Kenneth Turan Picks His Favorite Films Of 2008

by Kenneth Turan

I enjoy doing a Top 10 films list, but ranking the films is something I try to avoid. This year, however, is different. While slots 2 to 10 will be listed alphabetically, I'm going to name a clear No. 1 film: Danny Boyle's exhilarating Slumdog Millionaire.

I'm departing from tradition and naming it No. 1 because watching this film was like seeing an old friend long presumed dead. Slumdog is an updated version of an old-fashioned Hollywood-style romantic melodrama. If you think this kind of thing is easy to do, you haven't been going to the movies lately.

As to the other nine slots, I have taken the liberty of doubling up films on occasion to make it easier to acknowledge deserving work. Here goes:

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are at the center of an old-fashioned Hollywood-style romantic melodrama in Slumdog Millionaire. Celador Films/Fox Searchlight Pictures

Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve star in one of the best of a great crop of French films, A Christmas Tale. Why Not Productions

Michael Sheen is David Frost and Frank Langella is a convincing Richard M. Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Universal Pictures

Director Mike Leigh's Happy- Go-Lucky, starring Sally Hawkins (left) and Alexis Zegerman, is a ray of sunshine. Miramax

Anne Hathaway gives director Jonathan Demme a powerful performance in Rachel Getting Married. Sony Pictures Classics

Israeli writer/director Ari Folman was the talent behind the animated film Waltz With Bashir. Sony Pictures Classics

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