-Daratt (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad / France / Belgium / Austria) [6]
FEBRUARY
-The King of Kong (Seth Gordon) [6]
-Atonement (Joe Wright, U.K. / France) [5]
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson) [8]
/-Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev) [7]
-Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov, Russia / France) [6]
-The Sun Also Rises (Jiang Wen, China / Hong Kong) [8]
-In Memory of Me (Saverio Costanzo, Italy) [4]
-Sonata For Hitler (Alexander Sokurov, U.S.S.R., 1989) [s]
/-In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, Spain / France) [8]*
/-Tomorrow We Move (Chantal Akerman, France / Belgium, 2004)
-Import Export (Ulrich Seidl, Austria) [8]
-Lost In Beijing (Li Yu, China) [5]
-Mad Detective (Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai, Hong Kong) [7]
-Ex Drummer (Koen Mortier, Belgium) [5]
-No End In Sight (Charles Ferguson) [7]
-The Counterfeiters (Stefan Ruzowitzky, Austria / Germany) [4]
-Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Journey of a Woman (Pradeep Sarkar, India) [7]
-A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Nobuhiro Yamashita, Japan) [6]
-Elite Squad (José Padilha, Brazil) [6]
-The Duchess of Langeais [Ne touchez pas la hache] (Jacques Rivette, France / Italy) [8]
/Still Life (Jia Zhangke, China / Hong Kong) [v] [9]*
/-Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina / France / The Netherlands / Switzerland, 2004)
-The Last Mistress [Une vieille maîtresse] (Catherine Breillat, France / Italy) [7]
-Yella (Christian Petzold, Germany) [5]
-The Man From London (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, France / Germany / Hungary) [6]
-Quiet As Kept (Charles Burnett) [v/s] [4]
MARCH
/-In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, Spain / France) [8]
/-Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant, U.S. / France) [7]
-My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, Canada) [8]
-Blind Mountain (Li Yang, China / Germany / Hong Kong) [3]
-Chop Shop (Ramin Bahrani) [6]
-Before I Forget (Jacques Nolot, France) [6]
-Cochochi (Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, Mexico / U.K. / Canada) [4]
-The Unknown Woman [La Sconosciuta] (Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy / France) [6]
-The Brothers Solomon (Bob Odenkirk) [5]
Funny Games [U.S.] (Michael Haneke, U.S. / U.K. / France / Austria) [5]
-The Witnesses (André Téchiné, France) [7]
-The Tracey Fragments (Bruce McDonald, Canada) [7]
-Jar City (Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland / Germany / Denmark) [6]
/-My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, Canada) [7]*
/-Zodiac (David Fincher) [8]*
-Frownland (Ronald Bronstein) [5]
-Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas, France) [7]
-Breaktime (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1972) [s]
/-Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand / France / Austria) [8]
/-The Duchess of Langeais [Ne touchez pas la hache] (Jacques Rivette, France / Italy) [8]
-Love Songs (Christophe Honoré, France) [5]
/-I Think I Love My Wife (Chris Rock) [5]
/-Curious George (Matthew O'Callaghan) [6]
Married Life (Ira Sachs) [5]
-The Namesake (Mira Nair, India / U.S.) [7]
-Eat, For This Is My Body (Michelange Quay, France / Haiti) [7]
APRIL
-Breath (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea) [4]
/-Eat, For This Is My Body (Michelange Quay, France / Haiti) [7]
-Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien, France) [9] [tentative grade]
-The Mourning Forest (Naomi Kawase, Japan / France) [4]
-Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico / France / The Netherlands) [Spanish-subtitled workprint]
-Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (Stan Brakhage, 1991) [s]
/-Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea) [7]*
-My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong / China / France) [7]
/Mansfield 1963 (William E. Jones) [v/s]
/Film Montages (For Peter Roehr) (William E. Jones) [v/s] [7]
/v.o. (William E. Jones) [v/m] [7]
-My Brother Is an Only Child (Daniele Luchetti, Italy / France) [6]
At Sea (Peter Hutton) [7]
-The Mosquito Problem & Other Stories (Andrey Paounov, Bulgaria / U.S. / Germany / U.K. / The Netherlands / Finland) [4]
-Maxwell's Demon (Hollis Frampton, 1968) [s]
-Princess (Anders Morgenthaler, Denmark / Germany) [5]
-Dan in Real Life (Peter Hedges) [7]
-CJ7 (Stephen Chow, Hong Kong) [6]
-The Romance of Astreé and Céladon (Eric Rohmer, France / Italy / Spain) [7]
-Ballast (Lance Hammer) [7]
-O' Horten (Bent Hamer, Norway / Sweden / Germany) [5]
-Water Lilies (Céline Sciamma, France) [4]
-Mister Lonely (Harmony Korine, France / Ireland / U.K. / U.S.) [4]
MAY
-A Flower in Hell (Shin Sang-ok, South Korea, 1958)
-Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley) [7]
-La France (Serge Bozon, France) [?] [I just need to watch it again.]
