The Playlist’s Best Films Of The Year… So Far

We kind of hate lists. We really do. They perturb us. As Glen Kenny just wrote in his evaluation of the recent “New Classics” list by Entertainment Weekly, “Lists are bullshit. Lists are such blatant bullshit that any magazine person will admit to you that they’re bullshit. Why do magazines and websites do them almost all the frickin’ time? Because lists are putatively “fun.” People notice them, argue about them. They take them fairly seriously, pretty much regardless of what their sources are…oddly enough. For a magazine in particular, a list is a potential goldmine of publicity. It gets your product noticed. TV news, radio outlets, they LOVE lists.”

Which is totally true. It’s easy, it’s lazy and it’s almost always motivated out of monetary/traffic concerns. But in the face of all the horrible movies out there this year getting semi-decent ink, we thought we’d list our favorite films of the year so far in the small, small hopes of getting some of them noticed.

Even worse about this post is we’ll be providing little context on the surface; but links to all our reviews are provided where applicable. Also, we just need to get the bad taste of “Hancock” out of our mouths, and this is a small, small token in that direction. This post is just full of Playlist no-nos. We also do not endorse, mid-year lists either, but see the above sentence about Hancock to see why we’re going against our principals here, sorry.

The Playlist’s Best Films Of The Year… So Far

“Reprise”
Two Norwegian best friends and aspiring writers lives are forever changed by fame, love and chance.

“4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days” (NY Times review, we didn’t properly review)
A unflinching and haunting abortion story set during 1980s Romania where such procedures are highly illegal, the chronicle becomes potent by being told through the eyes of the friend trying to assist the matter who pays her own heavy psychic toll. It’s a kind of brutal in spots, but super powerful.

“Anvil! The Story Of Anvil”
Winning documentary about the under-appreciated and underachieving Canadian heavy metal icons, Anvil.

“My Winnipeg”
Guy Maddin’s “docu-fantasia” about his Winnipeg hometown is part propaganda piece, part civics history lesson and part imagined fabrication, the film is infused with his trademark wintry aesthetics, a drunken sleepwalking milieu and dysfunctional autobiographical elements that are eroticized and creatively embellished.

“Mister Lonely”
Directed by enfante terrible gone softer, Harmony Korine, ‘Lonely’ stars Diego Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator who meets Marilyn Monroe impersonator Samantha Morton in Paris and the two travel to a “magical land” that acts as a home to Charlie Chaplin, James Dean and many other impersonators by actors unknown and well-known (the latter includes the great Anita Pallenberg and James Fox – somone’s been watching “Performance“).

“The Edge Of Heaven”
Three seemingly disparate Turkish and German families intercede through fate and chance in this Kieslowskian-esque film by noted director Fatih Akin.

“Joy Division”
Grant Gee’s (Radiohead’s “Meeting People Is Easy”) endlessly compelling and well-crafted take on the Joy Division story.

“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”
A jilted ex (Jason Segel) tries to forget his famous celebrity ex and heartbreak by escaping to Hawaii only to find this ex gf, Sarah Marshall (played by “Veronica Mars”‘ Kristen Bell) there as well with her new boyfriend to boot (British comedian and TV personality Russell Brand). Bittersweet, charming and funny.

“The Counterfeiters” (yes, an Oscar 2008 winner, but only released Stateside in the winter)
Colluding Jewish Holocaust prisoners try and outwit the Germans forcing them to create counterfeit money to collapse the Allied economy in a devious, longtale subterfuge.

“The Go-Getter”
A road trip flick of personal discovery inspired by a parent’s death that stars Lou Taylor Pucci (the breakout star of “Thumbsucker”), Zooey Deschanel, indie-enthusiast Jena Malone and scored by sensitive Merge alt-folkie M.Ward

“Frozen River”
A desperate mother turns to smuggling illegal aliens with a Native American accomplice who also leads a hardscrabble life.

“Snow Angels”
David Gordon Green’s fourth feature tracks smalltown relationships, both budding and disintergrating, in this tragic wintry tale starring Olivia Thirlby, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Michael Angarano.

“In Bruges”
Colin Farell and Brendan Gleeson star as contract killers sent to the medieval Beligian city of Bruges after a botched hit at the behest of their loose cannon boss Ralph Fiennes.

Many of these films may not make the cut at the end of the year, so keep in mind it is a mid-year list, but “Reprise” was so amazing we’re not sure if anything can topple it.

Update: 10.7.08: With the New York and Toronto Film Festival’s having already passed, this list is now woefully out of date, but we’ll do a new version soon. Keep in mind this original article was written on July 7, 2008. In the meantime, very strong contenders to knock many of these films of the list (sorry, they’re good and all, but “Snow Angels,” “In Bruges” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall, “and “The Go Getter” are easily the first films getting the axe) include, “The Class,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Che,” “Tokyo Sonata,” “The Headless Woman,” “Voy A Explotar,” Wendy & Lucy,” “$5 Dollars A Day” and “The Wrestler.”