{"id":2451,"date":"2008-12-10T11:12:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T11:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html"},"modified":"2008-12-10T11:12:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T11:12:59","slug":"the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html","title":{"rendered":"The Best of 2008 Movie Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"wallepicforic.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/import\/imgs\/wallepicforic.jpg\" width=\"163\" height=\"250\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span>As Movie Mom has already pointed out, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/moviemom\/2008\/12\/washington-film-critics-pick-s.html#more\" target=\"_blank\">critics and major media outlets<\/a> are posting their year-end lists of the best movies of 2008. <a href=\"http:\/\/lookingcloser.org\/category\/journal\/\" target=\"_blank\">Roger Ebert <\/a> has published his, as has the prestigious <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbrmp.org\/awards\/awards.cfm?award=Top%20Ten%20Films\" target=\"_blank\">National Board of Review<\/a> and the Los Angeles Film Critics released their list yesterday. In a year that I would label as only &#8220;so-so&#8221; for movie buffs, there are some surprising trends appearing on these influential lists.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nWall-E is appearing as the favorite movie of the year on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.variety.com\/VR1117997085.html\" target=\"_blank\">so many of the top lists<\/a> that it may actually have a legitimate shot at an Oscar nod outside of the animation category. The other early favorites  seem to be &#8220;Slumdog Millionaire&#8221; and plenty of acting nods for the casts of &#8220;Doubt&#8221; and &#8220;Frost\/Nixon.&#8221; There&#8217;s also lots of mentions of Heath Ledger on these lists, lending some traction to the notion he will get a posthumous Oscar. (I actually think this will happen.)<br \/>\nFor me, the bright spot of these lists has been the championing of what I think is possibly the most overlooked movie of the year, &#8220;Frozen River.&#8221; The actresses, as well as the directorial debut of Courtney Hunt, are finally receiving recognition, though I still fear they will be snubbed at Oscar time.<br \/>\nPerhaps the only movie on any of these lists that still baffles me is the documentary &#8220;Man on Wire.&#8221;  I understand a man completed this crazy feat of walking on a wire between the Twin Towers back in the 70s, but for me, watching this story for 90 minutes is just not the stuff of moving, inspiring docudrama.<br \/>\nMy own top ten list  for this year is temporarily on hold  until I catch just a few more movies, but I will say that in addition to &#8220;Frozen River&#8221; a few other movies destined to make my list include &#8220;Benjamin Button,&#8221; &#8220;The Visitor&#8221; and the satirical &#8220;American Carol.&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/heath-ledger\/1086\" target=\"_top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/heath-ledger\/1086\/351x85_belief.gif\" alt=\"Heath Ledger at LocateTV.com\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Movie Mom has already pointed out, critics and major media outlets are posting their year-end lists of the best movies of 2008. Roger Ebert has published his, as has the prestigious National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics released their list yesterday. In a year that I would label as only&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Best of 2008 Movie Lists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best of 2008 Movie Lists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Movie Mom has already pointed out, critics and major media outlets are posting their year-end lists of the best movies of 2008. Roger Ebert has published his, as has the prestigious National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics released their list yesterday. In a year that I would label as only&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-10T11:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/wallepicforic.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kris Rasmussen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Best of 2008 Movie Lists","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Best of 2008 Movie Lists","og_description":"As Movie Mom has already pointed out, critics and major media outlets are posting their year-end lists of the best movies of 2008. Roger Ebert has published his, as has the prestigious National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics released their list yesterday. In a year that I would label as only&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2008-12-10T11:12:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/wallepicforic.jpg"}],"author":"Kris Rasmussen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html","name":"The Best of 2008 Movie Lists","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/wallepicforic.jpg","datePublished":"2008-12-10T11:12:59+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-10T11:12:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/667195b00ac2263e0f6700056170bbf8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/wallepicforic.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/wallepicforic.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/the-best-of-2008-movie-lists-k.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Best of 2008 Movie Lists"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/667195b00ac2263e0f6700056170bbf8","name":"Kris Rasmussen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/2e7\/2e7278d93dd11c6aad2c82da37f0d657x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/2e7\/2e7278d93dd11c6aad2c82da37f0d657x96.jpg","caption":"Kris Rasmussen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/krasmussen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}