-Mock Up on Mu (Craig Baldwin) [v] [8]
/-Prosperity for 2008 (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) [v/s] [7]
/-Spectres of the Spectrum (Craig Baldwin, 1999)
/-RocketKitKongoKit (Craig Baldwin, 1985) [m]
/-Wild Gunman (Craig Baldwin, 1978) [s]
/-Sonic Outlaws (Craig Baldwin, 1995)
/-Mock Up on Mu (Craig Baldwin) [v] [7]*
/-La France (Serge Bozon, France) [8]
-Wolfsbergen (Nanouk Leopold, The Netherlands / Belgium) [6]
/-Knocked Up (Judd Apatow) [6]
-Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
JUNE
-Chicago 10 (Brett Morgen) [5]
-Summer Palace (Lou Ye, China / France) [5]
-Operation Filmmaker (Nina Davenport, U.S. / U.K. / Canada / Australia / Finland) [7]
-Definitely, Maybe (Adam Brooks) [7]
-Inside (Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, France) [5]
-Days of Darkness (Denys Arcand, Canada / France) [4]
-Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry) [5]
-Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico / France / The Netherlands) [7]
JULY
-L'Ora di Punta (Vincenzo Marra, Italy) [4]
-Contre Toute Espérance [Summit Circle] (Bernard Émond, Canada) [7]
-The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan) [4]
-Dr Plonk (Rolf de Heer, Australia) [2]
/-Inside Man (Spike Lee) [8]
-SkateBang (Damon Packard, U.S. / U.K.) [v/s] [7]
-Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne and John Stevenson) [6]
/-We Own the Night (James Gray) [7]
Presto (Doug Sweetland) [s] [7]
WALL·E (Andrew Stanton) [8]
-Sad Vacation (Shinji Aoyama, Japan) [6]
The Long, Long Trailer (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
-The Off-Handed Jape (Robert Nelson and William Wiley, 1967) [s]
/-Number 3 [from "Early Abstractions"] (Harry Smith, 1946) [s]
-total power: dead dead dead (Stephanie Barber, 2005) [s]
-All Through the Night (Michael Robinson) [v/s] [7]
-Hold Me Now (Michael Robinson) [v/s]
/-All Through the Night (Michael Robinson) [v/s] [7] [x3]
-Bread and Alley (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1970) [s]
-Two Solutions for One Problem (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1975) [s]
-The Chorus (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1982) [s]
AUGUST
-Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia) [8]
-Savage Grace (Tom Kalin, U.S. / France / Spain) [6]
-The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Chris Carter, U.S. / Canada) [3]
-And Along Come Tourists (Robert Thalheim, Germany) [5]
-Help Me Eros (Lee Kang-sheng, Taiwan) [3]
-Trypps #5 (Dubai) (Ben Russell, U.S. / United Arab Emirates) [s] [7]
-Flash in the Metropolitan (Rosalind Nashashibi / Lucy Skaer, U.K.) [s] [7]
-Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew, Thailand) [6]
-The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly (Charlotte Pryce) [s] [x2] [5]
-Lossless #2 (Rebecca Baron and Doug Goodwin) [v/s] [4]
-Dig (Robert Todd) [s] [x2] [4]
-Garden/ing (Eriko Sonoda, Japan) [v/s] [7]
-Tziporah (Abraham Ravett) [s] [5]
-Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, U.K.) [4]
-Suspension (Vanessa O'Neill) [s] [8]
-Public Domain (Jim Jennings) [s] [x2] [8]
/-Black and White Trypps Number Three (Ben Russell) [s] [7]
-Rodakis (Olaf Nicolai, Germany) [s] [7]
-Parícutin (Erika Loic, Canada) [s] [3]
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan) [6]
-Untitled: New Blue (Paul Schrader, 1995) [v/s]
-When It Was Blue (Jennifer Reeves, U.S. / Iceland) [m] [rough edit preview disc] [8]
-Mosaik Méchanique (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Austria) [s] [9]
-Tell Me On Tuesday (Astrid Ofner, Austria) [s] [5]
-Block B (Chris Chong Chan Fui, Malaysia / Canada / Japan) [v/s] [5]
/-Suspension (Vanessa O'Neill) [s] [8]
-Horizontal Boundaries (Pat O'Neill) [s] [2008 revision] [7]
