FATHER KNOWS BEST

More than anyone else, my father has helped shape my understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of film. While we don't always agree (Tropic Thunder is indeed a comedic masterwork!), there's nobody else I'd rather discuss cinema with. I will always remember our weekly trips to the theater all throughout middle and high school, and I will always apprecaite his almost daily suggestions of older and more obscure films that I've never heard of. Just this past Christmas, he picked up a film for me that I'd never heard of -- Seven Beauties -- something that sounds delirious and completely unique. And that's what drives my dad's taste in cinema; he's a big believer in the mantra "Take me someplace I've never been." Granted, he doesn't see as many films as I do, and there are a few notable relases that he has yet to see but intends too. But, without further ado, here are my dad's top picks from 2008:

Features

Tarsem's The Fall

Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire

Paul Weiland's Sixty-Six

Tom McCarthy's The Visitor

Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married

David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Joel & Ethan Coen's Burn After Reading

David Gordon Green's Snow Angels

Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road

Martin McDonagh's In Bruges

Runner's Up: Clint Eastwood's Changeling, Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, Ed Harris' Appaloosa, Adam Brooks' Definitely, Maybe, Bharart Nalluri's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day


Documentaries

Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World
James Marsh's Man On Wire