Lists, 1/5.

By David Hudson on 01/05/2009

"An acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker working in France; a young Mexican director reimagining a canonical Danish film in an obscure Mennonite community in his home country; a West Coast-based American, enamored of the somber rhythms of the blasted Mississippi delta, miraculously captures them in the kind of American independent film all too rare of late; others from around the globe watching the specificities of home -character, geography, community, and class - evaporate around them. These were the stories of our cinematic 2008." Reverse Shot votes on and writes up a top ten. #1: "Flight of the Red Balloon." Update, 1/6: This version's peppered with a few extra links.

"I've been scanning film critics' year-end lists for a bit now," writes Dave McDougall in the Auteurs' Notebook, "and most seem to agree that 2008 was a mediocre year for movies. Which strikes me as utterly ridiculous - this seems one of the strongest years I can remember. I fell in some kind of love with 9, or 12, or 15 new films in 2008." His #1: "Wendy and Lucy."

"Say what you will about how 'meh' the year in actual movies was, 2008 kicked ass in the DVD division," writes Glenn Kenny, and you know what's coming: "Three categories: standard def, Blu-ray, and foreign region. Alphabetical order."

Drew Morton writes up the "Best DVDs of 2008" at Dr Kaleido-Scope.

"[A]ny and all disappointments in 2008 were softened greatly by the number of excellent movies I discovered on DVD this past year," writes MS Smith, "none of them more exciting or more impressive than Michelangelo Antonioni's 'Red Desert,' which appeared, like a beacon, in October in a remastered edition on region 2 DVD from the British Film Institute."

Stanley Fish gives us a momentary break from craning our necks to look back at 2008 with his list of "the 10 best American movies ever" - "with brief descriptions and no justifications." His #1: "The Best Years of Our Lives." The cinetrix comments; so do about two dozen others at Fish's blog (a pretty low number for the New York Times site; Fish's entries on French theory have attracted thick and eager swarms). Notes one commenter, "you might have titled the list 'The 8 Best American Movies from When I Was Young and 2 that Slipped In Somehow.'" Fine. Even so, and especially as we swerve around this bend of the yearly cycle, a list like this from someone dabbling across disciplines can be refreshing.

Robert Horton launches a new project: "Every Sunday I will post the ten best movies of a different year, unrolling in non-chronological order.... Why 1969 to start with? Maybe the nice 40-year anniversary, maybe the upcoming year-long series of 1969 films at the Northwest Film Forum (for whom I will be introducing a truly epic back-to-back screening of 'The Wild Bunch' and 'Paint Your Wagon' on March 13)."

"Film after film took me someplace I didn't expect and made me feel something that I didn't see coming." David Poland's #1: "Che."

Gabriel Shanks presents the "Modern Fabulousity Top Ten Movies of 2008." #1: "WALL•E": "It belongs not only in the canon of great animated films, but in the masterworks of all time."

Filmcritic.com presents "a gaggle of top ten lists."

As "we turn the corner into 2009 cautiously excited by what has happened creatively and commercially for nonfiction film, while still noting that said developments exist in a constantly changing community and industry landscape," AJ Schnack considers five key episodes.

IndieWIRE collects 31 interviews with filmmakers behind some of 2008's best films.

Darren Hughes expands on the list he originally submitted to the Auteurs' Notebook.

Looking back at 2008 in the Cinema Echo Chamber: Lena Dunham, Brandon Harris and Evan Louison.

The Playlist highlights "10 Underrated Films From 2008."

Jeffrey Overstreet reviews his past lists, from 2000 through 2008.

Wendy Mitchell lists her "favorite 12.5 films of 2008."

Essi Suomela lists her "Top 15 Most Anticipated Movies of 2009."

"As companies big and small - if they still exist at all - trudge into January after a dismal 2008, the movie business is quietly celebrating solid if not spectacular results at the multiplex." Brooks Barnes reports in the New York Times on a superhero-heavy year at the box office.

Jason Kottke's "Best Links 2008": "This year's list includes games, photography, top-notch journalism, time-related material, architecture, design, and even politics, about 100 links in all."

The AV Club picks the "best videogames of 2008."

[Photos: "Flight of the Red Balloon," IFC Films, 2008; "The Best Years of Our Lives," RKO, 1946; "Inglourious Basterds," The Weinstein Company, 2009]

Tags: documentary, Does Your Soul Have A cold, Mika