/-Mosaik Méchanique (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Austria) [s] [7]*
SEPTEMBER
-Tale 52 (Alexis Alexiou, Greece) [5]
-Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas, France) [7]
Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina / France / The Netherlands / Spain) [8]
Dernier Maquis (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, France / Algeria) [6]
Delta (Kornél Mundruczó, Hungary / Germany) [4]
Two Legged Horse (Samira Makhmalbaf, Iran) [W/O] (1:15)
Zift (Javor Gardev, Bulgaria) [3]
Acné (Federico Veiroj, Uruguay / Argentia / Spain / Mexico) [4]
Fear Me Not (Kristian Levring, Denmark) [5]
24 City (Jia Zhang-ke. China) [v] [7]
Winter (Nathaniel Dorsky) [s] [7]
Sarabande (Nathaniel Dorsky) [s] [7]
Le Genou d'Artemide (Jean-Marie Straub, Italy / France) [s] [7]
Unspoken (Fien Troch, Belgium) [5]
Jerichow (Christian Petzold, Germany) [9]
JCVD (Mabrouk El Mechri, France / Luxembourg / Belgium) [7]
Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, Italy) [7]
I'm Gonna Explode [Voy a Explotar] (Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico) [4]
Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan) [7]
Under The Tree (Garin Nugroho, Indonesia) [5]
Teza (Haile Gerima, Ethiopia / Germany / France) [W/O] (1:35)
Tulpan (Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany / Switzerland / Kazakhstan / Russia / Poland) [5]
7915 KM (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria) [W/O] (0:25)
Che (Steven Soderbergh, U.S. / Spain) [5]
Revanche (Götz Spielmann, Austria) [W/O] (0:30)
The Burrowers (JT Petty) [W/O] (0:35)
Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan / The Netherlands / Hong Kong) [6]
/Suspension (Vanessa O'Neill) [s] [8]
/When It Was Blue (Jennifer Reeves, U.S. / Iceland) [p/m] [9]*
A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin, France) [7]
Serbis (Brillante Mendoza, The Philippines / France) [7]
Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy / France) [6]
A Perfect Day (Ferzan Ozpetek, Italy) [4]
Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt) [7]
35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, France) [7]
\7915 KM (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria) [8]
\Revanche (Götz Spielmann, Austria) [6]
Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, France / Canada) [2]
Pontypool (Bruce McDonald, Canada) [v] [7]
Birdsong (Albert Serra, Spain) [8]
The Memory of Angels (Luc Bourdon, Canada) [v] [W/O] (0:24)
Dioses (Josué Méndez, Peru / Argentina / France / Germany) [W/O] (0:35)
-Singh Is Kinng (Anees Bazmee, India) [6]
-Elegy (Isabel Coixet) [5]
-Baby Mama (Michael McCullers) [6]
-The Juche Idea (Jim Finn) [v/m] [6]
Burn After Reading (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, U.S. / U.K. / France) [9]
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, U.S. / Spain) [5]
OCTOBER
-Hunger (Steve McQueen, U.K. / Ireland) [8]
-Nights and Weekends (Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig) [4]
-Right (Scott Stark) [v/s] [7]
-Hold Me Now (Michael Robinson) [v/s] [5]
-Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, France, 1960)
-Cleo From 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, France / Italy, 1962)
-Standard Operating Procedure (Errol Morris) [5]
-Sparrow (Johnnie To, Hong Kong) [7]
-The Edge of Heaven [Auf der anderen Seite] (Fatih Akin, Germany / Turkey / Italy) [7]
Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme) [7]
-Chronic (Jennifer Reeves, 1997) [m]
\-Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait (Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, France / Iceland) [5]
-Speechless (Scott Stark) [s] [8]
/-Right (Scott Stark) [v/s] [7]
-Dust (Hartmut Bitomsky, Germany) [5]
