My Top 10 Movies of 2008

I'm a person who likes to make lists and ranking things. I think that's all the explanation that's necessary here. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am here.

10. Hellboy 2 - The first of two comic book movies on this list. Not as great a film as Del Toro's last film Pan's Labyrinth but every bit as beautiful to look at. A lot of the jokes fall flat but a lot of them work too and the action and cinematography more than make up for sometimes weak dialogue.

9. Religulous - Bill Maher's documentary about religion didn't have much new information for me, in fact he was pretty much preaching to the choir here (which is a totally inappropriate metaphor when discussing this movie but it fits). I agree with virtually everything stated in this movie and Maher actually doesn't come across as a total prick in the film which he almost always does on TV. The movie is a genuinely funny and, in the end, scary look at religion in America today.

8. Burn After Reading - I like almost everything the Coen Brothers have done and this movie is no exception. It's not close to the level of their absolute best films in my opinion (No Country, Lebowski and Raising Arizona) but it is a strong second tier entry. A good comedy with some shocking twists and tons of great actors made for a very enjoyable experience.

7. Wall-E - I'm a fan of Pixar films and this is without a doubt their best film. Maybe it's a little too long but the first half of the movie is near perfect and the satire in the second half is spot on even if it does get a bit tiring by the end. Obviously, it's great looking and I really enjoyed all the physical, non-verbal comedy in the movie.

6. Iron Man - The best superhero movie of the year. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as Iron Man and the supporting cast is great as well. The story is lightweight to be sure but it's clever enough with lots of good scenes. The action was excellent and Iron Man just looked really cool. I'm a little upset that they fired Terrence Howard for the sequel but I still have very high hopes.

5. Doomsday - The biggest surprise of the year for me. A completely whacked-out, insanely violent science-fiction movie in the vein of the Road Warrior. I was absolutely entertained from the beginning to the end of this movie, I don't know how well it will hold-up to repeat viewings but it's fun to watch a movie like this where I had no clue what is going to happen next.

4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - It wasn't a very good year for comedies. This was, by far, the funniest movie I saw during the year. Alduous Snow (the British guy) might be my favorite character of the year.

3. The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke rules in this movie. I'm sure he will win the Oscar and he deserves it. The movie is just really well made with great acting and a great script.

2. Transsiberian - A thriller set on the train of the title. It's a classic story that could easily have been a Hitchcock film. It feels like something made in the 60's or 70's, a great script, great actors and an amazing location for a movie. This movie didn't seem to get a lot of attention and I really don't know why. It's a story about a couple travelling by train through Russia that get mixed up with drug smugglers and eventually the Russian police. The movie is very intense and unpredictable but still makes sense. Just really great film making on every level.

1. Funny Games - My favorite movie of the year by a long ways. It's the scariest movie I've ever seen. The acting is great and the concept is even better. The idea is to make the audience second-guess why they watch scary and/or violent films and it definitely worked on me. Your mileage may vary. It's a remake of a German movie by the same director Michael Haneke. He chose to shoot the movie exactly the same shot for shot. The movie was always aimed at American culture and I think works best in English (although I did watch the German version as well).

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

I discovered Denis Johnson first through the movie adaptation of his novella Jesus' Son. It's one of my personal favorite movies and once I found out it was based on a book I was compelled to read it pretty quickly. I'm glad I did as it also became one of my favorite books, and I was encouraged to seek out other books by him. Since then I have read another great novella The Name of the World and now, recently, Tree of Smoke.

Tree of Smoke, unlike the first two books, is a full length novel. Whereas the Jesus' Son and The Name of the World clock in under 200 pages each this one runs to over 700. What it has in common with those other two though is the language Johnson uses, he also a quite prolific poet wih several books published and that really comes through in the writing. The descriptive scenes are fantastic with amazing settings and fabulous characters.

The book revolves around Vietnam and one central character, The Colonel, who is employed by the CIA and has his hand in almost everything happening to the other characters in the book. The Colonel's story isn't straightforward at all however as it is mostly told through all of the other characters and he is a man of myth as much as reality so, especially at the end, the reader never really knows what to believe. Speaking of the end, it DOES get a little goofy there in the last few chapters and there are parts that I can't really say I "got" (and from what I have read from some of the critics, I'm not alone there) but the very last chapter is good and everything leading up to the end is absolutely great.

The word "funk" is lame...

... especially when used as a replacement for the word "fuck." You see this all the time on signs protesting something or other, it might say "Funk the War" (I saw this today), "Funk Drugs", "Funk Racism" or any other obvious social problem. Oftentimes it's not just a statement but an announcement of some sort of fundraising event for a given cause, frequently at these events there may also be a band or bands playing whose music you could describe as funky (but I would rather you didn't).

My problem with this use of the word is the incredibly weak spine it implies about the person making the statement, to me it says, "I'm really against the war and I'm totally willing to deface this (building, lamp post, mailbox) with my lame sticker, but I'm not about to use curse words!"

