WALL-E, Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker and Gus Van Sant's Milk (see review on left) made 2008 a great year in film. But the year provided more interesting material than summer blockbusters and Oscar bait. Following is a list of four smaller films-mostly foreign or documentaries-that are some of the year's best.
Reprise
Writer/director Joachim Trier's Norwegian masterpiece premiered in 2006 on the festival circuit but did not receive a proper U.S. release until this spring. Trier's debut follows the lives of 20-something best friends Erik and Phillip as they deal with the realities of success and failure in the world of fiction writing. Both mocking and embracing cliches about writers, Reprise is brilliantly written, acted and directed. But its finest element is the editing. Nary a detail nor moment is wasted, making it 2008's most well-rounded movie.
My Winnipeg
Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World) is an established art-house name. Don't expect My Winnipeg to be mainstream-but rest assured that Maddin exploits the medium of film for all it's worth. Winnipeg is a lyrical mix of autobiography and documentary, exploring the filmmaker's hometown. Maddin juxtaposes archival footage of the city with black-and-white recreations of his own life. The film is absurd through and through, but the icing on the cake is Maddin's witty and colorful narration-good enough to be in a book-that drives the picture.
Bomb It
Jonathan Reiss' documentary brings legitimacy to an art form that has only recently gained a gallery following. Reiss spent years traversing the globe, seeking the most famous and elusive graffiti artists in cities from New York to Sao Paulo. Both an art history and international geopolitics lesson, Bomb It never feels heavy handed. It avoids being a Michael Moore-style pseudo-documentary. With its fast pace and bright visuals, it feels more like entertainment than pedantic documentary.
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