This year I decided not to give any thought to putting together a perfectly balanced Top 10 list that would get me approving looks at cocktail parties I'll never be invited to anyway, and just sat down and banged out my list in ten minutes. And I proclaim myself satisfied with it, although as usual there are movies I never got to see before the deadline (I regret missing A Christmas Tale, Che, Revolutionary Road and Wendy and Lucy, and wonder why Shotgun Stories never arrived from Netflix, but I suspect that The Wrestler and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button had slim chances of making the final cut.) There's every chance that I'll look at this list a year from now and barely remember a few of the entries, but the fact that I was able to get not only a Top 10, but a perfectly respectable Next 10, speaks more highly of 2008 than I would have guessed.

10. NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD



I'm sure I've banged the drum enough for this ridiculously entertaining documentary I caught at Fantastic Fest - it inspired the regular Ozsploitation feature, after all - but here's one more mention for the record. With any luck it will turn up in theaters or at least on IFC sometime in 2009.

9. WELLNESS



Another one I caught on the festival circuit, this time at SXSW. It remains to be seen whether Wellness will get any sort of theatrical release - in fact, it's a nominee for IFP Gotham's Best Undistributed Film award - so I'm not taking any chances. It's a 2008 movie as far as I'm concerned, and you can read my review here.

8. IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS/NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST 



One of my favorite genres is the "up all night" movie, and here are two distinctive variations on that theme. Nick and Norah is the slick, mainstream version with recognizable stars and perhaps a shade too much self-regard for its own quirky New York hipness. But there's a sweet, funny movie lurking under the too-cool-for-you surface, with genuine comic chemistry between Michael Cera and find-of-the-year Kat Dennings and an able assist from secret weapon Ari Graynor as the adorable drunk blonde about town. Midnight Kiss is the lo-fi black-and-white L.A. version, and it accomplishes something I'd never have thought possible in transforming downtown Los Angeles into a lush, romantic dreamscape.

7. FROST/NIXON



Ron Howard does his best directing by simply getting out of the way and letting two seasoned pros do their thing with the material they've been doing it with (Peter Morgan's play) for years. I expound at greater length here.

6. WALL-E



When I saw WALL-E in the theater, I was surprised and pleased to find the younger kids in the audience entranced by the nearly-silent opening half-hour, a dreamy evocation of ultimate loneliness (admittedly one livened up by inventive slapstick). For some, what follows is something of a letdown, but in my world a fat cartoon Jeff Garlin tooling around a dazzling mall-in-space is never a disappointment.

Part Two