The word is being used solely for shock value but the messenger wants to have benefits of the shock without actually using the shocking word and that's fucking stupid.

Exceptions to this rule: The word when used to describe an odor.  Also, the song "Funky Days are Back Again" by Cornershop.

So I'm the 10 Millionth Person to Say The Road is a Really Good Book...

but its true.  The book was pretty great, I didn't cry but this is as close as I will ever get to crying while reading a book.  It will crush your soul.  I just finished it this morning.  It's the third Cormac McCarthy book I've read and far and away the best.  Plenty of really damn smart people have said this book is a classic so I don't have much else to add to the conversation I guess but it is very highly recommended.

The 5 Greatest Songs in the World (this week)

5. Let the Beat Build by Lil Wayne

I can't ever get this head out of my head. Ever. I also can't stop myself from listening to

 it nearly every day on my way to work.

4. Jack Killed Mom by Jenny Lewis

Just heard this for the first time the other day, I got her album based solely on a good review in Rolling Stone, the song is great.

3. At Least That's What You Said by Wilco

I've been listening to this one regularly for a couple years now (since the album came out) but never considered it one of my favorite songs on the album (A Ghost is Born) but for some reason I've found myself listening to this pretty much every day this month.  The guitar solo owns me.

2. Skullcrusher Mountain by Jonathan Coulton

This is only on here because of Rock Band 2 I would never have heard this song otherwise but I really, really like it.  It amuses me.

1. Cold Son by Stephen Malkmus

This is the greatest song in the world (this week).

Hollow Earth by David Standish

There has always been something about stories set inside the Earth that really captures my imagination. The comic series, The World Below has always been one of my favorites of all time (apparently I'm about the only one who feels this way as the sales were famously terrible) and I also have always enjoyed the long tradition in mainstream comics of villains (and heroes) coming up from inside the planet.

In the book Hollow Earth, David Standish takes a look at the history of the idea of a world within our world and does so to very entertaining effect.  The book is subtitled "The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface" and although that is most definitely an absurdly long subtitle it's also a very accurate description of what's inside. Based on that subtitle in addition to the great illustration on the cover of a map of the world's interior from an old fantasy novel I was instantly sold on this book.

Inside Standish starts from the beginning and shows how stories of a hollow earth stem from what was at one time a (relatively) respected scientific theory.  Edmond Halley (yeah the comet dude) based on some erroneous math as well as some logical (but incorrect) thinking determined the earth was hollow and that within there were several smaller rings which potentially could be inhabited.  

With this jumping off point the book goes into tales of the hollow earth of all different kinds from the serious explorers and scientists who wanted to go there to the pulp writers of the last several decades who simply want an excuse to have their hero fight a dinosuar.  There was even a religion, Koreshanity, that was relatively popular in the late 19th and early 20th century that held as one of it's fundamental beliefs that not only was the Earth hollow but we also are ALREADY living inside it!!

My interest in hollow earth stories stems mostly from my love of pulp sci-fi and comic books so I was most interested in reading about the stories and ideas which have come from this concept and I was not let down here at all.  Standish details stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne as well as countless other lesser known writers and uses these stories as an excuse to include short biographies of many of the writers which I really enjoyed.

Although this book seemingly is aimed at a very specific group of people I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who is even slightly interested in 19th century science or science fiction in addition to those who have an interest in how social values can effect the ideas in popular fiction you see American Imperialism as well as racism and nuclear panic all rear their heads in stories set inside the Earth.  

Great stuff and highly recommended.

Also check this out, funny.

Dudes in blue shirts with white collars...

I know it says pop culture reviews in the description of this site but I'm gonna go ahead and, on occasion review people, mainly people that annoy me of course.  

First on my list are dudes that wear blue shirts with white collars (hereafter referred to as BSWWC), I hate these guys.  Now, I completely understand that my hatred of men in BSWWC is mainly a personal thing and, possibly, it means that I am insane but I just can't shake it.  Every guy I see wearing one of these shirts comes off to me as an overconfident, greasy haired, slickster.  Maybe it is wrong of me to assign personal characteristics based on the shirt you wear but maybe you should stop trying to dress like Donald fucking Trump.  You look like an asshole and I'm going to just assume that this is the case.  

In all honestly I should be thankful for guys in BSWWC as it is a sure sign of who to avoid, much like animals in the wild will avoid a brightly colored spider, I am able pick my way through a crowd of assholes by looking for their distinguishing characteristics: leather jackets, BSWWC, pleated pants and so forth.

I guess I don't have much else to say about this but I also would like to point out that, just a moment ago I was looking around on the internet for a picture of dude in BSWWC to post here and, on a whim, typed in to Google "blue shirt white collar asshole" and sure enough found several other people making very similar comments to the ones I just typed.  To be honest, this sort of takes the wind out of my sails as I lost my enthusiasm for writing what has already been written many times but it also reassures me that others out there in the wilderness are aware of these tools.