-Monsters in the Closet (Jennifer Reeves, 1993) [s]
-Girls Daydream about Hollywood (Jennifer Reeves, 1992) [s]
-The Girl's Nervy (Jennifer Reeves, 1995) [s]
/-Fear of Blushing (Jennifer Reeves, 2001) [s]
-The Diptherians Episode Two: The Rhythm That Forgets Itself (Lewis Klahr) [v/s] [x2] [8]
NOVEMBER
-1859 (Fred Worden) [v/s] [8]
-Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara, U.S. / Italy) [7]
-When Worlds Collude (Fred Worden) [v/s] [7]
/-Speechless (Scott Stark) [s] [8]
-Ah, Liberty! (Ben Rivers, U.K.) [s] [7]
-Origin of the Species (Ben Rivers, U.K.) [s] [x2] [9]
/-Ah, Liberty! (Ben Rivers, U.K.) [s] [7]
/-When Worlds Collude (Fred Worden) [v/s] [7]
/-1859 (Fred Worden) [v/s] [8]
/-Burn After Reading (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, U.S. / U.K. / France) [8]*
Milk (Gus Van Sant) [7]
-Happiness (Hur Jin-ho, South Korea) [6]
-A Girl Cut in Two (Claude Chabrol, France / Germany) [6]
-Role Models (David Wain) [7]
-Man on Wire (James Marsh, U.K.) [6]
/-WALL·E (Andrew Stanton) [8]
-Lakeview Terrace (Neil LaBute) [6]
/-Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, 1928) [s]
-Wild Waves (Burt Gillett, 1929) [s]
-I Served the King of England (Jirí Menzel, Czech Republic / Slovakia) [7]
/-When It Was Blue (Jennifer Reeves, U.S. / Iceland) [preview version] [p/m] [9]
/-The Time We Killed (Jennifer Todd Reeves, 2004)
-Shadows Choose Their Horrors (Jennifer Reeves, 2005) [m]
/-Ah, Liberty! (Ben Rivers, U.K.) [s] [7]
/-The Diptherians Episode Two: The Rhythm That Forgets Itself (Lewis Klahr) [v/s] [7]*
-Les Chaises (Vincent Grenier, U.S. / Canada) [v/s] [x3] [7]
-Momma's Man (Azazel Jacobs) [6]
-Days and Clouds (Silvio Soldini, Italy / Switzerland) [7]
DECEMBER
-The Last 15 (Antonio Campos) [s] [6]
-Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith) [5]
-Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan) [6]
-Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog) [6]
/-Juno (Jason Reitman) [6]
-Iron Man (Jon Favreau) [7]
-Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle / Loveleen Tandan, U.K. / U.S. / India) [3]
-W. (Oliver Stone, U.S. / Hong Kong / Germany / U.K. / Australia) [4]
-Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard, U.S. / U.K. / France) [5]
-Trouble the Water (Tia Lessin and Carl Deal) [7]
-Taxi to the Dark Side (Alex Gibney) [6]
-How is Your Fish Today? (Guo Xiaolu, China / U.K.) [5]
-The Ruins (Carter Smith) [5]
-The Acrobat (Chris Kennedy, U.S. / Canada) [s] [7] [tentative grade]
-Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden) [5]
-Une Catastrophe (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland / Austria) [v/s] [x4] [7]
-Une Catastrophe (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland / Austria) [v/s] [x2] [6]*
/-Milk (Gus Van Sant) [6]*
-The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky) [5]
-Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood) [5]
/-Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt) [6]*
-Just Anybody (Jacques Doillon, France / Belgium) [6]
-The Silence Before Bach (Pere Portabella, Spain) [viewed in Spanish w/ occasional Spanish subtitles, so no grade. But I'm "pro" on it]
-Tony Manero (Pablo Larraín, Chile) [no subtitles, so I got only 10-20% of the dialog, but clearly awesome, likely top-ten material]
/-The Acrobat (Chris Kennedy, U.S. / Canada) [s] [x2] [7]
-The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina / France / Italy / Spain) [7]
-Waiting For Sancho (Mark Peranson, Canada / Spain) [v] [7]
-Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, U.S. / U.K.) [4]
/-Burn After Reading (Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S. / U.K. / France) [8]
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher) [4]
I think we're done here.
(the bottom)